Confessions of a Shopaholic - New Orleans Shopping Blog

03/16/10

Two Weeks' Notice

It’s been awhile since my last post, and a lot has happened. Not only did I fall off the wagon — hard! — and completely profane my Lenten promise to abstain from sugar, but I’ve also shortened my post-Mardi Gras recovery and enjoyed every second of it. Well, not the sugary fall from grace part — just the general idea that I’m still living it up in the Big Easy and getting happier and healthier each day.

I’m not sure why it took so long to make the connection, but this weekend I was reminded that Louisiana is the happiest state in the country, according to a study done by the Centers for Disease Control in December 2009. Imagine if the CDC did another study today on the happiest city in the country: It’d surely be...

Posted at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments: 5

03/15/10

Errol Laborde: Searching for St. Joseph

I found the town I have been looking for, and I will reveal it here, but first let me tell you what the search was all about.  

This being the week of St. Joseph Day brings to mind two trips I have made to Sicily. I am neither Sicilian nor Italian, but I have long been fascinated by the Sicilian cultural contribution to New Orleans. This town experienced the largest Sicilian migration in the nation. One especially colorful and meaningful contribution was St. Joseph Day altars. I remember visiting my first altar as kid, where I heard an old Sicilian grandma explain that she began building the food altars after a tiny saint appeared in her room and told her to do so. That was a hard command to turn down.  

While in Sicily, I was curious about the...

Posted at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

03/15/10

New Orleans Voices Podcast: Sandra Scalise Juneau discusses St. Joseph altars

Sandra Scalise Juneau is a food historian, culinary arts instructor and author of the Bonne Bouchee food column. Sandra is particularly well- versed in the Sicilian tradition of St. Joseph altars. New Orleans' Sicilian families and the public have long embraced St. Joseph altars. Sandra tells us this New Orleans tradition is growing, and the city's Vietnamese and Hispanics, among others, are making their own St. Joseph altars, adding their foods and talents to this wonderful tradition. LISTEN NOW!

Posted at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

03/15/10

The Ultimate New Orleans Resource Directory

2010 first edition

Posted at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

03/12/10

style

Posted at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

03/12/10

will smith

The desire to capture a fleeting scene is a common enough artistic inspiration. Lately, though, Will Smith has found himself compelled to literally preserve the memory of a landscape. That’s because the subject of his
latest series of paintings is rapidly disappearing at the ragged end of the Louisiana coast, in an area just south
of and startlingly close to New Orleans.

“I call this collection ‘poem meets police report,’” Smith says. “It’s a document of what’s going on there. These areas are going away. Every storm, there’s less of them left.”

Smith has titled his most recent work the “Ustabe” series, from the phrase “used to be,” which he heard constantly from...

Posted at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0