Mardi Gras Comin and Rex Send-off

The Parade season kicked off last weekend, and various krewes are making thier way down St Charles Ave, celebrating Carnival and the quickly approching Fat Tuesday... Any body out there willing to share a secret? Floats are in their final preparations, getting loaded with beads and other trinkets... anybody know of any cool rituals and customs that people just don't know about?

I've heard that former Kings of Carnival will "send off" this year's Rex with a toast before they depart from the Den somewhere on South Claiborne. I think it's at S. Claiborne and Third, but the warehouse seems kind of small and is of course unmarked, so it's hard ot say. Anybody got any good tips for the "private" Mardi Gras that so many of us never see?

Krewe Den Found

Royal Artists is a famous maker of Mardi Gras Floats, and their offices are on the North Shore in Covington, but if you look closely at google maps, you can see thier warehouse in the link below.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wl

A little more searching leads to this article by Errol Laborde, with a line about the Den on Bordeaux Street, home of the Krewe of Chaos, and the former home of Comus and Momus.

http://www.myneworleans.com/New-Orleans-Magazine/February-2011/QUINTESSENTIAL-MARDI-GRAS/

The round table club meets Thursday nights.

Or at least, they did tonight. Some kind of lecture going on. More details to follow.

So I drove by the Round Table Club tonight and I saw all the lights on and the parking lot was full. I live in the neighborhood and since I rarely ever see anybody there, I parked and took a quick walk past the building. A couple cars in the lot were nice Lexuses and BMWs, but there were an equal number of older/ standard model cars, so I thought that was interesting that not everyone at the event was driving an expensive car. I looked in from the street and thought it was strange that I didn't see anybody, until I went in the back and saw that everyone was gathered in what looked like a college lecture hall. There was floor to ceiling windows on one side and there was a man giving a power point lecture to the crowd. I didn't want to trespass or go up to the windows and be creepy, but that's what I could tell from the street. There were also a number of women there, maybe the wives or members themselves, and some older couples who seemed to need help getting around.

Just a chance encounter of seeing the lights on and checking it out, but I was interested to know there was an event there last night. I'm not sure what the lecture actually was, but it's intriguing.

NYTimes Article on Private Clubs

New Orleans has its share of private clubs, but the "home base" for private clubs in America is New York City, and more specifically, Manhattan. NYC is home to hundreds of private clubs, second only to London in the sheer number of invitation-only clubs. This morning I saw an article on the homepage of the New York Times on an ongoing debate in the Century Association, " a sanctuary for civilized discussion of literature, music and theater."
It's an interesting read, where world renound scholars, preminant lawyers and awards winning actors debate everything from Victorian poetry, global warming, and the properties of the perfect macaroon. The most heated discussion is over the rights of thier female members, which the State of NY forced them to admit in 1988, while visiting a reciprocal club in London, The Garrick, which does not admit women unless they are accompanied by another male. It's an interesting insight into "Club Life."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/10/nyregion/10century-club.html?pagewanted=1&hp
The Century Association's Website: http://www.thecentury.org/
The Garrick Club's Website: http://www.garrickclub.co.uk/

Blake Pontchartrain on the Boston Club

November 16, 2004COLUMNS » BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN™: NEW ORLEANS TRIVIA

New Orleans Know-It-All 

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Question for Blake? Emailblresponse@gambitweekly.comor mail to 3923 Bienville St., 70119.

Hey Blake,
I wonder what the Boston Club is. I am just curious.
Fern LaCour Linn

Dear Fern,
Social clubs have been around a very long time. The idea that came to America developed from the English system. Only two other clubs in America are older than the Boston Club: the Philadelphia Club (1834) and the Union Club of New York (1836).

Contrary to popular belief, the club was not named for the City of Boston, but a now-extinct card game -- Boston -- involving tricks and bidding, similar to bridge and whist.

In 1841, a group of men whom the author of the club's history described as "thirty leading mercantile and professional gentlemen of the city, heads of families, men of substance on the shady side of life, yet full of bonhomie and fond of the old game of Boston" formed a club. Since the purpose of the group was to indulge in their favorite game, they gave it the obvious name of the Boston Club. The first president was John Hewlett who remained in office for about 11 years.

The first official meeting of the Boston Club was on May 15, 1841, and first on the agenda after organizing was to decide on where they could rent some rooms in which they could play the game of Boston. The gentlemen decided that the first home of the Boston Club would be in the Merchants Exchange at 126 Royal St. Ten years later, they moved to Canal Street.

The club was going strong when the Civil War forced the gentlemen to suspend their fun. Col. Stafford of the Union forces who were in control of New Orleans gave the verbal order for the club to close. And it remained closed from Aug. 15, 1862, until July 1865, when the boys were able to meet again to figure out where they could resume one of their favorite pastimes.

The next location for fun was in a building on Royal Street where today you will find the Monteleone Hotel. Then in April 1867, they bought a house that had once belonged to Edward J. Forstall, a New Orleans financier with an international reputation. This three-story residence on Carondelet Street near Canal was to be the club's home until it acquired their permanent home and finally settled down at 824 Canal St. in a mansion that was famous as the home of Dr. William Newton Mercer.

