The Who Dat Nation Wins

Sure, the Saints lost the playoff game against the Vikings last Sunday, but winning rarely teaches us about the character of a person, a team or a place. Most of us don’t really know who or what we are until we’re faced with failure. As an actor, my life has been nearly defined by rejection. My life credo has long been “Dare To Fail.” Maybe that’s why being a Saints fan has come so easy to me. So, the Saints lost in the last millisecond of the game and, of course, we’re all disappointed. But Saints fans can turn any loss into a win.

Though I have roots reaching back centuries in this city, I didn’t move here until 2009 as the Saints were heading to their amazing Super Bowl victory. That made me more of a “New Dat” than a Who Dat. But I watched every game in bars throughout the city,

Favorite Things in NOLA 2012

I must confess that I didn’t get out as much in 2012 because Hollywood South is booming and I worked a lot. Even so, here are my 2012 favorites in a nutshell followed by my Favorite Things in NOLA 2011 and Favorite Things in NOLA 2010. Anything named previously in my Favorite Things in NOLA 2011 is marked with an Asterix*.

I have divided the list into categories this year including: Food & Beverage, Music & Entertainment, Culture, Shopping and Giving & More.

Red Dress Run

You really never know what you might see in a day in New Orleans. If you were one of the stunned people I saw pulling into the French Quarter in an airport shuttle on Saturday morning, what you saw was 8,000-10,000 men and women in red dresses carrying beers. The Red Dress Run actually originated in San Diego. That said, their event attracts 2,000 runners annually and the Washington D.C. chapter is attended by about 600 runners in red. NOLA is clearly where the party’s at!