On Memorial Day, Valeria and some of her relatives went to the family graveyard near Armstrong, Mo., and asked me to come along. As it happens so often, I went there with all these preconceived pictures in my head of somber people standing at the headstones with their heads bowed. None of that happened. Valeria and her relatives hadn’t seen each other in a while and were excited to share the latest news and family talk. Here are two shots I really like from that day.
May 31, 2010
My friend Tobi came to visit me in the U.S. for two weeks, and so we decided to take a road trip to New Orleans. Together with Beth we embarked on the 15-hour drive down to the Big Easy. To cut a long story short: We had a fantastic time. I always knew that New Orleans breathes music, but experiencing it live is a whole different thing. We only spent four days in the city, but I fell madly in love with it. Together with San Francisco, to me New Orleans is the most amazing city in this country.
On our way to New Orleans we got into a huge traffic jam just outside of Memphis. Everything was deadlocked for hours, and finally we found out that an anti-government activist and his son had shot and killed two police officers during a routine traffic control. Law enforcement had to close off the bridge across the Mississippi for the man hunt, causing a complete still-stand for several hours.
You haven’t been to New Orleans if you haven’t had a crawfish boil by the Mississippi river…
The cemeteries in New Orleans are all above ground because of the swampy soil the city is built on.
Outside the Bulldog bar where we watched the tragic Champions League finals of Bayern Munich against Inter Milan.
In New Orleans, music – good music – is everywhere. Even the musicians in the street are great. But this one here topped everything I had ever seen before. We were in the bar and heard the band playing, until one of us noticed that there were more instruments than people on the stage. At first we thought they were playing stuff off a loop. But when we took a closer look, we realized the he was playing a rhythm guitar in one hand, a lead guitar in the other, and a bass guitar with his feet. Go figure…
On our last day, we took a field trip to one of the many Bayous around New Orleans. The nature out there is incredible.
May 25, 2010