GENUINE CAJUN BREAKDOWN
BeauSoleil’s latest album kicks off with an announcer echoing the early recordings of Dennis McGee: “Folks, this is genuine Cajun breakdown music as heard in Evangeline country. Let’s go boys!” The Grammy Award-winning band breaks into McGee’s “Reel Cajun.” Alligator Purse is the first record for BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet on Yep Roc Records. There’s your traditional Cajun and Creole numbers, served up à la BeauSoleil, like “Carrière Zydeco” and “Bosco Stomp.” But there’s also your not-so-traditional tunes, like a French version of Bob Dylan’s cover of Muddy Water’s “Rollin’ & Tumblin’,” a French version of Bobby Charles’ “I Spent All My Money Loving You,” and J.J. Cale’s “The Problem.” For more information on Alligator Purse, visit www.yeproc.com. — R. Reese Fuller
CAMO COOLER
White Styrofoam ice chests are a thing of the past. Not only are they flimsy, one-time-use coolers, but they last for eons in landfills, if they make it that far. Mostly the foam breaks up while in use, leaving a trail of petroleum pearls in the wilderness. Enter Brian Frederick’s Feather Flage cooler bag. Frederick’s trademark pattern of duck feathers provides camouflage for hunters or wild things chic for the rest of us. Lined with cushy waterproof insulation that will protect chilled bottles of champagne and a decadent lunch of St. Andre and slices of melon, or a 24-pack of Abita and a stack of bologna sandwiches, the bag, with a comfortable carry handle is lightweight, and small enough to make it as an airplane carry-on for those hauling a boudin fix to far-flung family. Available for $55 at Frederick Hair Studio on Jefferson St., 234-4054, or online at www.featherflage.com. — Mary Tutwiler
MUSCLE CAR MOUSE
This one’s for the nerds. It’s a muscle car computer mouse. And it works just like a regular mouse. Plugs into your computer, clicks, scrolls — the whole deal. It’s like a palm-size IROC-Z for the computer code crowd. It almost makes you want to shop around for a palm-sized wife-beater muscle shirt to slip over you hand to keep the party going. Check them out at Doghouse Computers at 4416 Johnston St. or call 289-9153. — Dege Legg
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.
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.
GENUINE CAJUN BREAKDOWN
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