Guess what, folks? It’s still Mardi Gras. And I hate to ask, but when’s the party over? This little girl is exhausted, and so are we.

Yesterday Rob went to the King Arthur parade and got hit in the head with a string of purple beads that actually drew blood. People have been stumbling down the street, yelling outside our apartment building all day, every day, for the past two weeks. And the masks. They’re starting to freak me out.

As for WORK, the roads are constantly blocked so we haven’t been able to shoot for three days… and counting, except for shooting parades on foot.

Meanwhile, the students haven’t touched a hammer since the shear wall went up last week. (See lonesome shear wall behind Amarit and drinking buddies below.) Argh! This might seem odd, but too many days off in a row can make you go crazy.

Morale of the story: If you decide to come on down next year for America’s biggest pre-Lent party, pick your days wisely… and bring hard hats. Turns out they come in handy.

Rachel Clift
Producer

Happy New Year! 2008 brings your dedicated Crew back to the streets of “NOLA” for ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL, Spring Semester: THE BUILD! I don’t know about y’all, but we’re ready to put on some serious hard hats.

While purple-clad, victorious, and hungover LSU (Louisiana State University) football fans stumbled home Monday morning after a winning championship game, Tulane URBANbuild students were already hard at work on the corner of Seventh and Dryades. And as usual, we were there, filming it all.

Build Day #1, which apparently involves a significant amount of orange spray paint. They use it to mark foundation and elevation measurements – now based, not surprisingly, on new post-Katrina city regulations.

The Crew is staging in an empty NHS house up for sale, a block away from the site. We’re all on walkie-talkies, so we’re in constant communication. But walkies don’t alleviate having to run up and down the block to deliver fresh P2 cards and batteries, ask on-camera people to sign releases, or watch scenes to log notes. We assigned the crew and the students each a secret walkie code name. I said “secret” – so don’t ask…

It was a fun day, as per Casey who said, without a hint of sarcasm: “It’s better than Disneyworld.” We’ll see how long that lasts. First up – organize the toolbox!

Rachel Clift
Producer