Tragic Boating Accident

I know this town is happy to see the movie people, but I didn’t realize we were this happy:

Updated: Historic Ledbetter Heights house destroyed

A dispute between city leaders and historians over a former bordello in Ledbetter Heights may be moot — or may heat up even more — after the house was destroyed early today in the making of a TV show.

The blue frame house with yellow trim at Douglas and View streets was but a pile of rubble just before 9 a.m., with wisps of smoke rising from it as a crew on a crane filmed the frame structure that once was a cute cottage easily visible to motorists driving north of Common Street on the northwest side of downtown.

The house was built in 1890, was part of a historic district and was the best preserved of the city’s infamous turn-of-the-last-century bordellos. Pictures and more at the link.

Burning up the city’s historic district in exchange for an HBO miniseries … well, the decision making is reminiscent of this property’s former use, eh?

They are making a movie in downtown Shreveport this morning, and one of the streets I use to get to work was closed off. I looked down the street to see if I could see Carmen Electra (she’s in the movie) and … that was a mistake. They have some kind of PortaSuperNova2000UltraExtreme lights on the set, and they were turned on and facing my way.

An hour later, I am still seeing spots.

And I didn’t see Carmen Electra.

So I was in Dallas last weekend, right? Guess who else was in Dallas? Most of the crew from Mystery Science Theater 3000, that’s who. Did I know about it? Nope. Sigh. I would SO have been there. (and and and next year I am like so totally going to Burning Man, and and and…)

One of my friends, who is almost as nice of a guy as I am, is an inveterate camper. He camps mostly in Arkansas, which is a place that is beautiful and still inexpensive because it is largely undiscovered by the masses horrible and full of deadly radioactive zombies so you never want to go there. Anyway, for years he’s been looking in The Natural State for a rural camphouse to buy, and now he thinks he’s found it. It’s near the top of a mountain in the Buffalo River area, surrounded by national forest land, and includes a multi-story home and 20 acres of mountaintop. He wants me to go in halfsies with him.

It’s so cheap that I’m sort of tempted… but the location is about a 5 hour drive from here because of all the slow winding mountain roads you have to travel to get there. If I had a helicopter, maybe it would be worth doing, but on a weekend where I don’t take Friday off, it would be about noon on Saturday before we could get there and then we would have to leave at about noon on Sunday to get home in time to get ready for the week ahead. 24 hours is hardly enough leisure time to justify even the relatively small expense.

Sigh. Where is my rocket car, dammit! I would even settle for I-49 north, but that’s probably not going to happen in my lifetime either.

(I have a friend who used to own a helicopter, and he and his wife used it instead of a car for some of their shorter trips. Of course, a little choppah has no bathroom, so when his wife needed to use the restroom, he would just set the thing down in some farmer’s field and she would run behind some bushes. Even a helicopter has its drawbacks.)

Recently in the federal criminal prosecution of a Louisiana lawyer accused of stealing $30 million from his law firm, the lawyer filed a motion asking that the U.S. Attorney’s office be recused because of various alleged misdeeds.

The U.S. Attorney’s office has vehemently denied wrongdoing. See the story here. Read the (.pdf) linked documents.

Hmmmm.

Anybody want to set a Google news alert for a W pardon of EWE? If I were a betting man…

thwack.

Over the weekend, I picked up one of these:

See, I have all these big green metal boxes full of … Beanie Babies, and I can never freaking remember which box holds my Happy Fun Fuzzy Pink Babies or my Cuddly Cute Candylicious Red Babies. There is nothing worse than moving three or four hundred pounds of Beanies only to discover that I guessed wrong and got the box with the Pink Wubbums and not the Red Snookums I was looking for.

Also, the Container Store sells these amazing wire shelving units by Metro that assemble as easily as Lego but hold up to 800 pounds per shelf. They are expensive, but if you actually need to hold 800 pounds per shelf, they work exceptionally well.

So I’m telling my friends about my wicked cool shelves and my bitchin’ new label maker and they threatened to revoke my man card!

Peeps, I’ve got a label maker, I can print my OWN man card now.

Vertigo! No way, no how, am I doing this (watch all the way through; it just gets crazier). El Chorro in Spain:

which, at this rate, may be sooner than later. We all went to Dallas this weekend for some good yuppie fun (eating, shopping, ice skating) and supported the Fine Italian Leather Goods economy. There was a gun show, but I didn’t go (the horror, the horror…). Got back last night about 9 p.m., and the kids were just a little unhappy to wake up at 6 a.m. today for school after sleeping until 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. We are all in need of a vacation from vacation.

Observations: Downtown Dallas is really having a resurgence. The live / work spaces there are growing left and right. We were in the Harwood district (at the Rolex building) of uptown and literally everything you can see is under construction. (Sorry for the quality; these are cameraphone pics.)

I don’t know what it would be like to live in an urban downtown because I’ve lived in the suburbs my entire life. Maybe if I had a cabin in the woods to spend the weekends? On the other hand, your weekday commute would mostly involve elevators, so that has an upside.

Dallas is a great car-spotting town. Bentley Motors is in no danger of going out of business. I saw 8 variants of the Continental this weekend, including an orange Flying Spur (must be a custom color) and a beautiful Granite grey Continental GT Speed edition. There were two Continental GTs parked nose to tail at the Galleria. Also, Dallasites are fond of the C6 Z06 Corvette; I saw at least one of every color. The AMG division of Mercedes and the M division of BMW are well-represented; there was an S65 AMG Merc outside the Rolex building; from their website:

Net power: 604 hp @ 4,800 - 5,100 rpm.
Net torque: 738 lb-ft @ 2,000 - 4,000 rpm.

Mmm, baby. $194,825…

On the opposite end of the scale, I saw a red smart fortwo (all lower case) downtown; they are awfully small in an ocean of Escalades. A smart makes a Miata look like a reasonably large car. Also, Car and Driver only got 32 m.p.g. out of their test car, and a big fuel economy number would seem to be one of the main points of these things; a much larger Corolla should do at least 32 m.p.g., not to mention something like a Prius at over 40 m.p.g. They do attract a lot of attention, though, if that’s what you’re after.

Anyway, we’re all recuperating here from our weekend. The kids did surprisingly well and now I’m thinking about a long road trip this summer. Colorado?

“Huge Love Luger Is Attainable!”

Whoa, is that the rare .45 ACP Love Luger? Count me in!

Edit: Wow, stop press… I was reading that link and it says, in part:

It is reported that there is a .45 cal Luger in the Robert W. Norton Gallery in Shreveport, Louisiana.

I haven’t been inside the museum in a couple of decades, but we often go to the extensive grounds to take pictures and just walk around. I can certainly go check it out within the next couple of weeks. Cool!