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.
It was most certainly anti-climactic to emerge from the woods on a cool Sunday morning and walk into a well-appointed campground bustling with car campers making breakfast over Coleman grills and disheveled children wrapped in Disney character blankets, quietly playing with IPads. In that moment of familiarity and habit I almost forgot what I had been doing for the past few days as I picked at the continental breakfast laid out by our instructor to welcome us back to civilization. I wanted a shower, a change of clothes and much more than a grocery store muffin (which I ate anyway). I wanted my foods: the nut butters and trendy high protein "superfoods" I am so used to and have come to expect. Three days before, I was skinning a garter snake, awkwardly and squeamishly removing its guts, cutting it into one bite-sized piece for each of my classmates and adding it as the main part of a stew made up of pond water, wild garlic, a handful of tadpoles, a slug, a cricket, multipl...
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