News and information from the New Orleans area
Posts tagged Rex
18 Day Sprint to Mardi Gras Day!!
012 years
Mardi Gras in New Orleans is under three weeks away! In the middle of all that, we are hosting the Super Bowl, featuring the Baltimore Ravens vs. the San Francisco 49ers. Mardi Gras will be taking a nine day vacation while we host Super Bowl XLVII in the venerable Super Dome!!
Ravens vs 49ers Super Bowl XLVII New Orleans
We are having an incredible month, with President Barack Obama’s second inauguration, MLK Day, plus the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras! Whew!! That’s a lot of huge events for any month in New Orleans. Of course, the President’s inauguration and MLK Day occur all over the USA, From New York to California and all points in between.
The 2013 Carnival season kicks off in high gear this weekend with lots of parades on the St. Charles Avenue route. Oshun, Cleopatra, Pontchartrain, Choctaw, Sparta, Pygmalion, Carrollton, and King Arthur all roll down the traditional route.
Can you guess how many parades from the list immediately above are older than 20 years old originated on St. Charles Avenue?
Uno Un One. Which one?
Sparta, which began in 1951. There are plenty of old neighborhood parades in that list. Can you guess them?
Cleopatra paraded for 39 years across the Mississippi River before changing to St. Charles for 2013.The New Orleans City Council voted on yesterday (January 24) allowing the ladies krewe from the west bank to move their parade to the traditional New Orleans uptown route. The Krewe of Cleopatra will kick off the Carnival Season on January 25, 2013, the first Friday of Mardi Gras.
Captain Dolores Kepner says,This is the perfect year for us to move our parade to the New Orleans uptown route. It opens up tremendous possibilities for the first weekend of Mardi Gras. We are honored to be a part of that.
Choctaw is parading down St. Charles for the first time in 2013, and has plans to return to their traditional parading grounds, the West Bank, in 2014. King Arthur (1977) also started on the West Bank. Pontchartrain began in the Lakeview area, marching on Hayne Boulevard by the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. Carrollton first paraded in their namesake neighborhood. Oshun and Pygmalion started on St. Charles, but they are newer parades.
That leaves only the Knights of Sparta as an historic procession originating on St. Charles. The Knights of Sparta are often mis-named the Krewe of Sparta!
Misspelled Sparta Sign
There are two non-conformist parades out in the Faubourg Marigny over this weekend- ‘tit Rәx, and Chewbacchus, and both roll Saturday in the Marigny. ‘Tit Rәx used to be named ‘tit Rex, until the King of Carnival, the Monarch of Merriment, sued tiny little ‘tit Rex for stealing their name! As can be seen from the photo below, ‘tit Rәx is a miniature hand made float procession, not a full sized parade like Rex. I don’t think Rex made the proper decision, but tit ‘Rәx’s solution to turn the ‘e’ in Rex into a ‘schwa’ which is what a ‘ә‘ is.
Tit Rәx Parade Float
Chewbacchus is a science fiction kind of krewe which features costumes and hand pulled floats in the Star Wars tradition.
Twilek and Ultraman1 of Chewbacchus
2013 Parade Season Split in Two by Super Bowl!!!
212 years
2012 Super Bowl Tickets, Indianapolis, IN
As was the case for Mardi Gras 2002 after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the 2013 parade season will be cut in two, with the first week of Carnival beginning Jan. 25 instead of Feb. 1. That will be followed by a nine-day break in parading as football fans, city officials, the tourism industry and police turn their attention to Super Bowl XLVII (47)
The Super Bowl is Feb. 3, and Mardi Gras 2013 falls on Feb. 12.
The parade season will pick up again after the big game. Traditionally, the official Carnival season consists of 12 consecutive days that culminate on Fat Tuesday.
A handful of Krewes must change their parading days to suit the new schedule.
Parades rolling on Friday, February 1, Oshun and Cleopatra, move to January 25. Parades rolling on Saturday, February 2, Pontchartrain, Sparta and Pygmalion, move to January 26. Parades rolling on Sunday, February 2, Alla, King Arthur, and Carrollton, move to January 27.
