Oxford American Blogs :: SouthBeat

PHOTO ESSAY: OA Deadline

We work tirelessly to bring you the best possible Oxford American magazine we can muster. Here are some behind-the-scenes photos of the editorial office working through the weekend on the upcoming Best of the South issue—all for you!

The University of Central Arkansas Bear welcomes you to our office building.

The beautiful ceiling of The OA intern room, aka The Dukedom.

Sometimes the police stop by to make sure we're okay.

Snack time at The OA.

Product placement alert.

Did you know that every OA issue is typed on this typewriter? Yep, every single one.

Some sunglasses, for when we have to hide from the Conway paparazzi.

One of the many statues in our office.

Some sanitizing wipes, so no one ever has to leave to wash her hands.

Oh hey, books!

A painting of a roller coaster reminds us of the fun that exists out in the world.

Marguerite Boyles is a ray of sunshine!

She likes to read this book by Lewis Nordan.

Victoria: Like everyone here, she works with a smile.

Pencil in your mouth.

Pencil in your ear.

Pencil in your hair.

No pencil in your hair.

Leftovers from World Party Day Extravaganza 2012.

This text is so stunningly brilliant, it requires sunglasses to even look at it.

We really like cats here at The Oxford American magazine.

When taking a break from editing, we like to solve math problems.

Happily entering corrections.

William Faulkner makes the coffee at The OA office.

More proof that we don't rely on all that new-fangled technology that you young people seem to like.

Meghan is actually enjoying her slice of ZaZa pizza, it's the photographer who's bothering her.

When we aren't using our keyboards, we are eating over them. Note, though, the plastic covering.

We aren't sure if this Jimmy Pitts painting is of Elvis or an Elvis impersonator, but we like it.

Marc Smirnoff's editorial, before it's cleaned up and rewritten by the staff.

Outside The OA office, there is plenty of water to drink.

And that's where you can also find UCA's well-dressed student body hanging out.

Never judge an OA editor by his or her body posture. It's the thoughts that count.

DISPATCH: Stuck on a Truck @ Toad Suck

Last weekend, twenty-five men and women in Conway, Arkansas, put their hands on the red, waxed body of a Ford F-150 truck—four days later, only one person was left standing. The winner drove the prize home.

The Stuck on a Truck competition, as the event is known, started in 2001 as part of the Toad Suck Daze festival that takes place each year in May. The contest is inspired by the 1997 documentary film Hands on a Hard Body, which chronicles the excruciating, and often excruciatingly boring, days of the entrants in a similar competition, in Texas, to win a Nissan Hardbody truck.

This is how you play: you don’t remove your hands from the truck. This year’s contestants endured high temperatures and sleep deprivation from noon on Thursday through the weekend and, for a few of them, into Sunday evening. Contestants are allowed a five-minute break every hour and a fifteen-minute break every six hours. Prizes are awarded to the last five people standing, but most go home with nothing. Fans can watch the action live in the stands surrounding the manhandled truck or at home on the SOAT website. (The non-action of the silent, stop-motion webcam is surprisingly captivating.)

The only thing more riveting than the competition itself this year was the obsessive reporting of the members of a SOAT Facebook betting pool started by Ben Lownik, a student at Hendrix College here in Conway. Tyrone Jaeger, Hendrix College professor and contributor to The OA, placed his bets and spent thirty-nine hours keeping an eye on his chosen winners at the truck or watching the action unfold online. Below, read the dispatches of this year’s biggest SOAT superfan—and find out who stayed stuck on the truck.

Stuck on Stuck on a Truck

The Last Man Standing

by Tyrone Jaeger

Day One: Thursday

8:34 a.m.

My pick for first off the Truck: Matt Grisson. Anyone who defines competitiveness by racing the spouse to the car is easily distracted. I’ll challenge Matt Grisson to a crawfish pie-eating contest at 5 p.m., and he’ll leave the truck.

My picks for going the distance:
1) Brian “Old Man” Root, last year’s second place finisher
2) Mo “Actually Likes to Do the Dishes” Skelton
3) Amy “The Fletch” Fletcher

10:30 a.m.

This just in: “ATTENTION: The contest has been rocked by four disqualifications. ADJUST YOUR BETS ACCORDINGLY IN THE NEXT HOUR.”

