Cinco de “Moustache”
Well, “technically” it’s Cinco de Mayo, but a few years back a number of us decided that Cinco de Mayo was a great excuse to grow a moustache. Now I’ll be the first to say that I look totally ridiculous with a moustache, but hey…I only have to wear it once a year, and I don’t even need to look at myself all day…haha. I have a few picks below of some of the staches I’ve done. Enjoy.
Happy April Fool’s Day
April Fool’s Day is always an interesting day to follow the news. So much stuff gets “announced” that sometimes you find yourself caught up in some of the excitement…even though, most likely it is for nothing.
The movie studios had a number of HUGE announcements today:
- Warner Bros announced that a new Matrix movie was in the works entitled: The Matrix Resurrection (/film)
- The new Iron Man 2 trailer shows the title begin “Iron Man 2: Shock to the Heart” (Cinematical)
- Johnny Depp is apparently in talks to play the Riddler in the new Batman 3 movie entitled “Battle for Gotham”. The is also talk of bring Heath Ledger back as the Joker using CG wizardry. (JoBlo)
- Zack Snyder is in talks to direct a Star Wars reboot. (MovieWeb)
- Robert Pattinson has walked off the set of “New Moon”. As a result, production has shut down. (ScreenRant)
- George Lucas has decided that he wants to revisit his Star Wars universe again on the big screen with a new Legacy Trilogy. (MovieBlog)
Honestly, though, the one I really wanted to be real was the video and news release done by IGN concerning Super Smash Bros Brawl and DLC. The release states that Nintendo will be making available through Wii Expand - which is a new download service to be offered by the company - an expansion back, or add-on, for the game Super Smash Bros Brawl. This content will turn the game into a Mortal Kombat style game with gore and blood galore!! I was pumped at the idea of using Ike’s sword to sever a certain plumber’s head clean off. But, alas, it seems it was only an April Fool’s prank. You can check out the news release and video of the so-called game being played here.
Hope everyone had a fun day!!
Happy Mardi Gras
Wish I could be back home this year and celebrate. Oh well, next year it is at least on the radar to happen. So, in honor of Mardi Gras, I figured I’d let everyone in on a little bit of the history of the holiday.
A History of Carnival
by Becky Retz, The Times-Picayune
Tuesday January 13, 2009, 8:40 AM
Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the final day of Carnival, which begins on the Feast of the Epiphany, Jan. 6.
Also known as Kings’ Day or Twelfth Night, Jan. 6 celebrates the arrival of the three kings at Jesus’ birthplace, thus ending the Christmas season. And in New Orleans, simultaneously starting Carnival. This festival of fun finds its roots in various pagan celebrations of spring, dating back 5,000 years.
Pope Makes it Official
But it was Pope Gregory XIII who made it a Christian holiday when, in 1582, he put it on his Gregorian calendar (the 12-month one we still use today).
He placed Mardi Gras on the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. That way, all the debauchery would be finished when it came time to fast and pray.
Much of the first part of the Carnival season is invitation-only coronation balls and supper dances hosted by private clubs known as krewes.
The public portion comes to life a couple of weeks before Mardi Gras when the krewes hit the streets, staging more than 70 parades in metropolitan New Orleans.
Mardi Gras arrived in North America with the LeMoyne brothers, Iberville and Bienville, in the late 17th century, when King Louis XIV sent the pair to defend France’s claim on the territory of Louisiana.
America’s First Mardi Gras
The explorers eventually found the mouth of the Mississippi River on March 3, 1699, Mardi Gras of that year. They made camp a few miles upriver, named the spot Point d’Mardi Gras and partook in a spontaneous party. This is often referred to as North America’s first Mardi Gras.
A couple of decades later, Bienville founded New Orleans and soon Carnival celebrations were an annual event highlighted by lavish balls and masked spectacles. Some were small, private parties with select guest lists, while others were raucous, public affairs.
Collectively, they reflected such a propensity for frolic in the local citizenry that historian Robert Tallant wrote in his book “Mardi Gras” that “natives would step over a corpse on the way to a ball or the opera and think nothing of it.”
Parades officially began in 1838.
On Ash Wednesday of that year, The Commercial Bulletin read: “The European custom of celebrating the last day of the Carnival by a procession of masqued figures through the streets was introduced here yesterday.”
Over the next 20 years, Carnival became an increasingly rowdy event defined by drunkenness and violence. Eventually, churches and even the press began to call for its demise.
