March… should have been better. I have less time to myself in the evenings than I should, and I’ve been watching more TV, which is why my book list has been dwindling. This is one of the things I’d like to work on for the rest of the year, because it really does make me feel more fulfilled when I finish novels I’ve been wanting to read. And there’s something so cozy about curling up in bed at the end of a long day and reading for just half an hour…

• The Killing Dance – Laurell K. Hamilton
• Blue Moon – Laurell K. Hamilton
• Let the Right One In – John Ajvide Lindqvist
• Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert

I have also started A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens, but I’m having trouble motivating myself to keep at it, since it’s a difficult read. And I realize I read the two Anita Blake novels out of order, having skipped Burnt Offerings by mistake.

Anyway, I have two of the 10 Most Disturbing books picked out for next month and the month after, having bought them for a reduced rate at one of the Book Nooks in the area.

Next month, I hope to read at least four books, and hopefully five if I get my act together and actually spend more time reading.

New Orleans, in food and drink:

• At Fritzel’s: The Hurricaine
• At House of Blues: Louisiana shrimp and crawfish etouffee, creole seafood jambalaya, and a side of rosemary skillet cornbread with maple butter. The etouffee is a soup-like mixture of seafood and rice in cajun spices. Never had jambalaya before this, and wish I’d gotten it (the three kinds of meat in this dish are chicken, sausage, and shrimp). And finally, the cornbread was the highlight of the meal, I must say. Am looking for the recipe now.
• From Cafe du Monde: three orders of beignets with one large coffee.
• Somewhere inside the Riverwalk is alligator jerky, fudge, and mango-flavored wine.
• From an unknown restaurant on the way to the Garden District, St. Charles Avenue: crawfish po-boys and greasy onion rings with tartar sauce and ketchup.
• From The Green Goddess: Louisiana bangers and mash (duck sausage and mashed sweet potatoes with a hint of orange and roasted garlic) and beef seared on Himalayan salt bricks (tri-tip beef, with pickled greens and bok choy). For dessert, purple haze chevre (goat cheese rubbed with fennel pollen and lavender, and served with some sweet jelly and honey, with a roasted nut), and dates stuffed with foie gras mousse. And to drink? The Daily Truth cocktail, which changes. Saturday night’s is something like pink champagne with Del Maguey mezcal, so that it is smoky and sweet and mysterious.
• Sunday brunch is at some restaurant in the French Quarter, whose name escapes me. I have two sunny-side-up eggs with three strips of bacon, buttery grits, and toast.
• Lunch at Johnny’s Po-Boys: a calamari po-boy with an iced tea.

New Orleans in attractions/places:

