Nothing to eat but food

Now when I sit down to breakfast, there is nothing to eat but food, life is so peculiar

Now when I sit down to breakfast
The next morning Preston and I went for brunch at Stanley’s in Jackson Square. There was a bit of a wait so we put our names on the list and sat at the bar waiting to be called. The wait wasn’t long which was good as I needed something to help me recover from the big night out the day before. I opted for the Breaux Bridge Benedict, which I found difficult to order without making a hash of the words. It was however a great hangover cure. It was nice getting to spend some time with Preston. He had been the person I had emailed more when arranging my stay in NOLA but I'd not really spent much time with him because he had been at work.

After brunch we headed home to get ready to go the Country Club. I had heard some of the Memphis gays talking about the Country Club but they wouldn’t tell me any details saying I should go check it out for myself to see what I thought. I had forgotten to look it up online so when it was suggested as an activity for the day I said yes, curious to see what the Memphibians had been keeping back from me.

The place turned out to be a private club with a pool out back. It was mainly frequented by gay men although there were some women there too. It was also clothing optional. I opted for clothing, choosing to wear my swimming trunks as did my hosts and their friend Steven who had joined us. There were some people swimming & sunbathing in the nude. Now, I have nothing against it but I personally think that there are some bits of a person that aren’t designed to be in the sun. And it is always the men you would rather not see even semi-naked who are fully naked.

It was really nice to be able to cool off in the pool and get away from the heat and humidity of NOLA. We spent the afternoon chatting in the pool. I was beginning to feel less like an outsider looking in on the conversations of a close group of friends. I felt that even thought I had only been in NOLA a few days I had penetrated their intimate circle, so to speak. I chatted to a friend of Casey & Preston’s who had such a strong Louisiana accent that I had to ask him to repeat what he had said. On a couple of occasions, having asked him to repeat himself twice, I looked to Casey for a translation. I felt really bad that I couldn’t understand him and took to smiling and nodded instead of asking him to repeat everything.

I had also taken my laptop with me too as the place had wifi which meant I could catch up on some admin while enjoying the sun. I rattled off some answers to a set of questions a journalist from SoSoGay, an online gay magazine had sent me. He was going to do a story on my travels. Fame at last!

There is nothing to eat but food

Casey gets the BBQ going

Preston headed off to do some family stuff, Casey and I stayed for a little while longer. We timed our departure perfectly. We had only just got to the car when huge fat spots of rain started to fall. It was only a brief shower though so it didn’t ruin our plans for the evening – Casey said he would get the grill out. Casey and I headed to the supermarket to get some provisions for the evening. As we parked up Casey saw a friend of his, Chase, getting into his car. Casey invited him over for dinner. I loved the laid back, friendly atmosphere of NOLA that meant things were organised last minute. Back home in London everything seemed to be planned so far in advance.

Casey and I were joined for dinner by Chase & Steven. While Casey set about getting the BBQ going I whipped up a batch of Yorkshire Puddings. Casey had heard me mention them in one of my Nashville updates and had asked what they were. Over dinner Chase bombarded me with questions – How do you know Casey & Preston? Why are you travelling? Where are you going? Where have you been? What did you used to do for work? What are you going to do once you get back home? After the final question I looked at him waiting for one more. He looked at me and said “I have no further questions”. It did feel like I had just been on the witness stand. I was sweating.

Yorkshire meets New Orleans

As we finished up with dinner Casey got a message from Preston that he was on his way back home, and that there needed to be a chilled martini glass waiting for him. He had clearly had an interesting evening with his family and was in need of a stiff drink. The five of us sat chatting, having decided that a quiet night in was needed. The conversation took an unusual turn when someone said something about drinking juice. In unison, everyone said “Drink the juice Shelby, drink the juice”. I sat there looking confused, once again feeling like an outsider. They explained it was from Steel Magnolias. I had to admit that I hadn’t ever seen it. The group then proceeded to quote virtually the whole film at me. It was clearly a must see movie for anyone living in Louisiana.

The next morning Preston made us a traditional brunch. I had cheese grits for the first time. The consistency was similar to porridge, and so was the taste. Preston also made “sticky bun” which tasted amazing. We also had mimosas. I spent the rest of the morning watching Steel Magnolias given the previous nights conversation. In the afternoon I went with Casey & Preston to the cinema to see Crazy Stupid Love. The film was funny. The best part however is that in NOLA you can get a frozen daiquiri along with your popcorn.

