Deep Fried Kudzu

Nicoise Salad

2012-02-23T19:21:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite lunches at Bottega (it's Bottega Cafe at lunch) -- nicoise salad -- beautiful:

Bottega is owned by Frank Stitt, who is a James Beard 2012 Semifinalist for one of his other restaurants in B'ham, Highlands, as 'Outstanding Restaurant'. All the semifinalists are listed here at the James Beard siet.

Sylacauga Marble

2012-02-22T20:13:00.000-06:00

Sylacauga, Alabama is an interesting place for cemetery monuments, because sculptors were brought to the area for the large marble industry here. There are two main cemeteries here, one more historic than the other, and they each have nice designs:

This is "Little Samuel," sculpted by David Herd, who came here from Scotland with his brothers around 1840 or so.

This particular monument was done by Cesare Pillade Falconi, who was born in Italy in 1856 and then moved here in 1910.

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One of the Herd brothers was also contracted to build this jail of large blocks of native granite in nearby Rockford, which was finished in 1842:

McCarty Pottery

2012-02-21T22:16:00.000-06:00

I've collected McCarty pottery for a while now. My favorite...

This is a pic I took in 2005 of the entrance, covered in bamboo:

While the old water tower across the street is gone (it was the best landmark to find the studio -- just drive to it), the bamboo is still there.

And inside (the studio began as a mule barn) there's all this gorgeousness:

The black wavy line on functional pieces signifies the Mississippi River:

Faulkner gave the owners, Lee and Pup (Pup is sadly gone now), their first clay from a ravine behind Rowan Oak. Yesssss!

McCarty is so perfect in so many ways:

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Broken McCarty pottery as a backsplash.

Downtown Jackson

2012-02-20T21:27:00.000-06:00

Downtown Jackson, Mississippi -- pics from one of our visits in May:

Isn't that gorgeous:

The Mayflower, yum:

...and at night, oh yes:

This Week's Various

2012-02-18T09:23:00.000-06:00

As always, unless otherwise noted, all pics here copyright Deep Fried Kudzu. Ask me before using in any fashion. Thank you.

The Alliance Theatre in Atlanta is doing a beautiful, folk-art take on the Wizard of Oz (2/25 - 3/11): ...will feature a folk art concept in details large and small — from a Toto made of spools to flying sock monkeys and a found-object Tin Man.

“We spent a lovely afternoon going through the High Museum. I did discover the Emerald City in this tiny wind chime,” said Set designer Kat Conley, referencing the museum’s folk art collection. “The whole story is about coming home and finding joy where you are. It’s very much an American story and this is a very American style.”

...Costume designer Sydney Roberts said the department looked to (Howard) Finster’s representations of angels to create original fabric for the costumes of Dorothy and the Wizard.

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Variety ran a lukewarm piece about the movie, Jayne Mansfield's Car, written by Billy Bob Thornton and set in 1969 Alabama: "In line with some of Thornton's earlier films...steeped in the language and atmosphere of the rural South; its characters' tendency to speak in soulful anecdotes and monologues reps an unabashed throwback to a mostly bygone literary and cinematic tradition."

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Rocky and Carlo's in Chalmette had a fire this week but they plan to reopen in mid-April; the Shed in Ocean Springs had a fire this week too but they're already reopened.

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There's a place called Lynyrd Skynyrd BBQ at the Excalibur in Las Vegas. You knew there was going to be a drink called the 'Sweet Home Alabama Slammer' (Southern Comfort, Plymouth Sloe Gin and orange juice) but some of these others (Jack Daniel's and pickle brine, together?)...

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Auburn's Rural Studio has 20k home news: In June of this year, Rural Studio hired Marion McElroy, a 2002 Rural Studio alumna, as the $20K House Product Manager. ...She is beginning to formulate an initial plan to move from $20K Project to $20K Product. While continuing to research the target clients and how to deliver the product to them, Marion is taking steps to move the projects out of the research area. This includes activities such as conducting complete architectural reviews, including code review and FHA compliance; discussions of the need, placement and method of completing model homes, or show homes, for potential clients, and a branding and marketing plan.

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From the Smithsonian food blog this week: at a cookbook conference in NY, "one panel of historians and scholars extolled the value of texts traditionally relegated to the basements and attics: community cookbooks.

...includes an 1878 book from Mobile, Alabama entitled Gulf City Cook Book Compiled by The Ladies of the St. Francis Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South. As Alison Kelly, the reference librarian who curated the collection, said, “if you thought community cookbooks were just chicken croquettes, this book will change your mind.”

Compared to today’s cooking, some of the book’s recipes—turtle soup or terrapin stew, for example—reflect a changing Southern ecology. The recipes also serve as a document of a profound cultural shift: the decline of hunting, wild game, chitlins, and pig’s feet. Perhaps this is best exemplified by the utterly mundane treatment of squirrel.

...Recently, Heather Smith issued a call for the resquirrelification of the American diet—an effort to transform the garden-variety rodent into a “drive-through cheeseburger of the forest.” While that may seem somehow exceptional now, the Alabama community cookbook is a reminder that, at least in 1878, there was hardly anything extraordinary about stewing up a squirrel."

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Howard Finster's daughter is displeased with his depiction in a play at UGA. And the Chattanooga paper writes about plans for Paradise Gardens now that it is owned by the county.

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Eating Alabama, a documentary about a couple who took on a project eating exclusively food grown/raised in the state, will premiere at SXSW.

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Ruby C. Williams was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from her hometown's Plant City Black Heritage Celebration. Ruby's Produce Stand and Art Gallery sits on her portion of the land handed down by her grandfather and, after her mother's death, parceled out to Williams and her six siblings. She grows black-eyed peas, strawberries, onions, turnips and other crops.

Brightly colored paintings share the roadside stand with turnips, collard greens and other offerings. Next to a hand-painted sign that reads "Ruby is in the field, call me, please" are her latest creations, some priced at $750 or more.

Yay, sweet Ruby!

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The Charlotte in 2012 DNC host committee has put out a RFP now that they are "looking to work with a Barbeque sauce vendor as part of the merchandising effort for the Convention. We are looking for a set of three different types of BBQ sauces, mustard, vinegar, and tomato that represent the different styles from around the Carolinas. They would be sold in our merchandise store."

