The Information Super-Frog

A story from the not so distance past, shortly before it became common for people to carry a device in their pocket that could pull up sheet music or YouTube videos.

Our brass band lined up some 45 minutes before the start of an Easter parade to warm up and go over a few Easter related tunes not in our usual repertory. First: Bunny Hop. Easy. Then Irving Berlin’s “Easter Parade”. After a few choruses, we’d smoothed off the rough edges to the leader’s satisfaction.

Then the leader called for “Here Comes Peter Cotton-Tail”. We played the “A” section twice, then when it came to the bridge everyone but the drums stopped cold.
Discussion ensued. It turned out NO ONE in the band could remember how the bridge went. Not even to sing, hum, or whistle it.

After a bit someone came up with the clever suggestion to use the bridge from "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". We tried it, it worked, so we played it that way multiple times during the parade.


Here comes Peter Cotton-Tail
Hoppin' down the bunny trail
Hippity hoppin', Easter's on its way.
He sees you when you’re sleeping.
He knows when you’re awake.
He knows if you’ve been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake…

Hollie and I went down to the Marigny just after 5pm, got a good parking place, and enjoyed a meal at Tomatillos. Then over to the ARRR Barr for the "Pyrate Parade". There were 2 bands. I was playing in the Pirate Band brass band mostly recruited from the Pair-O-Dice Tumblers and BEAR/MOMs Band. The other was The Noisician Coalition with wacky noise making "instruments". There were lots of folks dressed as pirates, of course, in addition to bead cannons and wacky decorated vehicles.

Photo set on Flickr

We had a good time. Some fellow bandmembers were surprised the parade didn't stop when we passed Laffitte's Blacksmith Shop to have drinks and toast the city's historic favorite local pirate. No bar break? The Tumblers can teach the Pirates something about parading around the French Quarter.

This evening we're going to a krewe party.

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

Plorkwort mentions the film "In the Shadow of the Moon" about the Apollo moon missions.

In my teens I was surprised to find out that I was the only one of my high school class to have memories of watching the moon landing on tv. Little Froggy evidentally thought it more attention worthy than his peers.

I recall feeling some disappointment while watching the returned astronauts' ticker-tape parade through Manhattan on t.v.; Walter Cronkite mentioned that it was the second largest turnout for such a parade in history, after Lindbergh's. Up to that point, I'd been feeling pride in having lived through a moment of history equal to those experienced by my grandfather, but that statistic gave me doubt.

Wikipedia has an article on ticker-tape parades, according to which the largest was actually that for General Douglas MacArthur in 1951. Apparently they still have "ticker-tape parades" on occasion, but as ticker-tape is no longer used, I don't see how that could be considered authentic. What would a good 21st century equivilent be?

Did AOL stop sending out those cds, or is that just one of the the things that the Post Office no longer gets to New Orleans post-K?

The Krewe of OAK Mid Summer Mardi Gras last night was great fun, as always. Good music, costumes, and friends on the streets of the Carrollton neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans.

It's one of the 2 events of this type in my neighborhood each year, so I've long been an enthusiastic participant.

Ah, but the changes I've seen over the years.

( Rememberance of Midsummer Mardi Gras of Yesterday and Yesteryear )

2004 was another wonderful Mardi Gras here in New Orleans... not surprising, as IMO they generally tend to be wonderful or better.

( Froggy's last few days of Carnival )