TheVacancy.Net Travelogue

from Office of Public Information at Southeastern Louisiana University:



HAMMOND - Southeastern Louisiana University's visual arts program has been accredited for the maximum five years by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).


The announcement means that every degree program at Southeastern required or recommended by the State Board of Regents to achieve national discipline-specific accreditation has been reached said Tammy Bourg, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs.


NASAD accreditation means that the program meets nationally established curricular standards and guidelines for degree programs. The association is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the agency responsible for accreditation of all art and design curricula.Only about 280 programs out of 1,600 in the nation are accredited institutional members of the association.


"In practical terms, accreditation is a national stamp of approval by a non-governmental agency that our art program ascribes to and meets or exceeds a determined set of nationally-established criteria for the programs we offer," said Bourg.


Interim Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Studies Bryan DePoy said the accreditation followed a comprehensive self-study and site visit by an independent team of peer examiners. The process confirms that the program meets its educational objectives and academic standards.


He said Southeastern's Department of Visual Arts has more than 450 students majoring in its 10 program concentrations. The department, headed by Dennis Sipiorski offers degrees in art education, history, ceramics, digital art, digital design, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture.


For more information on the Department of Visual Arts, call 985-549-2193.

For the entire 8 months leading up to our wedding, I laughed at the idea of saving the top of my wedding cake and eating year-old flour and fondant. I barely eat FRESH cake as it is, let alone AGED wedding cake. Gross. I had my cake [and ate it, too!] on the wedding night, and the week after...and the week after that. Time came and went, and now our first anniversary has also just passed. We still revel in the wonderful job Ambrosia Bakery did. We both still think the idea of year-old cake is gross.



To my surprise, my mother saved the top of my cake [God bless her]. I was stunned--and disgusted all over again at the thought of eggs that have been cracked, beaten, and baked 365 days ago (366 days, in 2008 there was a built-in preservation measure: Leap Year Day)
...but I was a little curious. She lovingly wrapped my cake in Saran wrap--as she would have were it a Barbie I wanted for Christmas--and placed it neatly into an Ambrosia Bakery box. She tucked it away in her freezer, just in case we wanted to celebrate with our year-old cake. She even moved it from one freezer to another freezer hooked up to their generator during Gustav. She labored in saving it even though she knew I thought the idea was gross.



I humbly picked it up from her freezer a few days after our first anniversary. A small wedge of the top was missing....she confessed, she tasted it. Well, I could certainly consider her deserving of a sliver of Aged Wedding Cake after all the effort she put in saving it. Once home, I let it thaw in the fridge and after dinner that night, I cut an edge of year-old eggs. I served myself a sliver of sugar. Four deep Red layers of Velvet rested patiently on my plate. In the moment of truth, I forked off a corner and smeared the red richness over my tongue.



It was glorious.



Year-old wedding cake is fabulous. If anything, the cake was a little dry, but the icing and fondant and every delicate layer was just as sweet and indulgent as the night I said I Do.



I'm sure the fact that I purchased a high-quality wedding cake from the start had a lot to do with how well it preserved...but I think having a high-quality Mom is really where all the richness came from. The aged sweetness is definitely due to a mother's touch. Thanks mom.

I love Halloween! As a Jack of the Arts, my favorite thing about Halloween is creating the most memorable, innovative, and hilarious costume at any given event. I've thought a lot about what makes a costume successful (i.e.: unique, funny, and creative), and I think I've settled on a few key points.




1. The costume pokes fun at a current event or item of pop culture.


Take some top news story headline, whether it be in sports or entertainment or politics and really, really exaggerate it. Use popular or well-known items because there is no need for an explanation, and long explanations are the enemy of humor . For example, in 2005, during Britney's scandalous marriage/pregnancy to/by a taken man, my husband and I went as Britney Spears and Kevin Federline. We did not buy anything [except a pregnant belly] from Costumes 'R' Us; we went to thrift stores and dollar stores.The result?





