Welcome Mardi Gras revelers!
This '97 Carnival season will be one of the best you can ever experience in the "City That Care Forgot".
As you flip through this edition of New Orleans premiere campy trashy bar rag, you will find it to be an invaluable source of info for your visit to the Crescent City, Louisiana and points beyond.
Celebrating diversity in its 15th anniversary year, this issue marks Ambush Mag 2000's largest edition ever at 76 pages. 55 of those pages are ads alone, guiding you through the Carnival experience.
You should be able to find everything you need in this mag from the bar and restaurant scene to the best services and shopping available. Drink, eat, shop and be merry...that's what Mardi Gras is all about.
Of course the bars have got something for everyone. Big name entertainment, drag shows, dancers, theme parties, leather events, costume contests...it's all at your fingertips.
5 million plus hits have had a
record impact making AMBUSH
onLINE the #1 GLBT presence on the Internet with base operations out of New Orleans. The 7 interactive, award winning sites including www.gayamerica.com, www.gaybars.com, www.gaymardigras.com, www.southerndecadence.com, archive.ambushmag.com, www.gayneworleans.com and www.gayneworleans.org have delivered the world to the best the GLBT community has to offer.
AMBUSH onLINE celebrated its first anniversary on January 1st. Many internet services out there promise you a web site for only $1 a day claiming to be the best. However, AMBUSH onLINE defines fact, not fiction, by having site stats available online for all viewers to see. We are proud that we can prove our credibility and professionalism so that businesses and organizations can make an intelligent decision. After all, the old adage still holds...if its too good to be true, it's usually a misrepresentation, much like our own US Speaker of the House Newt!
A special welcome back to our
buddy Karl Thomas who will
headline over at MRB emceeing the 10th Annual St. Philip Street Awards Mardi Gras, 3pm, sponsored by Miller Lite, along with New Orleans' legend Goddess. Top dollars go to the best costume.
Cornelius Washington emcees
the 33rd Annual Bourbon
Street Awards sponsored by Bud Light, outside Rawhide at 12 noon Mardi Gras. The best of the best here gets fabu silver awards.
Our own Krewe of Queenateenas will reign supreme Mardi
Gras at 1pm when King Cake Queen IV Reba Douglas leads our annual bead toss. Multitudes will gather below the Ambush Headquarters balcony at 828 Bourbon Street.
About Our Krewe...downloaded from the web www.gaymardigras.com/kcq/
In 1987, a group of some 400 guests joined Rip and Marsha Naquin-Delain for their first bead toss. The Naquin-Delain's new home at 828 Bourbon Street sported one of the largest balconies in the French Quarter. With such a prime location in the gay district of Bourbon, the event was a hit.
The following year, the Naquin-Delain's limited their guests to 50, thus enabling revelers greater access and movement on the balcony. The group was dubbed the Krewe of Queenateenas by Jay Ann Loomis, a close friend of the Naquin-Delain's, making them co-captains of the revelers. The balcony was converted and decorated into what is now known as the Queenateenas Balcony Float #69.
In following years, the balcony has taken on its own themes of Carnival. As a joke in 1994, the Naquin-Delain's chose a King Cake Queen [KCQ] to lead the festivities Carnival Day at 1 pm. Again, this was a hit, beginning a new tradition for the Queenateenas.
In 1995, the cocaptains of the krewe hosted a party two Tuesdays before Mardi Gras celebrating the coronation of King Cake Queen II Jay Loomis who reigned as "Jewel of the Nile" complete with elaborate Egyptian sculptures decorating "float #69". This year marked the beginning of actual crown and scepter for the "chosen one".
In 1996, King Cake Queen III Smurf Murphy was feted at a coronation bash two Tuesdays before Carnival celebrating "Jokers, Pokers and Strokers". Since the 1pm bead toss had been heavily advertised, both in Ambush Mag 2000 and at www.gaymardigras.com on the web, a huge crowd showed up on Mardi Gras chanting for beads.
December 1996 marked a change in the KCQ process. The Naquin-Delain's decided to announce the selection of the new King Cake Queen at their annual Christmas bash. KCQ II and III, Jay Loomis and Smurf Murphy announced the "chosen one", KCQ IV Reba Douglas.
And this year, 1997 led to the first annual KCQ Bar Run. Outgoing KCQ Smurf reigned over the festivities as a bus limo jetted 24 guests to 16 stops from the French Quarter to the Faubourg Marigny to Metairie and back to the Quarter in just four hours, exactly 4 Tuesdays before Carnival.
The KCQ IV coronation of Reba Douglas took place Tuesday, January 28, exactly two Tuesdays before Carnival. Reba reigns as "Pearl of the Sea", and Balcony Float #69 has been transformed elaborately celebating this years theme, "fruit de mer" [fruit of the sea]. Join the Queenateenas Mardi Gras, February 11, at 1pm, and always remember "for the best pearls on Bourbon Steet, you SHOW, we THROW."
If you're into the parade scene, you
will want to pick up a copy of
Arthur Mardi Gras Guide, 21st Annual Edition for lots of the latest on Carnival including the complete parade guide with maps to all the parades. It has a wonderful piece on Anne Rice's Mardi Gras Memories as well as Chris Owens, Queen of Bourbon Street and even Pete Fountain shares his fondest memories. At $3.50, it's a steal of invaluable info.
The parades have been rolling
over a week now. Here's the
rest of the schedule.
Wed., Feb. 5-7pm Thor (Metairie); 6:30 pm Saturn (Uptown)
Thurs., Feb. 6-6:30pm Babylon (Uptown); 7pm Aquila (Metairie)
Fri., Feb. 7- 6:30pm Hermes (Uptown); 7pm Diana (Metairie)
Sat., Feb. 8-noon Iris (Uptown); 1pm Tucks (Uptown); 5pm Endymion (Mid-City); 6pm Isis (Metairie)
Sun.,, Feb. 9-1 1am Thoth (Uptown); I 1pm Okeanos (Uptown); 1:30pm Mid-City (Mid-City); 1:30pm Mercury (Metairie); 5:30pm Napoleon (Metairie) 6pm Bacchus (Uptown)
Mon., Feb. 10-5:30pm Bards of Bohemia (Uptown); 6:30pm Zeus (Metairie)
Tues., Feb. 11- 8:30am Zulu (Uptown); 10am Rex (Uptown); (After Rex) Elks-Orleans-Trucks (Uptown); (After Elks) Crescent City-Trucks (Uptown); 11am Argus (Metairie) (After Argus); Jefferson (Metairie); (AfterJefferson) Jeffersonians (Metairie)
