New Orleans was an interesting place to hang out in. There were some beautiful buildings in the French Quarter, which took you back in time. Wrought Iron trimmings on houses, balconies overflowing with flowers in flower boxes, high ceilings with long slim windows graced by elegant and functional shutters... Mmmmmm I liked it.
In my part of town there were houses with front porches which were well used in the evenings, or by older people who watched the street... These houses tended to be two storied, and had high ceilings with pillars out front - in plantation style architecture. More of those lovely shutters. If you know what to look for, you can tell how rich someone is by the number of pillars, and/or the width of the houses (trad. taxed on pillars or width of street frontage), and what religion and/or denomination by the colour of the shutters...
There were definately parts of New Orleans that were not so savoury. Much of the city is still not back to normal post-hurricane Katrina. It is still a well talked about event - cab drivers talk about it, bus drivers talk about it... people you meet on the street talked about it. It has affected the reliability of public transport (still), the type of people living in the city - apparently there are a lot of abandoned houses and warehouses with who-knows living in them, families are fractured - one man was talking about how he saw his mamma everyday, but now she lives in Dallas, Texas (millleesss away). A change of life for all concerned.
But still, there is music everywhere. On street corners, spilling out of bars, streets blocked off for music and crazy artistic goings-on. And it is awesome music. We went out a couple of times to check out the local scene - we found a crazy pianist in the oldest pub in town. He asked us for song requests - someone from our group wanted Britney Spears, so we got a mock-Britney song. Very entertaining. Another night we found a classic jazz club and had a drink or two there enjoying every moment ; ) Happy with those evenings - they delivered what we had hoped New Orleans would deliver.
Oh, I have to tell you about a bus trip. There were a few of us who had made friends at our accomodation coming back from the jazz fest together - a couple of NZers and a couple of Pommes. We were singing random NZ and UK songs on the bus on the way home.... A few of the locals were wondering where our screws had come loose... We took suggestions - one lady said 'Shut Up' - so I sang the Black Eyed Peas version. We thought we were halarious. I think she was slightly amused but more exasperated. She told us not to quit our day jobs... WOOOOPPPSSSS!!! ALL OF US HAD. We laughed and laughed.
Anyways.... there is some random stuff about New Orleans during jazz fest season. I think there is less music when the jazz fest is over - it brings in quite a lot of money, and a lot of musos work during this time...
A fun experience. Really enjoyed it... The N.O. church experience has its own entry.
In my part of town there were houses with front porches which were well used in the evenings, or by older people who watched the street... These houses tended to be two storied, and had high ceilings with pillars out front - in plantation style architecture. More of those lovely shutters. If you know what to look for, you can tell how rich someone is by the number of pillars, and/or the width of the houses (trad. taxed on pillars or width of street frontage), and what religion and/or denomination by the colour of the shutters...
There were definately parts of New Orleans that were not so savoury. Much of the city is still not back to normal post-hurricane Katrina. It is still a well talked about event - cab drivers talk about it, bus drivers talk about it... people you meet on the street talked about it. It has affected the reliability of public transport (still), the type of people living in the city - apparently there are a lot of abandoned houses and warehouses with who-knows living in them, families are fractured - one man was talking about how he saw his mamma everyday, but now she lives in Dallas, Texas (millleesss away). A change of life for all concerned.
But still, there is music everywhere. On street corners, spilling out of bars, streets blocked off for music and crazy artistic goings-on. And it is awesome music. We went out a couple of times to check out the local scene - we found a crazy pianist in the oldest pub in town. He asked us for song requests - someone from our group wanted Britney Spears, so we got a mock-Britney song. Very entertaining. Another night we found a classic jazz club and had a drink or two there enjoying every moment ; ) Happy with those evenings - they delivered what we had hoped New Orleans would deliver.
Oh, I have to tell you about a bus trip. There were a few of us who had made friends at our accomodation coming back from the jazz fest together - a couple of NZers and a couple of Pommes. We were singing random NZ and UK songs on the bus on the way home.... A few of the locals were wondering where our screws had come loose... We took suggestions - one lady said 'Shut Up' - so I sang the Black Eyed Peas version. We thought we were halarious. I think she was slightly amused but more exasperated. She told us not to quit our day jobs... WOOOOPPPSSSS!!! ALL OF US HAD. We laughed and laughed.
Anyways.... there is some random stuff about New Orleans during jazz fest season. I think there is less music when the jazz fest is over - it brings in quite a lot of money, and a lot of musos work during this time...
A fun experience. Really enjoyed it... The N.O. church experience has its own entry.
