New Orleans 3: "We are so much more than a book shop!"

We're a safe, progressive, accepting community center for nerds, geeks, freaks, and the like.

 - tubbyandcoos.com

As always when I travel to a foreign city, I did a quick search for science fiction and fantasy bookstores a couple of days before Karli and I left for New Orleans.  Tubby & Coo's Mid-City Book Shop was at the top of the results, but it appeared to be well to the north of our hotel, and I didn't want to spend too much of our limited time there sorting out the transit system.  As such, I shrugged and regretfully resigned myself to not having a chance to meet Tubby and Coo, whoever they might be.*

However, Karli suggested that a trip to the New Orleans City Park might make a nice change from the downtown, and completely by chance I noticed Tubby & Coo's signage from the streetcar window as we rattled along North Carrollton Avenue.  We had an enjoyable if overly warm walk around the park, and then paid Tubby and Coo a visit on our way back to the hotel.

Tubby & Coo's has a surprisingly small footprint.  It's located in four small rooms on two stories of a semi-detached house, as as such its inventory is relatively small.  However, as is often the case with small independent bookstores, the selection of books and merchandise has obviously been chosen very carefully, with more of an eye to quality and uniqueness than mass market interest.

 

The stairwell to the upstairs is a little homage to Harry Potter, complete with a room under the staircase, Hogswarts house posters, and the Sorting Hat on the newel post, and the walls are covered with invisible bookshelves.

 

The upstairs is split between two rooms, with a child's-perspective book section at the top of the stairs, and a gaming room in the front.  (And when I use the term "child's perspective" I only mean the trompe l'oeil wall painting for the space:  as you can see in the photo below, the selection includes Feminist Baby Finds Her Voice, Rad American Women A-Z and Ruth Bader Ginsberg: The Case of R.B.G. vs. Inequality - it's not exactly Mother Goose.)

Whenever I visit a bookstore when travelling, I like to find something a little bit unusual to make it a more memorable shopping experience.  In this case, Tubby & Coo's distinctive choice of offerings made it easy.  I picked out Annihilation, by Jeff Vandermeer - having seen the movie, I was curious about the book; a fascinatingly illustrated Neil Gaiman novel entitled Fortunately the Milk; The Dame, The Doctor and The Device, a collection of pulp-influenced stories; and, just for fun, Winterworld, by comic book writer Chuck Dixon, from the dollar box.  Because a dollar.**

 

Overall, I found Tubby & Coo's to be a quirky***, enjoyable little store, but I think that it's necessary to look deeper than that.  Their web site says that Tubby & Coo's is "way more than just a book shop.  We build community", and the signage on their front door emphasizes that they are a safe space for everyone.  The way things are in the world right now, that may be way more important than the fact that they sell books, too.

- Sid

* I was disappointed to discover that neither Tubby nor Coo are involved in the management of the store. Owner Candice Huber, who opened the store in 2014, named it after her grandparents, who lived in the same neighbourhood as the store's location.  

** Not as cheap as it sounds, that's something like ten bucks Canadian right now.

*** Credit to Karli for helping me find the right adjective.

New Orleans 2: "We don't get many steampunk fans in here."

"And at $400 a hat, you won't get many more."

- Sid

P.S. Does everyone know the joke about the bear who walks into a bar?

New Orleans 1: Curiosities.

“The first thing you notice about New Orleans are the burying grounds - the cemeteries - and they're a cold proposition, one of the best things there are here. Going by, you try to be as quiet as possible, better to let them sleep. Greek, Roman, sepulchres- palatial mausoleums made to order, phantomesque, signs and symbols of hidden decay - ghosts of women and men who have sinned and who've died and are now living in tombs. The past doesn't pass away so quickly here.

You could be dead for a long time.”

Bob Dylan

I've just returned from a visit to New Orleans:  if there's a city in North America that will make you believe in voodoo and vampires, this is it.  Much of the city is just like any other city, but that doesn't matter - the heart of New Orleans is really in places like the French Quarter and Garden City, where the modern era is a thin facade over the past.

The French Quarter in particular is one of the defining aspects of the Crescent City's mythology.  Its shuttered, silent houses, legacy of its European roots, lend it an air of brooding withdrawal, and its elaborate ironwork and distinctive architecture hark to a different time.

There's a faint underlying scent of mold and rot that permeates the Vieux Carré, an odour of degeneration and decay that belies the bright lights and cheap drinks of the Quarter at night.  The main thoroughfares are crowded and well lit, but the side streets are dark and empty - it's not hard to imagine that an unwary visitor might wander away from the light and have a terminal encounter with a nosferatu.

The other defining feature of New Orleans is its evocative cemeteries, filled with crumbling crypts and tombs, worn by time and weather.  You have to visit the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 - Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, is buried here. They say she never aged, that she could see the future, that she could be in more than one place at one time.  They've restored her tomb, but the triple-X markings of worshippers are still visible under the masking white paint, and people still manage to leave behind an offering or two in hopes of a boon from the Queen.

It used to be that anyone could go into the Cemetery No. 1, but there were too many problems, too much vandalism, too much violence.  Now admission to the Cemetery is only allowed for groups with licensed guides, people who have relatives buried there, and, who knows, perhaps for people who are already buried there themselves.

You could be dead for a long time...

- Sid