Mardi Gras in New Orleans, like the Burning Dude, is impossible to explain during just one cafe conversation. Like the Burning Dude, too, a newcomer needs to remember EASY DOES IT: enjoy the first year, don’t be too ambitious, focus in on one or two aspects, and branch out from there. Mardi Gras is a lot to swallow, and me, I’ve only just begun to chew.
For a good history of Mardi Gras: read here. Zulu parade: Here. And Mardi Gras Indians: Here and here.
(Mardi Gras Indians = feather envy)
Someone asked me yesterday what I was going to wear for my first Mardi Gras as a New Orleans resident. “Do I NEED a costume?” Yes!, they said. Ohhhhh crap. Another lesson learned quickly: This is the high holy holiday in New Orleans, and even if thou art just walking down the street, thou shalt style thyself accordingly.
I’m not the kind of girl to show up un-costumed to a costumed event. In fact, quite the opposite. A friend offered to loan me her costumes from last year … but that just didn’t … feel … right. For our kind, costumes must be hand-crafted, filled with the spirit, and wearable post-event — not store-bought, forgotten about, and donated to the community center along with the bridesmaid’s dress and the fondue set. My threads won’t be anything fancy — but they’ll be mine. Even at this late date, I’ll get it done.
Preparation for the fete is the spell you cast; costume, the pre-battle warpaint. As I make black-and-gold streamers for the Saints Superbowl game-day party at the Village, I wish on the Saints to win. As I cobble together the effluvia found during my Year One in NOLA, in hopes of crafting a costume that doesn’t suck … my fabric, my spirit, my memories, my treasures groundscored and laid aside for occasions just such as this, and for that one other burning dude in August … I reflect and ponder and plan for the future. I’m positive many folks in New Orleans — especially the Mardi Gras Indians — are doing the same.
FIGMENT is an annual celebration of creative culture on Governors Island in New York Harbor. It provides an open forum for artists, helps build a creative community and fosters participatory and public art. This year it will be both in NYC and Boston.
FIGMENT submissions are open for the pavilion, minigolf, and sculpture garden! Call for Art!
The UK’s BBC Radio 1 got brave, and sent Bobby Friction, one of their on-air DJs, across the pond to attend Burning Man for the first time in 2009, and to record his experience along the way. It’s fun to ride along with Bobby as he’s transfixed and transformed by the playa, Black Rock City, and Burners, while learning what Burning Man is all about.
You can listen to his podcast here. (Note: it contains language that might offend some listeners.)
supperclub sf, 657 Harrison Street San Francisco, CA
February 14, 11am to 3pm
All-ages; everyone is welcome! Tickets:
$75 adult ticket for meal only with cash bar (no reserved seating)
$25 Children between 5 and 11 years old
Kids under 5 free!
Benefactor tickets $150 (includes reserved seating in your name and bottomless mimosas/marys served at your bed)
Regular tickets $100 (includes brunch buffet and bottomless mimosas/marys at the bar; no reserved seating-beds seating first come first serve.
Treat yourself and those you love to a sumptuous Valentine’s Day brunch in bed, including fresh fruit, interactive omelet and sweet/savory crepe station, croissants, artisan breads, jam and marmalade, cold cuts, fresh brewed coffee imaginatively served by Ritual Coffee Roasters, and LOVE-ly surprises.
Enjoy Interactive art; soaring aerial heARTistry; interactive photography zone by PhotoBOOF!; music and live performances by: Diva Marisa Lenhardt, Bad Unkl Sista, Tamo (Angels of bAss, Space Cowboys), Michael Anthony & The Late Nite Sneaky, Secret Valentine, and others. While you’re at it make-yer-own Valentine in the DIY heART gallery and tell Cupid what to do with his arrow. All proceeds help bring interactive art to public places across the globe. So, go ahead! Eat your heART out! …and feed your soul.
Have you checked out the Black Rock Arts Foundation’s BLOG recently? It is filled with art from our grantees and events we would love to share with you. Just in the last 10 days we have blogged about mobile interactive art in China, a Burning Man and Black Rock Arts Foundation artist, Dan Das Mann, Cardboardia in Russia, and a fabulous Valentine’s Day event in San Francisco we would love to attend with you.
We keep you up to date on our Grants to Artists, Civic Arts and ScrapEden programs.
Did I hear you say you aren’t familiar with the Black Rock Arts Foundation?
“The mission of the Black Rock Arts Foundation is to support and promote community-based interactive art and civic participation. For our purposes, interactive art means art that generates social participation. The process whereby this art is created, the means by which it is displayed and the character of the work itself should inspire immediate actions that connect people to one another in a larger communal context.”
The UK’s BBC Radio 1 got brave, and sent Bobby Friction, one of their on-air DJs, across the pond to attend Burning Man for the first time in 2009, and to record his experience along the way. It’s fun to ride along with Bobby as he’s transfixed and transformed by the playa, Black Rock City, and Burners, while learning what Burning Man is all about.
