Today, Monica shared on here her following a fellow New Orleanian of mine named Big Freedia. Now, we are “fellows” in that we both live in the Big Easy, but we travel in totally different circles. I have only briefly listened to Big Freedia’s music in passing because, to my aged ears, it tends to sound like noise. However, as I shared with Monica, by way of comment, Big Freedia does have a following and quite a few fans, In the city as well as out of it. She was even Grand Marshall of 2019’s Gay Pride event. Once again, we don’t follow in the same circles because I tend to follow the parade at a distance, sometimes marching with my best drag queen friend in the city.
That person is none other than Princess Stephaney, pictured here. She is the one with the big hair and the fluffy white jacket. She is also the bartender at my favorite hang out….well, it is actually my favorite hang out because she is the bartender, but that is another story.
Anyway, here she is pictured with two others, the woman in the flowery top is the editor of a cook book called “The Drag Queen Brunch Cookbook”. There are about 12 drag queens who are featured in association with a meal along with a bit of a biography of said individual.
Even though I don’t cook beyond warming up cans of Dinty Moore Beef Stew and the like, I bought a copy of the book just to support my friend.
She is the soul of entertaining, on or off stage, and just has a very unique sense of humor that has everybody in stitches.
Isn’t it funny how you can feel goodness and love from some people through a picture? THAT is Princess Stephanie in my book and she looks AMAZING. It must be a fun bar to have Princess working there. I couldn’t imagine her working at a Dive bar. Well….actually I kind of can. Nothing wrong with a small dive bar on a seedy street.
On one season of Big Freedia she was the Grand Marshal of another parade during Mardi Gras. You guys seem to have a parade for any reason 😀
I tried to look it up, about Big Freedia, but I couldn’t find out what parades she was Grand Marshal for. But no, we don’t have a lot of parades in New Orleans. Just the major holidays like the second Tuesday of every month.
That last is a joke, but I do remember seeing a parade that I had no idea what it was for. Ask somebody on the street beside me, and they said “probably the second Tuesday of the month, and that struck with me.
I counted the Mardi Gras parades two years.. One of those years, counting everything that would be announced as thought it was New Orleans area, which covers 7 parishes (what every other state except one calls countries) there were 50 or 60 parades, and that was just in the 6 weeks of Mardi Gras lead up.
Then we have Easter, St Patricks Day, Gay Pride, about 5 or so for Southern Decadance, at least one for a mostly Black music festival called Essence, and then we have Christmas.
There are probably more. And then, just to confuse things even more, they have informal parades for weddings and what is called Second Lines for funerals.
It is not over estimating by much if any, to say there are 100 parades a year in the Larger New Orleans Area. In fact, I may be leaving some out. During a normal year, that is. Covid-19 shut us down in March so we are WAAAY behind this year. The Mayor is “not even talking about that yet” concerning parades, including Mardi Gras next year. She is being super careful, because apparently she got blamed for “spreading the virus” because she didn’t call off Mardi Gras last year…even though there was no guidance from Washington indicating that we needed to take percautions.
Anyway, very long winded way of saying …”yeah, we have a lot of parades”. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Yeah, Stephaney is a good person, fun etc. I will never tell her that of course…don’t want to contribute to her big headedness. LOL
I love a good parade.
My dream parade is the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade.
This year I was looking for package deals of a Hotel Room along the route and possibly a balcony to view it. FINALLY I thought…..I am going to do this. And stupid Covid decided to visit and all my plans for the year have been scattered to the wind.
What a fun town you live in 😉
As for Stephanie…..she looks to me that her big head is well deserved.
I saw her today in person…we had a sort of minor low key gay pride walk…wearing masks, some of us, and just walking a few blocks. I went, with mask and tried to keep the social distancing rule although it is hard to walk with 20 people and maintain confidence that you are actually 6 feet from everybody. 🙂
Anyway, i told her what you said, while assuring her that I would “never agree” because her head was big enough. Believe me, if I had not said that, she would have thought the pod people had taken over my body. (grin)
I also told her that I was glad to see her personally again, but if she told anybody I said that, I would tell them she was lying…LOL
Awwwww CUTE. Gotta play the grumpy cold guy ……we all know one or two.
Reminds me of my sisters friend from YEARS ago. She lived with him for a year or two. I may not have mentioned it to you but I have 2 gay sisters. Well…one claims to be bisexual but I think those days are gone. She use to dump a gal to date a guy….dump that guy to date a gal….and so on and so on.
Anyhow….back to my story. This old grumpy man was a regular poker player at the casino. I was 19 -20 and just transferred to the card room. THIS is where I learned poker players…especially the higher end poker players are grumpy rude and CHEAP. Anyhow…..Steve was known as one of the grumpiest cheap players they had. I was embarrassed to let anyone know that my sister was living with him. He would only play the hight limit games. Anyhow….sometimes when I worked later a waitress would walk up and drop a $5 chip into my tip jar and say it was from Steve. Every time he won a hand he sent a $5 tip up for me. Which added up. I appreciated him but I felt bad for the dealers because he never tipped them.
Glad you got out today and got to march with Princess.
This is a mutual thing…Princess’s humor is all built around the fact that although she is hired to serve drinks, she does NOT work, and it is a great burden to her to have to actually get you a drink. We ALWAYS interrupt her right when she is sitting for her whine break. Would we please hurry up and give her our order…if we must.
She actually said nice things about me to my pastor, but told the pastor that if it was repeated, she would promptly deny it. 🙂
So, I am not the only “grumpy guy” in this relationship. 😛
She is a comedy skit. I LOVE THAT. Whine break…..got it. I bet NO ONE ever complains about the drinks she makes or if she gave them the wrong drink.
Reminds me of a Thai Food place I took my brother to. He had been there before and said the owner is a grumpy old man and he does not like it when anyone ask to alter any items on the menu. So we walked in…..and I could see the grumpy old man standing there eyeing us. He didn’t even smile but sat us down and gave us menus. He came over to take our orders and when it was my turn I wanted Tom Som salad but with light heat. So I asked him if he could please make it very light heat and he was about to throw a fit when I said….cause I’m gonna die if it’s too hot and I grabbed my throat. And I had a dead serious look on my face and he started laughing. And after that he was the sweetest guy to us.
Stephaney gets along better with people who know how to dish it out just like she dishes it. Every once in a while, I admit, she can get under my skin, but I have learned to just treat it as a joke and jab right back..LOL
I know a few like that….and I can only handle them in doses. Some…lay the show on so thick that I just avoid them. Because some like Princess…..is it kinda her persona right? Where as in some oddballs try to pull the Andrew Dice Clay/ Life Sucks tough guy persona off when they are so far from that persona.
Oh….I know I am not really explaining it the way I mean it so I will stop here cause I am losing my train of thought. If I get the words right ill pop back in.
Stephany doesn’t come across as a “Andrew Dice Clay” to me. He always came across mean and just plain rude and obnoxious. Maybe it is because Princess Stephany is a personal friend, but she actually comes across as loving most of the time. And her humor is often self-depreciating just as much as insulting to the person she is addressing.
I also find myself having a hard time trying to say what I mean. Maybe because we are both subjective in our reactions to people we know…and just “feel” the difference. That doesn’t make it easy to articulate it in rational words.
🙂
Thank you Leftthoughts, we do need to hear it every now and then just to boost our confidence. See ya soon!
Krewe de Vieux