I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I got a Christmas bonus (a week’s wages–gross, not net) and told that I’m getting a raise. I bought myself a Nook Tablet today, as a post-holiday reward to myself. I’m still going to get most of my reading material from the library, but I can see buying new releases that have waiting lists, or obscure titles that can’t be obtained through interlibrary loan. Plus there’s magazines, music, games, movies, TV, web browsing.

Jamie and Greg went back to Los Angeles today, and Rian returned to Chicago on Tuesday. I have tomorrow off, then it’s back to the grind. But I have the next meetup–in Morgan City this time–next weekend, and Hope and I have discussed doing a Lomography road trip in March. I was thinking either north Louisiana, the Galveston/Beaumont area of Texas, or Mississippi. And by a weird coincidence, she mentioned a restaurant in McComb, MS. That’s the town that my father’s family was originally from, although he mostly grew up in North Platte, NE. So it’s probably going to be Mississippi this time, although I’d like to do more in the future.

One thing I’d like to do different in 2012 is that I’d like to do something for Mardi Gras. I didn’t last year, and I kind of felt like I wasted being in south Louisiana. I think I’ll probably go see the Krewe of Muses parade in New Orleans. That’s an all-female krewe that rolls through uptown the Thursday before Fat Tuesday. Since it’s all women, and not in the French Quarter, and not on Mardi Gras the actual day, there’s a minimum of the obnoxious shenanigans I associate with Mardi Gras in New Orleans going on: namely, drunk college girls flashing their tits and drunker frat rats trying to date rape anything with boobs.

Granny: There isn’t much a 92-year-old woman really wants or needs. I got her a jar of soaps that look and smell like gardenia petals; each soap is good for one handwashing, it lathers up and washes away. She loves scented things, and this will be something that she’ll enjoy but will get consumed.

Phil: I bought him a scrimshaw box made of water buffalo bone. He always admired scrimshaw, and he needs something to put his watch and rings in so they aren’t just rolling around loose in his night table drawer.

Mom: You know those oval paper cups with the fluted edges that they serve hot dogs in when you get them at a fair or from a street vendor? I got her a set of 5 stoneware dishes that look like that. Mom likes the occasional chili dog, and you can’t go wrong giving her any kind of dishes.

Jamie: I got her a bamboo serving tray that’s got a slate inset and comes with chalk. So when you serve cheese or whatever on it, you can write the name underneath. It’s a good size, it will hold at least 2 or 3 cheeses or appetizers. And it matches her bamboo floors!

Rian: Rian loves jigsaw puzzles, so I got him one of those 3D puzzles of the New York City skyline. What’s cool is it has buildings from different eras, so you can build the 1812 skyline, then remove some of the buildings and put new ones it and re-create the skyline all the way up to next year (it includes the Freedom Tower, which hasn’t been built yet).

David: David loves cookbooks (we all do; Mom, Rian, David, Jamie and I all got cookbooks for Christmas) and a few weeks ago he was saying how he thought Persian food had a real interesting flavor profile, how it blends sweet with savory. So I searched on Amazon and found him an introductory Persian cookbook.

Rian got me the Real Simple cookbook, Dinner Tonight: Done!. Uncle Larry got me The Atheist Manifesto and a gift card from Barnes & Noble (already spent that on a fountain pen!). Jamie and Greg of course got me the trip I took to Los Angeles last month and seeing The Cure at the Pantages. Mom and Phil got me season 5 of Dexter, The Girl Who Played With Fire (the novel, I already have the DVD), some instant film, a sealing wax set, some stationery, perfume (Tom Ford’s Violet Blonde), gift cards to Hobby Lobby and Old Navy (already spent on capris and a couple of graphic tees), and they renewed my subscription to Real Simple magazine.

My culinary contributions thus far have been cake balls, which David says has ruined cake for him. You make a cake, just a sheet cake from a box mix. And you let it cool, preferably overnight. Then you crumble it up, mix it with a can of frosting and form it into balls, about rounded tablespoon size. Freeze them for at least a couple of hours, then melt some chocolate in a double boiler and dip the balls (heh) in it. Set them on wax paper or aluminum foil, and by the time the chocolate hardens the cake inside will be thawed. I made a butter pecan cake with chocolate frosting and semi-sweet chocolate, and a lemon cake with lemon frosting and white chocolate. That one is TITS.