11:00 a.m.

I add Joseph “Not that Joseph Smith” Smith to picks to replace Brian Root, who is disqualified for being a resident of Florida. (Root is also outed as a professional handathoner). Joseph’s in the three spot and the other two move up a notch.

12:14 p.m.

Joseph “Not that Joseph Smith” Smith is not nearly as tall as I typically like my motivational speakers. No wonder he considers himself an “accomplished bachelor.”

Day Two: Friday

8:12 a.m.

Jumbo runs out after the break, cartwheels, lands, and grabs the back of the tailgate hard enough that everyone else (already on the Truck at this point) bounces awake. Unreal.

8:15 a.m.

Joseph “Not that Joseph Smith” Smith is first off. Good luck on planet Kolob, Joseph.

8:17 a.m.

Only three things will stop Amy “The Fletch” Fletcher:
1) Tanning bed withdrawal.
2) Her one-handed technique, which kills people come Saturday and Sunday.
3) Jumbo.

10:04 a.m.

Luke Martin keeps chatting up Jumbo, thinking that they’re simpatico, that they’re truck buds. My guess is that soon I’m going to look over at the webcam, and Luke Martin will be gone. Vanished. Jumbo will be smiling. His throat will be making a swallowing motion.

1:07 p.m.

Ronald “Wants a Safe Vehicle for His Boys” Upson is off the Truck. He was last seen leaving Conway with his sons tied to hay bales in the bed of his El Camino.

1:08 p.m.

Who’s next? You know they never leave one at a time. Weak soul sees weak soul and thinks: It’s okay. I’m not the only one. Sleepy. So sleepy.

1:16 p.m.

Oh, no! Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Jumbo just put on his T-shirt arm bandanna that doubles as a napkin. Luke Martin looks to be lunch.

1:22 p.m.

In the days before the socialists took over the government, if you walked off the Truck you were deep fried and served in a waffle cone to the remaining contestants.

2:31 p.m.

Update: Renee “Dream & Dream Big” McGhee is off the Truck. Evidently dreaming big is standing on the Truck for 26 hours and 30 minutes.

2:23 p.m.

Ginger “Her Big Hair Sets Her Apart From The Other Contestants” King can’t seem to keep her one foot in her flip-flop, and she was resting her head on the back of the Truck. It’s not looking good, Ginger fans.

2:03 p.m.

Johnny Tipton: out. Last seen waking from a nap with fellow concrete worker Ronald Upson.

2:11 p.m.

Johnny “Recently Became Smoke-Free” Tipton sighting at the Tobacco Super Store.

10:38 p.m.

Most of the stuckers are looking pretty awesome. Tonight the moon is full. I suspect that at least one of the stuckers will turn into a werewolf, probably Jason “Every Tactic Available” Hocott or Charlie “Wags” Wagner.

Day Three: Saturday

2:16 a.m.

Oh my. Aim Aim... Fletch... Punkincakes... Big Red... Flex... otherwise known as Amy Fletcher has gone to the tanning booth in the sky. She’s off the Truck after a piddling day and 13 hours. My board—my top three—is in ruins. My hope for glory dashed like a bottle of spray tan smashed against the bumper of a sticker-covered truck!

2:32 a.m.

As Bodemeister, tomorrow’s Kentucky Derby favorite and winner of the Arkansas Derby, sleeps and dreams of unicorns in fields of blue grass, thirteen souls are left standing, hands on a truck, waiting and waiting, thinking of Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

Just keep dancing...

Amy Fletcher, in the pink headband, returns to the scene of her demise.

6:34 a.m.

Keri Davidson decides she’d rather watch the Kentucky Derby, but first she has to flee Faulkner County for Pulaski County to get the mint julep fixings. Off the Truck before sunrise.

8:00 a.m.

Jumbo’s legs are pale, even his tattoos have faded. My heart drops and I wonder why he is not receiving medical attention.

Oh wait! Jumbo is wearing white compression socks. Disaster averted.

8:34 a.m.

It’s official: Jumbo is digesting Luke Martin. Some time around 7:00 this morning, the judges noticed that Martin had disappeared and questioned Jumbo, who pointed toward the midway and then spat out a pair of eyeglasses.

