COZY BEDROOM IN OLD MIDCITY HOUSE -- PART 6

NEW ORLEANS AIR BNB

Final, final thought.

If you are allergic to cats -- do not book this place. 

Hat's off to JonGunnar's advertisement that makes it clear he has a cat and that his cat is clingy. 

If this bugs you, look elsewhere.

If you are a cat person like me, this will be the best thing -- other than location and price point -- about the house. 

Mooch is a beautiful black cat who lives indoors and out.

He does not meow.

Mooch has a kind of cackling growl for a voice. 

At first, I thought it meant he was going to claw me. 

But he's really just crying for attention in his unique way. 

Mooch also will cry to let you know he needs to go out to go to the bathroom. 

I adored Mooch.

He napped with me and I woke up with him sleeping on my back! 

He cuddled and slept next me. 

I fell in love with Mooch.

He's so affectionate and full of personality, I wanted to take him home.

So if you like quirky and cat-filled Airbnb experiences, you have found a home in New Orleans.

I'd go back in a heartbeat.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5173411

COZY BEDROOM IN OLD MIDCITY HOUSE -- PART 5

NEW ORLEANS AIR BNB

If you like funky, if you can look past clutter, this is a dream spot. 

Two final thoughts. (one will be about the beautiful male cat pictured above)

The biggest negative is the lack of lock on the door. 

There is a lock to the main door, but once you get in, there is no outside lock on your room door. 

That means when you leave, anybody can get in. 

Maybe JonGunnar only gets great guests and this is no issue. 

But even though I don't need chain hotel orderliness, I do want to be able to lock my room from the outside, when I'm gone for the day. 

Even from the inside, the "lock" is a little lever on the ground and I could never get it to line up with the metal piece.

I tossed and turned that first night, feeling like anyone could check in and open my door and walk in on me. 

Turned out I had to place to myself, so the main door lock kept all out -- but still, JonGunnar -- go to a hardware store and invest 50 bucks in a nice door handle lock.

That way, your guest can secure from the inside when sleeping and on the outside when leaving the room for the day and having the peace of mind that all is locked up safe.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5173411

COZY BEDROOM IN OLD MIDCITY HOUSE -- PART 4

NEW ORLEANS AIR BNB

As all other reviewers have noted, this is a house with a lot of character. 

The downstairs is as cluttered as I've ever seen.

Not dirty, but cluttered. 

It's like an artist's warehouse imposed on an old family house's common area. 

JonGunnar is a photographer-artist and must travel a lot. 

I'm also guessing the artist's life does not provide a ton of extra money -- thus some tape fixing cracked windows and a lot of peeling paint and other flaws.

If you demand Marriott cookie cutter, this is not the place for you. 

If you want to live among art and feel like an edgy artist -- this is heaven. 

And the entire bill, booking fee, cleaning fee and nightly rent -- came to just over $200 for 5 days and 4 nights. 

Think about that. 

A noisy, cramped, 150 SF room in the quarter would cost way more than that for one night...with parking and taxes added on. 

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5173411

COZY BEDROOM IN OLD MIDCITY HOUSE -- PART 3

NEW ORLEANS AIR BNB

The kitchen has a washer dryer and tons of washing machine soap -- so you can pack super light and wash clothes while using the tub-shower. 

The house is no wheelchair-accessible, but with the homes raised above the flood plain, very few NOLA houses are. 

It's a typical double shotgun with anti-room, living room and kitchen on the ground floor and bathroom and 3 bed rooms on the top floor. 

JonGunnar was traveling when I arrived and his other room was not booked, so I had the entire place to myself. 

Knowing how haunted New Orleans is, that made things a little creepy the first night, but it also meant now hearing others walking up the creaky old wooden stairs plus zero waits for the one bathroom. 

The bed was surprisingly comfortable for a house with mismatched, old furnishings. 

Sam, the person who helps out JonGunnar with making beds etc. when he's on the road -- followed my neurotic requests for extra sheet and towel, layered a certain way.

Both Sam and JonGunnar were available by text to answer all questions -- practical and fun -- before and during my stay.

The response was light speed.

Very impressive. 

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5173411

COZY BEDROOM IN OLD MIDCITY HOUSE -- PART 2

NEW ORLEANS AIR BNB

The Banks Street Bar, which sometimes has food and often has music, also is super close. 

But somehow, amazingly, you don't hear the noise of the popular bar, even though it's open well past midnight. 

I'm a noise phobic person. I slept well at JonGunnar's place. 

The fact that each guest room has a wall-mounted air conditioner right over the bed probably helps, as it provides instant white noise to muffle the random dog bark or siren that one would hear in any urban location. 

There is a small off street parking space and always a free on street spot for your rental car within a block of the house at the corner of South Alexander and Palmyra.

Check in is easy.

He texts you the code to the lock box out front. 

There also are bikes that you can use, but I walked to close stuff and used the rental for other distances. 

Note: you do not need an expensive rental car. 

Transit and Uber will serve you well. I only had a car because I was photographing far flung places that were not served by Uber. 

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5173411

COZY BEDROOM IN OLD MIDCITY HOUSE -- PART 1

NEW ORLEANS AIR BNB

Mid-City is where you want to be. 

