Tag Archives: Mardi Gras

No Time Like Today: dithyramb

Oh, come and get your revel on:
    laissez bon temps roulez!
Catch this moment before it’s gone,
’til sorrow’s back to dwell upon.
Parade and dance across the lawn!
    There’s no time like today!

Imagine yourself some great chief:
    laissez bon temps roulez!
Buy drinks all ’round, and find relief
in an illusion, sweet and brief,
that none are high and none beneath;
    there’s no time like today!

Life is a party through midnight:
    laissez bon temps roulez!
Forget the daily fuss and fight,
the might that makes injustice right,
sweep that foul dust up out of sight.
    There’s no time like today!

Come on, then, raise your cup and cheer:
    laissez bon temps roulez!
The time is only now and here,
slowed with the help of wine and beer.
Tomorrow we may disappear;
    there’s no time like today!

Come revelers, and dance and sing
    laissez bon temps roulez!
Who cares what sad tomorrow brings,
when we return to baser things;
let loose the fiddle and harp strings!
    There’s no time like today!

Oh, come out to the Mardi Gras;
    laissez bon temps roulez!
Let winter’s frost begin to thaw;
throw off your worry’s tooth and claw,
and just for now, think life a draw.
    There’s no time like today!

28 FEB 2017

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Mardi Gras Mumble

I never have been a big fan of loud, drunken crowds. Even when I am feeling loud and drunk, being surrounded by potentially out-of-control people gives me the willies. And this is the time of year in New Orleans when loud and drunk go together like purple, green and gold. Those colors in combination generally make me feel queasy, but during Mardi Gras, they give me a headache.

When I first moved to New Orleans, Stardances was an active member in the Krewe of Dreux. For those who do not know, Dreux is an underground Krewe that operates out of Gentilly. They have their own soiree, parade and royalty election, just like your more “acceptable” krewes, but they are composed of mostly locals who are interested in having a good time, drinking and staying out of the general spotlight. Well, hanging out with Dreux to excess can be unhealthy — particularly if like me you are diagnosed with the potential for fatty liver. So largely thanks to me, our Krewe-hanging and general drunken mischief making has been curtailed.

Maybe I’m getting old. Or maybe I’m becoming more interested in getting that way. But today was Parade Day for Dreux, and we did not attend. It’s cold, and the bottom line is while there are a small number of people I miss and would be interested in talking to, for the most part, the element that goes to parades (of any kind) is only really tolerable when both you and they are getting, or already, drunk. And that seems to me to be a poor way to have to maintain a relationship. If the entire fabric of your social existence hinges upon being drunk, or being in an environment where you can get drunk (or high, or anything else, for that matter), it feels like there often is more lubricant than substance to the whole situation.

I’m sorry. My worldview has changed. I used to say, for example, that I didn’t want to play in a band with anyone I wouldn’t feel comfortable dropping acid with. That’s always seemed a pretty good watermark as far as I’m concerned. I don’t think I would abandon it all together. However, I might just as easily say the reverse — that I wouldn’t want to drop acid with anyone I didn’t feel I could play in a band with. Or something like that. What I’m driving at is this: if I don’t feel that you and I would get along when both of us are sober, if I don’t think that sober it would be possible for us to have either a good time, or an interesting conversation to say the least, why in the world would I be interested in “loosing up our mutual inhibitions” so that we could, in a haze of illusory bonding, pretend that we didn’t need alcohol to improve our relationship?

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe Mardi Gras is one time of year I really miss serious drinking. After all, it is a great excuse for doing that, and pretty much just that. I don’t need any more beads, and the thought of seeing another set of bare breasts (that don’t belong to my better half) is not that high up on my list of must-dos.

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Another Rainy Day

The gutters are filled and the streets overflowing
The raindrops keep falling, the winds keep on blowing
And just when it will stop, there’s no way of knowing
So batten the hatches, and prepare for rowing

The skies are dark grayish, and no light is shining
For warm winds and sunshine we all are a-pining
But there’s no use whimpering or in complaining
As long as the levee walls keep on retaining

And what of parades, and the Mardi Gras Krewing?
In this type of weather, what can they be doing?
Well, most of them are stuck inside and are brewing
Just watching the sky with its endless wet spewing

This year, Mother Nature is throwing her beads
And thinking what plants, not what drunken fools need
Her parade a raincloud that cold water bleeds
Refreshing the green world that hungrily feeds

So think not the fun is spoiled by this downpour
(though most of the tourists, I’m sure, are quite sore)
It’s not like no one’s seen flashed titties before
And the world can live without a year’s worth, I’m sure

Besides, the forecast says the rain will die down
enough to enable all jesters and clowns
to cram themselves into a few miles, uptown
and leave their wet trash lying there on the ground.

26 FEB 2003

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