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'Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial' opens at the New Orleans Museum of Art on February 24 and runs thru May 20.

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Just guess where the National Blues Museum is going to be.
St. Louis.

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On March 8, the contents of the now-closed Mardi Gras Museum in Kenner will go up for auction.

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The Army Corps of Engineers and local historians are reaching out to descendants of 300+ slaves who are buried in two cemeteries west of New Orleans that only a handful of people know exists, even though they're on the National Register. And there may be 5800 unmarked graves in the oldest black cemetery -- Lincoln -- in Montgomery.

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CNN's eatocracy ran a piece this week about Bean Pie, and wow did they ever get comments.

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The T-P's king cake winner is the pecan praline king cake at Manny Randazzo's!

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Crystal Bridges' $30MM deal + Tennessee's Fisk University's Stieglitz collection = lawsuit, thanks to a no-sale stipulation by the donor

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February 22-26: 24th International Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis.

Alabama Clay Conference

2012-02-16T20:40:00.000-06:00

Tonight, I attended the opening reception for the first annual Alabama Clay Conference show at the Art Folk Gallery in downtown Birmingham. *Many* nice people and work there:

Paveen “Beer” Chunhaswasdikul:

Jane Marshall:

Kevin Irwin:

Scott Bennett:

Janice Kluge:

The conference is being held through the 19th at the BJCC, but all these works are in the Young & Vann Building, 1731 1st Ave N. The website is here.

Evolving Sushi, And Peddling What's Not Southern Food

2012-02-15T11:06:00.000-06:00

Last month, the Washington Post ran an article, 'Sushi Standards and the American Way':

...He knows dining all boils down to enjoyment, not some mystic quest for authenticity every time you enter an eatery.

Still, in his more reflective moments, he worries about the state of genuine Japanese sushi, the kind that requires years of training, an almost obsessive attention to detail and a passion for fresh, clean flavors.

Every Sunday evening, Av and I have a tradition that goes back to when we were first married: we eat very good sushi and watch HBO. We've gone through years of the Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Carnivale, Big Love...and now we're enjoying Luck (which stars someone that married one of Av's relatives: Dustin Hoffman, which is cute!) while holding chopsticks.

But once or twice a year, we'll go out for lunch and will try some new sushi place, which explains the two pics above, one called a 'Vulcan Roll' and the bottom one that I've already forgotten the name of, but came from just the kind of place that the Washington Post article discussed, a place where the menus are inside record covers, and they serve things like the 'Velcro Pygmies Roll'. Yeah. It's okay that once or twice a year, but we know Sunday night we're getting our 'real' sushi.

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This made me think about a conversation many people have been having about 'what is Southern food' -- and the perception of it put forth by one particular network and one particular entertainer. Southern food is sweet tea and fried chicken, but it is also collard greens (one of the healthiest foods you'll find anywhere) and nearly-every-other-vegetable and tons of fruit, thanks to our very long growing season. My children will tell you their favorite food -- both of them will say this -- is rutabagas. Southern food is not what's peddled by one television personality, but what's prepared and served every day in real family Southern kitchens.

Just like the above, there are people and places and occasional times for everything. But there is also beautiful foundation on which everything else stands (or falls).

Now I'm going to go have a vegetable plate lunch of collards, limas, peas, and a sweet potato or squash casserole at my favorite meat & three, where all guests are greeted with this sign:

Scopes Trial

2012-02-14T09:12:00.000-06:00

This summer, we visited Dayton, Tennessee as part of a larger trip -- at first, I didn't remember what Dayton is famous for, but there are several signs around town, and one of the main attractions is the Rhea County Courthouse, as this is where the Scopes Trial took place in the summer of 1925:

The Tennessee statute -- the Butler Act -- made it "unlawful for any teacher in...the State...to teach any theory that denies the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible...". So when John Scopes was put on trial for teaching evolution in his science class, the ACLU offered to come up with some money to help his defense. And one of the (non-ACLU, I think) defense lawyers was Clarence Darrow.

The other side included William Jennings Bryan, who had previously been nominated for president, and was famous for his 'Crown of Thorns...Cross of Gold' speech which he delivered at the 1896 Democratic National Convention). He was remembered for this speech, and recited portions of it again in 1921 for a recording company; you can listen to it here). There's a sculpture of Bryan on the courthouse lawn:

He died five days after the trial had come to its conclusion. The community raised money to build a college, and Bryan College is there today.

Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 (the conviction was set aside on appeal due to a technicality).

The following images are from the Smithsonian, and are under no copyright restrictions:

John T. Scopes

The seven scientists asked to testify for the defense

William Jennings Bryan (seated, left) being interrogated by Clarence Darrow. Court was being held outside since it was so hot in the courthouse

Frito Chili Pie, Glorious Texas, Saveur 100, And The Mesoamerican Civilization Glory Of Nixtamalization

2012-02-13T10:10:00.001-06:00

One of my points of pride is that a majority of everything (outside restaurants) that my boys eat is either natural or organic, or some iteration...

...but...

I knew from the weather reports that this weekend was going to be really cold, so I introduced my boys to a dish that I knew well from my 18 months or so of living in Texas in elementary school, and every visit to a Friday night football game concession stand then and since: Frito chili pie.

Well, actually there are two Friday night football game foods no one should live without, one being a giant cold pickle, and the other a snack-size bag of Fritos slit down the side with chili and cheese poured inside. Thus, Frito chili pie.

Those two foods apply for drive-in theater snacks, too.

I miss Texas. I miss tumbleweeds, jackrabbits, armadillos, horned toads, having your name stamped on a belt, the XIT Rodeo and Boys Ranch Rodeo and other rodeos every weekend, brisket, boots, Whataburger, really good Dairy Queens, people pulling to the side so others can pass, 4-H, real Tex-Mex and real Mex, Cadillac Ranch, The Big Texan, huge football game corsages, Friday night football, real country fried steak, horseback riding in canyons, mesas, having half a cow in your freezer, living in a county shaped like a square, knowing not to ever put your cowboy hat on your bed, shirts with pearlized snaps, having a clock or cutting board in the shape of Texas, salad wagon, sand burrs, sunflowers, and Frito Chili Pie.