In 1857, Mardi Gras found itself on the verge of death.
The Birth of the Krewe
Then along came Comus, which actually started 27 years earlier in the wee hours of Jan. 1, 1830 when a group of young men walking home after a New Year’s Eve celebration in Mobile, Ala., passed a store featuring an outdoor display of rakes, hoes and cowbells. Making the kind of decision inebriated young men are apt to, they picked up the supplies and headed to the mayor’s house where they caused a stir. An obviously patient man, the mayor sobered them up and, according to historian Buddy Stall, made the motley krewe’s leader an offer.
“Next year,” hizzoner suggested, “why not organize yourselves and let everybody have fun?”
Led by Michael Kraft, the group called themselves the Cowbellion de Rakin Society, paraded the following New Year’s Eve, and was so successful that the procession became an annual event.
Now, jump ahead to 1857 when New Orleans city leaders were on the verge of canceling Mardi Gras for good. Six Cowbellions now living in the Big Easy proposed forming a new private club to present a parade based on a theme, with floats, costumed riders and flambeaux (torch carriers who lit the way) an orderly alternative to the chaos that Carnival had become. They chose the name Comus after the Greek god of revelry and coined the “krewe” appellation.
City leaders agreed and Comus was credited with saving Mardi Gras.
Then Came the Revelers
It wasn’t until after the Civil War that the second Carnival krewe made its debut in 1870. The new group chose Jan. 6 to present their parade and ball, naming themselves the Twelfth Night Revelers
Although they no longer parade, the Revelers’ ball (along with the Kings’ Day streetcar ride of the Phunny Phorty Phellows) marks the official start of the season.
During the Revelers’ first fete, an innovation was brought to Mardi Gras — a queen. Well, almost. After their tableau was presented, court fools carried out a giant king cake, the traditional pastry of the season, which contained a golden bean. The plan was that pieces of cake would be presented to a group of young ladies and the one who found the bean would be crowned Carnival’s first queen. However, it seems the fools were drunk and instead of presenting the cake, they either dropped it on or threw it at the women. When the flour cleared, none of the appalled females would admit to having the bean. The first Carnival queen wasn’t, until the next year.
By 1872, new troubles were brewing in the city. Post-war carpetbaggery had reached its zenith and rumblings of revolt against the city government could be heard. As Carnival approached, fears of masked reprisals surfaced.
Rex and the Grand Duke
Then came the diversion city leaders needed. News arrived that Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff Alexandrovitch, brother of the heir apparent to the throne of Russia, had accepted the city’s invitation to attend Mardi Gras.
A plan was hatched. A new krewe of prominent citizens from both the government and its opposition would be formed and a king of all Carnival would be chosen. The group would call itself the School of Design and its ruler was to be Rex (Latin for king).
What no one knew was that the duke had accepted because his visit would coincide with the New Orleans opening of singer Lydia Thompson’s touring musical, in which she performed a nonsensical ballad called “If Ever I Cease to Love.” (Supposedly, she had also sung the number privately for the duke during a Big Apple rendezvous.)
When news of Thompson and the duke finally hit the grapevine, public interest in the visit grew. Mardi Gras morning found the duke sitting in the official reviewing stand as Rex atop a bay charger led 10,000 maskers in a line more than a mile long.
Among them were a number of bands, all of which broke into “If Ever I Cease to Love” as they passed the prince. The romance was ill-fated, but after 134 years, Rex remains King of Carnival and “If Ever I Cease to Love” is still the official song of the season.
Zulu Makes Merry
The oldest parading African-American krewe is the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, which first took to the streets in 1909. Not taking themselves as seriously as the staunch white krewes, the group dressed its king, William Story, in a sack and a crown fashioned from a lard can. A banana stalk was his scepter. Over the years, Zulu has become a perennial favorite and the krewe’s gilded coconuts (painted gold and decorated with glitter) are one of the season’s most prized throws.
By the 1950s, truck parades, composed of floats built atop flatbed trucks usually by families, had become well established. The late ’60s saw the advent of the “superkrewes” Endymion and Bacchus, which broke with tradition by offering open memberships, larger floats and celebrity kings.
Carnival faced new challenges in the latter half of the 20th century. A 1979 police strike caused parades to be canceled in the city, but a number of them moved to the suburbs.
The City Council’s anti-discrimination ordinance of 1988 called for krewes to open their ranks or get off public streets. In response, three of the four oldest krewes Comus (1857), Momus (1873) and Proteus (1882) took their floats and went home.
