More from last evening at sunset

The Marriott "Pyramid"

Looking north

Closer view of the Pyramid

I liked it better before they tarted it up with cadmium red medium highlights. The effect is muted and less harsh in these photos but it's really noxious and clashes with the entire environment.
--the BB

Mr Bear's wild night

U. S. Customs House, New Orleans, 1892
Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

Looking down Decatur, le Vieux Carré
New Orleans

Detail of the Customs House, New Orleans
Decatur Street

Yep, after work my carpool partner and I headed into the Quarter on a Saturday night.

Dinner on Decatur. Then back to this neck of the woods where I am about to go to bed early. She, my vehicular voisine, is working tomorrow and I am staying home to get over this flipping cold and do some laundry.

I can no longer say I have not ventured into the Quarter after sunset. Well, actually, there was that one time when the company we work through put on a dinner. OK, I haven't been a virgin for a while.

Anyway, that's about as wild as I have gotten in Louisiana.

I still owe y'all a restaurant review and I'm still too tired to write it. Hasta mañana.

As a further note on architecture, I was astonished by the post-modern look of some of the Custom House along Decatur toward the Iberville corner. Very simplified and sleek while retaining neoclassical proportions.

You may read more about the New Orleans Customs House here and here and here.

The impressive exterior of the U.S. Custom House retains its original design, which includes modified Greek and Egyptian Revival elements. The immense four-story building occupies the full trapezoidal downtown city block bounded by Canal, North Peters, Iberville, and Decatur Streets. Due to the shape of the lot, the corner of the building at Canal and North Peters Streets is rounded. The majority of the building is constructed of brick sheathed in gray granite from Quincy, Massachusetts; however, the entablature material is cast iron.

Each of the four facades is similar in design. In the center of each facade is a projecting pavilion consisting of four round, fluted, modified Egyptian, engaged columns. The first floor of the structure is faced with rusticated granite stonework. The cast-iron entablature contains widely spaced triglyphs (three vertical bands) in the frieze and dentils (small square blocks) in the cornice, and supports a triangular pediment above the central portico on each facade. Near both ends of each facade is a slightly projecting bay composed of four modified Egyptian pilasters supporting the entablature. (source)

New Orleans Customs House
viewed from across Canal Street

--the BB

More architectural details

The Cotton Exchange, New Orleans

I really wanted a wide enough lens to capture the inscription.

Window treatment of the Cotton Exchange

Alas one does not quite get the detail of the copper trim at the roofline

Back when windows had presence

Scrollwork, New Orleans Cotton Exchange

Many downtown businesses in New Orleans are still boarded up after Katrina

A final shot of brick, stone, and romanesque windows

I have not completely stopped taking pictures like this. It's just that I have already photographed most of my immediate work environment and because of carpooling I don't take the leisurely lunches I would prefer.

Enjoy!

--the BB

Eddie and the Bear

While Maggie and Belle are back in Albuquerque, regaling their siblings with tales their dad needn't hear and planning escapades dad really doesn't need to hear about, I have not returned to New Orleans alone.

Yes, that silhouetted figure checking out the Superdome from my boss's office is another one of the kids, one who especially wanted to visit the Crescent City.

I'll let him speak for himself.

Hello.

My name is Eddie (Oedi if my dad is looking, but nobody can spell that).

My family came to California with the eucalyptus trees but we were less invasive.

I am extremely fond of shrimp and crawfish and enjoy a good annelid étouffée.

I like to hunt and fish but that doesn’t make me a bubba. I also like Faith Hill, Mozart, and vintage Three Dog Night. I am an awesome swimmer. I'd vote for Obama if I could but it's hard to register if you write with webbed feet. Moose are my friends. In fact, one of my brothers is a Moose. Pample is back home in Albuquerque. I do not shoot moose or wolves, just to be clear. OK, enough politics.

Paul took me to the vet to have my poison spurs removed but the rest of me is intact, so if you know any fine monotreme females, send them my way. I’ll put another shrimp on the barbie.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oy, oy, oy!