(This is me when I was homecoming representative for my 5th grade at my school in Texas. With my super-cool boyfriend who later came to visit me in college. He had turned into a real cowboy.)

Anyway, I picked up Fritos at Publix and tossed my soapbox to the wind (does anyone really like anyone else on their haughty soapbox? Uh, no.). And oh was it good.

You can make this either in the bag, or in a bowl at home --

first layer Fritos
second layer chili (I just take hamburger meat cooked with onions, add spices, add tomato (sometimes, not always), add masa to thicken it...whatever your chili recipe is -- just fine, although I am in the no-beans-in-chili camp -- you too?)
third layer freshly grated cheese
you can add anything else you like -- onions, scallions, sour cream, extra jalapenos...

Oh yes, yes, yes, it it was so good and so satisfying and so luscious. Perfect.

FCP even made the latest Saveur 100 list. And Daniel Bouloud liked it so much at the Super Bowl that he's bringing bags of Fritos back home to France with him. New York Magazine did a slideshow for the nine best FCPs there.

In last month's Smithsonian, there was an article mentioning Frito chili pie, with this lofty foundation:

As much scorn and derision as today’s leading nutritional gurus heap onto processed foods, it’s worth noting that Fritos arrived here by way of a Mesoamerican staple and their invention and flavor owes a debt to one of the greatest food processing technologies ever invented: nixtamalization. The 3,000-year-old tradition adding calcium hydroxide—wood ash or lime—so greatly enriches the available amino acids in masa corn that Sophie Coe writes in America’s First Cuisines that the process underlies “the rise of Mesoamerican civilization.” Lacking this technology, early Europeans and Americans (who considered corn fit for slaves and swine) learned that eating a diet exclusively based on unprocessed corn led to pellagra...

Lowe Mill Is A Wonderland

2012-02-12T19:05:00.001-06:00

My friend Conor O'Brien has a studio at Lowe Mill in Huntsville, which is basically a terrific, large mill/factory/whatever turned artist mecca, with dozens of studios (but not so big as to become crazy). It's open during certain days each week and it has a fantastic feel. Oh, and the elevators are the greatest, with someone there to run it for you. Love.

Nickel Cigar Box Guitars:

How can you not love a place called Beloved Community Books, Vertical House Records, or Crash Boom Bang Theatre?

Other artists I really liked: Everett Cox who is a sculptor and has the bronze foundry, Gökden Alpman Matthews Art Studio (liked those pottery dresses, #3 of 7 in the online gallery), Green Pea Press (who also had work by my friends Amos P. Kennedy Jr and Glenn House Sr.), Guadalupe Robinson's pottery...

And how fantastic is Squeaking Tribe?!:

Conor O'Brien's workspace:

Loooove this piece he did...

Oh, and he likes the original Greenbriar Barbecue too. Extra points.

Cannot *wait* to come back here...

This Week's Various

2012-02-10T10:21:00.000-06:00

As always, unless otherwise noted, all pics here copyright Deep Fried Kudzu. Ask me before using in any fashion. Thank you.

A full week of regular postings starting again on Sunday...

The AP put out a report about Chattooga County purchasing Finster's Paradise Gardens.

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Dillard House fried chicken recipe here (it's just as easy or easier than you already do). From looking at their website, I think they're trying to mimic the Loveless and their success with items by mail.

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Hoo-wee. Prosecutors Get Folksy in Alabama Gambling Retrial in the Montgomery Advertiser. Read that. Gosh.

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When you think of food in Montreal, smoked meat has to be considered (hallelujah for Schwartz's) but the barbecue restaurants there are being targeted by the authorities there for air pollution.

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The Atlantic writes about Shreveport's Moonbot Studios:
Comparisons to Pixar are unavoidable, but Moonbot's work has a distinctive feel -- an affinity for old things, an antique veneer, and a hint of southern gothic. With an eye for details like Buster Keaton's straw hat and vintage French typography, Moonbot's world is immersive and rich. Even in his noninteractive format, Mr. Lessmore will be a contender for one of those little golden statues.

This short animated film of theirs has been nominated for an Academy Award:

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

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From this month's New Orleans Magazine: The NOLA Pie Guy, a pop-up pie stand on Freret, and Bee Sweet Cupcakes at 5706 Magazine: “For Mardi Gras we do a King Cake in a cup called the Endemy-yum. It is basically a cinnamon-roll-based cupcake jazzed up with a Cointreau glaze..."

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Av got an invitation this week to see a screening of the Oscar-nominated short documentary, Barber of Birmingham but couldn't go, so Leslie and I drove like crazy people but didn't make it in time. Here's the trailer:

Barber of Birmingham - Trailer from jacob steingroot on Vimeo.

Now, another documentary I really want to see:
"Linotype: The Film" Official Trailer from Linotype: The Film on Vimeo.

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The Women's Industrial Kitchen in Baltimore which has a beautiful history, was favorably reviewed in last Sunday's Baltimore Sun here. Pics here.

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From the press release: Ancient Walled City Unearthed Off Georgia Coast Revealed
A new web exhibit at LostWorlds.org, an online interactive museum of the American Indian, reveals an ancient walled city unearthed by archaeologists off the Georgia coast which predates the construction of Egypt’s pyramids. Known as the Sapelo Shell Ring Complex, this ancient city was constructed around 2300 B.C. and featured three neighborhoods each surrounded by circular walls twenty feet in height constructed from tons of seashells. Some of the earliest pottery in North America was also found buried in the remains of this lost city.

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This weekend, the second annual Heritage Cake Contest will take place, sponsored by the Lee County Historical Society. Last year's winner was a Lane cake. The recipes have to be at least 100 years old or to have been passed through at least three generations.

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My friend Conor O'Brien makes a half onion sprouting one of the most beautiful things ever.

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A 'Historic Resources Specialist' position (which sounds more like operations manager in reality) is open at the Eudora Welty home in Jackson. Details here.

