Southernist

HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:03:00 +0000

BOOK: The Interrogative Mood

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Are you happy? Do we need galoshes? Are bluebirds perfect? Do you know the distinctions, empirical or theoretical, between moss and lichen? Is it clear to you why I am asking you all these questions? Should I go away? Leave you alone? Should I bother but myself with the interrogative mood?

The acclaimed writer Padgett Powell is fascinated by what it feels like to walk through everyday life, to hear the swing and snap of American talk, to be both electrified and overwhelmed by the mad cacophony—the "muchness"—of America. The Interrogative Mood is Powell's playful and profound response, a bebop solo of a book in which every sentence is a question.

Perhaps only Powell—a writer who was once touted as the best of his generation by Saul Bellow and "among the top five writers of fiction in the country" by Barry Hannah—could pull off such a remarkable stylistic feat. Is it a novel? Whatever it is, The Interrogative Mood is one of the most audacious literary high-wire acts since Nicholson Baker's The Mezzanine. Powell's unnamed narrator forces us to consider our core beliefs, our most cherished memories, our views on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In fiction as in life, there may be no easy answers—but The Interrogative Mood is an exuberant book that leaves the reader feeling a little more alive. (source)

SOUNDS: Monsters of Folk

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Kentuckyian Yim Yames (a/k/a Jim James from My Morning Jacket) hits NYC with Monsters of Folk for two shows: Nov 6 @ United Palace Theatre and Nov 8 @ the Beacon Theatre.

Monsters of Folk is an American supergroup, consisting of Jim James from My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis from Bright Eyes and M. Ward. The band was formed in 2004 when the members were on tour with their respective bands and solo projects. After playing together both on-stage and backstage, they started working together on various material. (source)

SCREEN: A Streetcar Named Desire

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Playing 11/6 - 11/12 @ Film Forum.

BOOK: The Help

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:02:00 +0000

I'm finally getting around to reading "The Help." Some of the book's well-deserved praise:

"Set in the rural South of the 1960's, The Help is a startling, resonant portrait of the intertwined lives of women on opposite sides of the racial divide. Stockett's many gifts - a keen eye for character, a wicked sense of humor, the perfect timing of a natural born storyteller- - shine as she evokes a time and place when black women were expected to help raise white babies, and yet could not use the same bathroom as their employers. Her characters, both white and black, are so fully fleshed they practically breathe - no stock villains or pious heroines here. I'm becoming an evangelist for The Help. Don't miss this wise and astonishing debut."
--Joshilyn Jackson, Bestselling author of Gods in Alabama

"I love THE HELP. Kathryn Stockett has given us glorious characters and a powerful, truth-filled story. Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter, show that people from this troubled time came together despite their differences and that ordinary women can be heroic."
--Jill Conner Browne, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Sweet Potato Queens series and resident of Jackson, MS

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:00:00 +0000

SCREEN: Mississippi Damned

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:00:00 +0000

I just missed Mississippi Damned (again) in NYC but it's making the rounds so hopefully it'll be back. Up next for the film, screenings at North Carolina's Cucalorus Festival:

Wanting to escape was the easy part. Taking place in 1986 and 1998 and based on a true story, three poor, Black kids in rural Mississippi reap the consequences of their family's cycle of abuse, addiction, and violence. They independently struggle to escape their circumstances and must decide whether to confront what's plagued their family for generations or succumb to the same crippling fate, forever damned in Mississippi. Bitterly honest and profoundly subtle, writer/director Tina Mabry successfully captures growing up in a world where possibilities and opportunities seem to die in the face of the suffocating reality of physical and sexual abuse, obsession, and a myriad of destructive compulsions.

Mississippi Damned won the Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2009 Urbanworld Film Festival, the Grand Jurty Award for Narrative Features at the 2009 American Black Film Festival, the Jury Award for Best American Independent Film at the 2009 Philadelphia Film Festival and the Special Jury Award for Narrative Breakthrough at the 2009 Atlanta Film Festival.

Director Tina Mabry and Producer Morgan Stiff will be in attendance.

Show Times:
Saturday, November 14, 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM @ Lumina Theater
Sunday, November 15, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM @ Lumina Theater

Click Here for more information about Cucalorus Festival venues. (source)

DOO-2! Oct 31 in Seale AL

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Round 2 of the Doo-Nanny scheduled for Halloween Weekend in Seale AL!

From the MySpace: Dreams and the Supernatural: It was bound to happen........as we build out the infrastructure of the doo-nanny site, the site begins to come to life, take on a life, and ask to be used more than once a year.....so...Doo-2 is coming......Oct 28 - 31......mark your calendars.......come early for the real deal, and to do your part, and the parts of all those who don't yet get that coming early is 100 times better than staying home treading whatever personal rat race you've created....in case you haven't heard, the rats won.......race over.......we are creating the Himalayan Bow-Legged Curly-Haired Transvestite Possum Race that will take its place, so get in on the ground floor.......start tying stuff to your roof now.......

