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Pick a corner, any corner. They’re all good for an old-fashioned stake out. Now, try not to appear too conspicuous. Take in a few exhibit cases in the gallery while the visitors make their way around the room at the West Baton Rouge Museum. You might see some tools used by the ancient inhabitants at Poverty … Continue reading →
The deadline is Thursday, June 1, for entries to Art Melt 2012, the largest multi-media, juried art exhibition in Louisiana. The show is annually presented by Forum 35 and will take place on July 14 at the Shaw Center for the Arts, 100 Lafayette St., and also will include appearances by local and regional musicians and performers, an … Continue reading →
The rain was thick the last time, the sky so gray that it blotted out the river. This explains why Jordana Pomeroy kept directing her gaze toward the window. Visitors to the LSU Museum of Art know this window — it overlooks Lafayette Street and offers a full view of the Mississippi River’s glory. That’s … Continue reading →
As it happened, Brian Kelly also was in Baton Rouge Gallery, hanging documentations of his paths that Mary McBride could have measured in inches, yards, miles, even years. But she didn’t. If she did, she didn’t say it. That’s not to say she didn’t notice, either. She’s been keeping tabs on everyone around … Continue reading →
How about this storyline for a film? A dystopian society is the setting, where the ruling class wields power from a vast tower complex within the city, oppressing the working class. And the working class’ labor seems only to benefit the ruling class. Sound familiar? The only thing missing is an annual reaping of children to compete … Continue reading →
To many Americans, Lyndon Johnson was an unctuous, slow-talking president from Texas who saddled the country with the Great Society’s welfare programs and the Vietnam War. In any survey about great presidents, Johnson finishes out of the top 10 — and perhaps he should. His disastrous Vietnam record alone earns him a spot in the presidential hall of shame alongside Richard Nixon, Warren G. Harding and James Buchanan. Continue reading →
Ania married Kasimierz in their native Poland, and migrated to Hartford, Conn., before the Second World War. Kasimierz became “Charlie” as he Americanized, and held two jobs. Ania worked cleaning houses and gave birth to Teddy. The young family scraped by, and then, the year after Pearl Harbor, Charlie enlisted and went off to Europe. Continue reading →
Life is easy for no one at a decrepit orphanage in hardscrabble south Georgia during the Depression. For a dreamy, strange child like Pip Tattnal, who suffers migraine headaches, can’t stand the smell of gardenias, tells tales of the English Civil War and is possibly autistic (“Had he been born some seventy years later, even an orphan boy with oddities of memory and behavior might have been diagnosed and his syndrome named.”), life at the rundown cotton farm that passes for a charitable institution is nearly unbearable. Continue reading →
A compilation of arts events for the week ahead. Continue reading →
The annual East Baton Rouge Parish Library Summer Reading Programs kick off Wednesday, May 23. This summer is sure to be packed with great books, programs and prizes. With a program for every age group, the entire family can participate. All locations of the Library will have reading logs for each age group (children, teens and adults). Continue reading →
The Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge has been awarded a prestigious $300,000 grant from the Kresge Foundation to fund cultural district planning in the economically challenged Old South Baton Rouge neighborhood that falls between LSU and downtown. The grant will allow the Arts Council and Center for Planning Excellence to collaborate on … Continue reading →
The balance is as multi-layered as Demond Matsuo’s work, mixing the up-and-coming with legends, humor with the serious and comparisons of work by the same artist. Take for instance, Matsuo’s 2011 mixed media work “Horae.” It hangs opposite from his work “Icarus IV” in the LSU Student Union Art Gallery, allowing visitors a comparative view of both. Continue reading →
The young, smiling couple in the old photo stands at the Grand Canyon, dad holding their bright-eyed 3-year-old daughter. Fast forward 40 years, as mom and daughter return to the canyon, one of them on a mission to scratch something off her “bucket list.” “That’s why I think I held that picture in my mind because that’s … Continue reading →
On this day, Charles Barbier had yet to stand back to look at the bigger picture, a picture that tells a story of heroes who passed through Baton Rouge. Real heroes — the kind who served and fought for their country. They were men and women, black and white. Some returned to the capital city; some never … Continue reading →
General auditions will begin at 1 p.m. Sunday, May 20, for New Venture Theatre's production of the Broadway hit musical The Color Purple, at Independence Park Theatre, 7800 Independence Blvd. Call-back auditions will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 22. Rehearsals will begin Wednesday, May 23, and performances will be Thursdays through Sundays, July 19-29. Greg Williams Jr. is the director, … Continue reading →
