This video, though not long, comes in three parts…a) Rebecca’s first trip to New Orleans means an immediate stop at Bourbon Street, b) Mostly still shots of the “NOLA Jazz & Heritage Festival”, which was the reason for going in the first place…video is of crowd at main stage, Pearl Jam, Van Morrison, Galactic (underlying music at that point is “Jon Cleary”), c) THE special aspect of this vacation. Our Uber driver took a liking to us and picked us up Saturday night after the festival (which ends WAY early) and took us on a tour most white tourists never see…the Lower 9th Ward. Compare the homes and open space to the shots before Katrina. And MOST IMPORTANTLY, the last segment at the “House of Dance and Feathers”, is the secret museum of the history of the Mardis Gras Indians and Krewe in general. The staff behind the glass is the “gatekeeper’s staff”…keeping the gates of hell closed? Some seriously cool voodoo hoodoo stuff. But hats off to “Hot Boy Mel”, our driver, who was once a dancer in the “Big 9 Skull & Bones” Society. The older man in the video literally wrote the history book. There’s one pic in that tome of the mother of “Trombone Shorty”, who I befriended on his first trip to Chattanooga, opening for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, dancing ON TOP of the CASKET of his brother….killed by gang violence in the 9th, well before Katrina. btw, many of those homes, nice by most standards, were built by Tom Cruise’s and the church of Scientology donations! Note the pic of me standing directly against the dyke with sun setting on homes to the left….that’s where the breach occurred. Also, the last shot before we go into the museum is Mel’s church, which, along with a very few other older, original buildings, is being renewed as it was.
