It's Time for Smoke-Free Casinos

The Louisiana 2009 regular legislative session opens Monday. Two south Louisiana lawmakers have bills that would ban smoking in bars. One bill could even address smoking in casinos.

In 2005, the Shreveport City Council passed a ban on smoking in public buildings, city parks, public areas, restaurants, and shopping malls and retail stores. That ban exempted bars and any businesses that sold alcohol. In 2007, all Louisiana workplaces and restaurants became 100% smoke free. It's 2009 and time to make all workplaces smoke free. Casinos included.

Would we lose business if smoking was banned in casinos? We doubt it. Most folks come from Texas to gamble. Many of them come from Dallas. Would gamblers travel to Mississippi or Oklahoma just so they could smoke inside? There are other options for nicotine fixes. Go outside. Use the patch. Chew nicotine gum. Dip. Use snus. Try an electronic cigarette. Why should we cater to a small group of Americans? Smokers are a minority. Only 20 percent of the population smokes. We're not saying stop smoking. Kill yourself if you want. Just don't take us down with you.

Interestingly enough, Dallasites just got a crackdown on the places where they can smoke inside. At the beginning of April, Dallas expanded their smoking ban. From the Dallas Morning News article "... (a) city ordinance banning smoking inside bars and pool halls starts today, but cigarette smokers at bars from Uptown to Greenville Avenue say they will stay loyal to their favorite places and not venture to other cities just to smoke."

Editor's note: I work in a casino. That is until I published this. If there really is freedom of speech in America I suppose I don't have anything to worry about. If there isn't... oh well. My lungs will thank me. And so will my trash can, since I won't have to fill it with sputum any more.

Really would they fire me for publishing this? It is something to consider. Since I know I can be fired if a customer blows smoke in my face and I use my hand to fan it out of my way. I can even be fired if I ask a customer not to blow smoke in my face.

Ain't We All Mammals Swimming in the Grocery Lot Wishing for a Cantaloupe That Tastes Vine Ripened But Settling for a 6-Pack of Grape Kool-Aid Bursts

In honor of Earth Day 2009, Wednesday, April 22: Sci-Port will release butterflies at 11 am.
Leia Lewis at Sankofa Gardens has been the queen of Earth Day for the last four years. This KTBS video proves it. The fourth annual Sankofa Earth Day Festival is Saturday.

What is This Place?

If you know where you live you could win $1000.

Through May 1, 2009, Sci-Port: Louisiana's Science Center is accepting entries for its Aaron & Peggy Selber Red River Cultural Traditions Writing Competition for the best non-technical paper that integrates cultural, historic, geographic, literary or scientific aspects unique to Louisiana's Red River Region. In addition to scooping up the prize money, the winner paper will be published online by SB Magazine.

Robert McGuire, Sci-Port Director of Education and Public Programs, says they are "...looking for great writing supported by rich reporting of our culture."

Free Mustard Greens

Why is it when times get tough we want to hunker down and wallow in isolation? Play 2009 in a different way. Join the folks in your neighborhood and create abundance. One of the best places to do that is at the many community gardens in Shreveport.

In fact tomorrow morning you can get FREE mustard greens at the Highland Community Garden. Free food and new friends. The world is a bright shiny place. And dirt is sexy. Even The Shreveport Times thinks so with its new gardening section.

SB Magazine Photo Gallery

Back in October we encouraged folks to enter the annual SB Magazine Photo Contest. It's in their December 08 issue now on the stands (the Haynesville Shale's on the cover). They've put more photos on their website.

Big Eye Ball Says Vote

Election day is Tuesday. Not sure where to vote? You can find your polling place here.

For a behind the curtain look at the election process in Shreveport, The Caddo Parish Registrar of Voters, Ernie Roberson has a blog on The Shreveport Times website.

Eric Brock and Neil Johnson

Noma gave us the heads up on the smashing article in the Fall 2008 issue of the Louisiana Cultural Vistas Magazine. We were whining because there's never enough about SB Land in there.

Historian Eric Brock covers the Highland-Fairfield area with words and Neil Johnson fills in the visuals. If you click on the above link you go to a web version of the magazine. Eric's story starts on page 24. A yearly subscription to the printed version is only $16.

Speaking of Highland... have you read the Highland Restoration Association blog lately? It's a good place to find out what's happening in the best place to live in SB Land.

Oxford American

Who doesn't love this magazine? And who's in charge of publishing the SB Land version of it? Imagine lush photo essays in The Forum and SB. And we don't mean snapshots of society folks. And we're not big fans of some of the content folks are generating for The Shreveport Times website. We want pictures of pie, decay, architecture, culture... we want the essence of this place. Hey, isn't that what Trudeau does? Spend your advertising dollars with him...

