The 1997 Annual Gathering of the Coven was on Saturday,
November 1 at Tipitina's Warehouse, and I was there. In the
12 months leading up to Gathering #9, my friends and I
chatted about running wild in the streets of New Orleans.
I think we did just that. Instead of putting the pictures on
this page and causing it to take forever to load, I've made
links to them. If you just want to see the pictures, go to
the Photo Gallery.
For the past nine years, the Anne Rice's Vampire Lestat Fan Club has been holding "Annual Gatherings of the Coven." In 1992, I met some other fan club members and I've been spending time with them since then. Barb and Sally are good friends from Atlanta. Sally's been attending since 1990 and finally got Barb to start attending in 1996. Diane is one of my college roomies; she went to her first Gathering in 1993, when I stayed with her that year. Eric and Sally became penpals through the fan club and met at the Gathering in 1992. Jeff started attending Gatherings in 1990; he and Sally also became penpals through the fan club. Krista (now Eric's wife) first attended last year's Gathering. Taz, former boy-friend to one of Barb's roomies, first attended in 1996. Jennifer (me) met Sally and Eric at the fourth Gathering after-party [click here for more of my adventures].
Diane and I finanlly got everything packed and started down I-75. To keep ourselves awake and entertained, we sang along to several Heavy Metal compilations and Rick Springfield's greatest hits. Every hour, I reminded Diane that sex with her ex-boyfriend would be a bad decision. None to soon, morning came and we began to see highway signs for New Orleans.
New Orleans at last! As we crossed the Twin Span Bridge, [which I hate, but manage to find fascinating because there is a point where you can't see land -- if I think about this too much, it makes me panicky] we felt compelled to sing "Bloodletting". We continued through New Orleans itself only to cross yet another bridge, the Crescent City Connection, to the West Bank. Dying for our first New Orleans food, we stopped and got shrimp po'boys, but couldn't get any frozen daiquaris because it was only 9am central time. At the ex-boyfriend's house in Terrytown, we ate and caught up on sleep, and I began adding the finishing touches to my clothes. I started to make my green dress a few inches shorter, but decided to let Diane help me because I always cut them way too short. Diane followed my initial cut and I was left with a dress, that was so short I couldn't lift my arms over my head without showing my undies. [That didn't stop me from wearing it on Sunday.] The ex-boyfriend went out for frozen daiquaris and brought me a black russian.
Finally, we were ready for our first night. [I opted for the gothabily look and wore a "poodle" skirt that has a bat where the poodle would go.] We wandered the French Quarter a bit going in stores and looking for our friends; we found them on Bourbon Street. The seven of us went to Molly's and started the bachelor/bachelorette party with an all-too-informative game of "I Have Never." [I appear to be the only one who had never, and I kept saying "I'm not that innocent, dammit"] A little wobbly, we made our way to Dungeon, then the Hideout where Sally was to meet one of her e-pals. [He never showed--more on him later.] Eric ordered Liquid Heroines for all of us and things are a bit fuzzy after that; I think Eric started singing in the streets. We headed to the Faubourg Maringy and then Diane headed back to Terrytown. I was so excited and couldn't sleep, so I took a bath in the jacuzzi-bathtub then wandered about the hotel looking for the pool. At about 4 I went to sleep.
When I'm on vacation, I get way too excited to sleep, so, I was up around nine, making coffee and trying not to wake up everyone. Slowly everyone came to life and began getting ready. Just after 11am, we headed out to Eric and Krista's wedding at the Justice of the Peace at the courthouse on Loyola. Eric and Krista were married at noon. Afterward, we feasted at Frank's by the French Market.
