Southernist

BOOK: Alabama Studio Style

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0000

In Alabama Studio Style, Natalie Chanin, founder and creative director of the acclaimed fashion and lifestyle company Alabama Chanin, takes readers on a compelling journey of creativity, technique, and inspiration. Picking up where the celebrated Alabama Stitch Book left off, Alabama Studio Style is a craft and lifestyle book all in one.

Here Chanin shares many more of her stitching, stenciling, and beading methods and applies them to twenty extraordinary clothing and home décor projects, each made with organic or recycled materials and designed with “haute homespun” flair. Along with the company’s celebrated camisole and tank dresses, the featured projects include skirts, scarves, pillows, woven chair seats, and a stenciled scrap-wood table. Rounding out the book are recipes for three delicious party menus. Alabama Studio Style shows us that true style encompasses not only what we wear, how we decorate, and what we eat, but also how we care for our environment.

About the Author

Natalie Chanin is the author of Alabama Stitch Book (STC) and founder and head designer of Alabama Chanin, a fashion/lifestyle company that promotes sustainable style and design. She has been recognized for her work by the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, Alabama Council of the Arts, and Aid to Artisans. (source)

STAGE: Good Ol' Girls

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

GOOD OL’ GIRLS, a new musical written and adapted by Paul Ferguson, based on the stories of two prominent Southern authors, Lee Smith (The Last Girls) and Jill McCorkle (Going Away Shoes), with songs by Nashville hit-makers Matraca Berg (Reba McEntire, Dixie Chicks, Faith Hill) and Marshall Chapman (Jimmy Buffett, Wynonna, Olivia Newton-John). At the Black Box Theatre at The Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues) thru April 11. (source)

STAGE: Clothes For A Summer Hotel

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Mr. Williams’ highly theatrical and evocative “Ghost play” about the tumultuous marriage and creative lives of Zelda & Scott Fitzgerald. CLOTHES FOR A SUMMER HOTEL, which opened in NYC on March 26, 1980, was Mr. Williams’ last Broadway production and has rarely been staged since. Filled with music and dance of the jazz age, the play fuses the past and the present in a theatrical tour-de-force as Zelda and Scott re-visit their youth and the ghosts of characters (including Ernest Hemingway) who helped shape their existence. (source)

Thru Feb 21 @ at the Hudson Guild Theatre
441 West 26th Street (Btw. 9th & 10th Aves.)

MARDI GRAS

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

HAPPY PRESIDENT'S DAY

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

image from flickr

SOUNDS: BB King & Buddy Guy 2/12

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

BB King and Buddy Guy perform tonight at United Palace Theatre. Nuff said!

SCREEN: Still Bill

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:10:00 +0000

At IFC Theater - Thu, Feb 11 at: 12:55 PM, 4:30 PM

The story of a 33-year-old Navy vet from Slab Fork, WV, who became, almost overnight, a ’70s soul legend, STILL BILL is an intimate portrait of Bill Withers, the artist behind the classics “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lean On Me,” “Lovely Day” and “Just the Two of Us.” Through archival and new concert footage and interviews with music greats, his family and closest friends, the film reveals the man behind the music. (source)

STAGE: The Miracle Worker

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

The Miracle Worker (starring Abigail Breslin) opens for previews tomorrow (2/12) at Circle in the Square Theatre on Broadway.

"Set in the American South in the 1880s, THE MIRACLE WORKER tells the story of real-life Medal of Freedom winner (and Tuscumbia AL native) Helen Keller, who suddenly lost her sight and hearing at the age of 19 months, and the extraordinary teacher who taught her to communicate with the world, Annie Sullivan."

SCREEN: Dear John

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:03:00 +0000

Get the tissues ready! Tearjerker Dear John opens today:

Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried) was on spring break when she first met John Tyree (Channing Tatum), a military man home on temporary leave. For the smitten soldier, it was practically love at first sight. Over the course of the next seven years, when each deployment seemed more treacherous than the last, the love letters that Savannah sent to John were one of the only things that kept him going. However, those loving and heartfelt correspondences would ultimately yield consequences that neither the brave soldier nor his one true love could have ever foreseen.

