Annagain

Make that five: "Hall has red hair and pearly skin. She was born in Kankakee, Ill. Chili pepper lights hang in her kitchen; Southern folk art and pink flamingos abound. In the middle of this bright whimsy is Badie, an austere modern jazzman, as cool as midnight itself, dealing with his homelessness, anger and unsure future.

"This is life in New Orleans now: tenuous, with strange forgings and new beginnings. No one is saying how long the arrangement will last."