Local Lingo, #1 Restaurant Critic, Tunes, Informational Websites and Much More
What the hell did he say and why does everyone ask, where I’m at?
Not understanding the local lingo makes you a virgin tourist. Start with the following and click here for more. http://www.mccno.com/glossary/
- Where Y’At? A local greeting asking, “how are you?” The appropriate response is, DzAwrite, Awrite.” Never ever answer with a geographic location.
- You want a ½ or whole dressed po-boy? Actually 2 questions in one. What size do you want– think 6 inches or 12 inches of French bread loaded with your choice of meats, cheeses and the like. And, do you want it dressed with mayonnaise, pickles, lettuce and tomatoes? Absolutely, but feel free to add or drop condiments.
- Where you got dem shoes? A tourist scam run by young boys in the French Quarter. They’ll say, “I bet you $5 I know where you got dem shoes? ” The answer isn’t “Macy’s.” It is your exact location, date and time. If you answer that way, the kids will run as they now owe you $5. If you answer any other way they will nag you and follow you until you are $5 poorer.
Why do locals sound like they are from Brooklyn?
The same 19th century immigrant mix drives both accents – Irish, German and Italian. Those in the north say ‘dawg and corna’ a bit faster than NOLA natives. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2005/09/why_do_people_in_new_orleans_talk_that_way.html
Who’s the #1 New Orleans restaurant critic?
Hands down it is Tom Fitzmorris, local critic, radio personality and author. Tom’s website, www.nomenu.com has a 5 fleur-de-lis rating system – 5 is world-class. He publishes a daily email newsletter.
Music News & Concert and Venue Listings
- OffBeat Magazine | News From The Local Music Scene: Available online and in print – http://www.offbeat.com/. Pick up a free copy at your hotel or better yet, check it out online before you go.
- Gambit: A free weekly paper dedicated to lifestyle, events, music and food. http://www.bestofneworleans.com/
Best Radio Station:
WWOZ 90.7 | Guardians of The Groove: A non-profit radio station dedicated to local music – all genres and all time periods. Listen over the air and online at www.WWOZ.org – or via Apple, Google and other music streaming services
Best Music Store:
Louisiana Music Factory, an independent record store dedicated to local and regional artists, CDs, Vinyl, and DVDs. Live music several times a week – check the schedule online – and a staff that’s not short on opinion and recommendations. Don’t miss the t-shirts and posters. http://www.louisianamusicfactory.com/. Located on Frenchman Street – the heart of NOLA’s music district.
General Information :
Three sites provide trustworthy tourist centric information – museums, events, galleries, antiques and coupons.
5 Essential Books:
- Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans by Dan Baum: New Yorker Reporter, Baum arrived in New Orleans a few days after Hurricane Katrina. With this captivating collection of nine linked profiles, Baum has created the essential 30 year social history of New Orleans – from Hurricane Betsy in 1965 to Mardi Gras 2006, 7 months after Katrina.
- Songs For My Fathers by Tom Sancton: An autobiographical story of a young white boy driven by a consuming passion to learn the music and ways of a group of aging black jazzmen in the twilight years of the segregation era. The narrative unfolds against the vivid backdrop of New Orleans in the 1950s and ’60s. But that magical place is more than decor; it is perhaps the central player, for this story could not have taken place in any other city in the world
- Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans by Gary Krist: The story of New Orleans’ thirty-years war against itself, pitting the city’s elite “better half” against its powerful and long-entrenched underworld of vice, perversity, and crime. This early-20th-century battle centers on one man: Tom Anderson, the undisputed czar of the city’s Storyville vice district. Surrounding him are the stories of flamboyant prostitutes, crusading moral reformers, dissolute jazzmen, ruthless Mafiosi, venal politicians, and one extremely violent serial killer, all battling for primacy in a wild and wicked city unlike any other in the world.
- The Moviegoer by Walker Percy: In this National Book Award winning novel, a young man, torn between the forces of tradition and change, searches for meaning in postwar America. Binx Bolling is a lost soul. A stockbroker and member of an established New Orleans family, Binx’s one escape is the movie theater that transports him from the falseness of his life. With Mardi Gras in full swing, Binx, along with his cousin Kate, sets out to find his true purpose amid the excesses of the carnival that surrounds him.
- Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole: 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. An American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole’s hero, Ignatius J. Reilly, is “huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans’ lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures” (Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times).