NoLa Diary #12 – the amazing people of New Orleans

No amount of words can express how wonderful most of the people are here in New Orleans. A few encounters today encapsulate the best of my experiences.

I went out and did some shopping before the holiday, and as I walked down Magazine Street, I stopped to photograph a charming storefront. It was Probst Decorating and Interior Design. I liked their old time lanterns, potted plants and worn brick building combined with green holiday wreaths along with the requisite NoLa bicycles out front.

Probst Decorating - Magazine St

After taking the photo an older woman looked at me from inside the store – even though the sign on the door said Closed. I walked up to the door and wondered if I was in trouble for taking photos of her store. When I got to the door she said through the closed door, would you like to come in? Yes please, I answered. So she walked into her back workroom to get her door keys then back to the front of the store where she unlocked the door, let me in and started turning on all the lights.

I’m not open today, but I saw you wanted to come in. I don’t keep the door open when I’m here by myself, she said. That turned into a wonderful conversation about how her family has owned this 130 year old building and run this decorating shop in it for the last 60 years, and she has worked in it all 60 of those years. She told me about her mother opening the shop, and how after 60 years she is ready to turn things over to her daughter. She mentioned she makes all the pillows and curtains and is now referred to as “the lady that works in the back.” I joked with her that they only needed to call her one thing: Da Boss. She laughed at that. We said our warm goodbyes and she encouraged me to come back around sometime to visit.

I went across the street to pick up some groceries and walked to the bus stop to grab it going back home. A man approached and struck up a conversation with me while we waited together. He asked me if I was from New Orleans, because he thought I was. When I told him no, but that I’d been in town for about 2 weeks, he asked if I was staying for Mardi Gras. Unfortunately no, I said. That’s too bad, he answered, because I’m about ready to adopt you as a native once you been to your first Mardi Gras. And anyway, he continued, by the end of this conversation we’re gonna be just about family.

An extraordinary glimpse of Mardi Gras in December - pure luck!

 

And that sums it up for me: we’re all just about family – the human family. New Orleans can be such a great example of how people rise up to meet their humanity. The family of compassionate souls includes people like that woman, making pillows and curtains for 60 years running her decorating shop. Or the man at the bus stop, who got up early today to deliver donated toys to children on his way to work as a painter and said gently yes, he was a little tired. When he shook my hand with his paint covered hand, I felt like I’d never done an honest day’s work in my life.

New Orleans is a very special place, and I’m extremely glad I decided to come here and stay awhile. These vignettes and experiences in the neighborhoods are, I’m convinced, the real gumbo of NoLa with an extra helping of love.

Passion for clarinet

This is a collection of photos of the wonderful people of NoLa I’ve spotted in my wanderings here…please enjoy.

Tromboner salute

Of course the French Quarter is an endless source of wonderful images of musicians…

Singing her heart out on Royal

This gal sure could sing. She was belting it out without a mic. She projected loud and strong, along with her back up band doing a great job.

Slice of Life street scene - Bourbon St

The personality of New Orleans pours out of every brick and lantern in the city, and of course from the hard working people…

Workmen in the French Quarter

There are quiet moments when you can’t help but be charmed by such a place….

Resting by Traceys - Irish Channel

And take in so many smiles and good wishes…

Man with bowler and bicycle

…yes, these things and more are what gives New Orleans its flavor.

Enjoy this wonderfully moving song by Susan Tedeschi called 700 houses, her impressions of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina…

and Happy Holidays everyone.

NoLa Diary #9 – Scenes of Magazine Street

Today’s petite photo study of Magazine Street began somewhere around the Jackson Avenue intersection heading in the direction of Audobon Park.

This is a totally different neighborhood (as you can see) from my study of Magazine Street near the freeway overpass. Then again Magazine Street is 6 miles long and has its own bus route so it’s easy to understand how one area could look so different from another.

A blue beauty on Magazine Street

 

I know it’s December 20th and all good common sense would say it couldn’t be 80 degrees and muggy today, but I swear to you it was hot walking down the street in the sunshine. I only had on a short sleeve shirt and I still started sweating.

It’s impossible for me to imagine New Orleans in the summer based on this December weather, but if today is any indication, I’d say it’s got to be unbearable. Thank goodness I was surrounded by so many interesting sights I hardly noticed.

Did you know bicycles are apparently a “thing” here in NoLa? Well, they are. Everyone seems to have one and you see them everywhere chained to black wrought iron fences.

Three bicycles on a wrought iron fence - how NoLa!

Or perhaps chained to a bike rack, right near the corner…

Bicycle on the corner - Magazine St

you get the idea though.

But one of my favorite buildings in this stretch has got to be the Magazine Po’ Boy and Sandwich Shop. The building is truly an amazing piece of architecture (check out that gorgeous wrought iron balcony on the 2nd floor) and history, it’s a beauty!

Magazine Po' Boy Shop

And while I didn’t stop in to buy a sandwich, I want to show you the front of the local “Chinese Food” restaurant at the corner of Magazine and Andrew…

"Chinese Food" - corner of Magazine and Andrew

This places looks scary with it’s “rent this bench” sign and its wire mesh panels that go over the windows (painted dark blue or black I think). Well, this is the place everybody told me makes the absolute best Chinese food in town. It doesn’t even have a name!

Apparently you have to go in through that front door, past the convenience store in the front, and go to the back where there is a Chinese food counter. This kind of wierd instruction about “finding” a place is an intoxicant to a New Orleanian; they love all things hidden, especially out of the way food places no one but a local would know about.

