2/13: Iris, Tucks, Endymion

Iris

I watch the paradecam.

The only thing I can bother writing down is that David Torkanowsky
was on the lasts float. I took notes on all the rest but at this
point it doesn't seem worth it to write it all down here. Maybe later.

Tucks

The dragons of New Orleans. I've seen them in other parades at night.
Nice to see them in the day time. (See this for last year's
appearance.) The Muff-A-Lottas appear again, Clap Hands as their music. And they
throw REAL muffaletta sandwiches! (mini, wrapped in plastic)

Endymion

The WDSU parade tracker isn't working so I don't know when it will
appear. Have to use the DSU cam as it isn't going near Napolean and
St Charles. The DSU cam is set up to look down St Charles towards
Canal from it's spot opposite One Shell Square and is unhosted. It does zoom in here and there so that's good.

The parade doesn't come on camera until about 8 pm NY time, about 4
hours after it was supposed to start.

We see Tom Benson happily swinging his trophy back and forth. We see
Bree, happy. We see several Mardi Gras Indian-style outfits on
various people on the floats. Not sure who they are but they are
royalty.

... I'm getting bored. One nice thing is I see some ballet moves by
some of the dancers. Another, some guy next to the camera is yelling
out things like, "something for the little one", for a young child
near him. Beautiful floats.

Towards the end, and after along wait with the parade stalled, the
camera gets darker and it doesn't get fixed.

The parade ends about 11 pm NY time. Tomorrow could be boring too. Bacchus is always worth waiting for though.

I was thinking during the long pause that here are all these people, screaming to get what the riders will throw. Even with the parade stopped, they yell, anxious to get as much as they can. Don't they get tired of it? How much do they need? Some of the riders stopped throwing things but the crowd kept yelling for more. I would think after a certain point, you'd have enough. But no. As long as people are willing to give you something for free, there will be people who want it, think they need it and will keep yelling for more even after they have plenty.

2/12: Hermes, Etat, Morpheus and Muses

I'm only gonna list the highlights cuz there are too many.

I tried to watch DSU but it didn't come on til 9:17 NY time and only
had a stationary camera up by Poydras and St Charles with no hosts.
OK. I'll check that later.

So, watching the paradecam. Hosts are Kate and James though he
doesn't get introduced as far as I can tell. We also hear Jerrica at
one point.

7:10 NY time: The audio gets really loud and distorted. It gets fixed by 7:30.

Some nice floats, skipping most of them: a very cool purple serpent
(#17), nice Phoenix (#20),

SB Wright - nice stepping

Krewe d'Etat

Skeletons!

Kate talks about friend from Brookyn, NJ...Um, it's Brooklyn, NY.

Dante's Inferno - Not so divine comdey is the theme.

#4 - Gates of Hell - City Hell, take a number - 666,

#6 Greed. They lambast Tom Benson! No one is spared!

#7 - Chris Owens. Host reads the blurb: "They could have put the
shocking Tara Reid on but they wanted to keep it family friendly."

#8 Falsifier of words - Bernie Madoff! (Pharoh Madoff...)

#9 Root of Evil - ACORN. ... "corrupt organization run by nitwits"
Boo. Nice float though.

The Dancing Dilebertos! Men in red dresses. Good dance routine!

#10 Tiger Woods - "Should have stuck to one hole in one."
"Appropriately named Beaver Creek."

#11 Lust - Sen Vitter, Sen Edwards...

#12 A thing worn out - Viagra and Cialis.

#13 on Obama but I can't read my notes, something about power.

#15 Dogs of Hell, Cerberus - guards City Hall so that an honest
person can't get i! Mitch Landrieu and Eddie (not so ready) Sapir
listed.

#17 Magical Illusion. Chris Rose's column criticizing Mayor Nagin's
never-delivered promises.

Cool music of the Bones Brigade.

#20 Last Rites - "This internet crap is killing us." The TP and
others are listed.

A fire engine toots out Who Dat!/Stand up and get crunked

Morpheus

Not much to remember

Fantasy Girls

Do What You Wanna done by band

Muses
What a great parade! Creative, sexy, fun.

Big Easy Rollergirls

shoes on poles with nice neon lights!

neon butterflies!

O Perry Walker HS marching band - stepping in place, nice dancing,
band looks and sounds good

#5 Give a thoughtful gift - vacuum cleaner on the front!

Kate wonders why Denver is the Mile High City...

Elvi on mopeds. Fantastic! (Rolling Elvi?)

The Pussyfooters!

