Mardi Gras New Orleans

Customer Reviews:

A Must Read During Carnival's 150th Anniversary.......2005-03-07

Schindler's magnum opus, Mardi Gras New Orleans, is the perfect guide as we embark on the 150th anniversary of the New Orleans Carnival celebration--a must read for any serious or curious observer of the New Orleans scene. The focus is the history of the celebration, going back to its origins in ancient Greece and Rome, and the Druid Festival of the Sun with its own "boeuf gras" long before the Christian Lenten observance decreed a "farewell to meat" (carne vale). With glorious photography by former Carnival Queen Tina Freeman, and archival photographs, Schindler paints a fascinating verbal picture of the post-classical European roots of the modern celebration, and the effects of the Venetian and Bourbon French rulers on the ancient feast. Focusing on the colonial, Creole and ultimately American development of Carnival, Schindler leads the reader to the pivotal moment in that history, the formation of the Mystick Krewe of Comus--the event that brought order out of the chaos of the early celebration and gave the New Orleans carnival its present form. Drawing on the words of early governors of the city, nineteenth century print media, celebrities of the time and noted authors such as Grace King and Eudora Welty, he weaves an unforgettable portrait of New Orleans during the period from its colonial days through the early twentieth century, tracing the birth of the organizations that followed the Mystick Krewe, and outlining some of the traditions unique to each. Whether depicting the rise of the Rex Organization, the mystery of the life of artist and float designer Carlotta Bonnecaze or sharing the literate satire of carpetbagger rule provided by the 1873 Comus and Momus parades, Schindler never disappoints. Not only does he reflect on the history of the old-line carnival, but Schindler also offers a rare insight into the fascinating development of the African-Creole carnival, and the contributions of both former slaves and free people of color to the celebration. Schindler records the contributions of the African-American benevolent societies, and of the Mardi Gras Indians with their unique oral history, music and elaborate costumes. Schindler was able to draw upon the resources of some of the most active devotees of the New Orleans Carnival in drawing back the curtain on the "real" Carnival and in framing this impressive and highly readable classic history. Readers seeking more detailed information and even more glorious color plates of the artistic side of the celebration will be pleased by Schindler's Treasures of the Golden Age series, including gorgeous tomes devoted, respectively, to Invitations, Float Design, Costumes and Jewelry.

"Driven from the streets by Government interference?".......2004-03-05

A previous reviewer talks of the Comus crewe being driven from the streets by "government interference." He couldn't be referring to the decision not to allow the continuance of racially segregated crewe activities on New Orlean streets by any chance? Or could he? Language is a funny thing. This book is a dedication to the "golden age" when Mardi Gras was all white, and all was right with the "white" world. It is not a very liberating experience, but I guess as long as the vestiges of the "old generation" remain the nostalgia for the good old days will persist. After all, there are those who think we would have been better off had Strom Thurmond been president....

A loving look at the history of an unique celebration.......1999-08-01

Henri Schindler is a devotee of New Orleans Carnival. He served as the last float designer for the Mistick Krewe of Comus, the orginator of thematic New Orleans Carnival parades, until the Mistick Krewe was driven from the streets in 1992 by government interference. Rather than focus on this end, Mr. Schindler writes evocatively of the glory days of carnival, the "last butterfly of winter". It is at once stylish, historical, and moving- a must have for every carnival afficiendo. You come away not seeing just a drunken debacle, but an appreciation for a local celebration, rich in traditions, social history and the artists who helped create it. Complete with extraordinary photo-plates.

An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature

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the past [and future] costs of New Orleans?

An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature
Craig E. Colten
Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807132004

Book Description

Strategically situated at the gateway to the Mississippi River yet standing atop a former swamp, New Orleans was from the first what geographer Peirce Lewis called an "impossible but inevitable city." How New Orleans came to be, taking shape between the mutual and often contradictory forces of nature and urban development, is the subject of An Unnatural Metropolis. Craig E. Colten traces engineered modifications to New Orleans's natural environment from 1800 to 2000 and demonstrates that, though all cities must contend with their physical settings, New Orleans may be the city most dependent on human-induced transformations of its precarious site. In a new preface, Colten shows how Hurricane Katrina exemplifies the inability of human artifice to exclude nature from cities and he urges city planners to keep the environment in mind as they contemplate New Orleans's future. Urban geographers frequently have portrayed cities as the antithesis of nature, but in An Unnatural Metropolis, Colten introduces a critical environmental perspective to the history of urban areas. His amply illustrated work offers an in-depth look at a city and society uniquely shaped by the natural forces it has sought to harness. AUTHOR BIO: Craig E. Colten is the Carl O. Sauer Professor of Geography at Louisiana State University. Before returning to academe in 1996, he worked with state government in Illinois and as a private consultant in Washington, D.C. His previous books include The American Environment; The Road to Love Canal; Transforming New Orleans and Its Environs; and Louisiana Geography.

