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You're probably wondering how JeffAndJanice spent their Valentine's Day. You're in for a mild disappointment. We've never been big celebrators of events. We let birthdays, anniversaries, and even Christmases pass almost un-noticed. We've been that way for years. Not that we don't acknowledge the events. We just don't make a fuss. Well, this Valentine's Day there wasn't even an option of making a fuss. I had to work late teaching my class, and Janice had to attend a class. She's getting a new godchild and the church now requires educated godparents. This is the fifth godchild between us, and the first time either of us has had to attend a class. I got home at about 10:30 last night. For once, I did get Janice a couple of little gifts, I guess because we couldn't be together. Janice didn't have time to do what she wanted. She had intended to prepare the JeffAndJanice signature dish: Champagne and Tater Tots, but we only had freezer burned Tater Tots and Chardonnay. But we're planning a fun weekend. Details later. * Thursday, February 14, 2002
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Pelican Update Funny coincidence I chose today to blog about the pelicans. I just got back from Burger King, where I saw a newspaper vending machine. Today's headline: "Search is on for purloined pelican." That's right. One of them was stolen. That was a Lafayette pelican, not New Iberia. I didn't read the whole article, but I did see that it was valued at $2200. * New Iberia Public Art Continues This isn't unique to New Iberia. We have five or so pelican statues here, but there are dozens in Lafayette, and I assume, in surrounding towns. I'm no investigative reporter, so I won't tell you who sponsors this project (because I don't know), but I can tell you that they start with a pile of pelican blanks, made of fiberglass, and each one is customized by a different local artist. One of the two pictured above is by Paul Schexnayder. When I was at the Lafayette parades Tuesday, Mark Richard explained to me that artists were asked to submit drawings proposing their own ideas for how to complete a pelican. Those that were chosen by local patrons were commissioned for completion. The New Iberia pelicans are all painted, but in Lafayette there are some that have copper plating or mosaic tiles added. They also took liberties with the sculpture itself, adding new elements. I believe this began in Chicago, where a series of cows started the trend. New Orleans got onboard with a fish series, and Acadiana does pelicans. I have no doubt that this is being done all over the country, and if I find a website that documents them, I'll post it here (email me if you know of one). * Tuesday, February 12, 2002
Another Mardi Gras comes to a close. Today we decided to go to the Lafayette celebrations. The crowd has grown so large in Lafayette that the parade route has been extended to a full seven miles. There are high school bands and dance teams marching and dancing the whole distance. Ouch! It was a perfect day for Mardi Gras. The skies were clear and the weather was just a little cool. I wore a blue jean shirt over a tee shirt and was very comfortable. The krewes were throwing a middling amount of throws, but how many do you really need? While waiting for the second parade to start, I heard someone call my name. It was Mark Richard, from my old art school days. While watching the parades we got caught up with each other. He actually makes a living as an artist. There aren't many people who can boast that. He paints abstracts and portraits, plus he teaches several classes. I really need to take one of those classes. You really have to light a fire under me to keep me motivated. After the parades, Mark invited us to his house. The majority of the rooms of his house are devoted to art. Spaces were dedicated to either creating it, displaying it, or storing it. Apparently he's been pretty prolific, because there was plenty. His portraits are acrylic, but he also makes digital art and even has two printmaking setups. No one has to light a fire under him. Before we left he wanted to log on to take a look at this website. He uses Linux, and is very enthusiastic about it. I'm going to have to try it for myself one day. He went to jeffandjanice.com, trying it with two different browsers. One of them wasn't configured for Flash, so it didn't display the animation or the menu. That means that any of you who don't have the plugin can't access my sailing pages or the old house pages. I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to add some links to the page. So now Mardi Gras is over for another year. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, when the faithful will be seen all over town sporting a smudge of ashes on their foreheads. A fitting start to the 40 day period of atonement. btw: Here is Mark Richard's website. * Monday, February 11, 2002
More public art. Here's a statue of Hadrian that dates to 127 A.D. According to one source, it is the only full length statue of the emperor to have been sculpted in his lifetime. As you can see, it is housed behind glass. It belongs to a local bank, who added a glass addition to the building ("the Hadrian Building") to accommodate it. There's a plaque standing outside of the structure which reads: Hadrian The dates indicate the years of his reign, not his birth and death. For more reading on Hadrian, go here. *
Ugh! I'm still a bit hung over. The second, and last, New Iberia parade was yesterday. We decided to make an event of it, so we invited tons of people over, mostly Janice's family. Her parents, brothers, sisters, their spouses, their children and children's boyfriends, cousins and their husbands, and more. And they all managed to fit in our kitchen. Having a large house is no advantage when entertaining, since everyone wants to congregate in the kitchen. I told Janice we could have bought a 400 square foot house and still throw parties, as long as the whole house was a kitchen. It was another short parade. Seemed to be over in no time at all, but we weren't exactly on the route. The bands and dancers fed in a block down from us, so all that passed our house was the floats. Our group made out well in catching throws. We had the two targets that Mardi Gras krewes like most: little kids and pretty teenage girls. They made out like bandits. I was hoping there would be big heads this year. You know, those big-head costumes you see in the movies whenever they show Mardi Gras scenes. Those seemed to only exist in the movies, but last year we actually had some in the New Iberia parade. I was hoping to photograph them this year and post the pictures, but alas, everyone had normal size heads this year. After the parade, everybody stuck around for more food and drink, and finally the crowd filtered down to me and Janice and her brother's family, plus Bryan, who lives in our garage apartment. Somehow, the conversation came around to a suggestion that we all go sit on the roof. We call this "playing Third Rock", like on the TV show. If you look at my old-house pages, you'll see that we're uniquely set up for this. We go upstairs, climb out of a window, and we're on the roof of the front porch. We kicked back on the roof for a while, drinking the last of the wine and shooting the breeze. I don't think I realized how drunk we were. We had no business going out on the roof. After we went to bed, Janice was seized with a sudden sickness and dashed to the bathroom. When I left her this morning, she wasn't much better. Well, that's what Mardi Gras is for, a few weeks of debauchery followed by a 40-day recovery. I'll post pictures when I get home, if they came out well. * Archives |
