Last Dinner on the Titanic

Happy New Year everyone!
This year i will be DJing on Shell Beach Dr for the Titanic party, We're going to party like it's 1912 to my ragtime beats! Ok, that's out of my system. Here's the invite...
Haven't decided to go out this New Year's Eve? Change your mind, and join Carolyn Woosley and Leslie Berman for a dinner/dance to ring in the New Year in style and for a few good causes. Leslie is cooking up the Last Dinner on the Titanic to celebrate New Year's Eve December 31, 2007/January1, 2008 from 8:00pm - 1: 00a.m. at 1401 Shell Beach Drive, Lake Charles. The fundraiser will benefit the Women's Shelter, the Whistle Stop, and SLAC (SWLA AIDS Council). RSVP to 515-6479 required as space is limited. $30 per person includes Supper (the actual three-course last meal served in the Third Class Dining Room on the last evening before the Titanic hit the iceberg), Hot Mulled Wine/Hot Mulled Cider, Champagne/Sparkling Cider Midnight Toast, and soft drinks and sparkling water all night. Come on and party like it's 1912 to Blaine Miller's selection of Titanic era tunes and dance music from other modern eras, plus the international continuous midnight countdown celebration! Edwardian costuming welcomed. A cash bar for wine, beer, and mixed drinks will be available (hey, it's a fundraiser for good causes!). Must RSVP in advance by calling 515-6479. What the hey, you could do something different for New Year's once in a very blue moon.

Hope you can join us!

Semper Augustus

From : http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/aconite/semperaugustus.html

A Rosen, with blood-red flares or flames vividly streaked on a white ground, and flakes and flashes of the same color at the pedals' edge, Semper Augustus was, by all accounts, an extraordinary flower, and one celebrated at the time for its beauty and rarity. Because Semper Augustus was scarce, it was coveted and because it was desirable, it was expensive (indeed, by the time the market collapsed, the number of bulbs probably never was much greater than it had been originally). This rarity was reflected in the price. In 1623, one bulb was sold for a thousand guilders. Even then, the owner felt cheated when it was discovered that there were two offsets when lifted from the ground. The next year, only a dozen examples was said to exist, each of which could have sold for 1,200 guilders and all owned by an anonymous individual who refused to part with them, realizing that the price would fall if he did not control the market. The following year, 2,000 and then 3,000 guilders were offered for a single bulb but the owner still could not make up his mind, not wanting to increase the supply of such a rare bulb and appreciating that even more might be realized if he waited.

In 1633, one Semper Augustus was said to have sold for 5,500 guilders, and in 1637, just before the crash, a price of 10,000 guilders was asked, an exorbitant amount that would have purchased a grand home on the most fashionable canal in Amsterdam.

Back when ford made cars...

Gosh...I wish I had a Model T.
This image is from my personal collection, not to be reproduced, copied, or used in any way without written permission.

Beaumont

This is another of the pieces of sheet music I had picked up in Winnie Texas. And now, for a story...
So Saturday Wes had an employee party so we couldn't go to dinner like we had planned. So to make up for it, we decided to go to Pappadeaux's in Beaumont for some seafood. Wes' grandparents and aunt were supposed to go with us, but they deiceded against it about 30 minutes before we left. So we set out in my tracker to Beaumont. We made it into the city and everything was going great and we were talking and relaxing....and then we came over a hill and there was some sort of axle thing in the road!!! I had an eighth of a second to decide to hit the cars to my left or run over the axle and then, I went over it. it was like a 10 inch steel disk with boltholes around its circumference and a four foot shaft, about three inches in diameter and threaded on the end. I describe it as an axle, but lordonlyknows what it was. SO, it blew out both of my passenger side tires, bent the rims, and tore out the brake line. Lost control of the brakes but made it to the shoulder safely where I rolled to a stop. I jumped out to see if I could change the tire, but alas, they were both flat. I called my mom and she got us a tow truck and headed out to pick us up.
Well, now I'm car-less until it can be fixed, it will be about a week and a half, but at least it's not costing me much. It's actually cheaper to pay for it myself than pay my insurance deductible, but at least I can afford it. There is more to this story, but I'll finish it another post. Safe driving everyone!!!

Row Houses

A little night photography of the "condos" located North of the museum property at about 7pm, roughly a week before christmas 2007. I prefer to think of them as rowhouses.

Day-trippers

Erica and I drove to St. Francisville and traveled through Baton Rouge and down River Road to take photos and to visit plantations. It was a really nice relaxing Sunday. Erica showed me a new way to get to St. Francisville on the Atchafalaya levee along these dirt roads to the ferry in New Roads to cross the Mississippi. These are some of my photos from that day strung together into a sort of photo essay, witht he exception of the fact that the last photo should really be the first photo. It shows the ferry crossing at New Roads. Click on the pictures to see a nice detailed large image!