8:36 a.m.

Russell Dorsey is off the Truck. Yes, Russell Dorsey was on the Truck (though no one paid him any mind).

9:45 a.m.

After my mother-in-law and I try to convince my wife to get on the Truck next year, a Hendrix student promises a “kickawesome pit crew of Hendrix SOAT fanatics.” This brings tears to my eyes. (Kickawesome, it should be noted, is a term coined by Conway’s own Kris Allen, who evidently won a contest called American Idol. I don’t think he’s ever competed for the Truck.)

11:02 a.m.

Apparently Kayla Scott doesn’t know that Jumbo swallowed Luke Martin like a mustard-covered corn dog. She’s been chatting the big man up, and you know what happens next... Gulp.

11:05 a.m.

Interesting that Mo is yawning. I was actually just going to mention that I love the way he’s dominating the corner. The fact that he was hallucinating stormtroopers earlier is also in keeping with ’09 winner Chuck Speer, who saw spaceships on Front Street. The Stuck on a Truck God is a Sci-Fi God!

11:13 a.m.

This morning, Jumbo's slightly smaller brother asked me to verify his spelling of “Yankee,” like the baseball team. He then discreetly held up a sign for Jumbo that said, “She’s like one of those Yankees girlfriends.”

Jumbo's brother holds up a motivational sign.

11:14 a.m.

Brandon and Russell Dorsey should get a drink. No one placed a bet on either one. Well, someone bet that Russell would fall first... I think the tape on Brandon’s sneakers is probably keeping his swollen feet from bursting out of the skin. Just a guess.

11:45 a.m.

Renee McGhee tried to Dream Big, and she packed up her tent, her back massager, and her extra pair of Nikes in 26 hours and 30 minutes. The best SOAT contestants don’t dream. Dreaming is for sleepers. Hallucinating from sleep deprivation is for winners.

12:03 p.m.

Back on the Truck. Ginger’s now dressed in her pjs. Jumbo’s back to the compression socks. And Brandon’s pit crew bucked up and bought him a new pair of sneaks. Mo plays the corner. Kickawesome!

12:11 p.m.

Jason “Will Use Every Tactic Available” Hocott seems to be employing the “I don’t really know where to stand at this party, ’cause it doesn’t seem like anyone wants to talk to me” tactic. Everyone has been going back to the same spot but Jason. He’s not sure where he is anymore.

12:13 p.m.

Some think that Ginger has changed into pjs because she’s wearing her grandmother’s compression hose (some say diaper). If she comes out in a nightie, I’d start to worry. Does anyone remember if her trainer, the great Terry Odom, ever wore pjs during his 91-hour stand?

12:19 p.m.

I’ve heard rumors that the three Cauthen boys have a deer camp (read: condo) filled with their SOAT winnings. I heard that in ’06, Shane Cauthen, after 87 hours and 46 minutes, just picked up the Truck and left.

Jumbo’s “Pit Crew”: The Cauthen boys.

1:46 p.m.

Just spent a few minutes at the SOAT tent. If you are friends with Wags, save him a spot on the couch for the Derby. He’ll be home soon. He’s leaning on the Truck, wearing one ball cap on top of another (okay, he’s been doing this for a day), and the interior of his right calf is all red. He’s woozy. But on occasion, they come back from the wooze.

1:53 p.m.

Van Halen’s “Jump” comes on the radio, and the pj-wearing, ankles-swelling Ginger starts to dance and smile. She’s got game. As does my man Mo, who’s answering football trivia questions like this is ZaZa’s on a Tuesday night. In addition, Stephanie Henson has obviously been training by gardening and doing jumping jacks mid-day. If the face tells the story, Stephanie’s in the lead. She looks as fresh as a daisy. And it’s hot with no wind...

4:00 p.m.

Did Wags steal the spot in between Jumbo and Kayla? Game on. Wags is gone before the next break. He’s having a mental breakdown.

Day Four: Sunday

8:40 a.m.

When Stephanie Henson said she was “in it to win it,” she meant the gift certificate to Arby’s that she won for being on the truck for 67 hours and 37 minutes.

8:42 a.m.

