March 2010 – Page 2 – Deep Fried Kudzu

The Scottsboro Boys Museum is in trouble. The dedication and formal opening was February 1, 2010 (although they were accepting visitors late last year) at their historic location, Joyce Chapel United Methodist Church. We were just there a couple of weeks ago:

It’s a small museum, put together neatly, and it’s much-needed here. How many people haven’t heard of the Scottsboro Boys? So it’d be pretty natural to expect something more than a historical marker. After all, the case went all the way to the US Supreme Court (which later led to rulings on defendants receiving effective counsel and another about jury composition).

One of my friends has the blog Left in Alabama (if you’re not ultra-political, me neither!! but this part is important…) and she received a letter from the museum board which read in
part:

The Museum is in urgent need of your assistance once again. … The doors of the historical church have been open for the last three months with programs and activities. Officially, today is the first day the Museum is open for viewing. However, we are in danger of losing the building to an “anonymous buyer.” The United Methodist Church has informed us that someone else is interested in purchasing the building and is ready to present them with a check for the entire $75,000. To date we have raised $42,500 for the purpose of purchasing and sustaining the museum.

Let us remind you that the church stood empty until the Foundation became interested in it for the purpose of the Museum.

We are concerned that the only reason the “anonymous buyer” is interested in the church is to keep the Museum out.

Sure enough, in yesterday’s Daily Sentinel (Scottsboro’s paper) they had an article:

The Scottsboro-Jackson County Multicultural Heritage Foundation is attempting to purchase the historic church that is now the home of the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center.

Executive Committee member Sheila Washington told the Scottsboro City Council Monday night the foundation wants to buy Joyce Chapel.

The church is currently owned by the Northeast District of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Washington said District Superintendent Rev. Tom Bell has given the foundation a week to purchase the church.

Appraised at $125,000, the foundation can buy the church for $75,000, according to Washington.

“We just received $37,500 from the Jackson County Legislative Delegation for the purchase,” Washington told council members. “We hope you can help.”

—

Council member Gary Speers said an anonymous buyer is also interested in buying the church.

“This can be a business deal, rather than just giving to the community,” Speers, also a member of the museum board, said. “Monies through donations and contributions are coming in. We just need to have the deal signed, sealed and delivered. If there’s a way to secure the funds, the organization can pay it back.”

Council President Matthew Hodges said he would like to see the city do something to assist.

“We need to come up with some type of proposal for our next work session,” Hodges said.

Seriously, they have a *week* to come up with the money to buy the church or else it may be sold to an anonymous buyer?

Donations may be sent to:
The Scottsboro Boys museum and Cultural Center
PO Box 1557
Scottsboro, AL 35768

***UPDATED! Post with new…news is at this link***

March 25, 2010

Thank You!

Thanks to everyone who wrote today letting me know something was going on with the images (and another strange log-in thing) here. I think I’ve got it fixed now. If not, do tell… Thanks again!

March 24, 2010

Mardi Gras Indians

The NYT has an article today about some of the Mardi Gras Indians suing for copyright infringement when people use photographs of them for commercial purposes (not like here, where there’s no money involved). They see pics of themselves in calendars and books and they never receive any compensation for it.

Image used courtesy Infrogmation under Attribution 2.0 Generic. Thank you!

Image used courtesy dsb nola under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic. Thank you!

Image used courtesy Joel Mann under Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic. Thank you!

Image used courtesy howieluvzus under Creative Commons 2.0 Generic. Thank you!

Av and I belong to a New Orleans Krewe, but what’s worn is more…homespun. *Nobody* does it like the Indians. Incredible. I hate the idea that they’re being taken advantage of, but it’s such a hard situation when you’re in the public arena and of course anyone can take a photograph for whatever reason…

Here’s a little bit from the article:

Anyone could still take their pictures, but the Indians, many of whom live at the economic margins, would have some recourse if they saw the pictures being sold, or used in advertising. (News photographs, like the ones illustrating this article, are not at issue.)