2 Reasons To Wish You Were In Alabama Today

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:15:00 +0000

Thursday, FEBRUARY 4, 2010
BAMA THEATER
Spectacular, Formal Affair with Live Music, Entertainment and Pie.

The night will feature performances by Alabama students representing APO Theatre Fraternity, Dance Alabama!, and the Musical Theatre Program. The night will also feature singer-songwriter from Nashville, Amy Stroup. We invite all of you to dress your dressiest [or not] and come support the Pie Lab. Cocktails at 6, event at 7.

Jeanie Thompson at the Blow Your Mind: Public Discussion Series @ the Wiregrass Museum of Art in Dothan AL

STAGE: Black Angels Over Tuskegee

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:55:00 +0000

Now at St. Luke's Theatre: Black Angels Over Tuskegee is the story of the Tuskegee Airmen told in narrative of six men embarking upon a journey to become pilots in the United States Army Air Forces. The play explores their collective struggle with Jim Crow, their intelligence, patriotism, dreams of an inclusive fair society, and brotherhood. The play goes beyond the headlines of the popular stories of the Tuskegee Airmen and exposes the men who exhibited the courage to excel, in spite of all the overwhelming odds against them. (source)

STAGE: Phantom Killer

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Now thru 2/14 @ Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex:

On a scorching hot Texas night in 1946, Luke parks on a deserted country road with his new wife Jessie. A Texas Ranger searches the same road hunting a serial killer. Before the three part ways, plans change, a deal is struck, a heart breaks, and everyone is guilty. (Source)

STAGE: The Man In Room 306

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Now thru 2/14 at 59E59 Theaters:

The Man in Room 306 is a fictional account of the last night in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The story unfolds on the rainy, windswept evening of April 3, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

During these declining years of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King has returned to Memphis to lead a demonstration of striking, Black sanitation workers. This is the second march King will lead in the troubled "River City". The first ended in violence and the tragic shooting death of a sixteen year old black boy at the hands of white, Memphis police. For an anxious Dr. King the stakes couldn't be higher; if this next march ends in rioting, it may permanently damage the viability of nonviolence in the civil rights struggle and destroy his credibility as its symbolic leader. It is under these trying circumstances that Dr. King finds himself alone in Room 306, struggling with his past, anxious about his future, and coming to terms with his life.

Audiences are invited into the private world of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to catch a rare glimpse of the iconic figure as a man filled with life and hope, as well as the worries and burdens of his calling.

Written by and starring Craig Alan Edwards, The man in room 306 is an intimate, human portrait of Dr. King; a fictional glimpse into the private moments of history; into the passions and fears of an incredible man during an extraordinary time.

The Man in room 306 is proudly supported by the National Civil Rights Museum.

(Source)

STAGE: Babel Tower

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Now thru tomorrow! (2/2) @ ArcLight Theater:

In BABEL TOWER the year is 1950. The isolated townspeople of Black Kettle, Texas, have come together to construct a mysterious tower. Jack, an ex-high school football star and gas station owner, stands alone as the voice of dissension. When he discovers that the eponymous tower might actually be a Russian missile, we find out how far he will go to save the town.(source)

SCENE: Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival (1/30)

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:10:00 +0000

January 30th - SaturdayTWO SESSIONS

Noon - 4pm The VIP Whole Hog

and Bacon Session

5pm - 9pm Afternoon Session

at la.venue
608 West 28th Street, NYC 10001 (11th & 28th)

EAT: Gumbo!

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:04:00 +0000

With Mardi Gras almost right around the corner (2/16), it's never too soon to start planning your menu. Time Out NY's Gumbo pick is definitely on my list!

