New Orleans: Part 3: Walking, Walking and More Walking

The Muddy Mississippi

From March 6 through March 8, 2010 I had a fabulous trip to New Orleans.

Here is Part 3 of a 3 Part Diary Series of the Weekend:

Monday, March 8, 2010

I woke up much later than I normally do, approximately 10:30. I packed up my backpack and checked out, left by bag with the bellhop and set off for my last day.

The weather was overcast, but I decided I needed to check out the Mississippi during the Day. So I walked on the river front, contemplated going into the aquarium (decided against it, because I can see the Baltimore one whenever I’d like. The river was muddy and it was odd to see so much industry on the other side (as opposed to my view from my parent’s house of NYC).

As I continued up the river, I realized I was starving and decided to leave the river front and find a place to eat. I left the raised promenade and ran back into Joan (from the dinner cruise)! We caught up a bit, and separated. After parting, I stopped at the River’s Edge Restaurant, for a late breakfast.

As a side note, I had a hard time finding healthy looking eggs while, both of the places I went to for breakfast didn’t offer egg white, and once the eggs came out, they were usually covered in grease! Very unappetizing.

I followed a city tour from the “Eyewitness” series produced by DK. I had used this guide series when I went to Sydney and found it most helpful finding new and interesting places to visit. But here, in New Orleans, it seemed to be a disappointment, it kept building up some of the places, only for my to be let down.

Part of the let down is due to the fact that Monday is the “off” day for many museums in the area, but even as the Eyewitness book would comment on the architecture, I would find myself saying “Yes, it’s impressive, but it’s exactly like the dozens of other building that surround it.”

The sun kept playing hide-and-seek and I decided that after lunch (at the 24 hour gay dinner) that I’d rather hang around the airport than get caught in the rain. I hopped back on the trolley walked to the bus and headed to the airport.

Then began waiting. I ate at a crappy airport bar, and read a lot of Harry. I transferred planes in Tennessee, read more Harry and boarded towards my final destination of Baltimore. I finished Harry, while enjoying all my extra legroom.

Got to my car drove home after midnight! Waking up the next morning was hard!

All-in-all, it was a great trip, and well worth it to see of the original art work from many of WDAS’ early work! But I can’t even imagine this place during Marti Gras (it was a bit overwhelming on a regular weekend).

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New Orleans: Part 2: More Drinking, More Boys and Disney

Streets are cleaned using powerful machines that leave behind soap everywhere.

From March 6 through March 8, 2010 I had a fabulous trip to New Orleans.

Here is Part 2 of a 3 Part Diary Series of the Weekend:

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Last we left off, I was going to reveal that naughty thing that I did twice, after sending Nigel off in a cab to his unknown hotel!

Well, if you know me at all in real life, I’ve been on South Beach for just under a year (and have been very successful with it). I take it serious, but do cheat every now and then; but after Nigel left, instead of turning back upstairs to my room to get some well deserved sleep, I headed across the street and got in line at the pizza place! I ordered two slices and a diet coke (yeah, because at that point the diet coke was really helpful). I waited in line with several extremely drunk co-eds and their boys, then got my slices and returned to my hotel room.

Now, as 3:30 quickly approached, I snuggled down into my pillow-top, king bed and ate two slices of some of the worst pizza I have ever had. Then quickly fell asleep with the pizza plate still on the bed!

I would love to say that I slept soundly in a drunken/food-induced coma but since my hotel room was right above a bar, loud music drifted into my room all night, and despite all my efforts, I didn’t fall asleep until about 6 am!

At 10, I had a rude wakeup call. Maid service couldn’t get into the room, since my security lock was on, so the maid was knocking loudly. I’m actually glad that she did this, as I had slept through my alarm!

So I quickly hopped in the shower, to wash away the sins from last night and begin my quest to find a place that is not a bar, a place where I can get coffee and food. My I-phone came in handy again, with its “Near Me” app, so I searched for “breakfast” and found the Café Fleur De Lis, a little eatery, where I waited about an hour for my omelet (they had lost my order – at least I had Harry with me to keep me entertained).