As a result of the schedule changes in 2002, some krewes had to scale back in size. The 11 krewes forced to change their schedules received financial compensation from the NFL. The details of the settlement were confidential, but the krewes asked for $550,000, or $50,000 per krewe. The NFL also paid the National Automobile Dealers Association $7.5 million that year to move its meeting to the Super Bowl’s original slot.
Krewe of King Arthur
Schedule courtesy Tulane.edu.
2013 Orleans Only Parade Schedule
| Day | Date | Krewe | Route |
| Friday | January 6, 2013 | Phunny Phorty Phellows | Uptown Streetcar Route |
| Friday | January 6, 2013 | Krewe of Jeanne d’Arc | French Quarter |
| Saturday | January 19, 2013 | Krewe du Vieux | Marigny/French Quarter |
| Friday | January 25, 2013 | Krewe of Oshun | Uptown |
| Friday | January 25, 2013 | Krewe of Cleopatra | Uptown |
| Saturday | January 26, 2013 | Krewe of Pontchartrain | Uptown – Napoleon |
| Saturday | January 26, 2013 | Krewe of Choctaw (1 year only) | Uptown |
| Saturday | January 26, 2013 | Knights of Sparta | Uptown – Napoleon |
| Saturday | January 26, 2013 | Krewe of Pygmalion | Uptown – Napoleon |
| Sunday | January 27, 2013 | Krewe of Carrollton | Uptown – Napoleon |
| Sunday | January 27, 2013 | Krewe of King Arthur | Uptown – Napoleon |
| Friday | February 1, 2013 | Krewe of Cork | French Quarter |
| Sunday | February 3, 2013 | Mystic Krewe of Barkus | French Quarter |
| Wednesday | February 6, 2013 | Krewe of Ancient Druids | Uptown – Jefferson |
| Wednesday | February 6, 2013 | Mystic Krewe of Nyx | Uptown – Jefferson |
| Thursday | February 7, 2013 | Knights of Babylon | Uptown – Napoleon |
| Thursday | February 7, 2013 | Knights of Chaos | Uptown – Napoleon |
| Thursday | February 7, 2013 | Krewe of Muses | Uptown – Jefferson |
| Friday | February 8, 2013 | Krewe of Hermes | Uptown – Napoleon |
| Friday | February 8, 2013 | Le Krewe d’Etat | Uptown – Jefferson |
| Friday | February 8, 2013 | Krewe of Morpheus | Uptown – Jefferson |
| Saturday | February 9, 2013 | Krewe of Iris | Uptown – Napoleon |
| Saturday | February 9, 2013 | Krewe of Tucks | Uptown – Napoleon |
| Saturday | February 9, 2013 | Krewe of Endymion | Mid-City |
| Sunday | February 10, 2013 | Krewe of Okeanos | Uptown – Jefferson |
| Sunday | February 10, 2013 | Krewe of Mid-City | Uptown – Jefferson |
| Sunday | February 10, 2013 | Krewe of Thoth | Uptown – Henry Clay |
| Sunday | February 10, 2013 | Krewe of Bacchus | Uptown – Napoleon |
| Monday | February 11, 2013 | Krewe of Proteus | Uptown – Napoleon |
| Monday | February 11, 2013 | Krewe of Orpheus | Uptown – Napoleon |
| Tuesday | February 12, 2013 | Krewe of Zulu | Uptown – Jackson |
| Tuesday | February 12, 2013 | Rex, King of Carnival | Uptown – Claiborne |
| Tuesday | February 12, 2013 | Elks Krewe of Orleanians | Uptown – Claiborne |
| Tuesday | February 12, 2013 | Krewe of Crescent City | Uptown – Claiborne |
Now I’m a member of Krewe du Vieux, and it really is a blast to be in a krewe. I love Mardi Gras from the street perspective, but belonging to a Carnival Krewe, that’s a whole other level of fun. We get to march in the historic French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny. Our super satiric, ribald floats are adults only. Our floats are pulled by donkeys and each float has it’s own brass band! The Hot 8 Brass Band was in front of us in 2012 and they kicked butt and I mean they kicked butt. The entire miles long route was an excuse for these brass warriors to take our entire Krewe of Underwear to a new party parade level, which energized the crowd as they passed.
