The Reviews Are In

Lunopolis had its big premier at The Grand last week and according to the reviews the patrons were buzzing. FilmStew.com has this review, the Independent wrote a story here. Here's a video of comments from viewers that night:



According to film creator Matthew Avant, they are getting ready to screen the film in 2010 film festivals. Good luck guys!

Zydeco Disney Style

Remember that Disney cartoon film, The Princess and the Frog, that we told you is filming in Louisiana? Well, not only are they using our fair state as a backdrop, they are using our talent too. Grammy Award winning Zydeco artist Terrance Simien will not only play a character with a speaking line, but will also be collaborating with Randy Newman himself on the song "Goin' Down the Bayou". Pretty cool. Steven K. Landry with the Advocate has the whole story here.

Photo by Carl Lender

Mmm...Beaver Club BBQ

Daily Meaux reader Mike Guidroz sent us this information on the Beaver Club BBQ next weekend. Thanks Mike!

Sunday, November 1st is the date of this year’s FABULOUS BEAVER CLUB BARBEQUE. This legendary event is a Lafayette Institution and has long provided over $15,000 a year in contributions to various local children's charities that the Beaver Club has supported since 1959. For only $7 a plate, you and your family can enjoy a superbly cooked 1/2 chicken with Jack Miller's sauce, rice dressing, beans, and bread.

Imagine this scene in your mind’s eye, if you can;
It’s a beautiful Sunday morning, family’s all gussied up for Church, you all drive thru the Barbeque line at Beaver Park and visit with old friends that have been awake all night cooking chicken just for you and your family, everyone enjoys 1st class barbeque in front of the TV, and afterwards, you drift into a nice little nap during the Saints game. It’s like a little slice of heaven here on Earth. All of that, AND you’re helping out the children of our community. If you’d like to purchase tickets, please email dailymeaux@gmail.com and let us know how many you’d like and we’ll arrange to get them to you. Thanks so much for your support of The Beaver Club of Lafayette and here’s to a perfect Sunday morning.

Cajuns for Bayou Teche

Cafe des Amis will host a fundraiser for Cajuns for Bayou Teche, a program of the Teche Ecology, Culture and History Education (TECHE) Project this coming Thursday, October 29th from 6pm - 9pm. Musicians Bon Soir Catin, Drew Landry and David Greely & Friends will be sharing their music in support of Cajuns for Bayou Teche. Tickets are a $25 recommended donation and Cafe des Amis will host a complimentary wine tasting and hors d'oeuvres from 6:00-6:45.

Cajuns for Bayou Teche is a community organization that volunteers time to haul debris from Bayou Teche. Volunteers donate their time and boats to help clean up and currently, the organization would like to raise $3000 during event to get a motor and additional fabrication work to assist in removing large items like washers and hot water heaters. Blake Couvillion, director of Cajuns for Bayou Teche and President of the TECHE Project said, "Last Spring, we hauled over 6 tons of metal, tires, bicycles and refrigerators from the Bayou. It's ridiculous what people throw in there. The Teche is a part of our lives and our heritage and that's how we treat it? We have water quality problems to address on the Teche and we also have to get some of this junk out of here." He explained, "Right now I have my eye on a stove that's been sitting there for years. Once the winch is ready to go and I have a reliable motor, my guys and I will get out there to pick it up and start hauling debris. We'll work from Port Barre all the way down to St. Martinville!"

The community is invited to come out to meet with Blake and learn more about Bayou Teche and enjoy the company and music of some of the areas finest musicians. Tickets are available by calling Blake at 337-230-8596

Photo by Natalie Maynor

Ding Dang Bridge Blow Up

Everybody likes to watch things blow up. OK, maybe it's just me. But here's video of the bridge connecting Livingston and East Baton Rouge parish being demolished on Wednesday. The video shows the blow up from several different angles. Spoiler alert: they all end the same way. Further down is video from when they demolished McCullough and Voorhies dorms on the UL campus back in 2003.

A House Divided

Name your product "Slap Ya Mama" and you might expect some negative repercussions. What you don't expect is someone naming a similar product "Punch Ya Daddy". Richard Burgess is all over the brouhaha with this report for the Advocate about a law suit filed by Walker & Sons of Ville Platte, makers of "Slap Ya Mama" Cajun seasoning, against Kirby Falcon of Houma, maker of "Punch Ya Daddy" Creole seasoning. See how that's kinda similar? From the article:

Walker & Sons registered the “Slap Ya Mama” trade name in February 2008 but had been using it for about 10 years before that, with the current logo making its first appearance at the Ville Platte Smoked Meat Festival in 1998, according to the lawsuit.

I mean, are the "Punch Ya Daddy" folks turning a deaf ear to the raw marketing power that is the '98 Smoked Meat Fest? Tony Chachere, thus far, remains above the fray. Class.
More here.

Get Your Chomp On

The Louisiana Icegators professional hockey team starts its season tonight facing the Mississippi Surge in new home Blackham Coliseum. This marks the return of the Icegators after the franchise folded in 2005. Puck drops at 7:05 pm.
Michael Krieg wrote this article for the Daily Advertiser including interviews with Icegator coach Ron Handy, and team owner Danny Smith. Check it out here.

