*thanks to the ever fabulous Fabulastic at queer the pitch for the new header.

window seat

four things seen today (and not photographed)

1. The same two young Mexican men I'd seen last year at Sam's: one cholo-like, the other with bobbed hair, in women's jeans, named, "Manuel." Manuel had dutifully filled up an extra large fountain coke for his man. They shared a straw, pushing out a cart filled to the brim with raw pork: chops, loin, sausage. Today, however, they were quietly shopping the discount shoes at Marhsalls.

2. A tattooed midget hipster, all of four feet, dressed like a lumberjack in plaid and rolled jeans, walking down Airline Dr.

3. An Arab family having dinner at The Texas Roadhouse. The father, one of the ugliest men I've ever seen: huge, pockmarked, unibrow....was dead silent.
His wife, clearly two decades younger, was equally quiet, but dark eyed and pretty, dressed in a black hijab, drinking sweet tea and eating a fried onion blossom. Their three sons, loudly played video games at the table, messily eating buffalo chicken wings, each dressed your standard Redneck camouflage ensemble.

4. A sixty something black man, tall and slender....an albino...striding across Tulane Ave., dressed in a burgundy polyester suit---an absolutely breathtakingly beautiful sight.

Hot. Awkward. Random

C. (for Coloring outside the lines)

P. (for Pretty panties)

R. (for Reading is Fundamental)

N. (for Narcissism)

F. (for Fashion)

D. (for Donnie Darko)

V. (for Vagina, which he once had )

E. (for eek!)

O. (for Cousin Oliver)

M. (for Mathlete)

D. (for [look away, look away] Dixieland)


H. (for Hot)

Y. (for "Yes, Please")



M. (for Make your own fun)


B. (for Big Gulp)


mostlt by way of my own site(goldenfleecing) and the fabulous
sissy dude

Nita and Zita

The other day I found a section in a book about these two fabulous New Orleanians. I vaguely remember a story in the Times Picayune when Zita died, and I was fascinated then, but the information was scant. In the intervening years, there has been a bit more interest.

Needless to say, this city is famously full of such characters, but these two women are especially interesting to me. I hope one day someone decides to examine their lives more, make a film, or a book perhaps. In the meantime, I think I might just take a trip to see what their house is like on Dauphine St. now, if I can find the address.

Here are a few quotes from a great introduction to them online, part of a play about them produced a few years back:

"Flora and Piroska immigrated to the U.S. from the Jewish shtetl of Nagybanya,
Hungary, in 1922 to pursue their career as "international dancers," performing
under the names Nita and Zita. Photos indicate that their act combined burlesque
and acrobatics. Together, they performed all over the United States, and, as far
as we can tell, Shanghai, Panama, and perhaps Paris and Egypt. The sisters were
known for carrying their elaborate, handmade clothes and costumes with them in
two steamer trunks.In the late 1940's, the sisters settled in New Orleans and
became quite reclusive...."

"Their home became their refuge. They painted their entire house -- inside and
out -- in brightly colored sponge patterns, and painted most of their furniture
with intricate spider web figures. On the rare occasions that they did leave the
house, they dressed in fine handmade clothes of their own design.Flora and
Piroska died in 1985 and 1991 respectively. They are buried in the pauper's
section of Hebrew's Rest Cemetery in New Orleans. The only people present at
Piroska's funeral were a Rabbi and Betty Kirkland, the sisters' next door
neighbor.... "

"Nita and Zita lived in their house on Dauphine Street in the Faubourg Marigny from approximately 1947 until their respective deaths in 1985 and 1991. They were known for making all of the repairs to their home themselves, including repairs to the roof. Always resourceful, they fixed the floor of their home with tin can lids hammered in with tiny nails, and covered over holes in the wall with fabric. If they were known for their diligent work ethic, they were NOTORIOUS for their wild aesthetic: they painted their entire house, inside and out, with wild, abstract patterns. Bead curtains hung in the archways of their house, and photos of them in their showgirl prime lined the walls. In photos of Nita and Zita taken in their home when they were older, the painted walls and bead curtains give the effect of a fantastic nightclub or shimmering stage."

