LUCKY DOGS!!!

(those are the hot dog stands on every corner in the quarter for those of you unfortunate folk that have never been to nawlins....)

paul, i bet you could eat 10 lucky dogs! come on, you can do it!

i'm with you on the whole mardi gras scene...i love going to visit, but have managed to avoid it during the months of february and march for my entire life - and unless i have a ticket on the top of a float throwing the beads to the crowd and then going to a $5,000 a plate dinner afterwards, you can bet i'll be avoiding mardi gras in new orleans, still....

ah... the bourbocam... you just made me have a flashback to when i designed nolalive.com... thanks - i tried to forget....

I agree with you on New Orleans, even though I did have a good time down there years ago. However, here's what rankles me: Have you ever been to Minneapolis? OK, I know it's brutually cold, but it has a great nightlife scene. Tons of bars with an interesting mix of live music with cover charges and beer prices that won't leave you in the poorhouse. It's aptly nicknamed "The San Francisco of the Midwest" due to its diversity and progressive thinking. I've visited a cousin of mine who lives there and had a blast every time. This is a city that produced legends such as Husker Du, The Replacements & The Magnolias (not to mention Prince).

There are two types of cities: ones people go from and ones people go to. Few go to Minneapolis. Doesn't mean it's a bad place.

But you can't have special without ordinary and to recognize the uniqueness of New York, L.A., New Orleans, Las Vegas, or Miami, ya gotta admit that some places just aren't as good for weekend romps.

I feel like I have to stick up for the little guys here, being as I am from Kansas City.

I have been to Minneapolis and thought it was a riot. I loved Denver....St. Louis, Dallas, Tempe, Cleveland and Milwaukee. There is something to be said for cities that can be 'experienced' in a 4 day trip.

I have never been to the sprawling metropolis of New York City, but would love the opportunity to go. I have seen Chicago and Miami and thought they were a blast, but left angry because I didn't feel as though I did enough. Shit, I dropped just under a grand in Chicago in 5 days and felt like barely hit the tip of the iceberg. I think places where people 'go' are places that need to be lived in for 6 or 8 months at a time.....Just so you can say you saw it.

On any given night in NYC or L.A., there are 50 things going on that would be the coolest thing to happen to Minneapolis in a year. There are parties and openings and fundraisers and concerts and performances that won't even merit a line in the newspaper tomorrow, and still they'll be attended by more true movers and shakers of industry than most will ever meet.

I'm not saying you can't have fun in second-tier cities or that the people are bad, but certain cities are tourist spots for a reason, because they can pick you up and sweep you into a whirlwind of their own unique qualities. Certainly, New York, L.A., New Orleans and Miami have their own distinct attributes.

Ahem.

Fuck LA...Chicago is the "second city"- with the best fucking summertime-in-the-city in the country.

Bar none.

And you couldn't get me to go to NO during Mardi Gras- did it once in college, thanks, never again. Honestly? For a girl of that age, it's scary. Actually, during Mardi Gras, probably for a girl of any age...

Wow......great little forum we've got going here.

I guess a lot really depends on personal taste. I grew up in New York, and now live in San Francisco. I love both cities and everything they have to offer. But personally, I would much rather go to Minneapolis, Seattle or Denver over Miami or Los Angeles. Not that I couldn't have fun in Miami or L.A. (with enough money and alcohol ANYTHING'S possible) but I guess it jusn't isn't my "scene" so to speak.

eh... jersey city kicks ass...

(oh okay - i can't keep a straight face...)

Granted I'm from a place that wouldn't even register on the map of anywhere anyone would ever want to go, but I've been to NY, Chicago, LA, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Memphis, Austin, Atlanta, New Orleans, San Fran, and many others. I most full heartedly agree with Paul that there is no place else like NY and no other place that I'd rather spend my time. In fact instead of going to Europe, expenses paid, with the family this summer, I'm going back to the Melting Pot.

I'm not really trying to brag on NYC. I do that every day. What I mean is that New Orleans, as much as it lives and breathes off of booze, vomit and urine, is one of those unique places truly worthy of a weekend fly-by.

And I'm including Las Vegas and Miami in there, and saying that some other cities just don't have that magical something that just draws people who truly live. And I'm not ragging on those cities. But to have something special, you must have something ordinary to compare it to.

I've been to L.A., San Francisco, Vegas, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, St. Louis, Chicago, Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, Charleston, D.C., Pittsburgh, Philly, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toronto.

And yet, as much fun as I have in big cities, it still pisses me off to see all the results of failed liberal social programs everywhere: devastated neighborhoods, abandoned buildings (usually gov't housing), panhandlers, boozers, cokeheads, various incontinent bums, gangbangers, graffiti, trash, etc.

Sadly, liberals have utterly destroyed America's once-great major cities, turning them into welfare plantations by driving out high-income city residents and replacing them with high-cost residents. Then they turned most big cities into cultural battlefields by embracing every sleazy decadent trend from queer sex to porn theatres.

All told, I'm still a country boy at heart. I may come visit your city for a weekend, but if any scumbag tries to mug me downtown, I'll be sure to give him all .45!