Carnival, as it's known down in the Crescent City, is in full swing. This wasn't so just two short years ago, when the city pretty much closed down for Fat Tuesday. That year my good friend Ned (a NOLA local for 30 years) and I scratched out a song that he recorded and set to a video. (And I posted here.)
24 months and a lot of healing later, rather than repost that, I'm selfishly posting the version with our high school chum Matt on bass and me on vocals. (With Ned still chiming in here and there.)
Hope you and your krewe are all happy, healthy, and far better off than you were in 2021.
Well, we missed Dave's birthday last year . . .but we missed Mardi Gras this year! Poo-yee-yi!
How many of you gheorghies have been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans? I myself hit "Carnival" twice, both in the mid-90's when I wore a much younger man's beads. The Quarter is everything it's hyped to be on such occasions, but Uptown is splendid. Lovely parties and parades. Someday I shall return.
You know who didn't miss the Gras this year? Shorty. New tune out for Fat Tuesday.
I hope Ash Wednesday treated you all well, and that those of you Catholics, Episcopalians, and other faiths that observe Lent are now adhering your commitments to give something up for 40 days and nights.
As for me? Well, I've been kind of lazy about it for a long time, but my folks and my daughters give something up for Lent every year. Some time ago, someone told me that there's as much value in adding something good to your daily repertoire as there is in eliminating something not so good. So... for Lent, I dedicate myself to calling a friend I haven't talked to in a while once a day until Easter.
We'll see if I can remember this. Maybe don't sit by your phones waiting.
Sometimes something nice comes together out of nowhere.
Last Wednesday
My friend from all the way back Ned (who has lived in New Orleans for 25 years now):
Just throwing a song idea your way. I remember every other Mardi Gras thinking to myself: everywhere else in America it's just another Tuesday. Well, this year Mardi Gras in New Orleans is pretty much like everywhere else because Mardi Gras is for the most part canceled. I was wondering if you had any inspiration for a song exploring that feeling. I have yet to sit down and write anything but wanted to share the idea with you.
Me:
Hey Ned! That's a terrific idea. I will give it some thought. Great one.
Thursday
Ned:
Awesome. I'll see if I have some music. There's actually a song I've been working on that might work for this. I've got a rough version of the music on Dropbox. It may be too mellow, a Mardi Gras song maybe needs more hopeful pep in it.
Me:
Listening now. Great stuff, dude. Really nice listen. And frankly the loss of Mardi Gras seems to conjure a slow and sad song. This could work... Giving it a few listens and I'll try to come up with some words.
Saturday
Me:
Sending you my take on the lyrics. See what you think. Went back and forth on the chorus. Settled on an allusion to it not being Fat Tuesday.
Ned:
Damn, dude. The right mix of clever and heartstring pulling. Thinking of trying to get this done and released by Tuesday. And also make a video of the song. May be too ambitious.
Yesterday
Just Another Tuesday
(Ned Henry/Les Coole)
3 rocks there smack / in my Sazerac / is the only float today
4 beads of sweat / from the mignonette / are the only beads in play
Magazine is empty / And there ain’t a soul around
It’s just another Tuesday / And I’m uptown feelin’ down
CHORUS
Lord, it feels so thin
Please bring it back again
Fairly soon / this doubloon / will be back on the shelf
I’m the King / of not one thing / A krewe unto myself
I’m a one-man carnival / and it’s all neutral ground
It’s just another Tuesday / and I’m uptown feeling down
CHORUS
BRIDGE
Ain’t never seen this town this way / it feels so strange
What I took for granted / that’s all gonna change
No parades / no hand grenades / the Quarter’s one-eighth filled
The good times rolled / they’re all on hold / all broke up, my go cup spilled
The Ash comes in tomorrow / with the tolling of the bells
But today’s just another Tuesday / just like everywhere else
Happy Fat Tuesday to all of you. Here's to the end of a raucous Carnival season for the GTB-boys and girls... and our collective headlong launch into sobriety and serenity for Lent.
As such, have one tonight, be it hurricane or hand grenade, Abita or Sazerac. Cheers, revelers.
In the meantime, here's a game you know well from cocktail parties: it's called 24 Truths and a Lie. Most of these facts about Mard Gras were copied and pasted from one of several websites with the Fat Tuesday lowdown. Some were not. One of them is a fib.
See if you can spot it!
24 Truths and a Lie About Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras is always the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.
Carnival season begins on Jan. 6, Twelfth Night, the Christian holy day of the Epiphany, and ends with Mardi Gras.
Mardi Gras, French for Fat Tuesday, is also known as Shrove Tuesday.
"Laissez les bon temps rouler" is the official greeting of Mardi Gras. It means "Let the good times roll."
The colors of Mardi Gras are purple (justice), gold (power) and green (faith).
New Orleans has been celebrating Fat Tuesday with parades since 1837.
Carnivals include balls, parties, and parades with floats and costumed dancers.
The first floats appeared in the parade in 1857.
During the 12-day period leading up to Mardi Gras, nearly 70 parades roll in the area.
It’s illegal to not wear a mask onboard a float.
Each parade is run by a different krewe.
Krewes choose a different theme for their parades each year.
Each krewe has a system of royalty.
Whitney first attended Mardi Gras in 1996; at happy hour at the Irish Times on a Wednesday, several colleagues convinced him to show up the next day at work with bags packed for Mardi Gras. He did, and they all drove the roughly 1,000,000 hours to New Orleans. Way more roughly coming back Sunday.
Mardi Gras Indians are more secretive about their parade schedules.
Beads have been a tradition since the early 1900's.
Mentioning one phrase will score you beads at parades: "throw me something, mister"
If you want to keep Mardi Gras family friendly, avoid the French Quarter.
Festivities have been canceled 13 times before, most often during wartime.
Whitney returned to Mardi Gras in 1997 with his fiancee's sister; that went over poorly.
Sometimes coconuts are distributed instead of beads.
Mardi Gras sometimes overlaps with the Super Bowl.
Joe Corcoran and Whitney had heaping amounts of beads from sweet-talking hot girls and shedding clothing before many female onlookers.
Mobile, Alabama, was the first place in the United States to celebrate Mardi Gras.
Mardi Gras is a state holiday in Alabama, Florida, and parts of Louisiana.
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