• Our hotel, Chateau Dupre: It’s located on Decatur Street and Canal Street, which puts it right on the edge of the Business District and the French Quarter. It’s a short walk to the casino, Harrah’s, and an even shorter walk into the French Quarter itself, where many of the most famous attractions in New Orleans are anyway. The hotel itself is okay, a little old. High ceilings and tall windows give it some charm (although our curtains were almost immovable and broken, which made the room very dark), and the bed wasn’t too bad. Drawbacks are that sound carries straight through the walls. We were up at odd hours because of the constant shouting from outside and the incessant beep of horns from the city.
• St. Anthony’s Garden - On the first day we visited St. Anthony’s Garden, which is located at the back of the St. Louis Cathedral. Evidently it was some religious holiday that they were celebrating, and we got a few blessed apples and took some photos.
• St. Louis Cathedral – We didn’t manage to visit this until Sunday, right before leaving, and this was only after Mass at 11 o’clock. Only inside the cathedral do you notice the beauty of the stained glass that lines the walls, all the way up to the front of the sanctuary.
• Bourbon Street – During the day, the streets are damp from the street cleaners who spray down the curbs and sidewalks which are littered with beads, cigarette butts, bottle caps, and the remnants of booze. The shops open slowly, the employees setting out plates of food displayed under saran wrap to try and entice you inside, placing large pink hydrangeas outside in giant planters. At night, this street is closed to traffic, and people mill about in droves, most clutching drinks, some holding each other up as they drag themselves from bar to bar. Small establishments open their doors and windows and advertise no cover charge (but with a 1 drink minimum). Music seems to come from the ground itself, but really it’s a combination of stereos pointed out the doors, live bands drifting up and down on the air, and street musicians, brass bands, guitar players, and vocalists, all together in a cacophony of sound. It smells of boiled crawfish, alcohol, grease, smoke, and bodies packed in close together, all dancing and enjoying the night life. It is like this every night.
• Harrah’s - This is the casino down on Canal Street. It is large, and by large I mean… you’re walking through seemingly endless rooms filled with tables, slot machines, blinking lights, people. The ceilings are lavish and painted with designs reminiscent of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, or with tiny pinpoints of light made to resemble the Milky Way on a cloudy night. Walking in, you feel instantly refreshed (thanks to the oxygen they pump in to keep you there and gambling all night). I played penny slots for a while and did okay the first day, won nothing the next day. Sunday as we left, I decided to put $5 down to play the Wizard of Oz slot machines (which were 40 cent machines) and sat down at the first one I saw open. After a couple pulls, things began to light up! I ended up winning $15. Stopped there, though. After a while it’s depressing inside; there are no natural lights (because they don’t want you to know what time it is), and people arrive there to gamble at all hours. Morning, noon, and especially night. But it makes me sad to see old people sitting by themselves, throwing away money. Anyway, visiting the casino is also the way we qualified for free parking.
• The Dragonmaster Showcase – This is a dance group who’s been performing in the French Quarter, in front of the St. Louis Cathedral for a very long time. Their act is about half comedy, half dancing, and they do some pretty acrobatic stuff, culminating in one of them getting a running start and flipping over seven or so people. Lots of racist jokes throughout the whole thing (stuff like, “Giving us money will keep us out of two places: jail and your house!”), but overall, completely enjoyable.
• The Riverwalk – This is a huge strip along the Mississippi, but also is comprised of an indoor mall. There aren’t very many exciting stores; most are geared towards tourists and sell the same trinkety crap over and over. When we went, there was this odd massing of fat people. And I commented, and upon asking a security guard at the mall, we were informed that the line was for auditions for “The Biggest Loser.” Well. That explains that.
• Fritzel’s European Jazz Pub – We wandered in here randomly and squeezed in on a wooden bench. I ordered a Hurricane, which snuck up on me, and we listened to  (I believe) Mike Fulton and Barry Foulon’s group. It was phenomenal jazz, and really great to see a live group again. I’d go back here in a heartbeat.
• The Green Goddess – It was raining outside when we got to this restaurant, which was tucked back in an alley in the French Quarter.  Not realizing at the time, we found out that the waiter was actually the head chef, and the food is classified as “American Eclectic.” A good experience, albeit a little pricey–the meal was around $50 or $60 at the end of things, and we only had one drink between the two of us–but I would come back here, if only to have the chevre and the strange Del Maguey mezcal again.
• The Garden District – We drove here on Saturday before the rain started, and walked a few blocks, dodging other tourists with their cameras out along the way. Magnificent is one word to describe these houses, but doesn’t truly do them justice. For all of the ones that are understated, there are five or six that are simply stately and grand, with beautiful architecture and color. Need to come back here at some point and be more thorough in the walkthrough.
• Cafe du Monde – This was one thing that everyone agreed on when I asked them what should be done on a first trip. On Saturday morning around ten, we stood in line with a great mass of people. The line itself wrapped around the small courtyard that marks the start of the French Market. We didn’t wait for long. And once seated, we ordered three plates of beignets, which are puffy little squares of dough that are piled high with fluffy powdered sugar. I sipped coffee after we ate. It was heavenly. All while people who were still in line stared at us enviously. There’s also the option of going to the takeout line and sitting wherever you could to eat your beignets; spatterings of powdered sugar lay at the feet of people all along the French Market wall, people who were bent over their laps while trying to neatly eat the doughnuts. I bought a box later, so hopefully I can try to make them at some point.
• The Flea Market – Busy. Reminded me of that tent city in Nassau, where people are crowded together selling their discounted wares. Not as depressing, though. Nothing major here.
• The House of Blues – Almost forgot about this one! We ate here late at night, but one of the cool things about this restaurant (aside from its history) is that they put on live shows most nights, and their ceiling is full of silhouettes of notable musicians. They leer over you while you eat the yummy food. We didn’t go to a show; AFI was playing and I’m not necessarily a fan, but sometime in the future if we’re there, it would be wonderful to catch a few minutes of music.
• Pirate Alley – Just a small alley next to St. Anthony’s Garden. The only thing I wanted to visit here was the Faulkner House, which was just one room of books, and then the Old Absinthe House, which we did not visit.
• Jackson Square – The square that houses the St. Louis Cathedral. Every morning artisans set up here, as well as street performers. It’s also right across from the French Market, and is a nice little place to relax for a moment before continuing on around the French Quarter.