With only five contestants left, you’ve got to believe that there is some serious psychic warfare that goes on. Does one pray-meditate-hope to stay on the Truck or for the others to get off?

Charlie “Wags” Wagner and Melissa “Second Out” Wyles watch the drama of Day Four.

11:00 p.m.

In other news, Ginger looks like a million bucks. During the break, she was chatting it up with her pit crew and smiling. I talked with Terry “91 hours and 26 minutes on the Truck” Odom, and he has a lot of confidence in Ginger. He says that she was drumming her fingers earlier, but he’s cured her of that. When I mentioned that I thought Mo was looking good, Terry said, “He reminds me of myself.” Mo, you can take that praise to the grave.

12:00 p.m.

The front end of the vehicle is in a world of hurt. Jumbo’s mother is holding up signs telling him that it will get better. Brandon “Yes, I’m Actually in this Contest” Curtis is snarling at his pit crew. Clint Evans is leaning on the Truck, and at break time he basically needs to be escorted from the Truck. Clint’s pit crew should take a move from Anna “136 hours on the Truck” Johnson’s team and just take a seat next to the Truck during breaks.

1:00 p.m.

If you’re watching the webcam, you’ll notice all the attention being paid to Clint “Looks Like He Just Got Hit by a Truck” Evans. Clint’s so tired that if the Truck became a bed, he wouldn’t have the sense to sleep on it. Take a nap, Clint.

1:17 p.m.

Clint’s pit crew has given up. They’re now sitting behind him. And it looks like the Pit Boss is asking Ginger to sing a song. She’ll happily comply.

2:00 p.m.

Clint goes off while biting his nails. His pit crew should have given him a mani during the fifteen-minute break. Jeez, people! Give that man a $2,000 gift certificate toward the purchase of a new Trane Heating & Cooling System courtesy of Freyaldenhoven Heating and Cooling!

1:15 p.m.

Overheard at Truck: Foreigner's “Feels Like the First Time” is playing, and when a spectator asks the Pit Boss what song it is, he says, “Are you even American?”

Dear Pit Boss, Foreigner is a half-British band named Foreigner.

2:02 p.m.

Does anyone know if “Jumbo” is his given name? Really, Brandon needs to get off the Truck just so the final contestants can be named Mo Jumbo Ginger.

2:05 p.m.

Brandon is out for clapping after the Jesus song.

Mo Jumbo Ginger. Ginger Mo Jumbo. Mo Ginger Jumbo. It doesn’t matter how you say it: It’s kickawesome!

2:16 p.m.

I’m going to open up a restaurant just so I can call it “Mo Jumbo Ginger.” Everything on the menu will have that as part of it’s name. Mo Jumbo Ginger Chicken. Mo Jumbo Ginger Spinach Salad. Mo Jumbo Ginger Pale Ale. You get the picture. Drop on by. All of our booths are situated in pick-up beds. Person with hands on the table the longest gets to order first.

2:30 p.m.

If you’re new to SOAT, 2010 winner Terry Odom is currently standing in a green T-shirt next to the Truck. He’s also wearing a hat. White hair. White beard. An inspiration to all of us who like to watch people standing with their hands on a truck.

3:00 p.m.

Help Wanted: Pit Boss for Stuck on a Truck. Like to stare at people’s hands? Know how to tell time? Like to lean on mirrors of a pick-up truck for extended periods of time? We’ve got a job for you! Ability to listen to awful music for hours on end a plus. People skills and experience not necessary.

3:11 p.m.

I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think that Mo likes the front of the Truck. He looked more comfortable with his arms up on the back end. I do like that all three are two-handers. They are all well coached.

3:14 p.m.

What is Mo’s pit crew doing? They’ve got him standing away from the Truck to answer trivia questions? You can’t have Mo standing sideways like that. Not this late in the game. Get to the other side of the Truck, so Mo can face the target. This is a disaster waiting to happen.

3:18 p.m.

Someone please tell me that they took Mo off the Truck for some other reason than to say good-bye.

3:20 p.m.

3 days, 3 hours, and 3 minutes. Get comfortable folks. No one wants to go home with a freakin’ lawnmower.

3:25 p.m.

