Sunday, August 31, 2008

Gustav has made us move to Huntsville, AL



Erez, our guest blogger, looks at the headlines in Tuscaloosa, AL





Erez daily blog day 3/4 3:49 PM August 31, 2008
We ended up at Tukami last night, dancing contently by ourselves to mixes from soul sister. The lounge at Tukami was near empty, many people having gotten out of dodge (more on how much I hate that expression and its origins later) It was a chill, comfy spot, that I could see getting crowded quickly if not on the eve of an incoming natural disaster whose name reminds me of a fat French cook. Ben was the manager and bartending; he made me a stiff gin and tonic while sharing his excitement about the new space and his plans for it. He says a website is on the way, and I’ll post the link soon as possible.















Waking late, we soon discovered that most of uptown had not procrastinated as we had. Boarded up shops and empty streets were disconcerting and left an odd feel in the air. Walking around was one of the odder experiences I’ve had.
After packing up things I couldn’t stand to lose, we headed over to an air-conditioned house to have a last meal. These generous giants of men (from left to right; Hampton, Joel and Dan) were attempting to cook everything they had left in their fridge. The many courses we enjoyed were true hodge podges of ingredients and creativity. Drinks were being mixed and handed out in mason jars by none other than Chris Hanna, bartender at Arnauds. He created a delirious elixir, which tasted like a margarita and a mojito dry humping in my mouth. I’ll get the recipe and post it later…











We left at New Orleans at 11 pm, sound bites of Nagin’s ominous warnings being played and played again. The radio was the perfect soundtrack to driving out of the abandoned, boarded up city.
We hit a few hours of traffic on the 10 east before listening to a radio dj and jumping on the 90. It was an unusual event, sitting in traffic, surrounded by tens of thousands, all trying to get out, all listening to the same thing. It conjured up memories of the type of disaster movies that usually come in two’s.
We drove through the night, taking turns at the wheel, surrounded every mile we drove and at every pit stop we took by similar transplants. The city was on the road.
We would switch places when the familiar, heart-thumping roar of a rumble strip would shake us awake. Coffee, conversation and radio kept us in the right lane, above 70.
Arrived in Huntsville, AL at 2:00 pm, 13 hours after we had left the night before. Our mutual hate for the other car traveling in our caravan was the clearest byproduct of the ordeal. Next stop Memphis.








" The VA Hospital in Birmingham, AL- Very different situation than our VA in New Orleans.




A Painting in our final destination of the day- Huntsville, AL






“ It has not been easy to watch the images on television and to now be able to identify very closely with each location. When I heard the Mayor call the storm, “the mother of all storms,” it sent a rush of panic and anxiety through me, and my passion for the city became clearer than ever. It is never easy to leave a place you want to stay, but it’s even worst to not know what you will be coming back to. I want to be back in New Orleans and I hope to see you there soon.”- Nathan Rothstein

Friday, August 29, 2008

Breakfast on the Bayou

Day Two of Erez general thoughts: 9:25 PM Friday 8-29-08

Hello again NOLA people. I am updating from Gill's house on South Tonti St. Beautiful place, listening to BB King's 'something you got' and munching on homemade cookies/brownies courtesy of Anna.

Woke up a little ripe from the night previous, and went to a late breakfest at Ruby Slipper. As there was no one there, it being 10:45 and a weekday, the service was amazing.




Kathy (not her name, I'm guessing) brought us out breakfest, Nate had a fried egg and bacon sandwich, I had the shrimp omelette. The food was great, the omelette was fluffy and moist and the shrimp inside was generous, but we agreed both meals were a little heavy on the black pepper. It's just personal preference, if you like black pepper you could have thought the meal was perfect. Either way it was affordable and overall very good, next time I'll just ask for a less generous pepper portion.






Since the storm was possibly coming, Nate didn't want to leave town before voting. Here are the few photos I was able to take before I was told to put the camera away. Isn't city hall a public place?






The town was definitely gearing up for GUSTAVIO (not it's real name) these men were boarding up a pay less shoes, and I am now kind of wishing I had taken a picture of people boarding up something worth saving.







Allright, well, we're going to Takumi to see Soul Sister spin her music into our silly lives. Ladies drink free it says, so they got that and pay less going for them.




Thursday, August 28, 2008

Trying something new....

For the next month, we will have a guest blogger/photographer capturing the new, old, exciting, innovative, interesting tidbits of New Orleans. If you would like to suggest something for us to cover or you have a great story to tell, post a comment and we may feature it.

Now allow our guest blogger to introduce himself,

Hello, my name is Erez. I recently purchased a one way ticket from Los Angeles to New Orleans, arrived yesterday. The first thing I heard is that the whole city was evacuating. While not the start I was anticipating... it wasn't the start I was not anticipating.