"The house was literally packed with thousands of pieces of handmade clothing,
hundreds of photos of Nita and Zita performing, handmade bead curtains, handmade
placards advertising Nita and Zita performances, and more...."

(Here's a dress of theirs that was offered for sale a while back, now sold. )

You can read more here and
here

dining out

Every now and then I find myself at dinner with a friend of a friend, whom I've met maybe five or six times. He's young and good looking. He seems to live in a candy colored vortex of alcohol and drama. Listening to him is endlessly entertaining and exhausting.

Anyway, here are some quotes from tonight's dinner. Sadly (?), I know it's all the truth.

1. "'I have a son your age,' one of them tells me. She was kinda hot for an old chick.
"Oh, reeeally? Hmmm?' I say."

On what happened to him after the last time I'd seen him. Three married women in their 40s, having a girls' night out at the next table offer him and his friend a ride after dinner. They ended up at the Hustler Club.

2. "Brandon lost, but it didn't really count. I mean really. He's a stripper anyway, so what's the point?"

On playing strip pool.

3. "Her mom was all like: 'Why don't you two date? You're always introducing her to different stuff! She needs to get her mind expanded like that' I was all like: 'You just don't even know.'"

Friend's mom to him after bringing back leftover pho.

4. "They all say if you say 'no homo' before you do it, it doesn't count as gay. Or maybe that's after. I don't know. You know, like: 'hey, let's fist! No homo'. And then it's not gay. Something like that."

On the conversation at a party of his roommate's army friends.

5. "He's out of Juvie now! It's gonna be hot."

In reference to a question about his 17 year old ex.

6. "You should come! Two dollar shots, man...they even bring 'em to you in the hot tub. I spent 95 dollars last Wednesday. I was fuuuucked up."

7. "Oh, no, it's not that organized,"

Answered in response to my, "Gee, how does that work? Do you play spin the bottle or something?" Asked in response to his recounting of the four girls and two boys he'd had sex with the night before.

8. " Uh...well, I've been to Chik-Fil-A three times this month,"

Answered by me, in response to his question "What's new?" Sadly, this pretty sums me up.

How to have style (part deux)

When in doubt: a cigarette and a pinky ring will always do the trick.

Cleavage never goes out of style.

Exhibits a and b

Always coordinate *

*courtesy of the fabulous mean dirty pirate

A splash of pink champagne...a splash of pink rinse*

*by way of the ever debonair tjb

overheard 4:15 pm

Two boys, 12 or so, one roly poly, one slender, both in uniform.

"Oooo...lawd, I'm so dizzy I can't even feel my feet!"

Getting off a carnival ride, the roly polier one announces to his friend, clutching (phantom) pearls, fanning himself, like a 50 year old church lady.

do it do it do it again

Something new from (New Orleans own) Galactic

found by way of the supercool sturtle

erin go bragh

cherchez

I don't remember most of my elementary school classmates' names. I barely remember my teachers. I do, however, remember about five minutes of an early evening in the fall three decades or so ago.

I was walking down the darkened hall, hurrying to the safety of my bedroom.
The radio in the room next to mine was turned on. Passing the doorway, I heard a peculiar, tinny voice. I stopped.
It was this song:

I was hypnotized. I sat down in front of the radio, and drifted off to some other world, the 1940s through a disco prism.

I got up and didn't know what to do. No one announced the name of the song. It was gone. No matter how often I listened to the radio, I never heard it again. There was no one to tell about this discovery. I wouldn't have known what to say even if there had been.
My peers would have thought me weirder than they already must have.
The song was stuck in the back of my head, however.

Sometime, about eight years ago, I found out the artist's name (Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band), and in the intervening years I've found out more about them. I've found a couple of interesting articles about them, like this one. I learned how some of the members eventually split off to become Kid Creole. I've even listened to some of Cory Daye's own music.
(I see that a number of artists, most famously: M.I.A. Ghostface Killah, Miss Kittin, Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, were somehow or another influenced. )

Anyway, when, thanks to the internet, I found the song again, I remember being surprised. It was not nearly as "different" as I remembered it being. If I'm honest, I didn't really even like it much any more.The other night, however, I found this video and bookmarked it. Since then I've kept replaying it. It's a glimpse of a lost world, maybe several lost worlds...nostalgia built upon nostalgia built on more nostalgia.
I think I've finally grown to love the song for real now, where I once just had a childish infatuation.