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You know how it hurts whenever a 'Southern' cake recipe begins with "1 box cake mix"? Well now we have a bakery offering their recipe for a king cake that begins with "2 packages of your favorite uncooked cinnamon rolls".

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What a beautiful thing. The T-P reports: Operation We Care, a nonprofit organization in Ponchatoula, is seeking sponsors to send a taste of home to troops serving abroad. For nine years, Operation We Care (along with Randazzo’s Camellia City Bakery in Slidell, and several generous contributors), has been sending king cakes to deployed troops. Randazzo’s Camellia City Bakery is donating 500 king cakes. Operation We Care needs to buy another 500 and pay the postage for 1,000 king cakes. The king cakes will be mailed Feb. 24, so time is of the essence.

Operation We Care is working to ensure that local military personnel serving overseas can enjoy a taste of Carnival. A king cake can be sponsored for $25. Individual sponsorship can be made online at http://www.operationwecare.com/king-cakes.php. Checks also may be mailed to Operation We Care, P.O. Box 1306, Ponchatoula, LA 70403.

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I don't buy tomatoes in the winter (after reading Tomatoland and a couple of other books/articles...) but Trader Joe's has just signed a fair food agreement with The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which is a big improvement.

Good thing there is no controversy around Joe Joes.

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Vernacular Typography on Kickstarter. Vernacular Typography is a digital archive and community-based initiative dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and promotion of vanishing examples of lettering in the everyday environment. It seeks to explore, protect, and support the typographic environment in cities around the world that retain their rich traditions of vernacular signage.

...Typography is a powerful marker of regional identity and has a remarkable ability to capture the local character of a particular time and place.

Unfortunately, in some places globalization has all but erased the local typographic heritage. Cities that once had a unique typescape now look like they could be anywhere in the world.

For the past 10 years, I've been photographing environmental lettering and organizing the images by place and category on VernacularTypography.com. Right now the website has over 5,000 images of urban typography from 10 different countries, including Argentina, The Bahamas, Chile, Cuba, England, France, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the US.

The goal of the project is to gather as many images of endangered local signage before it disappears altogether; create an archive to document and share those images; and work to revive the tradition of creating new, original lettering in the built environment.

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I've been a Peter Chang fan for a few years now so was happy to see this article about him in the Washington Post; how cute is it that his business partner for his restaurants in Virginia is named Gen Lee?

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Chick-fil-A and football recruiting.

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The T-P reports: An intimate, candid painting of chef Leah Chase absorbed in slicing yellow squash in the kitchen as she prepares for the lunch rush at Dooky Chase restaurant has been added to the collection of iconic American images in the National Portrait Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

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There's a bakery in Maryville TN that is licensed to make Moon Pie cupcakes (the only one anywhere). The owner contacted Moon Pie: "I emailed the VP, and I called him. He said we don't really do that," Rayburn said. "I asked if I could bring them down for him to try. He said, sure. So I brought them down and he took one bite and said, 'You got it!'"

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John Besh's king cake cupcake recipe here.

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The Pens acola News-Journal writes about the cheesemakers at Sweet Home Farm in Elberta: "We bought the farm when small farms were on their way out," Wolbert said. "Everything was get big, or get out and use chemicals. We don't use chemicals." The couple had to scrounge up farming books from the 1930s and '40s to learn the ways of small farmers. "All of my milking equipment is also from the 1940s," Wolbert said.

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Teach for America in the Delta.

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The AJC reports (and I'm so happy to say) that H&M was called out on taking another local artist's work, and they lost. "Our leverage was bad press," said attorney John Seay, who said he negotiated a "creative settlement" with H&M. Representatives of the company did not respond to requests from the AJC seeking comment.

LaConsay said the retailer has agreed to contribute $3,000 toward a surgery for her best friend's dog while also donating the remainder of profits generated by the "You Look Nice Today" items to charitable organizations.

"I am especially pleased that this agreement respectfully honors the true intent behind the original artwork, offering a message of love, compassion and community," LaConsay said in a statement. "Additionally, I am heartened and vindicated in my belief that given the chance and support, that people want to do the right thing."

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Pollard's Barbecue in Memphis is going to be on Restaurant Impossible in May.

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Museums/Architecture: What is going on with the Slavery Museum in Virginia? Architectural icon, La Cite Radieuse, which was designed by Le Corbusier, had major damage from a fire this week. FLW designed a dog house, and yes, it leaked. The Road to Tara Museum in Georgia had some items stored in a facility that had a fire this week and it's as-yet uncertain what was damaged. The NYT writes about architectural apps, like Richard Neutra’s VDL Studio and Residences, Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House #22, and FLW's Fallingwater.

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Have you seen Snake Man of Appalachia on Animal Planet? It's wonderful. The Chattanooga TFP writes about a professor at UTC who helped make a match so that the series could be possible.

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The NYT Frugal Traveler writes part 1 of his Texas Road Trip.

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The Jefferson County Sound doc on APT, airing again on 2/14 -- and lots of Blind Boys of Alabama:

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The Hattiesburg paper writes that the Mississippi Craftsmen's Guild is now up to 400 members, and the best quote: "Why pick china off a shelf that is mass-produced when craftsmen can customize for you and make a set of pottery like no one else has? These are the heirlooms of tomorrow. They are nothing that will be put in garage sales. These are things that will be passed on to people's children and grandchildren."

This Week's Various

2012-02-03T09:13:00.000-06:00

The NYT reports, "The folklorist and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax was a prodigious collector of traditional music from all over the world and a tireless missionary for that cause. Long before the Internet existed, he envisioned a “global jukebox” to disseminate and analyze the material he had gathered during decades of fieldwork. A decade after his death technology has finally caught up to Lomax’s imagination.

Just as he dreamed, his vast archive — some 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 feet of film, 3,000 videotapes, 5,000 photographs and piles of manuscripts, much of it tucked away in forgotten or inaccessible corners — is being digitized so that the collection can be accessed online. About 17,000 music tracks will be available for free streaming by the end of February, and later some of that music may be for sale as CDs or digital downloads."

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NBC 33 in Utah reports that a Louisiana film, Beasts of the Southern Wild, won Sundance's grand jury prize this past weekend: "...tells the story of an 8-year old girl who is forced to learn how to fend for herself in post-Katrina New Orleans after her father falls ill."

