NOLA Architecture 022 - Trent Reznor's Studio

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This was Trent Reznor's studio at Magazine & Jena, which I learned moments ago is a former funeral home (very fitting and also very punk rock). Our house is pretty close to it. We walk past it when we go to La Boulangerie (a bakery) for breakfast. Trent Reznor has had nothing but good luck after moving from New Orleans. First of all, he sold his house on Coliseum St. right before the Hurricane. Then he sued his manager for taking money from him (in contracts that he signed!)- and won! It's hard to write those angst-ridden songs for disaffected mopey youths when everything is coming up roses. That's why we got that miserable Nine Inch Nails (or as Edd's dad calls them, "Nine And One Half-Inch Nails") album, "With Teeth". This property, however, seems to have been on the market for years.


After Katrina


It kind of sprawls.

NOLA Art & Whimsy 013 - Entergy Meter

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Ain't Banksy, but I was entertained.

NOLA Flora & Fauna 020 - Resurrection Ferns 02

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This is a second post of resurrection ferns (See NOLA F&F 004). I have nothing more to say about them but this picture floors me as much as the first. So I submit it for your enjoyment.

NOLA Architecture 021 - New Legs

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Few know that after her retirement from haunting the dark-wooded forests of Russia and Eastern Europe, Baba Yaga re-settled in New Orleans. Trying to shed to "local celebrity" thing, she's having some modifications done to her home so that it blends in a little better with the neighborhood. Even so, she can still occasionally be seen at coffee houses, her mortar parked between Brad Pitt and Harry Shearer.



I kid you.

I am a kidder.

Turn your back to the forest, your front to me

NOLA 2005 Tri-State Shutter Swap 010 - Food Certificate

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Before re-opening after Katrina, all food service-type places had to be given certification by the Department of Health & Hospitals. This one was given to Le Crepe Nanou, which is my favorite restaurant anywhere. It's just a modest neighborhood crepe joint, and it's the first place we go every time we go back. It's also the only restaurant we go to every time we go back.

As you can imagine, much of Katrina recovery was a bureaucratic, red tape nightmare. One restaurant that did not fare as well is the beloved Gabrielle in Mid-city. If you're interested in such a story, you may read it here. To hear their side of it, they were run out of town on a rail. But I'm happy as Hell to see that they have returned and now have a new business in the French Quarter.
Commanders Palace Renovation

The Brennan family, who own many high-profile restaurants in New Orleans, immediately created a link to a bulletin board on the Commanders Palace website for displaced restaurant employees (not only for their own restaurants, but any restaurant employees) to let each other know of their safety and plans to return or calls for help. You can hear a great podcast interview with one of the owners, Ti Martin, right after they re-opened at New Orleans Podcasting.com.You will often hear of the "restaurant culture" in New Orleans. It is true that it is a world within a world, both for those who dine frequently and casually as well as those who work in the service industry. I think there are more restaurants than cats in New Orleans.

It was my impression that New Orleans is inhabited by the richest people in the world and the poorest people in the world. There isn't much of a middle class. The middle class that is there is made up almost entirely of transient service industry folks and rich college kids, rounded out by the non-skank portion of the arts community. But that was just my narrow little world.

NOLA Flora & Fauna 019 - Mocker

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I can't tell if this is a Mod or a Rocker.

NOLA Architecture 020 - Welded Porch Enclosure

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Like the Dragonfly Fence, here's another one that's hard to categorize (between Architecture, Art & Flora). To enclose this porch, someone has welded together some rings and random architectural iron. The centerpiece (the "solid" piece) is a fireplace cover that you see often in New Orleans. The owner must think highly of the work, as it is the only thing he or she has prevented being covered in green. This takes some work. I'm sure it would only take a few weeks for some aggressive weed to cover this porch like "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill". I don't care what this place looks like inside; I think I would like to live here more than just about anywhere else in New Orleans. I have no recollection of the location of this home. Maybe riverside of St. Charles, possibly near Nashville Ave.