Blaine Kern Faces Foreclosure, Continued Court Fight With Son
013 years
REX New Butterfly Float 2012
Since April, Blaine Kern Sr, Carnival legend and founder of Mardi Gras World, was heading down the slippery slope of foreclosure. Blaine Sr has been embroiled in a nasty law suit with his son, Barry Kern.
As readers of this blog already know, I always preach one axiom when discussing this case- never sue your parents, it won’t work out in the long run no matter what you believe at the time. This is a time honored axiom that can’t be overcome or changed.
When the first Super Parade was born in 1967 with Bacchus, who was the float builder who made Captain Augie Perez’s dreams come true? Blaine Kern Sr. He’s been the float builder of record for Rex, Orpheus, Endymion, Muses, Bacchus, Alla, and Caesar, all the Super Krewes of note in recent Carnival history
Traditional Jester Float of REX, the King of Carnival!
Blaine sought national accounts, and landed Disneyland and MGM as major clients, among other big businesses. He’s represented the great traditions of Mardi Gras in the best New Orleans tradition of service and quality. I personally helped grow it (Mardi Gras) into a billion-dollar industry, says 85-year-old Blaine Kern, nicknamed “Mr. Mardi Gras”. I’ve been doing this for 74 years.
The Algiers Point house he bought with his fourth wife, Holly Brown-Kern, is slated for the auction block in two months, according to a foreclosure notice filed this week by Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s office.
The notice lists a May 3 auction date for the Abalon Court property in the Algiers Riverpoint subdivision. Whitney Bank sued Kern in January over a $283,849 debt on the house, which the couple bought five years ago for $290,000, according to public records.
Kern’s Movie Credits Used to Build Floats!!
013 years
- Mardi Gras World
This is the second entry that goes on both my blogs- Watchopp and my Mardi Gras blog as well. We can thank the Legislative Auditor‘s office for this one, they released the report that the Kerns used the movie tax credits to build floats in 2006 instead of their unfinished documentary, Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras: Building of the Greatest Free Show on Earth. The Kerns own Mardi Gras World, a New Orleans institution. They build REX, Bacchus, Orpheus, Endymion, Muses, and Alla, among others.
- Barry and Blaine Kern in Happier Times
Barry Kern’s huge response to the Auditor report states that the practices the Kerns followed were somewhat widespread at the time among live entertainment documentaries that applied for the tax credit during the same time period. Those productions include Jazz Fest, Voodoo Fest and Essence Fest. That’s pretty esteemed company for the Kerns to be keeping. I guess French Quarter Festival kept their nose clean on this live entertainment documentary mess. Good for them!!
Barry Kern thinks his dad, Blaine Kern Sr., notified the Legislative Auditor about the tax credit situation. That made Barry Kern very mad. If Dad’s objective was to make Barry mad, it worked. The Kern family is in the middle of well known legal battle for control of the Kern empire. Barry started the legal feud, and Blaine is doing his best to continue it. This is the juiciest, saddest public legal family battle we’ve seen in quite some time. My condolences to all involved.
- Kern’s REX Parade on Mardi Gras Day
The big news in the case is at the end of February 2012, the Louisiana Appeals Court overturned the lower court and gave Kern Sr. back control. They threw out the deal the Kerns brokered with the key Mardi Gras Captains, and lifted the temporary injunction against Kern Sr.
That means the lawsuit, in which Barry Kern accused his father of ruining the company, will go back to Orleans Civil District Court for a full hearing.
Barry Kern now has 14 days to appeal the ruling to the full Fourth Circuit bench for a rehearing. Otherwise, the case will be sent back for trial before Judge Kern Reese.
So if the elder Kern is back running the business, why would he contact the Legislative Auditor and draw attention to the possible misuse of tax credits? To embarrass Barry for sure is probably the only reason. The elder Kern oversaw the building of those floats, not his son, more than five years ago.
The Kerns’ movie was billed as a look at the history, design, building and production of Carnival and Mardi Gras floats, with a focus on the 2007 season, according to the Legislative Auditor’s report.