Customer Reviews:

the past [and future] costs of New Orleans?.......2005-10-06

Colten wrote this book in 2004. Or perhaps even earlier. Now, in October 2005, going through its pages, one is struck by how prescient are so much of his musings. Even the title takes on deeper meaning after the recent hurricanes.

In all the current to-do about rebuilding New Orleans, many people could do far worse than to read his history of the town. Colten shows the decades (or centuries) of effort that went into protecting it from nature. Perhaps it is a tribute to those efforts that indeed, they did protect New Orleans for so long. Until 2005.

The book also gives valuable perspective on whether we should indeed rebuild much of New Orleans. The early, emotive response by many evacuees has been to completely rebuild. Yet at what cost? After some $200 billion or more, are we just recreating a target-rich environment for future storms? Colten's narrative points out the key need for a port in that location. But, culture aside, that need is not the same as a need for 500 000 inhabitants, many of whom might service the tourist sector.

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Praise for the book.

Marie Adrien Persac: Louisiana Artist
Marie Adrien Persac , H. Parrott Bacot , Barbara Sorelle Bacot , Sally Kittredge Reeves , John T. Magill , and John H. Lawrence
Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Museums & Collections | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Customer Reviews:

Praise for the book........2000-10-30

Rarely does a comprehesive book cover the known work of an artist and open and close the issue. Persac is little known outside of Louisiana. He is a major early artist who documents Louisiana life in the late pre Civil War era. Kudos to the authors, sepecially Prof. Bacot. Thank you for this book.

The Majesty of the River Road (Majesty Architecture)

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The Majesty of the River Road (Majesty Architecture)
Lee Malone , and Paul Malone
Manufacturer: Pelican Publishing Company
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0882896741

New Orleans Cemeteries: Life in the Cities of the Dead

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The BEST book on New Orleans Cemeteries in Existence!!!
A Must Buy!
Spectacular pictures
An Unexpected Enjoyment
Not your average graveyard book.

New Orleans Cemeteries: Life in the Cities of the Dead
Florence Robert
Manufacturer: Batture Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0965708519

Book Description

From the edge of the French Quarter to the heart of the bayou, New Orleans Cemeteries: Life in the Cities of the Dead is a journey through the Crescent City as seen through her phenomenal aboveground cemeteries. Through their artful and documentary-style color and black and white photographs, Robert and Mason Florence depict the "cities of the dead" in all their grandeur and decay, exquisite artisanship and humble memorials, their voluminous historical accounts of the city and undefinable spiritual qualities. New Orleans Cemeteries is an enchanting account of one of the world's true treasures, as enjoyable and entertaining as it is educational.

Customer Reviews:

The BEST book on New Orleans Cemeteries in Existence!!!.......2005-01-04

Rob Florence's book is hands-down the best book on New Orleans cemeteries I have found--and, believe me, I've looked. I'm researching cemeteries. Not only is there tons of information, but he has also included personal stories of people who have loved ones entombed as well as of some who are entombed. I had the pleasure of meeting Rob Florence recently, and he is a walking and talking encyclopedia of knowledge. If you're taking a trip to New Orleans, sign up now to take one of his tours through Historic New Orleans Tours. You won't be disappointed. Before you do that, though, BUY THIS BOOK to take along with you!

A Must Buy!.......2003-02-28

I was very pleased with this book and read it from cover to cover.Besides having a fascinating text it's loaded with beautiful pictures, including a set of pictures of Anne Rice doing a publicity shoot in one of New Orleans's cemeteries.I really wasn't that familiar with the history of the burial grounds in New Orleans and I learned a LOT from this book. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who's into cemeteries, funeral history, and Anne Rice!

Spectacular pictures.......2002-11-08

I would never have went to New Orleans without visiting at least one of the famous above ground cemeteries - I was not disappointed! The history behind them is fascinating. They're built above ground, so that when there is any kind of flooding, the bodies don't float away since New Orleans is 700?ft below sea level. What was really neat to me though, is that one tomb, could and would be used for many generations of the same family. I thought it was a comforting thought to know that you wouldn't be burried alone, but in the exact same place as your ancestors. I think New Orleans people celebrate death, not that they're glad someone is gone, but that they're glad they had the chance to live and love them! There is just a kind of magic about the cemeteries, especially St. Louis #1, the oldest cemetery in the area. The photo's in this book capture that magic! Unfortunately, the section on #1 is small. This book includes many of the cemeteries including St. Louis 2 and 3, and Metairie, which is one of the nicest and most [costly] ones. I highly recommend this book for it's information and photography! If you go to see #1, it is in a not-so-good crime area that is improving, but make sure you go with a tour! The tour guides always have some interesting extra info!