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Ralph's on the Park is putting a silver Mignon Faget baby in a king cake each Friday (2/3, 2/10, 2/17) for a lucky diner during lunch. I've wanted her gumbo necklace for a long time and love the new hive collection. She's great at doing icons, like Lucky Dog, sno balls, and shotgun houses.

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From the AP article about Louisiana reality shows: With the premiere of the third season of "Swamp People" set for Feb. 9, History is building a swamp in New York's Chelsea Market this week. From the History Channel site: Now Open at Chelsea Market from February 2 – 12! HISTORY has transformed a 5,600 square foot space within New York City’s Chelsea Market into a south Louisiana swamp experience featuring over 6,500 gallons of water, live alligators and red-eared turtles, 15 feet tall live cypress trees, and over 1,000 live plants indigenous to the region.

Join us at the Swamp in the City where you can meet the cast of Swamp People, check out live alligators, sample free Cajun favorites such as Gumbo and Crawfish Étouffée by renowned Cajun Chef John Folse, listen to live music from Sac Au Lait, and have a chance to win an all-expense paid trip to Louisiana, courtesy of LousianaTravel.com. With live GatorCam.

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Very nice that the Scottsboro Daily Sentinel wrote a complimentary editorial about the Scottsboro Boys Museum.

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When we were in Laurel, MS we stopped at Dickey's Barbecue -- had never heard of it before -- and turns out (which we figured out once we got in the parking lot) that it was a franchise which started in Dallas. Not just a franchise, but the fastest-growing barbecue chain in the nation, with a new store opening every six days. This pic above is one of the plates we got, which I think they doubled up one of the other plates' sides on. It wasn't bad but it wasn't good, either (gas-fired smoker). And the potato salad was like mashed potato salad.

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Douglas A. Blackmon grew up in Leland and went on to become a journalist for the WSJ and author of Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, which won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and was a 2008 best-seller. The movie, based on the book, will be on PBS stations this month. More here.

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Didn't realize that the new (as of November) curator of art at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Jennifer Jankauskas, was at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center before this position.

Now through March 4, the MMFA has 'Paintings by Mose Tolliver' on exhibit. This month's art auction looks interesting, too. I think I saw at least two sculptures by Frank Fleming.

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This month's Conservation Biology reports, "Collectively, these results suggest there is virtually no chance the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is currently extant within its historical range in the southeastern United States." The ivory-billed woodpecker, which Audubon painted and described as common...

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The AP reported on Daniel Moore's lawsuit with Alabama at the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, "At Thursday's hearing, the university argued its right to protect its trademark should trump Moore's First Amendment rights to paint scenes from Alabama football games.
Moore and his attorneys countered that his artwork, which includes paintings, prints and drawings on coffee mugs, is protected free speech and shouldn't be restricted by trademark law." What was really interesting were the last two paragraphs:
Media organizations have flocked to Moore's defense. A friend-of-the-court brief filed by the American Society of Media Photographers and the Alabama Press Association claimed Moore was expressing the culture of his surroundings, much like Claude Monet was inspired by water lilies in France and Pieter Bruegel was moved to portray peasants in Belgium.

Moore, Monet, and Bruegel in the same sentence! Can I get an Amen?!

"Daniel Moore lives in Alabama; he paints football," the brief said. "To say football is special in Alabama is to understate the state's passion for and interest in it — not by inches, but by yards."

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The Washington Post ran the AP piece about the Bill Traylor exhibit at the High. From the AJC, another article. 30 of the Bill Traylor works are from the MMFA.

Vietnamese Po Boys

2012-02-01T22:57:00.000-06:00

Last month when we were in Biloxi, we had lunch at Le Bakery because they serve Vietnamese Po Boys. Which is a little strange to say, but when you put traditional banh mi fillings in po boy bread in a place where we all eat po boys...you get, well, a Vietnamese po boy. Ohmystars it was delicious!

Red Velvet Armadillo Cakes, And Camo Groom's Cake With His & Her Deer Heads

2012-01-31T08:30:00.000-06:00

The weddings issue of Mississippi Magazine is out -- it doesn't have the best-ever innovations, but in this issue it was mostly the men who customized their parts the best:

"Instead of a traditional cake, the groom chose his favorite Southern desserts, pecan pie and bite-size pecan tassies."

"...a four-tiered wedding cake for the bride...the top and bottom tiers were red velvet cake, the bride's favorite, while the remaining two layers were Italian cream and traditional wedding cake. The groom provided a dessert table featuring lemon tarts, pecan pie tarts, and his favorite, sweet potato casserole tarts."

One wedding was a military wedding and included a 'missing chair ceremony honoring Prisoners of War and those Missing in Action.' "During the ceremony, an honor guard presented the wheel hats of each branch of the military at a vacant place setting. A single candle decorated the table, representing the prisoner alone. The plates were served with a lemon to signify that the POW and MIA were unable to participate in the toasts during the celebration." Very nice.

"The groom's cake was fashioned as a black labrador, wearing an Auburn University collar, in honor of the groom's alma mater. In the lab's mouth was a duck, wearing the National Champions' opponents' (Oregon) colors."

"An armadillo red velvet cake, as a tribute to the couple's Southern roots and one of the bride's favorite movies..."

"The groom's cake, a gingerbread house created to look like the couple's new home..."

"The focal point was a chocolate chip cake filled with caramel, iced in buttercream, and designed as a red snapper."

"The groom's four-tiered cake, covered in camouflage fondant, sat on a stump which the groom cut. It was topped with "his and her" deer heads."

Wade Wharton's Newest Creations

2012-01-30T14:56:00.000-06:00

I try to visit Wade Wharton every five or six weeks but I think it had been since November since my last visit, and after last week's Huntsville Times feature, we were really trying to find a good time to get together. I think Wade has done some of his best work the last quarter of 2011 and currently:

(new) Caterpillar:

(new) Thin Buddha (remember when Buddha fasted to achieve clarity, although his clarity came after the fast was over?):

I think this is one of his greatest pieces ever.

(old) Dragonfly, from behind.

