picture the south

Qatar, part deux

2013-12-07T10:52:00.000-08:00

So many museums, so little time...

The Damien Hirst retrospective, put on by the Qatar Museums Authority:

famous formaldehyde shark:

stained glass butterfly wings:

close-up:

full replication of an English pharmacy:

many, many flies:

more formaldehyde animals (the smell was overpowering):

the breathtaking Museum of Islamic Art, designed by I.M. Pei...

...with equally breathtaking collections:

Qur'an from 13th-century Iraq

pages from a 7th/early 8th century Qur'an

16th century, from Syria or Turkey

this guy

The Ramayana, India, 16th century

wild cat illustration from the 15th/16th century book entitled "The Marvels of Creation and the Oddities of Existence"

the Prophet (with veiled face) encounters a serpent

and then there's this guy:

Last stop, the Museum of Crying Women, an exhibition of Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli's work at the QMA gallery. Very weird, very cool.

and an entire room devoted to the Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum (as well there should be):

Welcome to Qatar, y'all! (part one)

2013-11-10T18:53:00.000-08:00

About a week ago, I returned home from a twelve-day trip to Qatar, where I was doing some preliminary work on a new research project. I stayed mostly in Doha, which is the capital and by far the biggest city, though on the last day I got the chance to venture out of town to a camel-feed farm with some amazing nature photographers and birders. Though I have spent a lot of time in other parts of the Middle East, this was my first trip to the Gulf. Here are some impressions...

(above is the stunning Museum of Islamic Art, designed by I.M. Pei, and opened in late 2008. more on this later).

My hotel was about a 15 minute walk away from the Corniche, a pedestrian walkway that stretched all the way along the curved bay of the city. Despite it being October, it was insanely hot, but everything immediately felt about ten degrees cooler on the Corniche. Below, a fishing dhow; a pop-up mosque on the beach; window reflections; and skyline with the spiraled Islamic Cultural Center.

Friday prayer at the mosque outside my hotel window:

The amount of construction going on in Doha was mind-boggling. For the past 10 years or so, Qatar has been building some of the most impressive, modern buildings in the world, and there are many more in the works. Below, the downtown skyline; the Doha Tower by French architect Jean Nouvel; the Cornell University building in Education City (this is really what it's called); an office building near my hotel; and one of the many, many gigantic malls strewn throughout the city.

And, finally, there was this guy:

happenings

2013-11-05T16:42:00.000-08:00

there is no real excuse for not posting anything for more than three months, but things got a little crazy this summer and fall. here's what's been happening:

saw some beautiful summer colors at Noxubee:

collected water at a nearby natural spring, considered by some to be the cleanest water in Mississippi, and met some fellow spring water enthusiasts at the source:

went pear picking at the wonderful Reese Orchard (and subsequently muscadine and persimmon picking):

got a new phone and discovered Instagram:

oh, and bought a house. more on this later, but here she is, in all her glory:

baby gator head

2013-07-21T14:30:00.001-07:00

Just sittin' on the fence post down the road.

parking lot carnival, columbus

2013-07-07T14:42:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across this in the back parking lot of Columbus' main shopping strip, and immediately was drawn in with the hand-painted signs and old-timey rides. There were some real classics in the mix: Tilt-a-Whirl, of course, but also The Octopus, The Gravitron, The Hustler, The Zipper, The Sea Dragon, and, my favorite, Swamp Thing. The crowd was mostly middle school kids, but there were also some families with little kids, and everyone was having a fantastic time.

the patch, starkville

2013-07-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

Last week I went blueberry picking with some friends at a place called The Patch. There were several free-roaming chickens to keep us company, as well as a pair of woodpeckers who kept swooping down and stealing berries. The owner told us that she has about 10 different varieties of blueberry bushes, and grows them as naturally as possible, without any spraying. And only $12 for a gallon freezer bag. Beat that, Green City Market.

Final product (with many berries left over): giant tray of blueberry cobbler bars

corinth

2013-06-20T06:57:00.001-07:00

Last month my mom and I drove up to Corinth so that she could participate in their annual 10K. While she was running the race (and getting 2nd place in her age group -- go mom!), I spent a bit of time walking around town. It appears barren in large part because it was 7 in the morning and everyone was at the race, but things picked up later in the morning, with a farmers' market, crawfish boil and other festivities.

