The lights fantastic

Approaching Lee Circle.  The stop light lasted long enough for me to fetch my camera and turn it on.  Of course, once I got the scene in focus, the light changed and the cars behind started honking.  Above is a photo in motion of the approach to Lee Circle.  The real reason for this post are the photos that follow.

Hotel le Cirque at Lee Circle isn't a pretty building during the day.  Once the sun is past the horizon though, it is a jewel.  What follows are some time-lapse photos while I idled my motorcycle in front of the Circle Bar, in the shadow of General Lee's back.  Hotel le Cirque is the highlight of my commute while I live Uptown...

The colors change constantly.  This is urban lighting done right, a jewel on Lee Circle, which is an odd confluence of the hotel, some kind of oil refinery tribute building, the local architect society, the Circle Bar, which looks like a haunted house, a vibrant gas station and a defunct gas station.  All of this is arranged around a traffic circle with a plinth that is home to a statue of Robert E. Lee, the back of the Confederate Civil War Museum building, and where every St. Charles Avenue street car passes.

I wonder at the pyrotechnics of the Hotel le Cirque every evening and every morning I see it.  It gives me pause.  So many interesting things catch my fancy in New Orleans.  This is one of them.