New Orleans, And After
Jun. 17th, 2013 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
handful_ofdustHad a lot of fun in New Orleans--too much, on occasion (but really only on one occasion, because I just can't do that anymore). A lot of people chose to come down two days early and leave two days after the con, which would have been a smarter/more enjoyable way to go. I also would really have liked having Steve there with me. One way or the other, I was mainly restricted by time, weather (it was hot as hell and humid, to, which made it hard to go anywhere except in the early morning and later evening) and location to a few blocks' worth of the French Quarter, but that was still pretty amazing. Ate lots of good but gluten-intensive food, even though I was going out of my way to avoid said gluten, and I think I'm now courting a bit of a cold because of the absolutely arctic air conditioning. I'm also very tired.
For me, one of the primal images (which I tweeted yesterday) was walking into a Wagreen's drugstore to pick up Tylenol Sinus and Advil, and seeing a bin full of alligator heads next to the front door. "Oh, plastic gator heads," I thought, and picked one up, then flipped it over to reveal a tag that read: "Q: Is this a real gator head? A: YES." A real gator head, juvenile-sized and flash-cured, with meat and skin still attached but the eyes replaced by marbles. You could see through the back of the throat because it'd been removed at the uppermost vertebra."Yaaagh," I found myself saying, and literally threw it back down. (For Michael Rowe, the cruellest thing about New Orleans was seeing horses pulling coaches full of tourists everywhere; for me, weirdly, it was that.)
On the first night, we also passed by the front entrance of Larry Flynt's Hustler Club on Bourbon Street, and were weirded out to discover its interior design highly reminiscent of a fairground spook-house, with fake cobwebs ans pumpkin-orange screens everywhere. I took to calling it "the haunted house of vag" or "the haunted house of gynecological survey." Didn't go in, mainly because I already know what a woman's parts look like, but it was pretty odd.
Otherwise: Bought way too many books, got some for free, talked to people I hadn't seen in a long time, hung with other people I'd never met before. Probably amde some contacts, but I was mainly treating it like a vacation. Readercon will be the real deal.
For those who haven't already seen it (I tweeted this link too), I was startled to Google myself on Friady and come up with this rather amazing fan-made trailer for the Hexslinger Series! As ever, it's cobbled together from a lot of different sources, some of which I recognized immediately, sopme of which I didn't. Great choices by the maker, bachaboska.
At any rate: I'm home now, slept late, had some fearful/insane dreams, and need to start working on my immediate goals, including finally finishing "His Face, All Red". So I will see youse anon.;)
For me, one of the primal images (which I tweeted yesterday) was walking into a Wagreen's drugstore to pick up Tylenol Sinus and Advil, and seeing a bin full of alligator heads next to the front door. "Oh, plastic gator heads," I thought, and picked one up, then flipped it over to reveal a tag that read: "Q: Is this a real gator head? A: YES." A real gator head, juvenile-sized and flash-cured, with meat and skin still attached but the eyes replaced by marbles. You could see through the back of the throat because it'd been removed at the uppermost vertebra."Yaaagh," I found myself saying, and literally threw it back down. (For Michael Rowe, the cruellest thing about New Orleans was seeing horses pulling coaches full of tourists everywhere; for me, weirdly, it was that.)
On the first night, we also passed by the front entrance of Larry Flynt's Hustler Club on Bourbon Street, and were weirded out to discover its interior design highly reminiscent of a fairground spook-house, with fake cobwebs ans pumpkin-orange screens everywhere. I took to calling it "the haunted house of vag" or "the haunted house of gynecological survey." Didn't go in, mainly because I already know what a woman's parts look like, but it was pretty odd.
Otherwise: Bought way too many books, got some for free, talked to people I hadn't seen in a long time, hung with other people I'd never met before. Probably amde some contacts, but I was mainly treating it like a vacation. Readercon will be the real deal.
For those who haven't already seen it (I tweeted this link too), I was startled to Google myself on Friady and come up with this rather amazing fan-made trailer for the Hexslinger Series! As ever, it's cobbled together from a lot of different sources, some of which I recognized immediately, sopme of which I didn't. Great choices by the maker, bachaboska.
At any rate: I'm home now, slept late, had some fearful/insane dreams, and need to start working on my immediate goals, including finally finishing "His Face, All Red". So I will see youse anon.;)
