Art

Marching On

Le Krewe D'Etat's new blinky skull ring.

As post-Carnival depression sets in I like to go over all the pictures (blurry from cell phone) from the season and try to recapture some of the spirit. On Friday, as always, Hermes and Le Krewe D’etat rolled Uptown. The weather was sketchy but the showers held off most of the evening. We caught...

Read more »

Carnival Reflections, Or, Mardi Gras In New Orleans Is The Last Bastion Of Civilization On Earth And Not Just A Bunch Of Chicks Flashing Their Breasts For Beads (Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That)

The New Orleans Carnival is descended from ancient religious rites of the Greek and Latin World. Ovid described the Greek shepherds of Arcadia who, five thousand years ago, celebrated a spring festival in hopes of better pastures and the remission of sins. —Henri Schindler, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, 1997. I was reading the...

Read more »

Gone Crabbing

This past weekend (27 degrees at dawn) I was invited to ride along with some commercial crabbers. Freezing hijinks ensued.

Read more »

More Tut

More Tut

There’s some more Tut stuff I ran across after my previously posted article on E. John Bullard and NOMA’s coup of an exhibit back in 1977 of The Treasures of Tutankhamun. Just a couple of photos: my parent’s still have the exhibition catalog, which I snapped a pic of at Thanksgiving; and, this photo...

Read more »

Furnishing Louisiana

Furnishing Louisiana

I was lucky enough to be invited to preview Furnishing Louisiana: Creole and Acadian Furniture, 1735-1835, the latest book from the Historic New Orleans Collection. It’s been in the works for over 30 years now, as furniture collectors (and scholars) Jack Holden and Pat Bacot, along with photographer Jim Zeitz, began documenting just about...

Read more »

King of the Delta Blues

King of the Delta Blues

Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon, Son House, Howlin’ Wolf and Elmore James were some of the most influential musicians the world has ever seen. Along with many other bluesmen from the Mississippi Delta country, their music formed the foundation for what became rock ‘n roll, the American music that took over the...

Read more »

The Man Who Brought King Tut To NOLA

The Man Who Brought King Tut To NOLA

I remember in 1977 when The Treasures of Tutankhamun came to NOMA. It was a big expedition; it may not have been my first visit to NOMA, but it certainly was the first one that stuck. One evening Dad piled us into the old 1968 Ford Country Squire station wagon—with the big V8 engine...

Read more »

Rainbow Roundup

Rainbow Roundup

What had to be one of the most well-documented NOLA weather phenomena since the great snowfall of December 11, 2008, occurred yesterday as a double rainbow stretched over New Orleans during rush hour. I would have not seen it had not a disaster brought me across the lake earlier in the afternoon. Without going...

Read more »

“…All the Savoir Faire of the Old School…”

I was cleaning up my cube today and ran across a stack of papers left over from some genealogy research I did a few years ago. I took a look at an obituary, my great-great grandfather’s brother (great-great grand uncle?), Paul ______, from 1898. I guess I hadn’t paid much attention to it after...

Read more »

Tales of the Cocktail to Open at the Sazerac Bar

I’ll let the press release from Ann Tuennerman explain all the good news: TALES OF THE COCKTAIL OPENING RECEPTION TO BE HELD AT THE NEWLY RESTORED ROOSEVELT HOTEL TOAST OF THE EVENING TO OCCUR AT THE ORIGINAL SAZERAC BAR NEW ORLEANS, LA—December 1, 2008 – Tales of the Cocktail, a cocktail and culinary festival...

Read more »

Prospect.1 New Orleans

Prospect.1 New Orleans

I interviewed an artist up in Covington for my day job. He asked if I had seen any of Prospect.1, the international art exposition going on all over New Orleans. There are installations and showings of 80 artists from all over the world. The U.S. Mint and the Contemporary Arts Center are the main...

Read more »

Streetcar Art Meets Tales of the Cocktail

Streetcar Art Meets Tales of the Cocktail

YLC Streetcar artists Paulette Lizano and Will Smith popped up during Tales of the Cocktail at the event’s Cocktail Marketplace on Saturday. Paulette, who is in the process of building her streetcar, “Perley’s Barnyard Party” was there selling glass coasters and plates featuring martini glasses and S&WB meter cover designs. Will Smith’s streetcar is...

Read more »

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Livers!”

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Livers!”

With that challenge, Kevin Brauch (the reporter on Iron Chef America who is not Alton Brown, thank Gawd) opened up Tales of the Cocktail. But first things first. Today’s kick-off event was Toast to Tales of the Cocktail in the Riverview Room of the Hotel Montleone. NOLA blogger Loki of Humid City and the...

Read more »

Trippin’ (A post about nothing)

Trippin’ (A post about nothing)

I went on a trip to Houston this weekend for my nephew’s (he’s also my Gawd-child) 11th birthday party. Houston is not my favorite place. Other than my brother’s family, a few friends and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the city just sucks to me. It’s just too big. They’ve been working on...

Read more »

Wow!

It was a busy day. I started out on a quest to find a combination recuperation/baby’s first birthday gift for Nola & CS–a bottle of Kübler absinthe. Alright, it really wasn’t much of a first birthday gift for Sun; I promise to make it up to her next year. First stop, Martin Wine Cellar...

Read more »

Public Art Here and in San Francisco

Public Art Here and in San Francisco

I wasn’t going to write anymore about our trip to San Francisco. I still need to cover the trip to Alcatraz, though, and working on the StreetcarArt.com project got me thinking about something I had seen while in the city by the bay, as it’s called. You see, there was also a public art...

Read more »

Favorite Fest

Favorite Fest

Of all the festivals available to the south Louisianan, the French Quarter Fest has become by far my favorite one. It’s held in and celebrates my favorite place on earth, the French Quarter, where my family has connections stretching back to my great-great-great-great grandfather’s arrival here as a refugee in 1809. A French colonial...

Read more »

A Major Award

A Major Award

In coming weeks, one or more of you may find yourselves in receipt of a Major Award. No, not that one. This one: Pete & Nola’s Lucky Blog Award, recipients to be determined by as yet undetermined criteria. Now, I’m not big on blog bling at all. But I am one for a pun,...

Read more »

An Artsy-Fartsy Evening

I went out to Covington’s Spring for Art celebration last night. First stop was Sarah Dunn’s gallery and studio fronting Boston Street. Sarah’s probably the youngest gallery owner in town, a bundle of blond energy and a big believer in participatory art. While displaying her Kandinsky-meets Peter Maxx-crossed with Dali blend of creations inside,...

Read more »

Streetcar Art

Nola’s already written about the details of the YLC’s latest public art project, “A Streetcar Named Inspire.” We’ve now set up a new website, StreetcarArt.com, to showcase the project. We’ll have pictures as the streetcars are installed around town, and hopefully be getting more previews and artists’ comments to post. So go visit StreetcarArt.com....

Read more »