The Mad Whirl of Carnival...

...is officially over, but with St. Patrick's Day parades on the Saturday after Mardi Gras (and more of 'em today on the actual saint's day), PLUS the St. Joseph's day celebrations starting tomorrow and parades and altars this weekend -- well, it's just too much. A late Mardi Gras can be terrific, especially in terms of weather, but having Mardi Gras Day and St. Pat's parades in the *same week* is overwhelming.

It was indeed a beautiful, exciting, warm, luscious, mad whirl of Carnival. There were only 2 days when it was sort of cool, and only one day of rain. Mardi Gras Day threatened rain, but didn't deliver til the parades and festivities were all done -- how considerate!

The most lovely and artistic krewes were of course the old-line traditional, with special recognition going to Hermes and especially Proteus (good on ya, Royal Artists!) The satirical krewes of Chaos, Muses, and d'Etat (and to a certain extent Thoth, with their slain boef gras upside down with its hooves in the air!) did great jobs, and were sharp and funny. But I have to say that having so many thought-and-speech balloons is really distracting and off-putting. When you think back to the very first satiric parade, Comus, in the 1800s, they did not need captions for folks to get the joke and their floats were quite beautiful despite their "bite." And that in an age when images were not nearly as ubiquitous as they are now. I wish the satiric krewes would cut back on the words and give us more images.

The so-called super krewes, Bacchus and Endymion, OK, and just that. You'd think with the extra expanse of square footage, the krewes could be more creative, but whether for monetary reasons or lack of imagination, it just didn't happen. They plunk an expensive headpiece or figure on the front, another on the back, and in the middle a whole lotta nothin'. It's sad and disappointing.

Speaking of disappointing, Orpheus was a bust this year. When I think back to the floats of Orpheus in 2005, with the theme of "The Dance of the Hours," and how the floats were so completely lovely and elegant, they actually brought *tears* to my eyes, I feel let down by this year's Orpheus floats. Yes, there were some nice figures and great lighting, especially on the fronts, but along the sides they just slapped on giant flowers or flower-like crystal shapes, or flower-like explosion shapes. C'mon! That's just plain LAZY! (However, Orpheus does get props for great cups this year.)

Special shout-out to the rental krewes who all (with the normal exception of Zulu) seemed to make an extra effort and paid for front figures on generic and slightly less cheesy rental floats this year. Nice job, y'all! (Zulu does not need to make that expense, as nobody goes to Zulu to look at floats.)

We all look forward to watching the second season of "Tremé" on HBO, as we watched the crew and principal actors filming a Mardi Gras episode right across the street from our favored parade spot during Muses. Melissa Leo and the young actress who plays her daughter looked like they were having a great time.

Big Man played in bands in several parades this year, ending with Rex on Mardi Gras Day -- a BIG honor my father would've been so proud of! (Rex was pretty this year, nice theme celebrating everything England in "This Sceptered Isle.") On our way back to the parade route, after dropping off Big Man at the start of Rex, my son and I were delighted to run across the Wild Magnolia Mardi Gras Indian tribe coming through the Calliope, wind blowing their feathers. We rolled down the windows and hollered "Pretty-pretty!" to them in tribute.

All in all, this year's Mardi Gras Day crowds were heavy, and friendly, and lots and lots of people put some effort into their costumes and outfits. A lot of walking (my bad ankle required special babying on Ash Wednesday!), a lot of parade food eating, and a lot of eating. A lot of curbside booty-shaking, a lot of laughing, a lot of gossiping. It was tremendous fun, and thank God it's over.