Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Twenty-Five Years Wasted...

Not me! I promise!

That was the theme of this year's Krewe du Vieux, for its 25th anniversary. It was a crazy time, lots of dancing and drinking and throws and friends. It was fun marching through the streets, right next to the crowds instead on up on a float, away from everything.
Here's our float all finished, but without the lights on. The little musicians are paper lanterns with sparkly tails: voilà, the Spermé Brass Band! (As opposed to the Treme Brass Band, who arrived late and drunk to play at my friends' wedding. C'est la vie!) I'll try to find another pic of it at night to post. I burned the crap out of myself putting the feathers on that Mardi Gras Indian!
Here's the first float with the KdV logo, and since you can see the next float in the background, I thought I show that one in all it's oily glory. As you can see, the floats are always pretty topical.

 The best parts of the floats are often the little details you don't see at first, like the signs on this one:

 And to finish things off, here's a picture someone took of my husband and me in the parade at mardigrasparadeschedule.com. Pics of the entire parade are here.


I'm the blue thing in the middle ground. ;) My outfit is made mostly of a blue tarp, which was a pretty common costume for the Halloween and Mardi Gras after Katrina, which is when the first season of Treme is set. It's Tremeja-vu all over again! My husband is supposed to be a sperm, but you can't see the big annoying tail he's got in this picture. You also can't tell from this picture, but I was dancing, and second lining like a maniac for most of the parade. This is near the end, since I'm almost out of beads, and my husband is covered in beer. Good times! I can't wait until next year!

Of course, next year, I'm going to take the next Monday off, because I needed an extra day to recuperate before going back to work. I wasn't the least bit sick, just sore from too much dancing. Seriously, I had a limp!

Don't forget about my contest, to win a little Mardi Gras Madness of your own! Hope you feel like funking it up!

17 comments:

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Whoop! I wanna see your costume up close, please...That looks like so much fun, just dancin' the night away.

JEM said...

I want a jeweled cup to hang around my neck. I don't even know what I would do with it, but I want it.

Tere Kirkland said...

LOL, I know it's silly, but I never got any good pics of myself! We were so busy running around trying to get the beer set up on the back of the float, I never had a chance to get someone to take a picture of me fully costumed.

And as soon as the parade was over, I had to ditch the wig and mask, and was a sweaty mess!

What a fun time, though. I certainly got my exercise!

Tere Kirkland said...

JEM, that cup necklace is a godsend! Except that it works better when you're not running around chasing parade-goers with your sperm tail. :)

I suppose you can buy them (people do buy beads. Not me, but some people), but I caught it at Shangri-La years ago. Of course, hubby asked if he could have it, and I can't resist his charms. ;)

Janet Johnson said...

Looks like you had a great time! And I love the blue costume. I only wish I could see the dance. :)

And I love the signs on the float. Hilarious!

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Love the pictures!! Thanks so much for sharing them. Someday, I will be at Mardis Gras. It's a dream! :-)

Krispy said...

Yay pictures! Sad there aren't close-ups of you in costume because it looks spectacular. :) I'd def like to party with you.

Glad Monday wasn't too bad - other than general exhaustion, but at least you had lots of fun!

Abby Annis said...

Too bad you didn't get pics of your costume, I would've loved to see them. Glad you had fun! :)

Jade said...

Man, it looks awesome! Super jealous.

Melissa said...

These pictures look absolutely fabulous!!!! I'm a little envious I didn't get to experience this first hand.

Elana Johnson said...

This was an awesome post! And I want to see the costume close up too!

And hey, I'm coming to ALA in June, and we should so meet up!

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

cool pictures. Crazy cool floats. I too want to see the costume closeup.

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

It looks like you guys had an awesome time. :) Your float is super!

Candice said...

I know so little about Mardi Gras. Thanks for sharing your experience!

Golden Eagle said...

I love all the pictures! Thanks so much for posting about this. It was fun to read. :)

Tatum Flynn said...

Oh that looks like SO MUCH fun, I have to revisit New Orleans one of these days :)

Lola Sharp said...

I'm so up for debauchery and insanity...and beyond green with envy of your participation and locale.

Thanks for sharing the pictures. :)