Happy Mardi Gras!

Where are all the other pictures? - on the way!

In fact this is the reason for this entry being written so late. Although I had the time to write some news about Mardi Gras I decided to wait untill we get the "tons of pictures" we were assured of. Last Monday Bandleader Barry told us that we will get them within the next days. I'll post them as soon as the next days are over, for now you'll have to content with text + a few pics.

So - what's Mardi Gras about? To make it simple, it's just Carnival - but New Orleans people take it serious when it comes to celebrating anything. In Austria a handful of people celebrate and most just attend Carnival. Take it exactly in the opposite order and you may be able to imagine what is happening here. Within the vast majority celebrating Mardi Gras two groups can be identified: Amateurs and the real Pro's.

Mardi Gras - The Professional Way

The professionals don't wait for Mardi Gras, they create Mardi Gras. By the way, that's a good moment to explain some things: Although the city as a whole is in a state of craziness there is an official and central element of Mardi Gras: The parades takin' place from Friday 'till so called Fat Tuesday (some people prefer to say Shrove Tuesday but Fat Tuesday hits the nail on the head). Organization is not centralized but managed by so called Krewes, voluntary groups that organize "their" parade. They are the ones to stay for weeks in their garages building the floats, they are the ones to do all that administrative stuff and of course they are the ones to throw the beads at the parades. All that just for doing it - they don't even get a Penny for it. As there are only 5 days but more than 30 Krewes running Parades, time and spare place on the streets are rare goods. Most of the parade-routes start uptown, run through Garden district and end in the French Quarter which normally sums up to 6 to 8 miles or 5 to 7 hours. Every parade has a specific leader and style which derives from the Krewe's character. Our four parades were lead by Kings, a Zulu Queen, Olympus and a Great Dictator.having attended 4 parades in the Marching Band also means that there was only one day left for watching parades. Out of three opportunities I missed two and so attended just one of the smaller parades. However, some of the pictures taken at this small parades may give you a little impression of what happens at the big parades:

But back to structure. We had the Pro's so it's time to talk about the others:

Mardi Gras: The Visitors

 To sum it up there isn't much to say. They're not as professional in it but they do the same thing as all the N'Orleans people: Goin' crazy for Mardi Gras. It's a little bit like prejustice about our German friends and their bath towels in holiday clubs. When I came home Saturday at 6 a.m. the first ones had already taken the best places along St. Charles Ave. However, some people just have some refreshment drinks with them, most of them come there prepared with equipment for a whole weekend chillin' on the street: Coals and grills, drinks and burgers, power-generators and refridgerators. Some groups suffer from the allmighty ubiquitous toilet problem, some have their private toilet on the street but the real professional visitors have their own toilet-truck: A chemical toilet mounted on a Pick-Up. 

Last not least some words about the kids: People really take care of them. Not only everybody on the streets is very cautious, it's also a matter of course that they get the best places around. 

I think that's all the general information that had to be provided about Mardi Gras. As stated above there's a little problem with providing the tons of pictures I will get from Tulane Marching Band. But as my roommates took some pictures on their own it's at least possible to give a little preview of my own impressions. Have a lot of fun! (thx, Chaotix)

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

Lukas and all the others who can see the problem: No word about it! It took me 10 minutes just to take the publish/no-publish decision. 

 

 

 

stay tuned,
redel

PS: 

+: (woohooo!) the first video!

+: some birthday-pictures on the way...

[UPDATED] Superbowl Mambo!

For all those that still do not know: New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl. In NOLA's words: "AMEN, after 43 years, our prayers are answered!"

The whole city which is normally located some feets below sea level has elevated to some feets above and people are going completely crazy about the Saints one week before Mardi Gras. As there is only one person not going crazy around here (Charly), I decided one more time in my life to follow the crowd and tried to freak out as hard as possible. It seems to be impossible to reach the average level of craziness here but at least everything is on the way.