I had already had my chicken fried steak lunch at Joey K’s further up Magazine Street (my verdict was “eh” – I wouldn’t recommend it) so I’ll have nothing to lose by going in this place at some point and trying the Chinese food. The gentleman outside in the white t-shirt and red sweater over his shoulder in the photo above also recommended the red beans and rice.

Somehow I think the worse a place looks outside, the better the food is supposed to be inside. This seems to be a NoLa thing too, like the bicyles. I’ll have to report back to you on the Chinese food – or other soul food sold here – in some other post.

Shadows and light on Magazine St

Everywhere you look here there’s a play of shadows and light, good and bad. The city itself is a study in contrasts. And everyday I have here is a new opportunity for me to see a new facet of New Orleans.

NoLa Diary #8 – Glimpses of St. Mary Street

Corner of St Mary and Camp

Now that I’ve been in New Orleans a little over a week now, I’m glad I made the decision to stay in a neighborhood (not a hotel) because I feel in touch with the rhythms of the locals, and local businesses than I would have if I stayed in a hotel in the French Quarter. This is important to me since I’m here for 3 weeks, not the typical 3 day tourist stay.

Near where I’m staying is St. Mary Street. It’s part of the Lower Garden District. St. Mary’s runs from the Mississippi River to St. Charles Avenue. Running along St. Mary are several neighborhoods, which if I had to decide where to say “one side or the other” was I’d choose Magazine Street because it is such a “busy” (all things being relative in New Orleans) street with a majority of the local restaurants, antique shops and art / photography galleries.

I’ve walked St. Mary many times now since I’ve arrived, and the more often I walk along the sidewalks I’m coming to know, the more I like it. Just like I did on Magazine Street a few blog posts back, I decided to take a few shots of St. Mary to give a flavor of the neighborhood.

Half Moon Bar - St Mary

Above: The afternoon light casts a stark shadow from the Half Moon Bar sign across the face of the building, on St. Mary Street. A few empty tables and chairs sit on the sidewalk because the bar is quiet in the afternoon during the week. On the weekends it perks up a bit more.

Lucky Ladle - corner of St Mary and Magazine

On the corner of St. Mary and Magazine, as you can see from the image above, the corner building is undergoing renovations. Two doors down is the Lucky Ladle, a great breakfast spot. I’ve eaten at the Lucky Ladle a few times already. In addition to the wonderful food and good service, the works of local artists hang on the walls, and I admit, I have a soft spot for such places.

The first time I went in I met Bob, a local who eats there all the time. We chatted for a while and he shared his stories about himself and the neighborhood, which was fun. Then Bob let it slip that he goes to the Lucky Ladle so often they named a special after him on the menu! (It’s called the Bob Special and I can report it is completely delicious.)

Strangely, I feel more like I’m in New York when I’m in this neighborhood than when I’m anywhere else in New Orleans, so far. I’ve mentioned this to a few people I’ve spoken to, and they say others say that about this neighborhood too.

Maybe it’s because many people are from out of town and it’s a big mix of locals and transplants, or maybe it’s because art galleries are mixed with restaurants and antique shops and funky looking people walking down the street now and again; I don’t know. But I like it.

Light and shadows on St Mary

 

NoLa Diary #5 – a study of Magazine Street

Near the highway overpass intersection with Magazine Street (a few blocks walk from the Ogden Museum and Contemporary Art Center) there is a section of Magazine Street with the decayed remains of radiator shops, dilapidated lounges and abandoned buildings. While some people might look at these places and see something ugly, I think these places are beautiful when seen through a certain lens.

The images that follow are a small study I did of that section of Magazine Street.

Cotton Mill Water Tower - Magazine St

 

I admit, there is something particularly southern about a water tower with the words “Cotton Mill” on the side sitting atop a warehouse building. When you add in the charming New Orleans Street lamp, I couldn’t help but take this shot.

 

 

Crescent City Radiator Works - Magazine St

 The Crescent City Radiator works sits on the edge of the Garden District side the overpass (the Cotton Mill tower sits on the Central Business District side).  I loved the textures of the paint on the side of the building along with the decaying shutters on the roof.

 

Bridge Lounge - Magazine St

 The Bridge Lounge was one of my favorite subjects on Magazine Street today. With the blue Ford pickup in the foreground and the highly textured green wood of the building, along with the leaning porch awnings, this is certainly a subject I’d come back to shoot again. If you look at the left hand side of the picture, you’ll notice a very old fashioned truck in an almost identical matching shade of green as the building. Kind of an amazing coincidence.

 

Yellow House and pigeons

 

I nearly walked right by this lot of pigeons scratching in the dirt but the sky cleared a bit and lit up the yellow house in the background and the juxtaposition of the sky, house and the pigeons in the foreground caught my eye.

 

Abandoned beauty - Magazine St

 

 I found this abandoned building to have a beauty all its own. I imagine this particular building was one of the many buildings ravaged by the flood and for whatever reason it still has not been torn down. As you can (kind of) tell from the picture, the lot in front of the building has been scoured down to the concrete slab, and you cannot see from this image but the lots behind this building are also empty. I’m glad to say that this building was the only one I saw like this on Magazine Street.

 

Coca Cola on the porch - Magazine St

 

 

While it’s true some houses were still boarded up, but many others had bright and cheerful colors painted on them with plants and foliage on the porch along with beautiful columns or other architectural details. From talking to some of the people in the neighborhood I gather that Magazine Street has “come back” pretty well over the last 2 years or so, and many neighborhoods of the city continue to re-build themselves and improve.