Well, since we’ve gotten into music, I’ll mention that I LOVE the stuff Paul Sanchez from Cowboy Mouth has done, but the band that will always mean New Orleans to me is the Continental Drifters.
-Lil
“Heaven’s Prisoners” with Alec Baldwin. “King Creole”. “Dracula 2000”
You could call this fluff…
I am rereading The Pelican Brief because it largely takes place there. only to find out this morning that, like the book, there are two supreme court vacancies that need to be filled.
I was looking forward to going to the city for the first time in early November but the conference I was going to speak at is being moved. Bummer.
James Sallis’ Lew Griffin stories (eg) The Long Legged Fly provide a compelling portrait of an alienated man, similar to Burke’s Dave Robicheaux but without the dramatic causes. The warm tropic rain squalls enhance the mood tremendously.
Eve’s Bayou
I’m not sure this movie is set in New Orleans, but it is about Louisiana and it’s just dripping with cajun/voodoo atmosphere.
Wait a sec, that was Savannah, Georgia, not New Orleans. My bad.
Great read, though.
Hotel by Arthur Hailey.
A lot of novels and stories by Poppy Z. Brite.
Slight highjack -
Fred, the drummer, was originally in a much superior live band called Dash Riprock out of Baton Rouge. He was their second or third drummer. Jenny Says, while being written by Fred, was originally released by Dash Riprock in the late 80s. Don’t get me started on the pale comparison Cowboy Mouth is to Dash Riprock when it comes to whipping a crowd into a frenzy.
And oh yeah, **Better Than Ezra ** was formed by LSU students, which at last glance, is in Baton Rouge.
Don’t get me wrong. I utterly love New Orleans and I know these bands are now “based out of New Orleans”, but being a proud Baton Rougean, I get a little ticked off when New Orleans is given credit for having spawned music which was actually birthed and nourished in my town.
My addition is The Radiators (pronounced with a short a as in “that’s so rad, dude!”). Also who can forget the incomparable Dr. John ?
Albino Alligator , directed by Kevin Spacey, with William Fitchner doing a very nice Cajun accent.
What about the Neville Brothers? Especially Aaron.
Dancing until 5am in a country bar in Fat City to Cotton eyed Joe and a lot of Cajun music that I’d never recognize again. House of the Rising Sun I had lunch in the once whore house, it was supposedly written about, at least that’s what the hostess said.
I guess Arlo Gutherie’s City of New Orleans wouldn’t count, huh?
Anne Rice’s books do have the feel of 'narlins. The Witches series more than the Vampires, of course, there’s a lot of cross over.
Jitterbug Purfume while not set entirely in NO, it does have a good sense of the Vieux Carré.
The Rose Tattoo by Tennessee Williams, Dinner at Antoine’s * by Frances Parkinson Keyes, Ellen Gilchrist wrote short stories about NO in * In the Land of Dreamy Dreams
While trying to find a couple of these, I ran across Frommers guide to N.O. It has lots more.
There’s not much more exciting than creeping into the Witch craft store on Royale. 
Coming in a bit late, but… The city of Genua in Terry Pratchett’s Witches Abroad was clearly inspired in large part by the Crescent City: the surrounding swamps, the food, the Discworld equivalent of Mardi Gras…