Hanging moss at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA).

The weather was so nice in the early afternoon that I stopped back in my room to drop off my sweatshirt. Then I hopped back on the trolley away from the river towards the New Orleans Museum of Art (my review can be found here Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio

After spending several hours and $70 at NOMA I began my walking tour of New Orleans!

I started by walking past the Saint Louis cemetery, my original plan was to go in and visit some of the older grave stones. (I have a great interest in old cemeteries. I’ve even gone to several lectures about the importance and significance of tombstones). But hunger won the battle over intellect and I stopped at a café, Santa Fe.

I asked to be seated outside and had a great table in the sun. That’s when I met him. He was tall, dark and handsome! He was my waiter. I ordered a glass of wine and a salad, and began talking to him (first just about the weather and such). We continued to chat with each other, as he would check in on my status during the meal. After the meal, I continued to stay and drink (still that same glass of wine), and read Harry while continuing to chat with my waiter. He joined me at the table, and we finally introduced ourselves. His name was Eban (yes, with a “b”).

As I’m about to finish my wine I asked about the end of his shift, which is coming soon! So I hung around a little longer… Then he says “I’d offer to show you around a bit, but I have a boyfriend.” I’m a little disappointed at this point, but he continued to sit with me. He hemmed and hawed as he tried to decide if he should take me around! I tell him there’s no pressure, and he asked me to stay until his last table left so he could show me the park.

Night was fast approaching (as we had been talking on and off for about three hours) and his boss told him that he needed to stay for the next shift. We had a sad moment and I gave him my card. I told him to give me call, but that I wasn’t expecting it, given his boyfriend and all. Then he asked when I was leaving, and when I told him “tomorrow” there seemed a bit disappointment in his voice and body language. I was sad too, but knowing that I was only in town for a few more hours, I got over it.

My entire plan for the rest of the day was essentially ruined, as most museums and such were closed by now. I began a long walk back to my hotel; a little upset that Eban didn’t even give me a last name, but felt good about all the flirting that happened.

Back at the hotel, I did my own hemming and hawing as I decided whether or not I’d go out tonight. I said to myself “screw being lazy, I’m in New Orleans!” So I changed into some “going-out” clothes and headed back down Bourbon Street.

At La Bayou Restaurant, the host sat me at the bar, but the New Orleans Iced Tea and Long Island Iced Tea and eggplant made the bar seat worth it.

Then I begin where I left off last night, on my gay bar crawl. I started with Oz, which was dead tonight. I got one shot and moved on my way, afraid that all the bars would be like this given the fact that this was Sunday night.

Cafe Lafittes in Exile
I spent several hours here making friends, talking up strangers and hotties, and dancing a bit too. Until finally, I get pulled into this picture, by a gentleman that called himself Violet! I wound up spending the rest of the night hanging out and drinking with this group of twenty-somethings from NYC and DC! We danced to the songs on the video screens, as I continued to drink (mostly vodka/crans but some shots thrown in too). Tonight was the first time I made friends with the bar tender. Tonight was also, the first night that I’ve truly lost track of how much I drank.

Nigel called at some point during this night, but I don't remember what we talked about, other than me telling him where Café Lafittes in Exile was, but he never showed up.

Some time around midnight (after about 3 hours at Café Lafittes in Exile) I thought it would be a good idea to head home; but not before I stopped back in Oz and got a drink. (I actually don’t have much recollection of stopping in Oz, but foursquare says I was there for 15 minutes!) Then I stopped across the street at Bourbon Pub and Parade. I ran into someone that I had met in Café Laftittes in Exile, ordered a drink and left the bar with my drink in hand.

As I walked down Bourbon back to my hotel, I thought to myself, that I needed food. Well what is better than bad pizza? (Yes, I was that drunk) So I got in line at the pizza place near my hotel and ordered two slices of pizza again! (No need for the diet coke tonight, I still had my glass of vodka/cran!)