It's not too much to ask for good photos. Life magazine set the standard for high quality shots to tell the story way back in the 1930s. If you're a publication, web or print, do us a favor and don't publish rubbish. If you're a photographer, pro or amateur, do us a favor and don't put your garbage out there. One well composed photo is worth... lots of rotten photos are worth crap...

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)

Buy Art This Saturday

What are you doing with all your Haynesville Shale money? You should be collecting the art of the local artists. One of the coolest things about living in Houston were all the folks collecting work by artists in that area. And also nifty were the stories the local media did on the collectors and the artists they collected. Here's a recent story about a San Antonio law firm and its collection of affordable art from that area.

This Saturday you have a chance to see some of the funkiest art being produced in our region. It's the third month for the Art-La-Tex Art/Show Market. The name has been evolving but the location is the same. Already this local effort has been covered by Red River Radio and Louisiana Road Trips Magazine.

Grass roots artists' markets like this one started by Ralph Cody can be found all over the world. Melbourne's Rose St. Artists' Market. Austin has a market. In New Orleans you'll find Bywater Art Market.

Saturday August 9 (and every second Saturday of the month)
10 AM – 6 PM
600 Common Street
Free to artists and the public. Artists need to bring their own displays.
Ralph Cody 318 458-5064 or re_cdy@yahoo.com

SB Land Rolls

More folks are biking in SB Land. Some wear helmets. Some don't. Some ride on the sidewalk. Some ride against the traffic. Some with. For the next couple of weeks RRBJ will document SB Land Rolls.

For a look at other discussions on two-wheeling in the city see Trudeau's blog, Alexandyr Kent's series on biking in The Shreveport Times, Sherri Talley's blog and what Prof Demerath has to say. You're welcome to add your bike and butt to the travelogue.

Oh, Shale!

Oh, shale! We're all fixin' to get rich in SB Land... if we own land...if we own land and mineral rights...maybe we don't have to own the land... just the mineral rights...

KTBS has a special on the Haynesville Shale. If you don't want to wait for it to be on TV again you can catch it on their website.

Share

Those green Share the Road signs are the work of Ian Webb, the owner of River City Cycling. You can pick one up for $5 and plop it down in your neighborhood. Webb says he wants to make folks more aware of two wheeling in SB Land.

KSLA has a good story on Webb and how he even takes his child to school using bike power. Sherri Talley at KTBS did a post on the Share the Road at her blog. Shreveport Times intern A.J. King explores alternative ways to get to around SB Land.

Docublogging in SB Land

New skills are moving this blog into the world of Web 2.0. One day we hope to be as good as Ying Liu.

The video is of Loren Demerath. He's a professor at Centenary College. We first read about him on Trudeau's blog.

RRBJ is responsible for the knitting and editing of this short film.

W are Somebody

Shreveport is all over the May 16 issue of Entertainment Weekly because of Oliver Stone's movie W. Alexandyr Kent has the front cover pictured on his blog.

If you want to work on W or any other movie in Louisiana, again you'll want to check out Kent's Louisiana Movies Blog. Louisiana still has the best incentive package to draw movie makers to our state.

Note: Reading all those Shreveports in EW made us feel like that scene with Steve Martin when he gets the new phone book. "We are somebody. We are somebody."

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..."

Environmental Nuts

Last week Trudeau reported that curbside recycling in SB Land is getting closer to reality. Also last week a two minute video about a green home in Shreveport popped up on the The Times website.

What's next in an eco-friendly SB Land? RRBJ would like to see the Red harvested of its kinetic hydropower. Sci-Port could get involved. Dig a tunnel to the river. Put a big glass window at the end and let the kiddos watch the underwater energy being created.

Creative Class

One of the ways we amuse ourselves around the RRBJ offices is to click through sites like Gothamist and Austinist. We got all tingly when we stumbled across the above post featuring the picture of Lee Eddy.

Too bad this child had to leave Shreveport to pursue her dreams. We need our Lees to be able to live, work and play in SB Land. Perhaps it's time to start a telethon for the funds to maintain a thrive-a-licious creative class over here by da Red River.

Creative class is a term mentioned in Phillip A. Rozeman's letter published in The Shreveport Times. Here's the link to that letter. Don't know why we're putting it up. The Times will dead the link in a couple of weeks and you'll get an error message. Maybe the place to start with the creative class push is to get The Times to keep their links active.

Number 3

Shreveport is number three in the nation when it comes to places in America to make independent films. Austin is number one says MovieMaker.

KTBS has this little blurb on it. We'd link to the Shreveport Times story but they always dead their links after a month or so... The best place to go for all your moviemaking Shreve news is Alexandyr Kent's blog.

Pictured is the Entertainment Weekly review of Mad Money.