Other Spectacular Things About New Orleans

“They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries.” - Tennessee Williams
“The ghosts race towards the light, you can almost hear the heavy breathing spirits, all determined to get somewhere. New Orleans, unlike a lot of
those places you go back to and that don't have the magic anymore, still has got it. Night can swallow you up, yet none of it touches you. Around any
corner, there's a promise of something daring and ideal and things are just getting going. There's something obscenely joyful behind every door,
either that or somebody crying with their head in their hands. A lazy rhythm looms in the dreamy air and the atmosphere pulsates with bygone duels,
past-life romance, comrades requesting comrades to aid them in some way. You can't see it, but you know it's here. Somebody is always sinking.
Everyone seems to be from some very old Southern families. Either that or a foreigner. I like the way it is.
“There are a lot of places I like, but I like New Orleans better.”
― Bob Dylan
Shrouded in river mist, softly lit with gas lanterns, haunted by pirate kings and drag queens - New Orleans is a perfect city in which to hold our
yearly Gothic gathering! Frank Schmidt, Matthew Checki, Joanie Boucher, Mattvaughan Black and the cast of characters comprising the New
Orleans Gothic scene offer you their proposal for a Convergence in the city that care forgot.*
*This is a phrase that no one here ever uses, has used or will use.
THE PLAN - Continuing the tradition of Convergences past, C21 in New Orleans would be held during the middle of Spring, avoiding the
infamous heat and humidity of summer in the South. Summer here is like standing in a wet crematorium – you don't want any part of it. We are
currently negotiating with venues that can accommodate us for Easter weekend (April 3-5), the same time of year that the previous two New Orleans
Convergences were held. Our plan is to host two nights of nationally (and perhaps internationally) known bands combined with net.goth and local
DJs, a third night of simply DJs, and show off the beauty, magic and weirdness of the city during a very few planned daytime events (but not so early
you can't pry yourself out of bed yet), and keep you awake until the smallest hours or until enough mistakes are made. This is the year that
Convergence turns 21 years old, and we want that to happen in all the elegance, chaos and stately old debauchery of New Orleans. Ticket prices will
be in accordance with past Cs.
THE PLACE – New Orleans has been called a number of things – The Crescent City, the Big Easy, the City that Care Forgot, N'Awlins – but
practically never by locals. Lounging in the shade of majestic live oaks and the combination of Victorian and Caribbean architecture, our city is the
birthplace of jazz and the cocktail, the home of the first opera house in the Americas and the first movie theatre in the world, and the home of the best
food on Earth. As Mark Twain put it, “New Orleans food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin.” The city's history lives and breathes in
everything from its ancient live oaks to its spectacular above-ground cemeteries. At night, we disdain the concept of “closing time,” and have no
fixed hour at which bars or clubs must shut down. We are also civilized enough that in the French Quarter we don't blink if you choose to sip your
drink while walking down the sidewalk.
There are any number of commercial tours themed from actual history to ghosts and vampires, more than a few places to buy spooky clothes, shoes
and boots, more antique shops than we can count, and quite literally miles on end of boutiques on Magazine Street. Our two largest public parks are
both accessible by streetcar and are home to breathtaking trees and water birds. City Park (http://neworleanscitypark.com/) is the oldest and one of
the largest urban parks in the United States. Audubon Park (http://www.auduboninstitute.org/visit/audubon-park), named for Jean-Jacques Audubon,
who made New Orleans his home for some years, contains a lagoon, the award-winning zoo and a mile-long view of the Mississippi River.
Travel to and staying in New Orleans is easy and inexpensive. All major airlines (including Southwest) fly into our airport, and we're accessible from
both coasts and everywhere in between by Amtrak and Greyhound. Our city has more visitors' accommodations per capita than any other city in
America, so we'll get some hotel deals together for you. Due to the popularity of New Orleans as a travel destination, hotels are nearly all within
walking distance or a quick taxi/streetcar ride away from venues, clubs, shopping, and other places of interest.
Spring turns New Orleans into an Eden of banana trees, exotic flowers, and gorgeous weather. Expect the temperature to be about 50 to 70 degrees F,
with the good possibility of a little rain.
At the writing of this proposal, the tattooing and piercing age is 18, and you must also be 18 to enter a bar. However, you must be 21 or over to
purchase alcoholic beverages or enter an establishment offering gambling or gambling machines. People of drinking age may carry and consume
drinks (in non-glass containers) in the street. "Bar time" is not set by government regulations, and many bars are open into the wee hours of the
morning (a last call at 6:30am is not unusual). Some bars are open 24 hours. If you absolutely must go to Bourbon Street, we recommend that you do
not wear open-toed shoes.
The Dueling Oak in City Park. It is a common misconception that there are “Dueling Oaks,” which is silly since oaks can wield neither pistols nor swords.
A giant metal spider in the sculpture garden in City Park. Possibly one of those that were in Rockefeller Plaza during C7, which would make C21 this
spider's second Convergence.
