The essential travel guide to the land of voodoo, hoodoo, and backwater bayous, "Weird Louisiana" reveals everything weird, wacky, and wonderful about this state.
Where in New Orleans can you can bathe in Napoleon’s bathtub, step through a time machine, or eat dinner with a ghost? What religion is even stranger than Voodoo? Why take your laundry to the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll? What is the one (delicious!) drink that makes every bartender cringe? There is no denying that New Orleans is more than just another city . . . she is truly an enigma. New Orleans is a place where struggle gives way to decadence and revelry, moss-dripped southern oaks whisper tales of dueling and murder, and long-held traditions baffle—and even appall—outsiders. With this guide, readers can seek out Calas at Elizabeth’s Restaurant and learn how this simple sweet enabled enslaved women to buy their freedom, see how Hurricane Katrina ravaged a typical home at the Flooded House Museum, and discover how Josie Arlington, the city’s most famous madam, mocked her dissenters even in death while basking in the beauty of her ornate tomb in Metairie Cemetery. Secret New Orleans is an intriguing collection of obscure people, artifacts, places, and menu items that lifts the hazy veil of The Big Easy and unmasks some of its most amazingly true stories, proving to be valuable reading for visitors and locals alike!
Discover this Cajun and Creole city where ghost stories abound . . . photos included! The Hub City boasts a multitude of spirits and specters, from those lost in Civil War skirmishes and fever outbreaks to those souls that simply can’t say goodbye. Today, they wander the halls of bed-and-breakfasts and restaurants and linger along back roads and cemeteries. Pirates are rumored to guard buried treasure, and ancient French legends hide in the swamps, bayous, and woods. Join journalist and ghost seeker Cheré Dastugue Coen as she visits Lafayette’s haunted sites and travels the countryside in search of ghostly legends found only in South Louisiana.
At his death in 1990, Walker Percy left a considerable legacy of uncollected nonfiction. Assembled in Signposts in a Strange Land, these essays on language, literature, philosophy, religion, psychiatry, morality, and life and letters in the South display the imaginative versatility of an author considered by many to be one the greatest modern American writers.
From backwoods bars and small-town dives to swampside dance halls and converted clapboard barns, Louisiana Saturday Night offers an anecdotal history and experiential guidebook to some of the Gumbo State's most unique blues, Cajun, and zydeco clubs. Music critic Alex V. Cook uncovers south Louisiana's wellspring of musical tradition, showing us that indigenous music exists not as an artifact to be salvaged by preservationists, but serves as a living, breathing, singing, laughing, and crying part of Louisiana culture. Louisiana Saturday Night takes the reader to both offbeat and traditional venues in and around Baton Rouge, Cajun country, and New Orleans, where we hear the distinctive voices of musicians, patrons, and owners -- like Teddy Johnson, born in the house that now serves as Teddy's Juke Joint. Along the way, Cook ruminates on the cultural importance of the people and places he encounters, and shows their critical role in keeping Louisiana's unique music alive. A map, a journal, a snapshot of what goes on in the little shacks off main roads, Louisiana Saturday Night provides an indispensable and entertaining companion for those in pursuit of Louisiana's quirky and varied nightlife.
Your round-trip ticket to the wildest, wackiest, most outrageous people, places, and things the Pelican State has to offer! Whether you’re a born-and-raised Louisianan, a recent transplant, or just passing through, Louisiana Curiosities will have you laughing out loud as Louisiana native Bonnye Stuart takes you on a rollicking tour of the strangest sites in the Pelican State. Track down some serious fun, from watching lawnmower racing and petting live alligators to attending a prison rodeo and dancing at a powwow. Feast your way through festivals that celebrate the state’s cultural diversity and local crops, from fiery Cajun gumbo to sweet mayhaw jelly—and stop in at the local wineries and microbreweries to quench your thirst. Learn about the darker side of Louisiana as you tour haunted plantations, mysterious mansions, and spooky cemeteries.
13 is a collection of horror stories reflecting various elements of the American Dream. But here, the Dream has been twisted beyond easy recognition. These tales of Americana gone hideously and sometimes hysterically wrong feature a dark parade of misunderstood monsters, homicidal heroes, invading aliens, media-friendly fiends, rogue presidents… and even an occasional zombie. Like the funhouse mirrors in a carnival for crackheads, these stories reflect (and distort) the diversity of ills faced by a spinning roulette wheel of alternate Americas. Here you’ll find Americas that might have been or, perhaps, one that lurks, giggling and debauched, just over the next horizon. The inhabitants of these other Americas tell jokes that cut. One or two of them might carry a cream pie in one hand and a switchblade concealed down the backs of their pants. Their Home Sweet Horrors occupy strange colonies; realms that lie both within and outside traditional genre identifications, spanning the literary range from weird western, urban fantasy, comic crime, science- fiction and subtle political commentary (with cannibals.) There’s even a Christmas story, a tale of childhood survival featuring the last person you might reasonably expect to meet during the zombie apocalypse. In our reality, ever since the founding of the original thirteen colonies, the American Dream remains strong, of course; a clarion call to action for friends and enemies alike. Therefore, many of the stories in 13 can be enjoyed strictly for laughs. But in a nation fraught with environmental catastrophes, global conflicts, economic, religious and racial unrest, when the real monsters finally show up to check out the neighborhood… who’s to say the joke’s not on us? Stories included in this collection: The Flinch Hadley Shimmerhorn: American Icon Born Again Manny Miracle Is Alive and Well and Dying in the 29th Dimension! A Father’s Work Our Kind of People The Greenhouse Jimmy Sticks and the Outlaw Critter of Doom Across the Black Plains Christmastime in Zombietown Folds Survivor: Monster Island 2025 The Last American President