#12 SIze does matter - Diamond! "I can't churn butter with a
toothpick" written on the side, lol.

#13 We need to talk - blah blah blah written on the side.

Lady godivas! with thongs drawn on (or worn over) body suits. Some
had aureoles drawn on...

#15 Lay your cards on the table - The loser (Tarot) and the player, the bore...

Bearded Oysters! in white and parasols

Cameltoe Steppers! Good!

#20 Rise to the ocassion - Viagra pills

#21 Don't expect us to share everything - A huge male sex doll!

The 610 Stompers! Men doing the Stripes dance routine.

The Muff-A-Lottas! Good dancers with poodles skirts!

#25 How do I love thee? Let me count the parades. Then the parade ends.

The DSU cam is showing the Hermes parade still so I keep watching it.

2/10, Druids

For some reason, the WDSU feed never materialized. I wonder why.

I watched it on the paradecam. The parade started at 8:03 NY time, an hour and a half past the scheduled time. The audio was distorting pretty badly but got fixed about 10 minutes into it, leaving a level that was low but clean, with some hum.

Two women (girls) hosted. One might have been called Jerrica? The other, a laconic graduate of LSU (could be the same Lauren who hosted last year but her voice was a little different and that Lauren was married and while this one was lusting after the men in uniform it doesn't necessarily mean she wasn't married...)

I'm not going to list everyone but just the highlights.

O Perry Walker - looked good in white uniforms, nice stepping, good dancers behind in gold and blue, good flags, dancers in red

Lauren matter-of-factly in her usual deadpan voice - "One of the horses just went to the bathroom."

Riverside Ramblers sounded good, playing trad jazz

Edna Karr - nice pom poms

The Muffalattas - a good dance troupe looking good in their poodle skirts. The music was Sea Cruise by Frankie Ford and then They Asked For You by The Meters. Well alright.

The theme was holes? And wizards. Had a man hole, watering hole float... bung hole!

Other girl , to the Coast Guard float: "Throw me something... please?"

Donut hole

Walter L Cohen HS - nice flags, batons, band! Nice white outfits behind.

One of them got a boob throw which she showed off to the camera. Nice. A single boob.

As usual, one of the throws hits one of the hosts and we hear it on mic.

#11 - Fire in the hole

#12 19th Hole, had Tiger Brew bottle on top. One of the girls: "Never ask a rider what he wants." A woman yells back, "I'm 80, I have nothing." After they throw her something she throws kisses back at them. She then yells, "I'm a bead ho, I'm a bead hoe. I love everybody in New Orleans." A true Mardi Gras moment.

One of the hosts gets a flashee thingee, which I think she breaks within about 30 seconds.

One gets a New Orleans Water Company water meter doubloon (with the famous crescent moon on it). Very nice.


One of the hosts gives a shout out to the men in uniform, the cops, and one turns and waves to the camera shyly and moves out of camera sight.

8:46 NY time the parade moves again. It had been stalled for awhile.

Dancers in red sequins.

LE Behrman HS? - smiling girls in blue, band looks good, sounds good, nice blue outfits after and white ones too for the twirler flag team.

Knot hole, shout out to Bob. (I think Bob was on the non-paradecam side...)

Roll a (something) dance group with boas.

Key hole, with a woman in the large keyhole up front.

Blow hole with a whale.

About 5 to 9 the parade ends. No sign of the DSU feed still.

2/9, Saints parade on WDSU

Norman Robinson, anchor for WDSU, continues to amaze me with his nonsense.

Norman: "Family, friends of staff..." hunh?

Randi Rousseau - obnoxious.

Norman: "Look at that traffic." They show ONE LANE of bumper to bumper on the Crescent City Connection. Big deal.

"10 units. Bands." Thanks, Norman.

"They are our team. They are our champions. This is our home." Margarite Orr.

"No matter what station." Station of life or tv station?

Norman: "That's an air effect." No, it's steam from an old fire engine (pulled by horses)... WTF is an air effect?

Whoopee. A picture of the helicopter in the air.

Margeret: "This is bigger than Fat Tuesday." Arthur: "They just are."

Norman: "I've never seen so many units in a parade where people are so excited." Only in New Orleans.

Norman: "Somebody's blowing bubbles out of one of the units."

Norman: "We should be seeing our first musical unit very very soon."

Some bishops pass by!

Crowd is dangerously close to the float with the players on it.

Cool shot of all the blue cop motorcycle lights.

Nagin: "I don't want to hear anybody in the house to be laid back tonight..."

