Newest Man-made Disaster

Dusting off ye olde blog in these troubled times. I started blogging in troubled times following Hurricane Katrina. Here I am again. I helps me to write even if no one reads. 2020 has so far been an odd year. Mardi Gras in New Orleans this year was weird. It started with the Krewe du Vieux ball being moved the day of the parade and ball, due to safety issues. That was later followed with the Krewe of Nyx parade, when a parade goer was killed by falling under a float. I was 1.5 miles and 15 floats away with the Pussyfooters. When it happened, we were stopped in the Garden District. Word was going around about what happened, then the official word came from NOLAready. I decided to walk home, and not complete the parade. 

The next night, the Krewe of Muses and all other parades were postponed due to weather. This isn’t odd, it has happened before, but the decision wasn’t announced until 2 hour before the parades were supposed to rolls. All the marching bands and other on-foot groups usually report to line-up 2 hours before the parade, so they were all dressed and on their way when the word came. Another float related death occurred during mega-parade Endemyion. Then, during Thoth, two riders fell off of floats, but were fine. The next night, two people fell off a balcony while watching a parade. Conspiracy theories relating it to the 2 victims still in the wreckage of the Hard Rock hotel (another fucked up ordeal) were flying.

G and I were sick with an upper respiratory cold in early January. I was happy we were both healthy before Blush Ball and Krewe du Vieux. We got sick again after Mardi Gras was over. I remember feeling it coming on my birthday, the day after Ash Wednesday. My Skeeball team threw me a small party, though I kept my distance so as not to get anyone else sick. I laid low and stayed close to home the following week and a half, so as not to get anyone else sick. We are still dealing with allergies issues due to the annual pollening, but so is everyone else. 

The city is more-or-less shut-down due to the Coronavirus. Museums, bars, festivals, concerts, casinos–any large, public gathering–has been cancelled or postponed. French Quarter Fest has already announced it will be held the first weekend of October. All are waiting for Jazz Fest to make a similar statement. Restuarants can no longer have seated guests, but can do take-out and delivery of food. Even Commander's Palace is doing take-out. Their food is really good, but it is the whole experience of dining there with their amazing wait staff that really makes it. Some restaurants have closed down for good. I was really looking forward to the Irish Channel St. Patrick's Day Parade which would have been Saturday, and Super Sunday, but both were cancelled, for good reason. A bunch of people gathered on Saturday anyway and were shut down by the NOPD. Today is St. Patrick's Day and normally parties would be every where, but not this year. It is strangely quiet.

I am a pet sitter, and only one of my clients went ahead with her trip. So I have been going downtown, Canal at Magazine Street, since Sunday. Sunday was more or less a typical Sunday. There was some traffic congestion on Camp Street before the turn onto Canal. Tourist were lined up at Ruby Slipper for brunch, and tourists were checking out of their hotels, cabs and Ubers double parked. Monday was much quieter, still a small crowd in front of Ruby Slipper. Today there was no traffic, very few tourist, and Ruby Slipper was doing take-out only. Metered street parking spots were plentiful, a rarity. 

I tried to pick up a few things from the uptown Rouses grocery store Sunday evening, but it was picked clean. Monday, I decided to head the Westbank on a quest for produce and eggs. The Gretna Rouses was a zoo, so I headed on over to Hong Kong market. Plenty of produce, noodles, frozen goods but zero eggs. The lines to check out were long and slow, as people had their carts piled high. (I wasn't worried about toilet paper, we have plenty from my last run to Costco. Can anyone explain the TP hoarding?)

Folks here in South Louisiana are used to preparing for hurricanes, but this is a different animal. We shouldn't have to worry about the water supply or electricity, though people are buying up water anyway. It's familiar. There is no where to evacuate to, unless it's in the middle of nowhere. Every morning comes the update from the city, with the rising numbers of people infected and deaths. So we hunker down.

