NEW ORLEANS PHOTOBLOGGING (part four)

Continuing the series of pictures I took in New Orleans last month. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

Here's a fence ornament at a house on the corner of Royal and Esplanade in the French Quarter. There's stuff like this all over the place, which is one of the things that makes the Quarter so unique: the whole place is an aesthetic experience.



Even things that serve a utilitarian function have an aspect of beauty about them. Air grates, like the one below, are on house foundations throughout the area because all the buildings predate air conditioning--my guess is that these grates somehow served to cool interior spaces during the steamy summer months. Of course, the age of the architecture is also why everything is so cool looking: buildings today, like in, say, Houston, are built quickly with lots of prefab materials; beauty is only a minor consideration, if at all.



To continue my comparison with Houston, it's important to point out that because New Orleans existed before the freeway era in which we now live, there is such a thing as street culture there. Despite the city's Houston-like heat during the summer, people walk to get where they're going, which creates marvelous scenes of life-in-action everywhere. Like this one below of a side street off Bourbon near downtown.



Or this cool shoe shine scene a few blocks down Bourbon from the above shot.



The closed quarters of the French Quarter, with its narrow streets and sidewalks, also create scenes of mystery and weirdness. Especially if you're drunk. And let me tell you, I was ripped when I took this picture below.



Speaking of weirdness and mystery, I took this pic below at the R Bar on Royal Street. It's of a skeleton on a motorcycle. If you look closely, you can see the skull in the upper left corner. The bright spot is the bike's headlight.



Still more to come...

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