Cemetery LifeStyle

Cemetery.

Lower Ninth Ward

Today I made a trip down to the Lower Ninth Ward.  Before Katrina, the Lower Ninth was not extremely wealthy, but it was a reasonably well-off blue collar area of town.  However, the neighborhood took the brunt of the flood.  Even though the hurricane missed NOLA entirely, the water from the storm surge caused the levee along the industrial canal to fail.  That levee borders the Lower Ninth, and everything in the area was flooded.  While the Lower Ninth is not a ghost-town, it is a shadow of what it once was.

Many of the houses that existed before the hurricane have been torn down, a few are being rebuilt, and several are simply empty shells.  The photos below are of a vacant house a few blocks from the levee.  The last photo is where the levee gave way during Katrina.  As always, click the photos for a larger view.

Meyer the Hatter

I meant to do a full write-up of Meyer the Hatter, but I am in a law school time crunch, so a few photos will have to suffice.  Meyer the Hatter has been in New Orleans since the late 1800's, which is impressive.  Even more impressive is that it is still a family owned and operated business.  I met Sam Meyer, who still works the floor of his shop, gives brief history tutorials of the store, and strikes some sweet poses for guys with cameras.... look for him on next season's Next Top Model.

BBQ - The Joint

I originate from Birmingham, AL which is home to several great BBQ joints - Full Moon and Dreamland come to mind first.  I am pretty picky about my ribs, and I have only once ever eaten ribs outside of Alabama.  My one foreign rib experiment took place in Kansas City.  The ribs were crap.  So when Kelly - a friend from school - decided to check out some local BBQ, I said yes with some internal trepidation.

We ended up at The Joint, which is located pretty deep into Bywater.  Since I never have the patience to read through a long article/post about a restaurant, I will keep this short.  The dry rub ribs were good.  A little charred on the outside (see photo below), the meat was slightly dry.  The meat wasn't bad - just not what I am used to.  Also, the smokiness of the ribs was a bit on the weak side.  The good news is that the ribs fell off the bone, which is not what I generally see in my usual BBQ haunts.  I ate the things pretty fast because I normally have to work for my rib meat.

While I remain a Bama BBQ purist, if other NOLA ribs are comparable to The Joint then I can see myself getting by around here... if only as a hold-over until I am back in B'ham.

Super Bowl Champs

Hot damn.  I don't have any photos because I left my camera at a friends' house in the Quarter.  And I have relatively few memories since I left my sobriety at home on Sunday.  But it doesn't really matter. 

Here is what you need to know about NOLA during the game.  If you were in New Orleans on Sunday, you had an amazing time.  If you weren't in New Orleans for the Super Bowl, you probably wish that you were.

Picking the Super Bowl - Celebrity Edition

It is Friday afternoon and the Super Bowl is looming over New Orleans like a drunk girl on a Bourbon Street balcony.  The only question is: will she throw us some beads, or just vomit all over our heads.

To sort this madness out, I have consulted two of the finest sporting minds in all of Uptown NOLA.

First up is Salty.

Salty, a pure-bred mutt who hails from the mean streets of our gritty city, has been analyzing football games for months now.  The outside world may have thought that she was simply sleeping on the floor while I was shouting at the T.V. this past fall.  In reality she was trying to figure out how in the heck Drew Brees was gonna slice through the opponent's Cover-2.

Salty: "I am going with the Saints, Ashton.  No way Brees can be stopped.  Especially with that giant birth-mark on his face.  Guaranteed victory."

Next up is Napolean Bonaparte.  Just like the Coneheads, Napolean comes from France.  He likes the outdoors, Mardi Gras beads, and conquering most of Europe.

Napolean: "I gotta go with the Colts.  Manning is handsome as a devil.  And he has arms.  Sexy."

The Soul of New Orleans - Video

"The soul of New Orleans is in its defiant beating heart."

ESPN.com put up the video from the "Soul of New Orleans" segment, about which I had written a week ago.  From talking to Wright Thompson (you can hear him as the voice-over for the video) and seeing the filming of the Chris Rose segment, I could tell that it would be a great T.V. spot.  But I am still pretty blown away at how well-made the video is.

Click here to view the clip.  At about 3:20 into the segment is a purple house, which is my neighbor, and of course the cemetery is my other "neighbor" across the street.

Laissez les bon temps rouler.