The history of the city of New Orleans is entwined with the history of Mardi Gras. For better or worse, depending on who you talk to. But the most wonderful part of Mardi Gras is the ability of the citizenry to spend a day enjoying the greatest free show on earth.

When most people think of Mardi Gras they think about girls gone wild in the French Quarter or Vieux Carre as the locals call it. But the facts are that what goes on through the French Quarter is a frenzy of tourists too drunk to know better and some brave New Orleanians that goe to watch the crazy tourists.

Let me say that the true Mardi Gras New Orleans traditions travel down St Charles Avenue and Canal Street. Down Carrollton Ave turning on Canal. The Mardi Gras Indians on Claiborne Ave. Rex, Comus, Phunny Phorty Phellows, Proteus, Momus, and Zulu. The familys on the streets festively costumed with ice chests and bbq pits. The smells of New Orleans food being cooked and the echos of the school bands as they pass on St Charles under the interstate highway overpass.  Making eye contact with someone on the float and jumping to catch that special little something that you have tried to get all parade.

Mardi Gras is the greatest free show on earth. A time when New Orleanians take a moment to reflect with friends and family as bands play, dancers dance, marchers march, and regular people spend their hard earned money to build floats and buy trinkets that they know we need to have to keep the joy of this memory in our hearts.

The city that care forgot, is not a city that forgot to care. We New Orleanians are a strong bunch. We at ezconexion have decided to try and collect, conserve, preserve and copy old Mardi Gras ephemera. Much was lost after Katrina and we are trying to collect as many items as we can to conserve. And we sell the copies of the originals so that we can offset some of the costs of preservation, which at $85.00 per hour can be costly.

But also it is our thought that displaced New Orleanians can get a piece of nostalgic New Orleans and we have stored these high resouloution copies to disc and to the net so that they never be lost to another disaster. Even as the originals become more and more rare, we will have these copies to reflect on bygone days and the birth of the greatest tradition in America.

We at ezconexion intend to archive as many item as we possibly can from the old line krewes. Vintage Mardi Gras grows more rare as do New Orleanians. We hope all that wish to come home get the oppurtunity as our great city and region unlike any other in this country, rebuild and regrow while holding on to our heritage. We are a hodge podge of cultures, races, religions, and eccentricities. May we remain that way forever.