FRANCO-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP

I haven't been online much this week. Too much work and my back has been bothering me more. The nice folks at the Washington University pain management clinic have made some suggestions, including a new way to zap me. I get by but I'm getting less done.

So I have to pull out another image from New Orleans. This is the interior of St. Louis Cathedral (yep, same saint as ours, but this building is not to be confused with the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica here). The US acquired vast territories west of the Mississippi from France in 1803. The proceeds helped finance Napoleon's war machine. We got the better deal.    

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - REDUCED TO POSTING IMAGES OF LIQUOR MARKETING

No posts for a couple of days. I got back from New Orleans, went back to work and felt like I walked into a fan. More people and things want a piece of me than there is me to go around. I really want to retire but the plan is for next year after I turn 70.

Anyway, I don't have any new local material  (although I do have an improv festival to shoot Friday night). So, back to the Big Easy. I can't think of anyplace that promotes alcohol abuse and binge drinking like Bourbon Street. Many Americans will recognize this figure as the personification of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum. I've never tasted the stuff but its marketing is inescapable.

He is supposed to be a pirate, a dishonorable profession. How much sea water do you think could build up  in those cuffs?        

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - A CHIHUAHUA WITH RED SUNGLASSES

We met this man on Bourbon Street in front of renowned Galatoire's restaurant, where one of the staff was helping him onto the sidewalk. Our best guess was that he had suffered a stroke. The blanket with the logo of the New Orleans Saints football team covered his wheelchair.  He had the sunniest personality of anyone I've met in a long time.

Yes, he was out hustling some income but he was simply charming. He had trained the dog on top to take off its sunglasses with its left front paw after a series of word commands. The crowd went wild.        

STLDPB ON THE ROAD - PALADAR 511

It is hard to eat poorly in New Orleans as long as you stay away from fast food (much easier to find than in Paris). We got out of the French Quarter and more out into the neighborhoods of the city.  Our server at the superb Gabrielle's in Uptown recommended Paladar 511. It's in the Marigny district. I had to look up the name. It's Spanish for palate or, in Cuba, an owner-operator restaurant. 511 is the street address. Oh wow.

I had my wonderful little Fujifilm X-T30 with me. It is black, small, and with a flip-out screen you can photograph people without being noticed. It was a young, hip scene.            

 

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - WHEN PEOPLE THINK OF NEW ORLEANS THEY THINK OF . . .

Bourbon Street. This place makes the Las Vegas Strip look classy. One of the main marketing themes seems to be getting blotto drunk, although I don't know how much the bar owners and police actually tolerate. I'm not even sure if some of the bars ever close. 

On the other hand, Preservation Hall is just a few steps off Bourbon. Its motto is "dedicated to the preservation of jazz." It's old-style, traditional Dixieland. The inside is a bit of a dump but listening to those old musicians in unforgettable.          

STL DPB ON THE ROAD AGAIN - AW SHUCKS

It seems like I've hardly slept in my own bed lately. Back from Paris a few days ago, work as fast as I can, than down to New Orleans for a conference in my legal specialty. It's a big deal for me. The organization was founded and had its first meeting in this city 40 years ago. There are four of us at this meeting who were at the first one. I'm one of them. I thought they were going to give us something like the Legion of Honor, but no.

So Mrs. C and I went out for a walk today in the famous, historic and, in spots, quite tawdry French Quarter, or Vieux Carre. We stopped into an old place called Felix's for lunch. It's an oyster house. Somebody has to shuck all those oysters for the famous po' boy sandwiches. These guys were amazing for the speed at which they worked and the retention of all their fingers.           

Make Or Break

A trio of break dancer/acrobats/comedians in the small amphitheater to the south of Jackson Square in NOLA. They had a huge crowd. That guy in the third picture puts U.S. Marine exercise drills to shame. Wonder if they have a team chiropractor.                                 

Viva La Liberta

Libertine Don Giovanni might have enjoyed Bourbon Street, New Orleans' center for people who want to seriously misbehave. The second picture is of a very dirty car. The message seems to be Hello Kitty, kiss my ass. The, um, person in the third picture was seen a few minutes later handing out flyers for a transvestite show. The bottom picture expresses an essential Louisiana attitude.