Top 3 Orleans Parish Parades for 2012
013 years
Last year’s Parade of the Year, Muses, has taken a step back, as their 2012 floats lacked first rate execution. Blaine Kern didn’t do his usual excellent work for a relatively new super krewe. The floats moved so quickly it was difficult to get a good look.
Their own floats sparkled as usual (also made by Kern). Super krewes draw a huge audience, which often brings out the boorish behavior in many hard drinking spectators, as they jostle the crowd in pursuit of Muses’ vaunted logoed throws.
Muses’ marching groups are second to none, and the 610 Stompers, Bearded Oysters, Pussyfooters, Camel Toe Lady Steppers and Flying Elvi didn’t disappoint.
Not too long ago, Muses was a new krewe that drew much smaller crowds. The sheer number of unique throws, memorable floats and biting satire hadn’t caught on yet. Any ordinary Joe could catch a shoe back then. Those days are way over now.
Muses throws were not anything special for 2012. Check out the YouTube video above, that is one cool fan!! I caught it several years ago. I’m waiting for another out-of-the-box throw.
Their throws included a number of new logoed items, including a band-aid box; a coin purse on a lanyard; a bottle opener/flashlight on a bead and a floating liquid pen. The most original of those throws is the floating liquid pen. That’s a fun writing tool!
2012 Muses Purse on Lanyard
I rate Muses number 3 for 2012.
Number 2 is REX, the King of Carnival. They are the oldest daytime parade and still roll on wooden wagon wheels.
Rex Wooden Wagon Wheels
Rex Wooden Wagon Wheels 2009
REX is number 2 for their historic use of wagon wheels, plus several other important factors. It was a perfect day, and REX is a daytime parade. Blaine Kern builds this parade, and it’s their number 1 showcase daytime parade. The paint job was gorgeous! Kudos to the Kern painting team.
REX introduced their new Butterfly King float for 2012.
REX New Butterfly King Float photo courtesy WWL-TV
REX had several good bands, including the United States Army and the Tulane University Marching Bands. Monroe’s High School Marching Band delivered a strong performance as well. By the time REX rolls on Fat Tuesday, most high school bands are unable to march anymore due to marching limits imposed by the City Council.
The floats looked terrific, as did the krewe’s costumes. The throws were typically REX with a couple of exceptions- they had a fancy cloisonne pin celebrating the new Butterfly King float and re-introduced the plush crown they first threw a few years ago.
Number 1 for 2012 goes to Hermes!! They had it all together in 2012, and that’s a very tall order.
Their bands were top notch- St. Augustine, Xavier Prep, L.B. Landry, McDonogh 35 and several out-of-state bands all marched with Hermes.
Hermes’ throws were improved. They threw plastic Hermes goblets, a light up Hermes headband with plastic wings (D’Etat threw the same headband in purple with the D’Etat logo instead of wings), light up medical caduceus beads, blinky winged shoe beads and a light up ball. A nice throw this year was a crawfish/centipede stuffed toy in Mardi Gras colors. I’m not sure if this an official Hermes toy or a generous generic one.
Hermes 2012 Light Up Headband with Light Up Ball
The floats were top of the line old fashioned, marked by striking colors and expressive prop figures, wonderfully detailed, and an abundance of bouncing paper ornaments, including flowers, grapes, snowflakes and more. The floats moved at a reasonable pace and the traditional flambeaux were interspersed with the floats as were the Lieutenants on horseback, who dispensed purple riding doubloons.
2012 Hermes Float The Glories of this World on St. Charles Ave.
The Krewe of Hermes rolls down Napoleon Ave. near St. Charles Ave. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
As per tradition, the Hermes captain leads the parade in full regalia on a white horse.
Hermes Captain on Horse
Mythical Cartoon Hermes with Caduceus
Special Mention goes to the Mystic Krewe of Proteus for the float work of Royal Artists. They have a web site here, it apparently hasn’t been updated for a couple of years, as they are Bordeaux Street uptown and the site lists the North Shore.
2012 Proteus Signature Fish Float
Rear of Signature Fish Float