It's a Small World

It occurs to me that I really don't write much about my move to New Orleans. I will have been here for a year on the June 10th. New Orleans is a brand new, fascinating, and magical world for me. I can remember when I was 10, and went to Disney World, it was awe-inspiring- because 10 year old me truly believed that every moment of my life. My insame love of Tinker Bell and Pooh, the years of watching The Wonderful World of Disney, seeing every Disney movie ever created, and knowing the words to all the saongs, had led me to that moment. The best moment in my 10 year old life... To stand there in my mouse ears, staring at Sleeping Beauty's castle ( NOT CINDERELLA'S!!! ) was euphoric. That is what living in New Orleans is for me - each and every day. There's always that little bit of magic in the air.

So today I am going to tell you a little story about my landlord. Dr. H. He is a true southern gentlemen who still owns a seersucker suit. He is everything that is good and wonderful about a southern gentlemen - he has a wicked wit and a sharp tongue, but is also one of the kindest individuals I've ever met. I consider myself to be lucky to be his tenant. He cares a great deal about me, enough to occasionally set me aside some dinner to take upstairs to my attic apartment, and he loves my dog. As this year has passed, we've developed a good relationship - I do my best to go to the grocery store for him every two weeks or so, I mail things for him at the post office, and if he wants to see a movie he asks me to rent it on Netflix.

Last week he asked me to rent Pretty Baby for him.

GASP!

He went on to tell me that some friends of his were in it, but I was still back on the GASP!

I can remember when PRETTY BABY came out, and the whole hoo ha deal about Brooke Shields being 12 and being in it. I was younger then Brooke then, and it caused a great deal of controversy in my house, my European mother thought it was no big deal. My father on the other hand thought it was a VERY BIG deal. ( I am convinced that Phantasm has to be the scariest movie ever because my father made such a big deal about me NOT seeing it because it was too scary for me. To this day I won't watch it, I think, "Oh no .. too too scary for me." I also don't drink coffee because my Mom once told me I was too young for it. So parents never doubt your influence.)

So my landlord had friends in this horribly offensive movie! AND HE THOUGHT I SHOULD WATCH IT TOO!!!

So I did.

When it was over, I couldn't figure out what the big deal was about. I also wondered why I thought Peter Fonda was in the movie -- perhaps because he was in another shitty Brooke Shields movie. I love her but she made some steaming piles of crap back in the day.

The best part was seeing Dr H. the next day, sitting on the porch while the sun was going down, the musicians beginning to play and having him tell me about Storyville and the photographer Ernest Bellocq who took photos of the women that worked in the red-light district of New Orleans. It might have had a different twist, but it was still magic - like a Disney fairytale.