Norman: "Uh oh, there's the St Augustine marching band." (Playing Beat It) Uh oh?

(Goddam stream restarts itself...)

Norman: "We owe him a great debt of gratitude." Or a great debt.

Good to see the crowd further back from the float.

Norman: "This is something just tremendous to watch. Oh my gosh."... "This is a first for everything." Un hunh.

Up Howard Ave is towards St Charles? I would think they would be going down Howard Ave.

Irvin Mayfield flubbed the National Anthem.

Marine band plays Get Crunked!

Norman: "Nothing like being a part of a winning organization." (comment removed)

Norman: "Now that is a money shot, baby." Un hunh.

Norman: "Firefighters making their way down St Charles Street." I believe it is an Avenue, Norman...

Norman: "Wow, look at those Saints on that float." (comment removed)

St Augustine, sounding good!

Cute Dalmatian!

Norman; "One of our former co-workers text me." Texted, no?

Norman: "He can do the Benson boogie all night long." Good one.

Football players in the Muses shoe!

Chris: "He's usually not in high heels." Norman: "Well, you know, it is a New Orleans team." OK. lol

Not that many people at Poydras (on the north/lake side of the street)... Have seen plenty more during Mardi Gras.

Nice aerial shot of McDonogh #35 dancers.

Shut up so we can hear them talk to the players.

Sen. Vitter. Should be booed.

Nice dancing from Warren Easton!

Nice alligator float!

Big crowd on Canal!

Fun to watch the defensive players dance.

Norman, talking about an aerial shot: "They look like ants." Brilliant insight.

Norman: "What a tremendous turnout for this team, this organization."

Yes, good camerawork on Sky 6. Beautiful long shot zoom in to players on the float.

DSU takes a break and shows an empty studio, then the Lee Circle cam.

The float, Smokey Mary, looks great with all the flags.

Good dancers in front of that float. Who are they?

Norman: "This is destiny. This is Canal Street." (comment removed)

Norman describes that we are looking at two shots that are LABELLED on the screen. Duh.

Norman: "You wanna remember that forever, these pictures."

Margaret: "This is the most exciting moment in these people's lives." Hmm.

Norman: "That shot says it all." He's said that how many times so far tonight?

Norman: "Party until about 3 a.m. in the morning." Yes, 3 a.m. is in the morning.

Norman: Look at all the black and gold umbrellas." All two of them.

Norman: "It's still early in the New Orleans time period." (comment removed)

Female fan in the crowd: "The wind is blowing and the bush is burning."

Blaine Kern speaks to the enthusiasm of the crowd. His girlfriend?

A marching band passes by. Norman: "It's a big unit, Arthur."

10:10 NY time. Stream restarts itself.

Arthur: Good Blaine Kern in China story.

Norman describes what we are seeing on the screen when again, the screen has the two cams LABELLED. (comment removed)

DSU woman Melanie: "The parade is coming to a culmination here." Un hunh.

Getting audio ahead of video.

Idiot newscaster Fletcher: "Final question here, I know I'm saying final question alot but we're live." (comment removed)

Football player Jeff Charleston: Like... like... like...

DSU woman Melanie: "The floats are surely, slowy but surely coming in."

Why do people on mic have to say "again" when they haven't said what they are talking about before?

Fletcher Mackel: "Here come people like Roman Harper and such." And such? More verbal diahrhea.

Damn, the stream restarts a tired player talks about spending "$1200 on all the dbs." What's a db?

Now stream tells me it is an invalid URL. I reboot and it's ok.

10:48 pm NY time and it's still going on!

Getting white noise on feed with Chris and Arthur.

It's good that when they go on break, they give us the Lee Circle cam feed.

Arthur is tired: "He consulted some good." Arthur, at least, has a brain and makes sense when he talks.

Fletcher: "Again..." Please...

11 pm, they wrap it up.

One other thing. Usually these newscasters ID each other too much, before and after each spot. For some reason, maybe they were carried away by the swell of excitement, they didn't ID people enough! I don't think I heard more than one or two and I watched 6 hours worth! I knew it was Arthur Hardy but did other non-New Orleans viewers? And who was Chris? Fletcher Mackel was ID'd. Maybe Randi. Why wouldn't they ID themselves? Very odd.

2/7, Carrollton and King Arthur

Mardi Gras!

I'll be watching the parades on WDSU and the paradecam on nola.com, listening to WWOZ when they do remotes.

