Posts by: Benjamin Morris
Throw Me Something, Mister: Mardi Gras Dispatch #6
The final dispatch from Benjamin Morris, who covered New Orleans Mardi Gras, 2011 for The Rumpus:
The problem of Mardi Gras—of the day itself, Fat Tuesday—is that you only have one body.
Consider the map of the day. Uptown, you have the parades: the last of the season, Zulu and Rex, followed by two parades on trucks, Elks Orleanians and Crescent City.
...moreThrow Me Something, Mister: Mardi Gras Dispatch #5
Recurring dispatches from Benjamin Morris covering New Orleans Mardi Gras, 2011:
Some nights only begin once you get hit in the face.
I never saw it coming, though I’m not sure the rider in Bacchus could say the same. The way they hurl their throws, you’d swear they were training for the minor leagues.
...moreThrow Me Something, Mister: Mardi Gras Dispatch #4
Recurring dispatches from Benjamin Morris covering New Orleans Mardi Gras, 2011:
If there’s one lesson we know well here in New Orleans, it’s that none of us are immune to the elements.
It’s only a matter of time before a shadow passes over and reminds us of the water, water, everywhere: above us in the clouds, below us in the soil, around us in the Gulf and in the lakes, through us in the River, and within us in our bodies, water-born and water-fueled creatures that we are.
...moreThrow Me Something, Mister: Mardi Gras Dispatch #3
Recurring dispatches from Benjamin Morris covering New Orleans Mardi Gras, 2011:
“I thought I’d be happy with just one!” Kellie says, her slender frame weighed down under two full pounds of beads. Around her neck they gleam in a perfect rainbow: red, purple, blue, green, pink, gold, and even white.
...moreThrow Me Something, Mister: Mardi Gras Dispatch #2
Recurring dispatches from Benjamin Morris covering New Orleans Mardi Gras, 2011:
“Y’all ready?” I ask the cops, clustered near the corner of Napoleon and St Charles. “Been ready,” one shoots right back at me. “Just ready to get it done.”
The parades this evening, led by the Krewes of Sparta and Pygmalion, are back to back; the Pontchartrain parade has already rolled earlier in the day but most people have just decided to stick around, eating and drinking and playing football and beer pong, lounging about in deck chairs, playing fetch with their dogs, listening to WWOZ on portable radios, bantering with those nearby.
...moreThrow Me Something, Mister:
Mardi Gras Dispatch #1
Recurring dispatches from Benjamin Morris covering New Orleans Mardi Gras, 2011:
This is how it begins: with a lot of standing around.
Some of us are drunk. Some of us are getting there, some of us are dead sober, but no one gives a shit either way.
...moreGENERATION GAP #7: Mario Tama’s New Orleans
Now that It is over—now that the circus has come and gone, its glaring lights, its grips and its roadies; now that the visiting dignitaries have made their dignified departures and the newspapers have returned to publishing news