Theoretically the Great Mardi Gras Parades will take place next weekend, in fact the Greatest Parade took place yesterday: The (new) Saints Parade! We started from Louisiana Superdome with Quarterback Drew Brees on the top of the first parade car followed not only by the National Guard but by nearly every Marching Band, all the leading cars of Mardi Gras Parades and obviously every group or organization that managed to have good reasons to be allowed to march on that Parade. Tulanians and the Tulane Marching Band were right in front of a New Orleans Fire Fighters car in the first Quarter of the Parade. We started at 5 and had the route finished at 9:30. OK, there's virtually no part of my body that didn't hurt from playin', dancin' and singing and I couldn't speak or hear anything afterwards but that was a new definition of a New Orleans Parade. Even bandleader Barry was kind of ecstatic when we finally reached our busses. The only picture I have for now was taken in the bandroom some minutes before departure but we will get some more after Mardi Gras. By the way: Tulane President Cowen cancelled every event including courses on Tuesday just to allow all Tulane students and staff to attend that parade.
UPDATE 1: First impressions of the Saints Parade online!
UPDATE 2: + some pictures of the very first Parade warmup in Covington, LA

 

Over all that Saints, Tulane and Mardi Gras News I shouldn't forget to to give extensive information about Tulane studies and apartment life: It is still a massive load of work and we're going to repair the glasses Charly broke up today.

praise the Saints
Rödel

PS: Today I got in contact with a great quartett playin' fine Dixie. The cornet player turned out to be Duke Heitger and he will play in Jazzland Vienna from February 16 to 20. Don't miss that event! And by the way, maybe you'll get some TUMB fan stuff straight from New Orleans on February 16.

home improvements part X

Denon DRA-35V

 

tuition fee for one credit hour at Tulane: $450
total fee for a bunch of party hours at home: 1hr credit x 0.05

Norleans X-Ray Rallye 2010

Just a minute ago I realized that the first month is over. Only four more left. That's the bad news for today. Good News? A lot!

Let's begin with Tulane. To tell the truth I was not completely confident when attending the first MBA courses here. As I had done economics and not business all the time before I expected myself to miss some basic knowledge in business. Fortunately the basic knowledge in business seems to be way easier to understand than it is in economics. Nonetheless it's a lot of work. At the moment we're working on a project about heating Tulane's swimming-pool solar powered instead of doing it with the old conventional system. It's exciting to work on it especially because there is a good chance for that project to be realized.

Other projects are an analysis about clean-coal technology and the X-ray of my shoulder which may also be realized within a finite time frame. To be on the safe side about my MTB-crash-upgraded shoulder I was told to get an X-ray by the end of January. As there is no opportunity to do this on-campus I did a little research about Hospitals in New Orleans and started into the great "Norleans-X-Ray Rallye 2010" today. Now - at least - I know three adresses that may help me. And I know, that the American health care system as a system is at least as good structured and well designed as Obama's final draft for health-care after having introduced all the private insurance-corporations' good ideas.

But it's nice to know that I'm not only the passive subject when it comes to having administrative fun. As sketched in my last posting I got two instruments from the Department of Music on Tulane Campus. I don't want to get in detail but here is a list of things that are working now. Michael Batt, the local facility manager loves me for every line.

• I've got access to a little room beside the band room where my instrument is stored.
• I've got access to the practice rooms. 
• The practice rooms are at the other side of the second Newcomb-building. There is one more room where I can do practice. 
• I'm registered in the Newcomb Department of Music IT-System.
• I got a new Tulane ID-card. Now it works with that IT-System.
• I retrieved my mouthpiece after having it locked into a room unintentionally.

Orchestra rehearsals are held every Monday from 8 PM to late PM. The marching band does practice every Monday and Wednesday from 5.15 to 7.15 PM. Needless to say that we had heavy rain from 5.30 to 7.45 today. I thought that my Austrian band doesn't care that much about music when it comes to marching. Here I found out that doing long marching practice is possible without caring in any way about the music. After marching for two hours the only musical statement was "Hey guys, have a look at your music sheets 'till Wednesday. Our sound was crappy today". The other side is that they really care about the show. That's not only marching here, that is screaming, that is running and that is dancing. At least the Sousaphone section has one more time the easy part which really doesn't mean that we do nothing. Christoph asked if it is possibly to throw Mardi-Gras-Beads when playing the Sousaphone. Yes. It is possible and, of course, it is part of the choreography. Fortunately positive prejustice about bass players' natural manners was validated one more time which means that I really feel as a part of the Tulane Marching Band already after a week. I think Greg Tacconi, the other guy in the picture and my section leader at the TUMB should manage to meet Andreas Fleißner, the Tuba-section leader in my hometown. Today he killed some serious bandleader's comments by playin' the first four notes of "(The Saints) Go Marchin' In". But he is serious. And he is good on the Tuba.

Last not least there's one more bad news today. Our neighbours two blocks away had some serious conflict the last week and it seems as he had to leave the house. The positive thing about that is that I've got a Ghettoblaster now. And our kitchen looks way more homelike with the new pictures.

best regards from Crescent City