Last Night, I went to see "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." I went to a free screening, which attracts so many deadbeats like myself that the crowds are almost Calcutta like. I didn't know there were that many dead end service jobs in New Orleans. The screening was at Canal Place, one of my favorite movie venues in the city. Canal Place has an excellent sound system, comfortable seats and good views of the screen almost anywhere you sit. And although the screen isn't the largest, especially when you compare it to the mega theatres in the suburbs, the overall effect is consistently as close to a classic movie experience as possible in today's corporate dominated theatre industry. There are other theatres in New Orleans that excel past Canal Place in one respect or another, but the overall experience at Canal Place is my favorite. I also love the urban setting and the slightly aging hipster population the theatre employs.
Since I spend about 75% of my work time either in or thinking about New Orleans but live in Austin, I am often asked to compare the two places. I spent the last five years of my life as a highly visible, highly vocal booster of New Orleans, so many people I meet are surprised when they hear that we have settled, at least for the near term, in Austin. For Cassie and me, the decision to stay in Austin was pretty easy. We didn't have any assets to protect in New Orleans. Our house was pretty thoroughly destroyed so there was no hurry to come back. We also wanted to find some degree of stability for our son; New Orleans is a dynamic place right now and since he had already spent about a fourth of his life in evacuation/gypsy mode, we decided we would try to give him a rest. So we arbitrarily chose Austin off the map. It was a reasonably short drive away from New Orleans. It was the only really progressive city in Texas. Much like New Orleans, it's a blue island in a sea of...
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