Street Kings and Krewe of Boo Parade

In 2010, Red Bull sponsored a battle of the bands between popular local brass bands – calling it Street Kings. This year, they reprised the contest packing Claiborne Ave under the I-10 overpass. This year’s bands included TBC, New Breed, New Creations and the Original Pinettes – the city’s only all-female brass band. Like most events in New Orleans, there were craft booths, food booths and bars a-plenty. The winning band receives mentorship from Trombone Shorty during 3 days of recording time in the Red Bull Studios. Trombone Shorty also served as one of the judges along with Kermit Ruffins, Walter Ramsey (of the former winners – Stooges Brass Band), WGNO’s Lebron Joseph and Offbeat Magazine’s Jan Ramsey. The event was hosted by the energetic duo of DJ Slab 1 and Glen David Andrews.

Costumes, Movies and the Boo Dat Pumpkin

From hoop skirts to Who Dats, on any given day in New Orleans, you can find many people in costumes for many reasons. But there are a few days when the city pulls out all the stops and Halloween is definitely one of them. We started the weekend with a pumpkin carving party. Pumpkin seeds rolled in cayenne, salt and cumin toasted in the oven while we all carved around a large dining table with horror movies playing on the TV.

Halloween and the Saints – Boo Dat!

Apparently, Halloween is the third largest holiday in New Orleans, but don’t quote me on that as I got the info from a bartender finishing his shift at Rawhide, not the Guinness World Book of Records. But Guinness was here to count how many people wore costumes to the Saints game Sunday. With almost 18,000 people in costumes – mostly black and gold, we set the record for the largest costume party.

French Quarter and the Boo Dat Pumpkin

There are plenty of jokes about the work ethic in New Orleans and, sure, I’ve seen people goofing off or moving slow, but I’ve seen people goof off at work in plenty of cities. I’ve read that the average office worker in America only does 20 minutes of work per hour. So, yeah, you may find someone applying lipstick when they should be catering to you, but here are some work conversations recently overheard that you may not find in most cities. At Rouse’s grocery in the Quarter, I heard the cashier greet an obvious regular, “What’s on sale, Mr. Ryan?” It brought me back to my childhood when my pawpaw used to go to the bank and the Piggly Wiggly everyday.