The new digs were really something because the house was designed and built by James Gallier in 1844. As you might remember, this was the brilliant architect who later designed the City Hall, now Gallier Hall. The men of the club leased the home until 1905 when they were able to make it their own. The three-story mansion was beautifully decorated and included a marble hallway, Old English staircase, large lunch room, card room, dining room, billiard room, servants' rooms and kitchen.

In the early days of the club before the Civil War, membership had risen to 150, and many prospective members were waiting to join. As the population of the city increased, the membership went up. It gradually rose to 200, then 325, then 400. Membership limits kept increasing until 1970, when the limit stopped at 600.

However, membership in the Boston Club was exclusive from the start. To get in, you were nominated and put on a waiting list, and usually you waited for a very long time. For example, in the late 1920s, the waiting list was very long indeed: 289. And then you had to wait for 10 years before your name was submitted for election. The Boston Club is very closely associated with Mardi Gras. It was in 1872 that New Orleans had its first King of Carnival. The first Rex was a Jewish banker and cotton factor named Lewis Salomon, a Confederate veteran of Shiloh and other battles and a member of the Boston Club. And ever since that first parade, with few exceptions, Rex has been chosen from the membership of this club.

• PHOTO FROM MARCHED THE DAY GOD: A HISTORY OF THE REX ORGANIZATION
• Rex, King of Carnival, is generally chosen from the membership of the Boston Club. Here, past and former kings of Carnival gather at the Boston Club in 1978.

TOP 10 Places in New Orleans you Can't go

OK, So I've come up with this quick and dirty list, but I'm going to fill it out with everything I know about each of these spots as I go.

10. Krewe Dens- Warehouses where Mardi Gras Krewes store their Floats.
9. House of Blues Foundation Room- This Club inside a Club is invitation only.
8. Round Table Club- This is a private Club near Audubon Park and is home to the Louisiana Historical Society.
7. Lee Thomas Lodge #421- This Masonic Lodge in the Warehouse District is a Scottish Rite Lodge, a style of Masons that is common in New Orleans, but unique in comparison to the rest of the country.
6. Le Moyne de Bienville Club- A men's lunch club on St Charles Ave in the CBD.
5. The Orleans Club- This Ladies-only club Uptown on St Charles Ave. hosts receptions and lectures for their members in an opulent setting.
4. Louisiana Club- An elite men's lunch club, found behind an unassuming door on Union Street, not unlike a 1920's speakeasy.
3. VooDoo Temple- A not-exactly secret Temple on Rampart across from Armstrong Park, but certain rituals are invite-only, and creep me out enough to be included in this list.
2. Pickwick Club- Home of the krewe of Comus, and among the most elite and exclusive guest lists in the Crescent City.
1. Boston Club- Every Rex since 1888 has been a member of the Boston Club. While #1&2 is a toss up, the Boston Club continues to intrigue me.

Top 10 Places You Can’t Go

This list was originally published on listserve.com (see the link below), but it's an interesting list of places with either exclusive access, military clearance, or special signifigance that makes them off limits to only a certain set. Take a look!
http://listverse.com/2010/01/06/top-10-places-you-cant-go/

by JFrater

The world is full of secret and exclusive places that we either don’t know about, or simply couldn’t visit if we wanted to. This list takes a look at ten of the most significant places around the world that are closed to the general public or are virtually impossible for the general public to visit.

10

Mezhgorye

Mezhgorye is a closed town in Russia which is believed to house people working on the highly secret Mount Yamantaw. The town was founded in 1979. Mount Yamantaw stands at 1,640 metres (5,381 ft) and is the highest mountain in the southern Urals. Along with Kosvinsky Mountain (600 km to the north), it is suspected by the United States of being a large secret nuclear facility and/or bunker. Large excavation projects have been observed by U.S. satellite imagery as recently as the late 1990s, during the time of Boris Yeltsin’s pro-Western government after the fall of the Soviet Union. Two garrisons, Beloretsk-15 and Beloretsk-16, were built on top of the facility. Repeated U.S. questions have yielded several different responses from the Russian government regarding Mount Yamantaw. They have said it is a mining site, a repository for Russian treasures, a food storage area, and a bunker for leaders in case of nuclear war.

9

Vatican Secret Archives

This has been mentioned on a previous list – the archives are not secret despite their names. You can view any document you wish. But you cannot enter the archive. You must submit your request for a document and it will be supplied to you. Despite the foolishness of the recent junk from Ron Howard and Dan Brown (Angels and Demons) the documents are all available and there are no copies of suppressed scientific theories or great works that were banned. The only documents you can’t access are those which are not yet 75 years old (in order to protect diplomatic and governmental information). Indexes are available for people who want to see if a document exists in the archives. The Vatican Secret Archives have been estimated to contain 52 miles (84 km) of shelving, and there are 35,000 volumes in the selective catalogue alone.