Corinth was a major Civil War battle site, so there are lots of commemorative statues and plaques around town. And this, of course:

shoe work at its finest

2013-06-13T06:04:00.000-07:00

This is where I now go to get my shoes fixed in Starkville. Mr. Caldwell has owned this business for 8 years, but he said that he started learning the trade when he was 11. I looooved his shop and he kindly let me take some photos. It is chock full of cowboy boots, homemade signs, leather vests, hats, shoe boxes, and some really cool antique shoe-fixing machinery. He makes most of the vests, belts, and buckles himself with scraps of leftover leather from a previous stint in the furniture-making business.

He also keeps a keyboard in the shop to play when things get slow. He's part of a blues band that performs at the local bar every so often.

And yes, the shoe work is indeed very fine. I will definitely be going back.

petit sojourn

2013-06-11T07:08:00.002-07:00

Last month we took a marvelous 10-day family trip to France. We first spent a couple of days in Le Perche region, near the town of Alencon, in a beautiful chateau from the 15th century where Henry IV used to vacation.

Le Perche is famous for its lush fields and woods. The countryside was filled with fields of yellow flowers (I'm pretty sure they were mustard), big, white horses called Percherons, and lots of other farm animals. We drove through little villages and towns, visited a chateau or two, and ate a disgusting amount of pastries and breads, which is what the area is known for.

After Le Perche, we made our way to Paris. We spent most of our time walking through parks, visiting museums, and dining on cheese, chocolate, bread, and wine.

Like five billion other people, my favorite spot in Paris is the Luxembourg Gardens.

While we were there, a Japanese/French girl band was drawing a huge crowd with their jazzy-pop renditions of John Denver songs. It was kind of awesome.

The Tuileries:

Here's a chocolate Mille-Feuille at Jacques Gegin's chocolate salon in the Marais. While we were there, we also had a giant pot of hot chocolate, which was basically just melted chocolate, and a sampling of some chocolate ganaches. If I lived in Paris, you would find me here multiple times a week.

The Seine, Brancusi's atelier, and an Eiffel Tower wedding party:

I went alone to the Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature (Museum of Hunting and Nature), and loved it. It was horrifying and weird and amazing all at once. It was set up in a big mansion, with each room devoted to some different aspect of hunting and/or hunted animals -- guns and knives; dogs and birds used as hunters; taxidermied game; owls; unicorns.

vintage Mississippi

2013-05-23T09:38:00.002-07:00

A couple of weeks ago at a yard sale I bought a stack of old photographs from a graduating college student who was raising money for a cross-country trip to Portland. I'm guessing from the facial hair that most are from the 60s and 70s, and the landscapes in the outdoor shots certainly look like Mississippi. The student I bought them from didn't know much about the photographer -- only that he once lived in a small house on a plantation near Vicksburg, was a bit of a hermit, and that there was some connection to the Mississippi mafia. I'm going to do some digging around to see if I can find out anything else. He obviously knew what he was doing, both with the camera and in the darkroom. Here are a few of my favorites:

bully cream

2013-05-08T06:56:00.000-07:00

MSU makes their own dairy products with their herds of cows. At a store on campus, you can buy different kinds of cheese, butter, milk, and ice cream. We tried out 4 ice cream flavors: muscadine swirl, chocolate almond, butter pecan, and strawberry, all with superbly high fat content.

the crawfish have arrived

2013-04-28T10:15:00.001-07:00

spring pilgrimage

2013-04-20T16:28:00.000-07:00

Many of Mississippi's smaller towns hold an annual event called Spring Pilgrimage, when historic homes are opened up for tours and musical and other events (like Tales from the Crypt) are put on by the town. I went to three homes, all built in the mid-1800s, and all near Columbus' main street district. Though I wasn't allowed to take photos inside, two of them had gigantic gardens that were just beginning to bloom.

