mardi gras 2007

more pictures here.

mardi gras 2007 unfurled itself upon new orleans, a tapestry of creativity, revelry and jest, with near perfect unpredictability. i find it a wonderful celebration not only because it's the best free and serindipidous party i've experienced but because the panoply of emotions i feel in a single intense long day awakens me to the richness within as much as without. and, it's not all gravy. i seem to have crises between the moments of ecstasy, at least a few times a day, and i see it happening all around me, reminding me that the human condition is an ephemeral concoction of ups and downs. beside a person smiling from ear to ear is another weeping. it's a radical self-check-in and the pageant can just as easily bring about introversion as it can extroversion. walking the streets mardi gras day in new orleans can be as in the moment as the most care-free of experiences or as challenging and reflective as psychotherapy. at times, i've imagined i'm walking through my consciousness as much as i am parading the french quarter, the panorama (at least from my perspective) of costumes triggering experiences and memories (as well as the literal present) in a soup as thick as gumbo and spicy as cajun seasoning. if you're at all competative, as i can be, marching with the krewe of saint anne will test your ego. the quality and creativity of costuming is mind boggling. it occurs to me every year that if the planet could orient itself to the energy and positivity of mardi gras the planet would be a much more self-aware and happier place.

dress up and be silly

one of the joys of carnival for me is making costumes out of cheap stuff and going to fancy parties in them. for a party we went to last night i made a dress out of paper plates with plastic cutlery fringe, a top out of napkins and a headpiece out of a water jug covered in paper cups, napkins, plastic cutlery and a few strings of beads, all either black or white. someone at the party asked me if i was truman capote's last picnic. two nights before we performed in and attended the krewe of muses ball where the shoe performers wore headpieces with large upside down shoes that gabriel designed.

parade

our parade with muses on thursday went well. the shoes performed flawlessly and even handled the high winds that we encountered in the skyscraper district of new orleans. the butterflies had to cut out early because the wind was literally blowing them over. we've never encountered such strong winds in our seven years of parading with orpheus and muses. earlier in the week, we trained performers in the bywater neighborhood along the mississippi river and photographed the shoes along the seawall. after the parade, the shoes were placed in the front window of the new orleans contemporary art center where they looked splendid. the krewe of muses, the organization that runs the parade we're in, throws a great party afterwards that we got to attend. dr. john played several sets of great blues. we danced for hours.

quiet in new orleans

it seems quieter than usual here in new orleans. last year, post katrina, there was a sense that carnival had to happen, that if it didn't new orleans would be giving in, giving up. this year, that urgency seems to have succumbed to the reality of a slower than expected recovery and the now permanent removal of a large percentage of the population to new cities, new jobs, new lives. but, those who have decided to stick out here are making a big difference. there are small signs of recovery everywhere and while i hear lots of complaining it is happening pretty much the way i would have expected it to happen here. new orleans is famous for it's own special style, it's own special sense of time and the pace and pattern of rebuilding seems to be no exception. most obviously, the ubiquitous crosses spray painted on practically every building that marked when the building had been searched for survivors and dead have been painted over with fresh, sometimes brighter colors. the high water mark that, like a giant conceptual art project, sliced through the entire city is visible only occasionally. there is a patter of hammers, the hiss of nail guns, and piles of remodeling debris, demonstrating a commitment to new orleans' future. the city government, on the other hand, is struggling. while private homes and businesses are being revived, things a simple as traffic lights simply don't work. the famous st. charles streetcar line is inoperable. just weeks ago, the city hired a private firm to clean the french quarter (in the nick of time for carnival) because the city couldn't handle it and now federal agents are at work tackling crime. it might be time for the city to press the reboot button. as ususal, however, none of this seems to deter revelry, which though it seems a bit less intense this year, is nonethless spirited and unstoppable.

another fifteen minutes

we arrived in new orleans to find that gabriel and i have been graced with another fifteen minutes (square inches) of fame. we're featured in new orleans magazine in our bathtub costume from 2005, the mardi gras before new orleans itself became a bathtub. this costume also made onto the reuters network and we appeared, as far as we know, in the san francisco chronicle and and in some arizona papers. i like being recognized for frivolity.

the other day, while in a yoga class, i wondered if designing buildings couldn't be as joyful as designing costumes.

nawlins

i'm in new orleans for a couple weeks. it's mercifully warm here, not to natives, but to a northerner its summer--balmy, sweaty, deliciously humid. mike, tim and i drove down in my car in one shot--24 hours straight with a break at waffle house in alabama. i brought a new toy with me, a nikon digital single lens reflex camera with a wide angle 12-24mm lens. it was an impulse purchase after i saw some photographs taken with one. i'm getting used to its complexity and bulk. i still love my little canon elph. it takes movies for one thing and the nikon doesn't. it's also about 1/8 the weight and bulk. the nikon takes beautiful images, and i love the super wide angle for shooting architecture. we're staying in a beautiful apartment on frenchman street, just a block from the french quarter. it's enormous--about 3,500 square feet--with a restaurant grade kitchen. we have a four burner professional stove, a grill and a pizza oven. it's on the top floor at the top of a very long run of stairs (pictured). it was nice to get down here in one day. i had stayed up nearly all night before leaving so i was up pretty much for two days. after arriving about noon, we went to barkus, an dog parade that we viewed in jackson square. afterwards, we ate middle eastern food at a cafe around the corner from our place and then i crashed for fourteen hours.

njork

i'm heading down to new york for the weekend to see friends, work on the faerie camp designs and do a little recording for faerie home companion, a faerie podcast. gabriel is off to new orleans, probably somewhere in virginia right now, where he's hopefully going to meet up with friends rebekah and michael who are also on the road.