In New Orleans, after the carnival revelers have been ashed, the scene keeps on, but under wraps. I was once offered a top-secret position painting Mardi Gras floats for the next season. The warehouse workshops for these floats are all over the place in NOLA, hidden from view. Everyone knows this, but forgets, really as the year floats by. Well I found one, thanks to the winds of Katrina, and you'll have to figure out where it is yourself, though there are many visual clues.
The Mardi Gras will go on, and I cannot wait for my favorites: Muses (an all women's parade -on THURSDAY this year, not Wednesday), Endymion and St. Ann' s rag tag parade made up of revelers that is timed to clash with Rex (if you are costumed, you're in). I live one block from St. Charles, the main parade route and when I hear the marching bands a-blarin' I dash out the door just for them, because more than anything, I love the bands with the dancing girls with shiny, glittery, clickity-clackity boots.
Mr. Hardy has put out his Mardi Gras book, a great sign of post-Katrina normalcy, and this is the 150th anniversary carnival so it will be a good time to pick it up. This is not a promotion on purpose, I just want to get it in my hands to feel proof of it all, that it's really going to happen, that I can thumb through the schedule....
and then, of course, the Mardi Gras Indians!
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