The following is a six-part blog detailing NAC's trip to New Orleans by contributing blog writer and self-described "trouble-enthusiast," Jeffrey Hill. Photos were contributed by NAC editor Matt Stroud.
PART 4: 24Hrs NEW ORLEANS
Jackson Square, 11a.m.
Everyone meets under the glorious statue of Andrew Jackson, raising his hat in some sort of victorious pose. The statue is a curse. I mark it with a skeleton. There's something wrong about the character of Andrew Jackson. He was openly notorious, yet, he's on the 20-dollar bill. One local humorously refered to the monument as an image of "Stonewall Jackson - The Blues Singer." Also, one of the fortune tellers in front of St. Louis Cathedral is known as "the bullshitter in the wheelchair." Everyone knows this guy. See the video of the New Orleans Robot Man breaking character to tell me where he was - here. I was sure that this local legend could help break me out of a curse that Jackson was definitely behind.
Our guides gave us our first task - walk around and ask locals to draw us a map of the area and where we should visit.
Our first guide, Calvin Johnson, displays the maps in front of Andrew Jackson.
Street performers and cops come together to help me draw my map. Look at that beer gut!
Greeting our visitors from Holy Cross College.
See more photos in our photo section.
After the maps were collected, we decided to set sail to Algiers - a community across the river from New Orleans, where we stopped at the Dry Dock Bar and Cafe to chat with locals, police and bartenders. Interesting stories revolve around a drink called "Sex on the Levee," and one local legend explained New Orleans slang to me - Watch the video here!
We grabbed food from Dry Dock and had a picnic in an awkwardly authentic French Port / Slave Trade playground that exists as a reminder to the way things were over 200 years ago. See more images of this in our photo/video section.
After enjoying the nice weather in Algiers' neighborhoods (as well as getting horribly sunburned), we took the Canal St. Ferry back over to the city and encountered a Dancing Elvis Marionette which was enough to get NAC publisher Michelle Kuly dancing. (See Video).
Walking up Decatur mid-afternoon, rubbing shoulders with the tourist crowd yet again sparked a conversation with our guide, Calvin, concerning both the positive and negative effects of psychogeography. It is important to know that 24Hrs also explores the negative effects of cities on the well-being of the traveler. Crowds, car exhaust, the heat rising from the concrete jungle, all play a part in the total experience. Not even 6 hours in and I begin to feel it.
At the end of our Decatur St. voyage, we came to artist Michael Dingler's paint party in Marigny, a section that is described by our New Yorker crew as "the Brooklyn of New Orleans." It is skirted by trains and vacant lots and sprinkled with elements that are anything but New Orleans - organic coffee shops, anarchist bookstores, and trendy bars. Some of our crew react positively to this "at home" experience - others are antsy for a more realistic experience. Former sound tech for James Brown, George Loki, gave me some good stories on tape about the Godfather and the Atlanta Olympics bombing. Radtke talks to us about the struggle of graffiti versus art and how he has been fined over $50,000 for his homemade signs - which he feels he is contributing to the city. He has an army rogue artists who spend the days on gallery lawns, painting on scrap wood and mannequins.
After the paint party, we trekked back down Royal to stop at what I would call a completely new experience for me - a public crawfish boil. The R Bar, home of one-gallon lagers, generously boils crawfish in an enormous pot for passer-bys and neighbors and I was given detailed instructions on how to eat crawfish. Here's a quote: "You got to suck the head, squeeze the tip..." Yeah....
-image courtesy of MyRecipes.com
for more photos and video footage of the crawfish boil - CLICK HERE!
During the crawfish gorge, we were generously invited to an art party by DJ Soul Sister, who was spinning in the glamourous main hall. Now, no offense to DJ Soul Sister, but I can't really get into the lavish art-party scene. I'm sure the intentions were genuine and that part of being in New Orleans is "having a good time," but something inside of me tells me that I shouldn't have been there. Maybe it's this self-righteous pathos that journalists get where they feel the responsibility to represent the hidden truths - or maybe I'm just not used to parties where models sit on hour d'overs tables in front of large ice sculptures of vodka bottles.
24Hrs COVERAGE CONTINUED IN PART 5
Click for other entries:
PART 1: Arrival in "The Big Easy"
PART 2: "Sparking Creativity" Symposium, Bourbon Street
PART 3: The NPN Trumpet Awards
PART 4: 24Hrs NEW ORLEANS
PART 5: 24Hrs NEW ORLEANS (continued)
PART 6: Recovery.
