Let's Try This Again......

Just got my computer back this evening after the hard drive took a crap around 10 days ago. I'm less than enthused about Dell right now but am happy to get back into the swing of things. And things are definitely swingin' in New Orleans right now...."Oh yes, it's Carnival time, and everybody's havin' fun". The immortal words of Al Johnson. I believe I mentioned previously that I have never been a fan of Mardi Gras and I think a big part of that is that I just don't like parades. Especially ones where you're packed in like sardines with people who have been drinking since 7am and where you're constantly being stepped on or jostled by those same people while they scream at enormous floats, as they go by, for worthless plastic beads. Not my idea of a good time. In all of my years of living here, I have gone to only one of the large parades. It was when James Gandolfini, aka Tony Soprano, was the "king" of the Bacchus Parade. A friend of mine was going and suggested that I meet him Uptown. I wasn't doing anything and figured it would be a hoot to see Gandolfini dressed in one of those ridiculous costumes. Well, it was a big pain in the ass getting Uptown, we waited for hours in the crowd for the parade to come, saw Gandolfini for all of 10 seconds, and that was it. My friend wandered off with some girl and I was stuck with some other friends of his, a couple whom I just met, and knew it was time to end my night when the woman started hitting on me. I called my buddy Mike and begged him to come get me. Christ, maybe that experience has tainted my attitude toward the parades but I feel better sticking with my own kind, downtown, at the small parades. Two of those being Krewe du Vieux and Barkus. Krewe du Viuex is a satire of the larger parades and there is always raunch involved. Barkus is the dog parade. This year I went out to both of these parades but saw neither of them. It's like that sometimes around here. On the night of Krewe du Vieux, I headed in the direction of Frenchmen St. but stopped at the Balcony Music Club to see a friend who was sitting in with a band there. Ended up just staying there people watching and listening to the music. Barkus was this past Sunday afternoon and I decided to take Pancho out to experience the crowds to try to get him a little more socialized. We took a nice walk and  first stopped at Ragin' Daisy, a funky, sparkly little shop in the Quarter. It was through the girls at Ragin' Daisy that we came to know about Pancho so I wanted to take him over to meet them, and just across the street from the shop happened to be Harry's Corner Bar. Perfect. Since Pancho didn't seem to be very enthused about the parade, we decided to just skip it and stay at Harry's. It was a beautiful afternoon, there were chairs outside and we were still able to see costumed dogs and their people. Hell, it was better than going to the parade....I was able to sit with the dog in my lap and a drink in my hand and there wasn't any danger of having my drink knocked onto my shirt or stepping in poop. Not a bad way to kill a few hours. I haven't decided, yet, if I will give one of the larger parades another shot this year. Honestly, I just find parades to be incredibly boring. But you never know, it just might be a fantastic experience waiting to happen. It's like that sometimes around here.