The house tours are usually led by groups of ladies dressed up in period costume, though I also got a garden tour by a very enthusiastic 10 year old who managed to get out of school for two weeks for doing this. I also had a long conversation with one of the ladies about their costumes; some of the dresses are indeed from the mid-19th century, but others are made out of curtains, bedspreads, and other household items. Pretty cool.

tales from the crypt

2013-04-14T12:44:00.001-07:00

Columbus holds an annual event in the Friendship Cemetery called Tales from the Crypt. Students from the local Math and Science high school conduct research on particular people buried in the cemetery. They then write monologues from the point of view of the deceased and act them out for small groups of people in the cemetery at night.

We went last Friday, and it was AMAZING. The students had their monologues memorized perfectly, they were all dressed up in period costumes, and there were little musical interludes to keep us entertained. And there were a couple of true acting stars in the mix.

I wish I had been able to take photos/film, but we were explicitly asked not to. This shows a bit of what was going on, though:

Some more nighttime shots from Friendship:

dramatic turtle rescue

2013-04-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

I found this guy in the middle of a busy road by our house this morning. He was a snapping turtle, and a very feisty one at that, so I had to use my umbrella to drag him to safety. Apparently, if you find a turtle in the middle of the road, you're supposed to always move them in the direction they were already facing. Otherwise, they'll just turn right back around and start over again. They're very stubborn like that.

I had to say goodbye to my umbrella, since the little guy wouldn't give it back to me. He had an incredibly strong hold on it.

it's here

2013-04-08T19:13:00.001-07:00

The Wisteria has bloomed! Yes, it is an invasive plant down here, but it is oh so pretty. This one sprung up in back of a Wendy's.

Hotlanta

2013-02-21T17:06:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we took a quick car ride over to Atlanta to visit some friends. We were only there for a day, but had a blast. Stops included 3 restaurants with really good food, the amazing Dekalb farmer's market (a gigantic, international wholesale market with everything), and the Atlanta art museum. That's kind of all we had time for.

Some highlights from the Museum:

The Folk Art collection was great. This was Sam's favorite piece, called A Friend in Need Is a Friend Indeed, by Henry Church, 1888: dog defending man protecting lamb. Made out of sandstone.

Three Ways to Send a Message: Telephone, Telegram, Tell-a-Woman. Elijah Pierce, 1941.

Let me introduce you to Horse. He is made mostly of bottle caps. Mr. Imagination, 2009.

Howard Finster, Shakespeare, and Satan.

The special exhibit was on Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. This was my favorite in the exhibition, done by Kahlo:

And some other highlights:

This one I like to call Little Sam:

finney's sandwich shop, tupelo

2013-02-10T07:34:00.000-08:00

We made a quick trip yesterday to Tupelo, about an hour north of here. Though Tupelo's claim to fame is that it's the birthplace of Elvis, we didn't really get to see any Elvis stuff, except for the hardware store where Elvis' mom bought him a guitar. We did, however, stop at Finney's Sandwich shop on the way out of town, which was a treat. Their motto is 'Not Fancy, Just Plain Good.' The mashed potato salad and strawberry shake were particularly noteworthy.

my home

2013-02-06T16:09:00.003-08:00

I found this at an estate sale last weekend here in Starkville. It's a loose-leaf notebook full of magazine cuttings and notes about the future home of a girl named Maxine, all done as part of a school project -- I'm sure for a Home Ec class or something similar. There are some other school papers inside that date it to around 1938.

The magazine cuttings are all great, but I really love all of Maxine's notes. It's interesting that she refers to particular rooms and features of the house as her own ('My house'; 'My kitchen'). And I like how she really knows what she wants, as well as what she doesn't want: 'A sunny breakfast room. The linoleum spoils the effect.' We've been actively looking for a home since we got here, so all of the planning and daydreaming involved in this resonates. I do not have my own home binder, but this might get me to start one.

"Kitchen storage space is desirable." Tell me about it. I can't fit half our plates into the cupboards of our current kitchen.

"I like the arrangement and the breakfast nook. Could be very attractive with a different color scheme." and "A sunny breakfast room. The linoleum spoils the effect."

"Arrangement and furniture of a bedroom in my house" (presumably for her sub-deb daughter). "However I wouldn't use quite so much red." I would have to agree.

"My dining room" and "Arrangement of windows, fireplace, and furniture in my living room"

"I like the bathroom and would like to have it in my house with modifications" and "Too elaborate for a bathroom."

The ads on back of the cuttings are pretty amazing, too. Of COURSE she wants to clean house!

"Audrey did not like Tim's habit of pinching her ear. She did not want to be one of her husband's habits. She wanted to be loved." Poor Audrey. You can just barely see Tim's hand on her ear in the picture. Creepy.

Though, alas, the house where the estate sale was didn't really resemble any of the pictures in here, there is one happy note: Maxine got an A+ on the project. Her teacher wrote that it was 'neat' and 'well copied.'

winter at noxubee

2013-02-03T10:50:00.004-08:00

'Winter' is relative here. It was a glorious 60 degrees outside today, and with the sun shining, all I needed was a light sweater.

There were a ridiculously large number of birds this morning at Noxubee, and they were creating a very great ruckus. I need to study up on my bird identification, but I think I saw mostly herons, egrets, wood ducks, cormorants, ibises, and a couple of bald eagles. I don't have a telephoto lens, so I couldn't get very good close-ups, but I did manage to catch a couple of guys who ventured towards me. The cardinal was a very curious little fellow -- he followed me along the trail for a while before flying off.

oxford american

2013-02-01T09:54:00.002-08:00

I recently ordered a subscription to the Oxford American, and I absolutely love it. The magazine was born in 1989 in Oxford, Miss, and runs stories about Southern literature, music, news, and all sorts of other random stuff. Every year they come out with a Southern music issue; this year's focused on music in Louisiana and came with a mix tape (actually, CD) with 21 songs, including Cajun accordion music from the early 80s (Octa Clark), an amazing zydeco song from the 50s called 'Bon Ton Roula' (Clarence Garlow), and 'Look What You're Doin' to Me (ooh-wee, baby)' by Professor Longhair (that's him on the cover). What a name.

Bama

2013-01-20T19:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to Tuscaloosa, which is about an hour and a half away. I didn't have a ton of time to spend there, but I got a chance to walk around the downtown area and go to the art museum. I didn't make it on to campus, in part because there was a big football celebration going on, but I hear it's beautiful.

A couple of historic buildings from downtown, including the Bama Theater from the late 30s, and Raymond's Department Store, from 1871:

I went to Tuscaloosa's art museum on a whim, and it turned out to be amazing. The museum is housed in the corporate headquarters of the Westervelt Company (paper makers), and features the collection of the company's founder, Jack Warner. The collection holds mostly American works. The buildings and grounds were influenced by Warner's frequent trips to Burma.

rosa bonheur - comanche village

john singer sargent - mme flora reyntiens

edward hopper - dawn before gettysburg

james whistler - miss dorothy menpes. only one shoe!!

didn't get the author's name, but the painting was called 'uninvited guests.'

edward hicks - peaceable kingdom, c. 1833. one of 61 versions hicks painted.

i'm still trying to figure out what's in their hands...

proof

2013-01-20T13:20:00.004-08:00

It snows in Mississippi!

Granted, it all melted by the afternoon, and temperatures have hovered around 65 since. That's my kind of winter weather.

birthplace of kermit the frog

2013-01-15T08:31:00.002-08:00

A couple weeks ago, I visited the Jim Henson museum in Leland, Miss, a small town in the Delta. Henson spent the first 12 years of his life in Leland, where his friend Kermit inspired the famous frog. The museum was small but packed full with Muppet paraphernalia, including an original Kermit. And the docent was clearly a huge Jim Henson fan. She was listening to Rainbow Connection on loop the entire time I was there.

new year's in oxford

2013-01-10T09:24:00.002-08:00

We decided to make a pilgrimage to Oxford with some friends for New Year's Eve, just to check things out. In addition to housing the U. of Mississippi (aka Ole Miss, aka 'the school up north'), Oxford has a beautiful downtown area and a thriving literary scene. This is where Faulkner lived, and where the wonderful literary quarterly The Oxford American began.

It was a gloomy and rainy day, but we had fun walking around the old square, with shops and restaurants circling the giant courthouse in the middle.

Though his home, Rowan Oak, was closed for the day, we did get a glimpse of Faulkner.

My favorite place we stopped was Neilson's, which is apparently the oldest department store in Mississippi (founded in 1839). Why, yes, that is indeed a bobcat head on the wall.