Back in my hotel, I placed the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, and sleep soundly in my food-induced, drunken come! (Huzzah for sleeping through the night).

Stay tuned for a way less interesting part 3 of my New Orleans adventure.

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Dreams Come True: The Art of Disney

Front of New Orleans Museum of Art

Here is the long awaited review of the New Orleans Museum of Art’s (NOMA) Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio:

To begin, there was a short (8 minute) film produced for this event, that introduced audiences to the exhibit and some background into for WDAS (Walt Disney Animation Studios).

Right from the get go, I was slightly disappointed. I was kind of expecting something that could have been in WDW (Walt Disney World) or at least something produced by WDAS or Disney Imagineers. But the video seemed to be produced by the NOMA and I was left without that wonderful Disney feel.

I waited, rather impatiently, in a line for the audio guide listening devices. They ran out, just in time for me to have to wait. After an entirely too long three-minute wait, I got into the line at the exhibit entrance and started talking to the women behind me. We discussed our favorite movies and then they thought of the great idea that instead of holding the device to our heads, we should put headphones in. This was a great idea, and I will forever check listening devices for a headphone jack. It kept my arm from being awkwardly placed up near my head.

So head phones in my ears, I listened to John Goodman (who voiced the Marti Gras king in Princess and the Frog) introduce the exhibit and explained how to work the device. Then I entered the first room, the Silly Symphonies room. This room had some great artwork from Three Little Pigs and Ugly Duckling. There were some great cells (ones that could be salvaged from the washings when it was common practice to reuse the cells). There was also an interesting display case showing many of the books Walt had brought home with him from a trip Europe (they were open to several fairy tale pages that seemed to act as one of the many spring boards that influenced Walt to create the Silly Symphonies and his feature length animated tales.

In the rear of the this room was a wall with cells and info from Mickey and the Beanstalk, which was out of order, as Beanstalk was not produced in 1947 and was included in a package film entitled Fun and Fancy Free. It was interesting to learn that Beanstalk was supposed to be a feature length animated movie, but due to the war, it was drastically cut down.

The next room was dedicated to the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This room opened with a quick intro to how cartoons were made at the time; and the many different concept drawings for Snow White (one of the most interesting was seeing her in a Betty Boop style). This room had some interesting cells and original art. It also showed the massive amount of marketing and merchandizing that came with White.

This room also included a few stills and concepts from deleted scenes. John Goodman continued to narrate additional information through the listening device. The device would continue to provide more behind the scenes info that wasn’t always included on the wall plaques.

Then we jumped a couple decades into Cinderella. Again, there was some great concept art, most notably from Mary Blair (who’s art can be seen all around the world in the “it’s a small world” ride, and the dolls are completely based off Blair’s style). The room included a great shadow box that illustrated the multi-pane camera and explained how the cinematographer would manipulate the plates to create depth and movement in a rather stagnant picture.

Jump again to Sleeping Beauty. If I could I would have spent much more time in the room enjoying the art. Eywind Earle, art director on Beauty, created such a distinct style for this animation, and created such rich drawings. One display showed original cells that Earle had painted; in different phases, he would paint each cell more than 5 times, adding many different layers and textures. This new style of animation, in my opinion, led to a revolution of WDAS animation.

As the Beauty room was closing, there were some fabulous concept pieces for Maleficent. While staying there, listening to John Goodman talk about Maleficent, I heard the melody of “Part of Your World” and got a little “vaclemped.” (This song means a lot to me (check out my post about Musical Theatre for why this song means so much to me http://futureworld84.blogspot.com/2009/09/gotta-sing-sing-why-musical-theatre-is.html).) I refrained from running into the next room and finished learning about Beauty. < The Little Mermaid room began as they all did, with a comparison of the Disney version to the original tale. Then I followed along the wall that housed many pieces of concept art and finished cells from the movie. In the center of the room was a display for models that the animators used to help draw all the details.  This room was somewhat small compared the several movies that came before. (Although it might have just been that I was devouring this room so it seemed to go much faster).

