Whoop-Dee-Doo

We just wanted something to eat. But then, we realized, as we munched a grilled vegetable panini at D'Agostino's, "folks is sure scurrying around...oh, yeah, that Bill Joyce show opens tonight." Forgive the blurries, we wanted to give you a sneak peak of artspace's "The Art of Disney's Meet the Robinson's." Big grand opening celebration is 7:30pm.

By the way, Alexandyr Kent says go see the movie and wear the 3-D glasses.

InspireWorks

Hurricane Katrina continues affecting Louisiana. This time it's downtown Shreveport and those winds are blowing great things into the building with the Uneeda Biscuit sign on it.

InspireWorks (a software development company) came to Shreveport in October of 2005 to set up a fun after-school digital day camp for school children from age 5 to those in 12th grade. Jim Tagliareni, the founder of InspireWorks, said it was a way for him to contribute to folks affected by the hurricane.

InspireWorks is now creating a more permanent center in Shreveport at 711 Milam. Mischa Farrell is the architect.

Yes to NS

Noble Savage is once again open after being shut down. Their myspace site has a calender of events for March.

"Nico" probably best sums it up with this comment left on myspace: "You don't know how happy I am at this moment. I was beginning to think I'd actually have to start drinking at home, in my closet."

Picture of the Day

Tulip garden, downtown Shreveport, 3-11-2007
Originally uploaded by everythingshreveport.

Teddy Allen's even excited about this bloomin' new season. Northwest Louisiana Master Gardeners and Northwest Louisiana Gardeners are a couple of organizations in SB Land who can probably get your green thumb started.

Thank you to Brian/everthingshreveport at flickr.com
for the lovely tulips.

Spirit of the Red

We had a blast on the Red during this first spring weekend. Don't have a boat? We don't either so we rode on Captain Sam's boat. Very fun and informative! Spotted blue herons, kingfishers and water moccasins.

The Spirit of the Red River Cruise runs March through December. You can cruise the Red on Friday, Saturday or Sunday - 10am, Noon, 2pm and 4pm. Adults $10. Children $4 (12 and under). (318) 424-3576. (September through December the cruise only runs on Saturday and Sundays).

Austin Mayor Says Get Off Your A**

While Shreveport is fighting over who should manage the Municipal Auditorium, Austin has a mayor who says turn your TV off, get off your a** and go see live music.

The SXSW Music Festival 2007 just wrapped up in Austin. Over 1700 bands journeyed there for the annual festival. They even had live bands playing in reception areas of hotels. It's all a part of Austin's plan to be the Live Music Capital of the World.

Givin Ya Da Werld

It was just last month when I predicted that within in the year The Forum would have a better web presence than they do now. And from the looks of the above two page ad they have running in this week's issue, I was right.

Their current website has little clues that Venture Publishing is moving onto the World Wide Web. At the top of their website you'll see "free online subscriptions." That's definitely new. Also at the bottom of the page is a link to CityLife. When you click on it, you get the tease of "coming soon."

Welcome Jay, April, Karl and the rest of Venture Publishing gang, especially you two, Kaye Deane and Super-N-Girl-Writer-Chick-Highland-Babe, to the web.

Times Weddings and Engagements by the Numbers

The Shreveport Times seems to be letting Engagement and Wedding announcements stick around the internet for about a month. This is how the numbers break down for those published March 18:

Total Number of Weddings: 4
Total Number of Engagements: 6
Total Number of Same-Sex Weddings: 0

Number of Louisiana Tech Graduates: 3
Number of Brides Attending LSUS: 1
Number of Grooms Homeschooled: 1
Number of Brides with Law Degrees: 1
Number of Brides Still in School: 2
Number of Grooms Still in School: 1

Number of Weddings with Bride-Only Photos: 4
Number of Bald or Nearly Balding Grooms: 1
Number of Brides with Glasses: 1
Number of No-Teeth Smiles in Photos: 4
Number of Color Photos: 5

Number of Weddings held at The American Rose Center: 1
Number of Female Officiants: 1

Number of Grooms Whose Grandparents Reside in Puerto Rico: 1
Number of Grooms Whose Father is a Louisiana State Senator: 1
Number of Grooms Who Earn Money with Golf: This guy and This guy

No More Swings Means No More Pedophiles

In an effort to keep trolls out of Columbia Park local authorities have decided to remove all the playground equipment. And since the creeps have moved to the Duck Pond it looks like that equipment will be removed sometime in the near future.

"If there's no place for kids to play then the underage solicitation will stop," says some uninformed local official.

