New Orleans, Day 2.
Beignets and coffee for breakfast at Cafe Du Monde. Simple, cheap, delicious. Strolled along the waterside looking at the muddy Mississippi. Found the Louisiana Music Factory, should've bought some Fats Domino, but wasn't in the mood, so I bought Coltrane, Cohen and Springsteen. McDonald's for dinner because I was lazy. But what's so bad about that? When in Rome...
Day 3. At Betsy's Pancakes on Canal St I had the best breakfast so far in USA. Bacon & eggs (overeasy) with grits and black coffee. And of course the waitress asks "you wanna refill hun'?" I sat at the bar.
Magazine St is out of the French Quarter, and I was glad to be there, away from my fellow tourists. It is a beautiful street, with old villas and many trees. I found a tea house down there! In New Orleans I had the best cup of tea so far in USA. It was Irish Breakfast.
On Magazine St is Jim Russell Records. Rated by Billboard in the top 10 record stores in USA. It was a dusty old cluttered place, crammed with rarities. I counted about 12 vinyl copies of Blood on the Tracks, and they even had a Neil Young bootleg recording on vinyl! It was $50, which is a lot, but I probably should've bought it. From there I took the Band, and Van Morrison.
Back in the French Quarter I went to Faulkner House Books, but found no Faulkner! I did find a wonderful little manifesto by Ferlinghetti, called "Poetry As Insurgent Art". Next stop, Le Petit Soldier Shoppe. I bought a wee Confederate Infantryman. Chatted for an hour to a crazy local who painted the soldiers.
At the House of Blues this night were the Roots. It was a great show, with the full band, including a guy playing tuba. There was a great mix of people there. I did actually prefer the Arctic Monkeys gig strangely enough. Still, this was cool. Mos Def came on too. The more RnB songs I liked best - there was a great one (a response to the track by Nas I suppose) with a chorus line "i just heard somebody say that hip hop died a long time ago, but that aint so".
On Fri 21st September I took the overnight Greyhound from New Orleans, through Mobile, Slydel, Montgomery Alabama, and dawn came in Atlanta. After a long wait in that crummy station I took my next bus to Athens Georgia.
New Orleans - Athens GA