An Unexpected Enjoyment.......2001-09-06

We travel to and through Louisiana quite a bit. Because of this, I tend to pick up books about Louisiana, particularly Louisiana history. I bought this book because I liked the pictures. However, once I began reading this book, I realized that there was much more to the cemeteries than interesting statues. I can honestly say that I enjoyed reading this book and found it as informative as it was interesting.

This book begins with an introduction about cemeteries in Louisiana and then covers different cemeteries in Louisiana. Generally there is a history of the cemetery, an accounting of some of the more famous people buried in each cemetery and a lot of information.

For someone visiting Louisiana, particularly someone who is considering a tour of the cemeteries, this book is a must.

Not your average graveyard book........1999-12-07

Filled with lovely photographs, this book is both entertaining and educational. It gives a brief history of the whys and wherefores of the burial practices in southern Louisiana, as well as describing how the tombs are cared for in the present. It also makes a great guide, if one is planning to visit the cemeteries in and around New Orleans. Easy to read, but never insulting to one's intelligence, this book gives a fascinating view of the cities of the dead.

Degas in New Orleans: Encounters in the Creole World of Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable

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Absolutely original
Great book!
New Orleans Jazz....
New Orleans Jazz....
Is this book about Degas or Norbert Rillieux ?

Degas in New Orleans: Encounters in the Creole World of Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable
Christopher Benfey
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520218183

Book Description

Edgar Degas traveled from Paris to New Orleans during the fall of 1872 to visit the American branch of his mother's family, the Mussons. This war-torn, diverse, and conflicted city elicited from Degas some of his finest paintings. He arrived at a key moment in the cultural history of this most exotic of American cities, still recovering from the agony of the Civil War. This decisive period of Reconstruction, in which his American relatives were importantly involved, was also the time when the American writers Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable were beginning to mine the resources of New Orleans culture and history.

Customer Reviews:

Absolutely original.......2007-01-03

Benfey's study is an elegant, exciting study with many facets. He truly evokes a vanished world. An interdisciplinary study which does not meander or bore. Highly recommended.

Great book!.......2006-07-26

This is one of the best books I have read. It's so fascinating, easy to read, and just interesting in general. I highly recommend it.

New Orleans Jazz...........2003-06-14

Maybe the most important thing for you to know about this book is that it isn't just, or even mostly, about Edgar Degas. If you're in the market solely for an art book about Degas, you may not like this book. What this book is really about is 19th century New Orleans. Degas' 1872-1873 trip is the main theme which the author has used as his framework. Mr. Benfey "improvises" on this theme and goes off in interesting directions. He talks about what made New Orleans unique- the early Creole settlers vs. the "Americans" that arrived after the Louisiana Purchase; the free black population (pre-Civil War) vs. the slaves who became free because of the war; the rupture caused by the war- as New Orleans was occupied by Federal forces through almost all of the conflict. (Many of the local women proved to be fairly feisty in showing their contempt for the Yankees. One woman in the French Quarter supposedly downloaded the contents of a chamber pot onto Admiral Farragut's head. On another occasion, the soldier in charge of keeping order, General Benjamin "Beast" Butler, was riding by some women and they all turned their backs to him. Butler remarked, "those women evidently know which end of them looks best.") After the Civil War the economy, based almost solely on King Cotton, took a beating in the Depression of the 1870's. Yankee "carpetbaggers" were despised. Liberals who wanted integration of the races did battle, sometimes literally, with reactionary forces who yearned for a return to the days of slavery. Mr. Benfey works in some analysis of the writers Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable, who were interested in some of the above themes. The author does devote a fairly good portion of the book to discussing Degas' "Louisiana Connection," (his mother was born in New Orleans; he had relatives who were involved in the cotton trade; and his younger brother, Rene, left France to try to make his fortune in New Orleans). If you enjoy Degas' art, you will find Mr. Benfey's musings on the portraits and "genre scenes" that Degas did during this period to be interesting and informative. For example, from a purely painterly standpoint, Degas enjoyed the juxtaposition of black and white skin, as well as the white of cotton against the black suits and hats commonly worn by businessmen of the time. Mr. Benfey also, convincingly, shows that Degas' started to use, in these paintings, certain compositional effects- such as slanted floors, the arrangement of figures in interior spaces, and certain hand and head movements- that would shortly reappear in the more famous "ballet paintings." We also see Degas in transition from his early "realistic" phase to a looser, more "Impressionistic" style of painting. I also found it interesting that Degas was fascinated by many things he saw while walking around New Orleans, but he was limited mostly to painting interior scenes because the light of New Orleans was bothering his eyes. (He started to have problems with his vision while serving in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. By the time of his death in 1917 he was nearly blind.) There was enough about Degas and his family and art in this book to satisfy me, plus I enjoyed Mr. Benfey's "improvisations." If, in addition to being a Degas fan, you have any interest in the antebellum and post-Civil War worlds of New Orleans, I think you will get a lot of enjoyment and intellectual stimulation from this book.