What the hell keeps happening with View 2!? The webcam is junk. It’s not even really a video feed. It only updates a single image every five seconds. We’re taking this thing over next year.

4:30 p.m.

Someone just finished proofreading final portfolio letters and is headed down to the Truck! Now if I can just pull myself away from the webcam feed to walk the ten minutes to the Truck.

4:35 p.m.

Will someone please call me if anything happens in the next ten minutes?

4:40 p.m.

Starting now... really.

7:00 p.m.

Possibly the greatest moment of my life: Eating 2-for-$5 turkey legs with my wife in the SOAT tent with Ginger and Jumbo left. George Thorogood’s singing “Bad to the Bone” on the radio. Jumbo begins to dance. Ginger begins to dance. I feel the power of SOAT.

7:04 p.m.

Melissa Wyles, who is much younger than her bio picture would have you think, said that she went off the Truck (17 hours: LOL) because her stomach was upset and the smell of grilled turkey legs made her puke. Both Melissa and Jason Hocott say they’ll be back on the Truck next year. I’ll be placing my $ elsewhere, thank you.

7:05 p.m.

SOAT fans, I was there when it happened. Jumbo was in pain. He had been hallucinating before the break, uncertain whether Ginger was touching the Truck or not. He kept leaning down and staring at her hands. Then he started leaning over and looking off to the side. Jumbo’s brother told me it was because Jumbo was trying to draw the pit boss’s attention to the fact that Ginger was occasionally leaning on the bumper. During the 15-minute break, Jumbo slept for the first time. He came back looking good but then kept taking his right hand off and looking like he simply didn’t want to be there anymore. He took his right hand off, stood there, and then walked off right toward us. We cowered in fear, and fortunately the Cauthen brothers not on the Truck raced into the ring and hugged Jumbo. Testosterone sprayed the crowd.

When Jumbo came off the Truck, I felt like I was walking by a cave just as an angry bear was waking up from hibernating.

Congratulations to Ginger “A Girl Can Be The” King. We should try to arrange for the betting pool winner to go out for dinner with Ginger.

7:15 p.m.

This year’s winner: coached by Terry Odom. Last year’s winner: trained by Odom (at least in the late going). Two years ago winner: Terry Odom. If you have any plans to compete for the Truck, my advice would be to become friends with Terry Odom. Bake him a peach pie. Ask him if he’d like you to wash his truck. Give him a massage while he’s watching PBR on ESPN.

Thanks for the ride, Jumbo. It was awesome.

11:59 p.m.

After her SOAT victory, Ginger drives her truck to Memphis, where she is participating in a dance marathon. In Atkins, home of Jumbo Cauthen, intense seismic activity has recently been reported. Geologists report that it’s Jumbo sawing some logs. Sleep tight, big man.

Day Five: Monday

3:42 p.m.

As I’ve been rereading the dispatches from the Truck, two things stick out to me. First, I totally underestimated Ginger. Second, I think Jumbo would have stood a better chance had he not swallowed Luke Martin whole on Saturday morning. Even Jumbo needs a proper masticating technique, and if we learned anything during the SOAT 2012, it’s that technique is everything.

For more information on Stuck On a Truck and to learn more about your favorite contestants, click here.

PHOTO ESSAY: Toad Suck Daze

Every year, the citizens of Conway, Arkansas, and the surrounding towns gather for one weekend to celebrate the Toad Suck Daze Festival. What is a Toad Suck Daze, exactly? According to the Festival website:

Long ago, steamboats traveled the Arkansas River when the water was at the right depth. When it wasn’t, the captains and their crew tied up to wait where the Toad Suck Lock and Dam now spans the river. While they waited, they refreshed themselves at the local tavern there, to the dismay of the folks living nearby, who said: “They suck on the bottle ’til they swell up like toads.” Hence, the name Toad Suck. The tavern is long gone, but the legend and fun live on at Toad Suck Daze.

The tavern is not only long gone—the whole county is now dry. But, yes, the legend and fun do live on. Photographs by Marc Smirnoff.

PHOTO ESSAY: My First Trip to Oxford

The Ole Miss Motel is not on the Ole Miss campus. My motel room has a king-size bed with three pillows labeled soft, medium, and firm. The light in the bathroom makes the room shake, but it’s too dark when it’s off. There’s a refrigerator and a microwave and a television that makes a video game noise when the power’s turned on. The Ole Miss Motel is only three blocks from the square.