When we got back to the hotel, Sally and Barb were ready. We rested a bit then were off again to the French Quarter. In St. Germain's, we got a pass for the Convent then wandered in a few stores. Everyone split up for a bit while I went to go get my line number and went to meet Jana Marcus and the other fans from her book at the Cafe du Monde at 4pm. I got to Bookstar at about 3:30 and there were loads of people there. The line number I got was for 8-10pm. As I was about to walk toward the Cafe du Monde security began setting up barricades . Since I had a front row view, I decided to wait for Anne's arrival. While waiting, I met Eden Automatic from Phoenix. Anne arrived in a coffin and threw garlic, rats and skeletons. I managed to get some garlic and quite a few pictures. Once Anne was inside Bookstar, I went to meet the other Anne fans from In the Shadow of the Vampire. The only regret that I have from this trip to New Orleans, is that I had taken my copy of the book out of my backpack, so I wasn't able to get anyone's signature :-( I met several people and took a few pictures. My friends found me at Cafe du Monde, and we shopped [I actually danced in Gargoyle] our way back to the hotel to change into Halloween costumes. Taz arrived and we managed to assemble a costume for him out of our various wardrobes. [It hadn't even occurred to me to bring a Halloween costume, so I put on a short purple dress that I ended up being a bit too breasty for.] Walking through the quarter, it soon became obvious that Taz had the best costume of us all, as the guys outside Oz crooned their approval. [I wanted to go inside and see if Taz could get us all free drinks.] Then, he was photographed by someone from Out magazine. Taz was a bit concerned about the future of his military career so we began calling him "Chaz" so that his identity would remain secret. We went to Tropical Isle where we drank vile green drinks called Hand Granades and watched highlights of this year's Mardi Gras (basically, it was people exposing themselves for beads). Sally had promised her e-pal that we would go to Metairie to see his band, so Taz, Sally, Barb and I headed back by way of a palm reader (for Barb) to the hotel [and a change into a dress that could contain my heaving bosom], while Eric and Krista and Jeff (who was trying to survive that second Hand Granade) got a bite to eat. The four of us finally made it to Keystone in Metairie and caught the last few songs of Shawn 's band. (Admission also got us a free shot of Sex on the Beach which was weak by French Quarter standards). After the band ended, Sally told Shawn we were there, and he said he'd meet us after the band's stuff was off stage. We waited and waited for Shawn and when he finally came over, I think we scared him. Taz was dressed in fetish gear, I took a picture of him before he had time to put on the sulky-goth face, and Barb....well, Barb was amusing herself by making the raptor sound from the Jurassic Park movies. Shawn promised to see us at the Convent that night and at the fan club party on Saturday, but we never heard from him again. [Shawn later emailed Sally to explain that he had been neither avoiding nor afraid of us. Not meeting Sally was a result of poor time-management and concern over Monday classes.] We returned to New Orleans and met up with the others at the Convent, which was very crowded. When we couldn't take the crowd anymore, we went to the Faubourg and went to sleep.
I woke up many, many times, but it was too early to get up (8am). When I finally got up, I was unhappy to find that it was 2pm! Jana's booksigning was from 1pm til 3. Eventually, we did make it to the Garden District Book Shop and the Anne Rice Collection, but it was too late to visit Lafayette Cemetery. The five of us were supposed to meet Eric and Krista back at the hotel around 6, but at that time, we were still waiting for service at St Charles Restaurant. We got back to the hotel with just enough time to change into our Gathering attire and leave. The Gathering was at Tipitina's Warehouse, which was actually a good place for it. Diane met us there, and we had a good time. I spent most of my time floating around, because people recognized my picture from the fan book, and I was really giddy, when Ritchie, the fan club president, knew who I was. [It still makes me giggle.] I didn't take nearly the number of pictures I wanted because I had forgotten to bring extra film with me, but I got a few crowd shots, one of the Domme and her group, one of the boy from Nottingham whose camera I found, and some of the "Moon Over Bourbon Street" dancers; in the one I took of Jana, the top of her head is cut off, which is ironic because she took the best picture of me I've ever seen [page 42 BTW]. Sally and Barb rushed up to the front to see Damien Youth. I danced to Alien Fashion Show and Ex-Voto, but I preferred the music that was played between the bands. We all had fun, and I got my ego stroked. Krista and Eric had left earlier, so the remaining 6 of us squeezed into Diane's car and headed to the French Quarter. As we got to Canal Street, Taz mentioned that he had been invited to the domme's party at the Fairmount. I threatened to push him out of the car so that he would have to go to it. [Now I wish I had done not only that, but gone to it myself.] We walked up by the Mississippi then went to Cafe du Monde to have the required coffee and beingets [damned powdered sugar]. We checked out the Hideout and from there could see no one at the Convent. Sally, Jeff and I were still hungry, so we went to Poppy's on St Philip while everyone else went off to sleep.
