A Week in Review

After a week I have had more of a chance to submerge myself into the city. I worked all weekend and it was very busy. Regular customers and old friends stopped by and more than once I heard the comment, "Oh Lawrence is here, now things seem more normal." My presence at my same position, singing along on Sunday nights must represent a sense of restoration to the days before the storm. I have some of the same markers. I used to buy breakfast at the Quarter Master on my way home. It's working on limited hours now and closes at night. The circle K around the corner from me is still closed. Canal place mall, including the Williams Sonoma and the only movie theatre in walking distance, is still closed but due to open in mid February. The noodle place across from Jackson Square is closed and will not re-open. Ali Baba and Dantes pizza are both still closed. Cats Meow, not on my list of places to go, but I am amazed that it's not open. The gay bars are all open, but not 24 hours. Good friends, Lafittes and even Oz all close up by around 3 am. 9th circle is open, though I'm not sure of their hours. VooDoo has re-opened but it sustained major damage. There is flooring but the whole place looks like hell. Their Wordster/Word Dojo machine is working though and I played the other night with T.Q. (the master of Dojo) and Jeremy. That was definitely something that made me think things are returning to our pre-K lives. Silly huh, a game, but it seems that everything that happens has some new meaning, some new representation.

On the other hand, Port of Call is open, I had dinner with friends Saturday night at Wasabi and dinner at Mona Lisa one night last week. Sunday I went by myself over to Angeli and had lunch. That trip taught me an important new lesson about NO. Avoid Decauter Street. I have always sort of disliked that area because it was full of slow moving big assed tourists on one end and street punks on the other. Now it's just street punks, big packs of them. In a discussion with a friend last night we concluded that these are super punks instead of our usual brand of punks. These people seem like they went to punk camp specializing in classes like "Begging: How to Look Menacing" and "Your Hair: How to make it look filthy." That lesson learned, there are many things that are now open, many things that aren't. A friend of mine, John, is now publishing a small paper called Quarter Crawl. It's basically a listing of what businesses are opening up along with a calendar of weekly events. There is a supplement as well called "Queer Crawl" which you can guess is the gay version of it's parent newspaper.

The other thing here; traffic. Now NO has always held it's own in the bad traffic department but now it's just out of control. The veterans, people who have been here for months, clued me in that you have to run errands outside of the quarter only between 9 and 11 am and 2 to 4 pm. My first trip out of the quarter took me to Petco uptown which was horrid. I got home and swore never to return to that section of town again except in the aforementioned hours. Wednesday I went to the grocery store next to the lakefront arena which required a drive through the totally destroyed Lakeview area. Four months have passed and the entire area is basically abandoned and destroyed. There is work happening but not a lot. All you have to do is drive a few blocks out of the quarter and the destruction starts, a sobering reminder of just how lucky we quarter rats were to not have met the same fate as the rest of the city.

Sunday night I went to see a show Jeff has been playing for at Le Chat Noir. It was Ricky Grahams one man show "I'm still here, Me!" The show was really good, Ricky is one of my favorite performers, full of comedy timing and NO references, many that I didn't even get as they reflect a time period before I arrived in town. The show started with Ricky wearing a straw hat with a house on top of it, the now familiar blue roof and marking tag from the cadaver search. His opening number is a reworking of the old song fever but changed now to "FEMA." The show was a mixture of funny re-workings of songs, comedy bits and some serious notes. Last year I saw a show starring Ricky called "Club Toot Sweet on Bourbon Street." It was a show about a period during the late 40's and early 50's when the French quarter had become a neglected place, full of burlesque shows and strip clubs. There were famous performers but Bourbon street was being turned over to decay. Ricky performed one of the songs from that show in this new one. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house at it's conclusion and even Ricky looked teary. It's called Miss Bourbon Street and the lyrics have a reflection on what's happened here over the last few months and how we all feel about the city:

Step right up

and see Miss Bourbon Street

She's the good time dame

all the people want to meet.

All made up

and ready for the night.

Some don't like her ways

but that don't phase Miss Bourbon Street

Some may state the lady's out of date

and lately she's looking past her prime.

She spends more time with drinking

to keep herself from thinking.

The world may pass her by

and that would be a crime.

Step right up

and say she's looking sweet.

She could use a friendly word

Miss Bourbon Street.

People say she's seen better days.

She may be a little down at heel.

But she's a part of the city

that's the heart of the city

and underneath it all

This Doll's New Orleans for real.

So

Step right up

and get yourself a seat.

Her final show is under way.

Things keep changing come what may

and soon may come the day

she's obsolete.

So give her painted cheek a kiss

'cause if it ever came to this.

She's want you to know you'd really miss

Bourbon Street.