Life after the Storm

I made my first night trip to Bourbon Street last Saturday. It was exciting, crowded, chaotic, repetitive and sad. The best part of the night was dancing with Liz and members of a jazz band on the corner or Bourbon and Canal. The worst part was seeing a man get mugged as I was talking to him about how not to get mugged.

Nick and I stopped to talk to a guy playing his guitar for some money to get directions to Frenchmen street. He stopped what he was doing and was telling us, "Go straight down Bourbon for a couple of blocks. Don't turn right or left. And hold your purse so you don't get mugged." As he was saying this, three guys about our age took his glass jar, smashed it on the floor, took his bills, said "Sorry, man," and ran away. I was speechless. I reached into my purse and grabbed two dollars and gave it to him, feeling somehow responsible for his being mugged. I said something like, "Wow, I'm really sorry" and walked away. Nick and I sat on the curb for a little bit and then I felt like I should give the guitar guy more money, so I ran back but he had already left.

We made it to Frenchmen and ran in to the guitar guy twice more. The last time we talked to him he said, "Yeah, there was nothing I could really do. Besides, they flashed a gun at me so I wasn't going to do anything. No part of New Orleans is really that safe." I was completely shocked. I had no idea that as I stood next to him, the guys had flashed a gun. It made me really sad that things like that actually happened. We all hear of people being mugged and it seems like a common thing: "Yeah, people get mugged all the time. Shit happens." But I guess this put a human face on the victim. The guy looked so helpless as they took his night's earnings from him. His face said, "whatever."

New Orleans is happy and sad, fun and tiring, pretty and ugly. I guess people are still struggling after the Storm.

I added some pictures of Redd House. This part of the house is being renovated to house rising artist and musicians. It looks kind of cool, and as Marc said, it looks like "man meets nature" with the plants serving as roof tops.