"Lagniappe"
is an expression used in South Louisiana that
means "something extra". Each
year the local schools get a day off from
school. It's called Lagniappe Day.
I recently commentated my first trampoline competition. The Nissen World Cup was held in Davos, Switzerland July 11-12. The exciting competition featured a world record by Canadian Champion, Jason Burnette. He performed so many flips and twists in this routine that it’s best to watch in slow-motion to actually appreciate what he did.
Here’s all the thrills on Acrobatics Sports TV. If you have any feedback about the commentary, please let me know. I would like to improve the next time around.
This is a reprint of a story I wrote for Inside Stunts Magazine, which is now out of business.
The Risk Gene, Stunt-performers & Borderline Personality Disorders
By
Leigh Hennessy
According to Art Linkletter, kids say the darndest things. According to every terrified parent around the globe, kids do the dumbest things. How many daredevil young boys do you know that have endeavored to fly off the roof of their house in a make-shift Superman cape? Or, stubbornly rammed their banana-seat stingray bicycle into a brick wall convinced they could pierce a hole through it? We’ve all taken a whack at defying gravity or inertia at one time or another in our young lives. We were courageous and we were invulnerable. We thought: Where’s the danger in it all? And, stunt people were no different. (more…)
OK – So that was cool. We celebrated our first St. Patrick’s Day parade in New Orleans yesterday, something we heard so much about. The day was absolutely perfect – 70°, sunny, breezy, dry. Around 3 in the afternoon, the parade made its way to Louisiana Avenue where we were staked out. Revelers lined up and down the street. Music blared. There was a mix of Irish traditions, Mardi Gras traditions and made-up crazy stuff. Bag pipers and men in kilts invaded. Walkers from various social groups in New Orleans handed out flowers and kisses between slugs of beer. In addition, they gave away odds and ends like lucky beans, stickers, beads, scarves and much more. They were followed by floats common to Fat Tuesday. Besides millions of plastic beads, throws included stew ingredients like cabbages, carrots, potatoes, onions, lemons, plus moon-pies, pickles, candy, feather boas, stuffed animals, panties, garters and more odd bits. The surprises made it fun.
My “catch o’ the day” was a set of three rare, vintage glass beads from Czechoslovakia. They hit my foot and when I picked them up, I couldn’t believe my luck. Apparently, Czech glass beads were the original throws. But, in the 70’s they were replaced with cheap plastic Chinese beads to save money.
This Mardi Gras season with the Saints Superbowl win has exhausted me. As fun as it was, I’m ready to get back to work. It’s like Lent for a non-Catholic.
That said, here’s one last video from the crazy 2010 Mardi Gras season. We took our dog to the Krewe of Barkus parade which was held on the afternoon of Superbowl Sunday. I made a video featuring him while harnessing the theme of the parade and finding a funny narrative.
Headlines: “Cajun girl goes to Scotland and adores Highland Cows.”
When we travel to Scotland, it is traditional for Mark to drive past fields or farms with Highland cows to let me take photos. This trip was particularly special because of the heavy snowfall. These amazing beasts completely intrigue me.
That said, enjoy watching these Highland cows in snow in my little video I call “Highland Cows in Winter, 2010.”
Week Two of winter holiday vacation in Scotland. On Sunday, we got together with family friends/friendly family for an afternoon of sledging – or sledding, if you are American, like me.
I’ve been MIA on my blog lately. We had the craziest past few weeks and now it’s time to return to normalcy, whatever that is. I have to create “normalcy” because we finally made the official move from Los Angeles to New Orleans.
We’ve been in New Orleans several weeks considering and planning the move. Finally, we did it. We flew to L.A., tied up loose ends by reducing our obligations there significantly, drove back to New Orleans with all our worldly possessions (truck broke down twice in the Texas heat! Ugh!) and moved into our own little cottage in the Garden District.
During this time, the Louisiana Legislature passed the updated film tax incentive bills and the Governor signed them into law. With the new incentives and new home and new life, my hopes hinge on the theory that more features will be produced in Louisiana opening opportunities for my film career as a local talent in the Pelican State. By the end of the year, if this theory does not prove true, it’s OK. New Orleans is an exciting and lively town ripe with opportunity for creative individuals. Besides, the fun never ends. I feel very good about moving here.
Parkour is not a competitive sport. Instead it depends on internet videos as it’s performance venue. The parkour athletes, or traceurs, or freerunners – or whatever! – must also be innovative filmmakers of the short subject genre. They are creative and adventurous.
The style of parkour videos is evolving daily. Here’s a favorite that veers off the beaten path of the more common rock or rap ones. The artist/filmmaker is one of the WFPF’s Official Athletes, Danny Arroyo.
The title might be misleading. I’m not in the hot new Star Trek movie that just came out last week. However, I did work on an episode of the television version, Enterprise. A Star Trek enthusiast in Germany wrote a nice article about my work on Enterprise and more. I am terribly flattered and wanted to share it.
Much needed love for the state of Louisiana comes from the Hollywood film community as they travel to the state to produce movies. When Hollywood films in the state, they spend money and employ local residents. The current tax incentives are slated for “sundown,” meaning their time is nearly up. Therefore, the state legislature must reinstate them and, better yet, increase them to compete with other states with incentive programs.
Please show your love. Support Louisiana’s Film Tax Incentives by contacting Louisiana legislators and the Gov. Ask them to continue the incentives or increase them so the state can continue to gain much needed jobs and revenue.
The economic impact study completed by Economics Research Associates – commissioned by the Louisiana Economic Development Department – presents ample evidence to support the success of the film industry incentive program. These numbers clearly bolster the argument to increase our production incentive to 30% to remain competitive.
These are the facts:
1. In 2007, the year that $115 million in tax credits were paid, the economic impact to the State of the industry as a whole was $763 million.
2. Employment in Louisiana’s film industry increased at a compound annual growth rate of 22 percent from 2001-2007. This compares to a national growth rate of 1.8 percent annually. Wages have increase at an average annual rate of 8.2%, much faster than inflation.
3. In 2007, the total spend of the film industry in Louisiana supported 3,310 jobs directly and an additional 2,920 jobs indirectly. That is 6,230 jobs in Louisiana created because of the film incentive program.
