Southern Drawl      It seems that warm water is the defining characteristic of New Orleans. Water in the swamps, water in the Mississippi river, water flooding houses, water falling from the sky in bucket loads, and water thickening the air in the form of humidity.      Coming from a childhood in the deserts I was […]

     One afternoon while sitting in a bar in the French Quarter -nursing an Abita Amber- I over-heard a snippet of a conversation that went like this: “…and you can walk through the swamps with the alligators.”      Which was exactly what I had been looking for.      Who says you can’t find everything in […]

    In 2006 Cameron and I returned to New Orleans to see the city in which we had both previously lived.     The Ninth Ward, on the other side of the canal from the French Quarter was still complete devastation. The homes were still standing, but abandoned. Weeds grew up in the yards and the only cars […]

    In 2006, when I returned to New Orleans after a nine year absence, Cameron and I stayed with a friend on the border of the 8th and 9th wards, near the Mississippi River.     Behind her house was an alleyway, this alleyway had a guardian standing at the entrance, and was littered with paintings and the […]