Another busy day of conferencing. I chaired a panel that included papers on President Johnson’s 1965 Howard University commencement address, President Obama’s commitment to women, Rep. George Henry White’s farewell address to Congress.
I listened to other panels, including a brilliant paper The Yankee did. Later I listened as she critiqued a paper by the man who was our master’s advisor. As I said at the time, it would have been awkward if he weren’t so cool.
At the evening’s reception there was a buffet of beignets. They weren’t the best you’ve ever had, but they were beignets in a buffet. I had some.
I did a nice 10K, with three eight-minute miles, which hasn’t happened since college or high school. That has never happened at that distance. So, truly, I do not know what is happening. None of this bothered me until my evening walk taking pictures.
Here are a few clips I’ve shot this weekend.
This first one is of a Bananas Foster, made fresh at your table by the nice people at Palace Cafe. I recorded juuuuust in case something happened …
Only fire happened. And an entire table full of tourists recording the thing. Oh, sure, we all said we were doing this to show the kids later, or for social media, or for our websites. That’s what we said. I’m sure a few people were hoping they’d get to yell “Worldstar!”
I asked the escorting officers about the purpose of the festivities. Mardi Gras was long over. Was this a wedding? “Just a parade,” he said tiredly, the voice of a motorcycle cop who has probably done hundreds of these. This group, which was swelling with the addition of passersby as it marched, was just crossing Decatur Avenue.
“Iko Iko” tells the story of a parade collision between two “tribes” of Mardi Gras Indians. The song, under the original title “Jock-A-Mo,” was written in 1953 by James “Sugar Boy” Crawford in New Orleans. The spy boy, a lookout, confronts the flag boy of the other tribe and threatens to set the flag on fire.
Tomorrow we head back home. But there will be pictures to see. I took a lot of pictures and the site may just live on them for the next several days.
