Grand Time: Thanks to Ray “Undisclosed Location” Nagin’s stellar inability to get things done, New Orleans’ Municipal Auditorium remains out of commission, so we held this year’s Mystic Krewe of Satyricon bal masque in a warehouse space that no one in the krewe was very excited about. And wouldn’t you know, it was fan-freaking-tastic. Maybe the best ever. The Boyfriend got some beautiful pics. Me, not so much.
Grand Guignol: On behalf of crackers everywhere, I would like to apologize to anyone born south of the Rio Grande for the allegedly journalistic, allegedly comic writings of irrelevant lunkhead Angus Lind–in particular, today’s “guide to all things Mardi Gras”, intended for New Orleans’ “new Hispanic neighbors”. Although Lind tries to play up the quirks of Carnival à la Nouvelle Orléans, in the end he sounds like a fatass gringo in some Tijuana cantina who’s had one too many shots of tequila and is now dancing an atrocious hat dance around a novelty sombrero.
I mean, Lind could’ve addressed the article to anyone residing outside the levee system and it would’ve been fine–hell, there are still oodles of things New Orleanians themselves don’t understand about our city’s version of Carnival. There’s a cultural barrier there that’s tailor-made for comedy. (And one that’s been milked to death, but whatevs.) Lind, however, goes one step further and adds a language barrier to the mix, and…well, you know how it is when you’ve got on the perfect dress or suit or costume, and you add that one brooch too many, and suddenly you look like an idiot? That’s what happened.
And to my lesbian friends and other politically correct types, let me be perfectly clear: I don’t care whether or not Lind is being culturally or racially insensitive. I care only about the fact that the Times-Picayune hasn’t yet put the man out to pasture.
Grand Gaffe: Does anyone find it slightly ironic that a Grammy™ winner–a Grammy™ winner receiving an award for a song called “”Jesus, Take the Wheel”, no less–would blurt out “This is unbelievable. I owe everything to Simon Fuller” during her acceptance speech?
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