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REPO ROAD TOUR 2 DAY TWO: NEW ORLEANS, LA 9:09pm, December 9, 2008 Guest blogger Terrance Zdunich! It was 3:30am last night when we finally left the Chandler theatre. It's 5:00am now. I haven't slept—that's right folks, the 1st night of Repo Road Tour 2 is an all-nighter! Director Darren, tour manager Chad, & I, load our luggage and several boxes stuffed with REPO! merch into a cab and make our way to the Phoenix airport. We have a 7:00am flight, with a layover in Charlotte, en route to New Orleans…our 2nd stop of RRT2!The 3 of us squeeze into the cab. It's really cramped; we didn't think to request a van, so we ride with luggage on our laps. This overflow of luggage causes a moment of panic when we arrive at the airport and are told by a US Airways rep that the brevity of our layover - normally a good thing! - may result in our things not arriving with us in Louisiana. We board the plane. I doze off, then wake up, then doze off, then wake up. I've never been able to sleep on a plane. I look across the aisle at Chad Cole. He's sleeping like a baby. I hate Chad Cole. We land in New Orleans a little after 2:30pm. Our luggage does too—phew! The cabbie recommends a restaurant called Mother's in the French Quarter, so we drop off our luggage at our hotel - another Best Western - then beeline to Bourbon Street. En route, our driver tells a bit about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and how spooky it was driving through entire sections of town with no visible signs of human life - no working streetlights, no bodies, no nothing. I picture some of my favorite zombie films. This is my 1st time in New Orleans, and I am told that one can walk down the street drinking a beer - if one so desires - and one will not be arrested for doing so. We search for a beer broker to test this proposition and are immediately flagged down by a street barker for Lipstixx, a gentlemen's club, touting the "best-looking" girls in the French Quarter, and 2-for-1 drinks. Sold!  Inside, a mulatto bartender brings us 6 bottles of beer. 5 minutes into our 1st bottle, a stripper harasses us for not tipping. So, we empty our beers into plastic cups and leave, walking down the street, sipping our brews with impunity. It is awesome.We ask 3 different people for directions to Mother's restaurant. Each of them has a thick Louisiana accent, making it difficult for us to decipher the exact name of the street they are directing us to: Tchoupitoulas (Chop-uh-too-la). We eventually find the street, then the restaurant. I order jambalaya, and it is wonderful. We head back to the Best Western to relax a bit before tonight's screening at the Prytania, a single-screen Cineplex on an unassuming residential block. At the hotel, I get a small nap in. It's 8:30pm. We head to the Prytania to conduct a pre-screening interview with a DJ from Tulane University. People are already lining up for REPO!, including an entire family of vampires that we had met 2 weeks earlier on our RRT1 Atlanta stop. This time, the fam has brought their blue-haired daughter with them (A family that fangs together…stays together!). They are a very bright, very eccentric, and very loving clan of nosferatu. I am touched that they are here, as a family, traveling to see REPO! I wish I was raised by vampires, as opposed to be turned the old-fashioned way. Also in line are some of the usual suspects: a fan dressed as Blind Mag, a fan dressed as Shilo, several Goths, several steam punks, several top hat wearers. In addition, multiple fans come dressed in attire that seems unique to New Orleans REPO! fans: neckties, there are a lot of neckties. Well, this is a night at the opera, is it not?  AT 10:00pm the movie plays, and the crowd seems to really enjoy it. As it ends, the Tulane DJ approaches Darren and I to confess that he loved our film, and that he teared up a bit during the finale.Following a Q & A, Darren and I sign autographs and take pictures with fans until well after 2:00am. The Prytania's tiny lobby is not equipped to deal with the large, energetic crowd surrounding our signing table. As such, beautiful chaos - and a complete fire hazard! - ensues, but Chad Cole, thinking ahead, made a beer run before tonight's screening. He secretly pours us cup after cup under the table throughout the signing. I love Chad Cole. A group of fans, led by a young woman named Claire, invite Chad and I out for drinks—in New Orleans, you can not only drink in public, but bars are open 24/7! Claire drives us in her minivan to Pravda, an absinthe bar in the French Quarter that's all decked-out in Cold War Soviet propaganda. On the ride there, Chad and I share awkward glances as we realize the "under-aged" quality of some of the fans traveling with us. And it's my job…to steal, and rob…CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAADLES! Trying to avoid a difficult morning, I pass on the absinthe and stick with beer. Chad does not chose as wisely. He pays for this decision the next day. It's 6:00am. Claire drives us home. Tomorrow's flight is not until 1:00 tomorrow, so I will be sleeping in.    
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