Everything is walkable in Oxford. The Lyric Theatre has a beautiful entryway, with a black-and-white paisley vaulted ceiling jutting against a stark red wall. Amy LaVere’s upright bass makes me shiver. Joey Lauren Adams is a good reader. Silas Reed has a velvety voice and a hefty horn section.

Some boys who play in bands like to hang out at the City Grocery on weeknights. These are the kinds of boys who will take you to Checker’s to get a snack when you’re hungry and your friends are fighting and you need to be walked the three blocks back to the Ole Miss Motel. These are the kinds of boys with manners, who will try to hold your hand but won’t lean in for a kiss at the end of the night. A grizzled, bearded man says the next day that he overheard someone saying how crazy City Grocery was the night before—there were girls pissing in the men’s room.

Bouré is a nice restaurant to go and eat chicken carbonara for lunch in between naps and watching television at the Ole Miss Motel. All the waitresses wear gingham shirts and have sweet-tea voices and bright pink lipstick. The Double Decker Festival can be seen from the balcony of a new friend’s apartment, or the balcony of a new friend’s friend’s apartment. The people at this apartment play songs like “Holiday Inn” by Chingy and dance like they’re not trying to impress girls, which is the only real way to impress girls. There’s an industrial cooler filled with beer and there are two cats roaming around. At one point, a redhead named Virginia starts kicking people out of the apartment, claiming there are too many people there who she doesn’t know. I am allowed to stay.

—AGE

DAY ONE: Thursday

Inside The Lyric

Still inside The Lyric

The irrepressible Tyler Keith onstage at Thacker

The multi-dimensional Silas Reed onstage

Mary Elizabeth Cochran

Lisa Howorth

Julie Anna Murphy

Outside The Lyric

Alex Warren, Dent May, Tyler Keith, and Scott Rorie

Print Chouteau of Flight

Scott and Finley Hughes

Lindsey Else, visiting from Minnesota

DAY TWO: Friday

Mississippi native

Sterling and friend

Print and John Barrett of Bass Drum of Death

DAY THREE: Saturday

OA columnist Jack Pendarvis caught, once again, in reflection.

Cary Hudson with OAer Meghan Tear Plummer

PHOTO ESSAY: My Latest Trip to Oxford

The quickest, easiest, most clichéd way to describe Thacker Mountain Radio of Oxford, Mississippi, is to call it a Dixie-fried version of A Prairie Home Companion. That shortcut hardly conveys Thacker Mountain’s enchanting, quirky, and thus distinctive character. If you’ve never heard the show on your radio—or on your Dick Tracy X-12 wristwatch—or experienced it in person, you need to change that. The show is a gift any way you catch it.

The Oxford American was lucky enough to be invited to contribute to a recent installment of Thacker Mountain Radio. Here is a clip of Joey Lauren Adams reading a piece on Tyler Keith by Lisa Howorth from the Mississippi Music issue. Click here to see and hear more segments of the show that we did with Thacker Mountain Radio.

You can absorb other audio goodies on Thacker’s website: www.thackermountain.com

We came to Oxford last Thursday for the Thacker show, and even though we wanted to stay longer than a day, we knew we had to return home immediately. You see, we had left behind a deadline in Arkansas—and OA deadlines are demanding brutes. The main reason we wanted to extend our stay was that the annual Double Decker Festival was taking over Oxford’s downtown square the day after our Thacker involvement. If you don’t know, the Double Decker Festival is an extravaganza of tremendous and (mostly) free music. Among these year’s acts: Mavis Staples, Iron & Wine, Jimbo Mathus & The Tri-State Coalition, Young Buffalo, the Funky Meters, and Patterson Hood (with dad).

But we had to leave.

Right?

If you have visited Oxford, Mississippi, of late, you will remember how it pulled on you. How it charmed you with sweet, coaxing whispers. How it enveloped you in a slinky, warm embrace and wouldn’t easily let you go.

So we stayed an extra day.

Fact: Oxford doesn’t change even as it changes.

