Carnival re-mystification

The above is, of course,  the Phorty Phunny Phellows streetcar rolling down St. Charles Avenue last Friday. We've long made a little ritual of walking out to wave at them and this year was no different. In recent years, also, a person may stand right there and I'm sure they'll see the Funky Uptown Krewe following close behind. 

One small thing I've continued to enjoy about walking out for PPP is that, unlike every parade that goes through town, the Phellows' streetcar ride is un-tracked. 

The previous decade brought us the convenience of parade tracker apps. Their use has expanded to the point where one can follow the progress even of parades rolling outside of Carnival like the Halloween Krewe of Boo, the St. Patrick's Day weekend parades, or even parades organized for corporate events like the Sugar Bowl and Bayou Classic. Of course, that's all been a great benefit.  But there's something refreshing about having to just... use The Force.. and guess when the Phellows are coming. It's a little bit of nostalgia for a long lost divining skill we used to apply to every parade.

Perhaps it is in this spirit that our famously chaotic mayor has offered us a new guessing game to play this year. Where and when is your parade rolling in 2023? Well, that depends, doesn't it. 

NEW ORLEANS —The New Orleans mayor has set a deadline for Mardi Gras krewes to submit their security plans.

According to New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, krewes have until January 23rd to submit their plans for security in order to return to their original routes. 

Last week, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said krewes could return to their routes so long as there is additional security staffing in place.

The plan laid out here is the city is offering to pay additional police from out of town to work the parades. They'll even house them during their stay. But for some reason it is up to each individual parading organization to ensure the route is adequately staffed? Anyway they've got until January 23 to let somebody know.  But who knows how solid that is. According to some reports, Thoth and Cleopatra have already secured their traditional routes.  But the mayor didn't confirm that today.  I'd say just keep checking the apps but will they even know by the time this is settled? 

One thing we do know is that Endymion is going back onto Orleans Avenue. Although, when they go there they won't have the full complement of participants originally announced. 

NEW ORLEANS — Controversial Hollywood actor Mel Gibson will not participate in the Krewe of Endymion parade the krewe announced Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours after it had made the announcement that he would participate as a co-Grand Marshal.

The krewe cited threats as the reason, though they did not provide any specifics or examples of threats.

“The Krewe of Endymion has received significant feedback about our grand marshall announcement yesterday evening. Some of this commentary included threats that cause us great concern," said a statement from Dan Kelly of the Krewe of Endymion.

“In the best interest of the safety of our riders, special guests and everyone that welcomes us on the streets, Mel Gibson will not ride as a Co-Grand Marshal for our 2023 parade.”

Don't ask Kelly for any details about these "threats."  Very likely he only means that people reacted negatively to the krewe's deliberately provocative selection of Gibson as Grand Marshall. Last year, Endymion was criticized for featuring genocidal racist Raymond Arroyo but clearly did not learn from that experience. Rather, they took it as a signal to double down with an even higher profile figure known more for his anti-Semitic, racist and misogynist virulence than for any of his recent work in show business. So, after a year to think about it, and after inviting Gibson on purpose, anyway, here they are pretending to have been blindsided by cancel culture. The powerful and the bigoted are always the victims. Because that's the game we play now.

We now have their promise to "do better" although what they might mean by that is anybody's guess. Maybe next year we'll have an app that explains these mysteries as well.