PEACHFRONT SPEAKS

Recent entries july 4, 2018 - 2018-07-04 the triangle continues of courtney, boobear, & nyota - 2018-07-03 Cookie so cute telling, "Hello" to sparrows - 2018-07-01 lovebirb in love - 2018-06-30 wren with fluffffff - 2018-06-24 Read my new book, The 10 Best Things You Can Do For Your Bird at Amazon or at many other fine distributors like Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, and more. By public demand, and after a delay of an embarrassing number of years, I've finally put my notorious essay, Ender and Hitler: Sympathy for the Superman, free on the fabulous internets. A bibliography of my published books and stories. Here's a simple card-counting FAQ to get you up to speed on the basics. Here's the true story of the notorious DD' blackjack team, told for the first time on the fabulous internets. No other team went from a starting investor's bankroll of zero to winning millions of dollars. A Sadean take on Asimov's classic Three Laws of Robotics can be found in Roger Williams' NOW REVIEWED ON SLASHDOT!!! The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. Adult readers only please -- explicit sex and violence. For updates on the "Dead Tree Project" and other topics, you may visit the official fan site, Passages in the Void.. My Bird Lists -- My Louisiana State Life List, My Yard List and, tah dah, My World Life List. HEY! What happened to the Peachfront Conure Files? The world's only OFFICIAL Peachfront Conure site now features free peachfront conure coverage, including a magazine length Intro to Conures previously published in American Cage-Bird Magazine, now free on the web. I offer the best free Peachfront Conure information on the internet. If you have great Peachfront Conure info, stories, or photos to share, contact me so I can publicize your pet, your breeding success, your great photograph, etc. on my site. Thanks.

guest entry: mardi gras 2006 -- the return of zulu 2006-03-03 - 8:24 a.m. Note from Peachfront: This guest entry from Roger Williams was simulcast in his diary on kuro5hin.org. text and photos © 2006 by Roger Williams I just got back from seeing the New Orleans Mardi Gras celebration up close with my friend J. The post-Katrina Mardi Gras was smaller, more laid-back, and politer than Mardi Gras past. The crowds in the French Quarter were thin; it was actually possible to walk down Bourbon Street, and right up to the parade rail guard on Canal. In the past those crowds have been impassable, so that you could only proceed via a sort of guided Brownian motion. We ate lunch at the Chartres Cafe without waiting, and went down to wait for Zulu to arrive. This is the first time I have ever seen a Canal Street main line parade; normally, if you don't show up and stake out an observation spot two hours ahead of time, you end up thirty people back from the rail and you can't see anything, much less catch any throws. beaded car with blue dog There was a very touching story in the paper a couple of days ago about Zulu in particular and the mechanics of their decision to parade this year; I was glad to be there to see them. They were obviously thin on riders for the floats (right up until parade day they were offering spots, costume and throws included, for $1500 flat). Throws were plentiful for the thinner than usual crowds. I loaded up on beads, including some of the allegedly collectible Zulu medallions; J caught the only doubloon we saw. I caught a gilded Zulu coconut after it rolled between the legs of the lady in front of me. Zulu coconuts are one of the most prized throws of the entire Mardi Gras season, and when I saw the look of disappointment on her face I handed it to the lady whose feet had guided it into my hands. She spent the next half our breathlessly telling herself "I got a Zulu coconut! I got a Zulu coconut! Wow!" I hope she gets to treasure it for many years. zulu float That was a thing that happened a lot this year that I'd never seen before. Someone would get a hunk of beads, and tell the person next to them, "Hey, you ain't got any of this kind, take a couple." "I can't fly home with all this stuff anyway, you keep it." The normal stereotype of this behavior is the cry "Daaaah-BLOOON!!!!!" as the greedy viewer stomps on a throw that has landed on the ground to claim it, heedless of fingers that might be on their way to an intersection with the boot. This year people picked stuff up from the ground and handed it to others who they noticed were sporting a less complete collection. Part of the reason for this is that the crowd was generally older than usual, and more made up of locals and ex-pats. Many attendees were Mardi Gras veterans who, like me, hadn't gone in many years. Young people seeing it for the first time were much less plentiful. There were a few, and I'm sure they will cause some ruckus as the drinking winds up to its usual crescendo tonight, but by in large it was a friendly and thoughtful crowd. zulu warriors from africa show the flag in the zulu parade As we drifted off -- neither J nor I having the temperament for the evening's more frenzied festivities -- we finally began to notice some of the more infamously outrageous costumes you usually see even in the early morning. The local gay community was hosting its "beauty" pageant on Bourbon Street, to much bisexual amusement. Around that area a few drag queens and S&M people were in evidence. Things were much tamer than usual -- we saw hardly any really daring semi-nudity or tit-flashing. That might crank up a bit later enough for the many, many news cameras to get some good footage as the drinking winds up, but there's really a lot less of it this year than I've seen in the past. I'm still not sure whether I just saw a joyous celebration of rebirth or the world's most elaborate Jazz funeral; it was probably a combination of both. I heard many people remarking on the thinner crowds -- "It's like half a Mardi Gras," one fellow was saying into his cell phone as we passed. On the other hand many people remarked on how important the French Quarter was, how different it was from any place else, and now glad they were it had survived, and how right it was to be in this place at this time doing this thing as our community has done for 150 years. There weren't as many as I expected, but plenty of revelers adopted Katrina themed costumes. The "shopping cart Krewes," made up mostly of people native to the Quarter, were heavy on hurricane themes. One marching group dressed in Army fatigues with signs that announced "Krewe of MRE -- Free Lunch Daily." Another fairly large group protested "the new four-letter F-word" -- FEMA. My favorite T-shirt was politically incorrect according to my own beliefs, but too funny to pass on: "I stayed for hurricane Katrina and all I got was this lousy T-shirt, a new Cadillac, and a Plasma TV." This would have been a special Mardi Gras even if Katrina had never happened; it was the 150th anniversary of the first organized New Orleans parade. As it happened, it may not be the celebration that was intended, but it did demonstrate that the spirit of New Orleans that makes it such a special city does live on. Whether that spirit can survive the many challenges that lay ahead remains unkown. But the people of New Orleans will do their best, with wit and humor and plenty of good food and alcohol to deal with it as best we can. back - next All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2002-2017 by Elaine Radford