Life is so peculiar

Burger cooked under a hub cap

That evening Casey took me for dinner at the Clover Grill, where they cook the burgers under a hub cap. I don’t know why. The burger was good though. Casey asked me for a dollar. I worried where he was going to put it but luckily it went into the jukebox. Sunday evening at The Pub was Sing Along Sunday, so knowing my penchant for that sort of thing we headed there. The whole gang seemed to be there, I did a lot of “Hey mister” greetings. There were a few new people there too. I shook hands with someone I hadn’t me before.

Me:      Who are you?

Him:     I’m Randy. 

Me:      Sorry, I asked who are you, not how are you.

Him:     Yes I know, my name is Randy.

Sunday Sing Along turned out to be a really fun night. It was different to Musical Mondays at Splash and the other similar nights I had been to. They played a lot of local music so every couple of songs something would come on that I had never even heard. Everyone else sang along. I was back to feeling like an outsider. The DJ once again made me feel welcome, this time by playing Boyzone. By the time we left The Pub, the barman who had done so well remembering my name & my drink order also now knew to leave me a spare napkin next to my drink for me to wipe my fingers on after I had squeezed the lime into it.

“Now when I sit down to breakfast, there is nothing to eat but food, life is so peculiar”

 
Lyrics from Life is so Peculiar from the musical Five Guys Named Moe

You wanna prowl

I have to go out tonight, you wanna prowl, be my night owl?

I have to go out tonight
Friday night out in NOLA. It promised to be a big night out too as it was payday (for those people who still had jobs). Casey and I made our way over to a bar called Philip’s where Preston was already ensconced safely at the bar having gone there straight from work. It wasn’t a gay bar but a lot of gays frequented the place on a Friday evening, mainly for the $4 martinis. I started with something sweet knowing it would take me a while to drink it and needing to pace myself. I was introduced to some of Preston’s friends. They asked how long I had been in New Orleans and where else I was off to on my travels. I handed out a couple of my little cards. They had been a great investment.

Whilst we were drinking at the bar I spotted a very tall, good-looking guy sat at the other side of the bar. He caught me looking at him so I smiled politely. Over the course of my first martini we ended up catching each other’s eyes a few times. A little while later he made his way to the bathroom, a trip that took him past where I was standing. As he passed behind me he placed one hand on my waist and leant in to say something. He opened his mouth and a purse fell out. Looks like Tarzan, speaks like Jane – very disappointing. The camp accent completely shattered the illusion. As he continued to the bathroom I turned my attention to the martini menu. I ordered a dirty martini to take the edge off the disappointment of hearing the tall guy speak.

After Philip’s Preston, Casey & I headed to Venezia, a busy little Italian restaurant. Casey was on the phone so he stayed outside to finish his call, leaving Preston & me to go inside. Preston told the waitress of our reservation. I spotted a couple at the bar waving at Preston and calling his name. He didn’t hear them. I tapped him on the arm and nodded towards the couple.

Me:      Preston, there is a couple at the bar calling you & waving at you.

P:         Really?

Me:      Yes. Do you know them?

P:         Oh good god, that is my parents

Me:      Great. Are you going to go over to say hello?

P:         They don’t know you're staying at ours or that Casey and I are sharing.

Me:      I can sleep on the sofa.

P:         If they ask you are in a hotel. 

Me:      Ah ok, got you.

We made our way over and I was introduced to Preston’s parents. I kissed his mum on both cheeks, saying it was a pleasure to meet her. She seemed a little bit taken aback by the greeting. They declined to join us for dinner – they were having date night. They did however send over a bottle of wine for us, which was really sweet of them. Aaron joined the three of us for dinner and I set about lining my stomach in anticipation of things (things being gin) to come.

After dinner the four of us went to the French Quarter, hitting The Pub first. Despite it only being my second time there the barman remembered that I drank gin & tonic and he remembered my name. I was very impressed. I was introduced to another group of Preston & Casey’s friends. I was really struggling to keep names with faces. I decided it was probably easiest just to call everyone “mister”, making it sound like a normal British thing to do to save the embarrassment of me getting any names wrong. I was also introduced to an ex of Preston’s who was also visiting NOLA for the weekend. He seemed quite full of himself, which immediately made me bristle. We didn’t really chat, he spoke at me for a while during which time he put his hand on my arse. I told him to remove his hand.

