I love old photos of New Orleans. Comparing what was to what is is always amazing, and ebay often offers up batches that have been scooped up from garage sales and whatnot.

But it is a definite crapshoot. Since I only buy lots, the sellers will choose 2 or three shots out of a big batch to show off in their ad, and they’ve selected what they believe to be the best of the bunch… but of course, their idea of what constitutes ‘the best’ is a whole lot different than mine. Let’s be honest- Jackson Square doesn’t change a whole lot, and my main fear is that I’ll open a batch only to find that I’ve paid $20 for 3 dozen shots of Cafe du Monde.

Pretty much every package has a few shots that are really great, and looking at the people and cars is always interesting. I’ve come to realize that the more fashionable you are today, the harder it’ll bite you on the ass later.

I’m powerless- I must develop some sort of storyline around the sets- especially the ones where there are lots of people.

These ladies, for instance, clearly had themselves a kickass time:

It was from a 1967 scrapbook, and I need to scan in some of the stuff they collected- lots of bar napkins and scribbled notes. They were clearly young, uninhibited, and enjoying it. Good on ‘em- they’d be in their 60s now and I’d like to think of them reminiscing and chuckling about their misspent youth.

But the last batch I received? I bought it totally blind- the seller picked it up at an estate sale, the photos formed a full carousel and were labeled “New Orleans Vacation,” but he hadn’t scanned in any actual photos. Still- out of 100 slides, there had to be some interesting things, right? To be fair, yes, there were a few. But mostly it was just…strange. Also, sadly, they must’ve been stored somewhere damp, because they were the most deteriorated shots I’ve bought so far.

This family, which appears to be a couple & their grandkid, took most of their photos of highways. Or city streets…out of their car window, complete with exciting highlights of traffic, their hood, and windshield wiper. These people managed to get the only bland, lifeless photos of the city I’ve ever seen.

Most of them looked like this:

And this:

This one is accidentally interesting, because it happens to catch the Superdome under construction:

Once they parked and actually got out of the car, we have yet more exciting stuff, like this guy’s chest and dog…but you can’t see the French Quarter or architecture or…well, or anything of interest:

And that’s pretty much how it goes…until they hit Bourbon Street. and boy, they really thought the smut was exciting!

We liked the Sho-Bar and its dancing girls:

And REALLY liked the Topless & Bottomless Boys & Girls (there were several shots of it, all from this far away):

(btw, “boys and girls?” Ew. Sounds like Chester the Molester’s destination of choice.)

And the one, the only closeup in the entire batch of 100 is amazing. They didn’t take a close shot of grandma, or of the kid. Not of a building, or architectural detail. The one thing interesting enough to get close to was a teeshirt shop window, witty as ever:

Which is, actually, sort of interesting. From an anthropological point of view, it teaches us that things are same as they ever were. Tacky ye shall have with ye always. Although it’s somewhat more interesting tack, I guess. The ‘fly United’ was certainly different.

Charlie thinks it says something profound about middle America, circa 1973. Lord, I really hope not, lest I end up with more packages like these.

Ah, there’s all kinds of references on the floats this year about Nagin’s impending exit.

Honestly, doesn’t Carnival seem kind of like an afterthought this year? After weeks and weeks of election & Superbowl buildup? What could be better than what we already received? The mayoral race was starting to get nasty- I can only imagine how ugly it would’ve been like if we’d had a Mitch/Troy runoff.

And with Nagin opening his fool mouth on WBOK, trying to stir up racial tensions (again:shock), plus that asshat Riley lying on the same station about Councilperson Head calling him the verboten N-word in emails I just didn’t know what to expect. Of course the email couldn’t be produced (as it doesn’t exist) but with how much Stacy’s been targeted these last two years it was hard to say just how the numbers would fall.

But within half an hour of the polls closing it was clear that both Mitch and Stacey were going to take it in a walk. And now there’s not much left to do but laugh at the floats as we wave buh-bye to Nagoon, trying very hard to make the door hit him in the ass on the way out.