All in all… a fabulous little getaway, although not entirely restful because of how much walking we did. I found myself exhausted every night from having been up all day and wandering around the city, taking pictures, seeing things. But this isn’t a bad thing. We had plenty of downtime, and without a strict itinerary, were able to just let things happen.

For anything we didn’t do, I have a great idea of the what to do, see, and eat next time we’re in town!  And for being on a budget, we could have done a lot worse in terms of what we ate and drank. New Orleans is a relatively affordable city though, if you’re careful and smart about how and where you drink and eat. I would definitely recommend visiting to anyone who likes food, the nightlife, and history.

I only wish now I could take a vacation to recuperate from this vacation.

Next up, a small trip to Maryland, and then the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, anyone?

This weekend was a good one. I think one of the highlights was seeing The Crazies, but it was more than just seeing this movie. It was the new theater that we discovered: Northlake Movie Tavern.

The good things about this theater:

• They serve food
• Their tickets are cheap ($5.50 for matinee, $7.50 for 3d movies during matinee times)
• They’re fairly close (I-285 and Lavista Road, which isn’t terribly far from my apartment)
• They show decent movies (versus older movies, or the ones that have not done well at the box office)

I think a cheap but decent theater is worth noting, especially these days when a typical matinee will run you about $20.

Anyway, we saw The Crazies and while we didn’t order any food, still thoroughly enjoyed the film.  Basically, it’s about a small town who begins to experience a strange illness that quickly leads to its containment from the outside world.  The military steps in to monitor the containment while a small group of survivors struggle towards freedom.

I liked the movie, even though it was definitely a B-grade film. I mean, why wouldn’t I like it? The disease that the town contracts turns people into mindless zombie-like creatures (well, really the disease makes them crazy… hence The Crazies. But the symptoms resemble zombie infection as well!), and lots of gore and shocking violence ensues. That and the focus is around a small band of people who fight for survival… My kind of film.

But it’s dark and appropriately scary.  And had Joe Anderson. You may know him from Across the Universe (as Max), and The Ruins (as the German guy who gets his back broken).  I feel like this is a guy to watch, as he does a good job with even the most minute role. Even though The Crazies was technically a horror film, there were several moments when I found myself moved by the raw emotion he’s so good at portraying.

Anyway, that was the weekend. Good times.

I finished American Psycho.

I can honestly say that for the faint of heart, reading this book is not a good idea. Not a good idea at all. Now that I’m finished with it, I am almost tempted to return it to Borders. I have the original receipt and the book is in good condition, so I’ll certainly get my money back.

But anyway, what can I say about it… except that it definitely deserved its spot on the Most Disturbing list.

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Puffer died.