Day 872: Curs of the Ravenously Avaricious Pirate Society

Kathrine Cargo (of TOKIN) and John Hyman (of my very own subkrewe, C.R.A.P.S.) were on George Ingmire‘s show on WWOZ this morning talking about the Krewe du Vieux parade that rolls this weekend.  This weekend!  Wasn’t it just Christmas and Twelfth Night?

The mother krewe theme is Krewe Du Vieux’s Magical Misery Tour and a number of subkrewes went to town coming up with clever twists on Beatles song and album titles.  My favorites are Mama Roux’s We All Live In A Jello Shot Machine and Drips ‘n’ Discharges presents Sgt. Eddie’s Only Honkies Banned.  My husband came up with I Am The WalMart for our subkrewe but we decided to buck the Beatle-themed trend and settled on C.R.A.P.S. Mutinies: Where’s Da Booty?  We started out asking what in the name of Blackbeard happened to FEMA’s missing millions but that, in the way of all subkrewe themes and their execution, transmogrified into a rip on our mayor, No C.  Um Ray Nagin, and his jump to a Dallas-bound vessel.  C.R.A.P.S. has a tendency to change its acronym each year based on the theme so I came up with the title of this post (avaricious, yes, we are Craps-playing pirates after all and I love the word cur).  Also bouncing around in me noggin’ is C. Ray Abdicate Power Soon.

Tonight is the Captains’ Dinner when we honor our King, Mr. Ronald Lewis of the Ninth Ward’s House of Dance and Feathers, and the captains of the seventeen subkrewes.  Then, it’s downhill to parade day.

Many of us have worked very hard – through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, car wrecks, illnesses, surgeries, children, work-work and loads of other responsibilities – to bring this early, early, early parade to you this year.  If you are in New Orleans this Saturday, you must come to this parade.  (Bring the kids, they’re not the pure little cloistered nuns you think they are.)  It looks like it will be cold outside, but at least you can bundle up while we run through the streets of the Bywater, Marigny and the Quarter in nothing short of skimpalicious. 

Consider it your solemn duty to line the streets for Krewe du Vieux.  Read the latest Le Monde de Merde, memorize the new time and route, come out to support the best parade in the world and kick off Mardi Gras season right!  Don’t forget the ball; tickets are $25 each and available at Mardi Gras Zone, Louisiana Music Factory, Up In Smoke, Miss Claudia’s Vintage Clothing.  Costumes are highly encouraged.

Laissez les bon temps rouler starting 6:30pm on Saturday, January 19th!