Mañana de carnaval

Since our first year in New Orleans, we have honored a yearly tradition on Mardi Gras.This year made it eleven years that on the day before Ash Wednesday, on Fat Tuesday, we wake up, have breakfast, dress up for the occasion, and head for the French Quarter.

Every year we shop in our closet for something original to wear

We walk up St. Ann from Jackson Square and make our way to Pere Antoine on Royal and St. Ann. We put our names on the reservation list and proceed to enjoy the last of the St. Ann parade. Music blasts from upstairs, and the street is a cacophony of voices, laughter and happy Mardi Gras wishes.

People know where we hang out for lunch, but they don’t know how we’re dressed

After lunch we make our way to Bourbon Street, and look out for some of our friends wandering around until the sun begins to go down.

Everybody loves to be photographed with intriguing characters

We make one last stop at Quarter Past Time on Chartres where we dance a tango on the sidewalk.

The sidewalk on Chartres St. where we dance before going home

Then we head home to watch the Rex and Comus Balls with all the pomp and circumstances that is expected from royalty.

Words are not enough to describe what is like to be part of the sea of bodies that flood the streets of the Vieux Carre where alcohol and levity rule the day. Remarkably, in eleven years we have never seen or heard of a fight, an altercation, or rowdy behavior. Everybody is on their best drunken behavior, and everyone contributes to the common desire to have a good time.

Our video memories contain adult off color humor, political satire, and artistic displays of normally hidden body parts and suitable for an informed, adult mature audience…

King cake season is over.

At midnight Tuesday February 24, the New Orleans police began its march along Bourbon Street from the uptown edge of the French Quarter. Led by fit cops riding spirited horses and the chief and his top brass on foot, the patrol cars blasted their sirens, flashed blinding red and blue lights clearing the street, and announced through its loudspeakers that the party was over, that it was time to go home or at least get indoors.

Looking like a modern version of Moses, the NOPD parted the sea of revelers revealing a sea of crap brewing and accreting in the streets, gutters and sidewalks, the garbage of Mardi Gras.

Marching right behind the police squad cars, Garbage king Sidney Torres IV riding a festooned garbage truck led the krewe of Sanitation parade as Bourbon Street was swept, scrubbed and rinsed so the dawning of Ash Wednesday would not see any traces of excess, sin and debauchery.

The city no longer weighs the Mardi Gras garbage to assess the financial success of Mardi Gras to discourage alcohol induced organized littering. But a mega success it was. Crowds matched the pre Katrina levels.

It was a gorgeous day, with blue skies, and warm weather.

Meanwhile, one week into Lent, we returned to our weekly tango night and were pleasantly surprised by the return of Jonathan, our favorite bartender back from training with the National Guard. We also continue to suffer from a shortage of decent male dancers, a curiosity phenomenon associated with the city I was told, something to do with Southern men laziness and sleaziness, I couldn’t catch the slurred phrase coming out of a sazerac sipping local’s lips.

I have long stopped worrying about those who don’t come since I began to pay attention to the quality of my dances with arguably the best tango dancers in the city. There I was feeling like a fox in a chicken coop sharing tandas after tandas with Valorie, Patricia, Linda, Jessica, Graciela… Contrary to traveling teachers or mail order “nuevo” acrobats, I have the satisfaction of having had an important hand in brigning up these ladies to the superb level they occupy. It’s like cooking with fresh herbs grown outside your window. It’s only fair that I love going dancing to Le Phare.

The Rex Procession has been the highlight of Mardi Gras day since the Rex Organization was formed and first paraded in 1872. While there had been celebrations in many forms on Mardi Gras before that time, the Rex Parade gave a brilliant daytime focus to the festivities, and provided a perfect opportunity for Rex, King of Carnival, to greet his city and his subjects. The Rex Procession today is true to the long tradition of rich themes, elegant design, and floats built with traditional materials and designs. Most of Rex’s floats are built on old wooden wagons with wood-spoked wheels. In recent years the theme and design of the parade have been suggested in advance of the parade with the publication of Parade Bulletins, designed to give the public a glimpse of what will roll from the Rex Den on Mardi Gras day.

Themes for the Rex Parade historically have been inspired by the worlds of mythology, art, literature, and history, and draw on the rich images of ancient cultures and faraway lands.

The 2009 Parade Theme, “Spirits of Spring,” is true to that tradition. As New Orleans continues its process of renewal and rebirth, the 2009 Rex Procession illustrates the universal appeal of that theme, with beautiful images of Springtime and renewal. From Persephone to Poseidon to Eostre, ancient cultures created legends, myths, and festivals celebrating the arrival of Spring after the harsh winter. Flowers, butterflies, and bears awakening from hibernation—all are portrayed in this tribute to the renewing joys of Spring.