Tickets are on sale for the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra’s “Mozart on the Lake” concert at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, May 20, at Chef John Folse’s White Oak Plantation, 17660 George O’Neal Road. The event begins with cocktail hour. The symphony and its conductor and musical director Timothy Muffitt will perform a concert outdoors in … Continue reading →
13 RUE THÉRÈSE By Elena Mauli Shapiro Back Bay Books, $14.99; 275 pp. In Elena Mauli Shapiro’s intriguing novel, an American scholar, Trevor Stratton, comes to Paris for research and happens upon a box of memories: … Continue reading →
The majestic chambers of the Louisiana’s Old State Capitol, 100 North Blvd., will come alive with music and merriment at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 17, as the historic building hosts “The Jewel of the State Gala.” Proceeds will be used to complete a master plan to refurbish the building’s grounds, which were last updated 72 years ago … Continue reading →
The Robert A. Bogan Fire Museum Board of Directors will host a Beer Tasting/Crawfish Boil fundraising event at the Fire Museum in the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge building, 427 Laurel St., from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 19. The event is the first planned by the newly formed Board of Directors to raise funds … Continue reading →
To put it in sports jargon, this novel is a hanging curve ball over the middle of the plate. Famed for his stories about lawyers and courtrooms, Grisham branches into a different world — baseball, a sport he obviously loves. The story is told through the eyes of Paul Tracey, the pre-teen son of a New York Mets pitcher when, in 1973, rookie “Calico Joe” Castle bursts on the major league scene with a record-shattering batting performance for the Chicago Cubs. Continue reading →
AMERICAN TRIUMVIRATE By James Dodson Knopf, $28.95 In the 20th Century, excellence in the highest levels of golf often came in threes. In the early years — and especially the Roaring ’20s — it was Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones … Continue reading →
THE NOT YET By Moira Crone UNO Press, $15.95 It’s more than 100 years in the future from today. The United States is a thing of the past, but its cities mostly remain populated. New Orleans has been inundated by rising sea levels so that … Continue reading →
A compilation of arts events for the week ahead. SUNDAY, MAY 13 --Sunday In The Park Concert Series: noon-3 p.m., North Boulevard Town Square. Featuring 484 South. Free. (225) 344-8558. --Mother's Day Tours: 1-5 p.m., Arts for All Studio, 11911 Ferdinand St., St. Francisville. Tours of three area art galleries. $25. Tickets are available at Birdman Coffee and Books, 5687 Commerce St., St. … Continue reading →
Three canoeing trails have been developed in northeast Louisiana in hopes of luring adventurers to experience its bayous lined with majestic cypress trees. The privately funded ecotourism project is administered by the LSU AgCenter, and was funded with a $115,000 grant from the Walton Family Foundation, LSU agritourism coordinator Dora Ann Hatch said. The foundation has funded … Continue reading →
New Orleans author Ben Sandmel will read from his new book, Ernie K-Doe: The R&B Emperor of New Orleans, from 7-9 p.m. Thursday, May 17, at Casa Azul Gifts, 232 Martin Luther King Drive in Grand Coteau. The evening includes a book signing. A musical performance by Yvette Landry will follow. The evening concludes with an open mic … Continue reading →
Judi Ann Mason once said that the story was set in the past, present and future. And as confusing as this may seem, Mason’s statement becomes crystal clear at the end of her play Indigo Blues: A Love Story. Yes, there is a twist in this story — a major twist. But the only way to learn what happens is to attend UpStage Theatre’s production of this mix of comedy and drama, which opens Friday, May 18. Continue reading →
The Southern University Laboratory School Video Production Department’s premiere of its second feature-length movie, Drama High 2: The Senior Year, will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 17, at The Rave Mall of Louisiana 15. Drama High 2: The Senior Year is the sequel to last year’s Drama High: The Movie. The … Continue reading →
The addition of more live music will give the ninth Hot Art, Cool Nights more of a “festival feel,” according to the event’s chairman. The event will be from 6-10 p.m. Friday, May 11. Seventeen of the venues participating in the art hop will feature bands such as the The John Gray Trio and … Continue reading →
Thoughts of kissing Marian the librarian bothered him at first. Oh, not Harold Hill. His mission is to keep Marian off balance until he can con the people of River City into buying his band instruments, then skip town with the money. Well, maybe “con” isn’t an appropriate word. “Sales pitch” is better, because Hill is … Continue reading →
It only happens once a year, and the Claude L. Shaver Theatre in the LSU Music and Dramatic Arts Building will shimmy, groove and shake when students in LSU’s Musical Theatre class take the stage for their annual Singo de Mayo performance. The performance will be at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, May 6. Tickets are $15, general admission; $10, … Continue reading →
