Taking this Blog to the Next Level -- an Essay by Kathryn Usher

Tonight at 6 I'll learn some new tricks to add to the RRBJ high tech publishing bag.

Last week KTBS sponsored an essay contest. The local ABC affiliate was looking for viewers who wanted to be a part of their neighborhood news team. The four winners of the contest would receive a high definition camcorder and provide weekly videos to the station for use on-air and on the web.

I won one of the cameras. Groovy-doovy! Tonight we get schooled on how to use them and I'm sure some citizen journalist bits. Let the adventure begin. And let me just add..."stay tuned for this very important video broadcast..."

Picture of the Day

Hear, Speak No Evil
Originally uploaded by Schleuss.

Picture of the Day comes from Jon Schleuss -- a multi talented Centenary student whose fervor about communication is revolutionizing the college's radio station, KSCL.

Think you're too old and out of touch to like what those crazy college kids are doing on the airwaves? We know a 58 year-old white Republican man who is passionate about what he hears on 91.3 FM. Tune in but be prepared. It's not slick. It's earthy. And that's good because slick equals corporate radio and how boring has that become?

Church

While Pope Benedict XVI didn't make it to Shreveport we've still got Alan Dyson and his new Church stickers. Dyson is host of the Fairfield Studios House Concert Series and a musician.

He's also father of talented Shreveport singer Alana Dyson (it's a talented pod of people as Trudeau explains in this 2005 blog post of his. If RRBJ ever secures a pot of money for documentaries can't think of better place to begin recording than with them...). He's married to Shreveport artist Debbie Buchanan Engle.

Shreveport architect and multi talented artist Dyson may not be the pontiff or any other type of official spiritual leader but his message is thoughtful. If we view the whole world as Church won't we take better care of it, ourselves and our neighbors? Who was it who said "Love thy neighbor..." Shoot him an email at salandyson@comcast.net on how to get one of these nifty stickers.

Park it Market

Reuse and recycle could be the way to celebrate Earth Day this weekend. Noel Memorial United Methodist Church is having a rummage sale at 9 AM Saturday morning in the parking lot next to the sanctuary. Creswell Elementary, 2901 Creswell, is having a sale in the morning also.

Trudeau's got the scoop on Leia Lewis and what's happening at Sankofa Gardens in honor of Mother's (Earth) Day.

Highland Community Garden

The Highland Community Garden looks full and lush even this early in the growing season. You'll find it at the corner of Stephens and Herndon Street, just across the way from Noel Memorial United Methodist Church.

There's a little red topped information box full of flyers if you want to get involved. Most Saturdays there's an experienced gardener there to answer questions from 9 AM until 11 AM but since this Saturday is Earth Day things might be a little different. The contact number is 227-7685. Ask for Shelia or Mike.

Charles Manson Pee

The current exhibit at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum contains personal letters and confessions written by Al Capone, Ghandi, Lee Harvey Oswald, Mata Hari and Mary Queen of Scotts. Charles Manson's letter on notebook paper is one of the most interesting, if just for its biohazard possibilities.

Letters from the Pen will be up through June 30, 2008.

Patronage

Page 32 of the April 08 issue of CityLife has a groovy article about arts patronage. Writer Noma Fowler-Sandlin does a sparkling job of presenting painter Pratt Turner and the local collectors who are buying and living with his work.

Meet Turner and his supporters at an art show Saturday from 1-5 PM at DeBruhl's in the Shoppes at Bellemead, 6535 Youree Drive. Shreveport attorney Amy Greenwald is one of the folks organizing tomorrow's event.

In Your Neighborhood

Two of these Sex Offender Notification cards arrived at the offices of RRBJ in one week. They contain information and a photo of the offenders. Perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of the mailings could be found under the Safety Tips section: "Maintain current ID, including photograph, video and fingerprints of your children."

Through the Caddo Parish Sheriff's office you can type in an address and find out what sex offenders live near you. Within a one mile area of the RRBJ offices 26 folks popped up on our screen. On the same site you can even sign up for their email alert program.

Subversive and Dark

Where is your secret stash of wild blackberries in SB Land? Along the jogging path on the Clyde FantParkway? Next to the railroad tracks downtown? That park in Highland? Share. We won't tell...maybe just Noma so she can jam it up.

Plain Folk Houses - Backside

RRBJ intended to make it to BOTB 2008 but just a few steps away from The Shell the light diverted us. We filled our digital camera with images of the backside of a block of houses. Difficult to fathom a campus of the leisure class, with the time, money, and energy to pursue higher forms of education, is just across the street from where these were taken.

It is ironic that some of the papers of Jack London, with his need to escape extreme poverty, are housed at Centenary College. From the rear, these homes radiated decay. You'd never know this was the 100 block of Wilkinson, just across the street from the college's gravel parking lot #15.

Jon Schleuss has supah-dupah coverage on BOTB 2008 at the KSCL Blog.
We'd planned on posting this a couple of days ago but the RRBJ offices have been suffering with a Comcast Internet outage.