Dayafter Mardi Gras without Jule Lang / March 2017
LEJ's Louisiana, Yours Truly in a Swamp
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March 2017
The Day After Mardi Gras
without Jule Lang
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BY Leonard Earl Johnson
© 2017, Leonard Earl Johnson, All Rights Reserved
LEJ.org, as the late Ernie K-Doe
LEJ's Louisiana,
Yours Truly in a Swamp
Yours Truly in a Swamp
by
Leonard Earl Johnson
On Ash Wednesday ~ all over Louisiana ~ Carnival lifted its joyous mantle, leaving Lent's ashen smudge in its place.
At New Orleans Saint Louis Cathedral.
Business suits stood cheek-by-jowl with crimson capes and smeared-lipstick ladies awaiting priests dressed in the vestments of Sorrow, putting The Sign of The Cross on foreheads. With thumbs dipped in the ashes of last year's Palm Sunday palms.
Outside, rain washed The City and the parade moved on!
I have many doubts about theological things, but none whatsoever about this ceremony. To ashes we shall return.
This month's column is dedicated to fallen Faubourg Marigny patron of the arts and marcher in the Louisiana parade, Jule Lang.
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| click image to enlarge |
Last Summer,
we met Jule Lang and Clifton Webb outside the Acadiana Center for the Arts, on Vermillion Street, in Lafayette.
The two had recently returned from Europe, and were now on an art and gastronomy tour of Louisiana. We talked with German-accented ACA Executive Director, Gerd Wuestemann in the main exhibition hall. Webb, native of Baton Rouge and New Orleans; and art patron Jule Lang described their visions of art and its weave in our social fabric.
And food in Copenhagen! Who would have thought? We adjourned for hot buttered snails at nearby Pamplona Tapas Bar. During courses of many grand foods and thoughts, Lang spoke of artists ~ local and not ~ and the numerous Louisiana film makers (Atchafalaya, the film ~ Facebook) of interest to her.
Jule Lang died this year, very early during Carnival Season.
Thank you for your time in the parade, mon amie. We will remember you during all the rest of the dance.
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It has been a good Lent this year ~ so far ~ with sunny mornings, and a warm spot under the kitchen dormers to read Internet newspapers and sip coffee.
Lent, a celebration of abstinence, is the longest holiday in the Christian calendar. Should you need reason to be suspicious of any religion's claims on temporal powers, think of that and be wary. They are likely selling better ways to flog you for their sins ~ and yours!
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~ Mardi Gras Day 2017 ~
President Donald Trump spoke to a joint session of the United States Congress, on Mardi Gras Day, in full Presidential costume. Most Beltway observers were satisfied Trump did not swing down to the podium from a chandelier.
The world watched, and quivered. We were becalmed, for we had walked all day beneath skies raining Carnival Beads.
The world watched, and quivered. We were becalmed, for we had walked all day beneath skies raining Carnival Beads.
L. A. Norma, riding in a French Quarter pedicab,
smiled at pedestrians along Chartres Street, while preaching:
"Don't tell me the Baby Jesus does not have a dark humor!
Floating on a cloud, watching Citizens lining up to get flogged!"
"You got it lady," our driver said, peddling away on Saint Peter Street, while tucking Norma's fifty inside his left boot.
We turned from the curb and headed towards
Saint Louis Cathedral,
on our way to light a candle for some good cause.
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Live Oak Trees outside our dormer windows are a soft young green. Live Oaks don't dump their leaves till Spring's new buds arrive. They are never leafless ~ as followers of JFK conspiracies know. They change from old dark green to young soft green almost overnight. It is why they are called Live Oaks, and why JFK'ers say Oswald never had a clear shot.
Today soft-green rules Big Swamp City, and old alligators lie on the banks in whatever sun we have left, dreaming of Reincarnation, Easter-baskets, and Spring.
Lagniaupe du Jour today!
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| Scott Ainslie at the Rosa Parks Transportation Centre, Lafayette Louisiana ~ You Tube * * * Linda Ronstadt / Blue Bayou ~ You Tube
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© 2017, Leonard Earl Johnson,
All Rights Reserved.
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Go here For
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If you wish to read any month's column go to www.LEJ.org anytime. They are posted on the first of each month and polished for the next few weeks. |
© 2017, Leonard Earl Johnson,
All Rights Reserved.
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LEJ's Louisiana, Yours Truly in a Swamp
is a monthly e-column @ www.LEJ.org
~ Hosted on GOOGLE Blogger ~
and at Les Amis de Marigny, New Orleans,
publication of the
It is written by Leonard Earl Johnson
of Lafayette and New Orleans, Louisiana
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posted by LEJ's Louisiana | 6:37 AM
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