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!

A Plug for My Home in SL

I find myself rarely talking about New Toulouse here, not because I don't love it, but because I love it so much that when I start, I can't stop. I thought I should announce that this weekend is a special one because of the way we celebrate a very special son of New Orleans on the day he claimed for his birthday. The Fourth of July is not just the birth of the U.S., it is also a symbolic birth of jazz as we celebrate the anniversary of Louis Armstrong's birth. In honor of the opening of the Louis Armstrong exhibit this weekend at the Toussaint L'Ouverture Library in New Toulouse, Radio Riel New Toulouse is playing nothing but Louis all day Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Tune in for some Satchmo this weekend, 24/7, at http://newtoulouse.radioriel.org ! Listen in and enjoy! And pour a cold, tall one for Louis while you enjoy the lovely exhibit created by my wonderful and hard-working colleague GallateaSu Beaumont. http://slurl.com/secondlife/New%20Toulouse/206/49/25/

Mardi Gras in SL

I've been neglecting to put in a plug for my own homebase in SL, the New Toulouse community. If you want to get a real feel for what Mardi Gras is like, this is the place to go! Louhi Gothly, Gabrielle Riel and my neighbors are working hard putting the finishing touches on their floats and throws for a parade on Sunday the 22nd, and everyone in New Toulouse and Algiers is really looking forward to the celebration. Right now, a Mardi Gras hunt is going on too, so stop by and have some fun! http://slurl.com/secondlife/New%20Toulouse/144/174/23/