The fall Doo will have many of the same features you are familiar with, but with more of a "harvest-time" flavor....pies, jellies, jams, jerky, etc, and, of course....appropriate costumery.......there will be an emphasis on the already rich trade/swapping that naturally goes on among our family of art friends, with an official Barter Fair.......we also hope to have the new sauna, hot showers, and wood-fired pizza oven ready.....yeahhhh......

Butch laid out a ton of dollars to make the spring Doo-Nanny happen, with little return...let's make the fall event the time to bring the harvest home for that priceless gift. Bring what you have, give what you can......and yes, in case you forget, giving is even more important when you have little........time, junk, art, homemade food, wine, rugs, old beds, rope, solar lights, firewood, time, homemade M O V I E S, etc, etc. , even homemade money(don't copy dollars, make new money), as well as gifts of regular money, are all currency to us........bring it....doo it......love on it......

this is brand new, so more later..........

Read about past Doo-Nannys here and here.

STAGE: The Brother/Sister Plays

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Photo: Richard Termine/NY Times

Now thru Dec 13 @ The Public Theater:

The Brother/Sister Plays - A trilogy of modern –day stories of kinship, love, heartache and coming of age centered around an extended family and community in the Bayou.

Part 1: In the Red and Brown Water
How far will fast, beautiful Oya go to make a mark in the world? IN THE RED AND BROWN WATER is the intoxicating story that charts a young girl’s thrust into womanhood and her subsequent fall into the murky waters of life.

Part 2: The Brothers Size and Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet
Reconceived since it premiered as part of The Public’s 2007-2008 season, THE BROTHERS SIZE is a taut, rhythmic and playful drama that follows two brothers as they walk the line between law and liberty.
MARCUS; OR THE SECRET OF SWEET is a beautiful and touching tale of a young man’s awakening to his tenuous connections with his history, his friends, his sexuality and himself. (source)

EAT: Tipsy Parson

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:10:00 +0000

Tipsy Parson is another name for a trifle which, according to What's Cooking America, "comes from the old French term 'trufle,' and literally means something whimsical or of little consequence."

Tipsy Parson is also, according to Urban Daddy, a new southern restaurant opening tonight in Chelsea:

Here to help cast off the shackles of May-only julep consumption is Tipsy Parson, a new Southern-living room dedicated to year-round seasonal fruit juleps, comfort food and the art of the biscuit, opening Monday (10/26) in Chelsea.

If you've been craving a dollop of Southern gentility... you'll want to drop by the two-room Parson...The front bar room feels like the bright, homey kitchen of an old Southern mansion, filled with a church pew for a banquette, lots of colorful knickknacks and plenty of secrets—like the julep slushie machine hidden behind the bar.

The back room is a bit darker, better for a long evening repast, and decked with antiques, tufted leather chairs and a communal table made out of an old cotton press.

There's even a little garden out back if you want to bring a cigar and contemplate life above the Mason-Dixon Line.

SOUNDS: EyeHateGod in BKLYN tonight

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

They've been called doomcore, sludge and stoner rock, survived line-up shuffles, label hassles and a short-lived split. And after more than a decade of creating some of the most corrosive, vile music known to man, EyeHateGod still hasn't lost the piss and vinegar that fueled them back in 1988. (source)

Jimmy Bower & co. play tonight @ Club Europa in Brooklyn.

SOUNDS: Zac Brown Band

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:04:00 +0000

Zac Brown serves a little chicken fried to NYC tomorrow night (10/24) @ Terminal 5.

STAGE: 23 Coins

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

In the world of revivalist preaching, a man on the verge of losing his charisma latches onto a woman and her young daughter. The child he raises up as a child preacher - but what is his hold on them? What is the secret the mother has? This world premiere musical combines live music, DV projections, recorded sound and a cast of 11 to explore the distinction between religion, spirituality, voodoo and true faith. (source)

23 Coins is in production thru 10/25 at Spoon Theater.

STAGE: Finian's Rainbow @ St. James Theater

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

With a sparkling score of beloved standards and a whimsical story that dances between romance, satire and fairy tale, FINIAN'S RAINBOW is a musical theater treasure.

Set in the mythical southern state of Missitucky, FINIAN'S RAINBOW pits a charming Irish dreamer and his headstrong daughter against the host of complications that await them in their newly adopted land: a bigoted southern Senator, a credit crisis, a pesky leprechaun and, of course, a complicated love affair that gives birth to some of the most witty, charming and heartfelt songs ever written for the stage.

