News and information from the New Orleans area
Posts tagged Bacchus
2012 Orleans Parish Mardi Gras Parade Schedule
012 years
Mardi Gras Parade in New Orleans
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve cut down on the parades on the North Shore, West Bank, Metairie, etc. I focus on the myriad of parades in my own backyard, Orleans Parish, my home since I was a Senior at Cornell. Here’s the schedule for Orleans Parish-
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10th
- Krewe of Cork at 3pm in the French Quarter
- Krewe of Oshun Uptown 6:00pm
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 11th
- Krewe of Pontchartrain Uptown 2:00 p.m.
- ‘tit Rəx Bywater 5:30 p.m.
- Knights of Sparta Uptown 6:00 p.m.
- Krewe of Pygmalion Uptown 6:45 p.m.
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 12th
- Krewe of Carrollton Uptown 12:00 p.m.
- Krewe of King Arthur Uptown 1:15 p.m.
- Mystic Krewe of Barkus French Quarter 2:00 p.m. This parade is all for dogs.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15th
- Krewe of Ancient Druids Uptown 6:30 p.m.
- Krewe of Nyx Uptown 7pm
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 16th
- Knights of Babylon, Uptown 5:45
- Krewe of Chaos, Uptown 6:30
- Krewe of Muses, Uptown 6:30
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 17th
- Divine Protectors of Endangered Pleasures or DIVA French Quarter 1:30 p.m.
- Knights of Hermes Uptown 6:00 p.m.
- D’Etat- Uptown, 6:00 p.m.
- Krewe of Morpheus Uptown 7:00 p.m.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18th
- Iris – Uptown, 11:00 a.m.
- Tucks – Uptown, 12:00 p.m.
- Endymion – Mid City, 4:15 p.m.
- Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus, Central City and CBD, 5:00 p.m.
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 19th
- Okeanos – Uptown, 11:00 a.m.
- Mid-City – Uptown, 11:45 p.m.
- Thoth – Uptown, 12:00 a.m.
- Bacchus- Uptown, 5:15 p.m.
LUNDI GRAS, FEBRUARY 20TH
- Proteus- Uptown, 5:15 p.m.
- Orpheus – Uptown, 6:00 p.m.
- Lundi Gras Celebration
MARDI GRAS, FEBRUARY 21st
- Zulu- Uptown, 8:00 a.m.
- Rex – Uptown, 10:00 a.m.
- Elks Orleans – Uptown, 11:30 a.m.
- Crescent City – Uptown, follows Elks
Will Ferrell will Reign as Bacchus 2012!!
012 years
When Bacchus rolls down St. Charles Avenue on Sunday night, February 19, 2012, Will Ferrell will be Bacchus 44. He’s in town filming a movie. I’m a big fan of Will, like most people are. He’s a movie star, major comedian, former Saturday Night Live! player, and now he will be here for Carnival as Bacchus 2012!
Zach Galifianakis and current “SNL” cast member Jason Sudeikis also co-star in “Dog Fight,” which started production in New Orleans on Halloween and is scheduled to continue filming through late January, with an eye toward a summer 2012 release. Other actors in the flick- John Lithgow and Dylan McDermott.
Bacchus 2012 Will Ferrell
Blaine Kern Loses Challenge to Keep Mardi Gras Float Empire
113 years
Blaine Kern, Rickey Jackson, Holly Kern on Superdome Floor
Once again, suing your aged dad, granted he’s under the spell of his much younger wife, never is a good idea. It doesn’t matter if you win in the Appeals Court, which the son, Barry, did. Karma works against you when you sue your dad, especially if he’s over 83 years old!
The Kerns build REX, BACCHUS, ENDYMION, MUSES, ORPHEUS, ALLA, CAESAR, and many, many other parades around the metro area, region, and world. Therefore, lots of money and responsibility come with the territory, and the Mardi Gras crowds annually depend on the Kerns via REX, etc.
A state appeals panel has upheld the court-ordered transfer of control over Blaine Kern Artists Inc. to the Mardi Gras magnate’s son, Barry Kern.
The one-sentence ruling Tuesday denied the elder Kern’s challenge to an April ruling by Civil District Court Judge Kern Reese that enforced a father-son deal convected last year. That deal was intended to quell a family rift that threatened float production for a number of the largest Carnival parades.
The deal, brokered by three prominent Carnival captains, called for Blaine Kern Sr. to sell all of his shares to his son and for the board of directors to turn over management control of the 54-year-old Mardi Gras giant to Barry Kern, 48, at a shareholders meeting. But Blaine Kern stood pat, and no such meeting or vote took place.
At issue, Barry Kern argued, was the financial stability of the company. He twice filed suit against his father during the past year, saying the 83-year-old Kern Sr. had meddled with management and sapped its cash reserves.
Barry Kern cast blame on his father’s fourth wife, Holly Brown-Kern, claiming his father’s spending on houses, cars and other luxuries had ballooned since his marriage to Brown-Kern, while his debt had mounted and he began seeking cash advances from the company.
Blaine Kern’s attorney, William Wessel, could not be reached for comment late Wednesday on the 3-0 decision by a panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, finding “no error” in Reese’s ruling.
In ruling for Barry Kern in April, Reese called the need to safeguard Mardi Gras “way bigger” to the world than a father-son rift.
Under his order, the company’s four shareholders — Blaine and Barry Kern and Barry’s siblings, Brian and Blainey — met April 25 at Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World to elect three directors who, in turn, named Barry Kern president.
