My time here at BloggingNewOrleans has unfortunately been the shortest. I only joined the team and started blogging here back at the end of February. I've enjoyed my brief time writing here, and it's been nice to have this as an extra outlet in which to write about the city I love (even when it does drive me insane).

I'll still continue to write regularly at my own blog, MissMalaprop.com, and I will still try to feature local artists, designers and businesses whenever possible. (So if that describes you, feel free to get in touch and let me know about your work!) I've also got a monthly column at Antigravity Magazine, and locals can pick up a free copy when you're out and about -- out of towners and expatriates can always download a PDF copy of the magazine for free at the website.

I'm continuing to work with other area artists on building a thriving craft scene here, and to that extent much of my time over the next couple of months will be taken up by organizing a new holiday art & craft event on the Mississippi Coast at my mom's flea market. Dubbed Handmade Invasion, I'm hoping this event will help give many local artists an affordable new venue in which to sell and showcase their work, and hopefully it will give shoppers from all over the Gulf South a new alternative for their holiday shopping. I'll also still be working with the New Orleans Craft Mafia and the Louisiana Etsy Street Team to get the word out about local artists and crafters.

I'm said to see BloggingNewOrleans closing its doors (although really it just means no new posts, all the old posts will remain archived here forever). I have had the tendency to overextend myself over the past year or so though, so maybe it's good that I'll have one less project going on in my life. C'est la vie.

I hope you'll all keep in touch, and remember that there are plenty of other great bloggers all around NOLA. There's a fantastic (and huge!) list over at Think NOLA that I highly recommend checking out.

Dirty Coast is one of the most recognizable local t-shirt companies around town. Infamous for their New Orleans inspired tees, such as "Be a New Orleanian. Wherever you are." and "Where's Nagin?", the company got started shortly before Katrina, but things really took off as displaced New Orleanians began snatching up these tshirts as a way of showing hometown pride.

Dirty Coast is hosting an End of Summer Party tonight at Tipitina's uptown. Rotary Downs and The Other Planets will be playing and doors open at 9pm. It's only 8 bucks to get in and sounds like it will be a lot of fun. (The Dirty Coast folks usually know how to throw a pretty good party.) Dirty Coast also recently opened their new retail location at 5704 Magazine Street. I haven't had a chance to drop by and check it out, as I'm rarely uptown these days, but I'll have to make a special visit soon.

Dirty Coast was featured awhile back as one of StayLocal.org's success stories. This will obviously be my last Where to Shop piece here on BloggingNewOrleans, as today is our last day to post, but may I refer you to Stay Local's extensive local business listings? In these days of recovery it's especially important to keep our dollars in the local economy. If you need a reminder why, just check out their top 10 reasons on why to shop local.

If you're still looking for something to do tonight, I highly recommend dropping by Flanagan's Pub (625 St. Philip Street in the French Quarter) between 8pm and midnight to join in the fun of the Stinkin' Linkin Send Off Party. Some friends have been working on restoring and revamping this flooded-out Katrina car for months and they're finally headed out to Utah for race week at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

You can read more about the whole thing in Chris Rose's recent column or on their website, but basically they've been rebuilding a 1998 Lincoln Mark VIII car that soaked in floodwaters for weeks after Katrina and they've turned it into a racing machine. They're actually driving this car out to Utah, all 2,000 miles, which is pretty unheard of.... virtually all of the vehicles that participate in these sort of time trials arrive at the salt flats on a trailer pulled by another vehicle. This whole thing has been a labor of love...most of the crew's members are bartenders and they've been using tip money to get this thing built. You can help support them and give them a great send-off this evening (remember to buy lots of drinks and tip well...they need all the gas money they can get!). They'll even have the car there for viewing. Here's a shot of the gang and the car itself:

It's been a strange, eerie anniversary day for me. I got to work at the museum this morning and the space I usually work in was blocked off with plastic sheets marked "Hazard: Microbial Waste". There were workers in jumpsuits and breathing masks doing some sort of cleaning...I'm still not sure exactly what they were cleaning...mold? dust? Anyway, they were there for more than half the day so I ended up helping track down and prepare some archives for our upcoming Katrina exhibit instead of doing my usual duties. What a weird way to spend this day, let me tell you. As if I wasn't bound to recount all of the good and bad memories from the past two years anyway... I ended up flipping through issues of the Baton Rouge Advocate from August 30 & 31, 2005. We also had to pull all sorts of foam-core signs...the kind that were staked in the neutral grounds all over town for months and months after Katrina. There was stuff from the mayoral election from last year, there were political cartoons, there was even a "Be a New Orleanian, wherever you are" sticker from Dirty Coast in the mix.

I've had this kind of sick feeling in the pit of my stomach all day. I think it's been building up for at least a few days, maybe even a couple of weeks. My boyfriend's birthday was yesterday, but he's celebrating it tonight, at the Whirling Dervish where he usually DJs on Wednesdays. And since it's Wednesday, that means it's also ladies night and 1/2 price on all drinks all night for the ladies. Good timing this year, I guess... For those of us who just can't deal with today at least there's always someplace in town where drinks can be had for cheap.

I wish I had something profound to say. I just don't have the energy. I've been feeling completely drained lately. I just keep thinking about all the times during the last two years that I've envied those friends who moved away for awhile, regained some semblance of their sanity, and then returned home to deal with all of this on a day to day basis. I never really got that. And while in some ways, I'm glad I've been here pretty much the entire time, it's been extremely trying. I'm burnt out. So forgive me if I don't quite feel like writing a more spectacular remembrance today.

Oh yes, and the picture accompanying this post is one I took a year ago. X marks the spot where my favorite Mexican restaurant, El Maguey, once stood on the beach in Gulfport, MS.

We pick the best images added to the Blogging New Orleans Flickr group and post a resized version with a link to the original here. Just add your photos to the pool and you could see your image posted here! Be sure to check back for another NOLApic.



I found this picture in our Flickr group. It was taken by journalist Dani Bora, who came down last month to cover the work of Common Ground Relief for NEED magazine. This image belongs to a photoset on Flickr of other images from his trip, which depict volunteers gutting homes and also show the empty slabs where homes once stood.

Two years later and we've still got so far left to go...

We pick the best images added to the Blogging New Orleans Flickr group and post a resized version with a link to the original here. Just add your photos to the pool and you could see your image posted here! Be sure to check back for another NOLApic.



I took this picture a year ago, on a drive down Highway 90 to survey the damage on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, one year after Hurricane Katrina. Growing up on the Coast, the S.S. Hurricane Camille was always a memorable local landmark. The boat was planted firmly ashore by Hurricane Camille in 1969, and had since been turned into the site of a tourist trinket shop.

It's kind of crazy...growing up there, Hurricane Camille was almost this mystical sort of force that we grew up hearing about. It was The Big One, the one that changed everything. The one you thought would never happen again. I certainly hoped I'd never live to see any other storm change the face of the Coast as completely as Camille did.

I wrote a post on my own blog detailing the trip, plus there are many more pictures from the drive on Flickr.

We pick the best images added to the Blogging New Orleans Flickr group and post a resized version with a link to the original here. Just add your photos to the pool and you could see your image posted here! Be sure to check back for another NOLApic.



I took this picture sometime in October 2005, shortly after returning to NOLA following the Katrina evacu-cation. We found this mannequin on the corner near my boyfriend's old apartment in the Bayou St. John neighborhood. People randomly added stuff to it. (Just take a peek at this picture for a view of the same mannequin a few nights prior; it lost some pieces and gained some.)

This is a perfect example of what I love about the people of this city. Even in tough times, we still try to have a sense of humor and the absurd. It reminds me of a saying my boyfriend has. It goes something like, "When things get rough, you can either go crazy, or go zany." I think we know what direction the folks in my neighborhood went.

