This weekend saw several Mardi Gras parades: right down the street from our house there rolled the Krewe of Oshun, Krewe of Cleopatra, and Krewe of King Arthur. And sadly I had a commitment that caused me to miss the Krewe of Barkus this year, but they apparently managed to roll just fine without me. Slidell Louisiana had the Krewe of Perseus, and Carollton had the Krewe of, well, Carrollton.
But I saw the best parade of the weekend (and maybe of the entire time-space continuum), the Krewe of Chewbacchus!!
The name Chewbacchus is a combination of the God Bacchus, who rules over the revelry of Mardi Gras, and the Star Wars character Chewbacca, a Wookie without a home world (damn Clone Wars!). Chewbacchus is a Krewe made up entirely of "the most revelrous Star Wars Freaks, Trekkies, Whovians, Mega-Geeks, Gamers, Cosplayers, Circuit Benders, Cryptozooligists, UFO Conspiracy Theorists, Mad Scientists, and all the rest of Super Nerdom." It's MY people. Even more so, because my awesome girlfriend Lauren "Blue Star Owl" DeVoe is a member of the Krewe of Chewbacchus!
I caught the parade on Frenchmen Street, about halfway through the route. The parade started with adorable geek children...
And a team of dancing Rebels. Boogie til the Death Star is destroyed!
Bounty hunter vs. Jedi... we all know who wins this one!
The greatest Star Wars joy of all, Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca in the Star Wars movies, was the king of the parade this year, riding in a souped-up Intergalactic Millenium Falcon golf cart.
Followed by Bar2D2, the drunk droid, a rolling, working droid bar.
Above, like Krewe Du Vieux and other French Quarter parades, Chewbacchus only uses pushed floats, bicycle powered floats, or small engines (such as Millenium Falcon golf carts); no standard motor vehicles (unless Twin Ion Powered). Below, one of Bar2D2's handlers. The driod gets a little crazy sometimes.
Prisoner transfer...
Above, Darth Meow. Below, there were other robots present...even bad robots...
Above, Ninja light-saber duel. Below, Space Balls.
Unicorns were a major theme. The bylaws of the Krewe contain this caveat: "No unicorns (unless they have rocket thrusters)." These were special unicorns. One did indeed have fire emitting rocket thrusters.
The prettiest Unicorn.
More adorable geek kids...
One of several marching bands in the parade was the Dead Music Capitol Band, from Austin.
Zombies...
...and skeletons. One of my favorite costumes of the parade. Only because of the Converse sneakers! I mean, how often do you see skeletons in Converse sneakers?
More marching bands.
The Doctor Who sub-krewe. For those not in-the-know, Doctor Who is an English sci-fi series that has become a cult classic in America. The Doctor is a time-traveler whose time machine, the Tardis, appears as a police call-box.
Some of the many bacchanALIENS of the Krewe of Chewbacchus.
Below, Just the cutest Sally ever!!
Why yes, that Sally (from The Nightmare Before Christmas) IS my girlfriend!!
Awesome lab rats...
Yip-yips
For those who remember the Muppet show, Pigs In Space!!
And for those who don't, but are hungry, Figs In Space.
TIE fighters and snow speeders from Star Wars....
Luke! Use the Force! (I just like saying that).
Princes Amidala above, and a speeder, below. You know, you can hit a Tatooine womp rat with one of those, and they're not much bigger than two meters!
More marching bands, complete with cute band-camp nerd girl...
From the French Quarter, and the Krewe of Chewbacchus parade, this is Kenny Klein explaining it all. May the Force be with you!
Some big corrections:
ReplyDeletePeter Mayhew was not in an "X-Wing golfcart". Any self respecting Star Wars fan would never confuse an X-Wing for the Millennium Falcon.
Gin Walker is NOT dressed as an Orion slave girl (from Star Trek). She is a Twi'lek (which is from Star Wars).
The picture labeled Chariot of the Gods Mobile Discotec is anything but. Wrong contraption there.
Again, you're confusing X-Wings with something else when you talked about them fighting TIE Fighters. Those were Snow Speeders.
I point these errors out not because I'm trying to nitpick but because people have worked hard, countless hours on their costumes and contraptions. It's disrespectful to mislabel so many things.
I appreciate the hard work people have put into this parade, and I stand corrected. Readers after this post will see the edited, corrected version.
DeleteKenny
Thanks. I didn't want to sound mean, that was before my first bit of caffeine this morning.
DeleteNerds tend to fiercely defend their beloved fixations, especially love for IKoC.
PS, some extra details: the dancing troupe between the Krewe of Ewokus (that's the kids) and Peter Mayhew were called the Vajar Jar Binks. Double trivia: we built the Millennium Falcon vehicle out of an old airport baggage handling cart.
I appreciate your fact checking. I had Lauren, who is in the krewe, look the post over before publishing, but like me, she's much more of a Fantasy geek than a Star Wars geek. (As you may know, Lauren has created a LOTR sub-krewe for next year!).
DeleteAwesome about the baggage cart! And inspiring.
Consider rolling with the PUEWC if you aren't already part of the sub-krewe. They are the fantasy contingent of the parade. This year they had a mobile Eye of Sauron complete with Barad-dûr.
DeleteThanks, Kenny, for so many wonderful pics! This is really great!
ReplyDelete