—

Mardi Gras Indians have been around for more than a century — more than two, some say — and are generally thought to have originated as a way to pay homage to the American Indians who harbored runaway slaves and started families with them.

The Indians come out and parade in full dress on Mardi Gras; on St. Joseph’s Night, March 19; and on a Sunday close to St. Joseph’s — a tradition that arose out of the affinity between blacks and Sicilians in the city’s working-class precincts.

—

Any photograph that focused on a suit protected by a copyright could arguably be considered a derivative work. The sale of such a picture (or its use in tourism ads, for example) would be on the merits of the suit rather than the photograph itself, and if the person selling it did not have permission, he could be sued.

But the idea is not so easy to put into practice. In American copyright law, clothing designs generally cannot be protected because they are more functional than aesthetic. Ms. Keaton argues that the suits, which can weigh well over 100 pounds, should be considered works of sculpture, not outfits.

—

Indians do make a few hundred dollars here and there showing up at parties and concerts, and a few have tried, with disappointing results, to sell last year’s suits on eBay.

“Indian culture was never, ever meant to make any money,” said Howard Miller, Big Chief of the Creole Wild West, the city’s oldest tribe, and president of the Mardi Gras Indian Council. But neither should the culture be exploited by others.

“We have a beef,” he said, “with anybody who takes us for granted.”

March 23, 2010

Cakes, Goats, Art, Water, And A Commune

For our anniversary, we wanted to take the boys to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. I had done a little research about where to have lunch, and many people were suggesting the City Cafe Diner downtown. At first it doesn’t sound like a great idea because…well, it’s attached to a Day’s Inn, which isn’t the most appetizing location, right? But it’s a real diner in that it’s all black and white and neon, and there are a zillion things on the menu including well over fifty desserts – tons of cakes. There are so many desserts that they have pictures of them running on a loop on televisions around the diner.

It was a good experience, especially since we don’t have ‘real’ diners where we live.

On a previous trip to Chattanooga a month or so ago, we had lunch at Sugar’s Ribs that was highly recommended, and it was pretty good. It was a great place to take the boys because you can bring the leftover bread out and feed it to the goats they have outside (they use goats to clear the overgrowth on the property) right by the highway. One of them made friends with Shug:

We really like the Winder Binder Gallery. Back around the holidays, they had this up for a Christmas tree:

Can Christmas Tree at Winder Binder Gallery, Chattanooga TN

Inside, they have art by *so* many well-known, and plenty of lesser-known artists. Here’s an R.A. Miller:

R.A. Miller Art at Winder Binder Gallery, Chattanooga TN

…works by an artist who drills doors:

Drilled / Decorated Doors at Winder Binder Gallery, Chattanooga TN

…a JL Nipper owl totem:

JL Nipper Owl Totem at Winder Binder Gallery, Chattanooga TN

Our anniversary present to each other was a JL Nipper armadillo.

The Tennessee Aquarium was wonderful. We’ll probably get annual passes when the boys get a little bit bigger. There was of course so much to look at, and they have a special exhibit right now with jellyfish that was great.

Folk Art at the Tennessee Aquarium, Chattanooga TN

On the way out, they had a large selection of folk art including BF Perkins, RA Miller, Jerry Brown, and Annie T.

Supper was at Memo’s so we could try a Chattanooga tradition:

The sliced hotdog, which is just a hotdog sliced into coins and smothered in *everything*. Bring an entire roll of paper towels! I’m really not a hotdog person – wouldn’t mind if I only had one every five years, so I’m not a great judge…you decide…

Memo's Chopped Weiner, Chattanooga Tennessee

Their barbecue, which Av and the boys had, was nice.

Of course, if you want Chattanooga tradition you have to go to Krystal, drink Double Cola, and eat a Moon Pie! Okay, maybe a Little Debbie too.