I tune in to the paradecam today at about 11:30 NY time. The hosts, two men, are intelligent for a change. The parade starts on time but then there is a gap. The paradecam stream looks good full screen but is a little jerky. Audio is good. It's a nice sunny day though it looks a little cold as people are wrapped up.

One host is on mic, the other, not. (Suggestion: when the other person speaks, point the mic in their direction...) I'm getting a lot of hum too and have figured out that it is coming from the paradecam, not me.

I'll try to review/write down as much as I can but I will also miss some of it.

***

Carrolton

First band, Jesuit HS, plays Louie Louie.

St Mary's Academy - Rock & Roll pt 2? (Gary Glitter) We can hear their feet hopping on the street!

Hear some beads hit the mic!

Mt Carmel Carmelites - boring

McDonough #35 - good tune! They stop in front of the cam!

I notice from far away that the old K&B at the corner of Napolean and St Charles now looks like a house. Is it? It doesn't look much like a business anymore.

We lose the audio but it comes back. I think the host is turning the mic off, probably to save batteries.

McDonogh #35 still - nice moves as they stand in place.

The host says "there's nothing as mysterious as a paused parade." Interesting. 'A man with a tux is scowling.' Always a bad sign. True. The other anchor is intelligent too! The guy on mic sounds like me! He promotes Fat Harry's; he's probably been told to since they host the cam.

Brother Martin Crusader band - look good, sound good (play Mardi Gras in New Orleans by Professor Longhair)

float #6 - Carnival in Rio. The hosts are enjoying themselves.

Abita Springs Riding Club - beautiful horses.

St Paul's - love those outfits.

Lafayette Academy - nice dancing. Host, "Looking so adorable it almost makes my teeth hurt."

float #10 -Not Occident, The Orient. 'Big (can't read my writing) lizard dragon'

East St John Marching Wildcats, Reserve, LA - nice drum section.

Streetcar full of ladies playing xylophones! Xylophone Corp of McGhee (sp?)

Bavarian Beer garden float head!

The cameraman is getting the hang of it now and is panning up so we can see who's on the floats.

Warren Easton Sr HS marching band - Stand Up, Get Crunked, nice long shot of band. Looking good as they pass by & sounding good too (just drumming).

#16 Fishing the Rig - 'foundation of our Gulf coast economy' What the fishing or the oil?

A Mickey Mouse float is next and is described as "a large non-trademarked rodent." lol Yes it is distinct from Mickey and more rat-like.

I see a dog not on a leash cross the street. Hope it is being taken care of.

A Scot says hi to his family back home.

Cute little dancers dance what looks like a Scottish jig!

Martin Behr (?) charter school - short and "adorable" do a nice dance. good baton dancers, good looking band in green and white, good cheerleaders.

float #20 Paris

Superstar Steppers - nice dancing, nice flags at the end.

float #12 ends the parade.

I watch kids gather up what's left on the street. The cam looks down St Charles and we see more kids. A cop look sharp in his white shirt with black tie and black pants.

***

King Arthur

first float - Dawn Brown, Fox 5 meteorologist. Pretty blond.

Captain of King Arthur has nice plumage, nice float.

St Augustine marching band. (My cat throws up so I miss seeing them.)

George Washington Carver band

Nice King Arthur medallion seen.

Eleanor McMain secondary school marching band - nice dancers, band looks and sounds good, nice flag team (sorry, squad) behind band.

Sarah L Reed HS - nice flags, nice band, nice dancers follow after.

float #11 - Salute to Michael Jackson. People throwing beads to the empty float. Weird especially in this case.

Little kids!

float #12 What a long strange trip it's been.

Streetcar float after that! #14 - Down the Avenue. Peace signs on the side! I like that.

LE (something) marching band - nice baton twirlers, band looks good ('blue and white not withstanding' as those are the Colts colors...)

Hey, mama. Nice dancing (hip grinding).

Cutoff (LA) Warriors

Float #16

Frederick Douglas Sr HS marching band - sounds great, nice blue outfits on baton twirlers and band, good drumming!

Lucille Ball float #17

dancers in pink and black (LA (something) Girls Mardi Gras dancers)

float #18 - I can't explain. The host can't explain either. A big bear on the front, slogans. We see a close up of the riders.

Some dancers in black! (Host: "heartbreakingly great")

New Orleans Cajun Cowboys in red and black.

#20 Mary Poppins/Proud Mary. Nice music heard.

"A little float lagniappe!" #21 "You can make it if you try" has a Saints theme.

The parade ends.

***

Hoping to see Barkus somehow. May have to rely on YouTube. Maybe DSU will do a video on it...