And yesterday afternoon I baked a brie. I actually got the recipe from a magazine ad for Pepperidge Farms frozen puff pastry, which any honest professional chef will tell you is preferable to making your own. It tastes exactly the same and saves you hours of prep. Anyway, you thaw a sheet, roll it out on a floured surface, and cut off the corners. Mix chopped dried cherries (soften them in warm water first), toasted pecans, honey, rosemary, and a tiny pinch of salt. Put it in the middle of the sheet, put a large round brie on top (and when you’re baking brie, it doesn’t have to be a super expensive gourmet one), and pull the edges of the pastry sheet up. Flip it over onto a baking sheet, brush it all over with egg and a little water, and I usually decorate it with little cut outs of pastry from the corners you cut off. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes and cool for at least a half hour. I don’t put this on crackers, I just cut little wedges and serve it that way. It’s pretty and tastes like a million bucks, but it’s super easy to make.

So, what did Santa bring YOU?

I have no idea why I keep getting blog titles from that old meme.

Anyway, yesterday Hope and I met for brunch at Satsuma Café (which was really good and like a funky little café you’d see in Berkeley), knocked around Bywater/Marigny for an hour, then went to an exhibit of tintypes at Home Space Gallery. There was a demo by this guy where we got to see one made too, and that was really interesting. It’s not something I would ever try to get into myself though, because some wicked scary chemicals go into the process: nitric acid, ether, CYANIDE.

He did portraits, and I thought it would be fun to sit for one. I really like the way it came out, and he took a digital photo of it for his portfolio so I guess it’s a good one. He uses all 19th century equipment and processing, and he tints the cheeks just like they did back then. He put a little gold paint on my necklace, too.

The funny thing is that I stayed in bed too long to style my hair, and just let it dry in the car on the drive, but I like the way it looks in the photo.

The Marigny is the next neighborhood upriver (I think? I have a terrible sense of direction. It might be downriver.) from the French Quarter and is generally thought to be like how the Quarter was before it got devoured by drunk tourists.

672502-R1-37-0A, originally uploaded by pinstripe_bindi.

The center of the Marigny is Washington Square Park. There’s a sign at the entrance admonishing people not to bring dogs, bicycles, or alcoholic beverages into it. So naturally, every single person you see has at least one of those things. That pretty much sums up New Orleans.

672502-R1-38-00A, originally uploaded by pinstripe_bindi.

I could shoot entire rolls of nothing but porches and front doors in New Orleans. The Marigny has a lot of Creole-style housing, one of the hallmarks of which is bright colors.

672502-R1-09-28A, originally uploaded by pinstripe_bindi.

I took this in Island of Salvation Botanica. It’s one of the few non-touristy Vodou shops in the city (they didn’t have any Voodoo dolls). Normally I’m very shy about photographing in retail or religious establishments, and this was both; but one of the reasons I formed the meetup group was for moral support in situations like this. I bought a bottle of perfume, so I was a customer and not just some rube who wandered in off the street.

672502-R1-14-23A crop, originally uploaded by pinstripe_bindi.

There was a “wellness center” next to the botanica, and it had a cute little band playing. Welcome to New Orleans: there’s always a band playing somewhere. (I put $5 in their tip box. My personal photographic code requires tipping of public artists whenever you photograph them.)

672502-R1-01-36A, originally uploaded by pinstripe_bindi.

St. Peter & Paul Catholic Church wasn’t on the itinerary, but I saw the top of the building in the distance and it looked interesting. It’s been closed since 2001, although I couldn’t find out any info why.

I also shot 2 rolls in the Brownie Hawkeye. I did the lens flip mod on it beforehand, so I’m eager to see how it turned out.

672501-R1-27-28, originally uploaded by pinstripe_bindi.

I think this was a section for Buddhists.

