Festivus is for the rest of us

yes, gift buying is rampant; but so is Re-Gifting, Re-Costuming, Cookbook swapping, free massage, Airing of the Grievances, Free Flattery (find all of that at The Office of Homeland Serenity), live music, hot food, cocktails and sunshine.

I promise.

life and Mardi Gras

As locals know, but visitors usually do not, we celebrate Carnival from January 6th (Feast of the Epiphany) on to the day before Ash Wednesday (Fat Tuesday, also known as Mardi Gras, although the season itself has come to be known as Mardi Gras sometimes).

It culminates in 10 days or so of revelry with parades with St. Charles Avenue as the main avenue to see parades, but many suburbs do also have their parade schedule. The small mostly walking parade Krewe de Vieux is held in the Marigny and Quarter near the beginning of the Carnival season, and there is talk of Endymion returning to its home route in MidCity soon, but mostly you go Uptown to catch beads thrown by masked riders.
If you are downtown, you come to Frenchman and the French Quarter on Mardi Gras day. You costume, you wait for the Society of Saint Anne to pass and then you eat and drink on the street, talking with friends, meeting new people and laughing or admiring costumes.
You might head to the Bourbon Street Awards where the party has become immense to see the glorious and hilarious costumes competing for first place. The drag queens emcee, and hold the crowd in the palm of their hand all day. I remember seeing a golden butterfly going to the awards a few years ago; the costume was 6 feet across at least. Every person on their way parted to let him through and stood for a minute in awe.
Or, you might head to Orleans and Claiborne and catch Zulu and eat the best street food in the city, in a part of town that is home to one of the 2007 battles of New Orleans- the shuttering of the perfectly liveable Lafitte Public Housing complex. I start in Treme about 6:30 a.m. and often catch the skull and bones dancers or Indians getting ready and able to talk for a few minutes. Treme is at its most beautiful early Mardi Gras Day, where the historic St. Augustine church shadows the street and the celebration could be from any of a hundred years.

Being on bicycle is the best way to see the day, I think. I can head to a parade if I run into a group that gives me its location on the route, then head back across town to get to a balcony party. Most people walk miles on Mardi Gras Day. Friends Budd and George walked from their home in Uptown to Frenchman in costume with no concern about getting home later.

Interestingly, it is also the day I start gardening for the year. We have an amazing microclimate that allows growing to happen year round, but time off is an important part of the gardening schedule, so I ignore the waving weeds for December and January and let the leaves pile up. I get back home to quiet Mid City about 3 p.m., shed my costume and put on the gardening clothes for a few hours. I weed, plant and enjoy the sunshine, while knowing my city is relaxing for a day a few miles away.

coffeehouse musings

Coffea Haiku #1

chris lane gwen andy
your cousin dimitri there
anne churchill with hat


Coffea Haiku #2

3-4 computers
3-4 books open on laps
pancake order up





Coffea Haiku #3

see passing fritter
tacos and hot tea for me
gwen on break outside




Coffea Haiku #4

carnival music
wind and rain from open door
hungry line forming

9:10 is the answer

(from end of 2006, given to Gwen, owner of Coffea, so she would keep the hours weird)

Coffeehouse culture is alive and well in Brown Zero. I sit in the newest; Caffea in the Bywater, full of red touches, funky paintings; clearly, the owners living room was transported here. Starting at Sunday opening time at 9:10 am (yes, actual opening time on the sign on the door; New Orleans is a understanding late riser), a mix of characters come for lattes, crepes and Mr. Henry’s doughnuts.

Conversation swirls around; ongoing renovations of one’s flooded or burned house (fire is the biggest concern presently in a city full of empty houses with new wiring, newer wood and being held hostage by the worst drought in over a century), last night’s music and literary shows, and today’s event at the newly renovated library up the street. It’s in these moments that the city seems more itself than at any time. Conversation over a cup of coffee and neighbors spending the day together, culture flows through casual relationships and unlikely formal matchings.

