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The Tennessee Williams Festival started on Thursday and it is always one of my favorite festivals in the city – and this from a city whose festivals never quit. Yesterday morning I went to a panel discussion on one of my favorite authors, Walker Percy, and listened to three Southern writers discuss The Moviegoer. The feelings this all aroused was a watershed of my first wanting to write at the tender age of 20, my first love being quite literary and encouraging me, his own endorsement of my writing Walker Percy, my all time favorite author, a letter, to which Percy replied, all the way to the fact that his ex became an author herself and was on the panel now discussing Percy. It was almost full circle.

I then went to a panel discussion on writing about family that had Dorothy Allison, Valerie Martin, and other writers discussing what I had hoped to be was insight into writing about family but actually it was more of an anecdotal pass time instead.

I left to go meet T-squared to have lunch, but when I walked outside the Quarter was abuzz not just with the festival but with some roadhouse cooking bonanza going on up and down Royal Street not to mention the Scavenger Hunt that has become so popular in this city where I saw friends running by who breathlessly said, “We’re on the hunt, can’t talk.”

T parked on Esplanade and I made my way to her in the most inappropriate shoes to wear to the Quarter – high heels! Then we walked to the Marigny where we got a beer at the Brasserie and let Tin play in the park. Playing with him were familiar musicians – Ms. Sophie Lee and her partner, who is in the Jazz Vipers and their two kids. I was just marveling how wonderful this moment was but only some minutes into Tin swinging a boy walked in front of the swing and they head butted leading Tin into tears and a bloody nose.

Meanwhile, a friend was having a reading at Antenna in the Bywater, and my truck was back near the Royal Orleans and T’s was on Esplanade, so we foolishly began walking (again, I’m in heels) towards the gallery and I suddenly was starving and we stopped at Cake for a sandwich, then continued on our journey into the Bywater, where we were picked up by a friend passing by and brought to our destination.

Our friend had picked the busiest weekend in the year to have her reading and I was glad we went as we were the only ones there. She read from her book, Travels with Mae, and we sat on the floor and listened to the easy cadence of her tales of growing up black in New Orleans. My feet were sore, but I was glad we were there.

Then we made our way home where it was only long enough for a James Brown turnaround and the babysitter to arrive as T and I sprinted back to the Quarter to watch Jeremy Lawrence channel Tennessee as he does so well and watch Tom and Rose: My Sister Was Quicker At Everything Than I at Le Petit Theatre, which ended an hour and a half short with me in tears and Lawrence in tears.

We picked up the truck and headed to Meaux Bar for dinner and believe it or not after a leisurely delicious meal and gin and tonics, we made our way home for the first part of the Social Network, which T hadn’t seen yet.

And that my dear ended my long, wonderful, yet exhausting Saturday.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 27th, 2011 at 2:17 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.