It's been over a week since my New Orleans trip and after been brain fried doing arts admin at the Los Feliz Starbucks for SIX STRAIGHT HOURS, I finally had to tell myself to cool it by doing something somewhat fun and slightly creative. It's ice cold in here by the way. I have a scarf wrapped around my head and neck.

Well, things in life could be worse. I could be a contestant on a bisexual dating show on MTV trying to vie for the love of an internet model. By the way, I cannot wait until the finale tonight! I hope Tila picks Dani!

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Well, here is the blog from my trip to New Orleans from what I can remember. And it ain't much....

So the reason I was in New Orleans was because the National Performance Network gave me a "Creation Fund" in 2006 to create my solo show. They have an annual meeting for NPN supported artists and presenters each year to talk about cultural policy,etc. It's really great to come to these because I feel so isolated in Los Angeles in the aesthetic of work that I create. And it's great to be with other fringe artists in a setting where we can talk and network as equals. So translation? Drinking and Partying, and watching theater with friends can equal work!


The NPN is based in New Orleans and already had the conference scheduled for her even before Katrina. But they offered this "Site Visit" of New Orleans to conference goers who showed up a day early. I'm glad I went because otherwise, in the distance from the airport to the hotel, I would have left NOLA thinking, "Oh wow, it's all been fixed up."




In ways, it's subtle. It just looks like there might have always been that much space between houses. And there are parts of the 9th ward where you can't even tell there were houses because it's just big fields.



Performance by Kathy Randels in the home she grew up that was destroyed by the hurricane.




A photo album on display in Kathy's home where the photos have all been washed clean.

One night we went to see "New Orleans Bingo"-- they are a most awesome lounge music jazz band. They play bingo with the audience and show films between their sets. I've never seen so much technology in a live music bar show. I am absolutely in love with them.



Cute Southern boy singing on a bike? Preservation Hall? The French Quarter? I'm totally in love! I swear this is my dream music video!


I watched another band called "Country Fried" and the best thing about this show was the black Santa on the wall. Yay Black Santa!





A slightly less crowded Bourbon St.



Before our oceans go to total shit, I thought I'd try out raw oysters. I was sweaty and terrified, but now I'm a pro. Ironically, oysters are cheaper at the NOLA airport than at in the French Quarter. Same size and taste!

So now, on my long list of fantasies is trying to get out to NOLA for a month to live and work and ride bikes in the French Quarter.

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So I'm not gunning for sympathy but I just spent the last hour crying alone in my apartment because I'm so tired by this life. Also it's raining in LA which is totally traumatizing for us who live here. New Orleans was the highlight of the last few months. It's just really hard to do this art and art living all alone. And I feel so isolated sometimes. And I wish I had an au pair... someone to pick me up dust me off and take care of me between these road trips. I just feel like all I ever do is give and give and give and give and watch Flavor of Love reruns.

My friend Marcus said he'd come by this weekend and help me. He said I should do something fun like go on a website where I can insert my face into different hairstyles. I like that.

So I have a whole new attitude towards art making in this new leg of my artist life. I think I really want to try to have fun making art. I think what I've struggled with doing this as a profession, is that it loses it's "fun-ness." I think that's why I got so into knitting, bikes, and other weird obsessions in the last few years. Art becomes a different animal when you have to make a living doing it.

Fun. Who's coming?

Surprisingly, despite finally being a successful full time artist, I still slip into that whole, "Should I just get a real job?" train of thought sometimes because I miss the regularness of waking up in the same bed every day with the same routine. Being able to see friends after work and that kind of stuff. I only had a part time job once as an adult that was not related to art. It was working for a non-profit for all of eight months (or less? Can't remember), but it was so awesome to be able to go home and not think about anything but watching a movie and eating.

Those were the days.

Labels: artist life, New Orleans

I'm in New Orleans for the National Performance Network Meeting. I'm here until Monday. At these conferences they usually have showcases every evening but they've scheduled all the performances to happen all day Saturday. I think this is because we are across the street from the Harrah's Casino and nothing will get done when there is a casino and a French Quarter to wander away to. Already in one night, I managed to hit happy hour, Mother's (my favorite restaurant), the W Hotel, Cafe Du Monde and I helped my friend Regie win $7.41 in the penny slots.


The shrimp and lobster po'boy from Mother's. I swear it will be another three days before I come close to eating a vegetable.

They've managed to "clean up" the whole area from the airport to Downtown-- and purposely so. If you didn't know about Katrina, you might not guess anything happened. I got chills passing the Superdome and remembering the stories of people jumping to their death, getting assaulted, and shit piling up in the toilets there. The French Quarter is a lot more corporate than I remember it, it's a little like an outdoor mall and eerily like Third Street Promenade. And I don't remember this place being so "slick around the edges."

We're going on a bus tour in an hour of the parts of New Orleans that most tourists will miss. Should be interesting.

Labels: artist life, New Orleans