When the boys get a little older, we’ll take them to Rock City, Ruby Falls, go to a Lookouts game, and of course go see the Choo-Choo. We stayed at The Chattanoogan before and it was nice – the last time was when we were going to a family reunion at Sewanee, The University of the South, because one of my great-great-great…uncles was a founder of the school – Confederate General Leonidas Polk, the ‘Fighting Bishop’. This is a pic I took of the All Saints Chapel there:

There are just so many nice things to do in Chattanooga, and so many nice things closeby too.

—

One of the other restaurants that was suggested in Chattanooga was the Yellow Deli because they make such great sandwiches. If you look at their menu, on the cover it reads, “we serve the fruit of the Spirit at the deli.” Everything about the restaurant is done by members of a community called the ‘Twelve Tribes‘. Their website has a lot of information and I found an article with this:

Sprung from the counterculture movement of the 1960s and the Jesus movement of the 1970s, The Twelve Tribes community strives to live their lives as described in Acts 2 and 4 of the Bible. Members live communally and share everything. They must give up all possessions to live within the community.

Members dress in modest clothing, with the women usually wearing waist-length hair and long dresses with high necklines. Men wear beards with their hair bound in the back like the priests of the old covenant.

The interiors are supposed to be handcrafted by the members, so I’d love to see that. This is a tiny photo album of the interior…nice!

March 23, 2010

Seaside And Snowbirds

The latest issue of Southern Cultures arrived, and one of the essays is entitled, “The Rise and Fall of the Redneck Riviera”.

It is a great piece.

It begins with how the beach towns used to be (if you’re not familiar with ‘Redneck Riviera’, it’s the Gulf Coast, most often associated with the beaches of Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle. Howell Raines, who is from B’ham and later become executive editor of the New York Times, came up with the name.) – they’re described in 1941 by the Alabama WPA book as little fishing villages. Later post-WWII vacationers enjoyed themselves in cottages and efficiencies. Eventually the area was dotted with family motels.

Then came along Hurricane Camille, which swept away much of what was.

In the ’80s people came and began building condos and huge hotels.

And here we are.

My favorite part of the essay is about the establishment in 1982 of a piece of land that the author signals as the date beginning the decline of the Redneck Riviera.

…where Robert Davis, an Alabama native with a northern education, set out to build an “old fashioned” Florida village and ended up building what Time magazine declared “could be the most astounding design achievement of its era.”

In a sense Seaside reflected what had become of the Baby Boomers who were evolving from bourgeois rednecks to just plain bourgeois.

The author goes on to discuss how Davis planned the community with dirt streets and cracker cottages. New Urbanism. Living and working together.

But the homeowners decided they wanted the streets paved with brick, and they wanted more than “shack-vernac” – so they built larger homes.

…it wasn’t long before Seaside had become a code-controlled community of architecturally designed wooden houses, painted colors that never appeared in nature, topped with tin roofs, and christened with cute names.

—

…”Pastel Hell,” as the neighbors called it, was designed to appeal to the upper-income, Southern Living-reading, Lexus-driving, Republican-voting, Dixie yuppie.

The issue of snowbirds is also addressed (snowbirds are people who temporarily move here from up north when it gets cold).

Locals also complain that the old and northern drive too slowly, clog up the check-out lines at the grocery stores, are rude and pushy and, more than anything else, are Yankees – which explains the popular bumper sticker that reads: “If this is snowbird season, why can’t I shoot one?”

The author goes on and addresses the area rebuilding post-Katrina, which includes a funny story about beach rats and feral cats (I promise, it’s not yucky). There’s also a section on Alabama governor Bob Riley’s plans to rebuild our Gulf State Park – which…Gulf State Park made Motel 6 look pretty good. I’ve never been inside, but you can tell from the road that it’s pretty austere. Anyway, Riley wanted to double the number of rooms and double the rate plus add a convention center. Now this is first part is hilarious (…but maybe not so far off the mark…hmmm…):

…before the storm some had suggested that it should be taken over and maintained by the state Historical Commission so future generations could see what a Redneck Riviera motel once was.

It turns out that this essay is an overview for a book that the University of Georgia Press will publish in 2011 under the same name. Going to have to get it.

March 19, 2010