The real estate site I use to check out houses in New Orleans recently switched to Virtual Earth. I was looking at the location of one on the satellite map and, when I scrolled over a few blocks, I saw this congregation of people and realized — it’s a Mardi Gras parade on Virtual Earth! This obviously isn’t mardi gras day. Judging by the size of the crowd as you go down the route I’d say it’s probably two weekends before Mardi Gras. Still, it’s a funny thing to come across.
jvanpelt - October 22nd, 2008
Allowing people to upload videos of themselves being idiots isn’t a revolution. I will not go overboard.
My mental space is all cluttered lately, but I am gonna tell you all about mardi gras… maybe even later today. How about a little teaser?
jvanpelt - February 14th, 2008
Them dudes on the float rappin about LSU. Aw yeah.
This weekend was the first real weekend of parading in New Orleans — and the kid’s very first Mardi Gras parades. I took them to a parade Saturday night uptown, me elli and graham. It had been raining earlier in the day, and was even still a little misty as we were leaving the house. But by the time we parked, which was surprisingly easy, it was a really nice night out. A bit chilly, but I’m all jaded on the cold now. So we stayed long enough to fill up a bag with beads and cups and stuffed animals, until graham had to potty. Then home to bed.
Today, Sunday, it was really nice out. It’s kinda hard to gauge how long a parade is going to take to make its way along its route, so I guessed a bit wrong and caught just the end of the first in back-to-back parades uptown this afternoon. But we were there for the whole second one, this time with kim and the baby, who both had a great time. It’s really kinda ridiculous how much stuff people on the floats throw to very small kids. Graham can barely catch anything as it is. Elise is really getting into it, though — chasing after floats, grabbing stuff from under people’s feet… It meant a lot to finally get to take them to a parade, Elise especially. I’ve been talking to her about Mardi Gras since she was born, listening to the Meters and Professor Longhair, telling her how much fun it is and how one day we’d get to go. And here we are! And they DID have a ton of fun…
But man, we went to a parade in Metairie tonight, who knows which one. When I was in high school the Metairie parades were the place to be. It was probably cause we thought we’d see a lot of girls there or something. Not that I ever talked to girls before I was 16. But it was full of all these white gangsta wanna-be 16-20 y/o dudes drinking mickey’s and pullin up they pants. We got there like 2 hours after the parade started and thought maybe we’d missed it at first. But we were catching it a good ways down the parade route, so we parked and walked to hang out and wound up waiting for half an hour or so for the parade to come. Then by the time it got to about float 16, the parade just stopped. The driver of the tractor pulling the float even got down and went and hung out with the other tractor drivers or something. Who knows. We just sat there wondering for about 10 minutes, then decided it was too late and cold and we’d just had too much Metairie. So we went home.
No parades tomorrow or Tuesday that I know of, but Wednesday night there are 3! uptown, yay! Happy Mardi Gras!
jvanpelt - January 28th, 2008
I think yesterday was my worst Mardi Gras so far. I’d say I should have taken the day off, but I’m far too busy at work for that. Perhaps it’s because the memory of Mardi Gras last year is so fresh in my mind that I felt especially for away yesterday. Or perhaps it’s just that yesterday I indulged myself in a bit of self-pity. I can accept that I am where I choose to be. But it’s also understandable that Mardi Gras is the pinnacle of homesickness for me. It’s so retarded.
I just checked my email and found this from my friend Ryan who, it turns out, went home for Mardi Gras from NYC: “Hope you didn’t get too grouchy having to work on Mardi Gras day. (I was pissy as hell that one year.)” At least I’m glat to know it’s not just me. My other nola friends who live here seemed rather unenthused abort even following up on our little Milwaukee tradition of getting together and hunting down an Abita beer. I had to settle for a “Big Easy Lager” from Lakefront brewery. At least it turned out to be a good beer.
Even though it may seem contrary to the costumes and masks, Mardi Gras is really a celebration about being who you are. Something I realized about New Orleans and what makes it so different is that it is a city, and I guess by city I mean community, that accepts people in all of their eccentricities. Mardi Gras is everyone coming together with their eccentricities bare to the world.
jvanpelt - February 21st, 2007