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Sep. 16th, 2004 02:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wickedfleaSo I guess New Orleans made it through Ivan in pretty good shape. It always seems to somehow. It's bound to sink one day, and when it does, that's when I check out. I don't want to live in a world with no New Orleans. Even if I've only been there once in the last eight years or so, it's still just about my favorite place on earth. Even as fond as I've grown of NYC in the last three years, it's hard to put it above the Big Easy.
It's a weird place. Maybe that inevitable-sinking thing has something to do with the decadent mood of the city. Like, yeah, we could all go down at any moment, but right now we're here, so fuck it--let's get it on.
I once read an interview with some rock star--I think it was either Trent Reznor, Marilyn Manson, or that guy from Pantera--where the guy said something like, "Florida is where old people go to die. New Orleans is where young people go to die." I thought that was right on. I remember seeing all those gutterpunks down there--kids under 20 who were basically already homeless drunks. If I'd ever gotten the balls to move to New Orleans, I'd probably have ended up like those kids. I used to think about New Orleans all the time when all I was doing was drinking, trying to figure out some way that I could get down there and . . . well, who knows what I thought I was gonna do besides drink. Obviously, I never figured out anything that seemed like a workable plan. Good thing, for if I was hopeless in Pulaski, VA, I woulda been pathetically hopeless in New Orleans. From what I've heard, it's not an easy place to live. The two close friends I had who moved to New Orleans both moved out within a couple of years because the crime and everything else was just too much. Anyway.
Speaking of New Orleans, I re-read A Confederacy of Dunces for about the twentieth time a couple of weeks ago. What an awesome book. I was reading it with an eye toward how it would come across as a movie (I'd just read that the planned production starring Will Ferrell has been canned), and really I just don't think it would work. A good portion of the book is Ignatius's journal entries, and that would be a big loss. And while some of the dialogue would go to the screen perfectly, Ignatius's speech just wouldn't work. It's genius on the page, but I just cannot imagine anyone getting the delivery right, even someone as good as Philip Seymour Hoffman. Least of all Will Ferrell--who's funny, but come on, we're talking about one of the greatest characters in literature, not the cowbell player from Blue Oyster Cult.
If they do ever film it, though, I want to be Jones, the janitor at the Night of Joy. I can totally do him.
It's a weird place. Maybe that inevitable-sinking thing has something to do with the decadent mood of the city. Like, yeah, we could all go down at any moment, but right now we're here, so fuck it--let's get it on.
I once read an interview with some rock star--I think it was either Trent Reznor, Marilyn Manson, or that guy from Pantera--where the guy said something like, "Florida is where old people go to die. New Orleans is where young people go to die." I thought that was right on. I remember seeing all those gutterpunks down there--kids under 20 who were basically already homeless drunks. If I'd ever gotten the balls to move to New Orleans, I'd probably have ended up like those kids. I used to think about New Orleans all the time when all I was doing was drinking, trying to figure out some way that I could get down there and . . . well, who knows what I thought I was gonna do besides drink. Obviously, I never figured out anything that seemed like a workable plan. Good thing, for if I was hopeless in Pulaski, VA, I woulda been pathetically hopeless in New Orleans. From what I've heard, it's not an easy place to live. The two close friends I had who moved to New Orleans both moved out within a couple of years because the crime and everything else was just too much. Anyway.
Speaking of New Orleans, I re-read A Confederacy of Dunces for about the twentieth time a couple of weeks ago. What an awesome book. I was reading it with an eye toward how it would come across as a movie (I'd just read that the planned production starring Will Ferrell has been canned), and really I just don't think it would work. A good portion of the book is Ignatius's journal entries, and that would be a big loss. And while some of the dialogue would go to the screen perfectly, Ignatius's speech just wouldn't work. It's genius on the page, but I just cannot imagine anyone getting the delivery right, even someone as good as Philip Seymour Hoffman. Least of all Will Ferrell--who's funny, but come on, we're talking about one of the greatest characters in literature, not the cowbell player from Blue Oyster Cult.
If they do ever film it, though, I want to be Jones, the janitor at the Night of Joy. I can totally do him.
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Date: 2004-09-16 11:07 am (UTC)hear hear! i love that dirty, reckless, drunk, slow and easy city.
oh, and confederacy of dunces is one of my all time favorite books too. : ) and i don't want this to be a movie either. boo.
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Date: 2004-09-16 11:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 11:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 01:13 pm (UTC)Yeah, there's a good reason I've never been to New Orleans. I'm afraid I'd be too tempted.
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Date: 2004-09-16 02:51 pm (UTC)CoD is one of the greatest books of all time, and sadly, not at all movie material.
Hauntedskipper and I are in love with New Orleans...we even got married there. I'm glad it's been spared ( for the most part.)
I don't think I could live there though...not without lots of money and life insurance.
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Date: 2004-09-16 03:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 03:44 pm (UTC)And don't ask me how I know that either.
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Date: 2004-09-16 03:49 pm (UTC)That sucks, cuz you'd dig it the most. But yeah, that intoxicating feel the city has can get a hold of ya mighty quick.
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Date: 2004-09-16 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 04:16 pm (UTC)yes
Date: 2004-09-16 06:56 pm (UTC)I love the conf of dunces. I can't see how it would be done. I think it should be done the way Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Animation Festival used to have a soundtrack that they would get a half dozen animators to animate. That was way cool. I think the only way to do dunces justice is to have half a dozen directos do it simultaneously and then have a week long festival that shows the versions on consecutive days. The Confederacy of Dunces Film Festival. It could be in New Orleans.
My son's name is Ignatius. But we did that so we could call him Iggy. Love the name. He rocks.
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Date: 2004-09-16 08:09 pm (UTC)I've got that book out from the library right now. I'll read it when I get done with Naked Comes the Manatee.
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Date: 2004-09-16 08:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-17 08:16 am (UTC)He used to open up for my band every time we played Miami.
My wife (who also lived in South Florida) was Gidget's (AKA Brad, the first bassist) girldfriend's best friend.
Brian moved to N.O. during the recording of AntiChrist Superstar to be near Trent's N.O. recording studio (Nothing Studios - which is in a refurbed funeral home somewhere in the northern CBD, I believe).
As far as I know, Brian has been in Los Angelas ever since then.
But, it does sound more like something Brian would say than Trent would.
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Date: 2004-09-17 09:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-17 01:57 pm (UTC)I thought when you said "from here" you were implying that you live in New Orleans.
I didn't think to look at your user info and stuff.
Oops. ;)
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Date: 2004-09-18 04:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-23 07:17 am (UTC)Her husband was playing bass but I recently heard that he went back to his old band for a tour or two.
Other than that, I believe they're still at it.
Although, they go through drummers very much like Spinal Tap.