Fat Tuesday, Baby!

I usually post a live web stream from New Orleans. For some reason, everything is on "down" mode right now, but then again, it's still on the west coast not quite Fat Tuesday! Tomorrow will be all the partying. Hopefully, I can update the post with the live streams.



Ma Tit Fille - Buckwheat Zydeco



Now, there's also another side of Mardi Gras ... Brazil style (carnival), tee hee hee!




Bellini - Samba de Janeiro

Fat Tuesday

Happy Fat Tuesday, Everyone!

Rio or New Orleans?

Since the Saints won the Superbowl, and Mardi Gras (New Orleans or Rio version) is upcoming, I thought I'd close out the bar tonight with some samba....

Mardi Gras

A lot of Americans think of New Orleans when Mardis Gras comes around. Personally, I prefer Carnival to Mardis Gras, and I tend to think of Rio de Janeiro and samba. The scantilly clad women, the giant floats, and the samba contests are so vivid and colorful, they make Mardis Gras in New Orleans seem like a kindergarten outing in comparison!

Almost all of the music played during Rio Carnival is samba. It is a uniquely Brazilian music originating from Rio and a dance form that was invented by the poor Afro-Brazilians. The word samba comes from the Angolan world semba referring to a type of ritual music. The word had a variety of meanings to the African slaves brought to Brazil during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. It meant to pray or invoke the spirits of the ancestors and the gods of the African Pantheon. As a noun, it could mean a complaint, a cry, or something like "the blues".

Although Carnival (Carnaval in Portuguese) is celebrated in towns and villages throughout Brazil and other Catholic countries, Rio de Janeiro has long been regarded as the Carnival Capital of the World. The Rio Carnaval is not only the biggest Carnival, benchmark against which every other carnival is compared but also one of the most interesting artistic events on the Globe. Pretty much everyone has heard of the Rio Carnaval. Foreign visitors to it alone number around 500,000 every year.

On Fat Tuesday, I'll switch over and blog some live shots from New Orleans, which has a number of webcams that stream live from Burbon Street.

Live Streaming Of Don Ho Sendoff

I love the internets!

I'm streaming from Waikiki at the Duke Kahanamoku statue, hoping I'll be able to catch some of the celebration sending off Don Ho.

HONOLULU - So many people were expected Saturday for the sunset memorial service on the beach at Waikiki for legendary Hawaiian crooner Don Ho that the city arranged extra buses, parking and traffic control.

As many as 25,000 people were likely to attend, which city officials said would make it one of the largest crowds ever in Waikiki.

It would be very cool if I could enjoy it as it is happening in Hawai'i. I've enjoyed watching the ball drop in Times Square real time, via webcams, and have viewed Mardi Gras in New Orleans as well.

Aloha.

Friday Random Ten, Mardi Gras Style

Richard LeBouef & Two Step - Empty Glass
Irma Thomas - Baby Don't Look Down
Pete Fountain - When You're Smiling
Clifton Chenier - Zydeco Sont Pas Sale
Buckwheat Zydeco - Madame Pitre
Wayne Toups - Take My Hand
Queen Ida & Her Zydeco Band - Bad Moon Rising
Harry Connick, Jr. - Recipe For Love
Neville Brothers - Mardi Gras Mambo
Fats Domino - Ain't That A Shame

Mardi Gras Week Begins

It's Mardi Gras week, and there are live webcams to view the parades and crowds. A lot of the ladies have noticed the webcam and are "flashing" their boobies.

I am a big fan of city webcams. The ones in Times Square in NYC are fabulous, and there is a live feed camera complete with sound.

Why did America ask a city cherished by millions and excoriated by some, but ignored by no one, to fight for its own life for so long?

Through this all, black culture never declined in Louisiana. In fact, New Orleans became home to blacks in a way, perhaps, that few other American cities have ever been. Dillard University and Xavier University became two of the most outstanding black colleges in America; and once the battles of desegregation had
been won, black New Orleanians entered all levels of life, building a visible middle class that is absent in far too many Western and Northern American cities to this day.

The influence of blacks on the music of the city and the nation is too immense and too well known to be described. It was black musicians coming down to New Orleans for work who nicknamed the city "the Big Easy" because it was a place where they could always find a job. But it's not fair to the nature of New Orleans to think of jazz and the blues as the poor man's music, or the music of the oppressed.

Something else was going on in New Orleans. The living was good there. The clock ticked more slowly; people laughed more easily; people kissed; people loved; there was joy. Which is why so many New Orleanians, black and white, never went north. They didn't want to leave a place where they felt at home in neighborhoods that dated back centuries; they didn't want to leave families whose rounds of weddings, births and funerals had become the fabric of their lives. They didn't want to leave a city where tolerance had always been able to outweigh prejudice, where patience had always been able to outweigh rage. They didn't want to leave a place that was theirs.

[snip]

But to my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed us. You looked down on us; you dismissed our victims; you dismissed us. You want our Jazz Fest, you want our Mardi Gras, you want our cooking and our music. Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us "Sin City," and turned your backs. Well, we are a lot more than all that. And though we may seem the most exotic, the most atmospheric and, at times, the most downtrodden part of this land, we are still part of it. We are Americans. We are you.

My Friday Random Ten - Homage to Louisiana Version

Fats Domino - Blue Monday
Buckwheat Zydeco - Ma ‘Tit Fille
Pete Fountain - Way Down Yonder In New Orleans
Harry Connick, Jr. - Basin Street Blues
J. Paul Jr. - We Got That Groove
Neville Brothers - Mardi Gras Mambo
Wayne Toups - Oh Louisiana
Porchdogs - Stomp Down Music
New Orleans Jazz Band - Birth Of The Blues
Fats Domino, Jerry Lewis & Ray Charles - Jambalaya

Cross-posted at Feministe.