Old home in St. Francisville.


Grace Episcopal church, St. Francisville, Louisiana. Pre-Civil War church and cemetery.


Grace Episcopal cemetery, St. Francisville


The Myrtles, St. Francisville Louisiana


Taking pictures with Erica of the haunted mirror in the Myrtles plantation, St. Francisville.


The oldest church west of the Mississippi, built by the first cajuns to come to Louisiana in the late eighteenth century. The records of the Acadian exile were kept there from the 1790's on, a proud and sad place.


Nottoway plantation in the early winter evening.


Crossing the Mississippi river by ferry in New Roads Louisiana

Office Space

Ran across this today and just felt like sharing it, Office Space is a favorite movie of mine and have some very sentimental memories attached to it. These quotes are from imdb.com....

Tom Smykowski: It was a "Jump to Conclusions" mat. You see, it would be this mat that you would put on the floor... and would have different CONCLUSIONS written on it that you could JUMP TO.
Michael Bolton: That's the worst idea I've ever heard in my life, Tom.
Samir: Yes, this is horrible, this idea.

Dom Portwood: Hi, Peter. What's happening? We need to talk about your TPS reports.
Peter Gibbons: Yeah. The coversheet. I know, I know. Uh, Bill talked to me about it.
Dom Portwood: Yeah. Did you get that memo?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah. I got the memo. And I understand the policy. And the problem is just that I forgot the one time. And I've already taken care of it so it's not even really a problem anymore.
Dom Portwood: Ah! Yeah. It's just we're putting new coversheets on all the TPS reports before they go out now. So if you could go ahead and try to remember to do that from now on, that'd be great. All right!

Milton Waddams: [talking on the phone] And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were married, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire...

Nina: Now Milton, don't be greedy, let's pass it along and make sure everyone gets a piece.
Milton Waddams: Yeah, but last time I didn't receive a piece. And I was told...
Nina: Just pass.
[while the cake passes Milton mutters - eventually everybody but Milton gets a piece]
Milton Waddams: [muttering] I could set the building on fire.

Peter Gibbons: Doesn't it bother you that you have to get up in the morning and you have to put on a bunch of pieces of flair?
Joanna: Yeah, but I'm not about to go in and start taking money from the register.
Peter Gibbons: Well, maybe you should. You know, the Nazis had pieces of flair that they made the Jews wear.

Bill Lumbergh: Oh, and remember: next Friday... is Hawaiian shirt day. So, you know, if you want to, go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans.

Tom Smykowski: Well-well look. I already told you: I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?

Peter Gibbons: Hey, guys.
Michael Bolton: What's up, G?
Peter Gibbons: Want to go to Chotchkie's? Get some coffee?
Samir: Oh, it's a little early.
Peter Gibbons: I gotta get outta here. I think I'm gonna lose it.
Female Temp: Uh-oh. Sounds like somebody's got a case of the Mondays.

Steve: I lied. Um... All that stuff I said about being a crack head? It just helps me sell magazines. I'm actually an unemployed... software engineer.
Peter Gibbons: You're a software engineer?
Steve: Yup.
[sighs]
Samir: Things, uh... it must be very rough for you.
Steve: Actually man, I make more money selling magazine subscriptions, than I ever did at Intertrode!

Streetcar Conspiracy

Fu-sion

So the show went great, that's all I'm going to say about it now. I thought I'd see what random pics I have hanging around...let's see:

A Sadder World

I saw on the news that they found the bodies of princess Anastasia and prince Alexi of the Romanovs. They were buried a short distance from the rest of the family for an unknown reason. The world is a little darker and sadder today. A little bit of hope and mystery are gone and solved and cold as those bones buried in the permafrost in Russia.

WOW

All these can be seen at the amazing blog Paleo-Future. Check my links section.

Hurry up with that damned turkey, we gots to go shopping at JCPenney's

So Thanksgiving is over and I'm not stuffed. I feel good. Preparing for the gallery opening at Gallerie Melancon and for our opening at the museum of Pat Gallaugher's work. Thanksgiving is now officially losing out to Christmas. Lots of stores are opening on thanksgiving day instead of Black friday to beat the holiday rush. That's retarded. Next year "after thanksgiving rush shopping" will begin the day before turkey day and soon Halloween will be the start of the Christmas holiday. ARGH. I feel more like Charlie Brown everyday. Oh the angst.

