the streetcar doesn't stop here anymore

 

rescue recover rebuild

 
for now, a teaser.

what's open?

 
I took pictures of my first 24 hours in NOLA today, a beautiful crisp fall day spent retracing my steps to the places I visited when I was here in June. Called "The Only Tourist in Town", I was treated as royalty by everyone I met, the large proportion of whom had lost their homes. Only the woman at Hove said she came through relatively unscathed, but they're all here, and they're all slowly opening up, and some are slowly closing down.

As soon as I can figure out how, I will upload the 122 picture day to flickr. Until then, here's a photo pile with the end of a lovely day on top.

i am arrived

 
  it is 40-odd degrees in New Orleans (with WWOZ on the actual radio instead of streaming, albeit from Baton Rouge) the quarter is deserted, i need to go find food, i got wireless in the room for a mere $5 extra and i will go out and scuff around now after i drink this cuppa coffee.

a man on the airport shuttle is a tattoo artist who has worked in NOLA off and on and he tells us his ex-boss called him up, flew him down and bought him a place to stay in the quarter for a week, so many are the FEMAs who want tattoos on their nights off. bourbon street should be interesting, just half a block away.

no, i really can't do it, this is hotel coffee, i gotta go out and get some real stuff.

a note from Dennis

"We really appreciate your considering coming down to help out the city--This city is going to need all the help it can get.

I should be back by the `15th and we should have a room for you without any trouble.

I want you to plan on coming ---and when I get back to New Orleans give me a call so I can put something aside for you---we have some repairs to do and not all the rooms are up and running as they should ---so work with me and we will see what we can do-

We of course always take care of our friends."

so that's next month. this month it's a hotel in the quarter, probably the only time in my life, I fly down on Frday it turns out. So I'll be there to walk around all day saturday and sunday, ellis marsallis is at snug harbor friday night and now I can go after all. Topsy Chapman is there on saturday night, or will i find something else? I really don't know what I'll find, but I think I still have to pack my own towels.

A P.S. (from Dennis): "If you don't mind stop by and talk with John Marshall of Mr. Paul and tell them hello--Let them know that you will be coming back in the middle of December."

I surely will.

redux

the Degas House, featured in posts a few months ago, is listed as closed due to hurricane damage. it's a couple of miles up Esplanade from the quarter, I will see if I can't walk up there on Sunday to see what's become of it. I wasn't particuarly taken with it as opposed to somewhere else, but it would work as a good landmark. I remember the Frenchwoman, Betty, with whom I saw the place, was on her way to Indonesia, I belive it was, to take up a teaching job there. We had lunch afterwards at Cafe Degas (no relation) and we also went to Preservation Hall on Saturday evening, I wonder if Preservation Hall is open, can it be? no, of course not, closed indefinitely, no musicians, they're touring europe--the radio this morning mentioned that NOLA musicians are getting more work than they've ever had in their lives before. well, good on that. and i will see what's left.

this has all happened before. I watched the old Armstrong/Holiday movie New Orleans a month or so ago and there's a particularly moving shot of storyville being closed down, from whence the music goes out into the rest of the world and everybody thrives in Chicago. it's all happened before.

i'm goin' home

i simply cannot stand it, not one minute more, i'm going back to new orleans. Saturday, flying in for two days only this time, found a package, cannot wait for St. Charles to open in a month i'll drive back then, but for now i cannot wait. This weekend I am going home!!