Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Back to Church
Posted by Ian McNulty on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 11:49 PM
For as long as it was located on Iberville Street, Christian's Restaurant had an ironic name.
The contemporary Creole restaurant was named for one of its founders, but after the place moved to its Iberville location in Mid-City the name seemed to take on a new meaning because the building it occupied had previously been a Christian church.
And there was no missing it. The steeple and stained glass windows were all intact, and the singularly ornate dining room glowed with polished woodwork and all the repurposed furniture and trappings of its former life as a place of worship.
Christian's Restaurant never reopened after the levee failure, but recently its old building has come back to life as. . .a church. The Christian Family Fellowship holds services in the renovated pink chapel at 3835 Iberville St. now.
And while the smoked soft shell crab and filet mignon stuffed with oysters for which Christian's Restaurant was known may no longer come out of its kitchen, the church does still serve a dinner, which set out for free each Saturday following its 5:30 p.m. service.
Porn moguls propose unique jobs program
Posted by Will Coviello on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 10:10 PM
Some news writes itself. Apparently the girls have gone mild, because Hustler empire and porn mogul Larry Flynt and topless co-ed video purveyor Joe Francis have issued a statement seeking a federal bailout. They concede that the industry is not losing money, but apparently that qualifies as hard times, too. Not mentioned in the request is that Francis is fighting tax evasion charges (he claimed nearly $4 million in biz expenses to build his dream home in Punta Mita, Mexico; and then there's another interesting not-so-well itemized $10 million in "consulting" costs). Congress is definitely the right body to appeal to. In the last decade alone, many senators and congressman have experienced firsthand the pangs of sexual longing: John Edwards (affair), David Vitter (DC Madam list), Larry Craig (airport restroom misunderstanding), Mark Foley (too friendly with congressional pages), Gary Condit (too close to an intern?), Dan Sherwood (underachiever with just an affair), Bob Packwood (multiple complaints of sexual harassment), Vito Fossella (DUI stop leads to admission of affair). But some industries do well in hard times, for example the liquor biz. At least Flynt and Francis want to spread the stimulus around. But another way to look a this might be as a publicity stunt in advance of this weekend's Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, where even the "Exhibitor" list is entertaining.
Something beautiful
Posted by Kevin Allman on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 9:22 PM
Living in New Orleans, there are many days when you leave the house and are confronted with something unexpectedly, wonderfully beautiful; that's why we live here, after all. Other days you have to search for it.
Speaking of which: take a moment to peruse the winning entries from the 2008 National Geographic International Photography Contest. The photo of the dog walking past the Indonesian temple is my beautiful thing for today.
(And the NatGeo has also made the images available as free desktop wallpaper.)
Gadbois Speaks
Posted by David Winkler-Schmit on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 8:36 PM
Writing the profile on Karen Gadbois for New Orleanian of the Year was one of the best assignments I’ve had. We met for coffee, and over the course of a few hours, Gadbois told me the story of her life, paying close attention to the post-Katrina days. Gadbois knows how to keep an interviewer’s attention — she’s led a fascinating life — and she peppered our interview with some pretty funny and provocative quotes, like for instance, when she was telling me how she discovered she had breast cancer:
“I called my sister and said, ‘Have I ever complained about this before? I think I feel something.’ She said, ‘No, it’s not on your famous list of common complaints.’”
Gadbois is a quote machine, but as you can imagine, when you have a three-hour interview, a lot of stuff gets edited out. Some writers refer to this editing process as killing your babies, but in this case, it’s almost all pure Gadbois. So, in the interest of resurrecting some of Gadbois’ kids, here are a few more of her zingers.
Lakeview War Canceled
Posted by Clancy DuBos on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 4:55 AM
The political equivalent of a civil war in Lakeview apparently will not break out this year after all. Assistant City Attorney Joe Landry has decided not to run for judge of Traffic Court in the April 4 election and instead will run for judge of Municipal Court. That clears the way for fellow Lakeview resident Mark Shea to run as the only “Lakeview candidate” in the Traffic Court race. The irony of this development is that Landry now will run for the judgeship being vacated by Shea’s father, Judge John A. Shea, who announced last week that he will retire upon reaching the age of 75 on May 9. John Shea has served as Municipal Court judge for 30 years.
