Greetings and Salutations! Welcome to my first blog.
Can't believe it's already November! This year is flying by.
I decided to start this blog to chronicle my personal adventures...
Tonya and I decided to get married this year. We were wed on September 5th in Kinder, Louisiana and then went on a week-long adventure in the Ozark mountains. We explored Civil War caves and natural bridges and went to some shows in Branson. Had a fantastic time.
Here's a pic of Tonya and I off the beaten path in the backwoods of Arkansas. We were exploring some of the stomping grounds of the notorious outlaw Belle Starr and the Younger gang. They were known to hide out in this area near a natural bridge after some of their robberies. Beautiful landscape.
Below is a picture of Belle... packing two pistols.
We are living in Lake Charles, Louisiana... the pearl of the Gulf Coast... the place where pirate Jean Lafitte would hide from various governments while being pursued in the Gulf of Mexico. Lake Charles is a charming place with great Cajun food, unique culture, beautiful art and delightful music of all genres.
The lake is fed from the Gulf and is brackish, meaning it's a mix of salt water and fresh water. This also means you can find a mixture of water creatures like Alligators, Bull Sharks and dolphins. In fact, there is an elusive pink dolphin, nicknamed Rosey, sometimes spotted in the lake.
Here's a pic of Rosey that someone captured. She is a pink albino bottlenose dolphin. They are rare but a handful have been discovered in the Gulf area.
Getting back to the story of Jean Lafitte using Lake Charles as his hiding place... the city is infused with legends and lore of pirates, treasure and adventure. Our beautiful bridge that crosses the lake is lined with crossed pirate pistols, we
have a High School with a buccaneer as its' mascot, our old ice hockey team was called the "Ice Pirates," there's the legendary Contraband Bayou that snakes its' way throughout the city where it be told that Lafitte buried lots of his loot for safe keeping... and never returned to claim it!
We have the annual festival called "Contraband Days" which is a pirate-themed music, food and arts fest and there's the Lake Charles Film & Music Festival that incorporates a pirate skull into its' logo and has a pirate head trophy called a "Scallywag" that it gives out to winning films.
Enough on all that for now... I just wanted to give a glimpse at the cool city we call our home.
MOVIES
Anybody that knows me knows that I love movies. Some people play golf, some people love sports, but for me... I love going to the movies, watching DVDs, attending movie conventions and even making movies.
The movie that I am most looking forward to this year is
Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I've got to get my tickets this month before they sell out. It premieres on December 17th! I haven't been this excited about a movie since the return of Indiana Jones in 2008. It's probably the biggest franchise in the history of movies. I was let down by the last 3 Star Wars films, in fact I try to overlook them and pretend they don't exist. I'm hoping JJ Abrams and Disney gets it right this time. From the looks of the trailers and what I hear on interviews it looks like he's taken it in the right direction. Time will tell. I plan on being there with my tub of popcorn and giant coke to take it all in.
The best film I've seen this month is
Bone Tomahawk. It's a dark, gruesome western starring Kurt Russel about a small posse who set out into the mountains to rescue some kidnapped townsfolk from a primitive, cannibalistic Indian clan. It's very gory, explicit and intense. Well written and great characters. I loved it.
That's all I have for my first blog... hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!
Till next time... May God bless you all.
- Patrick Shawn Bennett
