Spoken word artist Dessa may have arrived at her art form by accident, but now that she's there, it seems like she was headed towards it the whole time.

After a Valentine's Day spent single left Dessa a bit blue, her roommate took her to a slam to lift her spirits. Dessa, a self-professed literary arts lover, loved it. The roommate then said the magic, encouraging words: "I think you can do this."

Dessa had always been a writer, focusing on creative non-fiction, so the leap to the stage was not a far one. It just took a bit of serendipity.

That's right. Men's Health magazine recently released a list of the drunkest cities in America. And this is where you're expecting me to tell you that we are right up there at #1, where we usually seem to be on all those unfavorable lists: obesity, cancer rates, poor education, etc.

And that is what I would tell you - the sad fact that we are the drunkest city in America - if that were the case. However... we are not. Nope, we're not even in the top 20! Can you believe it?

Unlikely as all this may seem, considering that New Orleans as a whole is coming off of a three-week bender inspired by the unlikely conspiracy of the Saints and Mardi Gras, New Orleans is ranked at #21 on the Men's Health list. Top honors went to Fresno, Calif., Reno, Nev., and Billings, Mont.

I know there are some of you out there who are offended right now. "But we're the most fun city in the entire country," you say. "We can hold our liquor better than anyone else."

Happy last day of 2009! Following suit with the rest of the world, we here at NewOrleans.Com and NolaNiteLife.Com offer you our own Top 10 list. This one is of the highs and lows of 2009 in New Orleans, and we're eager to here what you think! Of course, we'll start you with the bad news first, so we can end on a high note. 

This Saturday, as you already know, The Republic is hosting yet another exciting fashion event, this time featuring the shoes of Steve Madden (some of my favorites!) and the clothing of local designer, Elsa Brodmann.

Elsa is the half-German, half-Philippino New Orleanian behind Ottilie Broadmann, the clothing lines she named for her German grandmother, who was a royal dressmaker.

"She made dresses for the duke and duchess before the royalty was abolished," Brodmann explained on the phone. "She pretty much made all of their clothes, designed the patterns and produced all of them."

That grandmother remained in Germany, so her maternal grandmother, who lived in the United States, taught her how to sew. With a lineage like that, though, Brodmann was destined for greatness in the fashion world.

After attending New Orleans-area schools Arden Cahill Academy and St. Martin's Episcopal, Brodmann started a bachelor's degree in fine arts at UNO. It wasn't long until San Francisco's Academy of Arts beckoned her to the West Coast, where her first fashion show was held. It was with the non-profit Natural World Museum organization and featured six looks made entirely of recycled materials.

Although Brodmann doesn't focus exclusively on previously worn fabrics, she does still incorporate some of those green aspects in her designs.

"The fur that I incorporate into some of my collections," Brodmann said, "they are completely recycled. I cut up vintage furs and use old vintage pelts when I make fur stoles for collars or any kind of embellishment. I try to use classic materials that are well-made so they're not as disposable as the ones where the quality isn't as focused upon."

After graduating with her BFA in Fashion Design, Brodmann spent some time in Chicago and did some work as a freelance costume designer for a theatre production company, which she remembers fondly.

Nick Thomas started out small, as an intern with a local publicity company while he was in college. A step up career-wise found him posting flyers for shows and handling social media sites for The Republic. These days, though, all of his hard work has paid off.

For the past two years, he's been the head of live music for The Republic, choosing the bands that we're lucky enough to have play there (hello, Neko Case!). But that's not all he does: He's also a member of the New Orleans Indie Rock Collective, and he works for Basin Street Records. The guy is inundated in music and absolutely loves his job(s).Wondering how he got such a great gig? Keep on reading...

NNL: So what is your average day like as the talent buyer for The Republic?

NT: There's no mold whatsoever. A given day is a hodgepodge of conversations and emails and text messages and phone calls, and I find out about bands a million different ways - from friends sending me links to YouTube videos, to an agent sending me an email saying, 'Hey, check out this new band,' I religiously read about 10 different music publications, everything from Rolling Stone to NME - the UK's biggest music publication, they're awesome. The Paste guys, the Filter guys, the Nylon guys, I know at least one of the founding members of each of them, so they always keep me abreast of cool new bands.

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