Confident that Gustav was going to be as powerful as it sounded, Nate and I spent the entire day slapping up posters for this Saturday's "NEW ORLEANS SPEAKS", after painting Tulane, Loyola and most of Uptown with posters to prove our confidence in the storms no show, the event was postponed.

Hopefully the next month will be a different but still interesting experience. I'll be reporting often about restaurants, bars, events and our evacuation road trip to the Memphis capitol of the world, Memphis, TN. As Nate mentioned, if you know of a place worth checking out, let me know.

Below are some pictures of what turned out to be a day with no point.



We went to Loyola to pass out flyers for "New Orleans Speaks", which Gustav has taken away from us (it's postponed for October)



At Tulane, t-shirt by Dirty Coast. Go up to the 6th floor of the parking garage, pretty nice view of the city.





IN Exchange store in the Tulane Campus Center, Erica Trani runs the place. It's a cool little shop with fair trade coffee and chocolate, sweatshop free clothing and other environmentally conscious products. It's a laid back place worth checking out.




Had lunch at the St. James Cheese Company, pretty ridiculous spread of fine cheeses and deli meats, couldn't fit them all into a picture. Ordered the Crater Lake Blue, a roast beef sandwich with worcester mayo on multi grain. It was amazing, usually cheese is a lost taste in sandwiches, but here it was the perfect compliment to the roast beef. The place is definitely reasonable, the meal came in under 10 bucks. The seating indoor and out is nice and simple. Eric is the manager and though I didn't have a chance to talk with him, he's clearly a guy who knows too much about, cheese.



Monday, August 25, 2008

New Orleans 100 and the New Orleans Institute




The New Orleans 100 list is available. Check out all the projects that are going on in the city.

*To hear from many of these people on the list, you can attend the New Orleans Speaks Conference on August 30th at UNO.

* NOLA YURP is collaborating for the first time with Southern Rep Theatre. Here is the event

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

What is a City?




Join NOLA YURP partner, Stay Local as they host a presentation and book signing for "What is a City? Rethinking the Urban after Hurricane Katrina." at Octavia Books on Wednesday night at 6pm.


You can also hear Tom Piazza talk about Why New Orleans Matters and his new book, "City of Refuge" tonight at 6pm

Monday, August 11, 2008

Be a TV Star while learning Voodoo, doesn't have to be in that order


The New York Times reviewed the New Orleans Voodoo Museum today. Read the article

Share your story with WWL

"We are starting a new project at wwltv.com where we'll profile people that
moved to New Orleans post-Katrina, either because they felt compelled to
help with the recovery effort, or they thought they could make some money in
town after the storm, or chance blew them into town.

They could have just come to help and fell in love with the city and stayed,
or ended up being stuck here because of unforeseen circumstances -- not all
have to be positive or uplifting, though that would be nice, nor do they
need to be titans of industry. We want every story and every slice of life.
It is one way that we want to look at the upcoming third anniversary of
Katrina.
The main rule is that they came and stayed post-Katrina.
If you know of anyone that could be a unique or worthy profile, please get
in touch with me. Feel free to forward this email onto others.
Thanks,
Michael Luke
mluke@wwltv.com
504-377-8015"

Friday, August 8, 2008

Maybe the Uptown version of Mimi's

Everyone loves Mimi's on Saturday Night with Dj Soul Sister, now you can have it on Friday night too

"soul sister presents

ENJOY

a NEW PARTY ~ the uptown get down with resident dj soul sister & special guests

kicks off this Friday, August 8 @ a new spot, the awesome upstairs space at Takumi sushi lounge. (2800 Magazine St. at Washington Ave, across from Starbucks)

10pm-1am and then some

no cover

dancefloor classics, spirits and japan-nola fusion tapas served late. ladies always drink free sake.

come ready to party on a FRIDAY!

another right on party situation: djsoulsister.com"

Thursday, August 7, 2008

New Orleans Brain Gain


*The blogging community continues to comment on the New Orleans Brain Gain. Read Kenneth Cole's Awearness Blog

*Add your ideas to the New Orleans 100

*Nominate Curious Tribe for The 2008 Black Weblog Awards

* Join us tonight at Ogden After Hours

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

48 Film Project, Fotos for Humanity, SENO

48 Hour Film Project Winners Announced Tonight!

What: Award Soiree during Purplesaurus Rex Indie Dance Party
Where: Hostel New Orleans
When Tonight @ 10:30pm
Cover: Free


NOLA YURP member Devin Meyers, who contributed photography to our original website, is part of the ideablob.com ideas contest. Check out his photography and vote for him!




The website for the Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans is live! Check it out, here