Road Trip - New Orleans Film Festival

This past weekend an acting friend, Russ Skains (Zud the Hut), and I took a road trip  down to
New Orleans for a film festival to show support for Jeffery Goodman's independent film the "Last Lullaby" starring Tom Sizemore and Sasha Alexander which showed at the Prytania theater that happens to be the oldest theater in Louisiana. We also met up with one of my other acting friends, Jacob Tolano (Wood), who played one of the thugs who gets blown away by Tom Sizemore. He travelled down from Monroe, LA with his mother and sister. It was great seeing them. As for Russ and I, we are also in a class the Mr. Goodman is teaching about director Michael Mann; so Russ and I were analyzing Jeffery's film this time looking for his style and the influences of his style. Michael Mann is certainly one of his influences. The showing was great with a packed house. Jeffry took questions and sign posters afterwards. We all met up with Jeffery, his girlfriend, and his family at an excellent restaurant in the Warehouse district of New Orleans called the Sunray Grill. Jacob thought that this restaurant was similar to some of those in Los Angelas. It was a great time. We spent about three hours there eating, drinking, laughing, and talkng about anything and everything. Jacob and his family went back to Monroe. Russ and I stayed over night and went out on the town. We were going to hang out with Jeffery more, but he had to rest up for a speech he was giving the next morning. This was only my second time in Nawlins, so we went to the French Quater that night had a famous drink called a "Hurricane" at Pat O'Briens in the French Quater. There was a great Jazz band playing in the street, and blues bands playing in the many bars throughout the Quarter. The next morning we walked through the Quater and Jackson Square to the famous Cafe Du Monde for beignets (fried french doughnuts, but don't call them that!), and the Cafe Au Lait (coffe with milk, but don't call it that). Then for lunch we went to a neighborhood fixture on St. Charles street called Serio's which is famous for muffeletta's and po' boys. This place reminded me of a southern version of a Philadelphia cheeseteak stand/deli, and the locals who were in their spoke with an accent similar to a northeastern accent. This was truly a great experience. It was a business trip, but truned out to be very fun. Also, the hotel we stayed in was a Hilton hotel that was on a side street tucked away from view. It was a very nice place to stay. I was very impressed with New Orleans. It is a cosmopolitan city with many influences, and is unique with the music, culture, architecture, and even the cemetaries which all of the caskets are above ground in stone or concrete masoleums. I can see why this city is desirable for film productions because as Russ said "the city itself is a movie set".