All of the N.O. pictures posted this week were shot last Sunday afternoon and evening. After a big dinner with my colleagues that night I got smacked with a nasty and sudden stomach bug. Gradually getting better but imagine, going to New Orleans and losing weight. Haven't gotten any comments written on my friends' blogs but I'll shape up now that I'm home.                    

Ho Hum, Another St. Louis Cathedral

I've been in three St. Louis Cathedrals. Back home, of course, Versailles and this one in New Orleans. Worth a visit if you are in town - it's right on Jackson Square in the heart of the French Quarter. There were a lot more tourists than the devout when we were there.                         

Birthplace Of Jazz

There are lots of street performers in New Orleans' French Quarter. Many of them are of a very high standard. This group was playing traditional Dixieland jazz in the street between St. Louis Cathedral (yes, they have one, too) and Jackson Square.                      

Coffee With Chicory

Hi y'all from Nawlins, Louisiana. I actually have work to do the next couple of days but Mrs. C and I walked and walked yesterday afternoon. I took somewhere between a lot and way too many pictures. Overwhelming, fabulous dinner at Galatoire's last night. Quick post, to bed, and up to work today.

This is the renowned (to the tourists, anyway) Cafe du Monde, where they serve beignets, puffy fried pastries coated in powdered sugar, with coffee flavored with chicory. It's a great local tradition, although I'll take my Italian roast, please.

Much more to come.
   

Maurepas Foods And Bywater

Unfortunately, we only had one free evening in New Orleans. We met Shannon, my paralegal's sister, who is a long-time NOLA resident. At her suggestion, we had dinner at Maurepas Foods in the Bywater neighborhood. It's across the street from Christopher Porché-West's studio.

Wow. Exquisite dishes based on Cajun and Creole cuisine with inventive twists. Unusually for an American restaurant these days, the portion sizes were exactly right for human beings, rather than swine. The prices were very reasonable. Highly recommended. The top picture shows Mrs. C and Shannon across the table. Carolyn is in a dreamy bayou reverie while Shannon discusses the wine list with our server. By the way, look at the second picture closely.

The Bywater neighborhood was fascinating and I hope to explore it more. The rest of the shots are images in the area that caught my eye.

This ends the New Orleans series. There are more pix in the set on Flickr here. A new series about St. Louis starts tomorrow. The subject is fabulous. It says so.           

A New Orleans Photographer

I met Christopher Porché-West on the evening after I shot my TV commercials in New Orleans last week. His studio and workshop is at the corner of Burgundy and Desire in the Bywater neighborhood. Could there be a better address? It was across the street from the place where we had dinner so we went in for a look.

The place is a gorgeous, tiny museum. You gotta watch the video on his website to get a sense of his view of America's most exotic, mysterious city. If you find yourself in New Orleans, you must visit. Once you've been, you'll understand why.       

Oh When The Saints . . .

. . .come marching in. New Orleans jazz, Dixieland. These young men were playing it for tips on Bourbon Street and they were hot. The tourist in the middle picture decided to put himself in the act. (I wouldn't dream of doing this!) The band had drawn a small crowd when I passed. The white (and one Asian) spectators seemed to prefer the sidewalk across the street from the black musicians.

I don't think that Rick's Sporting Saloon means sporting in the sense of baseball or tennis. You might remember the character Sportin' Life in Porgy and Bess.        

Refreshments

Drinking in the street is permitted in the commercial parts of the French Quarter. Not like in St. Louis on St. Patrick's Day, where it is an occasional tolerance of naughtiness. On Bourbon Street, it's a 24/7/365 activity.

At a meetings some years ago, a New Orleans lawyer and I were  talking about Louisiana liquor laws. I asked if the state had an open container law (it is generally illegal in the US to have an unsealed container of an alcoholic beverage inside a car). "Sure," he shot back, "you gotta have one." All this is titillating for visitors but it's still pretty sad.      

Meanwhile, On Bourbon Street

Bourbon Street is the heart of the entertainment and restaurant district in New Orleans. Damn near anything goes, as long as you don't bust up the merchants' property or harass others. Tolerance is the policy, so the individual in the top photo, taken at about 4 in the afternoon, does not raise eyebrows among the locals. The tourists get a buzz off it but, hey, it's part of the floor show.

Perhaps the man should have checked out the sign across the street. I think it refers to a cocktail, not a religious concept, but why not take a chance? As they say down there, laissez les bons temps rouler.