(man and wife crossing street illegally in front of line of traffic) “Hey, I always have the right of way!”
(man and wife with ignored map in hand) “I’m sure we’ll just run into it”
“I don’t mind runnin’ ragged for 3 hours if I’m only workin 5 hour shifts”
(loud person on phone) “I’m down here scouting locations for a movie, so I got time…”
“If you want rock, you got to be prepared to take off your clothes.”
“I don’t understand the psychology of sleeveless shirts.”
A great memory from an unusual travel book:
“Kaldi’s Coffee House and Coffee Museum
941 Decatur Street 568-8989
Open Sunday-Thursday 7 am to midnight
Friday-Saturday 7 am to 2:30 am
One of New Orleans most aromatic experiences is the stimulating fragrance of roasting coffee beans. Read the paper and rest your feet in this slightly counter-culture haven, while sampling an inspiring array of pungent brews. Their museum of coffee memorabilia is worth a look.”
I miss it still, but am glad for offspring Fair Grinds in MidCity!
I recommend this odd little book on specific houses in the French Quarter. Written as individual columns for the neighborhood paper in the 1960s (and heavily edited for the book), it made it to publication because friends and colleagues of the author, who were mostly members of the VCPORA, the leading neighborhood association in the French Quarter perservered over a period of years to get it done.
It’s exactly what I like: idiosyncratic writing, charming drawings and no obvious reason for its selections of subjects. A meandering of the old city as it should be.
Found at Historic New Orleans Collection shop-lovely but a bit nerve racking to visit if you have large bags or quick children. Both should be left at the door with the hope that they are still sitting placidly when you return.
Do let the fine ladies at the register know (quickly) if you are a member and deserve the discount; seems they are afraid to assume some of us grubby Quarter Rats might have a membership card!
We’re just finishing up the latest festival for our most famous writer. Not cheap to attend, but probably worth it, if you are a writer or a reader on New Orleans or the South. Nice website: it’s in my links on the right.
What I know about him-off the top of my head:
Came here from St. Louis to get a job on the WPA Writer’s Project: was not hired by Lyle Saxon. Came back and lived on Toulouse, then on Orleans then on Dumaine.
Lived in Key West later in life.
Poker Night was the original name for the play Streetcar Named Desire. The Desire streetcar started running in 1920, and traveled down Decatur, through the French Market, over to Royal, then right on Canal and right again on Bourbon to head to Desire. Streetcar was shut down the year or year after the play opened on Broadway.
Had a party where the landlady poured hot water through the floorboards to quiet everyone down.
He said:
“There are only 3 cities in the United States-New York, San Francisco and New Orleans. The rest is just Cleveland.”
Hey old and new fans of our city. I have devoted many of the past years to living in this lovely, messy chaotic city and am glad of it. Now, I am redoubling my effort to illuminate its particular charm for others and for me with this blog.
I have been writing about my alternative, sometimes underground part of the city for a while (neworleanscanthrive.blogspot.com). The purpose of this blog (and the corresponding yet unpublished pieces written offline) will be to chart parts of the city block by block with written history, fables overheard, stories believed.
Starting with the French Quarter, but adding others as we go.
I say we because I put it out to you to add your pieces to this blog as you wish. I am looking for collaborators of news and bits of opinion which could end up in the published work (with your credit firmly established).
Or you could just point me in the right direction….
French Quarter block by block 