Do I wake or sleep?

After I got back from New orleans I was jogging and came across a couple of discarded wine boxes outside PJ's (liquor store in Inwood). I grabbed them and decided to turn one into a shadowbox.

I couldn't find a huge fleur de lis stencil (or indeed any) so I made one myself--picked up a lot of stuff at Lee's including paint brushes, paint, spraypaint, and cut-your-own-stencils. Then I found a fleur de lis on line and blew it up and traced it onto the plastic and cut that out. Then I spray-painted it in antique gold on the inside. I wanted it to be a little blurry and messy, like New Orleans :) Then I spatter-painted the inside in purple, green and gold.

I also got some New Orleans-themed scrapbooking stickers (again, from Lee's) and added those to give the interior some texture. Check out all my gen-yew-ine NO artifacts--including REAL Spanish moss! I'd love to add some lights as well, but I'll have to drill a hole into the back. The great thing is I can continue to add stuff every time I go back!









I love my blurry-edged city on the rivah :)

Happy Mardi Gras!


Everybody say a little prayer for that beautiful city on the river with its unique, crumbling beauty and charm and culture. And I expect to see y'all at Chez Green tonight for hurricanes, beads and King Cake!

...It's that time again: that wonderful, crazy, colorful, crowded, happy, mixed-up but glorious time when all New Orleans forgets itself for a day, lets its hair down, puts on a rubber nose, a funny hat, and walks around laughing at the silly people in their crazy costumes...

Mardi Gras is fun and laughter, vulgarity and coarseness, color and light, and at the end, quiet.

Mardi Gras is a state of mind, an attitude, a pose, an opinion. But at its most basic…and perhaps satisfying of all, Mardi Gras is the one day in the entire year when New Orleans can tell the world:

"We're going to have fun!" And we do.

Throw me somethin', Mister!

EEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS!!!!

Who Dat Nation rejoices!!!!! New Orleans is on the rise again! Oh, next Tuesday is gonna be MAJOR at my place!!!! Pre-pare to PARTY!! Did y'all see that shot of Bourbon Street with that writhing drunken celebratory mass of humanity? The drought is OVER!

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS, SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS!!!!!

So Lori and I had our inaugural party on Mardi Gras and it turned out very well. People started arriving right at 8 when I was, naturally, running behind and trying to get dressed. I put on a lil' black dress with purple, green and gold eyes and lips, and a similarly-colored mask. Lori spent a lot of time in the kitchen cooking and I was parked at the bar making hurricanes. We had a very well-stocked bar this year, thanks to the lovely Susan who contributed no fewer than 5 bottles of high-end rum, including two Mount Gay flavored (vanilla and mango). Mostly I dished out hurricanes--such a simple, albeit delicious, pleasure. Nothing like a hit of dark rum floated along the sweetness of pure corn syrup and red dye no. 5! I did end up making some mixed drinks later on.

Lots and lots of food for lots of people. Guests included Ryan, Kelly, Chris, Rachel, Michael, Tesse, Duncan, Jason, Michael Clay, Griffin, Molly, Adam and a friend of his, Brett, Stefania, my friend Joy, Tim and his friend Matt, Ashley and a friend of hers, my friend Katie from work, two on-floor neighbors, a neighbor who lives above us, our landlord and a friend of his, two Swedish friends of Lori, a couple of Lori's friends who went to Tulane, and many other friends of Lori's whose names I didn't catch. This is the biggest party I've had since I moved to NYC (not the biggest overall though, that would have to have been when I lived with Ryan and Cami--our insane housearming!). Lori and I were estimating how many guests overall--she guessed 50, I think it was fewer than that (maybe closer to 40). We didn't run out of anything--we served King Cake, red beans and rice, crawfish dip, chicken gumbo, and on and on. And nonstop HURRICANES. All backed up by my Mardi Gras playlist of zydeco, blues, Dixieland jazz, with The Big Easy playing in the background. Woo hoo! Laissez les bons temps roulez! Hail Rex!

I had a great time socializing when I could, talking with Tim and his friend (who generally stood in one corner, looking mysterious and talking on their cells--they are G-men after all), chatting with Joy, pulling out my Romeo and Juliet scrapbook and showing it off. It was awesome to see Michael Clay, BTW, haven't seen him since the summer. He's also so good-natured. I got a chance to talk with Molly a bit as well--she wants to do Othello and I was telling her, she could cast herself as Iago.

I brought out the King Cake (which I'd baked that day) and explained the whole custom to everyone and how this was a big thing in New Orleans, and then sliced it up. Michael got the baby. (Sadly, I think Rachel and Kelly had left before King Cake deliciousness. If it makes you feel better, neither Lori nor I got slices either! In general I didn't have that much to drink--I did not have TIME, I was parked at the bar for quite a while.) I actually had several people ask me about the customs of the holiday--the colors, the King Cake, hurricanes (which is a NO thing, not specific to MG) and so of course I took such opportunities to pimp out my beautiful city and mentioned the collection for Tipitina's. Maybe next year I could hang something from the fire escape...I'm also thinking next year a raffle for the Foundation, and maybe adding po'boys to the menu.