You wanna prowl

Casey came to my rescue and said that I should probably go and experience the other gay venues nearby rather than just stay in The Pub, that way I could see if there was anywhere else I would prefer to spend the rest of the night. We commenced on a tour of gay NOLA. Across the street from The Pub was a club called Oz. It was more of a dance club, the music not having any words to sing along to & a lot of the men dancing with their shirts off. We stayed for a while, watching the people dancing from the balcony upstairs, shouting to each other over the music. We went to the outside balcony to do a bit of people watching from there too. As we were stood out there watching the people walking up and down Bourbon Street a group of people came out onto the balcony. It was the tall guy from Philip’s and his friends.

He came over to talk to me again. He asked why I was out in his city. I told him I was travelling the world and currently visiting NOLA for a few days. We chatted briefly before he tried to do a British accent. He had clearly had a couple of drinks and didn’t sound very British. He then went off on a small rant saying that at least he hadn’t had to change money to be able to come out that night. I told him that I still had some foreign currency ready for when his country defaulted on its national debt in a few days time. That didn’t seem to go down too well. Casey extricated me from another conversation I didn’t want to be in and we headed on to the next venue – The Corner Pocket. As we walked over to it Casey asked if I had got plenty of one-dollar bills.

Be my night owl?

The Corner Pocket was an interesting venue. The clientele were somewhat older than the places we had been so far, probably attracted by the go-go boys dancing on the bar in their underwear. Most of the dancers looked quite young, most of them also looked quite bored. The men sat along the bar would occasionally tip the dancer a dollar, generally tucking the bill into the front of the dancers underwear, often taking a seemingly long time over it. As I stood watching a thought popped into my head. I wondered if we didn’t really have the same sort of bars back in London because our smallest note was £5, so it would get expensive for the people watching. I couldn’t imagine the dancers wanting to gyrate with underwear filled with one-pound coins.

Between dances some of the strippers would head over to the pool table where there was a half eaten birthday cake, cut themselves a piece and then stand there chatting, in their pants, eating cake. It was a very bizarre scene to stand and watch. Preston’s ex turned up and tried to engage me in conversation, his hand once more returning to my arse. I once again told him to remove it. I told Casey that there were no strippers that had caught my eye so I wouldn’t be parting with any cash. He said the same. We made a brief visit to Rawhide, an establishment as seedy as the name implies. I stayed for the one free drink that the cover charge gave me and nothing else. Casey assured me that it was part of the tour so I could experience the whole spectrum of gay nightlife in NOLA, all in the name of research of course. We headed back to The Pub to finish off our evening there. The barman had a gin and tonic waiting for me by the time I had got my wallet out at the bar. It was definitely the right venue for me.

“I have to go out tonight, you wanna prowl, be my night owl?” 
Lyrics from Out Tonight from the musical Rent

Fellows will fall in line

You are sixteen going on seventeen, fellows will fall in line, eager young lads and rogues and cads, will offer you food and wine

Your are sixteen going on seventeen
The next leg of my journey was a long train ride from Memphis to New Orleans, Louisiana. The train left at 6:40am and was due into NOLA around 4:30pm. I had taken the decision to treat myself to a room on the train rather than just a seat, the difference in price being relatively small. It was well worth it. My room came with two seats that faced each other and could be folded down into a bed if I wanted to sleep. The room also came with a plug socket, some privacy and two meals delivered by Kenneth, the porter looking after our carriage. Kenneth also pointed out where I could help myself to coffee and juice. Just after breakfast the train made a stop at Yazoo, Memphis. For the rest of the journey I had “Only You” stuck in my head.

I waited until a respectable hour then texted Preston, one of my to NOLA hosts, to let him know my ETA. I would be staying with Preston & Casey (Gays 16 & 17), who up until a few months ago had been a couple. They had split up as a couple but were still roommates. In the emails we had exchanged before I arrived they had explained the situation so I knew the background and what I would be letting myself in for. I had responded saying that provided my being there wouldn’t cause any problems for them then I was good. They said it would be fine.

My arrival into NOLA would be before either of my hosts were due to be back home so I had said that I could find a coffee shop near the station until it was time to get a cab to over to theirs. Preston explained that the area round the station wasn’t really the sort of area to have coffee shops or spend time in and that I should just get a cab over to their place. I did, arriving about 15 minutes before Preston got home from work. We introduced ourselves and instantly bonded over a shared love of musicals. Preston had noted the theme of my blog titles. Casey soon arrived home too and the three of sat chatting for a while. They gave me a tour of their place. It became clear that me being in the guest room would mean that Preston & Casey would be sharing a room. I said that I was happy to sleep on the sofa. They said that they would be fine sharing for a few days.

