Prince of Wales Social Aid And Leisure Club : Second Line Parade

Second Line parades are sooooooo New Orleans. In the early 1900s, Social Aid and Leisure Clubs (fun clubs) set up little parades (fun with friends and family) with a float (visually fun), some brass musicians playing upbeat, improvised Jazz (fun to hear), with revelers behind the floats and brass, swaying to the music and drinking (boozy, sweaty, dance-y fun). Thus, the revelers become part of the parade, or the second line.  These parades still exist today, many Sundays out of the year..

Fun is New Orleans's primary attribute. New Orleans is the friend begging you to stay for just one more Sazerac, to dance with them in the street, to sing a little louder. New Orleans cajoles you to bridge the gap between just letting go of inhibitions and making a total fool out of yourself. New Orleans always has a hangover in the morning and is slow to rise, and you wonder how long it can keep up this lifestyle; however, it must some hedonistic gene, or least strong endurance, for it always up for next go-round of the concept of fun.

City Park

Bienvenue to the first of my New Orleans blog posts.  I have been building slowly the photos that beg, plead, implore, and entreat to be taken in this most photogenic of cities.  I've been aggregating them by neighborhood, thereby languidly developing several blog posts at the same time.

The first will be of City Park, a sprawling multipurpose park (50% larger than Central Park!) located in the Mid-City neighborhood.  I tend to get overwhelmed by parks this large, but I do love that all the little bridges and benches and details that were WPA projects in the 1930s.

Random beauty on an overgrown hiking trail:

Fog City

90% of Residential blocks look like this.*

The Mission:

 Lands End Park:

This picture was taken against the rules at the hippie hot springs we visited for one night.  We stayied in one of these:

 The Castro neighborhood:

 Near Haight & Ashbury:

 Golden Gate Park:

*Non-scientific observation