Nyx On Parade
Last week, the Krewe of Nyx announced that it would break Carnival tradition by staging a summer version of its parade to be held in July in addition to its regular Carnival season march. This was supposed to be…
The Editor's Room
The Advocate Buys The Picayune
On a weekday afternoon in June 2012 Allen Toussaint drove his vintage Cadillac into the parking lot at Rock and Bowl on South Carrollton Avenue where anxious fans escorted him to a keyboard placed on a makeshift stage. Toussaint…
Top 5 Live Music Peeves
In this the year’s biggest month of music here’s my list of "Five Top Live Music Peeves." Just to be dramatic, they're listed in ascending order from five to number one. 5. Performers who introduce one of their standards by…
A Quirky But Holy Good Friday Stop
I once had a conversation with Tom Benson about the neighborhood where he grew up. His parish church was Our Lady Star of the Sea located on St. Roch Street, not far from St. Claude Avenue, in Bywater. Benson…
Zephyr Stories
Last week the team formerly known as the New Orleans Zephyrs but now called the Baby Cakes opened what will likely be its final season here. The franchise, so it has been announced, will be moving to Wichita, Kansas where…
Tennessee's Brother
Legends of Dakin Williams
The Season of Fire and Water
Random Thoughts About Carnival 2019
How New Orleans Saved The Altars
From the first St. Joseph’s Day altar I ever attended, as a kid, I recall an elderly Sicilian lady who explained why she built an altar. One night, she said, she saw a small apparition of Saint Joseph who…
How Irish Coffee Created A Stir
The Plane Truth
Ash Wednesday
I once worked in an office where on the day after Mardi Gras I noticed the two girls at the front desk each had ashen crosses on their forehead. At first I thought it was touching that they had gone…
Zulu's Greatest Moments
Tough Stands On Public Issues
Moon Pies Over New Orleans
Moon Pies were not invented in New Orleans, but they should have been. The confection has a New Orleans quality to it – decadent and excessive. Because they are factory wrapped in cellophane the marshmallow sandwiches are legal to toss from carnival…
The Wild West At The Time Of Rex
Feb. 13, 1872 – New Orleans For George Armstrong Custer the occasion of the first Rex parade on Feb. 13, 1872 was one of the few marches in his life in which he was a spectator and not a…
When Rex Met Aida
There are more connections then you might think
The Truth About Carnival's Colors
Everything else you've heard is wrong
Saints Robbed By Refs: We Need Inspiration From Tom Benson
Try not to think about it too much. What happened to the Saints was unfair. There are some people in this world who are occasionally blind to pass interference. But if we must think back about the game we…
Quintessential Carnival
I once had a conversation with a man who was an official of the Knights of Hermes. He was effusive about the group’s upcoming parade. “It will be the most beautiful ever,” he exclaimed. He also mentioned the parade’s…
3 Years When Mardi Gras Helped Save the City
This year marks the 40th anniversary of a season in which Carnival helped save the city from outside forces and general greed. What happened that year, 1979, was way beyond street level frivolity but a gritty example of civic…
Harry Tompson At The Altar
The Man and His Mass
Bonfires On The Levees: Searching For The Truth
Not that we would ever deny the existence of Papa Noel, but we need to put to rest a tale that circulates every year about Papa and the annual Christmas Eve bonfires. The burning pyres line the levees of the river…
From Burlesque To Bingle
(Plus a Bonus Story)
Mirlitons on the Table
My mom spent her last years in a nursing home. When we visited, her recollections quite often turned to family gatherings. As a holiday, such as Thanksgiving, approached her ongoing wish was to be able to fix “a big…
Soldiers On Parade
This past Saturday I watched a Veterans Day parade along Harrison Avenue. The crowd clapped politely as troops from the various services marched by. (Even the Boy Scouts got cheers.) Probably no one realized that some of the cross…
A Priest Story
There was a visiting priest at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic church on Canal Street one Sunday in 2002. He was a man on rank within the church, the Provincial of the Holy Cross order, whose priests ran the…
The Editor's Room
Weekly Commentary with New Orleans Magazine’s Errol Laborde
about
Errol Laborde holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of New Orleans and is the editor-in-chief of Renaissance Publishing. In that capacity he serves as editor/associate publisher of New Orleans Magazineand editor/publisher ofLouisiana Life magazine.
Errol is also a producer and a regular panelist on Informed Sources, a weekly news discussion program broadcast on public television station WYES-TV, Channel 12. Errol is a three-time winner of the Alex Waller Award, the highest award given in print journalism by the Press Club of New Orleans. He also received the National and City Regional Magazine Association Award for Best Column for his New Orleans Magazine column, beating out 76 city magazines across the country. In 2013, Errol received the award for the "Best News Affiliated Blog," awarded by the Press Club of New Orleans.
Errol’s most recent books are Krewe: The Early Carnival from Comus to Zulu and Marched the Day God: A History of the Rex Organization. In his free time he enjoys playing tennis and traveling with his wife, Peggy, to anywhere they can get away to, but some of his favorite spots are the Caribbean and historic locations around Louisiana. You can reach Errol at (504) 830-7235 or errol@myneworleans.com.
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