My Spy Boy is Full of Fire
Feb 24th, 2009 by Nola
Today is Mardi Gras. The end of carnival season. Tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, starts Lent. The seasons here in New Orleans go quickly from one to the next.
I confess that I love carnival but tend to be underwhelmed with Mardi Gras day. The mega parades are over the weekend. And the Zulu and Rex parades are just too darned early. And there’s all that sun–drinking in the sun can be trouble. Especially come Wednesday morning. So you can see why I haven’t done anything special for Mardi Gras day in over a decade. I know, that seems weird. But I usually take Fat Tuesday to catch my breath and revitalize myself for the remaining work week.
But today I was determined to do a Mardi Gras tradition I haven’t yet done. I went out searching for the Mardi Gras Indians and the North Side Skull & Bones Gang in Treme. We ended up at the Backstreet Cultural Museum. And I was in for what would prove to be the best Mardi Gras experience I have had as an adult. That is saying a lot. Volumes. So what’s the big deal?
We arrived and there were a couple of the Bones Gang walking about.
And in short order, more kept arriving.
And they went out of their way to warm up to the numerous children that were there.
The folks that run the Museum were most welcoming in introducing themselves, and the Gang and Indians were very agreeable to having a ton of pictures taken of them.
For as intimidating as they look, they were inviting and warm.
Then we heard, “SSSSPPPPPYYYYY BBBBBOOOOOOOYYYYY!” and saw this Spy Boy coming down the street:
And, as tradition dictates, two blocks away was his Chief:
Then they made an announcement that Antoinette K-Doe died early this morning. She was Ernie K-Doe‘s widow, and quite popular in New Orleans. The Gang sang a funeral song in tribute to her. Then followed it up with “I’ll Fly Away,” then “My Blood.” It was sad and wonderful and respectful and joyful all bound together.
These are a proud people, the Indians and the North Side Skull & Bones Gang, and proud they should be. It was quite the showing.
I will be back next year, and Sun will be with me.
Happy Mardi Gras, y’all. You can see all of my Mardi Gras pictures here. I’ll add the rest of my carnival ones soon!
Very cool. Thanks for sharing.
Editor B’s last blog post..Sawing [Flickr]
Well, you said it all better than what I was coming up with in trying to describe the day. I’m just going to post some more pictures and link here for people to get the day’s details. Thanks for coming with!
Pontchartrain Pete’s last blog post..Krewe du Vieux 2009
Thanks for this wonderful post.
Thanks for sharing your Mardi Gras. This was really cool.
Ed (zoesdad)’s last blog post..Music to Move the Mass
[...] for the first time in a long while, I went downtown for Carnival. Nolanotes joined me, she wrote a post about the whole thing today that’s more than I could have come up with. Here are some more pictures from today: [...]
Oooh! I’ve never gotten to go see the Indians do their thing!! Thanks for sharing.
Sharon’s last blog post..Good news!
I miss the truck parades.
SoMo’s last blog post..Now, That’s a Protest
Great, great shots!!!
stacey’s last blog post..I am an Auntie again!!
wow…happy Mardi Gras, belatedly and a solemn Ash Wednesday (not that I participate in the latter but it would be odd to say ‘Merry Ash Wednesday’). You can color me green with envy over the Mardi Gras festivities…I’m so going to have to put this on my list of things to do before I die…..but at least I finally tasted King Cake, scratch that one off the list.
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Woohoo… mardi gras photos. That’s what I’m talking about! The crawfish were plain mean, now I’m really hungry.
Tara R.’s last blog post..Random Wednesday ~ traveling shoes
Oh wow! That is wonderful! Sounds like a perfect tradition. I love these photographs of everyone and the scenery.
Momisodes’s last blog post..Your Love Is Better Than…Caffeine
Wow, I would love to see that for real one day. Amazing. Looks like it was a very special day.
Jo Beaufoix’s last blog post..Put Yourself on a Pedestal
The pictures are absolutely amazing!!!! I will definitely have to try to check that out next year. You teach me so much about living here
Amy’s last blog post..This Angel Needs SOLE
What an amazing piece. I loved it. Just before Mardis Gras, a friend sent me an mp3 of The Wild Tchoupitaoulas doing Indian Red. It’s a great song…the early Neville brothers doing their harmonies. In the tune they sing: “I got a spy-boy, a spy-boy, spy-boy of the nation, the wild, wild creation. He won’t bow down, down on the ground. I love to hear them call Indian Red.” So I was trying to figure out what a spy-boy was, and what they were singing about. Google brought me to your blog, and a couple of other pieces. Such great culture, too bad the only thing you hear when you hear Mardis Gras on the news are beads for breasts. The Indian parades and dances are what should be shown.
[...] He asked how we’d learned of the museum. I explained I’d known of it from visiting the Backstreet Cultural Museum (“Oh, Sylvester’s place,” he’d responded, [...]