Mardi Gras at New Toulouse

Mardi Gras is but a few weeks away and the Estate of New Toulouse will be having our Third Annual Mardi Gras celebrations from Sunday, March 6, 2011 through Tuesday, March 8, 2011. Our actual Mardi Gras Parade is on Sunday, March 6 from 11:00am - 1:00pm SLT. I invite all of you, Taloosters and residents from other lands, to participate in our parade!  Please visit our sim, and feel free to come in costume!  Like New Orleans, New Toulouse has "Krewes", or teams, that work together to create floats and that ride them together during the parade. Krewe members toss items to the parade audience and shout to them, as well as to the Krewes on other floats.  In RL, the traditional throws are beads and doubloons, and the famous Zulu coconuts; in recent years, throws have expanded to include plastic drinking cups, super balls, stuffed animals, mini-frisbees, yo-yos, bean bags, whistles and other noisemakers, rubber duckies, even underwear (new, not used!), often decorated with the emblem of the krewe giving the parade, and/or in the colors of Mardi Gras, purple, gold and green.  If it can be made from plastic (and isn't too hard to hurt anyone), it can be thrown from a parade float!  In SL, you are in for some really beautiful virtual treats--I can't wait to see what--and some really beautiful visual effects!  Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Images of New Orleans Musicians

The Art on the Horizon Gallery at Blue Horizon is featuring a show by artist Theresa Jones with her paintings of New Orleans musicians in French Quarter scenes.  Although the RL art cards that were advertised for sale do not seem to be available any longer, you can still purchase the individual images for your SL home or purchase a catalog of the gallery's show.  The collection includes 20 pieces; some of the titles include "Mama Singing Out," "Doreen on the Clarinet," "Sax at Fritzel's," and "Blues Charmer."  Her vibrant colors and rich textures capture some of the energy of contemporary New Orleans Jazz, as her subjects reveal the creativity and dignity of the many street musicians who perform in the French Quarter.  The artists pay tribute to the traditions of music so important in New Orleans history:  the benevolent societies and social clubs of the nineteenth century sponsored brass marching bands that continue to second line at funerals today; in the twenty-first century, the blue notes and syncopated rhythms of saxophones and trombones reverberate along the same streets where jazz was first created in the twentieth.  They are not simply making a living entertaining the Crescent City's tourists; they express the strong spirit and deep cultural roots that allow the city's residents to survive and endure as they continue to recover from Katrina. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Blue%20Horizon/200/161/27