Anyway, finally, this past week I got a copy of the cd in the mail, and have been playing it every day to work, and fallen in love with this:




(thanks to the fabulous michael guy for prompting this rerun)

classics

Searching for a theme for today's utter mundanity, I can only think of one:
old stuff classics.
I guess I'm in a traditionalist mood at the moment.


I went to the newly opened Chik-fil-A, the first one in the metro area. It's hard living in a third world country here. One day I hope we'll be as advanced as Baton Rouge. I can only hope.

It was crazy busy, and despite the lack of refill on my diet coke (unheard of!), still worth it.

It's been 3 years since I've had a Chik-fil-A sandwich, I think....so of course I got the classic. Fried chicken on a buttered bun, I mean really, how much better can it get?




Next stop was the bookstore, and on a whim, bought this book...discounted to 15 dollars.


There are even a few vintage pictures of the westbank in it.




Next on the trip were a few antique stores. In one, I found a perfect mirror, a 19th century repro of a Baroque mirror, but could not afford it. Left, but kept thinking about it the whole day after.





















(semi-reasonable facsimile, see figure below)


Lastly, I decided to take my lonesome to see "The Last Station",
because I'm a costume drama whore and, hello, Helen Mirren.
Of course, she's fantastic. How could she not be?



The adorable Mr. McAvoy was an added attraction.

I really enjoyed it, though everytime I'd see the mirror in Tolstoy's parlor, I'd start to daydreaming again.

















(talking about classics, aged to perfection there, huh? damn.)

more stuff I need right now

These.

These.

Tony Duquette chandelier

Edward Wormley sofa (thanks to PT in DC). Cool, no?


A multipurpose keychain (shank-a-bitch-ifix)

A rococco mirror.
(I've been in a French kind of mood lately.)



A trip to Paris.

a Theodore Roszak sculpture (by way of the haunted lamp )


This knitted hat, for when hell freezes over (i.e. I get to Paris).

picture of the day

by way of my other site:

goldenfleecing

flashback

still the jam.

non-life drawing

What I've been doing for the past 20 minutes...drawing that is, not resting my head on the pillow....ok, so that too.
Now I'll have to clean the bed of eraser crumbs before I can go to sleep.

twelve things learned in the past 48 hours

1. Nothing is cuter than a group of nuns...in habits...at an sidewalk cafe...at night...eating croissants...playing with a puppy.

2. There's never a camera when needed.

3. "Smushed" is a "Jersey shore verb" which is also a Westbank verb, but then many are.

4. I have a New Orleans accent (ahem)

5. The Banana Republic model who catches your eye while gayly prancing out of his Land Rover at Whole Foods will surprisingly (?) retrieve one of a set of twins from his homely wife and proceed to prance to the cheese counter, with her lumbering behind him.

6. I have two gray eyebrow hairs.

7. Missourians pronounce it "Missouruh" in the northern part of the state. Brad Pitt is from Missouruh.

8. I don't care.

9. Nicholas Cage, in real life, is small and thin and looks "like Phyllis Diller".

10. I really want to see Phyllis Diller.

11. Blood oranges aren't worth the extra price.

12. How ridiculously fun it is to read lines with Tallulah Bankhead.

endangered modernism

New Orleans doesn't seem to have much great 20th century architecture...or even good, but there are some interesting buildings still left.


Canal Street. It's a prettier building than this photo shows. It's been abandoned for a while now. It used to be a car dealership (?) I believe, in the 1960s.



There are a number these deco houses around. Living there, I think, would be like living on a ocean liner....complete with water line.



Old gas station near my home.Seems it's on the way to being destroyed. Note the
Blue Plate Mayo Factoryin the background.