Much of what I see riding around New Orleans is either decay and loss or ostentatious wealth and nostalgia for the Old South.  Riding to lunch through Uptown today, though, I spotted this fully-out-of-place sculpture on the lawn in front of one of those mansions that mark the rest of New Orleans as so deeply impoverished.  I was noticing on my drive down State Street that every house looked similarly big, with the same huge wrap-around porches, the same Lexus SUVs in the driveways, the same white wooden rocking chairs ready to support lounging with mint juleps and cigars while planning Mardi Gras and debutante balls (or at least this is what I imagine when I see these places).  So this contemporary piece of what? public art? seemed particularly out of place.  I can’t say if I like it or not, only that I noticed it, that it made me stop, that it was, indeed, somewhat refreshing to see something in this neighborhood that doesn’t look like a longing for Dixie.