Our first order of the day is to pick a costume we will wear all day, then we head downtown to catch the end of the Rex parade on Canal Street and finally we walk around the French Quarter heading to our lunch destination at Pere Antoine on the corner of St. Ann and Royal. This year we have seen the crowds reach the level we were used to before Katrina. The sun reigned the entire day and we lived to do the Fat Tuesday once more.

Mardi Gras and the Rex parade

In Greek mythology, Endymion could have been a handsome Aeolian shepherd or hunter, or, even a king who ruled and was said to reside at Olympia in Elis, but he was also said to reside and was venerated on Mount Latmus in Caria, on the west coast of Asia Minor. There is confusion over the number of Endymions, as some sources suppose that one was or was related to the prince of Elis and the other was a shepherd or astronomer from Caria. In New Orleans, there is no confusion. There is one Endymion, and it is the mother of all krewes.

To fully appreciate the history of the largest and most successful Carnival organization in the history of New Orleans, it is helpful to examine the celebration in the years that preceded Endymion‘s inception in 1966. A typical  Mardi Gras season in the mid-Sixties consisted of about 20 parades with relatively small floats and fairly conservative amount of throws. Tableau balls were declining in popularity. Hotel occupancy rates of less than 60% at Mardi Gras were common. Many felt that carnival was in a slump. Something new was needed to inject life into the celebration. In 1969, the new Krewe of Bacchus issued a wake-up call and Mardi Gras was forever changed. Endymion’s 1974 emergence into a super krewe had equal impact.

Endymion brought young people back to Carnival, by changing the sound and feel of Mardi Gras. Contemporary music and pop stars from radio and television were presented within the parade, and Carnival suddenly had glitter and flash. The krewe also brought an element of variety to the celebration that had been absent.

A list of more than 50 stars that Endymion has imported for its Extravaganzas reads like a show-biz Who’s Who, yet the krewe has always included local talent in its entertainment. As the city’s number one cheerleader, if there is ever a way to stretch a Crescent City component into a parade theme, float title, or maid’s costume, Endymion does it. Even its fleur de lis logo is pure New Orleans!

With the largest floats ever assembled, and parade themes with which everyone identified, Endymion quickly became the people’s parade. The krewe also changed the look of Carnival, making an instant impact with its magnificent court costumes and enormous headdresses. The concept of showcasing the krewe’s royalty and court within a parade was novel. People actually came to see Endymion’s “pre-parade” of mini-floats, just to catch a glimpse of the visual spectacle.

People also came to Endymion’s parade to do more than look. As the most generous club in Carnival, krewe members lived up to their motto, “Throw until it hurts.” Literally, millions of beads, cups, doubloons and trinkets were tossed-then as now, no one goes home from an Endymion parade empty-handed.

Thanks to Bacchus and Endymion, four day hotel packages on Carnival weekend became an easy sell, much to the delight of tour operators. But Endymion did more than attract tourists and provide jobs; it played a major role in the democratization of Mardi Gras, opening its doors to some who had been barred from the old-line clubs. Endymion’s membership represented, then as it does now, a cross section, a virtual microcosm of New Orleans, from cab drivers to attorneys, from janitors to U.S. Senators. Without fanfare or fuss, Endymion opened its membership to the entire community. And what could be more democratic than Endymion’s selection process for its monarch? The club’s annual blind draw, performed by the reigning Queen, makes it an organization in which any man can wear Endymion’s crown.

Most of all, Endymion has succeeded because it is fun-fun for the public and fun for the members who live for their special and for their very special parade. This spirit has produced a sense of loyalty that is rare in Carnival organizations. All Hail Endymion! Mardi Gras Main Event.

The Krewe of Endymion Parade, rolls once again on Saturday, February 21st 2009 on it’s traditional Mid-City route. Although this year’s theme was “Tales of Sleep and Dreams,” we doubted that the hundreds of thousands of Mardi Gras revelers along the Endymion parade route would be resting as twenty-five spectacular Super-Tandem Floats led by celebrity Grand Marshall Kid Rock—carrying over 2,400 masked revelers—will bombard the enthusiastic crowds with MILLIONS of strands of Mardi Gras beads and Endymion 2009 Collectible throws.

What follows is our account of a day that started with maneuvering around police barricades in order to get to an undisclosed location where we proceeded to indulge in beverages and food, before heading for the neutral ground on Canal Street.

