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Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Bad photos, beautiful place
Somehow I decapitated the LaLaurie house at the end of my block. Fitting, as it's a haunted house with a gruesome past. Nick Cage owns it now - it's usually empty but tonight was lighted up - maybe he's at home?
I have a fondness for this brick house a few doors down - we met one of the inhabitants (it's been condo-ized) one night. She was standing in the street drinking a martini for no particular reason.
Denizens of the Quarter actually use their balconies though you couldn't tell from this photo:
A lot of them have elaborate vegetation:
Here's a denizen using the balcony at Muriels -
which overlooks Jackson Square and the Cathedral:
They grow bananas here, making this, I suppose, the northernmost banana republic. While I was taking this picture, a man came up and asked me to photograph him. When I ignored him, he got incensed and attacked the banana tree. That's pretty much the only unpleasantness I've witnessed, and no-one but the bananas was in danger. (You can see the Cathedral behind the bananas.)
The Quarter is bounded by the Mississippi:
- a shot taken from the Steamboat Natchez.
There's also a non-touristy, free ferry to Algiers. You can see the wharves behind - according to the announcer on the Steamboat Natchez, before the storm about a third of the coffee drunk in the US came through these docks.
I have a fondness for this brick house a few doors down - we met one of the inhabitants (it's been condo-ized) one night. She was standing in the street drinking a martini for no particular reason. 
Denizens of the Quarter actually use their balconies though you couldn't tell from this photo:
A lot of them have elaborate vegetation:
Here's a denizen using the balcony at Muriels -
which overlooks Jackson Square and the Cathedral:
They grow bananas here, making this, I suppose, the northernmost banana republic. While I was taking this picture, a man came up and asked me to photograph him. When I ignored him, he got incensed and attacked the banana tree. That's pretty much the only unpleasantness I've witnessed, and no-one but the bananas was in danger. (You can see the Cathedral behind the bananas.)
The Quarter is bounded by the Mississippi:
- a shot taken from the Steamboat Natchez.
There's also a non-touristy, free ferry to Algiers. You can see the wharves behind - according to the announcer on the Steamboat Natchez, before the storm about a third of the coffee drunk in the US came through these docks.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Finally, photos of New Orleans ...
Across the street from where I live:
Neighbors drinking beer:
What are these sweet old people with their fluffy dog looking at?
Possibly, these guys:
The Southern Decadence parade started at the gay bar across the street. It was hard to choose my favorite pictures - there were transvestite Trekkies, flappers, belles in period dress, dragons of indeterminate gender, and, in the barely-costumed category, bare-chested tribal warriors, sailors (in Speedos and caps), and the leather-strap people.
Most spirit? Most flesh? Not sure what award they should get:
The coolest thing about the parades is pretty much anyone can join up and walk along (see guy in cut-offs, above). They strike a fine balance between the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and a bunch of people walking around drinking beer outside for hours. And they happen all the time ... I think the origins are African-American 'jazz funerals' and Mardi Gras and probably several other cultural traditions.
This lady is bending down to give candy to a little boy. A few minutes later, a (costumed) friend of the boy and his mother came up. "What's he think of it?" he said. "Oh, he says it's like church." "What kind of church do you go to?"
My very favorites have to be the bathing beauties:
Next time: photos of the really pretty stuff!
Neighbors drinking beer:
What are these sweet old people with their fluffy dog looking at?
Possibly, these guys:
The Southern Decadence parade started at the gay bar across the street. It was hard to choose my favorite pictures - there were transvestite Trekkies, flappers, belles in period dress, dragons of indeterminate gender, and, in the barely-costumed category, bare-chested tribal warriors, sailors (in Speedos and caps), and the leather-strap people.
Most spirit? Most flesh? Not sure what award they should get:
The coolest thing about the parades is pretty much anyone can join up and walk along (see guy in cut-offs, above). They strike a fine balance between the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and a bunch of people walking around drinking beer outside for hours. And they happen all the time ... I think the origins are African-American 'jazz funerals' and Mardi Gras and probably several other cultural traditions.
This lady is bending down to give candy to a little boy. A few minutes later, a (costumed) friend of the boy and his mother came up. "What's he think of it?" he said. "Oh, he says it's like church." "What kind of church do you go to?"
My very favorites have to be the bathing beauties:
Next time: photos of the really pretty stuff!
Monday, October 8, 2007
This road trip is plagiarized ...
... from a New York Times travel feature, which in turn took inspiration from Dylan's instructions to Bono, as recorded in Dylan's memoir Chronicles: ""I told him that if he wants to see the birthplace of America, he should go to Alexandria, Minn." (Click here for the article.)
Big Ole, Viking (and Don, Canadian). The birthplace of America claim is based on the discovery of a runestone supposedly carved by Viking settlers. More importantly, this area was the birthplace and early stomping grounds of one Mr. Robert Zimmerman, one of whose greatest songs invokes the road that carries you through it: Highway 61.
