So, my wife and I were in New Orleans, Louisiana last week. She was there
for the National Veterinary Conference, and I was mostly along for the ride.
For some reason, I was a little nervous about going to post-Katrina N.O., but
of course it turned out I needn’t be. The city is as safe and clean as any U.S.
city I’ve been in. So if anyone is avoiding going there, don’t. It’s still a great
city and can certainly use your touristin’ money.
We were glad to throw some cash around. There were so many great
chefs and musicians and artists that could use it… New Orleans is really a
musician’s paradise. There’s tons of jazz, rock, country, zydeco, you name
it. Busking abounds (especially in the French Quarter) and many restaurants
have live musicians on the premises (especially, but not exclusively, on the
weekends).
We ate in many great restaurants, but my favorite was Landry’s seafood
on the western edge of the French Quarter. It was, IMHO, underrated by the
tourbooks. We also got to go to a local organization’s fund-raiser to build
a new Community Center, which featured a concert by a great Zydeco band:
Sunpie Barnes and the Louisiana Sunspots. They had great food, a silent
auction, and even a painter who spent the night painting a picture of the
band, which was subsequently auctioned. It occurred to me quickly that
these people knew how to throw a party!
We did take a bus tour which went through the ninth ward. It was interesting
that, instead of debris, there was just lots of empty land. The only way you
could tell where houses once stood was by the driveways (they mostly
built the houses up on blocks, so there’s little in the way of foundations
left). They’re definitely rebuilding, but it’s still going to take awhile. Harry
Connick, Jr. and other musicians from the area have gotten a “musicians’
village” built, so musicians who want to come back to the city can have
affordable housing.
The AVMA managed to swing a tour of the Audubon Society’s endangered
species center (which is not open to the general public). They have some
African wildcats who have been cloned, and two different lines of cloned
cats have been mating, so there’s hope for increasing endangered
species’ numbers, without all the inbreeding that we used to see. They’re
also doing experiments with Transgenics in cloned domestic cats. This
usually involves putting in marker genes that will show up as a physical
characteristic, so that you can tell if the gene you’re actually trying to
get in was expressed in the individual. The most popular of these markers
seems to be one that creates a fluorescent protein (you can tell it worked
if the animal glows when exposed to UV light). So, yes, they took us in a
room with a normal-looking orange tabby kitten, turned off the lights, turned
on a blacklight, and that kitten’s nose and paw-pads glowed in the dark!
I thought that was hella-cool. (Note to Caroluna and other biology types:
let me know if any of that was woefully inaccurate.)
Executive Summary:
New Orleans has great music and great food. You should totally go.