If you're looking for something a little out-of-the-ordinary to do this weekend, there's a few different events happening around the Quarter, being put on by some friends of mine.

I already told you how to get your weekend started at the new Friday on the Roch market, but afterwards you can head on down to Lower Decatur because some friends have organized a Texas Hold'em poker tournament to benefit our friend Mark Holmes (aka DJ Nanashi aka Dark Mark). He recently got injured pretty badly in an accident and had to have surgery and spent a brief stint in the hospital. He works in the service industry, like so many people in town, as both a bartender at Mojo Lounge and a regular dj at the Whirling Dervish. And of course, like so many service industry folk, he has no health insurance. He really enjoys playing poker (we have a regular home game at my house), so my boyfriend and some other friends have put together this event to help him with his hospital bills. All proceeds from the tournament will benefit Mark, as will 50% of the drink sales. Various local businesses have been kind enough to donate prizes to be given to tournament winners; they include bar tabs from Mojo Lounge and Flanagan's Pub, clothing from Wicked Orleans, Kulture Vulture and Sigh Co., as well as a fancy brand new poker chip set for the 1st place winner. The event will take place tomorrow evening at The Whirling Dervish (1135 Decatur), with registration starting at 7pm and the tournament beginning promptly at 7:30pm. There will be a brief lesson on the basics of the game at 6:30pm, so it's a great way to get your feet wet if you're a newbie, without risking your shirt at Harrah's or something. Space is limited, and RSVP is requested. More details can be found here.

In other weekend news, I'm also excited to hear about Angie's Impromptu Underpants Party - Take 2! This Sunday night, August 26th at 10pm, bartender Angie is taking over One Eyed Jack's, as it's been declared "too f**in' hot for clothes". (So true, by the way....I'm ready for summer to be over.) Drink specials and djs and underpants movies, oh my! You know you're a New Orleanian when you'll take any excuse you can get to run around in public in just your panties or tighty-whiteys. Sounds like fun to me! Oh, and if you're still looking for something to do on Saturday night, you can also hit OEJ for the Big Easy Rollergirls fundraiser, which will feature Liquidrone and the Fleur de Tease burlesque dancers, plus raffles and a penalty spanking wheel! (This is seriously going to be one crazy weekend, no matter which way you cut it.) Both The Gambit and NOLA.com picked the BERG fundraiser as one of the do-not-miss events of the weekend, but I'll probably be missing it, personally. I don't really like being in One Eyed Jack's when it gets super crowded, and I have a feeling this show is going to be PACKED.

You are not allowed to say there's nothing to do this weekend!

I recently finished reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. One of the chapters focused on the sudden turn in crime in New York City during the 1980s as an example of what makes social phenomenon and trends "tip". Basically the idea was that crime had gotten to an absolute boiling point; disorder and disrepair were rampant. So when new officals were brought on to deal with these issues, instead of tackling what many would see as the big problems first, instead they tried to make small changes initiallly, such as cleaning subway graffiti and dealing with fare-beating in the subway system, which was costing the city millions of dollars annually. The crazy thing is, these little changes actually made a difference. Overall crime started to drop drastically, and as we know, NYC is now one of the safest large cities around (I felt SO much safer walking at night when I was there a month than I do here at home).

Of course, the entire time I was reading this chapter I felt it was begging the question: How can this be applied to New Orleans? Obviously cleaning up the public transportation system might not be our first step, as we don't have much of one to begin with, but generally I have to think that these concepts can be applied here. Goodness knows the crime rate here is currently at least as bad as it was in New York in the 80s.

I heard a story on NPR this morning about how another Louisiana town was passing a sagging pants law. I've gotta say, it seems like as silly as that kind of thing sounds, that it could be one of those things that creates a tipping point situation. Force people to clean up the way they look a bit and they feel better about themselves, thus they begin behaving in a more constructive way? I honestly wish they'd pass something like that here in New Orleans, but along with it maybe throw in something about the gigantically oversized plain white t-shirts too. Someone told me that the look copies a prison style. To me, any fashion trend that makes people want to look like they just got released from prison is not really something to aspire to. I know a law like that would never get passed here though, and even if it did, it would be nearly impossible to enforce (the police have trouble enough responding to violent crime, sheesh). Well, since our city government is currently so ineffective, maybe there are ways that we as citizens can effectively organize change through small, easy to accomplish steps. I wonder what, if anything, we can do to bring our own crime wave to a tipping point and make it "tip" in the other direction?

