N’awlins. The best place in the world?

Posted on August 10, 2010

How can I describe New Orleans? How can I put into words the utter delight of the place, and my dismay at leaving do soon? Quite simply this could very well be the best place in the world.

My stay here has been a straightforward holiday – the programme I’ve been participating in ended in Houston so there have been no meetings or piles of reading material to get through. Just a wonderful city to explore.

I was excited by its reputation for food and music, but to be honest I really only booked some time there because it’s more or less en route from Houston to Wilmington, my departure point from the US later this week.

I’m indescribably glad that I came. There may well be a festival or one sort or another pretty much any time, but I felt immensely lucky that my arrival coincided with Satchmo Summerfest, the free open air festival in celebration of the great Louis Armstrong. Sunday was one long blissful day of jazz, beer, sweltering heat, red beans & rice, fried chicken & mustard greens.

There’s something wonderful about the diversity of the place. Every race, every age, every style that’s cool and everything that’s not. I would never have believed that a wiry, lean black guy dancing frantically in nothing but pearls and sparkly purple pants and waving the tiniest daintiest tassle-fringed umbrella ever seen could not only get away with it, but somehow make it look impressively butch.

Thankfully the crowd, increasingly drenched in sweat as the day wore on, also included many 50-something jazz fans dancing with huge enthusiasm and zero talent, in whose company even rhythmic inadequates like myself feel empowered to shuffle vaguely.

New Orleans is more cool than the cool places – a kind of cool where it doesn’t matter if you’re cool or not. Nobody’s keeping score. Will it mean anything if I say that it felt post-retro? It’s a city where the old rubs shoulders with the new with a completely natural charm; buildings, clothes, furniture, people, and of course music. Everything is up for continual reuse including the tunes.

There’s also a pride of place here which is genuinely well founded, by contrast what I felt to be an automatic and empty nationalism I found in some parts of the US.

Later (with a fair amount of drink taken, it has to be said) I almost wept to think how lucky I was to be there. I’d call this a real place. Not the first one I’ve visited… Chicago definitely qualifies… but the first that I could see myself falling in love with.

And the food. Oh my, the food. I don’t quite know where to begin, but I know that I’m ending with a definite commitment to cook some gumbo as soon as I get home. Whether cheap or expensive, the food was pretty much always sensational. The spices were rich but never overpowering, and the seafood was always a hit. Whoever thought of putting a deep fried soft shell crab into a roll and serving it like a burger deserves a place in whatever afterlife they wish. Last night I wandered back to the guest house quite sober but with a belly full of the best meal I can remember eating, and wishing that I could promenade along Decatur every night of every week.

I leave wanting to know more about the place, and have been recommended to watch the HBO series Treme, which it seems is as much about the musical heart of the city as it is about the striving for recovery after Katrina.

What of the future for this extraordinary place? Rising sea levels and stronger hurricane seasons could pose a terrible challenge to New Orleans. But it’s alive now, and magical. This city can provide moments worth living in here and now, whatever the future holds. Sometimes it seems that the only rational thing to do in the face of an uncertain future is to take the irrational decision to commit to surviving despite ourselves.

“Say, its only a paper moon, sailing over a cardboard sea, but it wouldn’t be make-believe if you believed in me…”

2 Comments

  1. Me too for Gumbo!!
    What a blast . . . . happy sailing!

    D.

    Comment by Dave Harvie — August 11, 2010 @ 10:30 am

  2. Hello Patrick

    have a good journey back. If you like New Orleans you (i’ve never been) you should try reading Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. See here for a review: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/27/zeitoun-dave-eggers-review

    I’ve enjoyed reading about the trip. See you back here in Scotland

    Maf

    Comment by Maf — August 12, 2010 @ 1:59 pm