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Monday, February 27, 2017

MARDI GRAS, A MIRROR OF OUR TIMES?


Mardi Gras has become the Party for Everyone.

But it was not always so.

Time Magazine in the Feb. 9, 1948, issue, wrote that 

balls and "krewes" were for the city's elites only, and that situation lasted for decades.

The '50's were artificial and magazines, television, and movies gilded the times in the minds of many.

But there was the emergence of a new subversive culture growing 

beneath the smooth, stable surface of the decade that would explode in the 1960s.

  TheMardi Gras krewes may have multiplied, 

but they were still separated along racial and gender lines.

 As recently as 1991, 

the relative exclusivity of the Mardi Gras krewes was a source of controversy in New Orleans. 

That December, the city council voted to require the krewes to integrate by 1994, 

or else lose the right to hold parades.

 (The krewes are private clubs, but the city controls the streets.)

So, of course, the exclusivity in America has had to go underground as is chillingly portrayed 

in the latest horror film, GET OUT!


 Two decades later, things have changed with Mardi Gras:

The krewes have modernized and opened up: 

where they were once the domain of money and blue blood,

 these days membership applications to many krewes are available to anyone with an Internet connection.

 But violence has accelerated 

The bodies flying over the hood of a pick-up truck driven by a drunk driver 

injuring 28 this past Saturday is only one example.

Could movies like HOSTEL or SAW have been shown in the seventies, eighties or the nineties

much less have multiple sequels? 


Does our modern entertainment reflect the changing soul of America?

What do you think?

6 comments:

  1. Hi Roland - I've never liked horror movies - and that trailer for "Get Out" is quite daunting ... I'd just love it if we could all get along and enjoy life - not live with hate or distrust ...

    Happy pancake day though ... cheers Hilary

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    1. Mardi Gras has been quiet so far. Cross your fingers!

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  2. Hi Roland, I never liked horror movies either. I don't know about the American soul. Happy Fat Tuesday!

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    1. I think the best part of the American Soul reached out to you with your friends that rallied around you in your recent dark times. Have a lovely March!! :-)

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  3. Get Out is supposed to be really good.
    Movies are more of a reflection of society. The evil you see in a film is nowhere near the level that exists in reality. However, when it comes to portraying what is normal, television shows push an agenda, trying to get things accepted as normal that aren't so normal in society.

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    1. People are complaining about that very thing in this season of Supergirl.

      Evil is always darker outside the movie theater which gives you pause considering some of the vicious movies out nowadays!!

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