a unique perspective on this crazy world

Archive for March, 2013

living la vita local (also dolce :)

I am back in New Orleans!   In my mind at least… there is still much to tell and recommendations to add to the internet so here we go…

Thursday night I just winged it, hoping I could at least find my way back to the hotel.  Friday night I knew I had to try a little harder.  My first impression of Bourbon Street was that it was pretty sleazy and full of drunk college students.  I think both statements hold but I wanted to see if there was more to it.

So I decided it was time to pull out the guidebook and see if having a plan might yield a better result.

My first stop was Jean Lafitte’s Old Absinthe House.  It’s in a building from the early 1800s with an antique interior my mother would love.  Since I was in the house of Absinthe, I figured an Absinthe House Frappe was the thing to have.  As the bartender promised, it tasted like black licorice.  Worth a try but I decided to stick to bourbon…

http://www.ruebourbon.com/oldabsinthehouse/history.html

and to move on to my next destination.  I had decided the next thing to tick off the list was to stand on a balcony so I could watch the cacophony playing out on Bourbon Street on a Friday night.  My guidebook had recommended a place called Krazy Corner so that was my next stop.

the flavour of bourbon street...

the flavour of bourbon street…

It’s definitely worth getting onto a balcony on Bourbon Street while you are in New Orleans for a unique perspective on the world but it’s a lot more interesting to check out the music so I headed downstairs to where the band was playing.

I don’t think I had even listened to an entire song before a gentleman who sounded like a local asked me to dance.  I’m not sure I will ever get to be a good dancer but I seem to manage to get pulled onto the dance floor in foreign cities as part of the free entertainment.

No one else was dancing – but Chris was a local and he was an awesome dancer so I just tried not to step on his feet or fall on the floor when he twirled me.  It was my “Big Easy” moment when Dennis Quaid makes Ellen Barkin dance 😉

 

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/big_easy/

And the band was wonderful.  That would be my discovery that night.  Bourbon Street is full of excellent cover bands.  If you love “Living on a Prayer”, this is your place 🙂  I think I heard it three times!

At that point, though, I was still on my mission to discover Bourbon Street based on my guidebook’s recommendations so, after five dances, I told Chris I was going to listen to some jazz across the street (the Maison Bourbon I have already written about).

a beautiful balcony

a beautiful balcony

I didn’t realize he was coming with me 😉  It changed my whole night.  That was the end of the guidebook.  I now had a local guide – with a delicious Louisiana accent 😉  One of the best life skills I ever developed was an ability to talk to strangers.  It’s more art than science but I always try my best to connect with locals when I travel so that I get a traveller experience rather than a tourist one.

As Chris confirmed, finding a local on Bourbon Street on Friday night is not an easy task.  But his friend had not shown and he loved to dance so there he was, looking for a dance partner.

He was more interested in cover tunes than jazz so I just went with the flow.  I knew I had two more nights to find some jazz and it would be more fun to just follow his lead.

So I heard a lot of Bon Jovi 🙂  And Aerosmith.  Some Def Leppard.  Chris knew all the tunes and would sing along.  He couldn’t believe I didn’t know this music.  But, when they played “4 Non Blondes”, I was the one who could identify the band!

An indie rock chick dancing to “Living on a Prayer” as interpreted by a Bourbon Street cover band is not a normal sight.  But I have always been very democratic about my musical experiences.  At heart I am a music snob – but opening yourself to new experiences and new people enriches your life.

You end up dancing until 4am.  You get to walk down Bourbon Street with a “to go cup” – and have some drunken kid bang into you with nary an apology so that you end up with a beer facial.  But your gallant local guide offers his sleeve to wipe your dripping face.  You learn some new tunes.  You get walked back to your hotel in the middle of the night.  You get some insight into the city you are visiting from a local.

And – most importantly – you create a unique memory that will last long after the trip is over…

 

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travel stories

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bullying, self esteem and tough love :)

note to regular readers : New Orleans is NOT finished!  I have even made notes for the future posts…

But March is always nuts work-wise and main goal until retirement is to keep clients happy… but it’s getting close for this week and it’s been intense so wide awake when I should be sleeping… and watching some music from South by Southwest.

As you may have noted, music is a huge part of my life so long ago part of North by Northwest events, which never managed the success of South by Southwest, but required a lot less effort 🙂   As part of the birthday planning this year though, I realized that South by Southwest normally happens ON my birthday so that is the plan for next year…

But it’s now March 21st and five years ago it was Good Friday.

