HEY MISTER, IT'S FOR THE KIDS
The 6t'9 Halloween Parade takes a stab at family-friendly marching

Times - Picayune - New Orleans, La.
Author: Doug MacCash Art critic
Date: Oct 27, 2006
Section: LAGNIAPPE

Copyright 2006, The Times-Picayune. All rights reserved.

In a crowded 7th Ward back yard last week, abundantly tattooed Kristian Rothaermel bent lengths of PVC pipe into a rough globe shape, holding the springy plastic tubes together with bungee cords and long, wood screws.
In the end, he said, the 6-foot circular frame would become a blue-tarped pumpkin that glowed from within with fluorescent lights, a jack-o'-lantern that would be the centerpiece of a hand-pulled float in Saturday's 6t'9 Halloween Parade, which will wind from the 6th to the 9th Ward from 6 to 9 p.m.
Organizer Ann Marie Coviello, who wore an orange terry cloth dress and matching cowboy hat during the float-building party, said this year's parade will have a different tone than the inaugural event last October. That parade took place in a post-Katrina Twilight Zone, with the city still reeling from storm and flood, and National Guardsmen patrolling the streets. With virtually no children trick-or-treaters, paraders did not hold back on the bawdy satire. When the 200-person marching group intersected a military patrol, Coviello recalled, the parade's Queen for Life, underground performance artist "Otter," put on an impromptu, eye-popping performance from the hood of a Humvee.
Coviello, 39, and co-coordinator L.J. Goldstein, 38, promise to keep this year's parade on the General Audiences level with the theme "Kid Tested, Mother Approved."      page 2