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Snoozy Quarter

Quiet, slightly rainy day so far waiting for Isaac to hit Bourbon Street, get a daiquiri, then to get the hell out. He, like many visitors, is enjoying it and taking his sweet time in heading north.
Many business were open earlier today (and some not, like CC’s Cofffeehouse!): I saw or heard about Cafe Envie, Smallmart convenience, Fahy’s Irish Pub among others. I may go out later in a respite between bands of rain to venture further.

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I love our Southern Decadence

New Orleans always comes up its it’s own version of a holiday. Labor Day, which most Americans celebrate with a cookout or a trip to a beach, is no different. Southern Decadence is a wild, joyful and colorful celebration by the gay community held in the French Quarter for the weekend, culminating with a parade next Sunday. (well, of course, activities continue past that parade, but for bystanders, it’s time to go home.)
Decadence is more than 40 years old, and my understanding is that it started with a group of friends that held a party in the lower Quarter and it morphed to the bars, as most parties held in the Quarter do.
Now, it’s a huge economic boost to the city and as much support and thanks as other event organizers get for returning to the city post Katrina, the gay community that has always spent millions visiting our city deserve thanks too! After all, many of these visitors were stuck in town in the aftermath of Katrina, and so many of the gay Quarter businesses stayed open and serving during and others reopened quickly after.

With a 70 plus year old mother living across the street from one of the wilder gay bars, I can tell you that it’s possible to live quietly and yet with some needed joi de vivre because of this community being here.
So, get to the Quarter on September 2 and watch a great time being had and have a little yourself….

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Size does matter

Our friends in the Faubourg Marigny need some help. One of the city’s most politically connected developers/destroyers is working his Rolodex to get a height variance of 25 feet for a condo development in the Marigny. This neighborhood, next to the French Quarter has maintained most of its historical charm and mixed use through volunteerism, hands on owners taking care with their preservation work, and entrepreneurial business owners using what was there to build their businesses rather than adding another monument to American greed. Condo developments are the interstates of the 21st Century: an attempt to divide and isolate more people from each other while making more money for a few.
The FMIA is a active organization and has rallied their membership, but ALL citizens need to stand up to this developer and his cronies, telling them NO once and for all.
Please read up on this issue through the link provided below and sign if it matters to you.

http://www.faubourgmarigny.org/sizematters.htm

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Clarence John Laughlin — Indiegogo

This is an amazing, important documentary fundraiser to highlight a true French Quarter character, artist and world class collector. From the home page of the documentary:
This is a documentary about the New Orleans photographer Clarence John Laughlin, who many consider to be the father of American surrealist photography. Shot in the historic New Orleans Pontalba building where he lived for over 35 years in a garret apartment stuffed with thousands of books covering every available surface, this is the only known footage of one of our most original artists.

Clarence was a well-known eccentric with an artistic temperament. He could be both charming and difficult. He was married five times, twice to the same women. Possibly due to his strong willed personality, Clarence’s greatness was not fully recognized or appreciated during his life, though he received much acclaim and was published in major magazines and exhibited in galleries in the U.S. and Europe. There is no doubt Clarence was a photographic genius who’s life and work deserves more attention and praise. The documentary will explore Clarence the book collector and writer and how those passions influenced his life and his significant body of work.

Please support this work and pass it along to others that might also support.

Clarence John Laughlin — Indiegogo.