I can understand why the Cajuns still long for the lost paradise of Acadie. The Acadian Peninsula is a beautiful place - forests of spruce and larch, meadows filled with wildflowers, and the wide coastal rivers and bays that cut through the landscape. Houses are small, lawns neat, and just like in Acadiana, boats are parked in the yard. The work here in the past was mostly farming and fishing, and judging by the fleet of lobster and crab boats in every working harbor, it still is that way.
Our first stop this morning was a visit to the New Brunswick Aquarium and Marine Center. Harbor seals circle the pool, doing tricks for mackerel heads, but the best entertainment was Bob Moore of KLFY-TV 10, attempting to do his "get some rice" routine with two unsuspecting aquarium guides and a Royal Blue lobster from the rare species tank. You'll have to watch Passe Partout next week to catch the spot. After that, naturally, we had a lunch of lobster rolls.
Trippy priests were next on the agenda. In 1968, Father Gerard D'Astous, the priest at Eglise Saint-Cecile, had a vision that he should decorate the inside of his large, wooden, 1931 church. He must have been dreaming of tangerine trees and marmalade skies. While Fr. D'Astous had never painted anything before, the next thing anybody knew, he had bought out the hardware store of aqua, orange, and yellow spray paint and began striping the walls. When he got to the ceiling, he conceived that the souls of his parishioners who had passed away should be represented by pink crosses. Above the choir, he painted dainty birthday cakes on the ceiling; the front of the choir rail is lit with lots of glowing candles. It's a happy happy church, recognized, after some indignation from his congregation, as a masterpiece of folk art.
The second church we entered held a different kind of awe for the Acadians. Zachary Richard is in town, and he was performing at a fund raiser in the village of Tracadie. Under a nave as lofty as St. John's in Lafayette, Richard crooned ballads like "Cape Enrage" and "Au bord du Lac Bijou." The audience knew every word of every song. The church was packed, standing room only. There was a vibrant communion between audience and singer, a deep understanding of the sorrows of the past, combined with a sense of beauty and joy in their shared heritage. As often as I've seen Richard perform in Lafayette, I've never understood the passion behind his songs as strongly as I did last night.
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
At Thursday's State of the Economy luncheon, LEDA President and CEO Gregg Gothreaux said PXP has already quietly hired 180 people for its Broussard expansion.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
Trippy priests were next on the agenda. In 1968, Father Gerard D'Astous, the priest at Eglise Saint-Cecile, had a vision that he should decorate the inside of his large, wooden, 1931 church. He must have been dreaming of tangerine trees and marmalade skies. While Fr. D'Astous had never painted anything before, the next thing anybody knew, he had bought out the hardware store of aqua, orange, and yellow spray paint and began striping the walls. When he got to the ceiling, he conceived that the souls of his parishioners who had passed away should be represented by pink crosses. Above the choir, he painted dainty birthday cakes on the ceiling; the front of the choir rail is lit with lots of glowing candles. It's a happy happy church, recognized, after some indignation from his congregation, as a masterpiece of folk art.
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