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I've got friends in New Orleans, and when I can, I like to try to slip down to the Big Easy to catch a few Mardi Gras parades. Fat Tuesday was the last day of festivities, but now that the city wide bash is over, it's time to take a look at some of the goodies I caught for you, my Suvudu.com readers. While I can't give you any of the beads and goodies I caught ("throws"), I can share some of the really cool photos of geeky parade floats and costumed characters. Some of the Krewes (the organizations behind the floats and raucous parties that make Mardi Gras so much fun) use the parades to lampoon politicians, public figures, and current events, so while there was plenty of fun and freaky characters, they were mixed in with sometimes rather bawdy imagery and text, so you should know that there's a good many photos that I couldn't share here. That being said, here's a run-down. This year saw Le Krewe of Tux draft a lot of superheroes and fantastic figures into their always irreverent festivities (How irreverent is Tux? They throw toilet paper and plungers to revelers, and the "king" of the Krewe rides atop a giant toilet--his throne.). Spider-man became SpyderMan in a float criticizing the NSA, and a crew full of Robins were riding a float lampooning a certain filibustering local politician. It's not all politics, though: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were making their way into a spicy soup, and Swamp Thing was depicted fleeing the crew from "Swamp People" ("Choot 'em!") Le Krewe d'Etat's float rolls after nightfall, and is typically resplendent with spooky imagery. If you're lucky, you'll catch one of their blinking skull throws. Sadly, I wasn't that lucky! However, I got a lot of photos of black cats, skeletal pirates, pumpkins, headless horsemen, and evil fairy queens, and I think you'll like those. Like the rest of the Krewes, there was a lot of satire on current affairs mixed into the bunch. I also managed to get some fantastic photos of Le Krewe of Isis. They're an all-female Krewe, and I think you'll appreciate the ones I've included in the mix, especially the "art bikes": lovingly crafted bicycles made to resemble dinosaur skeletons, bees, and much more. In addition, you're going to see some photos of wandering costumers, foam dragons, steampunk revelers and all kinds of other fun stuff. I wasn't able to participate in the festivities as much as I would have liked to, but keeping my camera phone in hand seems to have really paid off this year when it comes to pictures. I truly hope that you'll enjoy these, because I was thinking of you readers when I shot them. [gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="4" orderby="rand"]