Our location on the route

The 2009 Endymion parade exprience

One of the highlights of the carnival season for us is the Thursday before Mardi Gras. The Krewe of Muses parade rolls Uptown along St. Charles Ave. Muses is the first all female krewe to ride on a night time parade on an important night of the carnival season. Brush up on your MUSES trivia and memorabilia with the Visualvamp.

Being forced by the circumstances to forgo any tango activities during this sacred period in New Orleans kulture, the gigantic high heel shoe that leads the parade tickles my fancy and prepares me for the vapors I get when I see the Pussy Footers, the Camel Toes and the Bearded Oysters parade by.

However, being a sucker for intelligent minds, I look forward every year to the wit and equal opportunity tongue lashing that local and national politicians get as their names and peccadilloes make up the theme of each elaborate float. Few people get access to the Top Secret missions these divas have been assigned to.

TOP SECRET

Even though we got a little late to the parade route, the floats were running even later so have a look at the Krewe of Chaos who preceded Muses,

KREWE OF CHAOS PARADE

Finally the anticipated excitement of the night began to unfold ,

2009 MUSES PARADE

We hope you enjoyed our Muses parade evening and we pucker our lips for you inviting you to join us Saturday for Endymion and choripans

Muchos besos from the parade route

The celebrations of Carnaval began last night. In Buenos Aires 30 streets around the city were blocked so more than 30 corsos could take place every weekend until the end of February, Saturdays from 7pm – 2 am and Sundays from 7 pm to midnight. A corso is a carnival foot parade. More than 105 murgas with more than 17,000 members were chosen in pre carnaval competitions by panel of experts in music, wardrobe, dance and larger than life dolls and puppets. A murga is not quite like a Brazilian Samba School but more like a second line parade with a script. Murga has been one of the forms of social art that more grew in Argentina,  at the greater rate than the political and economic crises.

King Momo seized again the bodies and souls of more than 17,000 people, who got the 2009 Carnival dancing and singing in 105 murgas at the 30 corsos that were organized simultaneously in different districts from all the city. With ingenious names and colors the murgas, for more than ten years considered a cultural patrimony of the city, put rhythms to the barrios.

Carnaval celebrations go all the way back to 1869. That year the first corso took place in Buenos Aires, with comparsas of black and “blackened” whites, that shone with their costumes and their rhythm, while their singing and their wild and harmonic dancing shot legs and arms into the air. The music of La cumparsita, which means a small comparsa, was originally written as a marching song for a small murga of college students in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Back in the nineteen sixties, in the city of Buenos Aires the celebration of carnaval was a time of the year to let go of inhibitions and take to the streets to dance, parade and become part of a masked crowd that moved about the city engulfed in a cacophony of drums, chants and popular tunes. It was all about coming out.

As it happened during our parents’ and grandparents’ generations, all the popular social clubs offered the possibility to dance to the greatest orchestras of that time. The announcements filled full pages in the newspapers. Posters, fliers and hand bills were all over the city walls and sidewalks. In retrospect, the choices were overwhelming. Anibal Troilo in Avellaneda at the Racing Club. Osvaldo Pugliese in Atlanta at Villa Crespo. Juan D’Arienzo at Club Atletico Boca Juniors. Carlos Di Sarli at Velez Sarfield. Francisco Canaro at the Luna Park.

Carnaval was a time for venturing out and it was the greatest time to be young and bold at the end of summer in Buenos Aires. Carnaval was a time when eyes made the first contact from behind a mask, encouraging the shy to be daring, reassuring the undecided to take a chance to openly express the feeling of attraction.

That New Orleans, the Crescent City, is part of the United States baffles a visitor’s mind. Long after the city was acquired as part of the Louisiana Purchase, traces of nobility, aristocracy and the diversity of races, languages and cultural traits seem to preserve the rituals of celebration of the greatest free show on earth. They call it Mardi Gras, but it is carnaval minus tango. So we take a break from the ritual of the embrace and embrace the ritual of parades.

The Krewe de Vieux rolls through the French Quarter

More photos and videos HERE

The PURPLE Ball at the Bywater

2001 Mardi Gras Tango Odd-Essay

The year was 1718, the occasion a one way cruise; the skipper was Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur de Iberville, his mate, brother Jean-Baptiste, Sieur of Bienville. The passengers included French and Canadian immigrants; whores, beggars, Indian slaves, thieves and cutthroats on leave from Parisian jails. The destination, a below sea level collection of swamps in a miserable steamy, sticky and suffocating heated bend of the Mississippi river. Starvation and deadly disease were a threat. Bienville pulled into the quay on May 7, unloaded the passengers, threw their belongings overboard and proclaimed: Welcome to the Crescent City, enjoy the Mardi Gras!

