The Mardi Gras Post Part 1

It's been a long time coming but I've been able to make some time to share a few pictures and experiences from Carnival. Overall, I think "Mardi Gras Lite," as Jon likes to call it, fits the description of this year's celebration, especially when factoring in the shortened parade schedule and smaller crowds.

Krewe du Vieux, a local favorite, kicked off the parade season. Jessica and I met Ray one of the Nola.com producers anlong with my old manager, Mike, and his wife from the day job. This was Mike's first taste of Carnival, and for those that have been to or in KDV would know they don't pull any punches in their satire. I have a very small, quick, and dirty gallery posted. I'll try and put a better one up later.

Our first BourboCam show of Carnival went off without many problems. Everyone was working longer shifts this year and sometimes we had shifts with only two people instead of three to cover everything. The individual shows have blurred together in these two months since Mardi Gras day but I'll try and hit the high points.

First off, I have to get this out, maybe a little preachy, maybe a little bitchy, bear with me. When we use "live and uncensored" to describe the webcast it's implies unedited and unprompted. If you watch expecting a boob-fest you'll be disappointed. There's also more men flashing as more would be women flashers are turning the tables on the guys. You may watch expecting the breasts of Bo Derek and end up with Bo Diddley. If you want tits that bad I'd recommend that you come down here with a camera or camcorder or just google them (NSFW).

Ok I'm done ranting.

First off, I had the pleasure of meeting Zach who had recently launched his website I Love Bourbon Street. He's been documenting his misadventures in New Orleans for a couple of years now and made it a point to drop by the show throughout the weekend.

The Saturday leading up to Fat Tuesday traditionally is a pretty wild time. With the depressed numbers of visitors in attendance and the threat of heavy rain in the greater New Orleans area the day shift made for a wet and sometimes lonely show. The rain we did see drove a fair amount of people off the street and into the clubs and bars. It was also one of the few times all the street preachers took cover. At one point the corner was deserted except me, Jon, and one preacher from the XXXchurch.

We had to give him props for braving the weather when everyone else scattered in the rain.

As the afternoon became evening more people would come out. and people were letting their hair down. Before you knew it Willard and Danika were there to take over and Saturday was over for me.

Sunday was my first time working with Danika in a while, since before the storm. We had seen each other last night but it's not quite the same actually working together. We were both scheduled to host without a production assistant so we spent the night trading off each hour sto make sure we could print email and monitor the stream. With the exception of the normal volume issues we were having a pretty good show.

Sunday was also the night things started to gel for me. I don't know if it was not really being able to ramp up and get into that rythm before Carnival season or the attitude of some of the email, but there was a different air out in the night. People seemed to have more fun and I was feeling it.

Monday I made it out early to get some pictures from around the quarter.

We met a pirate kitty:


Debbie the Bead Whore and I swapped jobs:

I learned I had a fan club:

And was even visited by my friend and dentist with his wife:
Finally for the ladies there was some beef:

We finished up early Tuesday morning and I had to high-tail it to my day job where I would experience sleep deprivation like never before.