It was hard to photograph this one well (and I still don't have a good shot) -- this is the new mosquito - see his red nose cone? He was just hit with a swatter (see also next pic) which explains his legs up:

This praying mantis is another of my long-time favorites:

This is a story of Creation -- the devil as a demon, and Adam -- upset over the trickery with Eve -- as cowboy (even with spurs!)...there's also a strategically-placed maple leaf:

Inside, Wade has this piece he's done, of the Last Supper:

Sounds like a couple of new exhibits may be coming his way soon...

Wade loves visitors to his art environment; email me if you'd like to see him!

This Week's Various

2012-01-27T16:02:00.001-06:00

KPBS: Can Salvation Mountain be Saved? "It took artist Leonard Knight almost 30 years to build a colorful mountain out of adobe and paint in the middle of the Imperial Valley desert. It’s called Salvation Mountain and it draws thousands of tourists to the area. KPBS arts reporter Angela Carone finds out why a monument to religious salvation, now needs its own savior."

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The NYT on the 20th anniversary of the Outsider Art Fair. MAKE skateboards is selling Royal Robertson decks?!

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One of my very good friends' husband has just written a book that was reviewed by the AP and ran in the Washington Post, Quest for Justice: Defending the Damned. You can preorder at Amazon now (it's out on Jan 31). He's a defense lawyer well-known for his high-profile cases, particularly those involving people on death row. The last paragraph of the article: “In every case, my fervent stance against the death penalty precludes a person or the government from taking any life, for any reason,” he writes. “Only the G-d I believe in should do that, without human intervention.”

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The T-P goes to Haydel's for a king cake tasting to determine who has the best, they write, "A waiter in a tuxedo served us judges a Haydel’s traditional cake, a cream-cheese-filled king cake, and the newest flavor, the chocolate-chip-brownie filled king cake. It has a strip of brownie dough baked onto the top."

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From the press release: Lauren Rogers Museum of Art presents Eudora Welty’s Garden: Photographs by Langdon Clay on display in the Stairwell Gallery February 9 through April 1. The public is invited to attend a Gallery Talk by Clay Feb. 9 at 6 p.m. with a reception and book-signing to follow. ((If you're thinking Langdon Clay's name sounds familiar, his wife is Maude Schuyler Clay.))

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(this is not the sign for the show, but it reminded me of this place in Florence I took a pic of in 2006)

Playwright Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder (who wrote the play 'Gee's Bend') will debut 'Chat and Chew Supper Club' (tickets here) March 1-4 and March 8-11 at All Saints Episcopal Church in Mobile. After a year of being at home with her baby, she said, "I knew it was time to put away the purple velour track suit I had lived in for the past year and reclaim my life. I enrolled my daughter in daycare part time, bought myself a pair of sassy boots, and started cooking and writing again.

“I still craved adult conversation and a place to wear my sassy boots. That’s when the ‘Chat and Chew Supper Club’ was born. Part essay, part performance, part dinner with friends, ‘Chat and Chew Supper Club’ is a thoughtful and humorous monologue about food (there is chocolate involved), friendship (everyone needs a friend willing to help them hide a body) and the best advice ever given (requires nudity).

“So grab a bottle of wine and join me in the kitchen, where you’ll hear me talk about all the things we hunger for while I cook you supper,” Wilder says. “Then hang out with me and a table full of strangers for conversation and a home-cooked meal.”

A source of her funding is RocketHub (think Kickstarter) -- and she's almost 50% of the way there.

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The FLW Heller home in Hyde Park (Chicago) is on the market for $2.5MM.

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The 27th Alabama Clay Conference will be in Birmingham from February 16-19. There will be a trade show, an exhibit, a clay market, and other ceramic exhibits going on in town.

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The Blond Giraffe Key Lime Pie Factory -- who won 'best key lime pie in Florida' by Florida Monthly eight consecutive years -- has moved (!!) from Key West to Pigeon Forge (!!!). And to help fit in, they've started making candy flavored with Jack Daniels.

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Jesmyn Ward from DeLisle, Mississippi, who wrote Salvage the Bones, won the 2011 National Book Award for fiction. From the NBA site: A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch’s father is growing concerned. A hard drinker largely absent, he doesn’t show interest in much else. Esch and her three brothers are stocking food, but there isn’t much to save. Lately, Esch can’t keep down what food she gets; she’s fifteen and pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is sneaking scraps for his prized pit bull’s new litter, dying one by one in the dirt. Meanwhile, brothers Randall and Junior try to stake their claim in a family long on child’s play and short on parenting.

As the twelve days that make up the novel’s framework yield to a dramatic conclusion, the unforgettable family at the novel’s core—motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce—pulls itself up to face another day.

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I was going to tell my friend Joey Brackner, who is executive director of the Alabama Center for Traditional Culture about the JB Skinner jug (est. $2500-3500) that was featured on an episode of Antiques Roadshow this month, but when I looked it up, I found that he had already been consulted about it; the article is at PBS here.

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I don't even like wallpaper, but this is the best wallpaper everrrr.

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Friday's NYT op-ed by Randy Fertel (Ruth's son) on Mississippi River Delta erosion, and what needs to happen now to help turn things around -- starting with BP penalty money being turned over to Gulf states. Note, the Times had to rewrite the piece as they originally ran it on Friday as the Mississippi Delta (think Clarksdale, Greenwood, Belzoni, etc) rather than the Mississippi River Delta, which is where Randy is talking about. I made the link to their corrected piece.

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Very nice: Tupelo Honey in Asheville is shipping 30 brown butter pecan pies to our troops in Afghanistan for Valentine's Day. Seen their newish cookbook? And they're expanding into Knoxville now.

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The AP reports on Yiddish being taught at college, including Emory. yay! And the NYT reports on 'A Jewish Museum Shifts Identity'.

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(a not-great pic I took of his work at Kentuck a few years ago)

On view through April 8, Jimmy Descant: The Shape of Louisiana Commenting on the Shape of Louisiana at the Ogden.

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There is a 'To Kill A Mockingbird' iPhone case. And Universal Orlando will start a nightly water show this spring that includes clips from TKaM and other movies, all voiced over by (you guessed this already) Morgan Freeman.

