Let’s go to sleep in Paris/
Wake up in Tokyo/
HAVE A DREAM IN NEW ORLEANS/
Fall in love in Chicago

Those lyrics by Lupe Fiasco in “Paris, Tokyo” bounced around my head as I walked back to my apartment from his concert* at Republic New Orleans this past weekend.

Something caught my eye near the halfway mark and stopped me in my tracks.

I crossed Poydras Street and looked down a desolate St. Charles Avenue.

No less than six hours earlier, revelers packed St. Charles Avenue as krewes rolled down its broken and bumpy asphalt celebrating carnival season. Now it was empty.

Beads and trash covered the street earlier. Now it was spotless.

The afternoon and evening were gorgeous with sunshine. Now a fog and mist rolled in and left an eerie allure around The Big Easy, especially on St. Charles Avenue.

So I took a picture. You can see it in the featured image up top.

There was something haunting, but indescribably beautiful about that scene.

New Orleans, in itself, is a beautiful city. I’ve tried to capture some of it.

https://twitter.com/tylermayforth/status/691761833066283010

Speaking of carnival season, I’ll try to have a post recapping my first Mardi Gras next week. Just like the city, the USTFCCCA shuts down on Tuesday for the big day.

* I thought Lupe Fiasco put on a heck of a show. It started slower than I would have liked, mainly because of his song choices, but by the end everybody got involved. It worried me that he didn’t incorporate the crowd at first, yet by the end he had us eating out of the palm of his hand as “Lu-pe! Lu-pe! Lu-pe!” chants rained down.