W2 - Wendy to the Second Power

Kudos to Chris Nakashima-Brown for arranging a special tour for Austin's science fiction/fantasy folks of the !!incredible!! Edgar Allan Poe exhibit at the Harry Ransome Center at UT. A dozen of us met last evening and got a tour of the "unusual topical and contextual approach to Poe's life and work."

And our tour guide? One of the men who put it together! Richard Oram, co-curator of the exhibition and associate director and the Hobby Foundation Librarian at the Ransom Center! Dick was really engaging and fun too. Told us several things about how and why you get such an exhibit together.

The why? It's the 200th anniversary of Poe's birthday.

The how? HRC acquired the full collection of Koester, the most dedicated Poe collector ever, and got a few more items from a Virginia museum.

Lots of stuff in his own handwriting, things about him by other writers, his actual desk for one of his editing jobs, early collections of just about all his works... And great illustrations! Many originals from the 20th century reprints by Arthur Rackham, some Edouard Manets... Even including some Vincent Price movie posters, and Bart Simpson as The Raven. he he

And there's a special sound effect in the mini-art gallery to the left. Walk in, walk around and it'll speed up as you approach a certain wall...

One of the weird things about actually getting from the MARTA station to the Atlanta Hyatt hotel was taking the escalators. All I can guess is that the Peachtree train station is about 3-4 stories below ground. You take one ordinary escalator just to get to a floor with elevators and more escalators. Then you take the mother of all up escalators to get to the Peachtree Mall level. Oh man, this thing soars up and up and up!

The Peachtree Mall itself is sort of cramped and dated. Except for the madding crowd which filled the food court this Friday, I never saw much traffic in it at all. Never could find many stores I wanted to shop in either, and at one point I really wanted to find a sweater or light jacket to buy because the conference rooms were so chilly. So before I checked in, I took advantage of the food court to grab a quick, inexpensive lunch.

Getting my spacious room was no problem, and the hotel people told me how to get to the 2 or 3 below ground levels in the hotel where the ballrooms and meeting rooms were for the conference. As I was down there picking up my registration packet and badge, I heard some familiar music. Turns out the dealers' room (which had awesome stuff, btw) was behind the registration desk. A musical couple had set up on the stage at one end of the dealers' room. The man was playing guitar and singing Celtic songs with a Canadian ("eh') accent. The woman was playing mandolin. She looked up and saw me, and smiled.

( Read More... who could they be? )

Our bags packed and left with the bellcaptain at LQ, Russ (goulo) and I walk east on Chartres to the Arts District. It's actually not quite as humid and hot as it has been. There are lots of turn-of-the-century business buildings and stately trees. Except for that obnoxious and ubiquitious poop smell of New Orleans, it's quite a pleasant walk. There's a major trolley line on Chartres, and I keep lusting after a ride. (I just really like trolleys and always seem to miss a chance to ride them wherever I go.) Russ convinces me the morning is too good to waste inside a trolley. And they are really crowded.

We cut over to Camp Street because we're looking for the Civil War Museum (CWM). All of a sudden the buildings around us grow dull and uninteresting. We can't figure out why -- when we should be in a key part of the Arts District. We finally believe our map and keep walking, and right there on one block we find the CWM next to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art across the street from the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) with the D-Day Museum just around the corner.

( Read More... See Some Photos )

After the ceremony and when the steamboat came back to the Toulouse Street Wharf, I was so tired and hot that I was dreaming of a cool shower and long nap before we had the finale of the wedding events, the 8:00 p.m. dinner at Tujague's ("Two-jacks"). Russ, however, was jazzed and full of energy, especially relieved over his successful speech. He found friends to hang with, while I awaited the taxi that would take the parents and the wedded couple back to our hotels. But it was funny timing. That taxi never came & never came... I kept having second thoughts, third thoughts, and finally -- as the guys were starting their hike into the French Quarter -- I called out "Wait for me!"

I figured, screw it, I could tough out the uncomfortable shoes. How often did I have the chance to wander the Quarter in the daytime? I was sure glad I did. We had a small but sympatico group for our wanderings: Russ, me, Rick S., a fraternity buddy of Wyatt's from Trinity, and Rick's partner, Sheldon V. Rick reminded me of a smiling pocket-sized Viking. Sheldon had a great go-with-the flow energy. Rick and Sheldon were the cutest couple who were very sweet with each other -- they'd been together several years, and traveled a lot. They were in New Zealand just last year, in fact. So we had lots to talk about and they were very accommodating to my hard-core art gallery enthusiasm (I once flew to a gallery show in Wash DC, in fact) and Russ's obsession with prints.

( Read More...and See Photos! )

One of the problems of lodging in downtown N.O. instead of the French Quarter is that, no kidding, lunch goes away on weekdays after 2:00 p.m. and there is no food to be had. I guess they serve the business crowd and the heck with tourists. Russ and I had talked about getting lunch at the airport, since we'd had such an early morning, but that seemed a waste in a town like N.O. Then President Bush inconvenienced our schedule, and it was after 2:00 by the time we got the hotel. We walked outside and did a frustrating tour of the area. We'd see a restaurant and confer: did it meet his requirements (vegetarian meals)? did it meet my requirements (something besides sandwiches, pasta and pizza since I can't eat wheat)? If it did, then-- D'oh! It was locked or closed or the servitors chased us away -- "no more lunch! no more lunch!"

But five blocks away we did find a Cajun-influenced Middle Eastern deli. I got Greek salad with paprika on it (??) while Russ ate his weight in flatbread, humus and olives. I think it was blackened humus. Our entertainment was watching the double payphone in the street outside where flocks of very short, dark men from the Mexican navy stood in line to make calls. Their uniforms were blindingly white and very crisp--odd to see in a place as hot and humid as N.O. I had my first experience there of what happens everywhere I go these days: a black family walked by on the way to a bus stop, and their cute 5 or 6-year-old son saw me in the window, broke into a grin and started waving. Kids do that. I think it's my clown-like face. It helps that I smile at them too. And of course I wave back. I'm not an evil clown.

We connected (the cell phone I bought in April? it really paid off) with Russ's brother, Wyatt. Learned which family members had arrived and who was still expected. As we wandered the nearby streets around Gravier and Magazine, the sky suddenly grew dark. A rumble started. Then lightning flashed through the tall office buildings that surrounded us. As the rain descended, we ducked into an interesting photo gallery on Magazine. Historical and modern works, but none of what I associate with historical photos of N.O. -- the prostitutes of Storyville. Or maybe that was for a private back room? This kept us entertained for about an hour, and still the rain fell. A big, drenching downpour that soaked more than one person we saw.

Russ wanted to go further north to the museum area. Little did we know that the 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. time slot we had open then would've been the only time we could've seen the Civil War Museum. That we didn't learn until Sunday. But that Friday, I didn't want to walk blocks in such heavy rain. We finally recognized that much more festivity was scheduled for that evening so we'd better crash while we could. We returned to the LQ to nap and read until dinner.

--MORE TO COME
( Some photos from the trip )