Unlike other American places where families equal one to three small people and one or two tall people that look alike driving in a van or SUV, families in urban enviros are often a group of friends sharing all of their spare time together, vacationing together, evacuating together in the teeth of an approaching storm.

Since Katrina, this is even truer in the Crescent City. The aforementioned coffeehouses are one example of community folks who have become the point person in their community to keep in touch, create a normal routine and pass along important news. The trend has been explored and explained before now: the concept of “ third place“is detailed in sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s classic, “The Great Good Place.” Oldenburg defined “first place” as a person’s home, “second place” their workplace and “third place” the neutral community space. For many New Orleanians, the first place is gone or only slowly reappearing with insurance delays and contractor woes, and the second place is disappearing fast with corporate layoffs popping up in clusters like fast moving summer storms. Third places are the lifeline we cling to in our troubled days. They include neutral grounds with shady trees to put chairs under, churches and any place that humors a group hanging for a few hours in comfort and ease.

Third places don’t ask for a state issues id or a background check. They don’t show their disdain for people who wear go-go boots at 10 am, or a cape at 3 pm.
Third places include charismatic neighbors who somehow bring all the tired and poor masses to their door. They are always listening to a story while standing in the heat on their way to the hardware store.

Public life is alive and well in the Crescent City, as a matter of fact, writer C.W. Cannon points to that as one of the four reasons why “America hates us” in his now classic essay in the anthology “Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans”. Our public life is why we stick out when we evacuate elsewhere; we tend to stand on corners with drinks in our hands talking animatedly to someone we met at a party while our (other America) hosts frantically beg us to “get back on the porch before the police come.

”Police? Why on earth? Because of my DRINK? Are you kidding?”
No they are not kidding. We know everyone else is quite tired of our constant pride in our weirdness in the public eye, but we recognize it as culturally significant as Neal Cassidy’s obsessive driving skills in the Beat community of the 50s. It speaks to our inner selves, and illuminates the family ties. Because, when all is said and done, we hold together here because we have chosen our cultural community over any other.
9:10 am is our choice.

good day lagalou!

I've come up with 2 more good reasons to live here in lagalounola.
1. I just finished kicking off the 4th year of Festivus, the holiday market for the rest of us, and we had amazing crowds who spent their Sunday afternoon outside on a cold (for New Orleans) Saints football day. They spent, they read about fair trade, they ate crepes along with bloody marys with pickled mirliton and they socialized. They didn't drive into the suburbs and enter the mall for a day of suspended reality to throw their hard-earned money at corporate chains that count success only when bettering last year's sales.
They took flattery from roller derby queens, they bought jewelry from Pam Becker and daughter Anna, while Anna's boyfriend Dave assisted. They tried on Tracy's hats, oohed over Renee's button collection, laughed at Heather's clever use of blue tarp, listened to Slewfoot and Cary B. play for them, met old friends and bought, bought, bought local goods.
They came and did it. What a fun and useful day.
2.Eating satsumas in December. come and check it out...

chatter about Festivus: click on pic to read

Dark and Stormy

Budd, Gene and Audrey relax during September 27th dark and stormy cocktail party...
Dark and Stormy recipe:

ice, lime juice, golden rum, ginger beer and dark rum floated on top.


I listen to Marilyn, while Anna Maria also listens and Anne laughs.

birthday night out on Frenchman

Veda arriving at her surprise bday party, (arranged by her husband), that she almost didn't show up for! Also, since its my and Nasia's birthday too, (she's coming in behind Veda in the picture), and Audrey's on the day after, we all enjoyed the party as if it were our own. Lots of creative, intense people who do not follow a "normal" path in life born on this day, along with Ray Charles, John Coltrane, and New Orleans creatives like Earl Turbinton and Alison Miner .



on our way in to hear John Boutte at dba on our birthday.








Audrey, Dar, Veda and Nasia- birthdays on September 23 for D,V,N and September 24 for A-note the large amount of money Veda has gathered in the New Orleans birthday tradition (pinned -or stapled in this case- on our shirts by well wishers)- beat us all out by a bunch!