Analog
Lifer
NEW ORLEANS -- Probably the last thing a city inundated with water and filled with human misery needs is a parade, much less a Mardi Gras.
But just a week after Hurricane Katrina unleashed its devastation, there already are signs that New Orleans is remaining loyal to its partying ways.
Mat James caries his dog Baby Pearl as he marches in the Southern Decadence parade in the French Quarter of New Orleans, La., Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005. The week long gay festival, which is second only to Mardi Gras, was to have begun Sunday.
Over the weekend, about two dozen people in beads, hula skirts and wigs danced down Bourbon Street in a symbolic show that life must go on. A few months from now, there's a good chance there might even be some kind of scaled-back Mardi Gras.
"I think now more than ever we need a reason to celebrate. It's really at our core," said Arthur Hardy, publisher of the Mardi Gras Guide. "I can't imagine the city rolling over and playing dead and saying, `I surrender.'"
With thousands believed dead and authorities still unable to collect bodies floating in canals and hidden in attics, even the talk of a Mardi Gras celebration might seem disrespectful.
But New Orleans has always loved a good time, and when the two-week, pre-Lent celebration that ends with Fat Tuesday comes around next February, floats could be parading down streets now covered in water.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co...rticle/2005/09/06/AR2005090600107.html
But just a week after Hurricane Katrina unleashed its devastation, there already are signs that New Orleans is remaining loyal to its partying ways.
Mat James caries his dog Baby Pearl as he marches in the Southern Decadence parade in the French Quarter of New Orleans, La., Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005. The week long gay festival, which is second only to Mardi Gras, was to have begun Sunday.
Over the weekend, about two dozen people in beads, hula skirts and wigs danced down Bourbon Street in a symbolic show that life must go on. A few months from now, there's a good chance there might even be some kind of scaled-back Mardi Gras.
"I think now more than ever we need a reason to celebrate. It's really at our core," said Arthur Hardy, publisher of the Mardi Gras Guide. "I can't imagine the city rolling over and playing dead and saying, `I surrender.'"
With thousands believed dead and authorities still unable to collect bodies floating in canals and hidden in attics, even the talk of a Mardi Gras celebration might seem disrespectful.
But New Orleans has always loved a good time, and when the two-week, pre-Lent celebration that ends with Fat Tuesday comes around next February, floats could be parading down streets now covered in water.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co...rticle/2005/09/06/AR2005090600107.html