2. The costume is not store-bought, it's assembled and pieced together with a creative touch.


However, some elements of the costume may be ready-made. We put black mascara over Kevin's facial hair (because it's naturally red) to further liken the character. It also would not have been successful had we chosen different outfits--we made sure to wear outfits that the public was familiar with. Kevin is always seen in a wife beater, boxers, and fedora. Britney's much-publicized appearance to the Willy Wonka movie premier was the perfect outfit because it was her first major public appearnce showing off her preganancy.


3. If the costume IS store bought, it puts a new spin on an old idea or character.


Some costumes are slightly unsuccessful because there is too much focus on being sexy. There is nothing sexy about a pregnant pop star who smokes and acts like a general ass. The focus should be becoming the character...owning the character yet still being your own person. You have to choose to be sexy or funny and stick with it. Sexy costumes can be funny, but it's much harder to make truly funny costumes sexy (other than the obvious point that a good sense of humor in itself is sexy). There are reasons why you can to put your own spin on the same ol' same 'ol...


...because not everyone does.



4. The costume could be slightly offensive to those whom it pokes fun.



The key here is SLIGHTLY offensive! The Britney and Kevin costumes basically exaggerate their situation. Britney got pregnant by a man who already had two kids with another [pregnant] woman and she looked trashy in the process. My husband implied that Kevin looked like trash--all the time--by wearing his stupid boxers out of his pants and a wife beater tucked into his boxers. It would not haven been funny had it been racist or a personal attack on Britney, Kevin, mixed-race children, or people of low socioeconomic status.


5. Carry a prop. Accessories make it YOURS.

Britney has a Super Grande Starbucks cup filled with expanding foam for the iced coffee, white tissue paper balled up for the whipped cream, and brown hot glue for the chocolate syrup on top. She is also seen smoking. Kevin had a tattoo and two kids.

After feeling completely lost every day I sit down with Katie Couric and her perfectly shiny coif, she gives me the spill about the fighting in the Middle East, that no miracles occurred and we are STILL over there, and this and that and blah blah and Muslims and blah and Islam and yadda yadda...I eventually just glaze over.



I hated feeling like a gutless pastry, so I e-mailed a professor in the History Department at Southeastern Louisiana University and asked for a recommendation on an easy-to-read book about the Middle East. They recommended From Beirut to Jersusalem, by Thomas L. Friedman. It chronicles his days as a reporter in the Middle East. From what I gathered, it's basically a diary.



A month later I visited the library and investigated this potential read. The librarian told me it was on the uppermost level of the library, serving as an anchor on their FEMA tarp. I decided I'd look for a less dense book. A few Dewey Decimals down from Friedman's book was Understanding The Contemporary Middle East, edited by Deborah J. Gerner. This book is a collaboration of many scholars from many fields of study and it touches on Religion, Geography, History, Culture, and many other topics. It's less than 400 pages (Font: Times Regular typeface, approx. 10 pt with 11 or 12 leading).



Of course, every time I hop on a treadmill at the gym with this book in tow, the NASCAR fans cut me the stink eye. I must look like a terrorist studying up on terrorism. Me and my blonde-haired, green-eyed, techno-loving self. Terrorist. Ha. People scoot over a few seats or move to the next treadmill if they see me carrying the book, but that's precisely what I am trying to keep myself form becoming: an uninformed yuppy gobbling up every dramatized thing Anderson Cooper says about the Middle East.



Really...what's the big stink over there (and I don't mean the camels)? Why does everyone hate one another? And what business is it of ours? First thing the book states is the lump term "Middle East," or referring to all the Arabs, people practicing Islam, and North African countries as a single unit, is a misnomer. The second thing it goes on to say is that it's not all sand storms and semi-automatics over there. They have beautiful cities and the "Fertile Crescent," a very green area of the region suitable for crops. Not all of the countries produce oil. Although about 80% of Arabs are Muslim, only about 20% of Muslims are Arabs.



So if you're interested in learning more outside of the contiguous 48, and your own preconceptions, I recommend this book. Within the first few chapters, it clarifies that this region has more history than any other region on Earth: meaning there has been a lot of fighting, rulers, power struggles, and resentment. Humans began here. As an outside observer, and a member of a relatively new civilization, I couldn't ever understand the complexity of the issues there...but I'd like a little perspective.

Labels: arab, book review, islam, louisiana, middle east, southeastern