Decadent days ahead -- Mardi Gras is here

"New Orleans -- what a country!" 

There's a Russian comedian named Yakov Smirnoff who was famous in the 80s and would often say "America -- what a country!" About once a day, I find myself saying the same thing about New Orleans. It really is different -- different in the way that Key West is different. New Orleans is its own republic, separate from the rest of the country, allowed to be it's own weird self, mostly unmolested or uncared for by the rest of the nation, pumping culture with music, food, film, art, etc. And then comes Mardi Gras...etc., etc., etc. What a friggin' country.

The Krewe du Vieux parade, party, after party, after after party, after after after party was amazing, incredible, wonderfully overwhelming and being someone who has DJ'ed a lot of Brooklyn renegade parties back in DUMBO and Williamsburg and throughout Downtown Manhattan that's saying a lot. Anyway, I won't babble on with details. Kinda still piecing it together but if you don't live here and you get a chance to check out Krewe du Vieux, do it. It's for your own good -- maybe health. 

I didn't get too many pictures. I tried to just enjoy what was happening but I managed these.