Prospect 1: New Orleans

I couldn't think of the proper way to describe Prospect 1 New Orleans so I'll just copy/paste from their website:

Prospect.1 New Orleans [P.1], the largest biennial of international contemporary art ever organized in the United States, opened to the public on November 1, 2008 in museums, historic buildings, and found sites throughout New Orleans.

During our visit in NOLA, we visited several of the P1 locations and my favorite was the one at the Contemporary Art Center. Three stories of large, New Orleans-inspired art. Much of it was a response to Katrina, but none of it felt exploitative.

From top to bottom:

Skylar Fein's Remember the Upstairs Lounge, a multimedia installation paying tribute to lives lost at the Upstairs Lounge Fire of 1973.

Tony Feher's (re:place), a placement several two-liter plastic bottles of orange soda in strategic places in the rafters of the Contemporary Arts Center atrium. That's it.
Apparently, it has become quite a puzzling conversation piece upon walking inside the building.

Shawne Major's War Channel and Eating Cake. I don't know where to start with these... the first one is a whole picture of one of her pieces, from afar. The size of the tapestries are 9 x 14 feet. The close-up shows that the tapestries are a collection of trinkets and toys, hand sewn onto layers and layers of fabrics.

BF in front of a piece I cannot remember who did it. It was really cool though, layers and layers of blueprint-y buildings.

Me in front of some pretend street art. Again, can't remember who I should give credit to for that one.

NOLA Eats + Drinks

Before we got to NOLA, BF was very adamant about eating tons of boudin, oysters, etc. And that we did. It wasn't part of our New Years Cleanse, but it was worth it.

Amazing oysters and boudin at both Desire & ACME Oysters. Different, famous and delicious. Desire allows you to sit on adorably 40's-style diner and watch the Bourbon St. Madness. (picture of dining room above)

Absinthe from Old Absinthe House Bar, or last stop on the Ghost Tour and super cute, authentic and not too touristy. The tour by the way, was hilarious and entertaining way to see the city. Highly recommended by me and the Travel Channel.

I had my first Louisiana Salty Dog at Herbsaint (gin & grapefruit juice, rimmed with sugar and salt). This place was right across from our hotel in the central business district, and was a trendy spot for the locals. Fantastic food, ambiance, etc.

Totally excited to find French Macarons at the cafe inside the New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center! Mission Accomplished.

Irony

Thought I Would Share:

So I have had this blog for about nine months and never post pictures of the BF. I felt it was a little personal. I warmed up last week and posted a picture of him in a blog about Sugarbaby's Cupcake Boutique and low and behold, a random blog picks it up and calls it a "breakthrough" that a male was in this girly bakery. Sorry for exploiting you.

Nadine Blake

My absolute favorite shop in New Orleans was Nadine Blake's design shop. There is a good mix of local art, letterpress stationery, home textiles, etc. She also had an awesome Union Jack inspiration board.

I stocked-up on some cute letterpress cards, of which I cannot show because some of my readers might be receiving them soon.

The interesting thing about New Orleans was that EVERY SINGLE TIME I bought something, the owner sincerely thanked me for buying local and supporting New Orleans. I've got to admit, all the southern charm they laid on me made me not feel guilty about spending.

New Orleans, LA

Okay, I'm back. New Orleans was awesome. Even though it's a tourist-driven city, there's an overwhelming amount of local art, richly flavored food, Zydaco music and Quarter characters. We ate, drank, toured, shopped.. you name it. I'll be posting several highlights from our trip throughout the week.

I strongly urge you to visit New Orleans. Especially if you're a Texan. It's an easy, cheap weekend trip. They're hurting from Katrina and of course, the economy, but it's back. You won't get die from drinking the water or staying in the hotels. The shops, restaurants and museums are up-and-running and GREAT.

Sunday Catch Up

Well look at that. I haven't completely abandoned the Every Day Matters project. It's Sunday afternoon, I'm catching up with Google reader (which, I highly recommend to anyone who doesn't have it yet. Shameless plug: add me to your reader), and drinking espresso, a dangerous and rare event.

Here's a little bit about what's going on with me: no, I'm not moving to Mexico. I hate that I was "that person" who says all this stuff and didn't follow through. I hate those people! Although we had a fabulous time in Mexico it wasn't practical to move there. The plans that have not changed is that I am still inspired to follow my dreams and be happy. For the past two months I have been job-searching like a mad woman and turned down several not-so-enticing-but-decent positions to ensure that I would chose something that would ultimately lead me down a satisfying path.

I snatched a two-month contract position at an ad agency in Houston. I start tomorrow and am both nervous and excited about the next two months. They told me they would love the bring me on as a permanent employee later as long as they can survive in the economy. If it works out, great, if not, okay. I'm just excited to get a little more relevant experience under my belt.

How was your weekend? Mine was fab-u-lous. Lots of New Orleans stuff to come...

P.S. Photo is from San Miguel, not NOLA.

Always In Great Taste

While BF and I were apartment hunting last weekend (Houston, Seattle, Chicago? Where am I going to live in six weeks????), we came across the adorable Sugar Babies Cupcake Boutique. Okay, so the uber-girly decor may nauseate your male companion, but you can get the cupcakes to-go!

You must check it out if you're in the Kirby/Montrose Area. It's also next to a fantastic design shop with plenty of stationery goodies that will tug on your letterpressed heart strings.

Sugar Babies Cupcake Boutique
3310 S. Shepherd
Houston, TX 77098