Well, you can see he's quite the guy, funloving and adventurous. I think he has seen more of New Orleans than I have. Since platypodes (I'm going for the Greek plural since it is really a Greek word slightly latinized) dine on shrimp, crawfish, and annelid worms he is in platy heaven!

Bubba Gump on Decatur seems to be one of his haunts. Since you can't get me near a crawfish I let him wander where he will and have fun. I have heard him mumble "étouffée" in his sleep. Auntie Jen likes cuddling with him on especially stressful days. What a charmer.

Here are a few more architectural details. I really have not been out and about with the camera much lately. Work. Rest. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. I have now worked 15 days in a row and am looking forward to flying home Thursday evening.

Detail of capital on the Whitney Bank Building, New Orleans

Cool detail on the corner of St Charles and Common

Ornamentation of the upper windows

Ornamentation of the lower windows

Sunrise gilds the buildings of the CBD, New Orleans

Sunrise on the Superdome

Closeup of sunrise on the Superdome

A platypus and his bear take their ease

And that's the news from Lake, uh, Pontchartrain!
--the BB

Road Trip Memories: Downtown Fresno

You know how I hit all the hot spots of every town I visit, right? (As if.)

Here are a couple of buildings in downtown Fresno, California. The first is the historic Warnor's Theater or, as it is now called, the Warnor's Center for the Performing Arts.










I don't really have commentary to add. Just sharing architectural details. Again.

Enjoy.
--the BB

Some shots from yesterday

Or the day before. I quite lose track of time when I work six days a week and do not always get to church on Sundays (mea culpa).

Anyway, one sees above another view of what I call the wedding cake ornament atop the Hibernia Bank Building (now Capital One). If I have not told the tale before, that white ornament was the first thing to be lit after Katrina, providing an easily visible sign of life and hope.

Below we have two shots of another building along Gravier Street with lovely contrasting terra cotta and white stone and great dentillation.


Sigh, they just don't make 'em like they used to.

[Yes, I am a great fan of neo-classical architecture and of well-proportioned ornamentation - in case anyone is new here.]
--the BB

More NOLA with ABQ to come

Where Mimi and I had brunch a while back. So nice.

This is just to tide you all over until I download the pics I took today here in New Mexico. Need to chill a bit, get some liquid into me (all that walking in the sunshine, you know), find where I put the camera-to-laptop cord.

If anyone wants to buy a 4-bedroom house in SW Albuquerque - no, not mine, the one next door to me - the neighbors are moving out this weekend. They are going to rent it but really hope to sell it.
--the BB

Un peu plus de Nouvelle Orléans

Technical schmechnical

So then, why on earth would I fearfully assume that with a new camera and a connecting cord I also needed the proprietary software that comes with it just to download pics from the camera? Silly me.

Hook that sucker up and see what happens. And it works. So here are a few. I am omitting pics from last night's party to protect the few innocent and the many guilty.

I'm lovin' the French "welcome to Louisiana" Bacardi sign. How Cajun, how local, how delightful. Captured in a corner store as my carpool partner picked up a couple pieces of fried chicken for dinner.


When I got home this evening the girls appeared rather tuckered out. I try not to question them too closely about their adventures but I suspect they have seen more of greater New Orleans than I have. Given that I arrived home rather tired myself, we have declared a weary truce on sharing our days and all look forward to snuggling up for a good night's sleep.


Here are a few more downtown shots. Gotta love the iron work here. As you can see, old buildings being restored and renovated after Katrina.
I like this photo for its rhythms and colors.

And here is a row of stanchions protecting pedestrians from toppling off this raised sidewalk into the street. Granted, I have not seen those "go cups" with serious alcoholic beverages on Gravier Street but you never know. It is only two blocks from the Quarter, after all and this may be more practical than it appears. In any case, it is delightfully decorative.

Two nights from now I will be back in Albuquerque. Yay! I think a green chile cheeseburger might be in order. Or a breakfast burrito with green chile. Something with green chile. I will be preaching this Sunday at San Gabriel Episcopal Mission in Corrales and then having brunch with two very dear friends, we hope out under the cottonwoods. I hope I sneak in some dolce far niente.

And that's tonight's report.
--the BB