No I didn't take the photo shown here.
Am in New Orleans again for my annual Louisiana continuing legal education. An excruciatingly tedious ordeal that has less and less relevance to my life. Signed, married sex lives.
Anyway, a few observations. Generally the city still seems light. The Quarter is pretty full but not overly so. The rest of town seems like its a holiday weekend when everyone's out of town. Mostly the debris has been cleaned up and all the street lights are working. The St. Charles Avenue streetcar line is running again, about as far as Napoleon Avenue (still not to Audubon Park). Camellia Grill has reopened, as has Mr. B's Bistro. Haven't seen one single FEMA trailer. The city seems to be a bit safer. I was walking all around the Faubourg Marigny and the residential side of the Quarter late last night, and didn't see any of the usual denizens of the dark. This evening I was sitting at a stop light on Camp Street toward CBD right under the highway leading to Algiers, which before the storm was pretty much the capitol of Murderville. A pretty young girl wearing a summer dress rode up next to me on her bicycle. After chastising her to myself for not wearing a helmet while riding on a busy street, it struck me how this would never have happened pre-Katrina. The neighborhood would have come out en masse to cheer for the arrival of their latest victim. Canal Street is not so crowded either. It used to resemble the street scene outside the Soul Food Cafe in the Blues Brothers. Now its just a huge street with dribs and drabs of people.
Pause to listen briefly to Neil Young singing a new song on SNL about Elvis. "The last time I saw Elvis, he was shooting out a color TV...'cuz he was the King." Neil always did use oddly anachronistic pop culture references: "Marlon Brando, Pocohontas and me."
Tons of drunks, urban detritus, fraternity/sorority members, and tourists filled Bourbon Street. Say you're a legal secretary in Beaumont and your meth dealing live-in boyfriend just left you. What else are you going to do but get your nine closest girlfriends together and head to the French Quarter to drink hurricanes in three foot tall glasses? Go to Vegas I guess. Anyway, they're here in full force, wearing clothes they probably grew out of 10 years ago. Oh, and their meth dealer boyfriends and their buddies decided to come along too. And about 5,000 wedding attendees, and 50,000 high school football fans from places like Bastrop or South Plaquemines, Louisiana.
Tonight after running, and waiting about 45 minutes for the valet staff to retrieve my car from the parking lot one block away, I drove down Magazine street up to Jackson Avenue, then drove up Jackson Avenue along the Zulu parade route (did you know for $1,500 you can ride in the Zulu parade? Kinda cheapens the experience if you ask me). James Brown blaring over WWOZ as I drove along. It was my five minutes of cool per month.
Then went to the Celebration in the Oaks, which is the City Park's annual Christmas lights festival. It was pretty good-lots of pictures will be on flickr. Now, there's four kinds of people that go to things like this: (1) couples on dates; (2) families with kids; (3) teenage girls; and (4) other. And by "other," I do mean "other." Guess which category I fall into. Can't help it. I've always liked Christmas lights. Maybe its holdover from childhood, or the fact that I've always been way too into Pink Floyd.
Was going to go see the Radiators at Maple Leaf, but I screwed around all day too much, so didn't get there til late and blew it off. Drove around and took other pictures.
Express Jet now has a non-stop between Austin and New Orleans, so its easier to get over here than it was. May try to come over more often and visit.
Edit to add: this afternoon as I was driving around in the Quarter, I paused on Gov. Nicholls Street to take a picture. Another girl riding another bike and wearing another summer dress and not wearing a helmet passed me and loudly "meowed" at me. Nothing else, just "meow." I made a woman meow. Didn't even have to touch her. Take that, Harry.
Anyway, a few observations. Generally the city still seems light. The Quarter is pretty full but not overly so. The rest of town seems like its a holiday weekend when everyone's out of town. Mostly the debris has been cleaned up and all the street lights are working. The St. Charles Avenue streetcar line is running again, about as far as Napoleon Avenue (still not to Audubon Park). Camellia Grill has reopened, as has Mr. B's Bistro. Haven't seen one single FEMA trailer. The city seems to be a bit safer. I was walking all around the Faubourg Marigny and the residential side of the Quarter late last night, and didn't see any of the usual denizens of the dark. This evening I was sitting at a stop light on Camp Street toward CBD right under the highway leading to Algiers, which before the storm was pretty much the capitol of Murderville. A pretty young girl wearing a summer dress rode up next to me on her bicycle. After chastising her to myself for not wearing a helmet while riding on a busy street, it struck me how this would never have happened pre-Katrina. The neighborhood would have come out en masse to cheer for the arrival of their latest victim. Canal Street is not so crowded either. It used to resemble the street scene outside the Soul Food Cafe in the Blues Brothers. Now its just a huge street with dribs and drabs of people.
Pause to listen briefly to Neil Young singing a new song on SNL about Elvis. "The last time I saw Elvis, he was shooting out a color TV...'cuz he was the King." Neil always did use oddly anachronistic pop culture references: "Marlon Brando, Pocohontas and me."
Tons of drunks, urban detritus, fraternity/sorority members, and tourists filled Bourbon Street. Say you're a legal secretary in Beaumont and your meth dealing live-in boyfriend just left you. What else are you going to do but get your nine closest girlfriends together and head to the French Quarter to drink hurricanes in three foot tall glasses? Go to Vegas I guess. Anyway, they're here in full force, wearing clothes they probably grew out of 10 years ago. Oh, and their meth dealer boyfriends and their buddies decided to come along too. And about 5,000 wedding attendees, and 50,000 high school football fans from places like Bastrop or South Plaquemines, Louisiana.
Tonight after running, and waiting about 45 minutes for the valet staff to retrieve my car from the parking lot one block away, I drove down Magazine street up to Jackson Avenue, then drove up Jackson Avenue along the Zulu parade route (did you know for $1,500 you can ride in the Zulu parade? Kinda cheapens the experience if you ask me). James Brown blaring over WWOZ as I drove along. It was my five minutes of cool per month.
Then went to the Celebration in the Oaks, which is the City Park's annual Christmas lights festival. It was pretty good-lots of pictures will be on flickr. Now, there's four kinds of people that go to things like this: (1) couples on dates; (2) families with kids; (3) teenage girls; and (4) other. And by "other," I do mean "other." Guess which category I fall into. Can't help it. I've always liked Christmas lights. Maybe its holdover from childhood, or the fact that I've always been way too into Pink Floyd.
Was going to go see the Radiators at Maple Leaf, but I screwed around all day too much, so didn't get there til late and blew it off. Drove around and took other pictures.
Express Jet now has a non-stop between Austin and New Orleans, so its easier to get over here than it was. May try to come over more often and visit.
Edit to add: this afternoon as I was driving around in the Quarter, I paused on Gov. Nicholls Street to take a picture. Another girl riding another bike and wearing another summer dress and not wearing a helmet passed me and loudly "meowed" at me. Nothing else, just "meow." I made a woman meow. Didn't even have to touch her. Take that, Harry.
1 comment:
I am glad you enjoyed yourself. Future generations will read your blog and feel connected to the Lost City of New Orleans.
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