At some point (after Kelly had left, unfortunately, 'cause she had on a great outfit), I eyeballed what people were wearing and handed out a couple of little prizes for especially festive outfits. Michael Clay has a purple sweater with a gold hat and something else green, so he won, but our neighbor James had a festive purple argyle sweater. Adam and his friend and Stefania came fairly late, after midnight and stayed QUITE late. After they left (they were the last) Lori and I collapsed and watched a little more of The Big Easy. I finally rolled into bed around 5:00.

We collected $65 for Tipitina's Foundation.

I love it when my musical interests mash up. Pandora just played a slowish Dixieland version of "Sunrise, Sunset." So awesome! The Krewe of Jew could feature it at their parade. (No, AFAIK there is no Krewe of Jew, but there is a Jewish krewe, or was--I know I've heard of at least one. Which is awesome and could only happen in America--a Jewish organization that's part of a holiday that's liturgical in origin, where now EVERYONE gets drunk!)

Ugh. Not feeling too well today. I lovelovelove Trader Joe's Spicy Soy Chips (high in protein and fiber and they satisfy my urge to crunch, plus go great with melted cheese--what's not to love?) but they make my stomach feel funny the next day. Ugh.

Wednesday night I hung out with a Sweet Briar friend of mine who was in town for a conference. She was staying at the SoHo Grand but I suggested we hang out in Hell's Kitchen, a neighborhood I know much better. We had a GREAT time; we ate at El Centro on 54th St. and then went to Vintage for after-dinner drinks. Allyson is so supportive and warm, I just love getting together with her. She's so honest about her life and the ups and downs of parenthood (she has three little girls). Her oldest is getting into riding but her husband really wants to nix that, saying it's more dangerous than motorcycle riding or skiing. Naturally as a rider and a girl athlete, I'm all for it! However it doesn't help that one of our friends from Sweet Briar got injured a lot--Kate just shrugged it off and continued to ride anyway, but she's had several bouts of surgery and her knees are shot to hell. I told Ally that most riding injuries are in eventing and steeplechasing--equitation and dressage are much tamer (and, *cough* more boring but I didn't say that! But it's definitely true that the danger is what makes it interesting). Once you start taking jumps, the risk factor goes up. But still, girls should be encouraged in sports if possible; it teaches them so many useful attitudes and skill sets. Teamwork, ownership of and pride in your body, pride in accomplishment as opposed to appearance/relationship status...

On Saturday Paula and I hung out--we went to the new New Orleans-style restaurant on Restaurant Row, called Bourbon Street, where we rhapsodized over one of our favorite movies, Spike Lee's School Daze. (LOVE that movie! Lovelovelove "Good and Bad Hair"--"it ain't even real!") The food was pretty good, fairly authentic-tasting. I had cheese grits, Cajun red-beans-and-rice dip with chips, and shrimp jambalaya, and for dessert Paula and I shared this amazing cafe au lait creme brulet. (Ugh, don't want to think of food right now.) And they had Abita and Dixie, including Blackened Voodoo, my favorite. But the mixed drinks were ridiculously expensive. $13 for a Cosmo? A margarita on the rocks? That's outrageous. The beer wasn't expensive, I don't know why they're soaking us on the drinks. And they didn't have hurricanes--they said they weren't making them yet. Hello!--you have a NO-style restaurant, you probably should have the signature NO drink! The staff was really good though, very friendly (both the manager and the chef stopped by) and I liked the atmosphere, although it was a little too clean and shiny. I showed Paula pictures of the real thing on my iPod, I have great photos of seedy places like the cheap-ass bar on Lee Circle and the Old Absinthe Bar. Mmm, seedy New Orleans...

Afterward we met Ryan at Vintage and sucked back martinis. Walter from Oberon was there and he and I schmoozed--he wants to audition for Romeo and Juliet. He's actually playing Tybalt now in another production and I was all "hey, come audition for my show this summer!"

In other news, last week, Dani and I caught Mickey at the sink with this:



Note that there are no fewer than TEN little jars of Colman's Mustard! And that's just what was in the refrigerator! There were another 4 jars in the cabinets. PLUS 2 containers of another brand of mustard (French's?) and two of wasabi sauce. I just thought it was so endearing, all his tiny little jars of mustard. Men and their condiments!

Going to the Hoboken Arts & Music Festival this Sunday with Ted--what fun! Homemade soaps and Mickey Dolenz...

Unbelievable. I really can't believe someone would go to that kind of effort, and not realize how spectacularly offensive and cruel that is.

The Saints are up by two touchdowns and change at halftime against Atlanta.

It's their first game back at the Superdome since Hurricane Katrina. The Saints are (atypically) undefeated. The energy is INCREDIBLE.

Not only did they sell out all their season tickets (the first time it's happened), they received so many requests for press passes, they can't even fit all the reporters into the stands. Al Jazeera requested press passes!

Geaux, Saints! We love you, New Orleans! Kick some Falcon ass!

I am really missing Nawlins right now. I suppose it's because of all the Katria anniversary documentaries and whatnot.

Man, do I love that city. Krista, we goin' again for Mardi Gras this year?