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More than meets the eye

As a lead designer of the Shaw Center for the Arts, architect Warren Schwartz has always been preoccupied with form and function, not just in the buildings he designs, but also in his extensive robot collection. That’s right, robots, but think more along the lines of Japanese animation than Rosie from The Jetsons.

The latest exhibit to hit the LSU Museum of Art, “Invasion: Japanese Robots from the Collection of Warren Schwartz,” showcases more than 200 toy robots produced from 1972-1982, the peak of their popularity. And 200 is just about one tenth of his collection. Toy robots, which were in mass production in the 1970s, might seem an odd choice for a museum that houses work by Caroline Durieux and 18th Century furniture, but curator Natalie Mault says the Pop Art Movement of the 1950s blurs the lines between art and popular culture.

“A few years ago there was an exhibition at the Guggenheim on motorcycles,” Mault says. “People were in an uproar, questioning what motorcycles had to do with art, but it’s more about the design than function.”

Robots from Schwartz’s collection are on display at the museum April 13 through Oct. 7, coinciding with the July release of the Transformers movie. Autobots, transform and roll out! lsumoa.com

—SARAH YOUNG

A new watchdog in town

With a year under its belt, FamilyWatchdog.us and founder Steve Roddel have put a new, national sex offender database in the hands of protective parents everywhere. Users can enter an address into the site, and a map of your neighborhood will pinpoint where registered offenders live and work, in addition to pictures, conviction details and past criminal history of the offenders. The site gathers information from public records and databases online, such as the State Sex Offender and Child Predator Registry, available from the Louisiana State Police or the Sex Offender Registry from the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office.

—AMANDA JOHNSON

T-Rex: A pocket rocket on wheels

What goes zero to 60 in under four seconds? Pulls two G’s in a turn? Tops out at 135 mph? And sits only four inches off the ground? A T-Rex. Not the dinosaur, the car. Well, maybe it’s a motorcycle. Maybe it’s both.

Mark Crochet’s T-Rex, the only one in the state, sits in his driveway next to his Corvette, Mustang and an Olds 442 convertible, but the T-Rex is by far the fastest. Built by the Campagna Corporation in Quebec, Canada, the T-Rex is a two-seat reverse three-wheeler with two wheels up front and a 14-inch-wide tire in the back. Between the bucket seats and the fat boy back tire sits a Kawasaki 1100cc engine that cranks out 152 horsepower.

Mark’s T-Rex will beat his Corvette to 60 mph by at least a second. The Corvette will pull one G in a turn; the T-Rex pulls twice that.

The company teaches customers how to drive the T-Rex. “You could get in trouble with it if they just handed you the keys because it’s such a high-performance vehicle,” Mark says.

And it’s street legal. go-t-rex.com

—CHUCK HUSTMYRE

Blanco bloggin’

The first thing you hear is “The Saints comin’ back—Tom Benson where you at?” It’s the dirty south rap of BabyBoy’s “The Way We Live (Saints remix),” and it’s blaring from Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s official MySpace profile. According to Blanco press secretary Marie Centanni, the governor does not maintain the site personally, but does provide fresh blogs and podcasts for her staff to post. A slideshow even depicts Blanco meeting Saints players and appearing on ESPN2’s Cold Pizza.

“She’s always looking to take advantage of new technology,” Centanni says. “The messages received through MySpace are processed through constituent services just like any other.” At press time, Blanco had 273 friends on her list that includes Deuce McAllister, the Lafayette Fire Department and Tim McGraw. Currently, Rep. Bobby Jindal is the only gubernatorial challenger on MySpace. myspace.com/governorblanco.

—JEFF ROEDEL