Next was another small room for Beauty and the Beast. Some of the best art in the whole exhibit was on display here, in the form of the stained glass cells from the intro of the movie. This room was a disappointment though- through no fault of NOMA- by this point in WDAS’ history, they were no longer painting cells by hand, but on computers, and many of the “cells” were “prints” instead, and I felt a little cheated, as if I could have just looked at these images on the computer.

Finally was the giant four room space for Princess and the Frog. After standing and reading for about three hours I was getting a bit fatigued and let John Goodman do a lot of the talking. What made this room so much different was that instead of discussing the movie as a whole, this wing was broken up into characters and settings.  Worst of all, this time, even the concept art was digital!

The final room had some books about the art of Disney and a teaser poster for the then called Rapunzul (Now called Tangled).  Outside of the exhibit, there was a short timeline of WDAS.

I wish something like this was included in the exhibit proper as a connection between each room, to show the growth of animation between the big princess movies. 

In the other direction, was the gift shop, where I met with some more disappointment. Many of the books that were on display were no longer on sale. I was also hoping for from prints by Blair or Earle, but there weren’t any prints at all! I purchased the exhibit book and had another book (Hippo in a Tutu: Dancing Disney Animation) and a poster shipped to me.

Over all, I really enjoyed the beginning of the exhibit and loved looking at some of the art in the second third of the exhibit. I could have done with less Frog but since it was in New Orleans, this is understandable. I’m happy I made the trek down to New Orleans to check this out. This was a exquisite exhibit, and I can only hope that after it travels down under for a while, it makes its way a bit more local to the east coast of the US.

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New Orleans: Part 1: Drinking, Boys and The Mississippi

From March 6 through March 8, 2010 I had a fabulous trip to New Orleans.

Here is Part 1 of a 3 Part Diary Series of the Weekend:

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Trolley Tracks

This was my first time driving myself to the airport (which added a whole new stress to traveling) but I was happy that I was in control of my arrival (versus asking a friend to drive).

I arrived at BWI with plenty of time to spare, so after going through security I began my trip with what the Hobbits call “Second Breakfast.” I read a couple magazines and some of Harry Potter Book 3 and soon my flight was boarding (see side bar for info on Southwest boarding).

Southwest: If you’ve never flown Southwest, let me tell you, they have an interesting seating arrangement. You are not assigned a seat when you buy the ticket (or when you check in on-line 24 hours in advance of your flight), but are assigned a boarding Group and Number (for instance A24 or C8). Each letter group is called to line up in numerical order and then its general seating on the plane, so A1 lines up first and has his/her choice of seats/ A1 – 15 is set aside for business travelers and A List members (those who are frequent fliers). Then when you check in on-line you are assigned a boarding number based on when you check in. So if timed perfectly you could be A16, although for $10 on top of the ticket price, you can have Southwest check in for you, and they begin the check in process 36 hours before. (Your place in this virtual cue is based on when you purchase the upgrade). I purchased the upgrade and had a spot of A23, A22 and A21 (three separate boardings for the round trip flight). My boarding position allowed me to take front row seats (with all the leg room I could ask for). Southwest serves complimentary soft drinks and a bag of peanuts/pretzels. They also serve hard drinks for an about average fee. Signature cocktails (that change monthly) are about $4.00

E2 Jefferson County Transit Bus – Airport Express (A new experience) The bus from the airport was about 20 minutes late (something that hasn’t happened to me since moving back to DC, where all busses have GPS tracking devices and can be located using a mobile browser). I’ve ridden a lot of mass-transit busses in my time in many different states (NJ, NY, MA, MD, DC, FL, and in New South Whales, Australia) but this was the first time I ever saw the following: • A cracked window (The windshield had several cracks running through the “passenger” pane). • The driver eating (the bus driver was eating his fast food chicken nuggets and drinking his giant soda while driving the bus). (I actually didn’t even see a “No Eating” sign so I guess this was allowed). • The label “Express” was a misnomer - as this was a local bus, making stops on every other corner. While I’m talking about the E2 here’s some more notices from the return trip: • 20 minutes late again. • The driver had to get out and manually start the windshield wipers. • We took a detour so the cash receptacle could be replaced (I’ve ridden many DC and MD busses where they just finish the route, and more, before pulling over to fix this non-critical problem).

