Kid Rock, Britney, now Beyoncé…lots of New Orleans-related celebrity news today (and we didn’t even touch Brad and Angelina’s date at Elmwood last night). We’ll just quote here:

To celebrate its 15th anniversary, next year’s Essence Music Festival in New Orleans is featuring a 15 percent discount on select tickets through Jan. 31, 2009. Beyoncé will make her third appearance at the Essence Fest by headlining the 2009 edition, which will take place July 3-5. Additional performers will be announced soon. Organizers hope the upcoming edition of Essence is just as triumphant as this past July’s, which was its most successful ever and hosted more than 270,000 attendees.

To hold you over until July, take a gander at the trailer for Beyoncé’s latest, the Etta James bio-pic Cadillac Records, then tell us whether she “performs dynamic versions of Etta James classics and delivers the dramatic goods” or “doesn’t seem to have splurged on acting lessons since her wooden turn in Dreamgirls“:

New Orleans gets its first holiday procession in 15 years this Saturday, when the Downtown Development District will present a Christmas-themed parade down Canal Street, followed by a free outdoor concert:

The parade, which will begin at 10:00 a.m., will roll from Convention Center Boulevard up Canal Street to Robertson Street (near Claiborne Avenue) and back to its starting point. It will be followed by an all-star outdoor concert beginning at 12 noon at Elk Place. Entertainers include Jeremy Davenport, Rockin Dopsie, Jr., jazz trumpeter Marlon Jordan and vocalist Stephanie Jordan, the Batiste Brothers, Rebirth Brass Band, Amanda Shaw and James Andrews.

Lauren Hotard, marketing director for the DDD, said today that Mr. Bingle will be front and center on his own float. “He’s 30 feet long and 16 feet wide. He’s going to pause near his old stomping grounds [the site of the former Maison Blanche] for people to take pictures, then he will go back to City Park for Celebration in the Oaks.”

Staging the concert on Elk Place at Canal, according to Hotard, was a deliberate decision: “We’re trying to bring life to all of Canal Street, not just the places people already go [to shop].”

The DDD plans to make the parade (which doesn’t seem to have an official name yet) an annual event, says Hotard: “We actually have a 3-year deal with the Roosevelt Hotel to be the title sponsor.” The Roosevelt (formerly the Fairmont, formerly-formerly the Roosevelt) opens its doors next June.

Since New Orleans loves its traditions, we had to ask: Will the Roosevelt’s Christmas spirit extend to bringing back the Fairmont’s much-lamented Angel Hair Lobby in 2009?

“Yes!” said Hotard.

November’s second annual New Orleans Po-boy Preservation Festival grew substantially this year, attracting twice as many po-boy vendors as last year. Official judges were tasked with trying them all to pick their favorites in several categories, while festival-goers could vote for the “People’s Choice” award.

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The worst-kept secret in town this morning is the identity of the 2009 grand marshal of Endymion, which will be officially announced at a press conference at 10:30. (The Tiger Droppings blog also says the Endymion ball entertainment will be classic-rock radio staple REO Speedwagon, though we haven’t confirmed that.)

His big national hit this summer, of course, was “Sweet Home Alabama” “All Summer Long,” but here’s a look at the video that made him a Special Man in New Orleans:

“I’ve been to a lot of cities, all over this great land…New Orleans. It’s one of the cleanest I’ve ever been to.”

This will be the year that the Copeland family stages their final holiday display at the late chicken mogul’s house near the lakefront. And whatever you (or the Copeland neighbors) thought of the annual Xmastravaganza, it’s kinda sad to see another New Orleans holiday tradition felled, going the way of the Angel Hair Lobby at the Fairmont and Mr. Bingle on the front of Maison Blanche…

The late Al Copeland’s famous Christmas

display to make its final appearance

Copeland Family To Hold Last Christmas Display Lighting

on Saturday, November 29

WHAT: Locals and tourists alike recognize the symbolic tradition of the Copeland Christmas lights, as the official mark of the holiday season in New Orleans In a tribute to the legend–the late Al Copeland Sr.–his family will put the famous lights on display for the last time.

WHEN: Saturday, November 29, 2008, 6:00PM

*Media to arrive by 5:45PM*

LOCATION: The Home of the Late Al Copeland, 5001 Folse Drive, Metairie, LA

ADDITIONAL INFO: Al Copeland Sr. passed away earlier this year to Merkel Cell Carcinoma, a rare and deadly form of cancer. To honor his legacy, his family created the Al Copeland Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to contributing money for research to eradicate this rare cancer. To further culminate this holiday, the Copeland Family will be hosting a “Heaven on Earth” gala on Saturday, December 13. Admission is $100 and all proceeds go to The Al Copeland Foundation in support of Merkel Cell Carcinoma Research in Partnership with The University of Pittsburgh Merkel Cell Carcinoma Research Program. To learn more, please visit alcopelandfoundation.org.

Get a festive, gaudy eyeful of an Al Copeland Christmas while you can.