New Orleans Jazz...........2003-06-14

Is this book about Degas or Norbert Rillieux ?.......2003-05-03

Benfey spends less time on the famous French painter Edgar Degas and the alleged influence that New Orleans and his Creole relatives had on his work than he does in relating the story of one of Degas' relatives: a brilliant "quadroon" engineer named Norbert Rillieux who invented an efficient steam-driven apparatus for refining sugar.

When you ignore Benfey's racist use of the term "black" to describe people who are far from it, you find important information about the privileges and oppressions experienced by mixed-race Creoles in 19th century New Orleans. Rillieux (who is often falsely listed as a "black" inventor) was a highly respected professional whose predominate white ancestry allowed him to utilize his talents in a way that would not have been possible if he had been black.

One of Rillieux's close friends and major supporter in Louisiana sugar circles was Judah P. Benjamin, the Jewish Confederate luminary who later served as Jefferson Davis's Secretary of State. In a nice touch of irony, Benfey compares the image of the "mulatto" in American literature with than of the "Jew" in European literature:

Book Description

Although it is 1914 and the world is changing all around him, Felix LeBlanc feels trapped on his Louisiana farmhouse, where nothing ever happens. When he hears his uncle, 'Nonc Adolphe, play the fiddle for the first time, he knows there's music in his blood, and he's determined to be a musician, too. However, he's too poor to buy his own fiddle, and to make matters worse, Maman has forbidden him to even touch one, fearing that he'll choose the wayward life of a fiddler. And so Felix begins to build his own fiddle out of a crude cigar box and a piece of cypress wood, keeping it a secret from his family and even his best friend, Chance. It is a solitary journey that will require all of his ingenuity—and place at risk the relationships that are dearest to him. Set against the colorful backdrop of the Cajun bayous, Fiddle Fever relays an important message about the universal need for self-expression and the compromises we must all make in our search for individuality. Glossary of French terms.

Mardi Gras Treasures: Costume Designs of the Golden Age

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AWESOME FOR DESIGNING COSTUMES
Savor the "Real" New Orleans Carnival
How Mardi Gras is NOT about nudity...

Mardi Gras Treasures: Costume Designs of the Golden Age
Henri Schindler
Manufacturer: Pelican Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1565547241

Customer Reviews:

AWESOME FOR DESIGNING COSTUMES.......2006-08-07

I DESIGN MARDI GRAS COSTUMES. THIS BOOK HAS BEEN EVERY USEFUL FOR IDEAS

Savor the "Real" New Orleans Carnival.......2003-04-11

If you wish to view the real New Orleans carnival celebration, take a look through this window opened by its legendary artist/historian, Henri Schindler. Schindler is a local icon, the touchstone of this unique cultural expression. Students of cultural and social history as well as art lovers and designers will share delight in Schindler's masterful recreation, through well-researched and entertaining text and beautiful color plates, of the "golden age" of the celebration--an oeuvre to which Schindler adds annually through his own designs for several of the old-line carnival organizations, thus keeping alive the artistic and cultural tradition of which he writes in this and his previous books. The reader comes to know, through the insights of a true "insider", the meaning and spirit of the "real" Carnival.

How Mardi Gras is NOT about nudity..........2002-12-29

This book is exquisite.
In New Orleans, Mardi Gras as practiced by the faithfull is the high holy event of the year. Mr. Schindler has documented the aesthetic traditions of the rites in a series of beautiful books- this is the lastest and focuses on costume designs from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The plates are all original drawings by the great designers of Carnivals' past (Mr. Schindler is the great designer of Carnivals present). New Orleans Mardi Gras is rooted in the aesthetic of 19th century Italian opera and this book has some truly surreal illustrations. Any Carnival faithfull, opera fan, theatre designer or just folks who love costume parties should love this book. It also stands as a serious work of art history- the talent and effort that go into mounting parades and tableaux balls in New Orleans get overlooked and all of Mr. Schindlers books on the subject document a rich history of artists and artisans who worked in the city and built its most revered tradition.

New Orleans Architecture Vol VII: Jefferson City

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New Orleans Architecture Vol VII: Jefferson City
Dorothy G. Schlesinger , and Robert J. Cangelosi
Manufacturer: Pelican Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0882896687

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Louisiana 24/7
Rick Smolan , and David Elliot Cohen
Manufacturer: DK ADULT
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0756600588

Book Description

Following the success of The New York Times bestseller America 24/7, DK is publishing 50 books that showcase the best photographs from each state - all to be published on the same day. Each individual book includes 95% new photography and is a unique peronal expression of state pride.

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