Drive to Monroe and back again.

I hate driving at night. Some joik always tailgates me with his brights on. Hauling his four-wheeler from Ball to Pineville. A-hole. Erica and I went to Monroe today and dropped off our artwork for the "louisiana's finest" show at the Brad Arender gallery. He's a swell guy, when I get his link up, make sure to visit his website, or even better if you are in or near Monroe Louisiana, drop in on him on North 2nd. I think I am having trouble with my night vision.
On another note we also visited the Biedenharn Museum and the Masur Museum of Art in Monroe. I also introduced Erica to the small chapel in Columbia and the Columbia cemetery built into the hilltop in the center of town. We stopped and ate dinner on th way home in Alexandria at Copeland's. Hadn't ate at a Copeland's in a while and i must say the food, and the service were superb. I can't wait to eat my leftover crabcake!

Thursday Night

So another workday, I'm still feeling sick due to the weather change and an infection that just hangs around like an unwanted curr. Nothing that exciting happened today. Here is another piece of the sheet music I just acquired. This is a rare one and if you aren't familiar with "jake" , here's an article about it... http://content.herbalgram.org/iherb/herbalgram/articleview.asp?a=957 ...and an excerpt from that article after the photo...



Early in the year 1930, newspapers in the American South and Midwest began to report on a strange new paralytic illness that was affecting relatively large numbers of individuals. Victims of the disease would typically notice numbness in the legs, followed by weakness and eventual paralysis with "foot drop." In most cases, this was followed within about a week by a similar process in the arms, resulting in many cases in "wrist drop." The disease was rarely fatal, but recovery was very slow and in many cases the damage to the nervous system left the patient with permanent disabilities.

Although the affliction resembled other neurological problems, such as Landry's disease and anterior poliomyelitis, the symptoms did not conform exactly to any known condition. The number of cases of this mysterious ailment reached epidemic proportions over the course of 1930 and 1931, eventually affecting an estimated tens of thousands of individuals in many states, from New York to California.(1)

It did not take long after the first appearance of the illness to link it to the consumption of fluid extract of Jamaica ginger, commonly referred to as "Jake" by many who used the product. This paper examines the ginger extract toxicity episode of the early 1930s, with particular emphasis on the role of pharmacologist Maurice Smith of the National Institute (now Institutes) of Health in solving the mystery of the poisoning.

"Hurry On Down:A Celebration of the Life of Nellie Lutcher"

Here are some images of the show I put together at the ICM for our Nellie Lutcher exhibit. The pics are of the sign-in table next to the entrance, the entrance greeting sign and Nellie's traveling wardrobe trunk and her pink dress that she wore on "This Is Your Life" in 1952.

Wednesday Night

This is an image from some sheet music I acquired this past weekend in Winnie Texas...


Well, worked today, watched Project Runway's new season start. Was really dissapointed the hippy-dippy goofy designer didn't get kicked off. Alas.

Photo Accepted...

Here is the photo accepted into the show. It is a digital collage done in photoshop.

Welcome to the new blog....

So, today for no reason, I've decided to start a new blog. Who know what will be in store for any wayward reader...My first announcement today is my acceptance into a show of Louisiana contemporary photography which I recieved today. The opening for the exhibit will be the day before thanksgiving in Monroe. Really is a treat for me, I've never really shown much photography, and it is experimental work I started this year. So here is the postcard...

some news

I'm going to start using my multiply account only.

silentbacchus.multiply.com

If you want to access my files i've uploaded, you have to make a profile.

a new drawing

I finished this last week but I thought I would post it, it's not that interesting but just kind of a study piece.

sick

again...and miserable, sinuses and my nose is swollen and tender. Horror. That's why there haven't been many posts...

un-titled

"Either you get busy doin', or you get busy dyin'..."

friday

So we thought about going to Beaumont to eat dinner, but now neither of us are feeling very well.
Randy came to visit yesterday and I wish that we could have hung out more! We had to rush through the afternoon, can't wait to hang out again Randy!!!
Work has been quiet Susan went to texas to visit her mother and then came back sick. So we've been battening down the hatches but no storm has blown through!
Anyway, Oh well this was a short rambling entry.

McNeese Annual Juried Student Show

So here are some pics from the opening friday night. We had a good solid turn-out of around 200 people come through. We ran out of food very quickly...I didn't get any little meatballs!!!


some pottery


Erica trying to avoid the camera


Max attended with Wesley (He is Wes' brother)


Some people picking through the remains of the food table!


some more student pottery


a painting and a bulldozer teapot


One more view of the gallery and
Wes' superb lighting that compliments my installations!