Gumbo at the Green Table
This frequent special is the only NYC gumbo we can get behind. NOLA transplant Brent Sims knows his way around a roux, plus he cooks with what’s in season. This time of year, that means a bowl packed with house-made sausage and chicken or roasted duck. Chelsea Market, 75 Ninth Ave at 16th St (212-741-6623). $18.

ART: William Christenberry "House and Car and"

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Now thru 2/6 @ Pace MacGill midtown:

William Christenberry: House and Car and,” a selection of photographs, encaustic paintings, drawings, sculpture and found signs. The exhibition illuminates Christenberry’s multimedia approach to capturing the spirit of his

native South as reflected by the culture, natural landscape, and vernacular architecture of rural Alabama.

William Christenberry returns to his home in Hale County, Alabama annually. Like Walker Evans, his images of the region’s architectural sites and material culture provide a window into the rural South by offering prolonged studies of a place over time. For example, Christenberry’s sequence of 20 photographs, House and Car, near Akron, Alabama (1978-2005), chronicles the physical transformation of a

single building over the course of 27 years. A related sculpture gives three-dimensional form to the photographed building, however,it is not intended to be seen as a replica. Rather, the sculpture is a hybrid of both the actual image and Christenberry’s own memory of it. Christenberry elaborates: “[t]hey are not models. They are re-creations. Imaginative re-creations, like dreams.” The powerful combination of memory and imagination is particularly evident in Christenberry’s abstract drawings of gourd trees that reference the regional tradition of hanging hollow gourds to attract nesting birds and generate new life.

The iconography of the rural American South is intrinsic to Christenberry’s oeuvre. His found signs are literal records of place, while his images of egg crate crosses on graves and gourd trees allude to deeper cultural legacies. Perhaps the most potent symbol is an elongated, conical shape suggesting Ku Klux Klan members’ hoods. Christenberry translates this symbol into a more gestural, inverted “V” in a variety of his pieces, including the painted triptych, K House (1998).

William Christenberry was born in 1936 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

(text from exhibition press release - issued by Pace MacGill)

SHOP: Bureau of Friends fundraiser for Haiti

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

These new Billy Reid wingtips are up for auction on eBay until 1/28 as part of the The Bureau of Friends fundraiser for Haiti.

See all items here.

SCREEN: Mine

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Not to be confused with my new endeavor, also called MINE (but more on that another time) - MINE the movie is a documentary about the pets left behind by Hurricane Katrina and all the thorny issues surrounding that.

RIP MLK

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Fried Chicken Friday!

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Starting next week (1/22) - Charles Gabriel (whose fried chicken is hailed by many restaurant critics as the best in the city) will be moonlighting every friday from 5PM - 11PM at Aretsky's Patroon.

Read more here and here.

RIP Jay Reatard

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:17:00 +0000

From the Commercial Appeal:

In an interview with The New York Times last August, Memphis punk artist Jay Reatard uttered what, in retrospect, was a haunting phrase:

"Everything I do," Reatard said, "is motivated by the fear of running out of time."

That statement rang terribly true early Wednesday as the 29-year-old musician was found dead in his bed in the Cooper-Young home he'd bought just a few months ago.

Just something I like and feel like sharing

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Jasper Johns

Map

1962

In 1960, artist Robert Rauschenberg gave Jasper Johns mimeographed maps of the United States that inspired Johns to begin working with the motif; he ultimately made three large Map paintings in addition to smaller paintings, prints, and drawings, sometimes rendered directly on the mimeographed sheets. During this time, Johns was beginning to employ monochromatic gray or blue palettes and, in 1962, he rendered Map almost entirely in shades of gray. Of his work of this period, he insisted: “My primary concern is visual form. The visual meaning may be discovered afterward—by those who look at it.”

Jasper Johns (b. 1930, Augusta, Georgia; lives and works in New York)
Map, 1962
Encaustic and collage on canvas
60 x 93 in.
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Gift of Marcia Simon Wiseman

SCENE: Southern Writers Reading Series

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

The Southern Writers Reading Series continues tonight (1/13) @ Happy Ending Lounge @ 7:30PM. Free open mic begins after featured authors perform.

