Mardi Gras Indians Super Sunday

After postponing a week for weather, it was 80 and sunny for Super Sunday, one of my favorite days of the years. Staggeringly beautiful and steeped in culture and history, the Mardi Gras Indians fill the streets on Super Sunday wearing plumed and beaded suits they spent the year carefully designing and crafting, bead by bead. We wandered past Baby Dolls dancing and families helping their Indians dress before selecting a burger and sausage combo and following the proprietor to a nearby truck making giant adult sno-balls.

Mardi Gras 2017 Wrap-Up

We’ve heard it a lot in the last few days – this was the best Carnival (Mardi Gras season) in years. In fairness, a lot of it had to do with the extraordinarily wonderful weather. After the 50 degree rain-soaked Krewe of Cleopatra parade,  most days were 70-80 and sunny with breezes. This year, I danced in 3 parades with the Pussyfooters. We were excited to debut our super-hero-inspired capes and signature pink corsets at the Cleopatra parade but mostly ended up covered in dripping-wet plastic sacks. That said, the crowds kept us inspired. Carnival parades are like a perpetual motion machine. The paraders bring energy to the crowds and the crowds bring energy to the paraders.

Though routines are set, each year I get to do new things at Mardi Gras and have new experiences.

Krewe of Freret Parade 2017

The Krewe of Freret paraded for 40 years until the 1990’s then was rebirthed on the parade route 4 years ago. Many members of the new Krewe are the children of the previous membership. I loved that they opened with traditional Baby Dolls, the inspiration for the adult dance troupes you see in parades today. In Saturday’s parade, those troupes included The Chorus Girl Project, Nyxettes and my vote so far for best new dance krewe of the year – Alter Egos. Between their purple afros and their fun, funky moves, they were an instant crowd favorite. The Dames de Perlage put on a great show with their intricately beaded corsets honoring local “saints” like the fictitious Ignatius Reilly, the very real culinary legend Leah Chase and the surreal Big Freedia. Bearded Oysters’s diaphanous wing-capes and Lucha Krewe’s fight-dance moves filled out the entertainment. 

Satchmo Fest 2016

As usual, it was hot-as-heck for Satchmo Fest but the music and food were worth the sweat. Celebrating the life and contributions of Louis Armstrong, the festival moved to Jackson Square this year. Like last year, they charged a $5 admission – a move that still has its kinks (like local employees and neighbors can’t just walk in to grab a plate or a cocktail). The festival featured 2 stages with one focusing more on traditional jazz and the main stage offering a few more-modern takes on Satchmo’s sound.

Saints’ Will Smith Remembered

Super Bowl-winning  Saint, Will Smith, was murdered last week attempting to save his wife’s life after she’d been shot once in each leg. The second line celebrating his life and return home started at the Half Moon Bar, not far from where Smith lost his life, and was headed to the Ooh Poo Pah Doo Bar in the Treme. James Andrews led the band as Baby Dolls, Saints fans and local-born Saint, Keenan Lewis, gathered to hug, dance, sing, pray and cry. The 4 mile parade started with a moment of silence and some words of hope in front of the memorial that’s been climbing up the fence and spreading across the sidewalk.

Brothels, Bordellos and Ladies of the Night Walking Tour

Other than hitting Bourbon Street, I believe the city’s many walking tours and carriage rides must be the most popular tourist activity in New Orleans. Throughout the French Quarter and Garden District, people gather around stringently-licensed tour guides enlivening historical facts (and stories) about everything from architecture and colorful characters to above-ground cemeteries and Voodoo. At night, the Quarter is cluttered with criss-crossing groups of people wanting to learn more about the “most haunted city in America” from one of the city’s many spirit tours (Scary Mary is regarded as the most fact-based fun). But there are many stories locals tell each other that tourists seldom hear. The stories of the city’s brothels and the women who worked them are the subject covered by Two Chicks Walking Tours‘ unique Brothels, Bordellos and Ladies of the Night walking tour. 

I’m So New Orleans #ImSoNewOrleans

The Twitter-verse and Facebook have been buzzing for the last couple days with all things New Orleans. No one seems to know who started the #ImSoNewOrleans trend but it’s brought the city together in a way usually reserved for football season. People are sharing childhood memories, old photos of long-gone places and jokes and trends so inside, only someone who grew up here could truly get them. I didn’t. I wasn’t born here and I don’t have a good answer to, “Where’d you go to school?” (meaning which local high school), but I’m so New Orleans that my family owned property on St. Charles in the 1700’s. Okay, that doesn’t help me decipher some of the local references or share some of the memories, but it does make me feel like I’m home.