(tipoff courtesy of Sturtle.com)

That’s Gambit intern Bryan Davis, volunteering today at the New Orleans Po-Boy Preservation Festival (but obviously Bryan was not too busy to eat). It was a great day to be on Oak Street, eating Vaucresson’s hot sausage and roast beef and banh mi and just about anything that could be dressed between two pieces of French bread. (But crowded…the fest is only in its 2nd year and an hour into it Oak Street was impassable; they’re going to have to rethink logistics for 2009. Still, it was a great time and, as we put in New Orleans, a “new tradition.”)

A few more shots below the cut:

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In this week’s Gambit, in newsboxes on Sunday:

• I’ve got the cover story — the long, strange story of the classic New Orleans sitcom Frank’s Place, how it went from Emmy Awards to cancellation to absolute obscurity (no reruns, no DVD release, no nothin’)…and how executive producer and star Tim Reid found the master tapes discarded in a studio Dumpster. Will you ever be able to see it again…and if you missed it, will you ever be able to see it at all? Short answer: Tim is working on it. (I watched the whole thing start to finish, and, yes, it holds up. Does it ever.)….

• We’ve also got our occasional guide to drinking well, Swizzle. In this edition, Noah Bonaparte Pais interviews one of the city’s best barkeeps, Alan Walter of Iris, and Alison Fensterstock quizzes local musicians as to their favorite drinking songs. And there are guides to the best beers and wines for the holidays….

• In Commentary, we float a radical notion: Why not take the money from those nonworking crime cameras and reallocate the cash to new DA Leon Cannizzaro so he might actually be able to take some criminals off the street? It’s so crazy it just might work….

• D. Eric Bookhardt reviews Prospect.1 at NOMA, Dalt Wonk takes in the offerings at the New Orleans Fringe Fest, and Ian McNulty eats way too many oysters….

• and Greg Peters cracked me up with his latest installment of Suspect Device (hint: Stacy Head).

That’s about it. See you at the Po-Boy Fest:

“New Orleans Unchained” sounds just naughty enough to get locals’ attention. What’s that, a meeting group for S&M addicts? Not quite, unless you consider holiday shopping at big-box retailers a special form of masochism — and, come to think of it, you should. The Saturday, Nov. 22, initiative is actually an extension of America Unchained, a national campaign aiming to steer consumers toward the Octavia Books of the world rather than, say, Borders, which just happens to be holding its soft opening in the Garden District on (you guessed it) Saturday, Nov. 22. So go check out those big comfy chairs and expensive coffees on St. Charles Avenue, but make sure you buy that Sierra Club calendar your dad doesn’t want from an independent instead. It’s kind of subversive to do otherwise.

Proud sponsors of our own “shop local” promotion, Gambit Weekly rang Dana Eness of the Urban Conservancy and Stay Local! for the business on small businesses.

What’s the gist of America Unchained?

Across the country, independent business alliances like Stay Local! are all saying, “Let’s take this day, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, to shop conscientiously and try to do all of our shopping at locally owned stores.”

How is Stay Local! promoting the event?

Everybody’s kind of jumping on at different stages. This is our first time to do it, so we’re starting small — reaching out to our member business and saying, “Let us know what you’re doing.” There are so many great things going on. I’m collecting them all on our events page — really creative, win-win-win events.

Any you’re particularly excited about?

The one I love is Mat & Naddie’s pairing up with Anne Baker, who is an urban farm and gardening consultant. She does workshops all over town on how to do pot and container gardening, composting, that sort of thing. She’s doing a “beds and breakfast” workshop. It’s $45, you get wonderful lunch snacks provided by Mat & Naddie’s, she shows you how to do container gardening, and the containers they create stay with Mat & Naddie’s. They keep the flowerbeds that are created, the folks that come get this great lunch and leave with a skill, and proceeds go to Anne Baker’s community garden project in Gentilly. It’s brilliant.

What other types of promotions are happening?

There are lots of others with 20 percent of proceeds going to a charitable organization. La Divina Gelateria has something going on with four artisans selling their wares — a “homespun holiday” idea.

Life will have proven its futility should I arrive to meet my maker at that big sandwich counter in the sky and be presented with a menu that looks totally unlike this.

The Po-Boy Preservation Festival restores my faith in the trappings of the physical world — for now. 

I might have to check out early. I’d rather go with my boots on —a fried green tomato and shrimp remolaude stuffed artery should do the trick.

For the fellow sandwich obsessed, students and professors from University of New Orleans will present a few history lessons at the festival, including “Muffuletta: The Poor Boy’s Italian Cousin,” with guest speakers Sal Logiduce of United Bakery and Angelo Brocato of, well, duh. Gambit Weekly’s D. Erik Bookhardt and Bunny Matthews will join the discussion in “Lost Poor Boy Shops: Clarence and Lefty’s.”

We’ve had these posters for this weekend’s Po-Boy Preservation Festival all over the office for the last week, and they’re graphic masterpieces as well as seductive little reminders that it’s been too long since I had a Patton’s hot sausage po-boy on Leidenheimer bread.

This poster is by local artist Jon Schooler, and it’s for sale at the Fest’s online shop in a set of 250 numbered/signed prints. $100, which seems reasonable for a nice print on archival paper. But if you can’t afford one, you can always afford a po-boy at the festival this weekend. Details here.