About where we got on Highway 61, in St. Paul, and somehow appropriate for a highway that runs from Minnesota all the way along the Mississippi to New Orleans, a legendary American highway ...
There's something wrong with this sign! Well, I guess it is Minnesota. Almost Canadian.
Next stop, of interest to Dylan fans (wrong state, Detroit Red Wings fans):
If you are a Dylan fan, you may know the early song, Walls of Red Wing. I always assumed it was an ordinary prison - wrongly. It was a juvenile detention center - the sort of place an unruly young Minnesotan might have feared ending up:
Another source of inspiration?
That's POP 697. Highway 61 through Minnesota was most striking for its pretty hill-and-dale small-town and rural Americana.
Hills, trees, cliffs, fields, barns, tidy, prosperous homes and picturesque Main Streets - even the famous muddy Mississippi starts out bright and shiny here. A somewhat anti-climactic counterpoint to Highway 61 Revisited (lyrics), until I realized (or imagined): this bland, middle America - this is what the song is about, where it's set, even, especially, here among these quiet, prosperous, insular towns and farms, and it could hardly be more relevant today if he called out the latest war-mongers by their names:
Now the rovin' gambler he was very bored
He was tryin' to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes I think it can be very easily done
We'll just put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it on Highway 61.
Big Ole, Viking (and Don, Canadian). The birthplace of America claim is based on the discovery of a runestone supposedly carved by Viking settlers. More importantly, this area was the birthplace and early stomping grounds of one Mr. Robert Zimmerman, one of whose greatest songs invokes the road that carries you through it: Highway 61.
About where we got on Highway 61, in St. Paul, and somehow appropriate for a highway that runs from Minnesota all the way along the Mississippi to New Orleans, a legendary American highway ...
There's something wrong with this sign! Well, I guess it is Minnesota. Almost Canadian.Next stop, of interest to Dylan fans (wrong state, Detroit Red Wings fans):
If you are a Dylan fan, you may know the early song, Walls of Red Wing. I always assumed it was an ordinary prison - wrongly. It was a juvenile detention center - the sort of place an unruly young Minnesotan might have feared ending up:
Another source of inspiration?
That's POP 697. Highway 61 through Minnesota was most striking for its pretty hill-and-dale small-town and rural Americana.
Hills, trees, cliffs, fields, barns, tidy, prosperous homes and picturesque Main Streets - even the famous muddy Mississippi starts out bright and shiny here. A somewhat anti-climactic counterpoint to Highway 61 Revisited (lyrics), until I realized (or imagined): this bland, middle America - this is what the song is about, where it's set, even, especially, here among these quiet, prosperous, insular towns and farms, and it could hardly be more relevant today if he called out the latest war-mongers by their names:Now the rovin' gambler he was very bored
He was tryin' to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes I think it can be very easily done
We'll just put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it on Highway 61.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Roads and signs: Brandon to Fargo
If Saskatchewan is pretty, Manitoba is ... flat. And intermittently picturesque: 
Other than old farm buildings, the principal feature of Manitoba evident to the casual road tripper was that they were doing a lot of road construction, which entailed a lot of sitting in traffic. This gave me a good opportunity to take a close-up of a cement mixer and a torn-up road.
After a while in the border station, talking to a border guard who seemed more perplexed than suspicious ('What is a sabbatical?' and 'Sir, in the eyes of the United States you are a U.S. citizen, were you not aware of that?') we crossed into North Dakota, next stop: Fargo.
How could anyone be afraid of a plane that smiles?
Ah, bright lights, big city ...
Now, was that location in the great eponymous Coen bros. film?
Other than old farm buildings, the principal feature of Manitoba evident to the casual road tripper was that they were doing a lot of road construction, which entailed a lot of sitting in traffic. This gave me a good opportunity to take a close-up of a cement mixer and a torn-up road.
After a while in the border station, talking to a border guard who seemed more perplexed than suspicious ('What is a sabbatical?' and 'Sir, in the eyes of the United States you are a U.S. citizen, were you not aware of that?') we crossed into North Dakota, next stop: Fargo.
How could anyone be afraid of a plane that smiles?
Ah, bright lights, big city ...
Now, was that location in the great eponymous Coen bros. film?
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
some photos of the middle of canada ...
... just in case you find it difficult to imagine.
Saskatchewan is pretty:
It has horses
and grain elevators
and long flat roads with Sarah Vowell on the dashboard (thanks Roderick).
It is sometimes a little blurry:
These are actually from August 21, day one of the cross-country, three-province, ten-state drive to New Orleans. I have a picture from every state, even Arkansas. Next, the pictures you've been looking forward to: Manitoba.
Saskatchewan is pretty:
It has horses
and grain elevators
and long flat roads with Sarah Vowell on the dashboard (thanks Roderick).
It is sometimes a little blurry:
These are actually from August 21, day one of the cross-country, three-province, ten-state drive to New Orleans. I have a picture from every state, even Arkansas. Next, the pictures you've been looking forward to: Manitoba.
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