Somebody went to New Orleans and all I got was this lousy t-shirt

My next post was going to be about all the road construction going on in New Orleans, but before I could do that, I was over on the Yellow Blog where I discovered that things are heating up over at the French Market. Comments made by the new director, Jon Smith, have angered some French Market vendors. The vendors were already ticked off by changes made in Market rules in 2012 and they filed a lawsuit which is still pending. This article just gives more proof to how screwed up things really are at the French Market.

One sentence made me take pause: "T-shirts also are prohibited, but a number of vendors who sold them before the ban went into effect were grandfathered in." Before Katrina, many, myself included, was lamenting over the proliferation of tacky, tourist t-shirt shops in the Quarter. These stores would cram dozens of t-shirts, usually with crude sayings on them (like these), in the doorway, all the while blasting music, sometimes Cajun, sometimes not. It was really getting out of control. Since Katrina, there's been a new explosion of t-shirt shops by local companies whose New Orleans themed t-shirts are geared to locals and tourist in the know. Stores like Fleurty Girl, Dirty Coast and Storyville to name a few. T-shirts are a hot commodity so it's surprising the Market would ban them.

Tacky t-shirts are no longer the only thing that scream tourist. What are the (tourist) symbols of New Orleans? Crawfish, something playing the saxophone and beads. Beads are no longer contained to Mardi Gras. The tacky t-shirt shops also sell beads, beads, beads. Feather boas are big too. The hot trend in conferences is in addition to your big old name badge and printed bag is a fake second line. There have been several times I've been down river when a brass band comes by with a handful of people decked out in beads and feather boas stumbling down the street behind them throwing beads. Like this company says on their web site: "We go beyond shutting down Canal Street for your own “second line” parade, bringing in voodoo priestesses to conjure your future and teaching you the Cajun two-step." Under Services one of the "Program Enhancements" they offer is a Jazz Funeral. Good grief.

Mardi Gras Madness - Part 3 - First Weekend of Parades with the Pussyfooters

Here comes the girls!

Technically, Mardi Gras is the last day of Carnival but we use the terms interchangeably. Carnival starts on 12th Night, January 5. The Phoney Phorty Phellows take a streetcar ride, throwing beads and what not to those that come out to see them. I was meeting a friend on the Avenue and was running late, so I missed the first pass and almost missed the second pass. There are parties this night as well as the Krewe of Joan of Arc that marches through the Quarter.

Me, mid-step-turn.

In New Orleans, the majority of parades start 2 weeks prior to Mardi Gras day. I'm in the Pussyfooters, a woman's dance group, and we were invited to perform in two parade the first weekend, Krewe of Cleopatra and Krewe of King Arthur. Both parades are about 5 miles long and took about 3 hours to complete. That's a lot of dancing and marching! But it is so much fun, and it's always a thrill to spy someone you know along the route. What was fun about these two parade is the first one was at night, the second the day, each a different experience. The night parades are more of a blur because you can't see, but even in the daylight, you aren't always sure where you are. The crowds blank out the landmarks and cross streets. It's fun to be able to see the people in the crowd and interact with them.

Here's a bunch of photos on Flickr from the King Arthur parade. We glow in the daylight!
Here's a video of us performing one of our dances in the same parade.
Here's a video of us from the Krewe of Cleopatra parade.

It's such an overload of senses. We have our own music - this year with a live DJ! - then there's the yelling and crowds noises, music from other groups and marching bands. We use hand motions and whistles (you'll hear them in the videos) to alert everyone about an upcoming dance. Sometimes you miss both until you realize everyone around you is dancing so you just jump right in. Like I said earlier, visually it can be a complete blur, but then you spy someone in the crowd you know and they just pop out at you. That's usually when I mess up. LOL And then there's the smells. There are horses and mules in the parade -ugh- but you also catch whiffs of fried chicken, BBQ and boiling crawfish along the route as well. Yum!

St. Charles Avenue in the Lower Garden District.

In front of Gallier Hall downtown. I'm the one in the pink wig. ;-)

Canal Street.