The tree-lined sidewalk outside Louis Armstrong Park, near Mahalia Jackson Theater. (Of course, there’s also trash on the ground. This is New Orleans, after all. People in this town love to litter, I swear. Sucks.)
It’s like they’re filled with so much promise
29 06 2010Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: louis armstrong park, Louisiana, mahalia jackson theater, New Orleans, photography, photos, pictures, trees, Treme
Categories : photos
A Treme sunset
21 06 2010The sunset Saturday evening here in New Orleans was breathtaking. I braved the voracious mosquitos to try to capture it. Such beauty.
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Tags: Louisiana, New Orleans, photography, photos, pictures, sunset, Treme
Categories : photos
“there is no time except present time”
19 06 2010From Alan Watts, a gentle reminder:
“In fact, our present is enormously rich, and you will realize this if you understand that there is no time except present time. There is only now; there never was any time but now, and there never will be any time but now. It is all now. There is no hurry to gobble life down, and if you do you won’t be able to digest it. We can go on much longer than we suppose without eating, so it’s all right to just sit and be in the present.
But if you identify with the linear conception of yourself, with your story, and with the abstract ego, you feel inadequate, and therefore it becomes necessary to try to make up for that inadequacy by using energy to attain more in all sorts of ways.”
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Tags: Alan Watts, Buddhism, Eastern religion, meditation
Categories : books, inspiration
Grasshopper on Hibiscus
19 06 2010Saw this little fellow on one of my hibiscus blooms this morning. Not sure why the photos came out as they did — maybe my hand was shaking? Or it’s just so damn hot that the camera was swooning? Why don’t I just act like that’s “an effect” that I intended? Yeah, sure, that’s it… Still, I like ‘em, so hey.
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Tags: grasshopper, hibiscus, Louisiana, nature, New Orleans, photography, photos, pictures
Categories : photos
Reflections on being a New Orleanian
18 06 2010I’m not sure I qualify yet as an official New Orleanian, having only lived here since the beginning of October, but my heart certainly feels like I do. I grew up in a small Mississippi town just two hours away from here and spent my childhood loving our family trips to New Orleans, dreaming of a day when I could live here. In high school, I wanted nothing more than a little room in New Orleans, a coffee pot, my books, and notepads to write in. To me, that was the biggest and best future I could imagine. It still is.
It took me a lot longer to get here than I thought it would, but it makes me appreciate it more, as does taking trips to other places. I just got back from several days in D.C., an area I lived in for nearly 11 years before moving here. It’s remarkable to me how different I feel in the two places. No disrespect intended to the District, and I have many lovely, talented, and wonderful friends left in the area, but I feel absolutely hollow when I am there. I feel empty, I feel nothing. I am not inspired. I am not moved. Nothing.
The second I was back in New Orleans, it was like I could breathe again, like I felt like myself. I can’t explain why my soul seems to connect with this city so much; I just know it does. I finally feel at home, and at ease, and like I belong somewhere. Sure, we may be a town of misfit, lazy, weird slowpokes, where it’s pointless to get too worked up about things running late or breaking down or just plain not working right. But I much prefer that to the East Coast uptight soulless get-ahead-at-any-cost workaholic attitude that pervades up there. I know there are many good things about the D.C. area. They just don’t fit with me. And that’s ok.
I am lucky enough to live in a place now that inspires me constantly, that makes me want to write, that presents things daily I want to take pictures of. And I am lucky to know so many who live here and feel as I do. We are all in love with our city, and with one another.
Ah, it just feels so good to be home, in every way.
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Tags: French Quarter, home, Louisiana, New Orleans, the South, Treme
Categories : thoughts
Down in the Treme
17 06 2010Love that song, love the show, love living here. Here’s a couple of shots I took on a recent walk around my neighborhood.
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Tags: architecture, beads, Louisiana, New Orleans, photography, photos, pictures, Treme
Categories : photos
From the French Quarter
15 06 2010A handful of photos I took around the Quarter on a recent weekday afternoon walk. I can’t walk around this city for even a couple minutes, I swear, without being inspired to take a picture of something.
I love wrought iron so much. I can’t get enough of it. Luckily, neither can anyone else in New Orleans apparently, since it’s everywhere.
A funny little colorful apartment building on Royal Street:
Looking down Royal Street, and trying not to get run over while taking this photo:
A Lucky Dog vendor at the corner of Orleans and Bourbon Street… Ignatius J. Reilly would be so proud.
A different view of St. Louis Cathedral:
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Tags: French Quarter, Louisiana, New Orleans, photography, photos, pictures, Royal Street, St. Louis Cathedral, Treme
Categories : photos
Goodbye, Louisiana oysters
11 06 2010The oldest oyster processor and distributor in the country, New Orleans’ own P&J, just announced that it’s going to have to start shipping in oysters from the West Coast. The 134 year-old company had to lay off some of its workers and is doing what it can to just hang on in the hopes that the oyster beds in the Gulf of Mexico recover. Other oyster processors around the city are experiencing the same thing, so Louisiana oysters will soon be a relic of the past here in the Big Easy, at least for a time. A horrible state of affairs, if you ask me.
So, to combat my sorrow and to fill my belly, I walked over into the Quarter today and enjoyed two dozen raw oysters, from the remaining P&J stock. I hope they aren’t my final ones ever.
Thanks, again, BP, you bastards.
Ordered a dozen, and got 18. Love that Nola generosity!
And, done!
Monster oyster!
18 just wasn’t enough, so here’s 6, er, 8 more.
A map/placemat depicting the oyster beds in the Gulf that P&J sources from. I took one home as a keepsake. The oysters we ate today were from area 7. And man, were they ever delicious.
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Tags: BP, food, French Quarter, Gulf Coast, Louisiana, New Orleans, oil, oil spill, oysters, photography, photos, Treme
Categories : food, photos
Bukowski
10 06 2010I’ve loved Bukowski since I first stumbled across his work in high school, and I suspect I’ll love him until the day I die. While enjoying two delicious Lazy Magnolia “Indian Summer” beers late yesterday afternoon, I read from Mockingbird Wish Me Luck. It was published in 1972. Again and again, I smiled and laughed and marveled at his ability to so easily and convincingly express himself without worrying about prettying things up. Always raw, always real. Always for me.
Here’s one I especially like:
ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha
monkey feet
small and blue
walking toward you
as the back of a building falls off
and an airplane chews the white sky,
doom is like the handle of a pot,
it’s there,
know it,
have ice in your tea,
marry,
have children, visit your
dentist,
do not scream at night
even if you feel like screaming,
count ten
make love to your wife,
or if your wife isn’t there
if there isn’t anybody there
count 20,
get up and walk to the kitchen
if you have a kitchen
and sit there sweating
at 3 a.m. in the morning
monkey feet
small and blue
walking toward you.
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Tags: art, Books, Bukowski, Literature, Poetry
Categories : books, inspiration
