Things I miss about San Francisco

Lots of trouble.  Good times.  Late nights, early mornings.  It's all the same, isn't it?

Shadow Shot Sunday

 New Orleans, LA
Mardi Gras 2010, part two
Part one can be found here.

The kids...

    

              

          

       The adults...

                

            

                

       http://heyharriet.blogspot.com/

Shadow Shot Sunday

New Orleans, LA
 Mardi Gras 2010, part one

This is what my street-corner looked like Mardi Gras morning.  It was a bright sunny day.  Shadows everywhere.

          
            

                                    

       http://heyharriet.blogspot.com/

Long overdue

Today I marched in one of the most significant jazz funerals this city has ever seen.  We've waited a long time for this one.  Best jazz funeral ever.  Whose death were we marching for?  The 'Aint's, of course.

The coffin, in all its glory...

                
We shall wear paper bags on our heads no more.

Yes.  We're STILL celebrating the Superbowl down here.  We'll be celebrating all year.  Forty-three years we've waited, OK?  We'll celebrate as long as we damn well please.

Some of you are asking, "What's a jazz funeral?"  Allow me to explain.

Around here, we don't have funerals.  We have parties.  We don't spend the day mourning a loved one's death.  We spend a day celebrating their life.  How does New Orleans like to celebrate things?  With music and parades.  What else?

A jazz funeral starts off somewhat somber.  The band generally breaks into "A Closer Walk With Thee" as the procession leaves the starting point.  But it's not long before they start to funk things up a little bit, and the funeral party following behind starts dancing.  It looks something like this:

The whole thing ends with a big party with even more music and dancing.  That's our reaction to pretty much everything around here.  Music and dancing.  It's a pretty good life.

Who dat!

Down by the river

New Year's Eve.  It was... I don't know if I can find a word.  Let me try to explain.

First dinner.  Lamb, lobster.  Champagne.  Blah blah blah.  Whatever.  It's more about what happened after dinner.

We decided to stay in the neighborhood that night.  Sure as fuck didn't feel like dealing with that French Quarter mess.  Especially with the Sugar Bowl in town.

After dinner, we wanted to see the fireworks.  So we went down to the river.  It's only two blocks away.

First, we had to climb over the flood wall.

We developed a system for the cocktails.  Pass 'em up, people.

                                    

I can't say it was a perfect system.  Delaney trusted in the system and got fucked.  Ended up having to share a glass of champagne with me.  But that's OK.  I love Delaney.

All right.  So we made it over.

Then we had a train to contend with.  Up and over the train, people...

              

                                                

                                The fireworks had just started.

            

It was a lot of work.  But once we were all up and over, cocktails in hand, we had the whole river to ourselves.

                  

Still trying to find a word.  Magic?  No, that's not quite right.  Mystic?  Maybe.  Perfect?  Yes.

Happy New Year, everyone.  May 2010 bring you all the love and joy you can possibly stand.  Yeah you right!