NOLA Burial & Necropolis 007 - General BOO-regard!

Please click on the image for a larger, more-detailed version.This is the Monument to Gen. Beauregard. He is interred nearby in Metairie Cemetery.

That, my friends, is a chicken big enough to feed an army.

NOLA Flora & Fauna 018 - Mixed Palm

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I have very mixed feelings about palm trees.

These are giant, fantastic vestiges of the Cretaceous, when they and ferns covered much of a much warmer world. When the first plants diversified to flower, palms were among them. With the appearance of fruit, now plants offered food which is of much higher caloric content than foliage, allowing the rise of mammals: animals that have so much energy they can store it as fat and can burn calories (~60% of daily intake) to thermoregulate. The palms saw the dinosaurs. They saw the first birds. They competed and thrived to present day.

My knee jerk reaction to palms, however, is to view them as tacky landscaping products you see in places like Miami or along Santa Monica Blvd. A big landscaping pet peeve of mine is trees that are arranged in straight rows, equally spaced and groomed identically. When I see palm trees I should think of a massive Sauropod dinosaur, up to its armpits in a marsh, methodically chewing vegetation and being leery of packs of carnivores. Instead I think of fake boobs and boardwalk roller skates and Jeff Spicoli.

I have much less of that reaction when I see a lone palm. It's much more pleasing to me as a garden accent. In the picture above, that white building makes the scene look like Hemingway's Cuba. Then, of course, I think of all the wacky tropical countries with their wacky militaristic governments that we bomb the snot out of when they're between their own Coup d'états and assassinations. We won't even go into the opening scenes of 'Apocalypse Now'.

The family Arecacaea: Viva la revolution and viva Las Vegas.

I wish I had no associations for it at all.

I haven't posted in a few days.

And I have to be OK with that- lest I obsess.


popping Diazepam,

~Jimm

NOLA Architecture 019 - Record Keeping

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Record keeping is very important. It's not just Real Estate, it's history!

NOLA Art & Whimsy 012 - Street Preacher

Please click on the image for a larger, more-detailed version.You can see any number of street preachers in New Orleans during Carnival season (Epiphany, January 6th to Ash Wednesday). But this guy was preaching on Canal Street (usually at Decatur) in 1997 and he's still there today. He had that hat in '97, too. He sits more than he stands these days, but he still gets to the French Quarter by bicycle. If anyone has information on him or knows his name, I'd love to have it. The colorful genuine characters of the Quarter (like Ruthie the Duck Girl) are becoming fewer and fewer. They are being replaced by wannabe eccentrics- mostly hipsters with trust funds.

NOLA Flora & Fauna 017 - Oak Wires

Please click on the image for a larger, more-detailed version.I am just certain that these wires were strung under this branch like this.
I highly doubt the branch moved and pulled them taut. These are not "primary wires", i.e. from the electric company. These are phone and or cable.

NOLA Architecture 018 - Drugged Arachnid

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Publish Post

This window reminds me of the pictures you see of spiderwebs after a spider has been given some sort of mood-altering substance. I also love the metal attic vents you see on the other building.

NOLA 2005 Tri-State Shutter Swap 009 - Tromp l'oeil Shutters

Please click on the image for a larger, more-detailed version.You can't participate in the Tri-State shutter swap if
YOUR SHUTTERS ARE PAINTED ON!

This is kind of selfish if you ask me. Not only do people in Mississippi need those shutters, you're denying yourself access to the shutters that are coming in From Texas.

NOLA Flora & Fauna 016 - Emergence

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Speaking of cypress knees, I told you nature prevails down south. Watch your back or it'll overwhelm you. Pave over it. It'll just punch back through. These knees are digging out of the Underworld somewhere in Audubon Zoo.

Please click on the image for a larger, more-detailed version.Not to be outdone, the Victorian brick streets are doing their best to make a comeback as well. They are assisted by the water table mere inches below or sometimes above the surface of the street. The whole city is like a freakin' Romero film as the undead burst from the ground...

NOLA Architecture 017 - Uptown Cabin

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I love this little guy. It looks like one of those Cajun houseboats.
If I had this house, I would hang tires all the way around it, then throw out a fishing line.

It helps that the white, round thing on the porch looks like a life preserver. Got your Igloo cooler for your bait or catch. Yep, this thing's a boat.

This is on Laurel between Peniston and Amelia.

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NOLA Burial & Necropolis 006 - Embedded Marker

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Just, you know, put stuff anywhere!
It's only a sacred marker for someone's mother's final resting place!