NEW ORLEANS FEATURES - Life in the BIG EASY
Life in the BIG EASY
One thing you should remember to do before coming to New Orleans: forget everything you know. Or at least most of it. Forget the tips and bits of advice that helped mold you into a responsible and productive member of society. Forget how to behave in public. Forget about not putting things off till tomorrow. Forget restraint and modesty. Forget your sense of direction. And your sense of time. This is New Orleans - those things don't apply here.
New Orleans…a courtesan whose hold is strong upon the mature, to whose charm the young must respond. And all who leave her… return to her when she smiles across her languid fan. - William Faulkner
This is New Orleans. Queen City of the South. An exotic temptress. Steamy, sultry and sensual. For three centuries sunken lazily in the bend of a mighty river near the edge of a continent. Suitors come from near and far - drawn by her beauty, intrigued by her sounds and smells, beguiled by her grace, enchanted by her spirit.
This is New Orleans. Feel free to fall in love. Sin at will. There's always time for guilt tomorrow, or the next day. Eat. Drink. Be merry. Eat more. Drink more. Let it all hang out. Dance wildly. Lose control. Yelp and yowl. Howl at the moon, if you're so compelled. Or just take it easy. Get a good night's sleep. Sip café au lait at dawn and watch the rich, muddy waters of the Mississippi turn golden-red with the rising sun.
This is New Orleans. She accepts all, because she's a product of all. Daughter of Cajuns, Creoles, Native Americans, Spanish, French, Africans, English, Irish, Italians, Germans, the Caribbean and sundry other influences that, all together, shaped her into a city like no other you'll encounter on land native or foreign.
New Orleans food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin. - Mark Twain
Sin is a way of life in the city that invented the cocktail and, later, the drive-through daiquiris shop, the city where 200 years ago a game of dice and chance was introduced and came to be known as 'craps.'
In a city that licensed and taxed its prostitutes well into the 20th century, libidinous appetites are still amply whet; Bourbon Street teems with establishments that hawk the pleasures of the flesh to passersby with such offers as 'Live Sex Shows' and 'Wash The Girl of Your Choice.' But between lust and gluttony - New Orleans' two most popular sins - gluttony is always tops.
Per capita, New Orleans is home to the most overweight population with the shortest average lifespan of any city in the United States. And for good reason: from the city's confluence of cultures centuries ago was born a cuisine that many would say is worth dying for.
The French brought bouillabaisse. Germans brought sausage. Native Americans provided filé powder. African-Americans provided okra. The Senegalese brought rice. The Cajuns provided seafood and cayenne pepper. Stir it all up in the Creoles' black cast iron pot, and you've got gumbo. And if you've ever tasted a good gumbo, you know it was worth all the effort.
But gumbo is just a small part of New Orleans' unique and storied culinary offering. Have beignets for breakfast, red beans and rice for lunch, maybe a nice Trout Amandine for dinner. And, in between, stop at every corner grocery store you pass for a shrimp, oyster or soft shell crab po-boy. There's a good chance every meal you have in New Orleans will be the best you've ever had.
And then there's the music.
New Orleans, that was a place where the music was as natural as the air. The people were ready for it like it was sun and rain. - Sidney Bechet
Living in New Orleans is living with background music. Die in New Orleans, and you might have a jazz band follow you from the church to the cemetery. If you're lucky.
Jazz was born here, and it's still around. Along with brass, funk, rock and roll, zydeco, Cajun, blues, gospel and more. Without much difficulty, you can catch a performance by some of the city's more celebrated musical progeny - The Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Pete Fountain, Ellis Marsalis, Irma Thomas and the like - or you could drop in any given bar on any given night and catch a show you may never forget. Be having such a good time, you won't realize that the sun has risen by the time the band's beginning its third set.
Don't you just love these long, rainy afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn't an hour - but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands - and who knows what to do with it? - Tennessee Williams, 'A Streetcar Named Desire'
Decadence and sin pervade this grand old city on the mighty Mississippi. But it's a graceful decadence, wrought of tradition and joie de vivre. And it's sin with a kind of purity. Sin that celebrates life, instead of debasing it.
Come spend some time down here in the Big Easy. Take it easy for a while. Forget your cares. Know what it means to miss New Orleans.
By: Jason Otis, Contributor