“Is everybody bowling now?”

That’s all the e-mail said when my editor sent me the press release about Hornets’ forward Peja Stojakovic’s charity bowling event.

Well, yes and no. While I’ve highlighted Julian Wright’s bowling acumen and Chris Paul is a member of the United States Bowling Congress, Peja told me he’s not much of a bowler. The event, taking place March 21st at the All Star Lanes in Kenner, is more of a continuation of Peja’s charity work that he started in Sacremento. After talking with people here, Peja decided that bowling way to raise money for his children’s foundation.

All proceeds will go toward Peja’s “Courts for Kids” charity which refurbishes basketball courts in the New Orleans area. Tickets are on sale for $35 with $100 VIP tickets available. Lane sponsorships start at $1,500 for one lane and $2,500 for two and includes “bowling for four, one celebrity bowler, four bowling shirts, dinner and a special gift bag.”

Hornets’ players, the Honeybees dancers, “other local celebrities” and a live DJ will be in attendance. If you’re interested in bowling for a good cause, or just seeing Peja’s crazy bowling technique — which I’ve been assured is high comedy — call 504-208-2274 or visit Peja’s Web site.

• Wright, despite playing for only two years, is quite adept at the sport
• He also bowls at a frenetic pace, as noted by his use two lanes per game
• His shoes — sporting his alma mater’s (Kansas) colors — look strikingly the rentals at AMF All-Star lanes in Kenner.

Turns out that this is a regular exercise for Wright on off days. He says his average is I around 215 and his highest ever score was 278. Yesterday he bowled seven games for an average of 203 and a high of 246. Of course, that doesn’t include his low game of 146, when he played left-handed.

Also playing with Wright and Armstrong yesterday was Hornets ball boy Chase Forestier, who’s been bowling since he was 8 years old. This was the first time Forestier has played with Wright and he said he was surprised at how refined the basketball player’s game was.

“I expected him to look a little more awkward being so tall,” he said. “How tall are you, Julian? 6-8?”

“6-8 and a half,” Julian growled back jokingly.

Check out the pictures and more about Wright’s day bowling, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR), a longtime independent watchdog group, has released an excellent analysis of the just-completed special legislative session on ethics reform. Here it is.

The special legislative session that adjourned on Tuesday yielded an impressive set of reforms to the state’s ethics, campaign finance and other laws. Several long-resisted changes were enacted to disclose public officials’ personal financial dealings, forbid state officials from personally profiting through state contracts, eliminate many of the freebies officials have traditionally enjoyed, require more reporting on lobbyist-official interaction, and make state budget information more accessible to the public. Unfortunately, both the Legislature and administration also both expressed a clear and unashamed commitment to maintain certain protections and exceptions that PAR has long held should be eliminated. Read the rest of this entry »

At first glance, nothing seems amiss in this photo. Wizards forward Antawn Jamison with 20 kids he bought tickets for through his “A Better Tomorrow” foundation. Many players all over the league buy tickets to home games for kids.

But take a closer look at the background and see that those are the lower-bowl seats inside the Hornets Arena. This photo was taken at Monday night’s Hornets-Wizards game at the Hive. Turns out that Jamison, though he played his high school ball in North Carolina, was born in Shreveport, La. Read the rest of this entry »

Has anyone else noticed the similarities in the two characters Morgan Freeman portrays in his most recent DVD releases, Feast of Love and Gone Baby Gone? These two films could not be more different in all aspects.

Feast of Love, directed by Robert Benton, is about eight couples who grapple with the different levels of love. Morgan Freeman plays Harry, a professor who has taken a leave from the University to deal with the grief of losing his son to a drug overdose. Gone Baby Gone is the tale of a Boston community torn apart by a missing child. In this film, directed by Ben Affleck and starring little brother Casey, Freeman plays a police officer who heads a special unit which deals with missing children. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s my opening disclaimer: I’m not a fan of talk radio, or talk television and it doesn’t matter to me whose side the talking head, cheerleader is on — I don’t listen to Limbaugh and I didn’t tune into Al Franken when his show was available to local listeners. That said, I do occasionally check out one of these shows to see if I’m actually missing something.

Friday night, I flipped the channel to Glenn Beck and within minutes, he convinced me I’m safe in my ignorance.

Joining Beck in the studio was Jonah Goldberg, author of the book Liberal Fascism. Beck and Goldberg cozied up to each other and spent the first five minutes or so agreeing that liberals are the true fascists. But Goldberg wouldn’t go so low as to call them Nazis; he just compared the two as often as he could.

One comparison Goldberg brought out as an example of Hillary Clinton’s fascism was how she wanted to put commonsense baby videos — how to burp a baby, how to make a baby comfortable etc…— in doctors’ offices, hospitals and in the department of motor vehicles. All right, I’ve spent some time at the DMV and baby videos can’t make it any better, but how is airing these videos in medical offices a bad thing? It can’t be any worse than the soap operas or Jerry Springer. Read the rest of this entry »

by Sam Winston

The Washington Post profiles Katrina Evacuees and their influence on the upcoming Texas Primary.

No one knows how many evacuees have registered to vote in Texas or how many will show up at the state’s odd mix of primary and caucuses next week, but in interviews across this sprawling city almost everyone indicated an enormous desire to participate — adding an unknown and potentially pivotal element in a race that polls show is deadlocked between Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.). Read the rest of this entry »

I know in light of all the more serious issues surrounding us here in New Orleans, it seems rather petty to talk about TV and movies and even more petty to yammer on about awards shows. However, even more in light of all the serious issues here, it seems very important for us all to escape, every once in a while, to a far, far away land sometimes referred to as LA-LA Land.

In L.A., the Oscars last night were rather unsurprising. Of course, as always there were a few upsets. I’m sorry but I might have been the only person in the present film society that was secretly hoping for a Hal Holbrook win. It’s not that I do not think that Javier Bardem is more than deserving, but it is Hal and he was there with Dixie Carter of Designing Women and his character was so sweet and grandfatherly in Into the Wild. In fact, of all the Best Leading Actor nominees, he and George Clooney were the only two that did not portray lonely, deranged and psychopathic characters. Hal’s character was just lonely and I believe that loneliness deserved an Oscar! Read the rest of this entry »

Apparently, nobody told the Wizards’ Gilbert Arenas that Chris Paul holds the world record for most half-court shots made in a minute. This should serve as a permanent reminder.

This weekend the South Coast Clay All Stars, a local alliance of ceramic artists in New Orleans and the Gulf South region, will host NOLA Fired Up!! — a three-day conference which will include lectures and demonstrations by nationally known ceramic artists, as well as educational and networking opportunities for professional artists and students. Guest artists include Margaret Bohls, Joe Bova, Cynthia Bringle, MaPo Kinnord Peyton and Lana Wilson. Discussion topics include sessions on the artist, the community and the environmental impact of artists in the studio, as well as more practical topics such as the how to obtain insurance, a discussion that will be led by the Craft Emergency Relief Fund. Read the rest of this entry »