Fact: More than ever, creativity abounds in Oxford—positively springs from the ground and pours from the sky and seeps from the walls. Just about any barroom on the square on any night will be teeming with zany, alert creativity in the forms of writers, teachers, musicians, producers, artists, restaurateurs, scholars, entrepreneurs, prophets, fashionistas, photographers, painters, sculptors, and designers. There they will be, crammed, happily, into one wood-floored room, all of them analyzing and tweaking the universe they so sharply sense.

Fact: There is a new record store in town. It’s called The End of All Music, and a primary owner is Bruce Watson, who is also one of the chiefs of the fabled Fat Possum tribe. Bruce dubbed the place The End of All Music in reference to an insight by the great rockabiller Charlie Feathers, of Holly Springs, Miss., who once called the great bluesman Junior Kimbrough of Hudsonville, Miss., “The beginning and end of all music.” In our little party was an inveterate record-store habitué. You could even call him, with accuracy, an unbearable record-store snob. He entered The End of All Music fearing it might only have superficial boutique-y charms, but when he left—after spending almost a full day in the place—he bored us with his happiness and rhapsodies about: the stock, the groovy design and impeccable neatness of the place, the fair prices of the records, the clientele, and the quirky, smart, knowledgeable clerks. You will be hearing more about this special joint from us later. But for now, we’d advise all music lovers to consider The End of All Music an essential target. We don’t kid about record stores.

Fact: While snooping in Off Square Books, the branch of the mighty Square Books franchise that sells used books and cool magazines and other surprises, we overheard a customer asking a clerk why the music section there was so scant. The clerk responded that they were hurriedly trying to sell all of their music stock so that there would be no music left for sale at the store. They were doing this, she said, so as to throw support for the new record shop in town, The End of All Music. Behavior like that, your OA eavesdropper immediately recognized, was how one demonstrates support of local culture, rather than just…platitudinizes about it. What a remarkable environment.

—MAS

DAY ONE: Thursday

Inside Square Books

Beckett Howorth, son of Richard and Lisa, at Square Books

Oxford Courthouse

Mary Elizabeth Cochran with her husband Pat, The OA's online music columnist

Cole of the band Dead Gaze

Cole's girlfriend, whose smile made us forget her name

Musician supreme Dent May

DAY TWO: Friday

Boy with legs

Two Ole Miss girls who asked for their photo to be taken. We obliged.

Oxford Courthouse at night

Ole Miss student and Thacker Mountain intern Betsy Lynch

Probably the last people to be seen hanging out on The Square on Friday night.

Jack Pendarvis-approved chicken on a stick

DAY THREE: Saturday

Saturday morning!

Jumpin' Jack Cochran, son of Pat and Mary Elizabeth

The worth-it wait outside John and Bessy Currence's Big Bad Breakfast

David at the Ole Miss Motel

Jimmy and Chris Cajoleas at The End of All Music, Oxford's brilliant new record store

Young Natalie looking for The Gants' first album

OA EVENT: Thacker Mountain Radio

Who: The Oxford American and Thacker Mountain Radio

What: A Tribute to Mississippi Music in Sound and Text

Where: The Lyric Theatre

When: Thursday, April 26th at 6 p.m.

Why You Should Go: Free Show! Amazing Musical Guests!

And don't forget about the Thacker after-party at the Lyric at 7:30. Cowboy Killers, The Mighty Gospel Warriors, and Silas Reed will provide music and dancing you won't want to miss. (If you can't experience the show in the flesh, click here for details on how to tune in at home.)

AUTHOR INTERVIEWS: Arkansas Literary Festival

We polled some of our favorite authors at last weekend's Arkansas Literary Festival about what books they're looking forward to reading this year, the funniest moments of the weekend, and their impressions of Little Rock.

Here's more from Little Rock-native Bryan Borland.

W. Ralph Eubanks lives in Washington, D.C.

Piper Faust is the author of Idiots I've Seen Naked.

Stephanie McAfee is from Mississippi and is the author of Diary of a Mad, Fat Girl.

David Rees wants to sharpen your pencils.

Justin Torres is charming as all hell.

PHOTO ESSAY: Arkansas Literary Festival

Here are some photo highlights from last weekend's Arkansas Literary Festival. We wish we could have been everywhere at once!

