Throw me something, Mister!
Feb. 22nd, 2006 07:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeThe next day we woke up pret-ty hungover. Man. Jagermeister is nasty stuff--I couldn't even think of it without feeling nauseous. Five krewes (Pontchartrain, Shangri-La, Pygmalion, Sparta, Pegasus) were rolling that day, and the parade route took them around Canal Street before turning onto Tchoupitoulas--very convenient! People were lining up along Canal Street with camp chairs and such as we walked out, and as we were eating breakfast, we saw the floats. I got excited and we ran out. The floats are...like something out of a dream. They are these huge spooky heads with exaggerated smiles and features, creepy and medieval.
There may be as few as 10 or as many as 40 floats per krewe, and krewes will roll one right after the other (so what feels like one parade is actually 3 or 5). On each float are krewe members, all masked, throwing out TONS of shit (called throws)--mostly beads but also cups, doubloons, plastic toys and stuffed animals, CDs, throw bags (bags for your loot), food, superballs, flags. But mostly--beads, beads, BEADS. In every shiny color but mostly purple, green and gold. So many beads. You clap your hands and say "Happy Mardi Gras!" and "Throw something to me, mister!" (the traditional Mardi Gras parade cry) and when those weird masked people throw it to you, you're happy. Sometimes you exchange glances with someone, and they point to you and target you with the throws, which makes you feel special. It's a 30-second romance, until the next float lumbers up and there's someone new with bright, shiny, cheap plastic beads to tempt away your loyalty.
The floats are manned by the krewe members, and the royal court--each krewe selects a King and Queen, plus pages. These may or may not be members of the krewe--sometimes they're celebrities, or business community leaders, or debutantes. The pages are usually children. Also, the parades have local marching bands/drill teams/cheer squads. Krista and I felt bad for some of these young girls, wearing such short skirts in the cold! (Overnight it turned quite cold and cloudy, from the 'upper 60s to the mid 40s. The one fly in the ointment--it was so warm and lovely Friday night!)
After the parade, the streets and trees are full of this stuff--beads are everywhere, in the gutters, on the branches, on the bus stop signs. We gathered our loot and went back to the hotel and napped for a bit. I meant to sleep only for a half-hour but it turned out to be 2 hours--which meant that I couldn't call for a reservation for the "Hurricane Katrina" tour (and when I walked up to the window the next day, they were sold out). This tour shows you the utter devastation wrought by the storm in the Lower 9th Ward and other neighborhoods, and talks about how Congress and FEMA are dragging their feet with the reconstruction process--there is clearly a political aim to the tour, as included in the fee is a contribution to one of three aid organizations of your choice, plus the tourgoers are asked to sign a petition and/or write a letter to Congress. I really wanted to go on this tour--anyone who knows me, knows how much I love New Orleans, and I felt I had to bear witness to the destruction as much as I could. Because I couldn't take the tour, I didn't get a really good impression of the damage--Canal Street looks bad, a lot of businesses boarded up and there's still water damage (you could see the water line on many buildings) but there were still people there.
And the Quarter feels almost the same as before (as I understand does the Garden District--both areas on higher ground that escaped flooding for the most part). But Mid-City and many other neighborhoods are ghost towns, from what I was told. Very few people have returned to their homes and of course there's a serious worker shortage for the businesses that have come back. New Orleans is still very much on the brink--as my shuttle driver said, the best thing we can do is to spend our money there.
Saturday night, Krista and I ate dinner at the Pearl on St. Charles, a well-known family restaurant where we had fried catfish and crawfish etouffee. After this we went to Preservation Hall, a New Orleans icon where we heard a terrific jazz quintet play. I requested "Tuxedo Junction" and wrote postcards, and drank a hot buttered rum. Mmm...it was so chilly out, we needed hot drinks!
There may be as few as 10 or as many as 40 floats per krewe, and krewes will roll one right after the other (so what feels like one parade is actually 3 or 5). On each float are krewe members, all masked, throwing out TONS of shit (called throws)--mostly beads but also cups, doubloons, plastic toys and stuffed animals, CDs, throw bags (bags for your loot), food, superballs, flags. But mostly--beads, beads, BEADS. In every shiny color but mostly purple, green and gold. So many beads. You clap your hands and say "Happy Mardi Gras!" and "Throw something to me, mister!" (the traditional Mardi Gras parade cry) and when those weird masked people throw it to you, you're happy. Sometimes you exchange glances with someone, and they point to you and target you with the throws, which makes you feel special. It's a 30-second romance, until the next float lumbers up and there's someone new with bright, shiny, cheap plastic beads to tempt away your loyalty.
The floats are manned by the krewe members, and the royal court--each krewe selects a King and Queen, plus pages. These may or may not be members of the krewe--sometimes they're celebrities, or business community leaders, or debutantes. The pages are usually children. Also, the parades have local marching bands/drill teams/cheer squads. Krista and I felt bad for some of these young girls, wearing such short skirts in the cold! (Overnight it turned quite cold and cloudy, from the 'upper 60s to the mid 40s. The one fly in the ointment--it was so warm and lovely Friday night!)
After the parade, the streets and trees are full of this stuff--beads are everywhere, in the gutters, on the branches, on the bus stop signs. We gathered our loot and went back to the hotel and napped for a bit. I meant to sleep only for a half-hour but it turned out to be 2 hours--which meant that I couldn't call for a reservation for the "Hurricane Katrina" tour (and when I walked up to the window the next day, they were sold out). This tour shows you the utter devastation wrought by the storm in the Lower 9th Ward and other neighborhoods, and talks about how Congress and FEMA are dragging their feet with the reconstruction process--there is clearly a political aim to the tour, as included in the fee is a contribution to one of three aid organizations of your choice, plus the tourgoers are asked to sign a petition and/or write a letter to Congress. I really wanted to go on this tour--anyone who knows me, knows how much I love New Orleans, and I felt I had to bear witness to the destruction as much as I could. Because I couldn't take the tour, I didn't get a really good impression of the damage--Canal Street looks bad, a lot of businesses boarded up and there's still water damage (you could see the water line on many buildings) but there were still people there.
And the Quarter feels almost the same as before (as I understand does the Garden District--both areas on higher ground that escaped flooding for the most part). But Mid-City and many other neighborhoods are ghost towns, from what I was told. Very few people have returned to their homes and of course there's a serious worker shortage for the businesses that have come back. New Orleans is still very much on the brink--as my shuttle driver said, the best thing we can do is to spend our money there.
Saturday night, Krista and I ate dinner at the Pearl on St. Charles, a well-known family restaurant where we had fried catfish and crawfish etouffee. After this we went to Preservation Hall, a New Orleans icon where we heard a terrific jazz quintet play. I requested "Tuxedo Junction" and wrote postcards, and drank a hot buttered rum. Mmm...it was so chilly out, we needed hot drinks!
