Beads ‘n Stuff

The rain, the beads and other stuff.

There has been a fair amount of rain. Not quite the deluge that the weather folks have been hollering about, but enough to cause parades to be rescheduled — forward, not back — and for one to be moved from Saturday to today.

That’s all fine.  It gave me time to think about my Mardi Gras coverage. When I first returned from my time in the high desert, I photographed as much of the parade season as I could. Then, I noticed that a lot of my pictures had a sameness about them. So, I started picking and choosing parades a little bit. Until last year. I started out like a flash. And faded toward the end. They say that most things are not about how you start, but how you finish.

That is so true during the last days of Carnival. Every day builds up a little more, and more and more. Until it peaks on Mardi Gras Day.

I peaked well before that last year. Not this year. The rain gave me a good excuse not to work on the earliest days. To be sure, I work in the rain a lot. The wet stuff had nothing to do with it. I realized I wanted to be strong at the finish.

So, I’ll really start today with the Krewe of Barkus. Dogs. A parade for dogs. Maybe 3,000 or 4,000 dogs. Some in the krewe, some just registered for the parade and some just joining in. Obviously, the parade is important around here. With luck we won’t get rained on.

The next ten days are important to me. Hopefully, we’ll mostly be dry.

The picture. Very ironic, this one. Brand new Mardi Gras beads hung on an old fence. That’s normal. But look in front of the beads. Trash cans. Normally, when you catch beads, they either are saved in a closet or attic or given away to a charity recycler. Or… they head straight into the trash can,  These folks made it easy on themselves. This is very efficient. Imagine that. Efficiency in New Orleans.

Oh yeah. I just saw it and pressed the button. I made the picture a little moody in post production.