I boarded the flight, and as soon as possible, I started my drinking. I ordered the Signature drink (a vodka, cranberry, apple cocktail), and settled in for a long flight with Harry Potter and Rules of Attraction. We stopped in Alabama, and once we were back in the air, I had a second drink. (I bet you’ll start seeing a pattern of activities this weekend).

After landing at Louis Armstrong International, I skipped the luggage carousel – having packed in a single book bag and purse – and looked for the bus to take me to the French Quarter. Well the bus did not go all the way there, so with my trusty I-phone, I found how to get to the trolley car.

Bourbon Street

Trolley ride over and I check into my hotel: The Wyndham Chateau Bourbon, and I begin exploring the area. I walk up and down Bourdon street, noticing all the drunks at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. I stop at a restaurant: Boudreaux's Backyard, for a drink and a yummy mushroom plate, then back to my hotel for a quick power nap before my dinner cruise on the Creole Queen.

Creole Queen

I walk down to the water front (ahh the mighty Mississippi River). On the paddleboat river cruise, I made friends with the two couples that shared my table. Found common ground with each of the women, but really connected with Joan. I order a Hurricane (apparently a local drink), and Joan gave me her two drink coupons! (Score). The food on the boat wasn’t my cup of tea (I had a mess of veggies and something that looked like chicken but tasted like fish – I later found out it was tilapia. I also tried some gumbo – eh). I had a couple more drinks (thanks Joan) and enjoyed the cool air out on the deck as we returned to port.

Hotel Lobby

I went back to my hotel room for a shower and a quick change for my nighttime entertainment (yes, I brought my glitter make-up with me).

I had used an online site to help me create the walking “tour” for my bar crawl. But once I tried to use it, I realized that the tour did not print out direction or addresses. It only included a map with a pin and a corresponding note that I had assigned (such as “lounge” or “dancers”), so my trusty I-phone saved the day yet again.

700 Club
Reminded me a lot of Efen in DC, a small bar with a lounge type feel, where there were a few groups of people. I had a few drinks here, but left after a while, because no one would talk with me.

Good Friends Bar
Next stop was to be Rawhide, but they had a cover charge so I continued to The Good Friends Bar. Despite the crappy sounding name, this bar, was much more welcoming to the single traveler. I had a few shots and a drink or two, and made a friend: Nigel. Nigel was a cute boy from Mississippi, in New Orleans on holiday with his friend Jeff. Nigel and Jeff had just come from Rawhide and told me I hadn’t missed much. Nigel and I flirt as we chat about traveling and things we’ve in NO. Then I decide it’s time to move to the next bar on my list. Nigel and Jeff join me.

Oz
I had heard some great things about Oz on www.gaycities.com. And was very excited to be going (only to be slightly disappointed with a cover charge). But we go in, and Nigel and I start dancing. We loose Jeff (who returned to Rawhide). Nigel and I decide to make our way back to my hotel room (thus abandoning my bar crawl itinerary). On our way back, I get my first and only set of beads thrown at me, by a girl on a balcony, for the hot make out session Nigel and I had out on Bourbon Street.

I’ll stop there for today, and leave it up to your imagination what Nigel and I did back in the hotel room (though not much imagination could be needed).

Since the rest of this night technically falls under “Sunday” I’ll leave you with this: After getting Nigel a cab back to his hotel (which he couldn’t remember where it was), I decided to go out again, and do something really bad!

Check back tomorrow for Part 2 of my New Orleans trip to find out about: Disney, Mexican Food, more boys and that very naughty thing I did twice on this trip!

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