My work life was as nutty as it is right now so it took longer than it likely should have for me to realize my father had died.  But it was mostly because the concept was completely surreal.  Even when I picked up the message from my mother that sounded distressed, it wasn’t even a possibility in my mind that this would be the news I would receive.

My father wasn’t  interested in easy.  In life – or death.  So it may have been hard for everyone else to deal with but it was characteristic of his attitude toward life.

Part of that of course seemed to involve the concept that he considered himself immortal.  You had to know the guy;)

Particularly you had to appreciate it wasn’t an arrogant attitude – but, rather, a highly developed level of self-confidence.

I’m not really sure where it came from.  His mother went through the kind of stuff that would kill Oprah with seemingly zero scars and certainly no whining.  His father died when he was 10.  So there was no question the dude would be tough.

But what was impressive was the positive, life-affirming vibe that he shot out into the world.  His mother did the same.  Even though there were moments I was scared of both of them and each had areas of his/her personality that could have been improved, they remain two of the most impressive people I have ever met – and I have met A LOT of people 😉

So… to get to the point of this post… which is a tribute to my father on the anniversary of his death…

learning from grandpa :)

learning from grandpa 🙂

What I will forever be grateful for is the crazy self-confidence he bred in me from birth.  He wasn’t about praise – or even self-esteem.  If I ever got a compliment from my father, I don’t remember it.  And he might have thrown up if someone had forced him to utter a phrase as lame as “self-esteem”.

I grew up in the old school world where your parents’ job was to criticize you sufficiently that you would grow up to be a civilized human being 😉

But the big message my dad added was that I should do my own thing if it was the right thing.  I should develop a morality and a point of view that would guide my life forever – and it should inform all my decisions – and be my bulletproof shield from the outside world if its morality ran amok…

In the over privileged, excessive, shallow developed world of the 21st century, the lessons my father taught me might seem antiquated.

But I am the kind of weirdo who is a natural target for bullies.  Not only was I smart and strange, I was also little!  I remember being physically abused in fourth grade by some bully girl.  But what was great about my parents is that they taught me not to care very much… so I remember going to the principal’s office, I remember some bruises, I remember being confused…  but mostly I remember emerging from it all appreciating what matters most is your own sense of self… and – thanks to my great young parents – I had this weird, fuzzy idea that I just needed to ignore the drama and get on with my life…

And that the way to win with bullies is to just say to yourself, “good luck, asshole, I don’t care what you think… success is the best revenge” 😉  I’ve never been interested in being popular because my father kept emphasizing that I should be my own person and not worry about what other people thought.  That hardly helps you blend in in high school but it does give you a teflon coating and I have discovered it is the mystery ingredient to popularity in middle age 🙂  These days I’ve given up trying to convince people that I was a shy, strange child incapable of talking to strangers.  I’m still strange… but I have learned how to talk to strangers.  And I think I’ve done my father proud by focusing on being interesting and kind, rather than popular.

It really works!  And being an outlier makes one more sensitive and a better human being I think… so… ignore the bullies, embrace the masses… and never stop trying to be a little bit better at being human… it’s the advice my dad would give… and he was definitely a smart guy 😉

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life philosophy

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how to celebrate your birthday :)

check out beads on the cat!

check out beads on the cat!

I made the right call 🙂  It has been raining all day and I have been working since 6:30am…

Technically Sunday wasn’t my birthday but I decided I would do a swap and celebrate Sunday and work Tuesday so it felt like a special birthday day to me :).  It ended up being a truly wonderful birthday.  The whole trip really – but especially my last day in New Orleans.

It started when I met up with the new friend I had made on Thursday night (another lovely Southern gentleman even if he was originally born in the north :).  We went to a place called Café Beignet.  It’s something you will want to remember 😉   It’s at 334 Royal Street and is a charming European style café.  But what is even more exciting is that apparently its beignets were featured on the Food Network’s “Best Thing I Ever Ate”.

http://www.cafebeignet.com/

The first time I went in I hadn’t yet learned about beignets so ended up with carrot cake.  But I read the Food Network advertising and thought I would have to go back to have a beignet.

By Sunday, I had already been to Café du Monde, another place you must go when you come to New Orleans.  Café du Monde is next to the French Market.  It is open 24/7 and all they serve are beignets and beverages.  It is apparently one of the most famous places in New Orleans and you will wait in line to buy donuts.  I remembered fondly my trip to Voodoo Donuts in Portland as I was standing in line…

http://www.cafedumonde.com/

Having a beignet at Café du Monde is an experience and I would encourage everyone to do it once.  But the beignets at Café Beignet are much better!  And the line is shorter.

