Shreveport True

Love these opening credits. How many SB Land landmarks can you spot?

Alexandyr Kent's been following the making of this HBO series.

Business Week Says Buy a House in Highland

Shreveport's Highland neighborhood is HOT. Business Week says so.

From the article:
"Artists turned around Soho and the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, and then Brooklyn's Williamsburg in the 1990s...Similar trends are occurring...BusinessWeek.com selected 15 urban neighborhoods that artists have discovered and where homeowners could see returns in coming decades."

The cities (followed by neighborhoods)

Atlanta Castleberry Hill neighboorhood
Austin East Austin neighboorhood
Boston Jamaica Plain
Chicago Pilsen
Los Angeles Echo Park
Miami Wynwood
Minneapolis Northeast
New York Bushwick, Brooklyn
Philadelphia Northern Liberties
Portland Alberta Street Arts District
Raleigh/Durham, N.C. Downtown Durham
San Franscisco Mission District
Seattle Georgetown
Shreveport Highland
Washington D.C. Atlas District (H Street)

Leading to Sustainability

Caught the tail end of a new ad for Paul Carmouche on KTBS last night. This screen capture is not from that ad. In the new ad he says something like "our energy future is here" and he's standing in front of a oil rig.

Where are our local, regional and state leaders who are for new sources of renewable energy? If other locations are exploring new technology and creating new jobs why can't we? For instance wind energy is being harvested in downtown Chicago.

Here's a look at how other American cities are working towards sustainability. Popular Science has list of 50 communities that are hot when it comes to environmental action.

Picture of the Day

Red River
Originally uploaded by OzPaws.

Thank you to Rebecca Bolda for letting us use her photo Red River as the Picture of the Day.

We'd love to publish your work that celebrates SB Land. Put it on Flickr or YouTube and we'll even run your short film or video that's about our great area! Shoot us an email at the above address.

Support Your Local Artists

Two of the best people Hurricane Katrina blew up from the Gulf Coast are Su Stella and Curt Harville. The artists now have a live work space in Highland where they do blacksmithing, cold and hot glass work, metal work, painting, and more.

This fall they will be vending, teaching and demonstrating their different disciplines at venues as varied as the Barnwell Memorial Garden and Art Center, LSUS Pioner Heritage Center Pioneer Day and the Highland Jazz and Blues Fest at Columbia Park.

You can purchase their jewelry in the artspace giftshop in downtown (by the way, artspace will be hopping Friday night with the opening of the Clyde Connell retrospective).

For more information on art events with Su and Curt
228-263-2333 Su 318-525-2164 Curt
OurFireflyRanch@hotmail.com
Visit their online store at etsy.

Got Power?

Little strings running between poles is a barbaric way to deliver electricity. Storms like Ike, Gustav, Rita, and Katrina continue to prove that.

Why put up with waiting for a SWEPCO crew to restore your power when you can light your house the Michael Reynolds way? His work is covered in the documentary Garbage Warrior. We love the quote 30 seconds into the above trailer "A family of four could totally survive here without even going to the store."

His buildings operate off the electricity grid, requiring little or no mortgage payment and no utility bills.

Totems

Maybe the best thing Hurricane Gustav delivered to SB Land were those few days of cooler temperatures. And that always makes outdoor exercise easier. When was the last time you strolled through Highland Park? At 1700 Gilbert Street, it's one of the hidden jewels of Shreveport. And a great place to get an aerobic work out since the two mile foot path is all hills.

Highland Park has been home since 1996 to three Highland Totems by Shreveport artist Leonard Service. The three other totems that are a part of the Highland Totems project can be found in Columbia Park.

Ouch!

SB Land didn't look good as the lead story on last night's ABC World News. The story focused on the anger of the Hurricane Gustav evacuees housed in state shelters in Shreveport.

Those shelters run by the state of Louisiana didn't have enough "wrap-around services." That's according to Sandy Davis, director of the Caddo-Bossier Office of Homeland Security. We saw him on KTBS speaking sometime during the storm. By the way, didn't KTBS have great coverage? They stayed with live and locally produced programming as the storm moved through our area.

SB Land fares better in this AP report and it even shows that the evacuees are grateful. Evacuee Charles Lucas seems to understand the situation. And even seems more level headed than a lot of folks leaving anonymous comments at local media sites.