Mardi Gras Indians Super Sunday – Photos!

Super Sunday is easily one of my favorite days of the years. The magnificent Mardi Gras Indians show off the plumed and embellished suits they spent the year carefully designing and crafting. Elaborately beaded panels often portray tales of fighting and loss. One family told the story of the wife’s battle with illness and her husband carrying her through the fight. One of the children in the Red Flag Hunters was adorned with sparkly images of Goofy, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and friends.

Mardi Gras Indians Super Sunday 2016

Between Mardi Gras Indians’ Super Sunday, Congo Square Festival, the Class Got Brass battle of the bands, the Pelicans game and the live filming of Tyler Perry’s The Passion, they was plenty to do today but, for once, the choice was easy. The Indians’ elaborately hand-beaded and feathered suits, weighing up to 150 pounds, costing $3000 or more and taking up to a year to design, construct and bead are the most beautiful suits in the world. (For more about the history and traditions of the Indians, click HERE). The parade opened with the Hot 8 Brass Band and the Lady Buck Jumpers then became a stream of rich plumes and intricately beaded stories of the soul. 

Buckjumpers and Saints

Sunday, we headed to the theatre to see The Muppets on the big screen. The movie was great, reminding me of everything valuable about Hollywood. On the way home, we had to choose between turning or getting stuck while a parade passed. You can guess which one we picked. The super-cool Original New Orleans Lady Buckjumpers were the focus of the parade, but the second line included Junior Buckjumpers and 3 brass bands – Young Fellaz, then Stooges then Rebirth Brass Band. I thought of how many of us attend festivals or go to clubs to hear these bands and here they were, just playing in the street. 

Treme and I go down memory lane

This week’s Treme episode was like a walk down memory lane for me. I guess it shouldn’t come as too big a surprise to me that David Simon, the show’s creator, notices many of the same things about this city that I do. We were both born in D.C. and grew up in Maryland. We both work in entertainment. And we both clearly LOVE this city and want to give the world an insight as to why.

Jazz Fest: singing in the rain

The second  day of my first ever Jazz Fest was a drizzly day. I didn’t have a ride this time so got to take a nice long walk through beautiful City Park.