A blend of romantic fantasy and social commentary, the classic musical Finian's Rainbow follows the adventures of an Irishman and his daughter who hope to strike it rich in America, using a pot of gold stolen from a leprechaun. The score by E.Y. Harburg and Burton Lane includes "How Are Things in Glocca Morra," "Old Devil Moon," "Look to the Rainbow" and "If This Isn't Love," among others. (source)

Finian's Rainbow is in previews now @ the St. James Theater and will open 10/29.

SCOOP: NY Times' "36 Hours In Richmond"

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:02:00 +0000

From Sunday's New York Times: AS the heart of the old Confederacy, Richmond, Va., watched with envy as other cities like Atlanta and Charlotte became the economic and cultural pillars of the New South. But Richmond may finally be having its big moment: a building boom in the last few years has seen century-old tobacco warehouses transformed into lofts and art studios. Chefs are setting up kitchens in formerly gritty neighborhoods, and the city’s buttoned-up downtown suddenly has life after dusk, thanks to new bars, a just-opened hotel and a performing arts complex, Richmond CenterStage. Richmond is strutting with confidence, moving beyond its Civil War legacy and emerging as a new player on the Southern art and culinary scene. (Read more of Justin Bergman's piece here)

EXHIBIT: "Courage: The Vision To End Segregation..."

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Thru 12/21/09 @ Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture -

Courage: The Vision to End Segregation, the Guts to fight for It:

Few Americans realize that the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education started in South Carolina, when a country preacher named Rev. J. A. De Laine and his neighbors in Clarendon County filed a lawsuit demanding the end of separate, unequal schools for their children. The Supreme Court’s declaration in 1954 that racially segregated public schools were unconstitutional initiated massive change in race relations across the country. This traveling exhibition, organized in 2004 by the Levine Museum of the New South to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, tells the story of that community—people outside the traditional power structure, without wealth and often with little classroom education—and how they worked together to begin the process that ended legal segregation of the races.

Courage: The Vision to End Segregation, the Guts to fight for It was created by the Levine Museum of the New South, Charlotte, North Carolina and made possible by a generous grant from Bank of America to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education in America’s schools. (source)

SOUNDS: Avett Brothers

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:01:00 +0000

The songs of the Avett Brothers are honest: just chords with real voices singing real melodies. But, the heart and the energy with which they are sung, is really why people are talking, and why so many sing along. They are a reality in a world of entertainment built with smoke and mirrors, and when they play, the common man can break the mirrors and blow the smoke away, so that all that's left behind is the unwavering beauty of the songs. That's the commotion, that's the celebration, and wherever The Avett Brothers are, that's what you'll find. (source)

The Avett Brothers perform at Terminal 5 tomorrow night (10/17).

SOUNDS: Al Green @ BB King's 10/16 & 17

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

From the BB King's site: With his incomparable voice, full of falsetto swoops and nuanced turns of phrase, Al Green rose to prominence in the Seventies. One of the most gifted purveyors of soul music, Green has sold more than 20 million records. During 1972 and 1973, he placed six consecutive singles in the Top Ten: “Let’s Stay Together,” “Look What You Done for Me,” “I’m Still in Love With You,” “You Ought to Be With Me,” “Call Me” and “Here I Am (Come and Take Me).” “Let’s Stay Together” topped the pop chart for one week and the R&B charts for nine; it was also revived with great success by Tina Turner in 1984. In terms of popularity and artistry, Green was the top male soul singer in the world, voluntarily ending his reign with a move from secular to gospel music in 1979.

Beyond his chart-making abilities, Green set a new standard for soul music and essentially created a new kind of soul - one that combined the gritty, down-home sensibility of the Memphis based Stax-Volt sound with the polished, sweeter delivery of Motown. Over a fat, funky bottom, Green’s subtle and inventive voice would soar into falsetto range with beguiling ease. His finest recordings showcase a penchant for jazzy filigree and soulful possession rivaled by the likes of Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin. They also are the products of teamwork, as Green benefited immensely from a longstanding association with producer Willie Mitchell and the house band at Hi Records.

EAT: Charles' Pan-Fried Chicken opens tonight! (10/15)

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

From New York Magazine: You can’t talk about fried chicken in this town without talking about Charles Gabriel, Harlem’s critically acclaimed frymaster who began his career twenty years ago selling chicken out of a truck. Until recently, Gabriel ran a three-shop operation on Frederick Douglass Boulevard called Charles’ Southern-Style Kitchen and moonlighted at Rack & Soul. But eight months ago, a car plowed through one of his storefronts, taking out the beloved steam-table buffet and dashing the dining dreams of soul-food aficionados everywhere. On October 15, he finally reopens his flagship, this time as Charles’ Pan-Fried Chicken, calling attention to the increasingly rare method he employs to fry his legs, wings, breasts, and thighs, turning them frequently in his custom-made manhole-size skillets. How does it feel to return to his old block? “Beautiful,” he says. 2841 Frederick Douglass