8

Club 33

Contrary to popular belief, Disneyland has a full liquor license which is used when the place closes down to the general public to accommodate private parties. But there is one place in Disneyland that is always open to sell booze: Club 33. Club 33 is a private club located in the heart of the New Orleans Square section of Disneyland. Officially maintained as a secret feature of the theme park, the entrance of the club is located next to the Blue Bayou Restaurant at “33 Royal Street” with the entrance recognizable by an ornate address plate with the number 33 engraved on it. Fees for joining range from 10 – 30 thousand US dollars and membership comes with a car park. If you want to join the club, you have to go to the end of the fourteen year waiting list.

7

Moscow Metro-2

Metro-2 in Moscow, Russia is a purported secret underground metro system which parallels the public Moscow Metro. The system was built supposedly during (or from) the time of Stalin and codenamed D-6 by the KGB. Russian journalists have reported that the existence of Metro-2 is neither confirmed nor denied by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) or the Moscow Metro administration. The length of Metro-2 is rumored to exceed even that of the “civil” (i.e. public) Metro. (It is said to have 4 lines and lie 50 to 200 m deep. It is said to connect the Kremlin with the FSB headquarters, the government airport at Vnukovo-2, and an underground town at Ramenki, in addition to other locations of national importance. Needless to say, the fact that no one confirms its existence makes it pretty difficult to visit.

6

White’s Gentlemen’s Club

White’s is the most exclusive English gentlemen’s club. It was founded in 1693 by Italian Francesco Bianco (Francis White) to sell the newly discovered hot chocolate but eventually became a typical (but extremely private) gentlemen’s club. The club is famous for its “betting book” in which members make bizarre gambles. The most famous of which is a 3,000 pound bet on which of two raindrops would slide down the window first. So why is this club on the list? Women are excluded completely from membership, so that is half our audience out. Secondly, men who want to join this exclusive club can only do so if invited by a sitting member who has the support of two other members. Unless you are a member of royalty, or are extremely powerful in politics or the arts, you are unlikely to ever see the exclusive White’s invitation.

5

Area 51

I have put this so high on the list because it is the one place most readers are likely to expect to see. Area 51 is a nickname for a military base that is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles (133 km) north-northwest of downtown Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large secretive military airfield. The base’s primary purpose is to support development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems. The intense secrecy surrounding the base, the very existence of which the U.S. government barely acknowledges, has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories and a central component to unidentified flying object (UFO) folklore. The sign above states that deadly force can be used if people enter the Area 51 zone.

4

Room 39

Room 39 or Bureau 39 is arguably one of the most secretive organizations in North Korea that seeks ways to obtain foreign currency for Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s Chairman of the National Defense Commission. Room 39 was established in the late 1970s. It has been described as the lynchpin of the North’s so-called “court economy” centered on the dynastic Kim family. It is unknown how the name originated. Very little is known about Room 39 due to the secretive nature surrounding the organization, but it is widely speculated that the organization uses 10 to 20 bank accounts in China and Switzerland for the purposes of counterfeiting, money laundering, and other illicit transactions. It is also alleged that Room 39 is involved in drug smuggling and illicit weapon sales. It is known, however, that the organization has 120 foreign trade companies under its jurisdiction and is under the direct control of Kim Jong-il. North Korea has denied taking part in any illegal activities. Room 39 is believed to be located inside a ruling Workers’ Party building in Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea.

3

Ise Grand Shrine

The Ise Grand Shrine in Japan (which is actually a series of over 100 shrines) is the most sacred shrine in Japan. It is dedicated to Amaterasu (the Sun goddess) and has been in existence since 4BC. The main shrine is alleged to hold the most important item in Japan’s imperial history: the Naikū (the mirror from Japanese mythology which eventually ended up in the hands of the first emperors). The shrine is demolished and rebuilt every 20 years in keeping with the Shinto idea of death and rebirth (the next rebuilding will be in 2013). This ranks very high on the list of places you will never go because the only person who can enter is the priest or priestess and he must be a member of the Japanese imperial family. So unless we have a Japanese prince or princess reading the site, no one here will ever see anything more than the thatched roof of the Ise Grand Shrine.

2

Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center

This is a place that is not only closed to the public, but it is a place that the public hope to never have to enter! In most “end of the world” films we see these days, there is always a highly classified area where US government officials and a chosen few get to go in the hopes that they can escape the impending doom. The Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center is the real thing. It was set up in the 1950s due to the cold war but continues to operate today. It is a “last hope” area. For obvious reasons its operations are highly classified. It is run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The center is already functioning and even in small local disasters in the US, much of the telecommunications traffic is routed through it.

1

RAF Menwith Hill

RAF Menwith Hill is a British military base with connections to the global ECHELON spy network. The site contains an extensive satellite ground station and is a communications intercept and missile warning site and has been described as the largest electronic monitoring station in the world. The site acts as a ground station for a number of satellites operated by the US National Reconnaissance Office, on behalf of the US National Security Agency, with antennae contained in a large number of highly distinctive white radomes, and is alleged to be an element of the ECHELON system. ECHELON was reportedly created to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War in the early 1960s, but since the end of the Cold War it is believed to search also for hints of terrorist plots, drug dealers’ plans, and political and diplomatic intelligence. It has also been involved in reports of commercial espionage and is believed to filter all telephone and radio communications in the nations which host it – an extreme violation of privacy.