Rex remained and the other slots were filled. Proteus even returned in 2000 and the following year became the first krewe to parade in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
Thanksgiving 2008
So this year marked the first year I was away from my family for Thanksgiving. Actually, that statement might not be entirely true, but I can’t remember the last time I didn’t spend Thanksgiving with them, so for the most part the statement serves its purpose. Needless to say, I spent this year’s Thanksgiving with my girlfriend and a good part of her extended family. It was a nice change of pace and a great change in scenery.
To start off, I have now visited 3 states I had never been to before: Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. My girlfriend’s sister lives in Kansas City, MO and that’s where we spent most of the time on the trip. Her sister has 4 daughters - 8, 6, 4 and 2 years of age - and for some reason they like me. And when little girls like you, they want all your attention and hang on you and want you to carry them everywhere…get the picture. It was nice to get a vacation from having to take care of the dog…but he’s just one…I ended up trading one for four…haha. No, I’m not saying the girls are dogs, all I’m saying is that the trip was definitely not one of rest and relaxation. They are sweet and adorable, full of energy and laughter, but boy are they exhausting.
While we were visiting we celebrated both Thanksgiving and Christmas. (So, yeah, now I’m already in the Christmas mood) We only did Christmas with the gifts from everyone that was there (e.g. there were no gifts from Santa Claus or anything like that). The girlfriend and I gave gifts on behalf of both of us. We decided that she would buy the gifts for her family and I would buy the gifts for my family. Personally I think I got the better end of that deal - my family is smaller…haha. Because of the recent house purchase, the gifts I received were “practical”. I received an edger, pruning sheers, hedge clippers, a stud finder and a few other things. Not what I’m used to, but appreciated nonetheless.
Our trip to Nebraska was to have a Christmas get together my girlfriend’s mom’s side of the family. Her mom has two sisters and their mother (girlfriend’s grandmother) is still around and so they get together every year and have a little family reunion of sorts. Lots of people there, and unfortunately, I forgot everyone’s name just as soon as I learned them. It was and experience and was fun. We sang Christmas carols, had a gift exchange, read the Polar Express, took lots of pictures, and I was given a tour of the farm that the family owned. They own something like 4,000 acres - but I can’t remember what they farm (corn and for the first time sunflowers are all that I can remember). It was a nice little trip.
Our last day there was great. IT SNOWED!!! I kind of got to have my first White Christmas. This was definitely the icing on the cake for me and the trip. I went outside with the girls and had snow ball fights which was great. The girlfriend, however, is not very fond of snow or cold weather - a fact that she tends to remind me about when she says “Why do you think I moved to Florida?” This is unfortunate, because it makes any trips to go snowboarding or snow skiing a bit hard, because out of a 5 day trip, she’s only willing to go out 1 day, and I for one don’t want to be snowboarding by myself all week.
All in all, it was a great trip. We didn’t have any problems with the flight. Southwest rocks!! It was nice to get out of Orlando for a few days, but I’m glad I’m back.
Happy Thanksgiving
Well, it’s Thanksgiving 2008. My family has had the tradition of coming to Orlando for Thanksgiving to visit all the theme parks for as long as I can remember. Occasionally we would switch it up with heading to Gatlinburg, TN, but once I started college at the University of Central Florida, it became Orlando all the time.
This year, however, will mark the beginning of a change in this tradition. My parents will still travel to Orlando to visit one of my brothers (who also lives in Orlando as well) and the theme parks. My other brother (who is in Tallahassee, FL at Florida State University), will be missing the first part of the week now that he’s in college, and now that the girlfriend and I have made the decision to spend the rest of our lives together (not official yet - in other words, no ring yet), the holidays have now turned into alternating mood for me. This year, though I was able to see my parents for part of this week, I will be traveling with the girlfriend to see and spend Thanksgiving with her family, and she will be spending Christmas with me and my family. I’m used to spending the holidays - especially Christmas - with the family, so this is definitely going to be an adjustment. It’s part of growing up, though, and starting a family, so it is to be expected I suppose.
The few days I was able to spend with my family (minus the one brother, because he is coming to Orlando the same day I am leaving for Kansas City) was still great. My parents were able to see the new house for the first time and also meet the dog (who I just realized I haven’t mentioned on this blog yet…more on him later then). It was nice to have them see everything I’ve been up to the last couple months.
Anyways, I just want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Be safe and thankful. And I will leave you with a little song…from Adam Sandler. Enjoy!!