My friend had to catch his plane so I took him to see Jackson Square and the Mississippi en route back to his hotel.  By then I was a bit of an expert on what to see in the French Quarter and he had been in business meetings for most of his visit.  I then strolled around the Quarter a little more and tried to get some better photos for this blog!

looks like england :)

lafitte’s blacksmith shop bar

Eventually I got to Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar.  It’s one of the oldest bars in New Orleans and another stop you should make on your visit.   Apparently Jean Lafitte operated it as a blacksmith shop as a cover for his pirate enterprises.  Not quite Pirates of the Caribbean but….

http://www.lafittesblacksmithshop.com/Homepage.html

The drinks are the same as anywhere else but the ambience is special.  You can imagine you are drinking with pirates 🙂  I also went to Pat O’Brien’s because it’s very

a little old, a little new

a little old, a little new

famous but I would give it a miss.  Maybe the courtyard… but there are lots of more charming places to check out.

I then went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner – and sober up 😉  I planned to go to the Palace Café for dinner.  I am sure it is a fine place but it’s famous too and it seemed impossible to get a place to sit.

And serendipity kicked in again!  I was actually headed for K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen (which was recommended by the bartender at the restaurant I actually ate at so certainly worth checking out) but before I got there I spied something that looked like home 🙂

Generally I like to go with the local culture and not just do things I could do in Vancouver but supposedly this was one of the top 10 new restaurants in Louisiana in 2012.  And I thought it might be a nice change to have a meal without rice or beans on the plate.

It is called SoBou and is unlike anything else I saw while I was in New Orleans.  It’s a place for hipsters :).  My guidebook mentioned some spots for hipsters but I think she isn’t too familiar with what hipsters really do…  They would definitely be right at home at SoBou, which stands for South of Bourbon.  A little piece of hipster Manhattan in the heart of the French Quarter.

Definitely go to this place!  The bartender mixed me up a lovely cocktail.  Unfortunately I can’t remember what he called it – but it’s the kind of place you can trust the bartender to just make you a cocktail 🙂  And the food was divine!

I was a bit obsessed with crawfish due to a random conversation I had had with some locals on Friday.  I’m still not totally sure what a crawfish is and I know I need to eat more of them but I will be back in New Orleans :).  Apparently this is crawfish season so definitely look for some crawfish if you come in March.

They didn’t have any crawfish on the menu so I had to settle for a crawfish bisque with crawfish popcorn, which was divine!  And then I had some Gulf shrimp that had seen some mesquite to go with my apple and pear salad since I was craving some greens – and not collared ones.  It was an exquisite meal and a wonderful birthday present – happy birthday to me 😉

http://www.sobounola.com/

They didn’t have any music though and I wanted more jazz since it was my last night in town so I headed back to the Maison Bourbon where I had had a fleeting visit on Friday night.  Since it was Sunday, it wasn’t too crowded and I actually managed to score a seat at a table.

http://www.maisonbourbon.com/

The house band was playing and they were fantastic!  And they were playing the great jazz of the 50s with lots of solos and improvisation.  I had hit the jackpot.  There was only one small problem.  The ladies room was out of order.  So I decided it was time to find a place with a functioning restroom and went up at the break to buy a CD since the band was so good and I wanted to support them.

Jamil is a modern day Louis Armstrong.  He plays a mean trumpet, has a booming voice that doesn’t need a mike and is a showman with charm to spare.  I mentioned New Orleans was a birthday present to myself and he was determined I should stay for the last set so he could play “happy birthday”.  I told him about my ladies’ room problem.  So he got someone to escort me the ladies in the bar next door so that I didn’t have to leave.

http://www.jamilsharif.com/

It really is something to have “happy birthday” played by a jazz band!  I highly recommend it.  Apparently the Maison Bourbon is dedicated to the preservation of jazz.  It really felt like I had stumbled into a different era.  Since I was at a table all by myself, they asked if I would share with another couple.  It ended up the lady was from Switzerland and had been to New Orleans to hear jazz 40 years ago!

A lot had changed, for course, so I wrote down all my best recommendations for her to try and get a good experience of the music scene in New Orleans.  I didn’t want her to be a random tourist on Bourbon wondering if all had been lost… it really hasn’t… but you need to know where to look.

One of the most poignant moments during the performance was when Jamil and the band did “It’s a Wonderful Life”.  His voice is very close to Louis’ so you really feel like you are listening to the real thing.  I had to fight for it but it was the song we played to close my father’s funeral and I thought it was a great representation of his attitude toward life.  The last time I talked to him was on my birthday so, needless to say, my eyes were moist listening to the song, but in a good memories sort of way.