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/tessconrad/4357794128/” title=”Negligent leader by tessconrad, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4036/4357794128_18cb0b06a1.jpg” width=”500″ height=”332″ alt=”Negligent leader” /></a>

Actually, there is one more thing to be done- get up early tomorrow for the Zulu parade to boo Nagin as he rides by on his horse. It’s the last time we get to do that!

Whoo hoo!

I was floored by the coverage of the last few weeks.

First off, I won’t even get into all the Manning worship because, annoying as it was, maybe it actually played in our favor:

The Colts won’t say this and Colts apologists won’t admit it, but I’m convinced the Colts believed their own pregame hype; that they were gifted this game. The arrogance started at the top of the organization with president Bill Polian blowing off media day and former coach Tony Dungy saying the Colts would win easily and all of that cocky chatter and behavior filtered all the way down to the bottom.

“I can’t say I saw this coming,” center Jeff Saturday said of the 31-17 loss.

Then he later added: “We had the team to beat.”

See what I mean. They had the team to beat? How?

Manning was caught up in such lunacy as well. Manning heard and believed too much of the talk that he would be anointed the greatest quarterback of all time if he won.
—
Then Manning said this when asked what the Saints defense did to slow the Indianapolis defense down.

“Their offense staying on the field kept us off the field,” Manning said.

It was a subtle shot at the Indianapolis defense. Subtle throwage under the busage, to me. In reality Manning did at times look greatly confused.

-Mike Freeman, CBSSports.com

But the Mannings are a real fixture here in the city- their clan’s stature as a whole took a hit here when Archie Manning said there wasn’t a single shred of himself that wished the Saints well. Okay, I get it- your boy’s playing, and you’re loyal to him. But add it to Peyton and his coach stalking off the field without shaking hands and it all seems very petty, affected, and spoiled.

Then again maybe it’s a part of an unforgiving culture that’s so much different from New Orleans that I just can’t comprehend it. Even when the Saints lost to one of the worst teams in the country thousands of fans met them at the airport to support them. Even if they’d lost the Superbowl 56-0 we would’ve been out there to welcome them back . The parade would’ve been a madhouse no matter what.

11 people met the Colts when they got back to Indiana. Eleven? Seriously? That’s… unconscionable, really. They played their hearts out, and did a hell of a job all season. Their fans clearly adored them before- they spent a crazy amount of time on the Saints’ fan boards talking trash about how weak we were… and then they just disappeared with nothing to say, and certainly no congratulations on offer.

Maybe it’s just because we’re used to losing- as a people we’re good at it. We know how to be gracious in defeat after years of practice and we know that sometimes it really is the thought that matters and the effort that counts.

Beth is the world’s biggest fan of True Blood. She throws viewing parties every week, complete with a patented drink concocted for your viewing pleasure, so when I saw this shirt there was no question who it was destined for:

Happy Birthday, Beth!

The last few weeks have been strange ones. There was nearly 3 weeks of jury duty for an ungodly Katrina death case. To call it exhausting and miserable would be an understatement…and after all that time, they settled. Which was a good thing, ultimately, but still.

And as we come to the one year anniversary of the business closing I’ve finally gotten rid of the last of the stuff. I feel like I NEVER stop thinking that, but every time I think I’m done I open some cubbyhole and find yet MORE stuff.

The dregs seem to be really and truly gone now- the filing cabinets that used to hold several thousand beads were picked up yesterday and dropped off to their new homes, and the huge box of leftover gift boxes that I couldn’t bring myself to throw away have found new lives.

In their Notably New Orleans lives, they would’ve looked like this:

In their new lives they’ve found a much higher purpose:

PRC’s Education & Outreach department does a fantastic job of working with local public school kids, giving tours and setting up different long term programs with the schools. This display came at the end of several months of working with a classroom and exploring what community really means and what goes into building a livable space.

