Alcohol, Dita von Teese and Lutheran kids from Iowa

Who knows what the fates were conspiring when they put this coincidence together, but I arrived when I arrived at the Bienville House I found that we were not alone. And, er, by "we" I guess I mean the royal we? Or everyone attending Tales?

Anyhow, when I arrived at the hotel I was staying out I found that the place was also being overrun by a bunch of Lutheran kids from Iowa. Apparently there was a national Lutheran youth meeting happening.

It was an interesting welcome to Tales.

Either way, I'm here. In New Orleans. I arrived just in time to miss registration, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to try and take in some Tales.

I hurried my way down to the House of Blues, a mere stone's throw away from where I was staying, to attend Cointreau's burlesque event with Dita von Teese.

Hosted by the famous Murray Hill (woot, New York represent), the show was pretty fantastic. This is my second brush with Miss von Teese's performance, though this time around Cointreau decided to go all out and create a line up of burlesque acts. From Coco Lectric, to hometown girl Perle Noire. For those who wanted more testosterone in their burlesque performance, there was Duke Lafayette.

I was most excited about seeing Selene Luna (any Margaret Cho fans out there).

The event also debuted three short films starring Miss von Teese, telling the origin stories of classic cocktails.

Afterwards I quickly stopped by Grey Goose's event at Latrobe's. The event was for a new series of videos that were being shot for the Sundance Channel's "Iconoclasts" series. It seemed that this time around, bartenders would be featured in several short video interviews.

I didn't stick around too long, but stopped by to say hi and how things had been going in my work-imposed exile. Everyone seemed to be pretty busy, which is always good to hear in this economy. For example, Joaquin Simo had been consulting for hotels, and Don Lee was about to get ready to start his nomadic period. Going here and there where the cocktails called him. Like some kind of cocktail version of "Kung Fu." Maybe it's time to resurrect the Legend of the One-Armed Bartender.

Eh, not much on drinks I suppose, but I still got three more days in this town, so I have plenty of time to bore you all with info.