Mr. Nick of the Bywater Tango club recruiting on Royal St.

A couple of hundred years later, after being ruled by the French, the Spaniards, and finally purchased by the United States, the state of Louisiana has earned a reputation that some call European and others Third World. In particular, the city of New Orleans is recognized as the birthplace of jazz, its culinary variety and Mardi Gras.

It is said that the celebration of carnaval was imported from France as a ritual that begins on the twelfth day after Christmas and ends at midnight the day before Ash Wednesday. These dates are very familiar to Catholics although there is very little religious about Mardi Gras.

Joe Canoura and his revelers

Some say that the Church gave up trying to fight the decadent pagan tonesof the celebrations by its faithful, and looked the other way while people went out indulging in food, drinks and other carnal excesses, so their bodies would be strong enough to endure the Lenten period of fasting and abstinence.

This is a city where the smell of crawfish boil turns more people on than Chanel #5, and where waitresses at the local sandwich shop tell customers that a “dressed” fried oyster po-boy is healthier than a Caesar salad. The major topics of conversation when you go out to eat are: restaurant meals you have had in the past, and restaurant meals you plan to have in the future. People don’t learn until high school that Mardi Gras is not a national holiday.

For visitors, New Orleans is Bourbon Street, and Mardi Gras a time for housewives and coeds to expose their breasts in exchange for plastic beads. It is actually the outsiders, who for fourteen days, fill the city coffers with a cool billion dollars, litter the streets with a tonnage of garbage and convert Bourbon Street into the greatest loitering place in America. Major Mardi Gras parades have long abandoned the French Quarter because the growing size of the floats and crowds began to pose a major fire hazard. However three walking parades “roll” through the streets of the Vieux Carre, and neighboring Fauburg Marigny and the Bywater.

Members of the “Follows who Lead” Society

The Krewe de Vieux and the Krewe of St. Ann are for humans. The Krewe of Barkus is for all the dogs of the city (the four legged variety) and parades exclusively in the French Quarter.

The super krewes and the big parades now roll through the streets of surrounding neighborhoods, continuing a tradition that began just before the Civil War, when a secret aristocratic society of well bred white supremacist founded the Mistick Krewe of Comus for the purpose of saving the spirit of Mardi Gras, which they felt had been condemned to extinction by the idle and feckless Creole of colonial and Catholic heritage.

The old line formula has not changed a lot: a host of black men lead the parade with propane gas tanks on their backs waving flambeaux; high school marching bands; masked horseback riders and police squad cars march in between tractor pulled floats overflowing with lights. They sport giant theme figures, from mythology to Star Trek, to political satire. They are manned by masked riders wearing elaborate customs and donning titles such as kings, queens, captains, pages, marshals and throwers.

Miss Valorie, Miss Cheryl and Miss Sabina miss-behaving

For a first time participant, as a parade slowly rolls through streets lined with enraptured spectators, who seem capable of pushing little old ladies out of the way to catch Mardi Gras throws, one wonders if some will leave the parade with footprints on their hands. In reality, one quickly learns how to avoid catching beads with the nose, how to befriend fellow catchers, and how to go home with the booty of trinkets caught from the floats hanging around the neck.

Heels on wheels

Although the plastic beads from Taiwan, which have long replaced the original glass beads from Czechoslovakia, have no other value than that charged at the French Market or other stores along Royal and Bourbon Streets, the whole unjustifiable idea is to run beside the floats, waving hands, jumping up and down, yelling throw me something, mistah, and catching the colored beads before they hit the ground.

On Bourbon Street, after midnight and a couple of cocktails with names like hand grenades, hurricanes and goodies, young All American coeds bare their breasts in exchange for fake jewelry to the chants of go, go, go descending from the festooned balconies of the Vieux Carre. The lenses of video cameras propped high above heads and shoulders catch a glimpse of flesh.

During the ensuing months, late after midnight in the heartland of America, infomercials will peddle Mardi Gras’ Housewives and Coeds Gone Wild videos on TV with an assortment of revelers exposing their breasts. They will most certainly be followed by lunatic preachers who will inspire other freaks to come on down to New Orleans and second line their way into the parades waving flags with slogans that read Satan Rules and Jesus Judges.