I was about to leave a comment on Mike's post from earlier, when I realized that maybe I just have too much to say on this subject and it warrants its own post. The last few days have been kind of scary, I'll admit. Apparently one of my co-workers was on her way to Pal's last week right before the murder happened. She'd just moved into a new place, only blocks away, and had walked halfway there before she decided to go back home for some reason. I'm so glad she did.

Apparently some other girl working in a shop on Royal Street in the Quarter was violently attacked the other day, so today my manager came in to bring us a can of pepper spray to keep in the shop. From what she'd heard, the attacker just waltzed into the store and attacked the woman who was working alone there (they think the motive might have been rape). Somehow a guy working at a gallery nearby realized that something was up and chased the guy off. My boss said that when they tried to call the police about the attack, the police told them they didn't have a squad car available but they'd send someone by in a few hours to take a report. Nevermind the fact that they could have WALKED there from the station in the Quarter in less than 5 minutes...or taken a scooter. I saw a cop riding one the wrong way down Royal this morning as a matter of fact.

I read an Associated Press article about NOLA being a "tougher pitch in the wake of Katrina". While it does mention a lot of the problems, including violent crime, crazy insurance rates, and lack of proper medical care, I feel like, as usual, the rest of the world isn't really getting the full picture if they read just that article. I mean, that just glosses over some of the issues. What about the new insane tax assessment rates? What about the monopoly Entergy raping everyone in town?? (They can take their millions of dollars of bailout money and shove it because the bills we're seeing are still freakin' ridiculous.) Nevermind the fact that the article mentions how Murphy Oil has closed its New Orleans location and moved employees to Houston but completely fails to mention the post-Katrina oil spill and how Murphy tried to buy off homeowners in Chalmette for damage received due to the spill in order to attempt to avoid a class action lawsuit. (I'm pretty sure that a class action was still pursued, however.)

It's infuriating. It's exhausting. Another recent article by Alexander Wolff captures some of the passions of notable locals, and the reasons we're all still here. But really, no matter how you look at it, that old analogy of the city being like an abusive lover holds truer than ever these days. And there's only so much we can all take before we either get beaten to death or leave.

My friend Kathy of Between Piety & Desire has been helping to organize an event which I think could be really critical in helping to revitalize an important but run-down public space.

Friday on the Roch is a new community event in the St. Claude Avenue neighborhood which will happen monthly beginning this Friday, August 24th. The old St. Roch Market was chosen as the location because of its cultural and historical significance. This city-owned building is well over 100 years old and was renovated back in the 1930s as part of a WPA project. It was once the site of a public marketplace, but it sustained a lot of damage during Katrina and has sat empty in disrepair ever since. A couple of years ago I lived only blocks from the St. Roch Market, and I've often thought what a cool building this is and wished that someone would do something to bring this place back to life. I'm so glad that plans are now in the works to do just that.

Friday on the Roch will be held from 5pm-9pm on the neutral ground behind St. Roch Market. There will be live musical performances by Sunpie Barnes and the Louisiana Sunspots, and the Black Notes, a jazz sextet from NOCCA. There will also be plenty of food & drink (pralines, fresh seafood, baked goods, po-boys, sno-balls...) as well as arts & crafts vendors. Kathy told me that the hope is for this event to join up with some of the other farmers markets that take place nearby and possibly to make this a weekly event in the future. If all goes well, maybe one day the people organizing this event will be able to tackle leasing and running the St. Roch Market itself and restore it to its former glory as a true community marketplace.

