Month: August 2010

There was an article in Southern Living about three or four years ago about planting a chair and since then I’ve been really wanting to try it.  The whole project took less than 20 minutes.

I love revolving table restaurants: the kind with the giant lazy susan in the middle, where you sit at a giant table with people who are at first strangers, then fast friends.


While we were in Chattanooga, we went to the only revolving tables restaurant I know of outside Mississippi: Bea’s.  


The Times Free Press had an article about it earlier this year; the restaurant is now 60 years old.  The piece read in part:

“So Bea and Bill put in the lazy Susans for the plant workers to get them in and out in 30 minutes,” Doug Bradshaw said.

The tables look the same, though the Formica tops have been replaced with new Formica and the lazy Susans now sport sneeze guards — state law. But the condiments arranged on the top shelf of the lazy Susans are the same — jars of Tabasco peppers, chopped onions, pickled beets, chow-chow and hot sauce alongside pitchers of water and freshly brewed tea. And the main shelf is always filled with food that keeps coming hot from the kitchen as long as you want it.

“My first ‘date’ was at Bea’s,” said Chattanooga resident Tina Harvey Crawford. “I was in the fifth grade. We went to church, then Bea’s. You gotta love a lazy Susan.”

Not much has been added to the menu through the years — just strawberry cobbler when berries are in season.

“And we started doing fried catfish on Friday nights,” Doug Bradshaw said. “We don’t change a whole lot.”

But one thing hasn’t changed: It’s all made from scratch, starting at 5 a.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

“The recipes were in place when we got here,” Mike Bradshaw said. “And along the way, they were smart enough not to mess with them.”

Here are all the dishes – fried chicken, barbecue, salisbury steak (I think), potatoes, beans, rolls, potato salad, dressing, and more: 

Well, I have to be honest.  We must have gone on an ‘off’ day because I didn’t like almost any of it.  And neither did the boys (although Av did enjoy the chicken).  The peach cobbler was the best thing served, and (ouch) it could have been a lot better.

Shug wanted to take the beans home to see if they would grow like the Jack and the Beanstalk story.  Shugie realized that he could put an entire roll on a fork.

Everyone else there seemed to really enjoy what was served, especially including the people at our table eating the very same food.  And a gentleman that I met on the way in was positively giddy when he heard this was our first time and how he had been eating there forever and how terrific it all is.


Maybe it was just us!  
Okay.


Now here’s what’s *really* wonderful.  There are three other revolving table restaurants that I know of (are there any others?  Please email me or post it in the Facebook page if you know of one.)…


Walnut Hills in Vicksburg:

Aspic!  Oh, my.  Greens, coleslaw, fried chicken. Limas. Yes, yes, yes.


The Dinner Bell in McComb:

Creamed potatoes, chicken, rice, carrots, green beans, creamed corn, blackeyed peas, okra, and their famous fried eggplant…delicious.


In Columbia, MS there’s The Round Table.  We haven’t been to that one yet.  
Yet.


Any others that you know of?

Nationwide on Monday evening, Citizen Architect, the documentary about Sambo Mockbee and Auburn’s Rural Studio, will be aired on public television stations.  

The film is described this way:

Citizen Architect explores Mockbee’s effort to provide students with an experience that forever inspires them to consider how they can use their skills to better their communities. Revealing the philosophy and heart behind the Rural Studio, the documentary is guided by passionate, frank and never-before-seen interviews with Mockbee himself.

The film follows Jay Sanders, a young, first-time instructor at the Rural Studio as he leads a group of students in the process of crafting a home for their charismatic client, Jimmie Lee Matthews. Known within the community as Music Man because of his passion for soul music, Jimmie Lee maintains a healthy zeal for life, blasting R&B from his vast collection of used stereos and boasting that he “ain’t never met a stranger!” Over the course of the project a powerful bond forms between Sanders, the students and Music Man.

Citizen Architect supplements Mockbee’s words and the students’ experiences with perspective from other architects and designers who share praise and criticism of the Rural Studio, including Peter Eisenman, Michael Rotondi, Cameron Sinclair, Steve Badanes and Hank Louis. Their dialogue infuses the film with a larger discussion of architecture’s role in issues of poverty, class, race, education, social change and citizenship.

Folk Fest is this weekend in Atlanta, beginning today.  It looks as though there are just almost 100 exhibitors (meaning artists alone, and gallery owners who are bringing works by multiple artists).  


This is who I’m most looking forward to, in no particular order:


Anton Haardt – she emailed me that she’ll be bringing pieces by Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Mary T. Smith, James Purdy, Sam Doyle, Howard Finster, Sybil Gibson, & many others.  Another thing I’m excited for Anton about is that she just finished a new book about Juanita Rogers.  She will be bringing copies of her Mose T book also.


Dr. Bob


Marcia Weber Art Objects


Rising Fawn Folk Art


Ginger Young Gallery


Main Street Gallery




Now, here’s the thing: if you are looking for contemporary folk/outsider/self-taught/visionary art – and you know who you are interested in and you can attend festivals that they appear at, then Folk Fest may not live up to your expectations.


Some gallery owners (and some self-representing artists) will be bringing art that you may very well not consider folk art.   You can scroll through a list of the exhibitors here.


Some artists will be over-represented.  For instance, last year it seemed as though we were on Cornbread (John Anderson) overload with so many galleries bringing his work.  


On the other hand, many of the galleries brought artists with them and of course that is terrific.  What else is terrific is that so many of them have the better pieces of vintage art that you really can’t find elsewhere.


If you like to see what/who gallery owners find new and exciting that you may not know about – or you’re interested in work by an artist who has passed away, whose works will be shown by these galleries – this is a great opportunity.  The galleries are coming to you once a year here at Folk Fest, rather than you driving all over to do your collecting.


Here are some pics from last year’s Folk Fest:


 Jimmy Straehla was there with his bottlecap truck:

Cedric Smith:

We like not taking the interstate.  This past weekend, we took the boys back to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga and took some ‘back roads’ up through NE Alabama.


Here was a place selling ‘bbq wood’ that had an honor box so you could get as much as you need at whatever hour and leave the amount due in the container:

Loved this sign:

At Head Springs Cemetery:

These two monuments were side by side for different family members.  Looks like there was a revision on the design:

Oh there were *so* many great barns advertising Rock City!

On our way to lunch (an upcoming post) we passed by this used car lot.  Would you buy a car from Big Hearted Smitty?

…and we just couldn’t be in Chattanooga on a Sunday without going to the Chattanooga Market to ooh and aah over the fresh organic fruits and vegetables, plus handmade furniture, art, some beautiful orchids, and frozen strawberry lemonade for both boys:

…and those jellyfish at the Aquarium – I could have just sat and watched those for a couple of hours.  Have you seen those jellyfish aquariums for home use (if you can get over the maybe-too-serious-about-a-jellyfish-aquarium photographs on their website)?  These are really nice.

The Chattanoogan ran an article today about freshwater jellyfish in the Tennessee River.  Their scientific name is ‘Craspedacusta sowerbyi’ but they are also called ‘peach blossom jellyfish’.  


I’ll go with ‘peach blossom’.










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This has nothing to do with Chattanooga, but my friend Lorie is one of the ten finalists in the nationwide Mission Tortillas Menu Challenge.  So proud of her!  If you’re interested in any of the recipes, they can all be found by clicking in the middle of the main page for voting.  Lorie’s is the “Tilapia and White Bean Taco Salad Bowls with Creamy Avocado Dressing and Pickled Red Relish”.  Can’t wait to try it!