They all did an amazing job, and it’ll be on display for another couple of weeks at the Preservation Resource Center (923 Tchoupitoulas) if you want to come check it out. There are quotes from the students and all kinds of other interesting things to check out.

And then of course there was the hard freeze that went on for days- the worst New Orleans has seen in 15 years. The carnage was fairly complete- all the hibiscus are dead. Ditto the passiflora, bougainvillea,and on and on- even the ginger took a huge thwacking, and I thought that stuff was indestructible.

Well, here- let’s save some time. Allow me to point out what survived using a photo from the fall as illustration: Arrow=survivor. No arrow=fallen soldier.

So yeah, that was freaking depressing.

But a good culling is like a forest fire, leaving behind newly excavated mental and physical space that needs to be filled up with new exciting plans. Some of those are writing based, and some are photography based. Some involve shopping for new and ever more exotic plants to fill up the yard with color.

And just maybe some might even involve finally making an honest man out of poor, long suffering Charlie.

It’s been a long year of post-going-out-of-business recovery- time spent clearing deadwood both practical and metaphorical. Here’s hoping it was time well spent.

I couldn’t stop laughing, despite myself. Hat tip to MK for sharing.

(Also, I had no idea that redubbing this same scene was something of a cottage industry, but check out the related videos, and marvel at how much free time there is in the world…)

and this about covers it:

Okay, well, one more thing:

And btw, how classy was it that they brought Deuce back?

I posted the text to my Facebook and emailed it to friends on NYE. What better words to send a new decade off on?

Jack took the longest time to decide he wanted to eat his veggies, but once he did, he became quite the piggy…

And now he doesn’t only like his greens, but his pinks and reds and yellows too.

Whew.

I’m just realizing the whole Christmas thing is over already. Thankfully. Sadly.

Okay, there’s still New Year’s to get through, and that’s a whole other kettle of fish, but the bulk of it is gone. Charlie and I both stayed home this year, no December travelling for the first time, and there were lists and lists of things we wanted to do, some of which we got to, some we didn’t. (I really really really will get myself over to the concerts in St. Louis Cathedral and/or the caroling next year. Really truly.)

It all culminated in an Orphan’s Christmas Eve feast- a dinner party for wonderful friends whose families are also miles away. Charlie took the theme to heart and went into full on Dickens mode, making a scrumpcious goose with fruit stuffing and suchlike (tho no figgy pudding, thankfully). I intended to take pics of the goose before it got gobbled, but I was nicely buzzed on wine and company, so there ya go.

After Christmas Day’s Annual Low Key Open House thrown by our wonderful neighbors and a day of recovery we went and saw some of the holiday stuff Downtown and crossed off a few more “we have to get to”s around town.

It was meant to end in a lovely dinner at Antoine’s Hermes bar, but that was packed. We scaled down to Arnaud’s bistro, Remoulade, but they were closing by the time we got there. So dinner, for those brave of us to accept the mission, was an honest-to-god Lucky Dog with the works.

Ug:

Note there are only boys in that picture. The ladies wisely took a pass.

So that’s that. Christmas 2009 in the bag, for better or worse. Lots of all the stuff you’re supposed to have, and little of the stuff everybody hates. And yet I find myself in a bit of a post-holiday slump. This was the first year in a long time I really participated and wasn’t just a bah-humbug, largely because the business is gone, I think. I used to have to shop constantly, so more holiday buying just made me nuts, and Christmas also started the roller coaster of Carnival season, so to say I was distracted is an understatement.

I guess this is the first real event that’s made me acutely aware of the business’ loss on a day-to-day, nuts and bolts level. Bittersweet, as always. I’m very happy to not be pouring over catalogs, scrying for clues as to what kind of season it’s going to be, laying in supplies, and making even more of a mess than I do usually. Mostly I’m very happy about it all.

Sometimes I just have to remind myself of that.