New Orleans can be a pretty dangerous place sometimes.  I mean, we flood out during rainstorms and sometimes you gotta watch your back when you’re out and around.  And one afternoon maybe a building will suddenly fall apart and collapse when you’re walking past it.  But in addition to all our glorious lunacy, you also have to watch your step.

Although it’s incredibly important to frequently Look Up, because you miss neat things you probably wouldn’t have noticed otherwise, it’s also incredibly important here to keep your eye down on the streets, because while they can be beautiful and absolutely magical, they can also be a twisty-ankle trap.

But really, speaking of traps, even when the pavement is as flat as can be, ya gotta look out!  I discovered this very fact last weekend while we were hosting a friend on her first visit to our fair city.

After narrowly missing the danger of losing a foot on a rainy Saturday afternoon in the French Quarter, I thought I was safe for the weekend.  You can only get booby-trapped once in a 2-day span, right?  …RIGHT?!

But the perils continued the next day, when we met up with our friends for lunch at Parasol’s.  Innocently approaching the haven of my favorite Irish Channel pushers of poboys and debris fries, with its peeling white and green paint, I found myself once again in very serious Danger.

I mean, who just leaves that out there for innocent hungry people to slip on?  Fortunately, I noticed it in time.  J, behind me, was not so lucky.  I turned around right at the moment that he met his untimely doom.

See?  It’s a rough world, down here in New Orleans.  So when you’re visiting, or just going about your daily life on these cobbly lumpy bumpy potholey artsy streets…look Up, and also look Down.  And see what kind of cool things you can find.  It may save you a scraped knee.

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Two traps in one weekend?  Similar styles – same artist?  If you know, let ME know!

I love street art, and collect it via photograph all the time.  I realized today that I’ve been a total idiot for the last 6 years and have never created a Street Art category on this site (until today).  But a general search pulls up some of my findings, both here and in Denver.  Check it out if ya wanna!