I was in New Orleans for a total of about 48 hours, 6 of which were spent in the airport waiting for my flight back to New York. I went down for the Cable Show, a convention put on by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA). Like any "professional event," you always find yourself having a few interesting conversations, some with people you know, others with new faces. And this event was no different. Except that the most interesting people I met were not related at all to the business at hand (that should really be of no surprise.)
The first I actually did meet through the cable show. On the convention floor I ran into Wyatt, a guy who works at the NCTA, and who was wandering around with his mother (who happened to be in town for another convention) and friend's of her fathers, an older couple who live in New Orleans. As it turns out this man was Rene Brunet, owner of the Prytania Theatre, an independent theatre in the uptown district of New Orleans. I'm going to guess he's in his 80's, but he was certainly as lively and entertaining as anyone else i'd met that day. Once I told them I had gone to Tulane, the conversation flowed. They told me about the city's transformation pre and post Katrina, how the Prytania had fared (very well, no damage at all) and that other landmark theatres weren't as lucky (the Saenger still hadn't reopened), about the inevitable shift of 35mm prints to digital, and about their midnight showing coming up on Wednesday of Indiana Jones (he was very proud!) They laughed when I told them my one of my fondest memories of the Prytania was seeing "The Big Chill" when it first opened. Even they admitted i was dating myself! While Mr. Brunet thanked me for listening to an old man, I was actually grateful to have met him. The Prytania is an institution and he couldn't have been more enjoyable.
In checking out the hotel, not sure why I listened to the woman at the hotel, but I did. She told me that because of rush hour and construction on the I-10, it could take up to 1 1/2 hours to get to the airport, although I know it's a 20 minutes drive in no traffic. I got there in 30 minutes. So I found myself at the airport at 4pm for a 5:45 flight. I was fairly bummed until I found out the flight was delayed and wouldn't be leaving until 7:30, then I was really bummed. As it turns out, since Katrina, the last flights in or out of the airport are at about 6pm, so everything closes - restaurants, newstands, bars - at about 7. And our flight... well, in the end, we didn't take off until 10pm. It was here that I met Gary Mallon. He was sitting next to an open outlet for the computer plug-in and was traveling with a french bulldog puppy who couldn't have been cuter, so i sat near him. We had the New York/New Orleans chat..(he goes back and forth, spending half his time in each), talked about travel, etc.. and then about his work. He's the Executive Director for the National Resource Center, an organization focused on foster care & adoption. We didn't exchange cards or numbers, but i looked him up this morning. I could sense from our chat he was fairly modest, but most likely pretty renowned in his circle, and looks like I was right. Although always interested in New Orleans, since Katrina has been even more involved. And recently, he has been fairly involved with the handling of the children and foster issues related to Texas' recent raid on the polygamist sect. Needless to say, incredibly fascinating shit.. Although I had lots of magazines and book in hand, I found his company so interesting I barely made a dent. A highly enjoyable way to kill 4 of those hours in the Jet Blue terminal.