After being given the tour and settling in they asked if I wanted to go out for some dinner. I said that sounded like a great idea. They invited a couple of friends, Aaron & Jonathan over (another pair who had been a couple until recently) to join us. I was told that 2011 had been a “summer of unlove” in NOLA with lots of their friends all breaking up over the last few months. The five of us shared a couple of bottles of wine before we headed over to Ye Old College Inn for dinner.

We ordered a couple of appetizers between us – fried green tomatoes, onion rings and succotash. The food was really nice. I explained that I had never had succotash, and up until now thought it was just a made up word that Sylvester the cartoon cat used. I followed up the appetizers with a great piece of veal. Despite the make up of the group – two separated couples & a British stranger – the conversation during dinner seemed perfectly normal. If I hadn’t have known before I am not sure I would have guessed that they were no longer in couples. There was a bit of bickering but I know couples back home who bicker that much and are together. During one bout of bickering between Preston & Casey I turned to them both and said “I can sleep on the sofa” which seemed to diffuse the tension.

Fellows will fall in line

After dinner Preston headed home as did Jonathan as they both had to work in the morning leaving me, Casey & Aaron to head out for a nightcap. I was taken to the French Quarter and given an introduction to Bourbon Street. We headed to The Pub (the full name being The Bourbon Pub & Parade Disco) for a few drinks. Casey introduced me to a few of his friends who were there. As I met & chatted to each one I explained my trip, where I had been so far and where else I planned to go on my travels. I really needed to make a recording of it so when I meet new people I can just play it to them and save my voice.

As we were stood at the bar chatting there was a tap on my shoulder. I figured I must be in somebody’s way as I didn’t know anyone in Memphis. I turned round to see Chris, my Memphis social secretary, and David, his assistant standing there. I gave him a big hug & introduced him to Casey. It seemed surreal that I would be out in New Orleans, having been there for less than half a day and bump into someone I knew from Memphis.

Eager young lads and rogues and cads

Casey told me that he would give me a quick tour of Bourbon Street so I could see where the other hotspots were and get my bearings. I told him to give me a few minutes to finish my drink. He explained that in New Orleans that didn’t matter – you could walk down the street drinking your gin & tonic. And the bars were open 24 hours a day. I feared for my liver. The street was bustling with people. Casey pointed out the proper tourists, walking down the road with the day-glo drinks holders.

By the end of the evening I felt very welcomed at The Pub – the barman knew my drink so when I went to the bar I didn’t even need to ask for the gin & tonic. The DJ also joined in in making me feel welcomed. He made an announcement that the next song was for the British visitor. A lot of people looked over to me. He played Jedward. I explained that they were Irish. We left The Pub at a reasonable hour.

The following morning Preston had to go off to work so Casey was left to be my tour guide for the day. He explained that he had lunch plans but that we could do sightseeing either side of that. We headed in to town and parked up in the French Quarter. We had a great bimble through the French Market, stopping to have a snowball (a flavoured ice drink rather than the cocktail) along the way. We made our way over to Jackson Square and had a look round the imposing cathedral that dominates one side. We continued our tour taking in the streets of the French Quarter. I really loved the buildings there, with their balconies and wrought iron railings. It had a really nice feel to it and I could just imagine how crazy it would be during Mardi Gras.

Will offer you food and wine

Casey headed off to lunch but not before pointing me towards Yo Mama’s where he said I would be able to get a really good burger. He wasn’t lying. I had a really tasty burger with blue cheese and a pint of lager. The woman behind the bar kept calling me baby but it didn’t occur to me to mind. She also would regularly light up a cigarette, serving people their drinks with it dangling from one side of her mouth. NOLA was certainly a relaxed city.

After lunch I met back up with Casey and we took in an exhibit about Hurricane Katrina. The exhibit was really moving and I could feel myself getting emotional looking at some of the items on display. In the foyer of the exhibit hung hundreds of glass bottles representing the people who lost their lives.  I asked Casey if the city was completely back to normal now. He said far from it and said that he would take me to some of the worst affected areas while I was here so that I could see for myself. To lighten the mood we headed upstairs to have a look round an exhibit on the history of the Mardi Gras parades before heading home to freshen up ahead of a big night out with my newest friends.

 “You are sixteen going on seventeen, fellows will fall in line, eager young lads and rogues and cads, will offer you food and wine”

 
Lyrics from Sixteen going on Seventeen from the musical The Sound of Music