Archive for the ‘Arts & Events’ Category

The East Baton Rouge Recycling Office is sponsoring a one-day event exclusive to East Baton Rouge residents called “Household Hazardous Materials Collection Day.” Bring your household hazardous waste to the Memorial Stadium East Side parking lot on Saturday, May 23 from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm for waste disposal. Notice that any commercial waste will be turned away. You can check the full listing of accepted waste here.

The annual Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics will happen next Friday, May 22. It starts at 8:30 am with a brief ceremony at the State Capital where First Lady Supriya Jindal will speak. The Torch will be carried by local law enforcement officers on the route below.

For the full route information, you can read the press release here.

The Red Stick International Animation Festival wrapped up last week. It was a great event, and we’re so lucky to have this kind of thing in Baton Rouge.

Held at the Shaw Center, Red Stick is a four-day event that brings talented professionals from the animation, video game and film industry to our great capital city.

One of the biggest events for me was the portfolio review held by Disney representatives. I had the honor of meeting Max Howard, a fascinating man who worked on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and “The Iron Giant.” Disney also treated the festival with an exclusive preview of their next animated film, “The Princess and the Frog”. This new film is so special because it will be Disney’s first hand drawn 2d film in nine years.

The Red Stick festival also offered many fun and interesting workshops. Among the many workshops, attendees could learn how to do stop motion animation, draw dinosaurs, learn the intricacies of drawing animal anatomy, even do motion capture for video games. I attended workshops dedicated to character design and advanced inking techniques. The Baton Rouge Cartoonist Society was at the festival in full force. They held two workshops, as well as providing children with coloring books, which the BRCS did the artwork for.

I sat in several lectures, one of which was titled The Biology of “Bolt”. Stuart Sumida, a professor of biology for California State University –San Bernardino explained how he consulted with Disney on their 2008 CG film “Bolt”. Sumida showed us how he created skeletal structures and musculature for the film’s animal stars. He explained how the origins of Bolt lead to technical issues with the characters elbows and knees. He even showed us diagrams he created for the animators to show which paw would fall when on quadruped animals during a walk, trot and a gallop. Of all the lectures I attended during the festival, this one was the most interesting!

Red Stick is an amazing event, and I’m so grateful we have this event in our own backyard. It is a great opportunity to meet and network with industry professionals and other folks just trying to get into the business. At Red Stick, there’s an aura of excitement that you can feel right as you come through the door. Everyone there is there to celebrate animation and the great things it can do. I’m going back next year; I hope to see you there.

The Red Stick Animation Festival, an international animation convention, is going on right now in downtown Baton Rouge. A highly acclaimed affair, it frequently brings in top talent to showcase. Just announced, Disney is previewing their latest feature “The Princess and the Frog” this Friday, April 24, at 5:30 p.m. in the Manship Theatre, which is downtown in the Shaw Center.

The movie is set in New Orleans and an animator from the studio will be there to introduce the exclusive preview. The movie is set to be released this Thanksgiving. Following the preview, Disney is showing “Bolt,” an animated feature that premiered last year. What’s interesting is that this marks Disney’s return to 2D animation. The animator who’ll be speaking also worked on “The Lion King,” which is one of my favorite childhood movies. I’m personally excited to see where this’ll lead Disney in the future. We’ve been lacking good 2D movies as of late (of course, Pixar has produced enough amazing 3D ones).

The festival is hosting a “princess ball” in anticipation of the showing, which starts at 7pm at the Old State Capital downtown.

The events are all apparently free and open to the public. However, a “Red Pass” is required to participate. Unfortunately, the site seems to be down at the moment. We’ve contacted the Festival to get more information.

[Update: I just contacted the officials and they say that you can register onsite even though the site is down. And it is, as of right now.]
[Yet another update: The site is now fixed. I recommend registering before attending.]

More information about the festival can be found at their web site.

Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts will be traveling to Baton Rouge next week, April 28th, to host its annual Arts Gala at the Manship Theatre in the Shaw Center for the Arts in downtown. The show begins at 7pm and it’s free and open to the public—all are invited to attend! The students will be performing dance pieces, comedy sketches, musical ensembles and more. Plus, alumnus Josh Tickell will be showing his documentary “Fuel,” an Audience Choice Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The full program is as follows:

• Dance piece #1: City at Night (Impulse Dance Company – Ali Arsement, Autumn Billings, Meagan Evans, Ashlei McDonald, Stephanie Michot, Anna Tan)
• “Behind the Scenes” Josh Callendret filmmaker
• Solo Dance Piece #2: “A Path of Her Own” Anna Tan
• Segment from “Greater Tuna” Mason Joiner and Kyle Richard
• Dance piece #3: “Fives By Six” (Impulse Dance Company)
• Josh Tickell video appearance
• Instrumental music trio (Trio in A minor, Opus 188) Dylan Blanchard, Phillip Larroque, and Dr. Charles Jones
• Poetry Recitation: “Dulce Et Decorum Est” Dylan Staley (Poetry Out Loud state competition 3rd place winner)
• Instrumental music duo “Idyll” Susannah Robichaux and Dr. Charles Jones
• Poetry Recitation: “Mrs Kirkorian” Dylan Staley
• Vocal Performance of “Nancy Hanks” by Gabby Hildestad
• Vocal Performance of “The Wizard and I” from Wicked by Stephanie Boyd
• Finale: Piano: Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata in D Minor, Op. 31, No. 2 “Tempest” Performed by Anna Tan

In addition, pieces from the school’s visual arts students will also be on display, including sculpture, ceramics, watercolors, and pen and ink drawings.

More information is available on the LSMSA web site.

I graduated from LSMSA, which means I can personally vouch for the students. Their art is going to be incredibile. In fact, I’ve seen some of it already and it’s just superb. If you’re a patron of the arts, I highly recommend this event, oh, and it’s free, too. Can’t go wrong there.

We just received word via Twitter that area CC’s Coffeehouses are offering a free tall iced coffee from 2- 4pm today.

Their tall size is a 12-ounce drink and flavors available in this promotion are: classic, hazelnut, vanilla, and caramel. Notice that this applies only to their Coffeehouses and not to their kiosks (e.g. Mall of LA).

This is just a promotion. CC’s is trying to generate attention to their coffee, so they’re giving it away. Full details are available via the press release.

This Sunday, April 19, the 20th Annual Louisiana Earth Day will be taking place downtown from 12:00pm – 8:30pm. This year’s theme is “Think Globally, Act Locally.” Earth Day is traditionally educational and a good local family event. Educational and children activities are scheduled until 5:00 pm. This year there is a focus on sustainability with “Going Green in Red Stick” specials. Here’s some of what you can look forward to:

Louisiana Earth Day’s 20-year anniversary highlights include the wetlands tent, sustainable Louisiana pavilion, recycling fair, earth market, international pavilion, natural health and healing, Louisiana and Native American culture, earth friendly habitat, agricultural exhibits and petting zoo, and nature and your neighborhood.

Live musical entertainment from Cowboy Mouth, Tab Benoit, Geno Delafose and French Rockin’ Boogie, and Chris LeBlanc is scheduled on two stages all day.

As a reminder, Earth Day doesn’t allow any pets or coolers and parking is available in the City Garage on St. Louis street for $5.

The Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, as a part of the Entergy Masterworks Series, is performing Gustav Holst’s The Planets and Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, with guest soloist Charlie Beck, boy alto. This concert is sponsored by The Lohengrin Group. This performance is only happening tonight. Concert starts at 7:30pm—doors open at 6:30pm—at the River Center Theatre for the Performing Arts. Tickets will be sold at the door starting at $17; students with valid ID at $10. For more information, you can call the BRSO ticketing office at (225) 383-0500 or visit them on the web. The Highland Road Observatory, Baton Rouge Astronomical Association and the Mars van will also be there in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy with exciting exhibits and a chance to view the stars.

The third annual LSU CxC Digital Media Festival is this Thursday and Friday. This two-day event is packed with art exhibiting, keynotes, and other miscellaneous events including EA game testing stations. Students who attend can register to win a free Kaplan Test Prep Course, valued at up to $1,849. All events are in Coats 151, so be sure to check it out. More information at the CxC Digital Media Festival web site.

Marjane Satrapi will be addressing the LSU general body about her book The Complete Persepolis, which was featured in the 2008 LSU Summer Reading Program. She will be in the Bo Campbell Auditorium of the Cox Communications Center for Student Athletes at 6:30 pm today. The talk is free and open to the public with a book signing to follow. Her book is her account during the Islamic Revolution and is a graphic novel. The feature film is an animated adaptation which has gained much acclaim.

I read this book for the Summer Reading Program and it was the topic of much discussion in one of my honors courses. I have mixed feelings about the media (and, specifically, that a graphic novel shouldn’t be chosen for summer reading), but the book is still a good, albeit quick, read and it discusses an important event in modern history. I will not be in attendance, but if anyone goes, tip us with the details.