Day Five: I "Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans"

Twice I was nudged by New Orleans today. In the middle of my busy day at work, an ex-boyfriend-ish person called me up to say he had gotten a free Southwestern Airline voucher and was going, on a whim, to New Orleans and wanted to know what to do, where to go. What I gave to him in part, I will give to you, dear readers, in full: my Top Twenty of What to Do in the Big Easy:

1. Stay in the French Quarter—The Hotel St. Marie, The Andrew Jackson, The Cornstalk Inn—three great hotels.



2. Eat at Cafe du Monde for breakfast, Commander’s Palace for Lunch, and Irene’s for dinner.



3. Go to Pat O’Brien’s and sit out on the patio and have a Hurricane. Go inside to the piano bar & drink whatever a soldier buys you (that goes for you guys too!).



4. Take the streetcar into the Garden District and go see where Anne Rice and Trent Reznor used to live. Go back into the French Quarter to Royal & see where Nicholas Cage bought and will probably never live. Ignore where Brad and Angelina live.



5. Stop at Court of Two Sisters for a Mint Julep.



6. Go to various voodoo shops—you’ll probably bump into people who claim to know Angelina.



7. Go to Peligro on Decatur Street to look at the expensive "folk" art. Window shop the Blue Dogs back on Royal.



8. Stop at the Napolean House for the delightfully snotty waiters and a Pimm's Cup.



9. Go to Jackson Square for the street theater. Talk to the fortune tellers and artists.



10. Stop in Pirate's Alley for faux Absinthe and a first edition at The Faulkner House bookstore, then find cheaper books in a used store on Dumaine.



11. Take a street car to City Park and go to the New Orleans museum to see the permanent collection.



12. Take a picture of the dueling oaks in City Park.



13. Take the street car back to Canal. Avoid Harrah’s and cross back into the Quarter. Stop
    at the Monteleone Hotel bar. Sit at the rotating bar and drink with the spirit of Tennessee Williams.



14. Go to The House of Blues if Marilyn Manson or Peter Murphy are playing. Tell people you are a teacher and get free drinks.



15. Go to Snug Harbor for jazz if anyone is playing.



16. Take a Haunted History tour.



17. After tour, follow street kids to a goth club.



18. End the evening on the Moon walk.



19. Have hang-over breakfast at "That Breakfast Place" with the Lace Balconies.



20. Walk everywhere and absorb the humid and fetid atmosphere.
    

My second New Orleans nudge came at tonight’s poetry reading. Stephen Bluestone read a poem about the 9th Ward, the 1924 flood, and Katrina. At the end of the poem, Bluestone tells us the river will always win.

Perhaps it has already won. I give you this list constructed from memory and hearsay; I haven’t been back since Katrina, but several of my friends either still live in Louisiana or have ventured back for brief visit. Some say New Orleans is a resurrected city, some say she is slipping into further decay. But isn’t that the beautiful and terrible paradox of New Orleans?