For those that weren't in New Orleans this weekend, consider yourselves both
cursed and blessed. I've seen a lot of stuff in a lot of places, but this took
the King Cake. At 4:30 Sunday afternoon, the French Quarter streets were jammed
even the side streets that rarely get the kind of crowds the "main" streets like
Bourbon get. At 6 pm, the streets were all but empty (at least those we could
see, including Bourbon), but nearly everywhere, from bars and restaurants to
private residences were packed with people. But literally the minute the game
ended, the streets became packed with people yelling, screaming, high-fiving,
hugging, kissing, dancing (and probably a few...changing...each other...and
themselves...). One of the things that caught my attention was, for as much as
outsiders talk about racism and other prejudices in the South, I saw none of it
on this wild Sunday night and Monday morning - black bangers were hugging white
drag queens, old white guys in blazers were high-fiving black gangsta girls,
gothkids were dancing with fratrats.

In fact, we only saw (unfortunately, up close and personal) one incident (which
was either immediately before or after the shooting on/near Bourbon - we never
found out which). For those that have experienced Carnival/Mardi Gras in the
FQ, this was bigger, longer, and uncutter. For those that have not, the
pictures and videos don't do it justice. I've not yet heard "official" numbers,
but I've heard estimates of 250,000 people _in the FQ_. Considering that a good
guess would be that something like 75% of however many people were there would
have been in an area approximately 6 blocks long and 5 blocks wide, it was
amazing that the whole thing had, well, just a really good vibe about it - none
of the nervous drunken tension as sometimes occurs during Carnival, none of the
testosterone-and-booze-fueled **** of the Bayou Classic, just a whole flockin'
bunch of folks going absolutely bat**** happy-crazy wild in the streets (and
"wild" in a good way). We had friends who said that going was bucket-list type
stuff, and they meant being in the Quarter while the Saints were in the Super
Bowl. But for us, what was really "bucket-list" was seeing THAT many folks, of
Lord-know-how-many various persuasions, all just going wild together. "Chocolate
city," "white shadow government," "paper bag tests," my ass - it was, IMO, the
true core NO - a whole bunch of wildly differing folks all passing one hell of a
good time together. And one hell of a good time it was.

TC,
R

For most of y'all, who don't really follow or care about NO politics, this same
week, NO elected as its new mayor Mitch Landrieu, the brother of Mary Landrieu,
of "Louisiana Purchase" fame/disgrace, over insinuations by Ray "Willy Wonka"
Nagen that black folks should only vote for a black candidate...frankly, given
the choice, I'm kinda sorry they didn't listen...IAC, hopefully, he will be a
better official than his idiot sister, but his time at Lt. Governor and state
legislator makes it clear it could go either way...