Neighbors in both parts of the city say they wish police would move those meet ups to Wal-Mart's parking lot or "at least to that big grassy area under Interstate 20 near downtown..."

Picture of the Day -- Living in Pear-adise

A string of Pyrus calleryana with their pure white blossoms in Shreveport. If the Bradford is too common for you Shreveport Green has more tree ideas. Thank you to Mike Roseberry for letting RRBJ use his photo.

Bradford Pear Trees
Originally uploaded by mikerosebery.

Texas Kicked Our A**

SB Land did not make the top 100 "most walkable" cities list put together by Prevention magazine. The top walking town is Madison, Wisconsin. Those Cheeseheaders have a fantastic bike trail system, with more than 30 miles of trails and 110 miles of bike lanes plus 6,000 acres of parkland. Madison adopted a walker-friendly city plan 10 years ago that requires when roads are redeveloped, they should accommodate not just cars, but bikes and pedestrians, too.

Baton Rouge was the only Louisiana city to make the list, which was based on criteria like parks per square mile, the percentage of folks who walked for exercise and how many athletic shoes were sold. Red Stick came in at 68.

Way too many Texas cities made the list: Austin 2, Plano 11, Arlington 21, Garland 48, San Antonio 50, Dallas 58, Lubbock 75, Fort Worth 78, Houston 82, El Paso 94 and Laredo 99.

What's stopping us from getting our walk on? While the Shreveport Parks and Recreation Department does a fine job of maintaining over 50 parks, a look at their website shows room for improvement when it comes to offering walking trails. Who knew East Kings Hwy Park, other wise known as the Duck Pond Park, had only a .2 mile trail? Let's loop that thing around so daddies and mommas can walk and still keep an eye on the babies. As compact as that area is an addition to the walking trail would make for a perfect healthy family outing.

Last Chance for Fashion

"In Fashion: The Art of Style" now showing.



It closes March 10 at artspace on Texas Street.

Picture of the Day

RRBJ missed the lunar eclipse but caught the sweet juicy moon last week as it illuminated the riverfront. Good news for the R.S. Barnwell Memorial Garden and Art Center, more parking is on the way.

Monjunis on Louisiana Avenue

Good art on the walls, rich food on your plate served in a funky dark and cozy setting. What more could you want? Maybe another basket of those toasted garlic rounds Monjunis does so well.

Downtown -- Not for Tourists?

come play our way: on the red river says the front page of the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau. But does playing "our way" mean excluding downtown Shreveport? Under the visually striking photo of a night scene of the neon bridge there's a spot to click for MUST SEES. Selecting any of the categories won't give you information about downtown although the casinos and a couple of other attractions get several mentions.

Clicking gives you data on Sci-Port, casinos, R.W. Norton Art Gallery, Sci-Port (again), Stage of Stars Music Museum, American Rose Center, Louisiana Boardwalk, Shopping in Shreveport-Bossier, egads!.. there's Sci-Port (again!!), casinos (again), Riverview Park, Spirit of the Red River Cruise, Texas Street Bridge and Louisiana Boardwalk (again).

It's difficult to offer an authentic experience of life on the Red River if downtown is not included in the offerings of "play." We're sure it's just a matter of getting the pages updated so the Multicultural Center of the South, Artspace, West Edge Artists Co-Op, Tipitinas, Southern University Museum of Art at Shreveport, Municipal Auditorium, Elvis Statue, Elvis Sign, Huddie Ledbetter Statue, and Oakland Cemetery (with it's above ground tombs) can be included on a website that's checked out by most folks planning a visit to SB Land.

And while they are at it, it would be nifty cool if SBCTB included links to the attractions listed on their website.

Smart City

One of the highlight's of RRBJ's Friday night is the radio program Smart City. It's on at 9 PM on KDAQ. One segment of tonight's show has host Carol Coletta talking with Scott Russell Sanders about challenging the "brand and bland" direction of our communities and urges us to re-discover what makes each one special.

On a related note, have you taken the survey to help the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau craft a marketing brand for our area? Click here to do it. What does RRBJ think makes SB Land special? We got a long list but since it's the weekend we'll bump Rock and Roll to the top. If it wasn't for Shreveport Bossier that genre would've never been born. We birthed Huddie Ledbetter and gave Elvis his legs.

By the way, Red River Radio is conducting their spring membership campaign. Trudeau has the scoop.

About the photo: a night shot of the water fountain at Columbia Cafe in the truly authentic neighborhood of Highland.