Millard's Rat

a wonderful coincidence to end the year: I had no idea when I named my lead character Millard that there is an actual rodent named for her. The Millard's Rat, Dacnomys millardi, lives in Asia and is part of the rodent family Muridae. Like most rats, it is not currently endangered, but it is fairly rare to see one. All in all, highly appropriate for my Millard in Rats of Las Vegas.

Happy New Year...from all us rats!

(this rat is a detail from an art piece by Anthony Lister)

Marching bands

horns and drums coming down the street - a specifically New Orleans feeling

for a reminder of what these schools have gone through, to march again, read this

(the Christmas parade down Canal street last weekend)

Confederacy of Dunces

i must reread the classic New Orleans novel by John Kennedy O'Toole. i even know where my copy is...in France, beside a yellow sofa. meanwhile, i will have to toast O'Toole and Ignatius by eating a hotdog at one of the ubiquitous Lucky stands.

Message to the Muse

biking along Prytania thinking of a poem i heard last week at the Gold Mine's 17 Poets!

...nine muses,

all in all,

and four alone

are just for poetry.

The gods were telling us

it would be hard.

Or were they telling us

it would be hopeless?

from Daniel Reinhold's MESSAGE TO THE MUSE

Who to trust in New Orleans

the tour guides are often looking in the wrong direction, reciting facts that tend more to creativity than history. i have more confidence in the mules, who seem to know what they're doing.

evening, New Orleans

rain and horseshoes on the wet pavement, trains and long long boat horns, shouts for the Saints game and sirens, always sirens, a passing car with bounce blaring, and a calliope disappearing against the wind.

Algiers bonfire - FLOODWALL

as the fire took hold last night of the cathartic bonfire installation by Jana Napoli - a structure of drawers retrieved from Katrina-decimated homes

New Orleans vs the cockroach

winter or summer, the occasional bastard-bug pauses to adjust its top-hat and continue along a French Quarter sidewalk.

postcard by lee kyle

Cafe du Monde

after the beignets have disappeared - the tell-tale icing sugar trails out of the Cafe du Monde and into the night

Cafe du Monde, after the beignets

Frenchmen Street

washboard percussion played with thimbles on all fingers - heading out into the cold night i couldn't resist taking a last photo

Wednesday night at The Spotted Cat on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans