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UP UP and AWAY

Vividly-colored hot air balloons drifting peacefully on the warm summer breeze will again enthrall Baton Rougeans on Aug. 8-10.

The Pennington Balloon Championships is among the top hot air balloon events nationally, even though Baton Rouge is home to only about 10 hot air balloon pilots.

They’re “a dying breed,” laments John Good, a dental technician and local pilot.

Balloon gear and fuel costs have tripled in recent years, with a new balloon, basket and accessories now costing $26,000 to $30,000, says George Richard, executive director of the Louisiana Ballooning Foundation. And the cost of a one-hour joy ride is no cheap outing, averaging $500.

Still, the three-day festival, now in its sixth year, is expected to draw 60 balloons and more than 90,000 spectators.

In fact, Baton Rouge has established itself as a premiere venue for the sport, rated as one of the top five balloon festivals in the nation along with lofty destination cities Albuquerque, N.M., and Natchez, Miss.

“A lot of people come out because it’s a free community activity. They don’t have to worry about paying for parking or ‘will I have enough money to get my kid’s face painted,’” Richard says.

Headquarters are in the fields at Perkins Road and Kenilworth Parkway behind the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. There’s a children’s village with pony rides and face painting, an entertainment stage with live music, and aerial demonstrations from U.S. Army parachuting team The Black Daggers. Races start at 6:30 a.m. all three days. laballooning.com. –MATT SIGUR

WHAT: 60 hot air balloon teams, children’s attractions, concessions

WHEN: Aug. 8-10

WHERE: Perkins Road and Kenilworth Parkway

ADMISSION AND PARKING: Free

Take a shower

Louisiana House Speaker Jim Tucker and key committee chair state Rep. Hunter Greene, for misleading rookie lawmakers in the House to vote for the ill-advised pay raise for state lawmakers. Many inexperienced lawmakers who looked to them for leadership found themselves crucified by constituents, and in some cases, facing recall petitions. Wow, that’s real leadership.

U.S. Sen. David Vitter suggested his campaign donors pick up the legal tab for his defense in the D.C. Madam case. When the scandal broke, Vitter insisted it had been years since he’d visited a prostitute and that it had nothing to do with his Senate campaign. If that’s the case, then he, not his political supporters, should pay his lawyers.

To Mayor Kip Holden, the Arts Council of Baton Rouge, the Baton Rouge Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Baton Rouge Film Commission, and the Downtown Development District for working together to create “Summer in the City.” The groups built on existing summer events, such as the July 4 celebration and Art Melt, and fleshed out a summer calendar of entertainment featuring new outdoor movies, concerts and dances. We applaud that kind of year-round thinking.

The beautiful debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet streaks across Earth’s orbit so that every August we pass through what is known as the Perseid Meteor Shower, a radiant display of shooting stars moving through the night sky at a clip of one every minute. It is called Perseid because the meteors seem to pour out from the constellation named after Perseus, the Greek hero who did us all a favor and beheaded Medusa. This phenomenon peaks August 12 when the Irene W. Pennington planetarium at the Louisiana Art and Science Museum gives a live presentation of the meteor shower hosted by museum director Joe Elvert. 7 p.m. lasm.org.

All jazzed up

It’s been a year since local jazz enthusiasts created a series of high-profile jazz concerts to attract some big-name swingin’ cats to Baton Rouge.

The Arts Council’s River City Jazz masters series continues to hit on all cylinders with the new season of jazz shows at the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center for the Arts.

Oct. 2: Eddie Palmieri—Now an elder statesman of Latin jazz, this New York-born virtuoso plays piano with the gusto and rhythm of a drummer, which is no surprise since he began as a timbale drummer.

Nov. 6: Regina Carter—A youthful jazz violinist who’s wowed world audiences since signing with Verve records in 1998, Carter is at once graceful yet daring. As leader of a polished and accomplished band, she brings a refreshing energy to her original music.

March 26, 2009: Blue Note Records’ 70th Anniversary—Blue Note Records is the king of jazz labels, so to mark its anniversary locally Grammy-winning R&B and jazz singer Patti Austin will headline a concert that will include various performers, including trumpeter Nicholas Payton. artsbr.org. –MATT SIGUR

Hot dog

Affable Dachshund Mayer P. Stiel, the 8-year-old office dog at ad agency Zehnder Communications, made a cameo billboard appearance over Times Square this summer. Mayer, all of 8 inches tall, briefly loomed as a 120-foot behemoth on the Reuters/NASDAQ digital tower billboard. The Baton Rouge canine’s 20 minutes of fame occurred from 7 to 7:20 a.m. June 19. Mayer caught the eye of judges in Purina Dog Chow’s “Picture Your Dog in Times Square” event. “Mayer is a very social dog,” according to a tongue-in-cheek Web site that’s a veritable “SnoutBook” of bio information and pictures. “Birthday parties, business meetings, conference calls, fundraising, etc. He can win even the toughest client over.” Says CEO Jeff Zhender: “Only in this country could a German dog living in the Deep South make it to the Crossroads of the World. I’m especially proud to be an American today.”

Presidential pimping

Anna Bachmann’s float

On False River, the ideal Independence Day is spent on the water with friends watching a flock of decorated party boats putt-putting downstream. Started 26 years ago by Lionel Kleinpeter, Flotilla on the Fourth is patriotic Mardi Gras on water. This year, Anne Bachmann won the big prize for Best Decorated Party Barge. The theme was “Pick Your Own Presidential Candidate.” Bachmann’s boat featured past presidents in their “pimped-out” glory. –MATT SIGUR