Crescent City

Yesterday I alternated between singing Moon Over Bourbon St by Sting and some song I don't know the name of by Lucinda Williams about Lake Pontchartrain. I eventually did finally make it out of the hotel and I road the street car on the St. Charles line out to a local hang out called Delachaise (?)that was on the way to Tippetina's, which is a bar that Tom Waite's talks about in Down by Law. Along the way I ascertained that Tippetina's does not open til 10 pm and given the fact that I had been up since six, after killing a couple hours in a bar with the tourist magazine from the hotel and then the New Yorker I hung it up and went back to the hotel. But I had a good andouille pizza sausage pizza and some excellently drawn Hoegaarden.

I haven't seen much of the city, but the fact that the city relies overwhelmingly on tourism for its industry seems to have a big impact on how everyone interacts with you. The cab driver coming in from the aiport asked me where I was from and when I said I was from New York, he said, "Oh you are from the United States! This is not the United States, this is hell. It is a great place to visit and an awful place to live." He was an electric engineer in his own country, but works as a cabdriver here, and said that in the summer there is no one here and no work because it is so hot. It is true right now that there are tourists everywhere you go and there isn't even a big thing going on.

The best thing about being here after spending the last two months in New York, is that when you walk outside, it's warm. When you walk inside it feels pretty much like it did in New York, its not even 80 F and the air conditioning in on full steam. But it's just lovely to be able to walk around without a jacket.

"Go on back to Greenville...just go on back to Greenville..."

I wish I was in New Orleans

It's embarrasing, I am here in New Orleans for work, and I have only spent 25 minutes outside of the hotel. I am have been working like a dog, but am now going to explore the French Quarter. Work has been super wacky and not in a good way, so I suppose its to be expected, but now I am going out to eat some dinner.

Busi-ness

It's 11 pm and I am just getting started with packing for a business trip tomorrow. Lot's of craziness at work, now I am off to back to back conferences for the next week. It's a little daunting, packing for a week.

Lunch-ie

Lunch today did not go the way I had planned. My first mistake was grocery shopping in Whole Foods last night. I felt like such a shameless yuppie filling my little basket with overpriced prepared foods. Then this morning I realized that I am about to go out of town tomorrow and that I have to eat all this overpriced food I just bought. That seemed easy enough since I have both lunch and dinner out of the house to plan for. I made a sandwich and a salad, but accidently dumped a tablespoon of sea salt onto the lettuce. The sandwich I made went to the homeless man on the corner, who I always try to turn down, but apparently cannot avoid giving food to. I just ate my salad and the little packaged quesadilla that I brought for dinner and the inside of my mouth feels like I went swimming in Atlantic Ocean.

I'm ending sentences left and right with prepositions. It's something I should really be ashamed for.

Early

I woke up sometime between four and five am and tossed and turned for an hour before giving up and getting out of bed. I'm writing in my blog, and counting calories, and matching my socks, but am now starting to get super sleepy. Technically the alarms doesn't go off for an hour and ten minutes more so maybe I can get more shut-eye. Insomnia sucks.

Low Rider

Yesterday I went shopping with an old friend who wanted a pair of low-riding jeans that would make her ass look round. We went to one of those stores on Broadway near Houston with walls of Levi's down one side and walls of Calvin Klein down the other. The young women that helped us were hellbent on finding the right pair of jeans for her and had an encyclopedic knowledge of the different styles, lenghts and brands in the store. My friend is always one to dress up a bit and on this particular Sunday afternoon, she was wearing sparkly stockings, knee high boots, and this short skirt. The first pair of jeans that she tried on looked unremarkable but fine. The girl in the back noticed she didn't like them, and said, "Why are you trying on those, those are too high-waisted for you." When my friend agreed that they weren't what she was looking for, the girl looked both of us over and agreed, "yeah those are the kind of jean you [meaning me] might wear, but not her." When I raised my eyebrows, trying to figure out whether I had just been insulted or not, she quickly said, "I mean, no offense." I suppose I could have been concerned about the implications of my wardobe, but I was soon distracted by the two women's conversation about exactly which part of my friend's ass looked flat on the second pair of jeans she tried on.

Saturday afternoon at the movies

This afternoon, I saw The Holy Girl at Lincoln Plaza. It's cool movie, a little bit unsettling, but not full blown disturbing. There is a lot about sex and religion and adolescence and its all filmed in an old-fashioned resort in Argentina, which serves as the backdrop to the story. It keeps you thinking about the people in the movie and their problems.

Something else to look forward to...

Stephen Colbert, (who once asked my boss during a Daily Show spot how many Nobel Prizes he has) is getting his own show to follow the Daily Show.

This is very exciting for me. I organize my late evening around Jon Stewart and Co.

Says Colbert: "We're going to deal with truth on my program," Mr. Colbert said. "We're going to catch the world in the headlights of my justice."

Via Julie Saltman.