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"Let Saigons be Saigons Lemongrass Mint Julep with Lychee" with recipe, from nola.com.

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(this pic from a lunch we had there a couple of years ago)

Meat and Three Swett's, in Nashville, is now serving barbecue that they make in a pit 'fired by hickory wood alone -- no gas'. “Gas and wood, it’s not the same flavor,” Swett said, contending that gas can give meat sulfurous taste." Amen!

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Reuters reports from Sundance:
Julie Dash, who directed the television movie "The Rosa Parks Story," is in final negotiations to direct Angel Entertainment's feature "Tupelo 77," Angel's Bob Crowe said Sunday.

The movie is set in a small town in Mississippi in the summer of 1977. It tells the story of a group of women of various ages and races who are regulars at a roadside diner. The summer of 1977 -- the year Elvis Presley died -- is the hottest on record in Mississippi.

Yo Majesty's

2012-01-26T15:38:00.001-06:00

Earlier this month when we were in Port Gibson, MS we went through downtown and found Yo Majesty's Beauty Salon Etc. (look at what one of the stylists there can do!):

PC Lunch

2012-01-25T14:54:00.001-06:00

Mimi's birthday is in January, and her favorite bakery is Savage's in Homewood. As we went to pick up her birthday cake during lunch, we went ahead and ordered a couple of sandwiches -- this was one of the loosest pimento cheeses I've ever had, but on their sun-dried tomato bread, it was pretty good...

Prettiest Post Office Ever

2012-01-24T14:22:00.000-06:00

Alabama became a state in 1819; before that, the first town incorporated by the Territorial Legislature was Mooresville -- and it doesn't look as though too much has changed in the last 150 years or so.

The white 1854 Church of Christ, bottom-right, is where James Garfield preached while he was camped during the War, before he became president:

The church in the middle, above, is the 1839 Old Brick Church. It reminds me of First Presbyterian in Port Gibson, MS since they both have hands pointing up from the steeple:

My favorite building of all, though, is the 1840 post office (the oldest in the state):

...and look how pretty inside. The mail slots date to before the War, too. When I went in to buy some stamps, I spoke with the clerk who said that they get more business than the much more modern post office nearby, because in part they get so much wedding invitation business (people want Mooresville on their envelopes, and this post office still hand-cancels the stamps so they stay pretty).

Some of those boxes there have been in the same family for generations!

Mounds, Schools, And Churches

2012-01-23T13:19:00.005-06:00

On the way to Starkville last year, we found this marker (below, left) for an Indian mound close by the Tibbee Creek. My WPA book says that the site is where 'Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes once fought a great battle...and that after the battle, each buried its dead in a separate mound' -- the state historic marker very near there reads, 'Prehistoric Indian Burial Mound, Constructed ca. 100BC-AD400 for the burial of high-status members of an unknown local tribal group. An associated village site lies across the highway to the southwest.'

The Chickasaw mound is visible in the pic below-right, behind the marker:

Next, in Brooksville we found this abandoned school -- the curved lines in the front along with the glass bricks suggest it may have been built in the '30s:

These pretty churches were also in Brooksville:

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Flickr has lots of great abandoned building groups; I really like the European ones -- especially this one, with pics like this.

At Twilight

2012-01-22T01:10:00.000-06:00

We've all seen images of 16th Street Baptist Church in daylight, but I really like the way it looks at twilight, when the neon sign comes on. I took these pics in September:

Fantastic Wade Wharton

2012-01-21T22:57:00.001-06:00

The Huntsville Times ran an article on my friend Wade Wharton in today's edition, entitled Artist Wade Wharton, Considered by some a Huntsville Icon, Creates Tree of Wisdom and Learning, Aspires for Spot in a Museum (long title!).

I wish the tone of the article had been more positive, but am thankful for the publicity; Mr. Wharton certainly deserves praise and recognition for his work. I'll be in Huntsville this coming week to visit him and will post more pictures then of his latest creations. Love him.

This Week's Various

2012-01-20T10:18:00.001-06:00

Bon Appetit's February issue is devoted to the South.

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Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's is still not available as an eBook. LA Times has an article about it (and a related BaT book) just last week.

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Red velvet cake martini?

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Sentenced: Robert Lucky Jr. of New Orleans, sentenced earlier this month for 25 months in federal prison for his part in selling paintings that were wrongly attributed to Clementine Hunter.

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You can raise chickens in Nashville now! Yay! And in other ordinance news, Shreveport may ban pajamas in public.

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(above: a slice of king cake we had last year)
Rouses is making what they are calling 'gourmet' king cakes: red velvet cream cheese, German chocolate, triple chocolate fudge, and black forest.

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In her NYT article late last month, Roberta Smith began, "By just about any measure, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which opened last month in this small town in northwest Arkansas, is off to a running start." but also pointed out, "There is one huge blind spot in the collection up to 1900, and it is a very serious one in my book: the almost complete lack of paintings by largely self-taught or folk artists. This country’s folk art is as great and as original as any other art it has produced; its uncanny fusion of abstraction and representation, and of primitive and modern makes it the American equivalent of Sienese painting in the early Italian Renaissance. Leaving it out is like looking at the story of American art with only one eye."

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Andrew Rice writes article, "Romney's Mustard Base: A Guide to South Carolina Barbecue and the Republican Primary"

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Fred Scruton's portraits of artists -- wonderful.

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Looking *so* forward to seeing George Lucas' Red Tails, about the Tuskegee Airmen, out this weekend.

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The Grammy Awards are telecast February 12th this year, with several fewer categories, including five fewer in the American Roots category. Many changes. The NYT: "The most controversial cuts took place in the field known as American roots. Traditional blues and contemporary blues were put together, as were traditional and contemporary folk music. The awards for best album in Hawaiian, American Indian, and zydeco or Cajun music were thrown together in a single category called “regional roots music.”"

The Beaumont Enterprise writes about Grammy nominee C.J. Chenier as the prince of Zydeco, here.

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So cute: our 3-year-old Shugie happened to have lunch with Mike Slive (SEC Commissioner) today and when he was asked to tell Mike 'what does an elephant say?' Shugie told him 'Roll Tide!!'.

