The Beauty Fools is the tale of Blake Kennedy, a young cynic who says “Why? Why? Why?” until the charming Eliot Dejan and beguiling Miss Peaches teach him how to say “Why Not?” and whisk him away on a wild jaunt. Eliot and Miss Peaches, who embody the adage that living well is the best revenge, soon introduce Blake to Doctor Kookie, a tarot card reader and slick street mystic who guides the group on a crazed trip to the Mexican desert. The story – about being young and having fun – takes place against the backdrop of famous (and infamous) New Orleans landmarks: the Sazerac Bar of the Roosevelt, the Victorian Lounge at the Columns Hotel, Jazz Fest, Commander’s Palace, Orpheum Theater, Moonwalk, Napoleon House, R-Bar, Rocky & Carlo’s, and ends tragically on Mardi Gras in the Royal Street courtyard that is now Café Amelie. A tale about learning to fly – and flying too high.

The Beauty Fools project began as a literary venture of editor Timothy Alan Weeks, who in 2009 received a manuscript in the mail at his Lower Garden residence in New Orleans from an anonymous source, later dubbed Kid Author. Over the next five years, Weeks whittled away 100,000 words as he sought to impose form on this fascinating yet sprawling “Southern Baroque” tale that follows its protagonists through celebration and collapse in 1990’s New Orleans.

For Rascic, who later married Weeks, the manuscript served as a guidebook to a city that she was in the process of discovering. Using New Orleans friends as models, Rascic began to create illustrations of scenes involving the characters at the Blue Room in the Roosevelt, Palace Café, Napoleon House, and the Piazza D’Italia. Afterwards, the award-winning Croatian design studio Hamper was contracted to create a book “too beautiful to download.” Once this sensual feast for the eyes and fingers had been printed, Ken Capone graciously made his Coup d’oeil Art Consortium on Magazine Street available for an exhibition.