filles a la cassette

I am deep in the research phase of the new project, so happily spent the late morning sipping coffee, eating bacon and egg sandwiches prepared by J, and delving into New Orleans ghost and vampire lore. When I was there the two times previously with my sister, we visited the highlights like the Death Museum and the French Market, stayed in the French Quarter, walked the cemetery in the Garden District. ate all the NOLA things I was interested in eating and drank a lot of giant daquiris and hurricanes. My favorite was a bookstore/novelty shop devoted entirely to vampire things that seemed to be run by women who were way too obsessed, as I was, with Anne Rice in the 90s. The laudanum poster that hangs in my bathroom came from there, and one night walking by, I spotted the women who maybe were its managers (?) disappearing into a garden and up the stairs to an apartment above in their long skirts and flowy velvet tops..  

There is a certain charm to the research process for me. When I was in college and grad school, I loved the initial phase of gathering information and amassing sources. It's the latent librarian in me I suppose. My enthusiasms would soon dwindle when I actually needed to get things down on paper or the screen. Creative projects are a bit different, and I can usually sustain the excitement to get the project drafted. The projects that involve the most research are often the most engaging for me, long after the initial gathering is finished and all my notebooks closed. I always think I'd have much rather been taught in academia to synthesize information through creative projects rather than 10 page essays. When i got my MFA, many projects evolved this way--errata, archer avenue, at the hotel andromeda, even girl show to a degree, though that was over many semesters.  

Much of the stuff I'm reading focuses on what may or may not have happened at the Ursuline Convent., the stories and legends that are probably wholly untrue but make for a great legend featured on some of the city's haunting and vampire tours. We never caught a ghost tour, but one evening resting on a bench in Jackson Square, watched numerous of them depart. The last time I was there for a poetry conference, I stayed up most of the night reading about the war between the square's artists and soothsayers, the psychics and tarot card readers who set up daily folding tables, mostly staffed with women whom look and dress like Stevie Nicks, and who always seemed way too hot even under the April sun. But the tours were numerous and for every predilection and interest--far more than even Chicago's which has its fair share. 

There was, in fact, a time when I wanted to live there after every visit--would scout apartment and house rentals in neighborhoods that had been brutally gentrified in the wake of Katrina, which left a sour taste in my mouth. In the end, I am a midwestern girl, so in the midwest I'll likely stay, where the winters are endurable and the summers, while not mild, are not quite as unrelenting as the south ((and the bugs not quite so big and airborne), I've wanted to get back for a visit, but somehow 7 years have passed and time and money just hasn't made room for a trip. We've discussed going there for our honeymoon, though definitely not in June right after the wedding, but maybe in the fall around Halloween. 

I will definitely be putting a spooky tour on the itinerary this time for sure.