Honey, Can You Say FAAAAAAABULOUS?

That Mardi Gras ball I went to last weekend?  Not only faaaaaabulous, but waaaaay too much fun.  I mean, how many balls do YOU go to that feature two naked men on the program cover, hmmm?

When Cousin Gwen and I got to our table, it was doing that groaning thing tables do when they're overloaded with food and other life-sustaining substances like massive quantities of alcohol.  Sandwiches, chips, fruit, veggies (yeah, so far, eh) . . . but also CHOCOLATE COVERED HANDMADE MARSHMALLOWS and KING CAKE and ALREADY SHELLED AND DEVEINED BERLED SRIMP (that's how we say it down here, and when you're served srimp already cleaned and
someone has taken off the heads and the shell, well, that's a HUGE deal when you're used to fishing them out of a big steaming pile on the table.  Which is fun, of course, but not so much when you're wearing the one long skirt you own and since you only wear it once a year taking it to the cleaners with srimp juice on it would be the pits).  Here's the invitation and ticket:

(I think the hieroglyphics might be saying something dirty in ancient Egyptian and I was GOING to tweet someone in Egypt to decipher it but then I remembered, "Oh yeah, they just had a revolution" so we'll just have to guess.  Ha ha.)

Are you ready for this?  All I can say is, when this guy came onstage there was a simultaneous GASP and everyone with boobs--real, fake and stuffed--heaved those suckers mightily.  HE WAS HOT!

All he wore were some strategically placed straps and a loincloth.  If you care, he's supposed to be the mythical phoenix.  Incredibly, he also MADE this costume as well as making or directing the making of several other costume masterpieces in the tableau.  Amazing!

This fine figure of a (wo)man was costumed as a tribute to Erte.  Pheasant feathers are second only to ostrich plumes on the wow scale.  The lady on the left side of the picture was the event's emcee-ette and even though you'd SWEAR she was Audrey Hepburn, she is actually Miss Elizabeth Bouvier, a featured performer at JohnPaul's show bar in New Orleans. 

Darker shot to show how sparkly it was.  Her dress and harness are beautiful, but her escort has better cheekbones.

It was so dark in the arena that I was lucky to get the shots that I did.  Here is last year's King.  Again, those pheasant feathers--his were drenched in glitter.  Here's a tidbit--the New Orleans newspaper, the Times-Picayune, will accept write-ups about the gay carnival balls but refuses to publish photographs of the queen, which is insane because New Orleans is so accepting of the gay lifestyle.  Mardi Gras is serious business down here, though, and the old-line krewes want it treated with "respect" (and I suspect also because the drag queens are oftentimes more beautiful than the straight ones).  Anyhoo, a decision has been made to start allowing the gay queen photos in 2012.  I guess they figured, what the hell, the world is going to end anyway . . .

Cousin Gwen's hairdresser, David, is a member of the krewe and his invitation got us into the festivities.  His costume was incredible (also made by that hot Phoenix guy)--here he is as Poseidon, Lord of the Sea. 

David's significant other, David (also known as Bubba), told us that he is so sick of inhaling glitter that if he never sees another Mardi Gras ball again he'll be deliriously happy.  He told that to David/Poseidon, who gave him one of those, "Oh yeah, riiiiiiiight" looks.  Actually, we ALL gave Bubba one of those looks.  We're already planning next year's fabulousness!

Every bit of this costume was done by hand, from forming the frame to attaching the satin to gluing on the glitter and jewels and sewing in the feathers.  It weighs a ton and the fact that David had been drinking most of the day made it all the more amazing that he managed to stay on his feet the whole time!

The thing was huge!

Well, that's all for today.  I'm going to seriously try to post more often since I've built up a pretty good backlog of photos of STUFF plus I found some pix of me lookin' gosh darn fine back in the 70's.  Although I do have to say that little Damon Wayans hat I wore to the ball brought a major sparkle to this old gal's eye!

Hope y'all have a wonderful Saturday!!!!!