HumidCity

I was going to write about Ray again, but then I found this picture in my Flickr account which is far more eloquent than I am at the moment:

Nagin has turned over the city to Rex, King of Carnival. Can we keep it this way, please?

Maitri w/ A Beehive

Originally uploaded by Often Absurd in the Humid City.

Carnival is here. Even with a hurt paw that is wonderful. See? Even Maitri is enjoying it!

It feels like right after Katrina to me. That was the last time I was typing mostly one handed due to an injury. But it is not the dawn of HumidCity, rather it’s the first weekend of Carnival 2008 (celebrated with the picture of Comus back in 1938 that you see above), and we have just skipped the first parades of the first weekend. Why, you ask? Because it’s bloody cold and wet and I’m still pretty beat up from my encounter with a car a few days back.

The temps here are running towards weather only a resident of Seattle or Edinburgh could appreciate. While out of town readership may laugh to us 36 degree weather with rain is pure unadulterated evil. The humidity and rain make it chill to the bone in a fashion I have seen shock yankees.

Hoping to have pics tomorrow from the daytime parades to share by the later evening manana. Staying minimal on the typing outside of work for awhile longer, at least until my Thursday doctor’s appointment tells me (I hope) that these all over body aches are exactly that, aches. Simple pains that will pass with a bit of time and hopefully before the big march with my Krewe on Mardi Gras morning. Cross your digits for me. In the meantime, I return you to the (?)saner(?) voices of HumidCity.

-Loki

DSCF1831

Originally uploaded by adrastosno.

Click through and look at the large version, it’s worth it.

King Ronald Lewis Will Guide Mysterious New Route

Our magical city has a communications director named Quiett. Its web address is cityofNO.com. City Hall is located on Perdido Street - Spanish for lost. And you want to know where the misery comes from?

Indeed, it’s been quite a detour de force for the whole state and nation this year. Sen. Larry Craig crooned “Blew Gay Way”, while our own senator sang “David Vitter’s Lonely Whores Club Band”; then joined they both joined the entire Congress in “Fools on the Hill”.

A state judge refused to sing “Cleo Fields Forever”, but the New Orleans City Council did a rousing chorus of “I Am The Wal-Mart”. Oliver Thomas launched his solo career with “Can Buy My Love”, while our D.A. ended his with “Sgt. Eddie’s Only Honkies Banned”. Faint traces could occasionally be heard of Mayor Nagin’s “Nowhere Man”; Governor Blanco’s rendition of “Your Mother Should Know” never even made it on the charts; but people all over Louisiana were heard humming “Bobby in the State House With Dimples”. The new governor’s first hit release was “All We Need Is Cash”.

The walrus was appalled.

Many versions of “You Never Give Me My Money” were dedicated to the Roadblock Home people. Contractors everywhere belted out “Why Don’t We Dump It In The Road?”, while all of us here in K-Doeville found salvation with “We All Live In a Jello-Shot Machine”.

Taking full advantage of this string of chart-toppers, the bottom-dwellers of Krewe du Vieux have decided to embark upon a Magical Misery Tour. There will be new Twists on this year’s trek through Faubourg Marigny and French Quarter, which will be a loop of looped loopies that will end where it begins. Whether it goes anywhere or not, the parade will take place on the impossibly early date and time of Saturday, January 19 at 6:30 PM.

Playing chief tour guide will be King Ronald Lewis, who after 31 years of keeping streetcars on the straight and narrow path will now lead the Krewe down a bong and winding road. Mardi Gras Indian, founder of the House of Dance and Feathers, preserver of our culture, emperor in new suits, sultan of social aid and pleasure, King Ronald will reign over an amazing day in our life.