The Étienne de Boré Oak in Audubon Park, which is often assumed to have been the inspiration for 'Avatar.' That's all the pictures of trees, we promise.
THE VENUE – We hope to place the nighttime events at One Eyed Jack's (http://www.oneeyedjacks.net/), a longstanding French Quarter
attraction which has been featured in many films (for instance, Ray, All the King's Men, and frankly too many others to list here) and whose stage
has hosted acts from the Dresden Dolls to Rasputina to VNV Nation, the Cramps and the Mission, and will have hosted Peter Fucking Murphy in
August of this year. For those of you who visited New Orleans before June 2004, you may remember the location (if not the remodeled interior) as
the Shim Sham Club.
Like Tammy Trapeze, the dead acrobat...
The front bar at One Eyed Jack's. Though many celebrities have been spotted there, we have but hoped in vain for Sherilyn Fenn.
The Hotel – You may lay your weary head down with the rising sun at the Hotel Monteleone (http://hotelmonteleone.com/), the oldest and best
hotel in New Orleans, which was also the official hotel of Convergence 12. Those who attended C12 do not need to be reminded of its coffin-shaped
rooftop pool or its carousel bar. The Monteleone, locally owned and in the same location since 1886, is also only four short blocks' walk from One
Eyed Jack's.
Ernest Hemingway not only drank here but wrote about it in “The Night Before Battle.”
This is a “preferred king” room. No word yet on whether you can request black sheets and curtains.
It's coffin-shaped. What more do you want?
THE PEOPLE - Here's some information about your prospective C21 organizers:
Frank Schmidt is originally from – er – Cleveland, but has lived in New Orleans for the last eighteen years. He was a member of the Convergence 12
committee and has attended fourteen C*s so far. For the past ten years, he has been DJing in and around New Orleans and is one of the founders of
Shadow Gallery (https://www.facebook.com/GothicNewOrleansWithoutOontzOrCrack), a more or less monthly club night since 2006. He is fond of
both the Dark and Stormy and the Mojito. You can blame him for the nostalgic, 1992-era experience of viewing this page.
Hailing from New York, Matthew Checki (DJ Sneauxball) became professionally involved in New Orleans dark culture as a bartender at the
Whirling Dervish at the age of 21, 7 years ago. Since then he cofounded Attrition Productions (https://www.facebook.com/attritionnola), the city's
leading promotion/production team in the industrial genre. Throughout Attrition's 5 years of regular club events, he has also booked/produced shows
including VNV Nation, Covenant (once during a hurricane), Projekt Pitchfork, Voltaire, De/Vision and My Life With the Thril Kill Kult. He has also
spun shows including KMFDM, The Genitorturers and Chant.
Joanie Boucher (DJ Klaxon) has been involved in New Orleans Alternative Nightlife since she moved to the city in the summer of 2000. Primarily
working as a resident DJ at different clubs and events in New Orleans, she has also supported bands such as Das Ich, Assemblage 23, and played at
multi-band local festivals and parties, including Convergence 12. She has also made guest appearances at events in various other cities. She began
her involvement with live music promotion in 2004, booking bands such as the Cruxshadows and Haujobb. In 2010, she joined the Attrition team,
New Orleans' largest promotional team in the Goth and Industrial genres, helping to host bands like Covenant, VNV Nation, Project Pitchfork, and
many others. She enjoys travel, dining, and dystopian fantasy.
Mattvaughan Black, a native and life long resident of New Orleeans, is a 20 year veteran of the city's nightlife and entertainment business and is also
the creator and leader of the Noisician Coalition (https://www.facebook.com/noiseco).
Other Spectacular Things About New Orleans
While no one visiting for less than a week can see everything worth seeing in the city, there are a few things you wouldn't want to miss. To wit:
Cemeteries
Just for the heck of it, here are some photos of our cemeteries. Lafayette No. 1, in the Garden District, is one block off the St. Charles Ave. streetcar
line. Metairie Cemetery is accessible from the Canal St. (i.e. 'Cemeteries') streetcar line. St. Louis No. 1, the oldest cemetery in the city and burial
place of Marie Laveau, is just outside the French Quarter on Basin Street.
The Brunswig pyramid in Metairie Cemetery.
One of the many benevolent societies' tombs in Metairie Cemetery.
This tomb is a favorite of local metal bands for their album covers and group portraits.
Although one of the angels here is doing the classic goth “hand
stapled to forehead” gesture, she's doing it because of a fatal shipwreck.
Everyone, but everyone, takes pictures of this angel when the tomb's doors are unlocked (which is a rare occasion).
