I love how the national media decide that whenever they arrive is when Carnival starts for real. There were three parades in New Orleans last night (Thursday). My friend the local newspaper columnist invited me to a party his paper was throwing, and so it was that I found myself at a location I normally would stay as far away from as possible at this time of year, the corner of Bourbon and Canal streets. The party was in the hotel at that corner, the paper had a balcony, and it was my first chance to get that particular view, although columnist friend and I decided the bead-catching was better down on the street, where, contrary to the usual crush, the crowd was only two or three deep. Tourists may be pouring in today, but last night was still one mainly for the locals. And so Muses, one of the two all-female parades (although there were some shapely ringers), rolled with what can best be described as moving political cartoons. My favorite, because it took me about a minute to get it, was the "GPD" float, featuring the Gretna Police Department in their infamous "bridge" moment. An acquaintance with us, a teacher, uttered the quote of the night: "I didn't try to catch beads, I was too busy reading the floats".
An unmistakeable note of change: the evening's first parade, Babylon, had the traditional flambeau carriers. These are guys who carry flaming torches in advance of the parade. They march the whole route carrying these heavy flaming objects. Traditionally, they have been African Americans (heavy symbolism there). Babylon's flambeau carriers were Latinos. Los flamboleros. Things returned to normal with the second parade, Chaos. That's the way it is down here, it takes Chaos to get us back to normal.