It's No Chicken Plant

Richard Burgess reporting for the Advocate wrote this article about ATC Associates, a national engineering and environmental consulting firm relocating it's main office from Boston to right here in Lafayette. Am I dreaming? Apparently not. From the article:

ATC Associates, which has 65 branches in 36 states, announced the move at a news conference Wednesday at Lafayette City Hall. The company has a branch office in Lafayette with about 25 employees but plans to add 20 corporate positions before the end of the year with more professional jobs to follow after the transition is complete, ATC Associates CEO Bobby Toups said. ATC Associates Chief Financial Officer Paul Grillo said it speaks well for the area that many of the résumés the company has received are from Acadiana expatriates looking to return. Gothreaux said a key to attracting more firms such as ATC Associates is Louisiana’s “Quality Jobs” incentive program, which provides a cash rebate to companies that create well-paying jobs. The program offers up to a 6 percent rebate on payroll for new jobs and other rebates for capital expenditures.

More here.

Hey There Sugar Dumplin

Ooh whee, this one brings backs some memories. Back in the day, my best friend Bobby's dad managed the local Leisure Landing record store and would bring home stacks of the latest hit singles every week. Me and Bobby and my sister Monica each had our own collections of 45's which we carried in our own carrying cases. It was a big deal to have something of your own at that age. Many summer afternoons (when it was too hot to play outside) were spent with the three of us hovering over a record player watching the 45's spin around, jamming out, memorizing all the lyrics, and record labels and artists. Stevie Wonder, The Grass Roots, The Beatles (don't think that Revolution the "b" side of Hey Jude didn't blow my 8 year old mind....it did!).
Now, this King Floyd classic Groove Me Baby, was so funky and so sexy (even though I didn't know what funky or sexy was back then) I thought for sure we'd get in trouble just for listening to it. It was the same feeling I got when I heard a Richard Pryor record for the first time years later. Turns out nothing bad happened. I was just finding out what FUN was. It's rainy today but the weekend does not stop for inclement weather. Rock on with the King. King Floyd!

Bedell & Bourque Book Signing

The Acadiana Center for the Arts, in partnership with The Friends of Humanities, is hosting the Lafayette release of Call and Response: Conversations In Verse, a book of poems by Jack B. Bedell and Darrell Bourque.

The release will take place in the AcA’s Main Gallery this Saturday, October 24 from 6 – 8 PM. The event will be kicked off with a social gathering from 6 – 6:30 PM where attendees will have the opportunity to view John Geldersma’s Presence of Spirit exhibit. Following the social hour, both authors Jack B. Bedell and Darrell Bourque, Poet Laureate of Louisiana, will be reading selected poems from the book. Those in attendance will be able to engage Bedell & Bourque in a question and answer session as well as purchase a copy of Call and Response: Conversations In Verse. They will also have the chance for both authors sign the book following the reading.

Part of the proceeds from the books sales will be donated to the AcA to help employ musicians and artists, introduce arts into the local schools and support a first class visual arts exhibition series.

For more information call 233.7060 or visit AcadianaCenterForTheArts.org.

Biltmore Follow Up

Boy, you learn something new every day. A Daily Meaux reader contacted us in response to the Biltmore story to let us know that Acadiana's own Hoyt Harris was in a movie that filmed at the Biltmore.

He writes:
"Todays article on the Biltmore reminded me of a bit of trivia. In 1979, the Peter Sellers film "Being There" was shot largely at the Biltmore. A young actor playing the role of Riff, a Secret Service agent, was none other than KATC's Hoyt Harris. A small but brilliantly acted part, rivaling Sellers himself! Well, small, anyway. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078841/

Thanks for the heads up Alan

Spend Christmas at the Biltmore!

Winter is a wonderful time to be in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and the Biltmore is such an impressive estate....in the former family home of the Vanderbilts, you're bound to be impressed with the gardens, the shopping, the dining, the 250 rooms, indoor bowling alley and more! You can even see where they filmed many major motion pictures like Forest Gump, National Treasure, Last of the Mohicans and so many others. Here's a couple of Biltmore holiday specials going on right now:


Candlelight Christmas Package
Package Includes:
* Guest room accommodations
* Chef's breakfast buffet daily in The Dining Room
* Estate daytime admission valid for the length of stay
* Daytime Audio Guide to Biltmore House
* Admission to Candlelight Christmas Evenings at Biltmore House. Guests booking online will enjoy a 7:30 p.m. reservation.
* Biltmore souvenir guidebook
* Valet parking at the inn
* Complimentary estate shuttle service

Not available on November 24, 25, 26 and December 24, 25, 30, 31.

Dinner is not included with this package. Guests are strongly encouraged to make a dinner reservation prior to arrival.

Two-night packages start at $1,368 in a deluxe room, based on double occupancy
Three-night packages start at $1,817 in a deluxe room, based on double occupancy



Enchanted Christmas Package
(December 24-26, 2009)

Package Includes:
* Guest room accommodations
* Chef's breakfast buffet daily in The Dining Room
* Christmas Eve dinner in The Dining Room or at the Bistro
* Christmas dinner in The Dining Room or Vanderbilt Room
* Estate daytime admission valid for the length of stay
* Daytime Audio Guide to Biltmore House
* Gratuities for valet, bellmen, housekeeping, and packaged meals
* Valet parking at the inn
* Complimentary estate shuttle service

Two-night package starts at $1,498 in a deluxe room, based on double occupancy.

Dinner is not included with this package. Guests are strongly encouraged to make a dinner reservation prior to arrival.

Suzanne Brevelle is from Lafayette and works at Avenues To Travel. You can contact her via email Suzanne@avenues2travel.com or telephone 337-231-5656. She is a Certified Specialist for Sandal’s and Beaches Resorts as well as Grand Cayman, Jamaica and Hawaii. Her specialty is couples and family vacations, groups, honeymoons and corporate travel.