Gleason Gras, Krewe of Boo Parade, Pelicans and more!

As I wrote in my last post, I have no time to blog but it’s been a very eventful couple of weeks and I at least wanted to share some of the photos. I attended a bunch of movies at the 25th annual New Orleans Film Festival, including the premiere of Black and White starring Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer. It was great as were Imperial Dreams, Cast the First Stone, Imitation Game and the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prizewinner of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, Whiplash, to name a few. I also modeled in a fashion show for the St. Elizabeth’s Guild annual celebrity fashion show and “Volunteer Activists Awards” fundraiser. Saint Steve Gleason was one of the many honored and I was excited just to be in the room with him.

It was my first time on a catwalk in 20 years – since when I was a runway model for 10 years. But, rather than professional models, my fellow catwalkers were local celebrities like WDSU’s Fletcher Mackel and Margaret Orr as well as James Beard award-winning chef, Tory McPhail of Commander’s Palace. It was great fun.

The next day was Steve Gleason’s 4th Gleason Gras at Champion’s Square in front of the Superdome. We arrived in time for Anthony Davis to lead some of the Pelicans basketball team onto the stage followed by Grammy-winners Rebirth Brass Band. There was a fun costume contest of some of the Saints “superfans,” people who dress as a Who Dat character for every game. Fan favorite Whistle Monster won, of course.

Then Drew Brees, Thomas Morstead, Kenny Stills and several other Saints talked about Gleason and his battle with ALS and threw mini-footballs to the crowd. Steve Gleason took the stage and gave a moving speech. He stayed on the stage for the rest of the show as Anders Osborne finished what had been a whole day of concerts. We all look forward to seeing him again at next year’s Gleason Gras.

Then it was off to the first Pelicans game of the season. Everyone got a free t-shirt and the team won by a mile despite missing a ton of shots. I think they’re going to have a great year. The games are fun and festive with great shows by the dancers, bands and the halftime show featured Emil and Dariel, the rock-cellists from America’s Got Talent.

And Thursday was my second time dancing with the Pussyfooters in the Krewe of Boo parade. I love seeing the city from the parade route. The Saints were playing an away game so lots of attendees were wearing their Black & Gold. I did all my costume’s spiders in Black & Gold and painted fleur de lis on their backs. But, one of my favorite things about parading in Krewe of Boo is seeing all of the parade-goers in their costumes. There were too many cute kids to count.

Enjoy the photos. Sorry I couldn’t label them all or give all these events (and a bunch more) the loving detail they deserved but it’s been a wonderfully wild October.