The Information Super-Frog

“I had arrived at the season of general relaxation, on the eve of the Carnival, which is celebrated with much gaiety in all Catholic countries. Masks, dominoes, harlequins, punchinelloes, and a variety of grotesque disguises, on horseback, in carts, gigs, and on foot paraded the streets with guitars, violins, and other instruments; and in the evening the houses were opened to receive masks, and balls were given in every direction.” -- J. Freeman Rattenbury's description of Carnival in St. Augustine, Spanish Florida, February 1818, from "Narrative of a voyage to the Spanish Main"

The Krewe du Vieux parade kicked off the New Orleans Carnival parade season last Saturday evening.

My pix on Flickr; some NSFW

The weather was pretty much perfect for Mardi Gras Day this year. There are no doubt a thousand excellent ways to enjoy Mardi Gras in New Orleans; here's what mshollie and I did.

( Illustrated description )

Local Carnival pundit Erroll Laborde made an apt observation that unlike such parades as the Rose Bowl or Macy's Thanksgiving, New Orleans Mardi Gras Season parades are designed as participatory experiences, not to look good on tv.

Still, I enjoyed watching this and some of you might too:

Krewe du Vieux parade video on NOLA.com

[edit]
More nifty pix:

http://entheos93.livejournal.com/141570.html

The "Not Dead Yet" celebrations are heating up.

"come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed." -- Lucille Clifton

Lots of Carnival events packed in from this evening on through Mardi Gras Day. Alas, a cold front. (I suspect the neighborhood party with the theme "Brassire to Eternity" tomorrow night will not be as interesting as it might have been with warmer weather.)

Like Christmas nationally, we have lots of holiday season specific music. On WWOZ, we've not just had shows of New Orleans Mardi Gras music, we've had specific shows of R&B New Orleans Mardi Gras music, trad jazz New Orleans Mardi Gras music, New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians music, brass band New Orleans Mardi Gras music, etc. Not to mention the Cajun shows. There are the classics, and new recordings come out each year. Some, of course, undistinguished and quickly forgotten, but I'm amazed at how many good ones there are. I enjoyed Billy Delle's "Records From the Crypt" show last night that had a number of fun records I'd never heard before.

Photos from yesterday's Krewe du Vieux. Mine were mostly taken before the parade started. Also, links to some other folk's pix. May not be safe for work, depending.

( look, see )

It was a cold day today. Weather that would usually make me deem 2nd tier Carnival parades as optional, but not today. I caught a little bit of the Krewe of Carrollton on St. Charles, with the theme "Blue Roof Blues", which was good, but then I headed out to what really got me out of the house today-- the Knights of Nemesis Parade in Chalmette-- the only parade this season in St. Bernard Parish.

The Parades in New Orleans this year are confined to the 20% of the area that wasn't under water. St. Bernard didn't have any %. Hardly anyone (I heard last month something like only 200 out of 65,000) had pre-Katrina homes in livable condition yet; most of those living back there are in trailers, and many more are still living elsewhere and commuting in to St. Bernard to work and gut & repair their homes. Folks who lost everything decided they were damn well going to have at least one Carnival parade this season.

I drove down Claiborne, past a fire sending up smoke from a residential section of New Marigny, through the ruins of the Lower 9th Ward, on down into the Parish. The parade started and ended at the small concentration of local small businesses that have gutted, repaired, and reopened on Paris Road near St Bernard Av, then wound back along what used to be the commercial throroughfare of Judge Perez Boulevard, now mostly empty and ruined buildings, with occasional groups of post-K dwelling trailers. People were out in force along the route, families barbequeing on little grills. I felt a great afirmation of life that I can't think of how to describe. The parade consisted of 12 floats, unremarkable in a normal year, with the theme "Proud to Call St. Bernard Home", mostly generic boosterism with some storm first responders riding as heros and a few obligiatory cracks at FEMA, along with some marching bands and costumed marchers.

In other news, the delayed New Orleans mayor election race is heating up, with the first serious content free wacky attack ads airing on local tv.

From a friend pouring me my first traditional Mardi Gras morning oj & champagne cocktail as we watch dudes debark from an out of state car that has just gotten one of the last free parking places on the Marigny street:

"You can always tell the out-of-towners in this city. They're wearin' clean clothes."

As some of you know, years ago I started "The True Church of the Great Green Frog" here in New Orleans years ago as a tounge (of frog) in cheek counter-protest to the Jimmy Swagart types who come to town to protest Mardi Gras.

Some early uptown converts moved out to the San Fransico Bay area, and started the Berkeley Mardi Gras Frog Parade there each Mardi Gras.

Thanks to the ever Frogtastic hyla_regilla, I have been made aware of the website:

BerkeleyMardiGras.org



Clearly the Berkeley Frogs have been flourishing wonderfully! I've long said that the only way I'd not be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras was if I was some other place that seriously celebrated Carnival, like Venice or Brasil. I see Bezerkeley now belongs on that list. Way to go!

More amazing pix of the 2004 parade

My friends in the Bay Area who can't make it to New Orleans this year are hereby told to be sure to attend this event (and to tell me about it afterwards). Now go forth, my children, and sin some more!