There are two that caught my attention, though- the first is just how different Bourbon Street was… hats, coats, kerchiefs… totally civilized. Shockingly so, really:

The other was this one:

I’d love to know where this was, who they were, what the celebration was. And mostly I’d like to know how a couple of tourists who, as far as I can tell, did not stray off Bourbon and Canal got to something like this.

And then I’d like to go, too.

But I knew peeps had really hit the big time when I saw the Mardi Gras dioramas:

Happy Easter!

More Hermes photos here.

One of the reasons d’Etat’s one of my absolute favorites (other than their scathing wit, of course) is their embrace of the old fashioned grotesqueries. In a time when everything has got to be perfectly scrubbed and lovely it’s nice to have a bit of the flavor of what it was originally about. A little danger, a little mortality reminds you to really enjoy the fun on offer.

More d’Etat here.

The Phunny Phorty Phellows kick off Carnival season in style- with a streetcar ride, tossing beads as they go. I hadn’t gotten out to see them on their ride before, and was surprised that they don’t set a slow, maximizing sort of pace, but the typical “now you see us, now you don’t” streetcar speed.

There weren’t huge crowds for this one, but they always had people around because drivers on St. Charles Ave would see them, do a quick whip around, get ahead of the streetcar, park, and run over.

I have to say, they looked like they were having a hell of a good time:

Yet I haven’t really bothered trying to overcome this phobia as it’s not a daily problem since you don’t often run into roving gangs of clowns accosting you on the street.

So, sure, there was a false sense of security right up until I was innocently having fun at Mardi Gras and found this flung my way:

When I saw this, I had an immediate PTSD flashback to being a kid and sneaking onto HBO latenight to watch Poltergeist I & II, neither of which helped one bit with these phobias.

The whole clown scene in the first movie was bad enough, but the entire second movie…that preacher dude is by far the creepiest villain with inadvertent clownface ever. I tried to find a video of him doing his little sing-song, but lucky for both of us I couldn’t find it. Here’s the trailer instead.:

Ironically, watching the youtube clips I found, I definately came to understand that Poltergeist II was a terrible movie, despite the fact that it seems to be burned in my brain.

No, actually, I realize that’s wrong- only Mr. BigTeethPreacherMolesterClown lives on* in my head, which will probably serve up a really nasty dream starring him tonight.

:::shiver::: Clowns. Those bastards.

Multicolored musical notes and over sized wings aside, he does look pretty nervous, no? Like he suspects somebody’s about to pluck him unless he can manage to run away on his weird tiger stripped legs?

I only remembered about this guy when Chris sent me this video the other day:
(link here)

The guy coming in at 1:46 looks like he’s trying his damnedest to make the Chicken Dance, staple of weddings everywhere, look cool. And coming pretty close to succeeding, too.

(And on the off chance you’ve lived a sheltered life and haven’t been exposed to this attrocity, you can check it out here. )

And aren’t these ladies a classy pair? I wonder if they’re meant to symbolize anything? They’re so subtle, it’s hard to say…

If I had to choose, though, I’d say goldie on the left is my favorite. Crime fighting hooker. Haven’t seen that one since:

You know, I think the plastic bead girls could act just as well.

Maybe we’ll even start having a contest to get rid of all these, because I found out I’m a wimp- I hate throwing them out to the crowd at Mardi Gras.

Alison was confused when she was 10 or 11 and caught a naked lady bead. I’ll never forget the look on her face as she held the stripper immortalized in plastic up for my inspection.

“Why did he think this would be a good bead for me, Mommy?”

Yikes. So I guess I’ll have to find another way of disposal. Let me know if anybody’s interested…

Or, possibly this isn’t an actual, general-purpose drag queen, but just drag for Mardi Gras day.

This came from a big lot of slides from 1964 and thereabouts that did include some Carnival photos, so, even back then, anything goes on Mardi Gras day.

Sammy, however, wasn’t so excited about it.

And Bianca made her thoughts clear on the matter right off. We decided to skip her.

(No animals were harmed or even seriously annoyed by this silliness, which lasted less than 5 minutes, and now they’re safe for at least another year. )