The Author! Author! Reception

Frank Thurmond, author of Before I Sleep, and George H. Jensen, Jr., author of Some of the Words are Theirs

Stephanie McAfee, author of Diary of a Mad, Fat Girl, and OA intern Victoria Hinshaw

David Margolick, author of Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock, W. Ralph Eubanks, author of Ever Is a Long Time: A Journey into Mississippi's Dark Past, and Greg Brownderville, author of Gust

Barbara Slate and David Margolick

David Margolick is everywhere!

Ian Frazier, author of Travels in Siberia, and Roy Blount, Jr., author of Alpha Better Juice

Some pretty ladies at the reception

Claire Dederer (center), author of Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses, Gael Fashingbauer Cooper (right), author of Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops?, and friend

Three cartoonists: Peter Kuper, Barbara Slate, and David Rees

Jessica DeLoach and friend

Avi Steinberg (second from left), author of Running the Books, Heidi Julavits (far right), author of The Vanishers, and friends

Writer James Pogue, OA senior editor Wes Enzinna, and n + 1 editor Marco Roth

Saturday Panels and Author Sessions

The magical library in downtown Little Rock

Witold Rybczynski, author of The Biography of a Building

Bill Whitworth, former editor-in-chief at The Atlantic Monthly, and his daughter Katherine

Katherine Whitworth and OA managing editor Carol Ann Fitzgerald

Moderator Jay Jennings with panelists Roy Blount, Jr. and Ian Frazier

Roy Blount, Jr. and Ian Frazier signing books

David Rees, author of How to Sharpen Pencils: A Practical and Theoretical Treatise on the Artisanal Craft of Pencil Sharpening, helps audience member Ms. Pat into her "novice smock."

Justin Torres, author of We The Animals

Tiny Books panel moderator and UCA professor Mary Ruth Marotte

Tiny Books panelists: Kevin Brockmeier, Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams, and Ken Kalfus

Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams, author of The Man Who Danced With Dolls

Kevin Brockmeier, OA contributing writer and author of The Human Soul as a Rube Goldberg Device

A very busy dog-walker in downtown Little Rock

The OA's Magazine Panel

Free drinks at The OA bar

The riveted audience

Moderator Wes Enzinna and panelists Marc Smirnoff, Heidi Julavits, and Marco Roth

Panelists Marc Smirnoff, Heidi Julavits, and Marco Roth

Nina Roth, a New York-based architect

Nicholas Pippins, OA contributor Natalie Elliott, and James Pogue

Marco and Nina Roth

Arkansas Times editor and former OA intern Lindsey Millar

Autumn Allison and former OA intern Wyndham Wyeth

EVENT: Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale

If you can't make it to the Arkansas Literary Festival (shame on you!), here's another way to satisfy your Southern-culture appetite. The annual Juke Joint Festival is taking place this weekend in Clarksdale, Mississippi, with promises of tasty food and non-stop music performances around town. There will even be monkeys riding dogs herding sheep today at 3:30 p.m., according to the schedule of events!

What we'd be most excited to see, after the monkeys riding dogs, of course, is the premiere of We Juke Up in Here!, a film about juke-joint culture in the Mississippi Delta—co-produced by our friends at Broke & Hungry Records and Cat Head Blues & Folk Art and filmed by photo/videographer Lou Bopp (check out his stunning photos of Mississippi bluesmen, most of which can be found in the book Hidden History of Mississippi Blues by Roger Stolle). The production will be screening at 7:00 p.m. today at the Delta Cinema (11 Third Street, Clarksdale), with an opening reception at 5:30 p.m. We imagine there will also be a lively after party at Red's Lounge that you won't want to miss (perhaps with entertainment by the incomparable Bilbo Walker?). Click here for more information, and check out the trailer below!

AN OA EVENT: Magazine Panel Discussion

Join The OA this Saturday for a lively discussion of magazine writing with Heidi Julavits (co-founder of The Believer), Marco Roth (co-founder of n + 1) and The OA's Marc Smirnoff. Doors to our new space at 1300 South Main Street open at 5 p.m., so please arrive early to enjoy FREE cocktails and spunky conversation.