Detour will lead de Krewe to the new site for this year’s Krewe du Vieux Doo, 2121 Chartres Street. Doors open at 9:00 PM. This year’s nonstop lineup includes 101 Runners, Juice, J.D. Hill, and the Honey Island Swamp Band, with a special late night trip by Quintron and Miss Pussycat. The public is invited and forewarned. Tickets are $25 per person, available at the Louisiana Music Factory, 210 Decatur Street; Mardi Gras Zone, 2706 Royal Street; Miss Claudia’s Vintage Clothes and Costume Shop, 4204 Magazine Street; and Up in Smoke, 4507 Magazine Street.

The Krewe du Vieux’s seventeen subkrewes will each present their own magical, miserable, misguided, mysterious, maniacal, magnificent, and entirely imaginary interpretations of the theme. Subkrewes include the Krewe of C.R.U.D.E., Krewe of Space Age Love, Krewe of Underwear, Seeds of Decline, Krewe of Mama Roux, Krewe of L.E.W.D., Krewe of Drips and Discharges, Krewe of K.A.O.S., Knights of Mondu, T.O.K.I.N., Krewe Rue Bourbon, Krewe de C.R.A.P.S., Krewe of PAN, Mystic Krewe of Spermes, Krewe of Comatose, Mystic Krewe of Inane, and Krewe du Mishigas.

Also marching will be many of the city’s top brass bands. Showcasing the local brass band talent is one of the few Krewe du Vieux traditions not currently being considered as a strategy for “winning” the war in Iraq.

The Krewe du Vieux is a non-profit organization dedicated to the historical and traditional concept of a Mardi Gras parade as a venue for individual creative expression and satirical comment. It is unique among all Mardi Gras parades because it alone carries on the old Carnival traditions, by using decorated, hand or mule-drawn floats with satirical themes, accompanied by costumed revelers dancing to the sounds of jazzy street musicians. We believe in exposing the world to the true nature of Mardi Gras — and in exposing ourselves to the world.

Krewe du View Official Site-http://www.kreweduvieux.org/

Well we are still in the midst of the house moving but this is just too amusing: Offbeat”s Food Section has a wonderful little piece in which I was interviewed both as a former employee and because I had blogged about it on HumidCity.

Gee, I feel so “A List.”
Okay, maybe a lowercase “a”…

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The Annual Krewe of Chartreuse stumble has come to an end. From our annual march down St Charles Avenue through the meeting of the subkrewes and subsequent Grand Rumpus Toast it was, as always, a blast!Way too much Green Chartreuse was consumed, Maitri was initiated looking lovely in her finery, our Charter Member and Krewe De Noir Captain Micahra returned form her exile in L.A. just in time, Lex and I got remarried in a SubGenius ceremony, and we all had a day of purest catharsis. I think I now feel more stable and human in the aftermath then I have for months.

I have now stepped down as Dark Lord for the Krewe, only to be replaced by my predecessor! Could not go to a better recipient, especialy as he joined me amongst the racks of the 40+ set as of Carnival Day! Happy BDay Doodler!

Now those of you who do not hail from our beknighted city are proabably quite puzzled by the festivities, and not without reason. At first galnce it may seem counterintuitive to be partying when everything around us is so completely in disarry. What you need to understand is the psychological ramifications for those of us that live here.

We exist in a place where Katrina, the Federal Flood, and the ongoing trials infect every aspect of day to day life. Every interaction, every conversation, every walk down the block are tainted with the events of the past 18 months. In this sort of environment catharsis is essential. On Mardi Gras Day a pauper can be a prince, a prince can be a clown, and the clowns that, “govern,” us can be skewered with impunity. Every masker is able to leave behind the wrekage of their former home and cut loose in a collaborative satirization of the pain we are steeped in.

This is how we heal.

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Mysticks, Orphans, and Misfits 2007: Vices May Vary

Some images from this year’s festivities. This is as close to a post as you will get between now and Wednesday.

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The Krewe of Endymion, is a wonderful looking parade. Much like Jesus it is its followers who raise my ire. From about 8am on I have watched the public land of the neutral ground sprout suburban land barons like corn in Indiana. Now Carnival season is for everyone, I do not deny them that, but creating an impassable wall of roped off campgrounds and edge to edge ladders is far from endearing.