Miss V sampling the Creole fare

Anticipating a dry season for tango dancing while everybody else was having fun, a meeting was called at a secret location somewhere in the Warehouse District on Tchoupitoulas St. for a purpose soon evident by the release of the following proclamation:

 

WHEREAS, Mardi Gras has cast its fun over our passionate tango nights and care usurped the place where a milonga is wont to hold its way. Now, therefore, do I deeply sympathizing with the general anxiety, deem it proper to join the Annual Festival in this goodly Crescent City and by this proclamation do command assemblage of the Krewe of the Mistickal Nights of the Tango. Given under my hand this, the 1st day of February, A.D. 2001. TANGUS.

Tangus, lord of franela and firuletes

Further, breaking all old line rules, the Krewe would not require a membership fee, would welcome people regardless of dancing style, gender, race or sexual preference, adopting the motto: Pro bono tango, be nice or leave.

The “We-Can-Tango-to-Anything Krewe

And so it happened that the Krewe of the Mistickal Nights of the Tango was seen second lining at the Krewe de Vieux parade through the French Quarter on their way to the Planet Tango’s Mardi Gras Milonga at Pierre Maspero’s Restaurant. Further, masked and unmasked members of the Krewe continued their carnival celebration through the streets of New Orleans, some having been spotted at the Krewe of Barkus parade holding the leash of at least two of the eighteen hundred canines that joined that parade.

Parading on Royal St.

Two well known tangueros who own a self-described former flop house and bordello provided a first rate balcony party during one of the major parades. Petite tangueras with Ph.D. degrees were seen in the street shamelessly screaming
we need more beads! Soon they became unrecognizable under the weight of the tonnage of worthless and hard won baubles.

Six weeks of king cakes, Purple, Bunch and countless other balls, lots of street dancing, masking and bead collecting, finally came to an end at midnight on Fat Tuesday, as State trooper cruisers begun to clear Bourbon Street followed by the Krewe of the Sanitation Department.

Everybody has gone into fasting and abstinence to shed the extra pounds of king cake from their waistlines. There are only 50 weeks until Mardi Gras 2002 and the next meeting of the Krewe of the Mistickal Nights of the Tango.

Tangus with an attitude

Brett greets Miss Cheryl

He leads, he follows,

Hitching a ride

GLOSSARY

Second line: An informal parade performing impromptu dances that follows the brass bands and floats.
Crawfish: One of the year’s four seasons. The rest are, Shrimp, Crab and King Cake.
Tchopitulas: A word New Orleanians can pronounce, but can’t spell.
Po-boy: A sandwich judged by the number of napkins used.

These are the images of the 2001 Mardi Gras Milonga at Pierre Maspero’s in New Orleans
Courtesy of Gary and Phyllis Breaux

After having crashed the Krewe de Vieux parade with our own Krewe of the Mistickal Nights of the Tango, we diverted our march to the original Pierre Maspero’s restaurant on the corner of Chartres and St. Louis. Being new to the city we went ahead with our plans to meet at Cafe Brasil in the Marigny, and joined the wacky Krewe de Vieux parade as the revelers began to make their way to the French Quarter. Later we found out that there is some sort of pecking order and even secret handshakes that discriminate participation from those who are recently arrived, come from Yankee territory and on top of that are fun and great hosts. The rumor is that one Kathy from Canal Street almost had the vapors when we inadvertently inquired about adding the Krewe of the Mistickal Nights of the Tango to the roster of the politically incorrect parade. Sorry K, get over it.

Left to right, there is Phyllis, Valorie, Gary, Eva and Eddie. Next is Warren and Phyllis showing off.

Julio with Barbara and the back of Edwin. Warren and Phyllis showing off again. Alberto with Phyllis

Eddie, Phyllis and Aaron. Eddie with Eva, and Ed and Barbara

Natalia and Eva. Natalia, Mary Ann and Phyllis. Warren and unidentified female

Eddie with Mary Ann. Alberto with Mary Ann. Gary and Phyllis

Julio with Valorie. Warren and Mary Ann. Julio and Alberto

Mary Ann, Phyllis and Warren. Eva and Edwin

Eddie and friend. Phyllis, Aaron and friend. Eva and Valorie

Joe and Sabina. Morgan

Phyllis and Gary. Aaron and Bruce. Eva and Gary

Sean, Eva, Julio, Phyllis and Gary. Alberto with Natalia. Ed and Barbara, Warren in the back

Alberto and Valorie. Ed and Barbara. Sean testing how far her back can bend without cracking

It was a great party with plenty of tango dancing and a warm feeling of camaraderie. It looks like this is going to be a nurturing, kind and gentle community to grow the city into a great tango destination.