Southern Decadence Update!
It's finally been announced. The Grand Marshal is "Irish Mike", the theme is "Fairy Tails", and the official colors are "any"! The Official site has all the details. As usual, this will be a huge gay blow out, so to speak... In fact this year it is the largest event of the summer season for New Orleans. (It is now among the top ten annual events of the year.) We expect over 100,000 people, and we know they'll have a great time. They always do, guarantee, cher! If you've never been to this event, well, it's just not like anything else...
Will it ever stop raining?
It rained another two inches today, on and off all day. Yesterday I got soaked going to work; it seems that it's rained every day for the longest time. I've been busy enough, but it seems like nothing really exciting has happened...(and my ISP took a major nap this weekend, I couldn't update a thing...)
Well, those people fell into the shark tank at the aquarium. I have to admit I found that very amusing. During the first 24 hours the aquarium staff put the happy spin on the story, like it was such a lark for all involved and no one was hurt or ever in any danger what so ever, the sharks were afraid of the people and everyone got stuffed animals and t-shirts from the over priced junk, um gift shop. But the next day, there were more stories in the press about "the terrible trauma for the children" with the parents pumping it up for all they were worth. I have no doubt that the lawyers swimming around this case will be far more viscious than the little collection of tame animals in that tank! It made me think about the whole reason behind having an aquarium and having these animals in captivity for our amusement. Oh yes, it's educational and it helps us to understand our environment and blah, blah, blah, but who asked the sharks if they wanted to participate? Perhaps they would rather be somewhere else. And all the private parties they hold there; it's become a catering hall with fish tanks. Something is just totally wrong about the whole damn thing.
I did have a nice day in the Quarter last Friday. I decided to hit all the second hand book stores to find books about cheese, (I found two real bargains!). It was hot, but a nice sunny day. The Quarter wasn't too crowded and the people I saw were all very pleasant; the men in particular were lovely, it was just one of those days. Besides the bookstores, I stopped into Dansk, (good things on sale), the new Prince and the Pauper shop in the Quarter, (a fab import shop with stuff that I've never seen anywhere else and a fav of luca's) and stopped for a while on Royal Street where there was...
This guy singing and playing the trumpet.
He had a very sweet voice, was singing some Sinatra standards and doing very well; everyone was enjoying it immensly. I hope he made good tips and I hope he stays around for a while, he was one of the better street performers I've seen lately and we have some very good ones.
One the way to yet another book shop I passed the deli/grocery I used to own.
What a flood of memories... Bill and I lived across the street and this was pretty much the view I had when I walked out my front door to go to work in the morning, (or evening or 4 AM or whenever). Of course, when we owned it, there were flags flying everywhere, rainbow flags, Mardi Gras flags, and a chalk board with all the specials on it. It was a corner where something was always happening; a neighborhood crossroads visited by all the characters in the Quarter. That's the truth... and it was fun...
Work.
The new job continues to amuse and amaze. I'm having fun every day and learning so much. At the end of this month, I am doing a class on cheese for a group of culinary students and I'm really looking forward to it. I used to hate having to do live food demos and TV demos when I was a chef; I never seemed to know what to say and it used to make me nervous, the live television was the worst. (Somewhere there's still a video tape of Bryant Gumble spitting out my fried alligator live on the Today Show... what a pussy, hehe. Jane Pauley thanked me.)
I know what I want to say now. I am so ready for this.
durlx
It's finally been announced. The Grand Marshal is "Irish Mike", the theme is "Fairy Tails", and the official colors are "any"! The Official site has all the details. As usual, this will be a huge gay blow out, so to speak... In fact this year it is the largest event of the summer season for New Orleans. (It is now among the top ten annual events of the year.) We expect over 100,000 people, and we know they'll have a great time. They always do, guarantee, cher! If you've never been to this event, well, it's just not like anything else...
Will it ever stop raining?
It rained another two inches today, on and off all day. Yesterday I got soaked going to work; it seems that it's rained every day for the longest time. I've been busy enough, but it seems like nothing really exciting has happened...(and my ISP took a major nap this weekend, I couldn't update a thing...)
Well, those people fell into the shark tank at the aquarium. I have to admit I found that very amusing. During the first 24 hours the aquarium staff put the happy spin on the story, like it was such a lark for all involved and no one was hurt or ever in any danger what so ever, the sharks were afraid of the people and everyone got stuffed animals and t-shirts from the over priced junk, um gift shop. But the next day, there were more stories in the press about "the terrible trauma for the children" with the parents pumping it up for all they were worth. I have no doubt that the lawyers swimming around this case will be far more viscious than the little collection of tame animals in that tank! It made me think about the whole reason behind having an aquarium and having these animals in captivity for our amusement. Oh yes, it's educational and it helps us to understand our environment and blah, blah, blah, but who asked the sharks if they wanted to participate? Perhaps they would rather be somewhere else. And all the private parties they hold there; it's become a catering hall with fish tanks. Something is just totally wrong about the whole damn thing.
I did have a nice day in the Quarter last Friday. I decided to hit all the second hand book stores to find books about cheese, (I found two real bargains!). It was hot, but a nice sunny day. The Quarter wasn't too crowded and the people I saw were all very pleasant; the men in particular were lovely, it was just one of those days. Besides the bookstores, I stopped into Dansk, (good things on sale), the new Prince and the Pauper shop in the Quarter, (a fab import shop with stuff that I've never seen anywhere else and a fav of luca's) and stopped for a while on Royal Street where there was...
This guy singing and playing the trumpet.
He had a very sweet voice, was singing some Sinatra standards and doing very well; everyone was enjoying it immensly. I hope he made good tips and I hope he stays around for a while, he was one of the better street performers I've seen lately and we have some very good ones.
One the way to yet another book shop I passed the deli/grocery I used to own.
What a flood of memories... Bill and I lived across the street and this was pretty much the view I had when I walked out my front door to go to work in the morning, (or evening or 4 AM or whenever). Of course, when we owned it, there were flags flying everywhere, rainbow flags, Mardi Gras flags, and a chalk board with all the specials on it. It was a corner where something was always happening; a neighborhood crossroads visited by all the characters in the Quarter. That's the truth... and it was fun...
Work.
The new job continues to amuse and amaze. I'm having fun every day and learning so much. At the end of this month, I am doing a class on cheese for a group of culinary students and I'm really looking forward to it. I used to hate having to do live food demos and TV demos when I was a chef; I never seemed to know what to say and it used to make me nervous, the live television was the worst. (Somewhere there's still a video tape of Bryant Gumble spitting out my fried alligator live on the Today Show... what a pussy, hehe. Jane Pauley thanked me.)
I know what I want to say now. I am so ready for this.
durlx