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Last week, Dr. Pepper pulled the plug on Dr. Pepper at Dublin Dr. Pepper (est. 1891 in Dublin, Texas), the world's oldest Dr. Pepper bottler, and the only one to have always made it with real sugar (Imperial Sugar!) instead of changing the recipe to nasty HFCS (corn syrup).

Dr. Pepper/Snapple sued Dublin this summer.

That's it for us buying Dr. Pepper. We used to have Dublin Dr. Pepper ship to us for Passover (one of our six-packs, pictured above, more below.) since corn is forbidden during the observance and since Dublin made it with sugar, it was fine... It was so fantastic to drink it out of those fantastic glass bottles too.

According to Reuters:
After more than 100 years, Dr Pepper Bottling Co. in Dublin, Texas stopped making its signature beverage last week as part of an agreement reached after Dr Pepper Snapple Group sued the 40-person bottling company over trademark and territory issues.

Nancy Wooldridge, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, said the town of 4,000 suffered a "heart attack" as production stopped and workers removed signs reading "Dublin Dr Pepper" from the bottling plant.

The secret to Dublin Dr Pepper's success was that the bottler made it using Imperial pure cane sugar. Dr Pepper made with the sugar — as opposed to corn syrup — will still be available, but Dublin-labeled bottles are no more, and Dr Pepper will not be bottled at that plant.

That has left many in this small town two hours west of Dallas — which designates itself "Dr Pepper, Texas" for an annual festival each year — bitter and disappointed.

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But thousands of Dublin Dr Pepper supporters have signed online petitions or indicated support for a boycott of Dr Pepper Snapple Group. A petition at change.org had 14,517 signers by Friday afternoon, and 18,253 supporters "liked" the "I Support Dublin Dr Pepper" Facebook page.

Dubliners and other Texans have rallied around the beverages still to be produced there, including Triple XXX Root Beer.

Chef Jon Bonnell, owner of Bonnell's Fine Texas Cuisine in Fort Worth, is eliminating a signature dessert at his restaurant — the Dublin Dr Pepper Float — and replacing it with a Triple XXX Root Beer float.

"I'm always proud to support the little guys over there," Bonnell told Reuters. "When I saw what Dr Pepper as a company did to the little guy, I said, 'You know, life's too short.' "

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The plant will stay open, although 14 of the 40 employees were laid off. Three have been hired by the group, and others are being interviewed, Barnes said.

Article from the Dallas Observer here.

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Virginia Willis cooks with Frank Stitt at Bottega in Birmingham this coming Thursday 1/26; limited to 40 guests. Menu:

Hors d’oeuvres: Black Pepper Shortbread, Shrimp Rillettes, Pork terrine

Wilted Arugula Salad with Country Ham, Pecans and Deep Fried Farm Egg

Garlic Studded Pork Roast in Milk

Low Country Risotto

Anne’s Cornmeal Cake with Yoghurt and Honey

Prosecco Adami, Highlands Chardonnay and Pinot Noir by Au Bon Climat

Sounds like date-night with Av!

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The Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans has just announced its purchase of a building to house its culinary library.

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The NYT writes, 'Two Fairs, Not Homogenized' about the New York Ceramics Fair and the Metro Show. Bloomberg reports that the American Folk Art Museum is now 'reasonably secure'.

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(and of all things, she likes the chips at Central in Memphis -- my pic from our lunch there, above:)

This week on NPR - All Things Considered: '4258 Miles of Meat: Chef, Dad on a Quest for BBQ': "Until this fall, chef Molly Baz was working at an upscale Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City. But she decided to give that up to go on a road trip.

Molly wanted to learn everything she could about variations in American barbecue, so she planned a tour of the country's most renowned barbecue regions and invited her father, photographer Doug Baz, along for the ride. The pair documented their travels on their blog, Adventures in BBQ."

and

""I think that we pretty much hit the jackpot in Texas," Molly says. "Truly, Texas blew our minds. I've never tasted a more delicious piece of unadulterated meat in my life.""

...and from their Tumblr: Things We’ll Miss: -the Southern Hospitality attitude: nowhere have I encountered such friendly, open and generous people. We’ve gotten more free food, desserts, barbecue sauces and snacks for the road than we deserved. The abundance of biscuits: I told you and I’ll say it again, no one makes biscuits this well up north...

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On Kickstarter: Lucky Town Brewing Company in Mississippi.

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(above: a pic of a Rural Studio home I took a pic of in Greensboro)

Will Holman has a nice editorial at Design Observer that includes his time at the Rural Studio, Lessons from the Front Lines of Social Design.

Voodoo Village

2012-01-17T21:28:00.000-06:00

How very interesting, in Memphis -- what people call 'voodoo village' is actually intended to be based on NT scripture and Masonic teachings:

Voodoo Village - The Temple from eric wilson on Vimeo.

Vanilla It Is, In Houma

2012-01-16T05:00:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Councilman Alvin Tillman in Houma, Louisiana bringing forth a proposal to outlaw all colors other than white in three of Terrebonne Parish's cemeteries in a post entitled, Eternally Vanilla in Houma. On our vacation, we again went through Houma to get to Chauvin (more about that later), so we stopped at one of the cemeteries in question, Southdown Cemetery:

Those tombs painted yellow, blue, terracotta, lilac...weren't the least bit offensive or distracting. They added beautiful character:

(top center: this family wanted their family member to be with their loved plush animals, so they put them in waterproof containers. Another thing here was that on some of the monuments, rather than birth/death dates, they used 'Alpha' and 'Omega')

This councilman feels the need to legislate hue at a public cemetery. Again, I'll say: Maybe Alvin Tillman should invest in founding cemeteries with 'home-owners associations' full of ordinances and self-important governing boards which restrict...everything that is at odds with uniformity.

Alas, the the Terrebonne Parish Council decided last week that all new tombstones at Southdown, Bisland, and Halfway cemteries would have to be painted white. Existing monuments will not have to be repainted.

From the Houma Today article:

Prior to the vote, Amedee, who said she once worked as a minister for her church and often comforted those who were grieving, said the ordinance is “an infringement on personal rights.”