Cheers lissajou, dunno how much time I'll have left but I'll try & make it down to Spellcaster Lodge ... Quintron seems to be on tour at the moment which completely SUCKS A DOG because if his photos & bio are anything to go by he must be one of the biggest must-sees on the planet.
Interesting place. I've been here three times before but not since Katrina. There's a kindof musty smell that hits you when you get off the plane. Haven't been out of the centre but there's a definite shift in ethnic mix since I was here last ... white faces in cleaning jobs & serving food, that kindof thing. An artist I met yesterday told me that commercial rents plummeted last year as a whole bunch of tourist businesses evacuated. Artists & craftsmen saw their chance & communalised & a few blocks of Royal Street are now an artists colony. However, housing rents have gone through the roof & you just can't afford to live here on minimum wage anymore, even on 80hrs a week, she said. You can see it in the hotels: bedlinen goes unchanged, minibars are unfilled, the usual phalanx of gatekeepers, taxi-callers & doormen are strangely absent.
Spent most of yesterday hanging out in Voodoo Authentica in the French Quarter, & at Princess Miriam's spiritual temple. There's gumbo coming out of my ears. Mumbo gumbo, ahahahaha! Sorry.
Will try & find you a tshirt, mistersloane. Incidentally, you will NOT BELIEVE what I found buried under a pile of junk in Dr Zombie's voodoo shop!!!