Trust us.

It has great restaurants, neighborhood joints nestled in among real people, real houses, real culture.

It is not loud and drunk and overpriced like the French Quarter.

It is close to everything you'd ever want to see in New Orleans. 

JonGunnar's place is an Air BnB rental in the heart of everything.

It literally is within crawling distance of the Canal Street Streetcar, which will take you to the French Quarter, CBD, City Park, and some of the best cemeteries for touring in town. 

The old house also is super close to a cluster of great neighborhood food places -- the breakfast and lunch joints Wakin' Bakin' and Biscuits and Buns on Banks are a block away. 

Clesi's, which does crawfish boils and has a great jambalaya, is at this same junction as is Mid-City Pizza and its great outdoor space. 

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5173411

ASHTRAY HOUSE

PARK ISLAND, NEW ORLEANS

Frank Lloyd Wright contemporary Albert Ledner used many innovative design techniques and materials in his homes.

But perhaps none so peculiar as the 1,200 amber ashtrays that the architect installed on the exterior of this New Orleans mid-century home.

The 1962 Park Island casa was the home of former Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, aka Bureau of Prisons inmate #32751-034.

(text adapted from NBC Los Angeles online)

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART -- Part 3

ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG: FIVE FROM LOUSIANA

I share a birth date with Robert Rauschenberg and I was observing my 50th when we saw an exhibit on him at NOMA in City Park in New Orleans. 

According to a press release on the exhibit of the late Rauschenberg:

In 1977 Rauschenberg participated in the NOMA exhibition Five from Louisiana as one of five Louisiana artists who had gained international prominence. 

The artists included Lynda Benglis, Tina Girouard, Richard Landry, and Keith Sonnier. 

At the time arts advocate Luba Glade praised Five from Louisiana saying, “It answers a loud ‘Yes’ to the ever present question of whether creative people from the land of magnolias, red beans, and gumbo can make it to center stage in the great big art world…”

In Five from Louisiana Rauschenberg exhibited examples from his Hoarfrost series, and debuted a large artwork from his Spread series. 

This is the first time since 1977 that these two series have been shown together at NOMA, along with artworks by the other Louisiana artists from that seminal exhibition.

The image displayed in this blog is especially appealing to me because of the image of the Siamese cat in the center.

For a year now, we have been co-parents to Honey Bear (also known as Miuku) the beautiful and gentle Siamese cat/princess of Little Havana. 

To reach NOMA, phone:

(504) 658-4100

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART -- Part 2

EDGAR DEGAS' LITTLE DANCER AGED 14

When we visited NOMA, it was the debut day for Edgar Degas' Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.

The only three-dimensional work exhibited during his lifetime, it will be the highlight of a focus exhibition that runs at the museum till March 1, 2015.

A selection of related works of art by Degas from NOMA's permanent collection will be displayed alongside the Little Dancer, including a pastel, a smaller bronze sculpture, and drawings and prints of one of Degas' favored subjects-the dancer. 

The exhibit was very easy for a wheelchair user to view.  

All displays feature views that are unobstructed for wheelers.

According to a NOMA press release:

Degas modeled Little Dancer Aged Fourteen out of colored wax in 1880, but it wasn't until 1922 when the Little Dancer and the other sculptures found in the artist's studio were cast posthumously by the Hébrard foundry at the request of the artist's nieces and nephew. 

The bronze on view is one of 23 known bronze versions of the Little Dancer, and is in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA). 

Now considered one of Degas' most important works, his sculpture of Marie van Goethem, a young novice at the Paris Opera Ballet, caused a sensation at the 1881 impressionist exhibition in Paris. 

Originally exhibited like an anthropological specimen under a vitrine, and embellished with a muslin tutu, linen bodice, ballet slippers, and a real hair wig tied with a satin ribbon, this wax sculpture of a novice ballerina or "rat" standing in relaxed fourth position was described by critics as "ugly" and "a threat to society."

The bronze version also feature a fabric tutu and satin ribbon. 

The realistic treatment of her face and the use of unorthodox materials highlighted his desire for naturalism as an artistic standard rather than idealization.

NOMA is at One Collins Diboll Circle, City Park.   Admission is $10.

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

THE GEM OF CITY PARK

New Orleans Museum of Art, founded in 1910 by Isaac Delgado, houses nearly 40,000 art objects encompassing 4,000 years of world art. 

The entrance for wheelchair users is on the right hand side (you can see the rails for the ramp on in the above image.)

Elevators provide access to each floor of art on display.

The wheelchair-accessible street cars on the Canal Street Line marked City Park stop at the grand boulevard leading up to NOMA -- it's the last stop on the line.

It's about a 10 minute walk from the street car stop to the museum.

It's also about a 10 minute walk the other direction -- into Bayou St. John -- to visit the large and historic St. Louis #1 Cemetery.

City Park, with 1,300 acres, is the 6th-largest and 7th-most-visited urban public park in the United States. City Park is approximately 50% larger than New York's Central Park.

Works from the permanent collection, along with continuously changing temporary exhibitions, are on view in the museum’s 46 galleries Fridays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The adjacent Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden features work by over 60 artists, including several of the 20th century’s master sculptors. 

 www.noma.org