Featuring:

Evan Burton was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Now he lives and writes in Brooklyn.

Jason Reynolds is graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park, where he received a B.A. in English, with a concentration in Literature. While in college, Reynolds performed spoken word all over the east coast, as well as published his first book, a collection of poetry entitled, Let Me Speak. By the time he graduated, he had sold a few thousand copies, as well as produced a second collection, Jacob’s Ladder. After college, he joined forces with artist Jason Griffin, and created SELF, an artistic collaboration of art and poetry. Reynolds also toured the country with Liquid Lounge Tour, and served as a Paul Robeson Artist in Residence at Penn State, where he taught a creative writing class and served on panels with literary icons, Sonia Sanchez and Amiri Baraka. Jason resides in Brooklyn, NY.

Samantha Thornhill travels the globe performing poetry, delivering lectures, and facilitating writing workshops. Both a poet and published author, her performance poem, Little Odetta, inspired by the late folk legend, is forthcoming from Scholastic Press in the form of a picture book. Also, her young adult novel Seventeen Seasons is soon to be published by Penguin Books. Samantha earned her MFA in poetry from the University of Virginia while coaching the VA slam team. In New York City she fulfills her position as poetry professor at the Juilliard School. She also serves as writer in residence at the Bronx Academy of Letters where she teaches creative writing and journalism courses to middle and high school youth.

EAT: Shrimp n' Grits

noreply@blogger.com (Sweet Tea) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

All this cold weather has got me thinking of a big dish of warm & comforting shrimp n' grits! I hear they do a good job of it at the new-ish Joseph Leonard. But I also found this great recipe on the Anson Mills site:

Equipment Mise en Place
For this recipe you will need a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan; a fine, conical strainer; a small (1-quart) saucepan; a large nonstick skillet; a set of tongs; and a whisk.

Ingredients
1 pound medium-sized, shell-on shrimp
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, small dice
1 small stalk celery, small dice
2 large garlic cloves, sliced
4 cups spring or filtered water
1 teaspoon tomato paste
3 full sprigs fresh thyme
1 Turkish bay leaf
1 teaspoon whole, cracked black peppercorns
1 strip lemon peel
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon flour
2 ounces thick smoked bacon or real country ham, minced (3 tablespoons)
2 large shallots, minced (1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 scallion, white and green part, thinly sliced
1 recipe hot, freshly prepared Anson Mills Antebellum Coarse or Carolina Quick Grits

Directions
1. Peel and devein the shrimp, reserving the shells. Dry the shrimp between layers of paper towels and refrigerate until ready to use. Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the shrimp shells, onion, celery, and garlic and sauté until the shells are crisp and the aromatics tender, 10 minutes. Add the water, tomato paste, thyme, bay, peppercorns, and lemon peel. Cover and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, until the stock is flavorful and reduced, about 1 hour. Strain the stock into a small saucepan (there should be about 1 1/2 cups), and keep hot.

2. While the stock is cooking, mash the butter and flour into a smooth paste in a small bowl and set aside.

3. Sauté the bacon or ham in a large, nonstick skillet over medium-low heat until crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Move it to the periphery of the skillet and increase the heat to medium. Arrange the shrimp in a single layer and sear until pink. Sprinkle the shallots over the shrimp, toss, and cook until the shrimp is done, about one minute. Add salt, red pepper flakes, and black pepper. Using tongs, transfer the shrimp to a warm plate. Add the hot stock to the skillet and bring to a boil over high heat. Whisk in the reserved butter and flour mixture. Cook until thickened, about 20 seconds. Return the shrimp to the pan and taste sauce for seasoning.

4. To serve, spoon the hot grits into shallow bowls. Top with shrimp and sauce. Sprinkle with chopped scallions.