We eventually re-entered the world of the living, then Taz had to go back to Florida. After five or six good-byes, he left. We did a little shopping at Yesteryear's and lusted after the jewelry in Armed and Dangerous. Unable to get reservations at Nola, Sally, Barb, Jeff and I went to Ralph & Kacoo's, and I was happy to see Barbecued Shrimp on the menu and I thought of Lisa and Elliott as I ate them with my fingers.
Eric and Krista opted for the season premiere of the X-Files, so the four of us took a taxi to Trinity Episcopal Church in the Garden District to see Lelia Josefowicz, with Jeff joking all the way there that we would go up in flames the minute we stepped into the church. We enjoyed the concert. [Not one of the pictures came out of the concert.]
We met up with Eric and Krista at Pat O'Brien's. Eric and Jeff had a little macho drinking thing. They had some flaming licorice flavored drink; I had one too, so I guess I'm also "the man." I said that I was one drink away from Kareoke and soon found myself at the Cat's Meow. [The songlist sucked, so we didn't do any singing.] From there we made our way to the Convent. As Eric put it, "things suddenly took a turn," and before the night ended, Jeff was against the wall of the Convent being flogged [okay, I admit to encouraging this activity]. We all drank way too much and the night ended with a long walk to the hotel and Barb and Sally paying homage to the porcelain goddess (twice for Sally).
I was sad when I woke because I would be leaving later that day. Diane called to say she'd pick me up around noon, but she overslept. [This was good, because I was still there when Barb and Sally revived themselves.] We sat around and chatted. Krista informed us that their reception would take place 2 weeks later in Cincinnati [at a location halfway between my house and Starbuck's]. All too soon Diane arrived. As we drove away, Jeff waved at us from the hotel gate; I wanted to cry. We prolonged the agony, by shopping our way out of town [Bongo, Anne Rice Collection, some grocery store for food souveners...].
At rush hour, we were on the highway headed north. For the next 6 hours (almost through Alabama) I fought with the alcohol that remained in my body; Diane kept offering to pull over and I thought we might have to until about Montgomery. [In fairness, I let Diane take a picture of me, since I'd taken pictures of everyone else after our drinking binge the night before.] Over and over, I kept waking myself up and didn't think I would ever be fully awake again, and then I heard it..... "Jesse is a friend...." I woke right up; Diane and I played the greatest hits album at least eight times, until we crossed the Ohio and were safely back in Cincinnati. [mental note--send letter to Rick S. Just in case you're wondering, Diane didn't.]
It seems the fun didn't stop when I went back to Ohio.
From Sally:
After I got up and showered (about 6pm!), I felt better. That night, Barb, Jeff and I went to the House of Blues to see the Freddy Jones Band, who were actually quite good. Dinner there was excellent too. We'll have to take you there next year. We drank at Molly's again that evening with the happy couple. Then we went to the zoo on Wed. They have the most beautiful white tiger there! And a white alligator too. Had dinner at Copelands, More drinking at Molly's. Thurs was Barb's birthday. We wandered around Lake Lawn Cemetery all day. Barb found the statue of a greiving angel that I'd been searching for for 2 years. Walked right to the crypt it was in. Said she just "knew" it would be there. Spooky! We had dinner at the Hard Rock because Barb was craving veggie burgers. Went drinking again at Molly's, then decided we needed more of those "vile green drinks" so we headed over to Tropical Isle for Hand Grenades. Made friends with an adorable little Lesbian couple. Got kissed by the Hand Grenade guy. Finished up the night with cafe au lait at Cafe Du Monde.
Here are links to a few of the places I visited this year
Anne Rice's Vampire Lestat Fan Club
P.O. Box 58277
New Orleans, LA 70158-8277
Garden District Book Shop
The Rink
2727 Prytania Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
I've been to a few Annual Gatherings and love to think about them.
1992 at 3711 St Charles |
(No ticket for this year) |
1994 at Tipitina's |
1995 at St. Elizabeth's Orphanage |
1996 at Fairmont Hotel & House of Blues |
1997
at Tipitina's Warehouse
(tickets were collected at the door) |
| Sign My Guestbook View My Guestbook |  |
| Sign Guestbook View Guestbook |  |
 |
 |
Gathering | My Mecca |  |
http://www.geocites.com/madylyn/gathering.html madylyn@aol.com