672501-R1-21-22, originally uploaded by pinstripe_bindi.

672501-R1-17-18, originally uploaded by pinstripe_bindi.

There are live peacocks wandering around the cemetery.

No, really I just prefer spend my day after Thanksgiving sleeping in and gorging on turkey sandwiches and pie. Insane crowds give me panic attacks, and I really don’t like being pepper sprayed. (Pandagon has an interesting post up about how this incident says more about the acceptance of casual torture in our society than about consumerism. Police are using it, and tasers, not to fight crime, but to punish people they perceive as not falling into line. Pretty soon people are going to start using it on people standing too close in the ATM line and snooty waiters.)

Anyway, yesterday after work I put $300 on my re-loadable Visa, went home and booted up ye olde internette, and was done with virtually all of my Christmas shopping in about 10 minutes. (I just have to go to one store for a gift card.) I TOTALLY FUCKING ROCK. I don’t think I’ve EVER been done with all of my shopping before December 1 before. I got totally kick-ass gifts for everyone too, although I don’t want to say what they are since some family members might read this.

p.s. Email or PM me your addy if you want a Christmas card, those are going in the mail next week. I got PC “Season’s Greetings” cards, so you needn’t hesitate if you celebrate some other winter holiday. I got you covered.

Monday was The Cure at the Pantages Theater, which was sort of the actual reason for my trip. Like, I can’t even put into words what it meant to me to see them again. One of Jamie’s friends that had dinner with us before the show and sat across the aisle from us was like, are you a big fan? And I blurted out I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE KILLED MYSELF AS A TEENAGER IF IT WEREN’T FOR THEIR MUSIC. So yeah, big fan.

But before that I drove Jamie to work in her Mini Cooper, then drove myself to Japantown. Driving in Los Angeles was a new experience for me, but it was mid-day and probably the time when traffic is the least hair-raising it gets in L.A. I have now been to all 3 officially recognized Japantowns in the country: San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles. I had a White Peach Calpico and stocked up on stationery at the Kinokuniya Bookstore. Then Jamie and I had lunch, she went back to work and I went for a stroll through the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. I wasn’t looking for anyone famous, but I did stumble across the Fairbanks’ mausoleum.

672042-R1-02-18A, originally uploaded by pinstripe_bindi.

This is the view from Jamie and Greg’s window. They live in Lincoln Heights, which I really liked. It seems like a real neighborhood, without the plasticness I tend to attribute to Los Angeles. You can see the Hollywood sign and Dodger Stadium from their house.

672042-R1-04-16A, originally uploaded by pinstripe_bindi.

I took this in the helicopter.

672042-R1-09-11A, originally uploaded by pinstripe_bindi.

Flying past the Hollywood sign.

I shot 2 more rolls, but one is 120 and will have to be sent out to Dwayne’s, and one isn’t quite finished. I’ll finish it when I go to New Orleans next Saturday–it’s supposed to storm like crazy tomorrow (the rain must have followed me), so I’ve re-scheduled the November Lomography meetup for the first weekend in December.

The main point of the trip is to see The Cure at the Pantages Theater–Jamie’s office is basically above it. However, there are a few other things I want to do, namely: see the Pacific Ocean, go to the Lomography Gallery Store, and eat at In-N-Out Burger. I’d also like to eat somewhere I can get calamari, which seems to be an unknown in Louisiana. You can get all kinds of good ethnic food here, but I sorely miss non-Cajun seafood. I haven’t had a bowl of clam chowder since I left California.

Jamie texted me last night asking if I was scared of helicopters, so she clearly has other plans as well.

As to the all-important question of which cameras to bring: I haven’t shot 120 in a while and I have several rolls just gathering dust, so I think definitely the Diana F+. For 35mm, either the Holga 135 or the Lomo LC-A+. I don’t want to mess with a bunch of knobs and dials if I’m street-shooting, so no range finders. The Land Camera is really heavy and initially I was thinking I wasn’t going to bring it. But you know, I didn’t buy it just to have it sit around the house and occasionally shoot a photo in the backyard. So I think I’ll bring it, too.