
The International School of Louisiana'a Camp Street campus.

The International School of Louisiana'a Camp Street campus.
A proposal to place a swath of downtown New Orleans under a new appointed board with the power to levy taxes drew the attention of the Coliseum Square Association on Monday night, based on the possibility that the “hospitality zone” could easily be expanded into Uptown. Continue reading »
A safety committee at Tulane University is considering adding surveillance cameras and motion-activated safety lights to streets near the university such as Maple, Calhoun and Lowerline, according to an article by Carolyn Kaufman of The Tulane Hullabaloo student newspaper.
The International School of Louisiana will hold a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. tonight (Monday, April 16) to decide on whether to lease or purchase modular classrooms for its Camp Street or Olivier Street campuses for the coming school year, officials announced. Continue reading »
Two Uptown neighborhood groups — the Coliseum Square Association and the Carrollton Area Network — will hold meetings tonight (Monday, April 16), their leaders announced. Continue reading »
After police were called to near LaSalle and St. Andrew Streets about a suspicious person with a gun, a man began firing at them from a second floor balcony, according to our reporting partners at WWL-TV. When police returned fire, the man jumped down and broke his ankle, and police found an assault rifle nearby, WWL reported.

Owen Courreges
One ticket. As of this year, that’s all it takes to have your car immobilized (or “booted”) in the City of New Orleans.
Department of Public Works parking administrator Zepporiah Edmonds outlined the change in late March at a City Council committee meeting: “We used to boot vehicles if they had more than three violations.” Now, he explained, the threshold has been reduced to one if the vehicle owner “fails to timely respond to a second notice” or “hasn’t paid a ticket after 120days.” Continue reading »
The Kupcake Factory is geared up and ready for spring time. They have already gotten started on their spring cleaning by freshening up their website and adding a new menu which features the 12 different daily cupcake flavors. New spring time inspired cupcakes flavors have been released including Strawberries-n-Cream, Cinnamon Pecan, Cherry Chocolate, Turtle Soup, Lemon Blueberry and this month’s Easter themed cupcake, Jellybean Fluff. If you are ever inspired to come up with a new cupcake flavor, suggest your flavor idea to The Kupcake Factory’s “12 New Flavors for 2012” contest and you could win a half-dozen cupcakes if your creation is chosen as the next flavor of the month!
Keep reading for more details.

Benjamin Morris
Can you believe it’s been two months? The other day, we sat around trading Mardi Gras stories, and it wasn’t long before the bulk of the haul came out. You wouldn’t believe what we found — well, actually, you would. Beads, pounds of them. Stuffed animals, a whole menagerie. Doubloons, beads, pens, koozies, emblems, beads, plastic cups, and dreidels, twice as many again as all of the above, and oh, did I mention the beads? Somewhere in your house, in bags in the utility room or in backpacks in your study, you’ve got them too. So: it’s time for spring cleaning. What are you going to do with all those extra beads?
Here’s an idea: drop them off for recycling.

Tyrone A. Williams (via opcso.org)

Craig Giesecke
For a (very) brief time in college one summer, I was a bull rider. I figured since I’d been taking care of cattle most of my life and already had most of the equipment (my family had a farm) and I had friends who were doing it, I might as well try it myself. And hell — it offered a way to hit the rodeo dances with pretty girls and earn a little beer money.
I wound up with a lesson on the wide gulf between something that’s simple and something that’s easy. Continue reading »

Charles Prosser (image via lusherschool.org)
The Lusher High School community suffered a series of tragedies over the past week, the sudden death of a highly-respected college counselor and serious injuries to two student athletes, school officials said Saturday morning. Continue reading »
The free “Evening of Difficult Music” experimental music series returns tonight at 8 p.m. with “MRI Suite,” an original composition by George Alvey with Foster Smedley and a solo by James Singleton, at McKeown’s Books and Difficult Music, 4737 Tchoupitoulas.
Artists Caroline Hill, Jonathan Meyers and Sam Provenza will all be featured in the new “epigrammatic” exhibition opening tonight at Du Mois gallery (4921 Freret) with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. The show runs through May 6.
More details, via emailed invitation from Du Mois:
JOIN US Saturday eve when we open “epigrammatic,” a group of distinctive, pointed works employing direction, angle, color, and form in three mediums.
Caroline Hill returns with a collection of mixed media born from colored scraps and fleshed out in colored pen and ink. Her subjects ebb between celebrity and the mundane but with a vibrating energy that grab and delight.
Jonathan Meyers also returns with a bold, new series of silverpoints on a grand scale accented in broken arcs and turns bordering on glacial or tectonic referencing.
And introducing Sam Provenza and his point studies, 3D metal compositions that dip, swoop, bend, and converge (and sometimes not). The dynamic in energy varies from piece to piece, making the series an engaging premier.
Loyola University’s 100th anniversary celebration officially starts this weekend with several concerts and a Saturday evening mass, college officials said. Continue reading »
Just in time for festival season, the NOLA Til Ya Die “2012 Festival Freak” Survival Pack is perfect family-friendly gear, packed with everything you need for festing. Affordably priced at just $15 and available in bright orange, lime green or black in your choice of three designs: (Original, Live it. Love it., Heart + Live it. Love it.) Grab your pack and go!
Keep reading for more details.

Christy Lorio (photo by Leslie Almeida)
I rarely read grocery store fashion magazines. You know the type: a model or celebrity with unnaturally white teeth gracing the cover, Photoshopped to perfection. She’s usually a nubile thing, wedged between headlines that promise “Lose 10 inches now,” “Your best sex life ever,” “I was a spendaholic,” etc. Sounds silly, right? Glamour Magazine is one of the worst, in my opinion. And with a circulation of 2.3 million, that’s a lot of terrible advice being pumped to the masses. Continue reading »
Mellow Mushroom, the psychedelic-themed chain of pizza restaurants prevalent in college towns across the Southeast, is negotiating to open a new location on Oak Street by fall, three local investors told the neighborhood Thursday night. Continue reading »
Spring feels like it’s been upon us for a few months, but technically it has only just started. To kick off this wonderful time of the year, Joule Solar Energy is teaming up with City Park and the LSU Agricultural Center for the annual City Park Spring Garden Show this weekend, April 14-15th. The event features guest speakers and a green fair with product exhibits and vendors.
Keep reading for more details about the show, and about the latest trends in solar engineering, solar gardening, and solar canopies for your home or business!

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus
Is America ready for a President whose faith includes doctrines that may be offensive in today’s multicultural society? Now that the Republican presidential nomination has been settled, Democratic opposition researchers are telling President Barack Obama’s campaign that Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith could well emerge as a distressing problem for the challenger. Continue reading »