225BatonRouge.com

FestForAll rocks downtown

FestForAll, the city’s largest free outdoor festival, celebrates arts, music, food and Baton Rouge culture May 3-4.

Musicians will perform on two stages all weekend. For exact performance times visit artsbr.org.

The Pine Leaf Boys perform Sunday, May 4.

Saturday (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.)

Mr. Hinson’s File 13 (talented student string ensemble)

Rev. Rob & the Original Sinners (’60s retro rock)

Black Sound Parade (rock)

Eric Lindell (rock)

Headhunters (Afro-beat jazz)

Bayou Shimmy Middle Eastern Dance Troupe (bellydancers)

Harvey Knox (blues and R&B)

Herman Jackson Band w/ Earnest Jackson (R&B and soul)

Tyree Neal and Neal Family Band (blues and soul)

Billy Joe Shaver (Texas country)

Menwar (African Creole)

Sunday (noon to 6:30 p.m.)

Darryl and Cora Jefferson (jazz and soul)

Ray Abshire (Cajun)

Pine Leaf Boys (rockin’ Cajun)

Bluerunners (Cajun roots rock)

Susan Owens and Time Warp (blues rock)

John Gray’s Existential Audio (funk-fusion soul)

Henry Gray & the Cats (blues)

Kermit Ruffins (New Orleans jazz)

Sunday dancing

Benjy Davis Project kicked off the spring Sunday in the Park concert series in April, rocking a packed crowd that danced and enjoyed the glorious spring weather outside the Shaw Center for the Arts. The popular free outdoor concert series put on by the Arts Council and co-sponsored by 225 magazine will return in the fall with a full lineup of concerts.

The beauty-full people

Beauty enthusiasts from makeup mavens to fragrance fanatics can put their best face forward, thanks to Sephora, a unique new makeup uberstore in The Boulevard at Mall of Louisiana.

Sephora employs a novel “open-sell” philosophy. “Unlike department stores I don’t work for one particular brand,” says Emily Massa, a member of Sephora’s pro team (pictured giving a makeover to Allison Naquin). “I work for Sephora and I’m trained on all of the brands we sell, so you can be sure that the advice I’m going to give you is completely unbiased.”

The 6,000-square-foot store, the first in Louisiana, is a grown-up playground where customers are encouraged to touch and try everything from lip gloss to blush, from trend-setting lines like Bare Escentuals to classic standbys like Lancôme.

“I’m going to steer you toward products because they’re going to make you look fabulous,” Massa says. “No other reason at all.” —SARAH YOUNG

SAYWHAT?

“Why kick (troubled LSU quarterback Ryan Perrilloux) off? Why not discipline the frick out of him and put the absolute fear of God in him? That can be done but to my knowledge, it hasn’t been done. If you make his life a living hell, he can either decide to get with the program or quit. If he shapes up, both he and LSU can benefit. You have to inflict something on him for him to decide whether he’s in or out.”

Rocket, an anonymous poster on tigerdroppings.com

Eatery to open inside car dealership

Cliché waiting rooms with vending machines and stale coffee are so yesterday. The Price LeBlanc Toyota dealership on Airline Highway will house a Tropical Café inside its new 127,000-square-foot location. Considering LeBlanc’s 250 employees and an average of 500 car shoppers a week, the café expects a bustling business.

Brent LeBlanc says he copied the idea from another dealership that found success with a small eatery inside. “I had been to Tropical Café and saw that it was more than just a sandwich place,” LeBlanc says. “We’re doing this for the attraction and convenience for our customers.”

Tropical Café actually owns the space within the dealership. It’s Tropical Café’s first location to operate out of an existing business, says franchisee Cathy Carraway, who is taking lessons from CC’s baristas so she can serve lattes and cappuccinos made with Community Coffee. —MARY HELEN CRUMPLER

WINNERS

Hank Saurage

The skilled skipper

Local real estate executive Hank Saurage recently sailed to victory—literally. The president of Saurage Commercial Real Estate beat out an extensive field of experienced sailors to win the Midwinter U.S. National Championship at the St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club in Panama City, Fla.

A competitive sailing enthusiast since he was 11 years old, Saurage has competed in 16 world championship races, the Pan American Games and an Olympic campaign, but this is his first major title.

“I feel like Tiger Woods winning his first major,” he quips.

Saurage and three others earned U.S. Sunfish Class Association qualification to compete in the 39th Sunfish World Championship in 2009 at the Nassau Yacht Club in the Bahamas.

Tigerdroppings rants go live

Tigerdroppings.com, the wildly popular local Web site and discussion board, has spawned a local talk radio show.

The Rant was expected to debut at noon April 28 on ESPN Radio 1300 WIBR. John Lambremont, guitarist for We Landed on the Moon! and an admitted sports junkie, is the host.

He seizes the busiest thread of a feedback from tigerdroppings.com and talks about it live on the call-in show. “How much better for a show is it when I can get instant feedback on what I’m saying from a thousand people? I’m instantly culpable for what I say.”

Lambremont hopes the show becomes as popular as the Web site. “Tigerdroppings is getting so many hits, it really shows how rabid LSU fans are, and how bored people are at work.”

Fans can access a live feed of the show through tigerdroppings.com. The Rant airs Monday through Friday from noon to 2 p.m. —JEFF ROEDEL