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Low on funds? Here's a little piece of Mardi Gras you can probably afford

By Kevin Polowy

State Press Magazine

There were a few things I couldn't help but think when watching Playboy's Girls of Mardi Gras.

For one, I pondered-- "I'm getting paid for this?" Damn I got a tough job. Second, I thought: "I wish that Screener Copy Only warning would disappear from the bottom of the screen." And lastly, I realized-- I really need to book a flight to New Orleans.

Girls of Mardi Gras is not the video it sounds like-- you know, the tape advertised in between Howard Stern shows with dozens of ordinary women baring their breasts to hundreds of cheerful onlookers. It's a little more tasteful.

Instead, this video is a combination of real-life breast-flashers and beautiful women scooped off Bourbon Street to pose in their own sensual vignettes.

In "Masquerade Ball," three women are the life of the party when they strip down to their birthday suits and seduce each other, as well as the camera. Artistic, creepy, sexy and steamy all at once, this episode, like most on the video, is enjoyable with the exception of the accompanying soundtrack, a retro sound that resembles the track to a John Hughes movie.

Roxanne, a bartender at Ministry in New Orleans, is featured in "Sexy Bartender." She is always being asked by customers to take off her top. Deep inside, Roxanne wants to do it, but only for a special bead-- a Playboy bead (I like this concept of the bead. The government should look into the possibility of establishing such a nude currency).

"Bourbon Street" nears porn-status, as lover lament over jazzy rock and a psychedelic background. The guy in this episode must have had some of those rare and collectible beads.

Other scenes, like "Soul Picture Garden" (which looks like a Toni Braxton video gone NC-17) and "Vampire Mistress" (which features quite a bit of that, uh, lesbian activity), are as equally entertaining.

While Girls of Mardi Gras may not be quite the same as partying on top of a balcony in the French Quarter with cocktail in hand as females constantly flash you, it's fun to look at and sometimes even laugh at.

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