A long message but it helps me to take my mind off my worries... Many thanks to everyone of you for your thoughts and prayers. We really need all that we can get.
Elizabeth, you made a really good suggestion about sharing the extra costume stashes. Please tell Stephen I really like his idea. My fifth son is going to the University of Mississippi (USM) at Hattiesburg, Mississippi next year. He wants to minor in acting. He started working in a Halloween costume shop last week to earn money to go to this college for the Fall 2006. USM has a really nice new performing arts building. We heard tonight on all the cable news networks that USM took a very hard hit from the hurricane. They also have a home economics education degree, and probably they would like extra stash too. We don't know the extent of the damage at USM. Several high schools on the Gulf Coast probably lost their wardrobes in the drama departments. Drama has really taken off on the Mississippi Gulf Coast because the casinos were bringing in the touring Broadway shows. The casinos promised that they are rebuilding. The Grand Casino was the first to go on TV and say that they were rebuilding in their casinos in Biloxi, Gulfport, and New Orleans. To bring this into a costuming topic... I have seen over the past 10 years some really nice paying costuming jobs at the Coast casinos advertised. A reporter on the news tonight asked why would anyone want to live in a place that gets so many hurricanes. <<<GRRRRR>> Maybe he should go to NOAA's website and see what state's receive the most hurricanes! Then move everyone out of Florida and North/South Carolina too! They have a lot of hurricanes! Albert Cat, get to packing... I am moving you! I will show you all why the Gulf Coast is a great place to live.... I am just doing this for h-costume members. Below are the passwords to my online Library. If you have trouble with the passwords, please don't write me. I have to go back to worrying after this message. The passwords' security is very picky. Hopefully things around here will improve by Friday or Saturday and I will have the passwords changed for the month and that will end the free access. You can login to the Library at www.costumegallery.com/research.htm or www.costumelibrary.com . Just click on Subscriber Login button. Library's passwords Login: cg2003 Password: lilyoct5 Make sure to use as lower case letters, no space before, in-between, or behind the login characters. I got my love for costumes as a child going to the Biloxi Beach and watching the Mardi Gras (MG) parades. As a teenager, I started going to New Orleans to see and photograph the costumes in their MG parades. When you see on the news the Casinos... across the street was a Mardi Gras Costume and History Museum. It was across the street from the Beau Rivage and the Hard Rock Casino (the one with the big red guitar). On the news footage, where the museum was now looks vacant. In 1999, we did a videotaping of the museum costume collection to put on my website. Besides the MG court costumes, the museum had a nice section for kids to put on MG court costumes. I don't think they were the kids' costumes that were actually used at MG court. On our free access site of The Gallery, www.onlinecostumeball.com you will see some of my kids in those costumes. I think they are in the 1999 online Ball. I am afraid the Biloxi museum lost all their costumes. I also did the videotaping at the Mardi Gras History Museum in Mobile. Now, we just need to purchase the software to put the videos online. Susan, my asst. lives in Mobile On one of my trips home to the Coast, Susan and I went to the Mardi Gras Museum in New Orleans' (N.O.) French Quarter for a photoshoot of their costume collection. We have been for years wanting to do a history of MG costumes together. Last MG/carnival season, I put the photos from the New Orleans' shoot online... now you need the Library passwords. These photos are located at http://www.costumegallery.com/Library/MardiGras/NO/2003/ . Take a good long look at the costumes... if the French Quarter in N.O. gets any more water in the next few days, these costumes may be under water. This museum is located in the French Quarter near Bourbon Street. BTW, make sure to click on the small images for the enlargements of the costumes. During my visit to the Coast in last month, Susan and I had planned to go back to N.O. and Mobile for more photoshoots of the MG costumes. Because a tropical storm, and another hurricane was coming in behind it on our planned days to do the photoshoots, we didn't go. Instead my sister and I went to Pass Christian and did a photoshoot of the Antebellum homes on the beach. I jumped out of the van and took the photos between the tropical storm's feeder bands. Some of these home photos are in our Library at: http://www.costumegallery.com/Library/homes/PassChristian/page1.htm . HINT: If using the browser IE to look at the extra-large photo, place your cursor on the lower right of the image page. you will see a little box with arrows. Click on it for a nice extra-large photo. I have about four or five more photo packs of these homes to put online. Most of these houses date from the Victorian era. The hurricane news shows haven't been talking much about the town of Pass Christian because it was so heavily destroyed by this week's hurricane. The press is saying that most of these homes are no longer exist. The press has not been allowed into this area of the Coast because there will probably be a high body count from this coastal town. This area of the Coast took the direct hit of the hurricane's eye wall of the Monday. Some of these homes also took a direct hit from Hurricane Camille in 1969 and survived. You might see a newer home here or there on my website. Those homes replaced the empty lots from where the homes stood and Camille ate. We took a photo of almost every home on the Pass Christian scenic drive... I think it was seven or eight rolls of film. By the time we got to the business district of Pass Christian, the street's tropical storms water was up to my knees. (I am a die-hard reporter!) These are probably the last photographs taken as a collection of these historic homes. Once the town clears out the debris a little, I am going to burn CD copies of the photos and send them their historical society. The home owners might like current photos of their homes for insurance purposes. BTW, Pass Christian hosted one of my favorite MG parades... very family friendly. My sister who has M.S. went on this shoot with me. We had the best time, we have had in years. We teased one another that this house or that was mine or hers and that the other one couldn't come visit us. Then we named family members who would be our servants. During this same visit to the Coast, my future daughter-in-law and I did a photoshoot of the statues at the Old Biloxi Cemetery... it was in my mom's backyard. She is a professional photographer. I have been taking these types statue photos for years. I have about 20 packs of the statue photos to get online. All these photoshoots over the years are for our series "Costume Heaven." You can see the beginning of that series at: http://www.costumegallery.com/cemetery/ladies1.htm . This is the first page called "Ladies of the Lawn." Again, click on the small statue photo for an enlargement. You are probably wondering why I put photos of old homes and cemetery art on a costume website. It seems to be a common interest among some costumers. We like old houses and fancy art on graves. Off to sleep for the first time since Saturday! Penny E. Ladnier Owner, The Costume Gallery, www.costumegallery.com Costume Classroom, www.costumeclassroom.com Costume Research Library, www.costumelibrary.com _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
