I was driving to visit with friends to watch the Saint play the Buccaneers Sunday, when I saw two people cleaning graffiti from a monument on Jefferson Davis Parkway. I spun my little blue Angel Honda around to tell them thank you.
I met Pierre McGraw, the President of the Monumental Task Force, see link below. He and Linda were cleaning the "New World Order" graffiti stained in neon orange from the side of the monument base. The friend that I was going to visit has an aversion to these "vandals." Randy, the graffiti averse former student of mine, wants to tackle these "villains" and become the Monument Police. He warns me that I should keep bail money handy.
When I arrived at his beautifully renovated Gallery House in the Bi-Water, I happily told him that there was a team of volunteers whose task was to clean the hideousness from our city!
Thank you, thank you volunteers!!!

Please hold the hands of those so eager to write there sad messages upon the "subway walls and tenement  halls." Simon and Garfunkel lyrics to" The Sounds of Silence"

http://www.monumentaltask.org/about.html

Docent training at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA)  is a Herculean task. I am amazed as I sit with about 50 people all but 12 of whom have been touring groups through the museum for years. The assembled group’s experience, wisdom, and enthusiasm is contagious!

We sit in front of this very large painting Hercules Resisting the Blandishments of Fame by  Antonio Zanchi, and look for ways to introduce the audience to this masterful scene.

I am hoping to learn some of what they have to share in the next year as I train with the museum staff.

I learn that there will be a high tea experienced coupled with a presentation by author Sena Jeter Naslund as she discusses her latest book, The Fountain of St. James .  This portrait of Marie Antoinette  by  Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, a survivor of the French Revolution, hangs in the halls of NOMA.

Reading the book is a back and forth trip from Louiville to Paris and a very interesting read. I look forward to meeting the author this Saturday at NOMA

For more information and to make a reservation for the tea, please contact Sheila Cork, NOMA librarian, at 504-658-4117 or scork@noma.org

http://noma.org/events/detail/656/A-Special-Afternoon-With-Author-Sena-Jeter-Naslund