| His Majesty Rex, King of Mardi Gras |
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| the oldest parade still functioning in New Orleans |
This is King Rex. MG parades are very traditional, and as such, each is presided over by a court of monarchy. The king of the parade Rex is considered to be the king of Mardi Gras as his is the oldest functioning parade. Also, it was one of the kings of Rex that is creditted with the naming of Purple, Gold and Green as the official colors of MG. Unfortunately I couldn't get very close to get a very good picture. During MG this guy is treated like a foreign national leader.
| Celebrities love it too |
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| Spike Lee as GM of Zulu |
Like I said above, each parade or crew has it's own royalty. This royalty is chosen from among the members. However, the position of Grand Marshall is given each year as an honorary title of royalty. Often with the bigger parades, this usually goes to celebrities. This year Spike Lee was GM of Zulu.
Here you can see a bit more of the tradition of royalty. This float is one that appears in every parade. It's riders consist of the former queens for the past 10 or so years of Zulu. While we're on Zulu, I'll tell you a bit more about it. Zulu was for a long time the only all-black parade in New Orleans. It's crew now consists of members of all races, but each rider does their part to live out some of Zulu's history in one interesting way. Since it's inception, all riders in Zulu (excepting royalty) wear black face. In keeping with that, they all carry one 'throw' that has always been carried by riders in this parade....the coveted Zulu Coconut.
| Zulu Coconuts |
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| Behold the power of coconuts.... |
Here are two guys who each managed to get one of the coveted coconuts from Zulu. These things are damn impossible to get...I'm 23 years old and this is the first time I've even managed to get within 10 feet of one. They are so highly sought after by MG collectors, that they often sell as high as 400 dollars each on EBay if they are authenticated by the crew of Zulu.
Well, that's enough of the more historical junk. I hope you all learned atleast a little from it, and I hope you enjoyed learning it. Now for some more pictures.
| St Augustine Highschool Marching Band |
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| THE royalty of marching bands. |
Here is St. Aug, a member of the Catholic League of highschools in NO. That league is highly competitive about everything, but we all agree on one thing. IT WOULD NOT BE MARDI GRAS WITHOUT ST. AUG! These guys are the true pride of Louisiana when it comes to marching bands. We all look forward to seeing the Marching 100.
| No lewtz for us |
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| Behold the power of breasts... |
After we moved to this area, me and Almore really didn't catch very much else due to the woman in the pink shirt to the left in the picture. Then again, we knew we couldn't compare with a cute woman flashing...
| The Princes and the peasants |
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| Sometimes it really is good to have money and plan ahead... |
This pic shows 2 things... The first is probably the most obvious. As much as some people do just go and have good fun at MG, there's often people offended by it, and they choose to voice their opinions, like the Christian demonstrators. Also, if you can see above them to the right on the balcony there's lots of people up there. This is by far the best way to see the parades, as there is no obstruction. However, suites like these (balcony front on a parade route) often go as high as $1000 a night, and must be reserved as far as 4 to 5 years in advance.
| Nationalism at MG |
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In the past few years, with US troop movements increasing, one of the most enjoyed parts of the parades no longer takes place as much. I'm speaking of the Navy, Marine, Army, and Air Force drill teams. Often, they would march and perform large parts of their competition maneuvers. In light of this, Blaine Kerne (the primary float designer and manufacturer in NO) and the parades rolling, have taken to including floats such as this one in sign of their faith and caring for our country. I must say, that in my few years on this earth, I've always been proud of my city for how much they've cheered on the military during these parades. They might act like morons during the rest of the parade, but everyone always seems to straighten up and cheer a bit louder for the military.
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