I can't wait to check out Friday on the Roch; I'm definitely going to have to stop by after work. I'm really hoping it takes off; I think it could be a major step in the right direction for the neighborhood, as well as the city.

B-Native is a great online source for NOLA-inspired and NOLA-made gifts and other merchandise. The site features everything from books and unique paper goods to fashionable accessories for your home and body (you can even book yoga classes here!).

B-Native carries a range of designs by talented local artists, including designer Alexa Pulitzer (her work can also be seen on quite a few Dirty Coast t-shirts), hat artisan Tracy Thomson, recycled art crafters Unique Products and one of my favorites, Gogo Borgerding, who owns a shop at 4212 Magazine Street where she sells her handcrafted modern jewelry. I love this two-toned cuff she's created, made from sterling silver and anodized aluminum. The day I stumbled into her shop on Magazine Street, I had to pull myself away quickly, before I made any rash purchases. Her work is just so funky but elegant, all at the same time.

I love shopping venues like this, that collect the work of multiple talented artisans all in one place. B-Native is constantly adding new products and artists, so there's always something fresh from New Orleans to check out.

There's something that I'd been wondering about recently, and after seeing a K-Ville commercial last night, it really made me curious. In one of the new commercials, they show a quick scene of some street performers dancing in Jackson Square. I spend a fair amount of time in the Quarter, and often have to walk through Jackson Square, usually at least once or twice a week. I've seen the musicians come back to play (there's usually at least someone out there performing, if not a small brass band), and I know many of the artists and tarot readers are back in the square. I think I've even seen the dancers who sometimes perform on the steps across Decatur Street from the cathedral, near Cafe du Monde... those teams of dancers who will gather a large group of tourists to sit on the steps and watch their performance. But to my recollection, I haven't seen any of the young kids tap dancing around the Quarter since Katrina. Someone tell me that I'm wrong... tell me that you've seen them performing along Decatur Street, because as far as I can tell this could very well be a tradition lost (at least temporarily) to Katrina.

Another lost Jackson Square tradition? Once in my work at the Louisiana State Museum, I came across an old photo of an organ-grinder monkey that used to perform in the square -- I want to say that the photo was taken sometime in the 40s or 50s. Can't say that I've ever seen a monkey in Jackson Square, so that is one tradition that is long gone. The picture of this money-grubbing pooch was taken in Jackson Square pre-Katrina too, by boxchain. Anyone seen this pup around lately?

We pick the best images added to the Blogging New Orleans Flickr group and post a resized version with a link to the original here. Just add your photos to the pool and you could see your image posted here! Be sure to check back for another NOLApic.



This is one of my favorite buildings in the French Quarter, and possibly in the city. This cute little shotgun sits at the corner of Chartres and Barracks. Inside reside two adorable bulldogs (you can sort of see them in the window in this picture). I don't personally know the owners or residents of this house, but I pass by it often, as it's on my way to work, and they always seem so nice and cheery whenever I've passed them. I mean, look at all the beautiful flowers they've planted outside! How could people like that not be nice?

We pick the best images added to the Blogging New Orleans flickr group and post a resized version with a link to the original here. Just add your photos to the pool and you could see your image posted here! Be sure to check back for another NOLApic.



When I returned to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, in mid-October 2005, I spent a lot of time in the French Quarter. For awhile, the Quarter was sort of like the base of operations for a lot of people. We live in Mid-city and while luckily our place didn't get any major damage, our gas didn't get turned back on until almost Thanksgiving. Which meant no gas to cook with and no hot water for showers. Luckily we had access to a friend's apartment in the Quarter, where we were able to take showers, and we spent a lot of time eating at places like Envie and Flanagan's Pub.

One of the most interesting things about the Quarter during that time was seeing all of the artwork people had done to their abandoned fridges. Most refrigerators were thrown out, since food had been left to rot inside for so long during the prolonged evacuation. I spotted this pair of fridges on Royal Street...these two were probably my favorites out of all the creatively decorated fridges I saw.