Unlike the usual crowd that gathers along the route there is a distinct and profound lack of manners. The phrase, “fuck you man, I’m from Kennah!” is one I have heard no less than three times today, all from people staking out their own little feifdoms on the neutral ground.

This is their Mardi Gras, and they should be having it on their traditional route.
For one thing few people realize that Carnival is celebrated in many different ways depending on what neghborhood you are in. Granted I tend to dislike most of the Endymion crowd I have dealt with on the three years they have been rerouted to St Charles (steps away from the keyboard)

Sorry, a case in point just resented itself. Just had to go rail at some punk for urinating on my windowsill. Third one in the last hour. I live 30 feet off the route, every parade goes right by and their crowds inundate the street outside my door. Endymion is the only one where people are pissing in my yard and on my door. The. Only. Time.

Anyway, as I was saying, another very important reason it needs to be on its home route is morale. This is Mid City’s Mardi Gras, and with all the foot draggin from our leaders they are in a bad way. They, like everyone in New Orleans, deserve the cathartic experience of celebrating Carnival their way in their neighborhood.

Failing that I hugely recommend learning some bloody manners!

EDIT 9PM: The Final Count on morns mistaking my building for a unrinal that I have caught is eleven!  That is eleven addresses I want so that I can return the favor. Talk about self proving theorems!

As you may imagine, I will not be posting much till after Mardi Gras Day next tues, so here is a link to my album of Carnival pictures. It will be added to constantly throughout Carnival and can be reached here.

I also had the pleasure, while on my way to pester Dangerblonde, of meeting the 501st Legion, Vader’s Fist. These guys are a blast. Look for the pics of me with the NOPD’s best backup yet: Imperial Stormtroopers!

Happy Mardi Gras! ( and Muchas Gracias to Adrastos and Dr.A for coffee, booze, feline companionship, booze, coffee, king cake, heckling, and a wide variety of ill mannered interactions!)

Al Copeland’s restaraunt on St Charles and Napoleon is getting its private reviewing stands up. There were many people running around this morning in and out f the building.

On the right side of this picture is Copeland’s, a rat infested dump that has had next to nothing done to it (despite repeated complaints from neighbors) since the storm. The purple, green and gold on the left side is the reviewing stand set up for him, his cronys, and if I am not mistaken those who purchase seats. There is a high probability

Down the Avenue sits the likewise ignored remains of his Cheesecake Bistro, another eyesore and more evidence of his desertion of Orleans Parish in the wake of the Storm. So my question is: Why do we allow him preferential treatment in the form of ringside seats to the greatest spectacle of modern America?

I am obviously not the only neighbor who feels this way, as shown by the signs posted (and immediately removed) on his building when the stand started going up. (Click thumbnail for larger, readable images)

If the expected drinks concession opens I encourage others to follow my example. Bring your own beer, Big Al has lost the right to our money.

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Ganked unashamedly from Greg Peters over at Suspect Device, a really great piece of humor:

Mayor Nagin and Police Chief Riley visited a class in a local elementary school yesterday and the teacher suggested that they participate in the day’s vocabulary lesson.

“Today’s word is tragedy,” said the mayor. “Can anyone give an example of a tragedy?” asked the police chief.

One child raised her hand. “If a drug dealer was trying to shoot another drug dealer and hit my sister instead,” the child offered. “No,” said the police chief, “that would be an accident. Anyone else?”

“How about if everyone quit visiting the city, my daddy lost his job and couldn’t provide for me?” another child ventured. “No,” said the mayor, “although that would be a great loss. One more answer from Johnny in the back.”

“Well,” said Johnny, “if the mayor and police chief were shoved off the viewing platform during a Mardi Gras parade and killed when a float ran them over, THAT would be a tragedy!” “Now that’s correct,” agreed the mayor and police chief. “And can you tell us why?” “Because,” said Johnny, “it sure as hell wouldn’t be a great loss, and I doubt very seriously if it would be an accident.”