my new kitten friend

This is the cat that has adopted us. He hangs around the front porch a lot and is exremely affectionate. Joanna has dubbed him "Rubio", except I think that he is actually a she.




Joanna seems to attract cats. I walked out onto the porch the other day and there were no less than four felines competing for Joanna's attention. They were on her lap, rubbing up against her legs, purring, rolling around on the ground. I haven't seen any stray dogs, but there are a ton of cats without ID around the city. I think a lot of them became strays after the storm, and they're mostly very sweet and just want attention. I know people in my neighborhood feed them and have sort of adopted them. We aren't going to start feeding Rubio just yet, but I did buy some kitty treats at the store.

I just got back from helping Gabrielle (the playwright) and her brother Walker and some other people set up for this fundraising event at a new MidCity performance space a couple blocks away from me called the "Alamo Underground." It's basically the basement of this apartment building inhabited by young artist types (it looks a bit like a fortress, and has red roof tiles... hence the "Alamo.") We strung up a bunch of Christmas lights and Walker did some pretty sketchy maneuvering in order to get electricity into the space. He's also made a sort of homemade light board using household dimmers, but it's capacity is only 600 watts, so hopefully nothing will blow up. It's a neat space though, very new and young and raw- in need of some gel in my opinion, and some cable mats.

Last night Andrew and I went to what ended up being a very fancy event run by a local social justice org. (specifically working for LGBT rights) that was honoring Barbara Motley, who runs Le Chat Noir. Think: open bar, pomegranate vodka, catered dinner, lots of politicians. I wore a dress, but still felt a little too casual (especially because I don't own a purse, so I had to bring a more casual bag.) We had fun though, and then went to a cabaret event at Le Chat Noir called "Red Light District" that was basically a variety show with a touch of burlesque and a lot of making fun of local politicians (think: Ray Nagin puppet and lots of David Vitter jokes.) It was fun, there was more alcohol, and the crowd was a mix of young people and older people- just lots of New Orleanians interested in sharing a drink and laughing (slash shouting, swearing) about how incompetant their government is.

Then we went to a bar with Gabrielle, Walker, and a girl named Mandi. There is this great local beer here called Abita Amber, which is like the best beer I've ever tasted.

Now I am marinating tofu and watching Joanna do yoga.

Signing off.