[Dixielandjazz] N.O

[Charlie Hooks]

On Tuesday, August 30, 2005, at 02:13 PM, Craig I. Johnson wrote:

> Based on what I am listening to on TV right now. New Orleans will 
> not be operational
> for months. The French Quarter after first escaping much of what hit 
> the rest of the city
> is now flooding due to levee breaks.
>
> . They are intending to EVACUATE THE CITY.
>    They are all in deep "stuff"
> I would not count on anything being open Sept 10 by any means, but 
> keep listening.
> Craig Johnson
>

Well, I don't know, Craig...

Here's a crowd that seldom allows anything to rain on its parade, and 
I have visions of happy gay guys splashing along Bourbon Street in 
(ooh!) wet pants!

By RYAN LEE
Aug. 19, 2005

FOR A LABOR DAY WEEKEND LOADED with glam, gangsters and girth, New 
Orleans’ French Quarter is the place to be.

The 34th annual Southern Decadence festival, which evolved over the 
years from a party for a few friends to a six-day street party 
attended by more than 100,000 people, runs this year from Aug. 31 to 
Sept. 5.

Unofficially dubbed the “gay Mardi Gras,” Southern Decadence is 
filled with dozens of parties and thousands of uninhibited gay men 
frolicking in the street in search of beads and brethren. The event 
culminates with a Sept. 4 parade featuring elaborate and risqué 
costumes inspired by this year’s 1920s theme, “Jazz & Jezebels.”

Also filling the French Quarter that weekend are hundreds of 
plus-sized gay men and their admirers for Convergence 2005, an annual 
event convened by the Affiliated Big Men’s Club, a national coalition 
of big men’s organizations.

Various organizations bid for the right to host Convergence each 
year, and the Big Men’s Club of Atlanta submitted the winning bid to 
host Convergence 2005, “Big & Easy,” in New Orleans alongside 
Southern Decadence.

“I thought with Southern Decadence being sort of like the gay Mardi 
Gras, it would be the perfect place for us to have a party and for a 
lot of the guys who usually go to Convergence to get a chance to do 
both,” says Jeffrey Nance, president of the Big Men’s Club of Atlanta.

“A lot of people are looking forward to the different crowds, and the 
parade and all of the parties,” Nance says. “It’s all a celebration 
of the end of summer — one last hurrah.”

More than 600 people pre-registered for Convergence 2005, including 
about 40 from the Atlanta area, Nance says.

Kevin Maer, a gay Little Rock, Ark., resident, plans to attend 
Southern Decadence for the first time this year, and says having 
Convergence 2005 take place simultaneously is a comforting contrast 
to the usual scene at Decadence.

“Some in the gay community can be kind of hurtful to those that don’t 
fit their ideal, but I plan on getting out there and having a good 
time with my friends, [some of whom] are from other parts of the 
country that I don’t get to see much,” Maer says.

SOUTHERN DECANDENCE earned its reputation by being one of the most 
unapologetically racy exhibitions of gay life, where outlandish 
costumes and outdoor sex were the norm.

But public sex occurs with less frequency in recent years thanks to 
protests from religious conservatives in New Orleans, an increased 
police presence and a campaign by Southern Decadence organizers to 
cut the number of revelers that land in the city jail.

But the costumes remain, and this year’s parade grand marshals, Lisa 
Beaumann and Regina Adams, chose the “Jazz & Jezebels” theme to 
celebrate one of the most fiercely roaring eras in America’s history.

“They’re going for a 1920s theme, and they’re looking for glamour and 
gangster costumes from what I gather,” says Rip Naquin-Delain, Web 
host for SouthernDecadence.com.

Naquin-Delain expects 2005 to be “a bumper year” for the event, based 
on more than 1,000 people per day who download the special events 
calendar from his Web site.

For last year’s event, an estimated 125,000 people filled the French 
Quarter and added about $87 million to the New Orleans economy, 
according to Naquin-Delain, who adds that organizers hope to exceed 
both figures this year.

Southern Decadence maintains its raucous flavor, but crowds heeded 
warnings about the increased police presence and became tamer in 
recent years, Naquin-Delain says.

“Over the past few years, we’ve been conducting a campaign to take 
those intimate acts inside, because we don’t want anybody locked up 
for lewd behavior,” he says.


____________________________________________
Emo Phillips was pulled over in Massachusetts for reckless driving. 
When brought before the judge, Emo was asked if he knew what the 
punishment for drunk driving in that state was. His reply: "I don't 
know, re-election to the Senate?"