You would think that would be enough to make it a perfect birthday.  And that was almost the end… I really wanted to hit the Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone before I left town as it was one of the few things left on my list I hadn’t yet done.

we are in the south :)

we are in the south 🙂

But it was really late by then and it was Sunday night so when I first arrived it looked like the bar was closed.  But then I spied a side entrance that was still open and there were people sitting at the bar so I managed to order a shot of bourbon just before last call.

The Carousel Bar is pretty cool… it actually rotates just like a carousel, so it’s not that you think the room is spinning – it actually is!

http://hotelmonteleone.com/dining-entertainment/

What a way to finish my birthday – a glass of bourbon on Bourbon Street at a spinning bar.  Made even more special because my wonderful 49th birthday in Portland courtesy of the US Air Force all began because I was drinking bourbon – and they were intrigued by my bourbon flight… that story may make it onto the blog sometime…

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artsy stuff, eating & drinking - well, travel stories

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winding my way to the mississippi…

Get ready!  There is going to be a lot to talk about… why you haven’t actually heard anything from New Orleans.  I was busy trying to do everything on my list – once I managed to make one – in three days.  But I came pretty close 🙂  And definitely have lots of great tips for anyone travelling to the city.

The plan is to organize my thoughts a bit and group activities and stories together so it won’t be a play-by-play of every moment in New Orleans but the moments will get captured.

To start us off, I am going to commence at almost the beginning… the first moment I took the trip seriously and tried to actually DO something in any event.  We will talk about the first night but, due to all the work commitments that extended right up until the moment I got on the plane, it was just an aimless stroll without any sort of plan.  But serendipity hit and it ended up being a wonderfully memorable evening!

I knew I had to get off Bourbon Street though and see something of the city.  My guidebook had recommended a steamboat trip on the Mississippi so I wandered into what I thought was an official tourism centre.  Not so much… really just people trying to pitch you tours.  But the young guy pitching the tour had a sweet disposition so I wanted to help him make quota and there was a brochure for the Natchez so I asked if he could book me on it so that he could earn his commission.  (I think I ended up overpaying so would recommend just going to the Natchez to buy your ticket but the US economy is suffering so I was there to help 😉

It also provided the agenda for the afternoon.  At that point I could locate Canal, Bourbon and the street I lived on (even though I didn’t know what it was called).  But my first step in a new city is always to walk around so I know where I’m going without having to pull out a map too much and look like a tourist.

At that point I was on Royal so wandered down a bit.  It’s a gorgeous street and fulfilled my Disney dream of the French Quarter.  It really IS as cute and charming as Walt portrayed it.

It’s also filled with dudes who have the same charisma and raffish charm Dennis Quaid exemplified in “The Big Easy.”  I don’t know if they birth shy people in New Orleans 😉  They definitely birth people who know how to party.

here come the beads!

here come the beads!

I had only been wandering for a short while and I heard a parade!  It isn’t Mardi Gras so I wondered what was up.  Of course I always head toward the happening when I travel.  It’s how you really get to experience the place.  It looked like a St. Patrick’s Day parade, complete with copious quantities of green beads.  But it was March 8th, not March 17th, so I wondered what was up.

Well, my photos are not so great because taking out my camera and standing still made me a target for lively guys brandishing green beads, which I quickly discovered were meant to be placed around my neck in exchange for a kiss.  Cheeky dudes 😉

But I did learn what was going on!  Apparently it was a PRACTICE parade!  Only in New Orleans would they have a practice parade J.  Later in the day, I was talking to another tourist who had also seen the practice parade.  As he astutely pointed out, this way they get to party TWICE for the same occasion 😉

It certainly got my trip off to a roaring start.  And I had free beads as souvenirs!

Once I had dispensed with the practice parade, I took a long, meandering tour of the Quarter and tried to take some photos to add to these posts.  Unfortunately for you, my camera is brand new so I am still learning.  Next time I am in New Orleans, the photos will be better 😉

I definitely learned that the first few sleazy blocks of Bourbon Street I had encountered my first night were not really New Orleans at all.  There was a tremendous amount of serendipity on this trip – and only wonderful encounters with strangers – so I ended up at the French Market without even consulting my map.

