The Curious Ghost
Being newly installed in the community gives me the advantage of seeing things for the very first time, all the time. Maybe it’s Jason, the zombie man in the bayou who confuses me with all that cuddling and nibbling, and then when I finally turn toward him, he just poofs. Or maybe it’s the opium den at the Green-eyed Fairy that gave me my first dizzy experience with nude ladies dancing before me out of the beautiful paintings on the walls.
I wish to meet the Time Lords who make Lisa Simpson from the faraway future appear with her saxophone among the historical photos of famous musicians inside the Green-eyed Fairy, but the only Time Lord I’ve met so far is Jimmeh Obolensky, who owns Cinema Mise-en-scene, which I stumbled into after my opium experience. It was running a Marx Brothers movie from the future.
Jimmeh told me he will put up some short movies from our own era soon, so we won’t all feel as if we are in a time warp every night we get the urge for some cinema. Well, after a few drinks at the Green-eyed Fairy and some sips of that fairy weed they have on the menu, anything in black and white on a cinema screen is convenient, no matter what time it is from.
I found a huge selection of movie posters on the wall of the building outside Cinema Mise-en-scene and stood there for a long moment, just swooning.
Besides movie posters, I happen to have a huge crush on anything Art Nouveau, and I was really amazed when I saw the walls at the bar section of the Green-eyed Fairy, covered in many posters in this genre. Miss Francesca Alva, the owner, also exhibits real-life photos of the buildings in New Orleans beside pictures of some we have in this world of ours.
In the quarter around the Green-eyed Fairy I also found a little alley with another movie theater, Bijou Impromptu, which is owned by a cat!
After all this excitement, I climbed up to the roof of the building where the cannon of New Toulouse stands and shot myself home to the bayou. Far too tired, and yet too excited to stumble home, I ended up at my favourite hangout, Swamp Manor, where it is cozy and safe, with ghosts and curiosities inside and zombies hissing outside. Time for a little nap.
The Ghost of Liza Veliz fell in love with New Toulouse at first sight and established an existence in an old voodoo shack in the bayou. She publishes books, some of which can be found at her reading cafe at the French Market.