The Garden District – A neighborhood mainly made up of 1840s mansions, with streets and yards overhung with the boughs of live oaks,
not to mention a five-star restaurant and its own cemetery. The American Horror Story house from season 3 is on Jackson Avenue near Magazine
Street. There's a house at First and Chestnut of which many of you won't need a further description. The Garden District is traditionally bound by
Jackson Avenue, St. Charles Avenue, Magazine Street and Washington Avenue, but these days people often use the term to include the other five or
so blocks up to Louisiana Avenue. Photos don't really do it justice (they do not, for instance, communicate the fragrance of the ubiquitous jasmine),
but have a look here:
The French Quarter – You'll be staying there, so you'll necessarily see it. Rather than a place with a single character, the Quarter was until
about 1800 almost the entire city, and therefore needed to serve every human impulse. Therefore, the filth and debauchery of Bourbon Street coexists
almost side by side with the elegance of famous restaurants (some of which date back to the 19th century), antique shops, museums and book stores.
It also retains a bit of the aspect of a self-contained city with grocery stores, a school, a walled park, a convent (in use until quite recently) and what
amount to several distinct entertainment districts. Locals who don't work there rarely go to Bourbon above St. Ann St., for instance, but the oldest bar
in the United States (Boston disputes this but not with much energy) is Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop at the relatively quiet corner of Bourbon and St.
Philip, in a building dating from somewhere between the 1720s and 1770s, depending on whom you believe. Lower Decatur (downtown* of St.
Philip), is where many locals feel almost as much at home as in their own houses. The Quarter also contains the places where you'll want to buy
clothes, shoes (including a Fluevog store soon), makeup, wigs, and, if you really must, a thousand varieties of hot sauce, t-shirts and back scratchers
made from baby alligator heads. The French Market is a shaded but open-air market existing since about the 1830s in the lower Quarter near the
river. It was formerly the site of Gallatin St., known in its day as one of the most dangerous places in the world, which was therefore torn down.
Postcard-style pictures of the Quarter are easy to find, so for how locals view the place, we recommend you look here instead:
http://www.welovenola.com/2013/12/14/only-in-new-orleans-french-quarter-weirdness/
*”downtown” is usually used to indicate a direction rather than a location in New Orleans. Hence, what most cities call “downtown,” we call the
CBD or Central Business District. This is probably due to the fact that the points of the compass are useless in giving directions here (the sun actually
rises over the West Bank of the Mississippi as seen from some parts of the city – when it's said to set over the W'ank in A Confederacy of Dunces,
this is actually a local in-joke), so we navigate by whether things are upriver (“uptown” - which also designates a location), downriver (“downtown”),
or more towards Lake Pontchartrain or the river (“lakeside” and “riverside”).
Notes on other neighborhoods you probably won't get to:
The Faubourg Marigny – immediately downtown of the French Quarter, the Marigny is a mostly residential neigborhood, although Frenchmen St. is
full of jazz clubs, restaurants, bars, shops and so on for a few blocks. The Marigny also contains the emerging arts and entertainment district of St.
Claude Ave., but anyone not from here, on seeing the place, would probably wonder at where we get off describing St. Claude as an arts and
entertainment district. At various places throughout the Marigny are also some bars, coffee shops and restaurants ranging from fascinatingly awful (in
a few cases) to strangely wonderful (in most others).
The Bywater – downtown of the Marigny, the Bywater is an even more residential neighborhood that likewise contains some terrific restaurants
(Elizabeth's, Pizza Delicious, and the Joint come to mind immediately), but recently has also seen an attempted colonization by Williamsburg
hipsters looking for a more authentic place to show off their artisanal beards and organic bicycle customizations. It sometimes gets national press, but
always in a hilariously inaccurate fashion. There have been a couple of New York Times pieces that we thought might have been satire on how a
clueless reporter would view the place.
Uptown – a location as well as a direction, Uptown New Orleans is encompasses pretty much everything upriver of the Warehouse District and many
different neighborhoods. If you're done walking around the Garden District, head slightly downtown on Magazine St. to the Lower Garden District to
eat. If you've taken the St. Charles streetcar to get a look at the miles on end of mansions or travel to Audubon Park, go to Oak Street, Riverbend (the
area where St. Charles Ave. ends and makes a soft right to become Carrollton Ave.) or Maple Street to get coffee, food of a dozen varieties, books,
comics, vintage clothes, booze, and so on.
Mid-City – On your way to either the cemeteries or City Park, the area around Canal St. and Carrolton Ave. is full of unique places to eat and drink.
We could write a small essay on the better places to go within two blocks of that intersection, but we'll save it for later. Suffice it to say that
everything from Vietnamese fusion to fine-dining Mexican to a hundred-ten-year-old Sicilian ice cream parlour to Phillipine food to tacos and
burritos to barbequeue, pizza and absurdly good brunch coexists in a small area. Mid-City is actually a very large region of the city with a good deal
more to say, but that intersection is where you'll most likely end up there if at all.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of places worth seeing – we could name more than a few in the Warehouse District or Bayou St. John or the
Irish Channel – but we hope it's illustrative of places you'll want to spend a few hours if you can find the time while visiting.