SCREEN: D.W. Griffith @ MOMA (10/14 - 16)

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

MOMA will be screenings a few shorts from film pioneer (and Kentuckyian) D.W. Griffith 10/14 - 10/16:

Between the summers of 1908 and 1913, mediocre actor and failed writer David Wark Griffith (1874–1948) transformed the medium of film more drastically than any other filmmaker in the history of cinema. During his time at Biograph, Griffith transcended the primitive visual grammar of his predecessors, distilling a mature expressiveness capable of wielding great emotional power over his audiences. Aided by the cinematographic wizardry of G. W. “Billy” Bitzer, Griffith developed the technical facility to translate the vivid workings of his imagination into motion pictures. This small selection of shorts (mostly in newly restored prints preserved by the Museum), drawn from the approximately four hundred that he made at Biograph, offers a mere glimpse of his prodigious accomplishments during this period. All films silent. (source)

The Country Doctor

1909. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. With Frank Powell, Florence Lawrence, Kate Bruce, Mary Pickford. 15 min.

A Corner in Wheat

1909. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. With Frank Powell, Linda Arvidson, Henry B. Walthall, Mack Sennett. 15 min.

The Honor of His Family

1910. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. With Henry B. Walthall, Verner Charges, Kate Bruce, Linda Arvidson. 16 min.

The Lonedale Operator

1911. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. With Blanche Sweet, George O. Nicholls, Francis J. Grandon, Wilfred Lucas. 16 min.

The Painted Lady

1912. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. With Blanche Sweet, Madge Kirby, Charles Hill Mailes, Harry Carey, Lionel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish. 15 min.

The Battle at Elderbush Gulch

1913. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith. With Mae Marsh, Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Henry B. Walthall. 32 min.

ART: Cy Twombly @ Gagosian thru 10/31

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Gagosian Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new bronze sculptures by Cy Twombly.

Since 1946 Twombly has fashioned sculptures from everyday materials and objects, usually painted with white gesso. In 1979 he began casting some of them in bronze, thus unifying, preserving, and transforming them into cohesive wholes, independent from the original bricolages. The surface and patina of these cast bronzes evoke weathered artifacts that have been exhumed from the earth, an effect that is heightened in those that have been coated in white oil paint.

Born in 1928 in Lexington, VA, Cy Twombly studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1947–49); the Art Students League, New York (1950–51); and Black Mountain College, NC (1951–52). In the mid 1950s, following travels in Europe and Africa, he emerged as a prominent figure among a group of artists working in New York that included Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. In 1959, Twombly settled permanently in Italy. In 1968, the Milwaukee Art Center mounted his first retrospective. This was followed by major retrospectives at the Kunsthaus Zürich (1987) travelling to Madrid, London and Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1994) (travelling to Houston, Los Angeles, and Berlin) and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (2006). In 1995, the Cy Twombly Gallery opened at The Menil Collection, Houston, exhibiting works made by the artist since 1954. The European retrospective "Cy Twombly: Cycles and Seasons" opened at the Tate Modern, London in June 2008, with subsequent versions at the Guggenheim Bilbao and the Museum of Modern Art in Rome in 2009.

Twombly lives in Lexington, VA, and Italy.

HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY!

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

SCENE: Bama heads to Marfa

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:05:00 +0000

October 10, 2009

8am-midnight : El Cosmico, Marfa, Texas

Art Show featuring Alabama Chanin and Museum of Wonder

BOOK: Tin Man

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Charlie Lucas is a self-taught artist. Although he has made art since childhood, only since a debilitating accident in 1984 did Lucas turn to art seriously as a form of personal expression. He has since become recognized nationally and internationally as a great innovator in the field of American folk art. From his workshop in Pink Lily, Alabama - a rural wonderland of objects, sculptures, paintings, buildings, and installations - Charlie Lucas makes his art from materials that others have discarded (as he himself believes he was once discarded): old tin, bicycle wheels, shovels, car mufflers, tractor seats, metal banding, wire, and gears. His work is visionary, in every sense of the word, each creation the result of an intense communion with his heritage, ancestors, race, family, and his own choices in life. Every work is imbued with a story. With more than 200 vivid color photographs - of the artist at work, his studio environments, and his finished creations - "Tin Man" presents Lucas through his own words and stories - his troubled and impoverished childhood, his self-awakening to the depths of his own artistic vision, his perseverance through years of derision and misapprehension, and the salvation that has come through international acclaim and recognition, love of family, and his role as a teacher of children.
(source). Tin Man is being released in October by University of Alabama Press.

Wearing purple today...

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:01:00 +0000

in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month