Nawlins, Raw

So it's been a couple of days but hey, life moves slow down here. We've been in nawlins for the past couple days and it's been both real fun as well as just plain real. Rob's cousin Chris has been our host with the most these past couple days. In addition to letting us crash with him he's also been driving us around town to show us the city. Let me just say goddamn. If y'all though reconstruction on Ground Zero was moving slowly, take a look at the lower 9th ward in N.O. Since we didn't really want to be tragedy tourists we didn't take a lot of pictures. Take it from us though, parts of the city look like scenes from "28 Weeks Later". I'm talking handmade street signs, blocks with maybe 2 out of 50 houses occupied, closed gas stations still displaying $2.00 gas from years ago, abandoned houses with "3 dead cats, 1 trapped dog" spray-painted on the doors. Chris kept pointing out what looked like open fields but proved to be old neighborhoods, recognizable only by the remnants of the foundations. Speaking of, Chris had some completely insane stories from his work gutting damaged houses. Among his finds: roofs hacked through from the inside by those seeking to escape the water, photo albums by the dozens, a pearl-handled .38 revolver, tons of creepy waterlogged catholic imagery, living room furniture floated onto roofs, and memorably, a kitten. The dissonance between the gravity of the current situation and our lack of awareness was quite disconcerting. The partying (which we'll cover later) was great but the devastation of the 9th ward is what will stay with us.

-abhi