It’s the original Native American trading post, later used by the French and the Spanish to trade all sorts of cool stuff between the colonies and fancy Europe.  Now it’s filled mostly with junk made in China or Bangladesh but it’s still fun and festive to wander through.  And there are some gems if you look for them.  My favourite souvenir came from my second visit to the French Market – but that’s part of another tale…

The most intriguing thing I saw at the market was alligator!  Alligator heads, alligator on a stick, alligator bites… luckily no one walking an

gators and masks

gators and masks

alligator on a leash.  I wasn’t hungry at the time so haven’t tried it.  But learned as the days went on that it is really big in Louisiana and I will definitely have to check it out on the next visit…

History

I figured then that I was close to the river so wandered in that direction and there it was – the mighty Mississippi.  As dirty looking as I expected.  I grew up due north of the Mississippi and, as a child, I dreamed of taking a steamboat the length of it.  I did read a lot of Mark Twain 🙂

For now I was just going to settle for two hours on a steamboat – but I wanted to find it to be prepared for the next day.  Once I reached the river, my steamboat was easy to spot.

But first I spotted a lone gentleman playing a West African drum.  I took a photo of him and his music was really good so I thought I should give

the mighty mississippi!

the mighty mississippi!

him a tip.  It was money well spent.  We ended up having a conversation and I found out he was from Ghana.

I also found out he was a good guy.  Some young men came by and chatted with him while I was there.  Apparently one of them had lost his ID and the Ghanaian drummer had found it and gone to great trouble to get it back to him.  He’d done the same for some drunken teacher during Mardi Gras.  It really seemed to be the spirit of the place.  If you were standing on the street and looked a bit quizzical, someone would be checking if you needed assistance.  You hardly even needed a map 🙂

So, we’ve made it to the Mississippi!  Lots more happened that day.  I got to bed about 5am!  But we will let the stories unfold in themes.  New Orleans is a place for storytelling so I will do my best to reveal it like a good story.

To circle back to my questions… there is definitely a pretty, surreal, Disney vibe to the French Quarter.  There is a lot of music in New Orleans.  It’s not all jazz but you can find jazz (and I did!) but what is more delightful is the many varied musical styles you will stumble across just wandering the streets.  There is no shortage of charm in the men of Louisiana – and they have that delectable accent… 😉

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travel stories

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getting to the “big easy” not so easy…

I have not abandoned my blog. I just made the usual mistake of booking travel time a couple of months in advance when my future schedule looked really quiet.  Eventually I will get to my semi-retirement phase and that will be true.  But working does pay for the travel so happy to NOT be unemployed 🙂

Last year I threw a splashy, almost year-long birthday celebration.  As I learned at 41, not many people are interested in non-milestone birthdays (unless you are under 21).  So I decided to take myself to New Orleans to celebrate.

It’s been on my list for a long time.  The image in my head comes from a few divergent sources.

The first – my mother’s obsession with everything Disney, which led to an early visit to New Orleans the way Walt visualized and imagineered it.  Part of me is expecting to see the entrance to a Pirates of the Caribbean ride down an alley off Bourbon Street 🙂  And a French quarter as pretty and fake as the one in Disneyland.

The second voice in my head creating images of New Orleans belongs to Richard, a boyfriend from my twenties.  The man who introduced me to jazz.  He felt it peaked with bebop and that the tenor saxophone is the most perfect instrument.  Not only do I still have his pictorial “history of jazz” in my memory box, I also have strong feelings about jazz, including a love of bebop and a weakness for great improvisation on a saxophone 😉

The final image I bring to the city is Dennis Quaid in “The Big Easy”, an early crush.  Not really on Dennis Quaid, but on the cop he played in the film.  The good guy with a gigantic slice of Cajun charm capable of seducing uptight northern girls…

I am writing this in the Denver airport en route…  so we shall see what kind of stew – or jambalaya – the city of New Orleans really is.

Will there be some cute Disneyesque architecture?  Will I hear some great jazz?  Will a Cajun gentleman with a southern accent sweep me off my feet?

That is the wonder of travel.  The anticipation of the unknown.  The discovery of other cultures.  The personal voyage as you mix with the new place and learn new things about yourself.

This is my first visit to the south.  Granted this is not really “the south” of the Confederates.  But they ain’t no Yankees!  Or laidback west coast Liberals.  I will be in a country I have travelled extensively but yet be in a foreign land.

Louisiana represents a fascinating piece of North American history.  Had the French played their cards better in this part of the world, we might all be learning French as our lingua de commerce instead of English.

Stay tuned for the full report on the REAL “Big Easy” circa 2013.  Post Katrina.  Post Saints Super Bowl victory.  Sans Dennis Quaid 😉

 

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