New Orleans Sugar

There's a new brass band song making the rounds around New Orleans at parades and weddings and at impromptu street corner jam sessions.  It's based on an old tune, a classic tune.  You can hear it from the bars on Frenchmen Street, and also from where the brass bands practice, in the music halls and neighborhood bars on Claiborne Avenue or A.P. Tureaud Avenue, or any number of back-a-town backstreet joints.

If you are of a certain age, when you hear the trumpets and the trombones and the tubas and the cornets and the drums play this song, you'll recognize the tune.  It's a classic.

If you are too young to know the original song, you'll still be tapping your toes and shimmying to the beat and the melody anyway.  This was a number one song in its day for many good reasons.  It is a pure pop confection of danceability and lighthearted bliss.  In New Orleans, we dance like nobody is watching.  We love happiness as much as the next person, but, perhaps, in New Orleans we treasure our happiness more.

Here is the song's original version:

The words for this newest, latest version of the song are similar to the original but different in important ways.  The lyrics have been pressed through the New Orleans filter.  They've become customized to ring more sweet and more true.  Welcome to The New Orleans State of Mind:

Sugar.
Ah, honey, honey.
New Orleans is my candy city
And it's got me wanting more...

Honey.
Ah, sugar, sugar.
New Orleans is a chocolate city
And it's got me wanting more....

I just can't believe the loveliness of loving New Orleans.
I just can't believe it's true.

When I spent a week in New Orleans, I knew how sweet a kiss can be.
I now know how sweet a kiss can be....

Like summer sunshine,
Pour New Orleans sweetness over me.
Pour that magic all over me.

Oh, New Orleans, pour a little sugar on it, honey.
Pour a little sugar on it, NOLA.
You make my life so sweet.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

LIFE IS GOOD IN NEW ORLEANS.

--- If you are looking for someplace to stay when you visit New Orleans, I happen to be an innkeeper.  I run the #1-ranked place to stay in New Orleans (it's been #1 since April 2014 according to TripAdvisor).  You could do a lot worse.  Believe me.  You can choose a lot worse.  If you are looking to experience authentic New Orleans off the usual tourist radar, you know where to find us: in the bright orange house with blue shutters on Esplanade Avenue: La Belle Esplanade.

We're back!

After a few years hiatus, I thought it would be a good time to reinvigorate this blog.  Why?  Well, for starters, I've always liked working in this format.  It was the first blogging software I learned and I used it for years and years before going more modern.  I like the simplicity of Blogger.  It may look a little retro but you know what?  I don't care.  I'm old fashioned and if there is such a thing as an old-fashioned blogger, then that's me.

I used to blog a lot.  When I lived in Boston, that blog would get 1000-3000 hits a day.  Those were the days.  I don't live in Boston anymore, as longtime readers will know.  I live in New Orleans.  I like it here very much but none of my New Orleans blogs got the traffic my New England blogs did.

Why should you care?  You shouldn't really.  Here we are now.  Let's have a good time.

The New Orleans State of Mind

I'll be writing a lot about The New Orleans State of Mind.  Living here is like living in a different world.  It's America, but it's New Orleans.  Life moves at a different pace here and values are different, too.  As a native New Englander, a cranky Yankee, if you will, I have become acclimated to New Orleans' ways.  I've gone native.

There are still things that drive me up the wall or make me shake my head, but I've lived here long enough, nine years, that I know it's not New Orleans that's crazy; it's me.

I'll also be writing about my neighborhood.  I live on Esplanade Avenue, which I always say is the second most beautiful street in the city.  I spend most of my time in our neighborhood, which is Tremé, or Esplanade Ridge, or Mid-City depending on who you ask.  When I tell people where I live, they reply "Your neighborhood is Esplanade Avenue."  This is true.  The street is an entity distinct unto itself.  It takes some getting accustomed to.

I'll be delving into New Orleans history.  As an armchair historian, I spend a lot of time reading book or looking through old documents at the library.  I'm just finishing up some research on prostitution in the city from its founding to today.  I am not particularly interested in prostitutes but I know some people are fascinated by this particular demimonde.  I noticed something peculiar on a street one day and that got me to doing some research for an essay I'm working on.  Stay tuned.

I'll be publishing rough drafts of essays and stories here, too.  This is the part I like the best.  I'll probably be composing them on the blog.  I don't write any of these entries beforehand.  I improvise as I go along.  I'm not cutting and pasting any of this, for instance.  What you are reading is what I am typing fresh from the top of my mind.  

A few parting words....

So this is the first installment of a new chapter.  I hope you'll follow along for the ride.  There is no pressure on me to do this, so I am more likely to keep up with it.  It is all sui generis and that's the way I like things.   We'll see what comes out of it.  I'm looking forward to it.

In the meantime, if you are looking for someplace to stay when you visit New Orleans, I happen to be an innkeeper.  I run the #1-ranked place to stay in New Orleans (it's been #1 since April 2014 according to TripAdvisor).  You could do a lot worse.  Believe me.  You can choose a lot worse.  If you are looking to experience authentic New Orleans off the usual tourist radar, you know where to find us: in the bright orange house with blue shutters on Esplanade Avenue: La Belle Esplanade.

The Most Colorful Houses in New Orleans

A painting in a Magazine Street gallery

La Belle Esplanade, a boutique experience inn located on Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans, LA has been ranked the #1 place to stay not only in New Orleans, but also in all of Louisiana for 30 consecutive months.  

Frau Schmitt and I are very proud of that accomplishment.  In October, a week from now, it will be 31 months.  From my keyboard to God's ear.  

If you want to learn more about our inn, and if you want to read the latest installments of our 'sometimes informative, usually entertaining' new blog, follow the link: labelleesplanade.com.  

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade
...where every day is a curated breakfast salon.

No Name Business

A photo from our new website

When's our new website going to be ready?  I'm told next week.  So much for 30 days.  I've done my part.

I've been putting off writing a new entry for our illustrious blog because it's going to be moved to a new address.  It's going to be directly on our website, which has its advantages for SEO reasons.  [See here for my opinion of SEO.]

We're going to be switching to a Wordpress template.  I'm told I'm going to love it.  So far I'm less than thrilled because I'm itching to get started.  I don't know what's taking so long.  

So, instead of writing today's installment on Wordpress, I'm lounging around the New Orleans Odditarium sipping on A Fifth of Beethoven":



Who doesn't love Walter Murphy?  Here's a fun fact: just like Walter Murphy, your humble narrator's father worked briefly for Korvette's before moving to greener pastures.  

Today's installment is merely filler, a website update, not that anyone particularly cares about our software provider woes.  

Frau Schmitt and I have had all sorts of adventures willy-nilly all over New Orleans.  I'd love to share them with you but they'll have to wait.  I know the anticipation is killing you, just like that Heinz Ketchup commercial.  ---If you don't know what I'm talking about with that allusion, ask me about it over breakfast.  

In the meantime, I've got a meeting scheduled with the New Orleans No Name Club.  The club is interested in using our back gardens as a meeting place in the summer.  In the winter, they'd like permission to use the lobby.  We're going to negotiate terms this afternoon in the Pipkin Room at the Rib Room.  If that sentence doesn't make any sense to you, well, you've never been to the secret dining areas hidden in the Rib Room.  

Well, those links should keep you occupied for awhile.  Don't say I didn't give you much today.  I let other pages do the heavy lifting for me, instead.  After all, I'm off on important business---No Name business!

Frau Schmitt and I are waving to you in this picture

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade
...where every morning is a curated breakfast salon.