Blaine Kern, 2010 People's Health Champion
BARRY KERN WINS THIS ROUND, DAD HAS TO FOLLOW PAST AGREEMENTS
013 years
The owner of the world-famous Mardi Gras World has been ordered to relinquish his title and give ownership of the float-building company to his son.
Orleans Parish Civil District Judge Reese Kern made the ruling today, forcing Blaine Kern Sr. to hand over ownership of the company to Barry Kern at a shareholders meeting April 26.
Judge Reese Kern
Blaine Kern Sr. founded the company more than 50 years ago and provides floats for the majority of Mardi Gras Krewes that ride during New Orleans’ carnival season, including Rex, Bacchus, Endymion, Alla, Orpheus, and Caesar.
Barry Kern filed a suit against his father Oct. 1, 2010, to evict him “from any directorial or officer position” and to appoint “a receiver to manage and/or dissolve” Blaine Kern Artists (BKA).
That lawsuit made headlines across southeast Louisiana and, and just two days later, the Times-Picayune reported that an intermediary team composed of the Captains of Endymion and Bacchus had stepped in for Blaine and Barry Kern and resolved their differences.
Six months later, Barry Kern sued his father again, claiming Blaine Kern Sr. “failed and refused to consummate the agreement.” A violation of the October agreement requires the violating party to pay $100,000 to the other party, according to the suit.
The suit alleged that Blaine Kern Sr. had agreed in part to sell his shares of the company to Barry Kern, “including payment of debts of Blaine Kern, Sr., lease of facilities owned by Blaine Kern Sr., and a lifetime consulting contract with Blain Kern Sr.”
Blaine Kern Sr. improperly acted as a manager of BKA, the suit alleged. Kern allegedly fired his other son, Brian Kern, asked for BKA to pay his personal expenses and demanded the cashier at Mardi Gras World to give him money from the cash register.
The suit claimed “Blaine Kern Sr. has no right to exercise any managerial control over BKA. “The agreements between Barry and Blaine Kern were arranged by Owen “Pip” Bennan, the captain of the Mardi Gras krewe Bacchus, the suit said.
The meetings resulted in a seven-point letter of intent and a four-point agreement, which essentially transferred control of BKA from father to son. Soon after the agreement was announced, a recorded offer of settlement was filed in Orleans Parish on Oct. 5, according to court documents. The case remains active under Judge Michael Bagneris.
The original suit stated Barry Kern is seeking control of BKA because his father, 83, has acted under the influence of his fourth wife, Holly Brown, who is nearly 50 years younger than him.
The October suit alleged that Blaine Kern’s spending has made BKA “technically insolvent” and that the company has bounced payroll checks to employees. It also claims that Blaine Kern named Brown as co-captain and treasurer of Blaine Kern’s Krewe of Halloween in the Boo Carre, which has failed to make timely payments on equipment and materials provided by BKA.
The suit also makes the claim that Blaine Kern improperly fired Barry Kern, who was named president of BKA in 1995 after successfully running similar companies in Europe, Las Vegas and Orlando. Barry Kern has since resigned as president even though the suit claims Blaine Kern had no authority to fire his son.
Brown is not mentioned in the most recent suit filed by Barry Kern.
New Orleans attorneys Randall Smith, Stephen Gele and Melissa Desormeaux are representing Kern.
Barry Kern Lawsuit Hearing Set For Friday
013 years
The dominant float building company in New Orleans continues to air its dirty laundry publicly. A hearing has been scheduled for Friday in the civil suit filed by Barry Kern, who once again, is suing for control of the New Orleans float-building enterprise that his father, Blaine Kern Sr., founded.
Blaine Kern
Barry Kern
This is the biggest float production company in New Orleans, and possibly the world. They build Rex, Bacchus, Endymion, Muses, Orpheus, Alla, and many other parades. They travel around the world building floats and props for a myriad of uses and users.
Barry Kern, the president of Blaine Kern Artists, is seeking an injunction to keep his 83-year-old father “from interfering with the management of the company,” said Randall Smith, the younger Kern’s attorney. Barry Kern must be awfully upset to sue his octogenarian father. When you sue your elderly parent, you generally lose the public relations battle before it starts.
This is the latest chapter in a feud that went public last fall, when Barry Kern filed a suit alleging that Blaine Kern Artists was a company in fiscal crisis. He laid much of the blame at the feet of Holly Brown Kern, the elder Kern’s fourth wife, saying she was responsible for a big increase in her husband’s spending, often with company money.
Now I have some experience with Holly Brown Kern from before she was married to Blaine, and she controlled him pretty good back then. I am sure Holly is pulling a lot of strings behind the scenes now.
That dispute was settled in an agreement between the Kerns that was witnessed by leaders of three major Carnival organizations: Bacchus, Endymion and Rex, who also are longtime Kern clients.
But in the suit filed this week, Barry Kern claimed his father had not lived up to the pact, in which he agreed to sell his stock in the company to his son and attend a shareholders meeting where Barry Kern, 48, would be elected president. Whoever failed to live up to these terms would have to pay $100,000 plus attorneys fees to the other Kern, the agreement stated.
“We need to resolve who’s running the company so that customers can feel comfortable about paying their bills and move forward with planning for Mardi Gras 2012,” Smith said.
Judge Kern Reese will conduct the 9 a.m. hearing.