hyenahell

i went with my friend Reverand Goat, who has been active for years in developing a cultural dialouge between Native American tribes and Mardi Gras Indians, and appears in the film "All on a Mardi Gras Day".

having never been to a jazz funeral before, especially not one of this magnitude, i really don't have any words to describe what i saw and experienced. the church service at St. Augustine's lasted about a million years (okay, three hours. but in the hot july sun it felt that long. we actually left after about an hour because the church was hotter than it was outside, and both of us were uncomfortable staying for communion). we hung out in the street and in the Backstreet Cultural Museum, mostly, waiting for it to start. there were vendors selling beer, cold drinks, snow balls, nachos, hotdogs, you name it. goat was dress in his wolf's head crown and chaps, so we spent a lot of time in the museum. i got to watch a lot of the Indians get dressed in the back room, and threaded lots of needles to sew on leg pieces. we also got our pictures taken a lot. well, mostly Goat, but he made me be in the pictures with him. it was after 1 pm before the parade left for St. Louis' #2. i didn't walk with the parade (i'd been up since 5 am Friday morning and Goat had to go do work and pay his phone bill) but we got to see the start of it. all the cars on Gov. Nichols were double parked, too, so it was about thirty minutes and ten or twelve people helping us before we magically squeezed the van out of about a three inch space between cars.

it was amazing. that's all i have to say. just. amazing.

that is all for now.
love all.
-Hyena.