DAY 5 – NEW ORLEANS
There is something here, I’m not exactly sure what it is. It hovers between dimensions, sticks to the skin, rises from the earth and concrete. Everything is unique but nothing seems out of place. The city is a mystery in the midst of creation without a clear resolution, except possibly, a tragic one. I could talk about the history, the culture, the misfortune, but that’s probably best left to historians and other experts on those topics. I’m just a travelling man, but my perspective is my own, shaped by my experience up to this point on earth. Visit New Orleans at least once in your life if you haven’t and see how you feel.
I would have to say that my desire to visit New Orleans began in earnest right around the time I saw the Jim Jarmusch film Down By Law. The tracking shots at the opening of the film set to “Jockey Full of Bourbon” just did something to me, I’m not sure what exactly, but it propelled my senses more towards mystery than reality. I wanted to drink a lot of whiskey and go and hang in suspect neighborhoods with pimps and drug addicts and see what I found. Now I have had the opportunity to do that, just not in New Orleans, and I live a sober lifestyle, so that old dream will go unfulfilled. But I would have to say that it goes much deeper than that. When I would see pictures of New Orleans, hear stories from friends who had been there or watch a film set there I was just drawn to its mystique. Now I was finally able to check it out for myself.
The short for the day featuring John D.
Workers at Cafe Du Monde.
One of the many beautiful streets.
Now we did a bunch of touristy shit for sure, like St. Louis cemetery, Cafe Du Monde, Central Grocers, but we also just walked around with no set destination. Some of our movements were motivated by trying to find a decent Voodoo shop to shoot a short film in, which we found, but we also just kind of explored the streets, wiped the constant sweat off our brows, and took pictures. We ate great gumbo and sandwiches and thought about this place 10 years ago, which is coincidentally when I’d say my personal life really took a dive back in Philadelphia. I remember being stuck to the television, watching the events unfold, in complete and utter disbelief. I remember refugees from the storm setting up temporary homes in an old building right on Temple’s campus, all the way in North Philadelphia of all places. And I remember a part of me wished that I could somehow do something. But those were also very selfish years for me.
There is just something hidden within the boundaries of this place, and the whole time you are here you try to uncover what is continuously eluding you, only to find that the only satisfaction you can wrest out of the situation is that fact that you will never discover what it is. It is beyond you, it exists beyond the confines of this dimension, and once this is accepted, you can access a tiny little bit of it, enough to inhale at the tail end of each breath, the moment right before you sigh. It is a very magical place in every sense of the word. Thank you New Orleans.
♥