Casa Azul Gifts, 232 Martin Luther King Drive in Grand Coteau, will host an oral history session with Etha Simien Amling and a poetry performance by Latasha Weatherspoon at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 10. An open mic will follow. Amling is the vice president of the Imperial St. Landry Genealogical & Historical Society. She is … Continue reading →
IF WALLS COULD TALK: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF THE HOME By Lucy Worsley Walker & Co., $27 If a man’s home is his castle, then Lucy Worsley is a mouse. Hiding behind the curtains in the bedroom, sneaking through the vanity … Continue reading →
CHOMP By Carl Hiaasen Knopf, $16.99; 293 pp. Finishing Carl Hiaasen’s Chomp, a book Hiaasen’s publisher says is for readers 10 years of age and up, I needed a grammar school kid who knows books. “Here, … Continue reading →
Carl Hiaasen has written some non-fiction, but fiction is his weapon of choice when he combats bad people in his beloved Florida Everglades. “You get closer to the truth with a good novel,” said Hiaasen, author of Chomp, his fourth book for children. Hiaasen has written a string of bestsellers for adults that … Continue reading →
SHATTERED DREAMS By Ellie James St. Martin’s Griffin, $9.99 paperback It started innocently enough. A bunch of teenagers, a deserted house on Prytania Street in New Orleans. A game of Truth or Dare. Then, a prank is played on the new … Continue reading →
A compilation of art events for the week ahead. SUNDAY, MAY 6 festforall: noon-7 p.m., downtown. Art and music festival presented by the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge. Free. http://www.artsbr.org. first sunday: 1-4 p.m., Louisiana Art & Science Museum, 100 River Road S. Free admission to LASM galleries and reduced admission to planetarium shows. http://www.lasm.org. the 39 steps: 2 p.m., Baton Rouge Little … Continue reading →
Fuel prices won’t affect this trip in any way. Just take a seat inside Independence Park Theatre, and let the Baton Rouge Concert Band do the driving. Or flying, because this trip begins in the United States, then makes its way around the world, introducing audience members to Korean folk songs, Armenian dances and … Continue reading →
The West Baton Rouge Museum, 845 N. Jefferson Ave., Port Allen, will have an opening reception at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 6, for Louisiana’s Top 200!: A Bicentennial Celebration Exhibit. The show runs through July 29. This history exhibit is made up of crowd sourced content revealing ideas collected from hundreds of Louisiana residents about the top 200 people, places, and events that have shaped the character of the state. Continue reading →
Arts for All will sponsor tours of three St. Francisville art galleries on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 13. Tours will be from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at Birdman Coffee and Books, 5687 Commerce St., St. Francisville. On the day of the tour, tickets will be sold from … Continue reading →
The Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum, 715 St. Mary Blvd., Lafayette, will present a Louisiana bicentennial celebration of the arts from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 12, when it hosts the New Leviathan Oriental Fox-Trot Orchestra in consort with its year of Louisiana Art and Artists. Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne will give a … Continue reading →
The iPad in her hands is a wondrous creation, but no matter how high it sits in the technological hierarchy, it will never been able to play the clarinet in her lap. That’s a human thing, making music. And this young clarinet player immediately — and willingly — traded technology for the Wieniawaski “Concert No. 2” … Continue reading →
The eighth annual Art for Food fundraiser for the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank will be 6-9 p.m. Thursday, May 3, next to Citizens Bank at Perkins Rowe. Featured artists will be Dennis Hargroder, Sally McConnell and Julie Cornelius. Admission is a $5 donation to the food bank, which will provide complimentary food and … Continue reading →
Why are most tech billionaires liberals, and most industrial leaders conservatives? University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt has what he considers verifiable answers to such questions. Haidt is a longtime student of what is known as “moral psychology.” He tries to understand what motivates people to cooperate, and how they perceive the nature of authority and the meaning of justice. He is now using this discipline to translate politics. Continue reading →
One hundred and fifty roles, four actors and 39 steps. This isn’t adding up. Wait a minute. The 39 Steps are Alfred Hitchcock’s. Now the equation makes sense. Really, it does. Because all of Hitchcock’s films are known to have a twist, so why should a play based on his 1935 movie The … Continue reading →
Baton Rouge Gallery, in partnership with Art21 as part of its Access ’12 initiative, will present one more screening in its series of advance screenings of each episode of the sixth season of Art in the Twenty-First Century, the only primetime national television series focused exclusively on contemporary art. The remaining screening is at 8:30 p.m. … Continue reading →