You Know Mardi Gras Is Over When…

… your dog finishes off a galette from the Boulangerie and you’re not that mad at the dog or sorry to see it go. That happened last night.

Druid Games Mardi Gras Bead

A few quick reflections:
– The explosion of Mardi Gras dance troupes is a really positive sign along with the growth of indie krewes, but the one that consistently started the party was the 610 Stompers.

– I caught signature beads from Druids; who’d ever seen such things before?

– Everybody along the Uptown route groused about the influx of Endymion fans creating the middle class hobo village on the Napoleon neutral grounds, but really, Bacchus fans have been just as obnoxiously territorial over the years. Endymion moving to Sunday just increased the density.

– While on the subject of neutral ground camping, it seems like there ought to be a way to end the camping out and investment of time that leads to the sense of possession that many of the squatters feel for the plot of ground they dropped a tarp on. Perhaps the city bans the marking and saving of space before 7 a.m., confiscating stuff left on the neutral grounds and shooing the campers. That, admittedly, would require will power, something NOPD seemed to lose Sunday. The enforcement of the distance ladders had to be from the street was enforced Wednesday through Saturday on Napoleon, as was the prohibition of ladders and chairs in the intersection. When it was most needed—Sunday—interest or stomach for the task seemed to have dissipated as people took temporary ownership of “their spots” and got surly in their defense. Is it a cheap shot to notice that it’s easier to roust and taser a parade of twenty-somethings than to ask a middle-aged Kennerite and her aging mother to move their folding chairs out of the intersection?

– Krewe d’Etat had one of the funniest, best executed floats of Mardi Gras with one depicting Bret Favre taking a picture of his junk on his cell phone, and it had one of the funniest ideas with the Turfmunchers—a Les Miles dance team that came complete with a snicker-inducing name. Unfortunately, d’Etat yearly demonstrates a mean streak that takes the fun out of the parade, and this year it again came at the expense of Muses. The float itself with a voice balloon commenting on how hard it was to read an entire float before it rolled by was smart, but to mock them as cows came off as dull-witted, reflexive hostility toward women. Can we look forward to a float complaining that Muses doesn’t know its place next year?

– And here’s footage of the police run-in with the Krewe of Eris:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JcrztJN5pY[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLjFMBRF_e0[/youtube]