The exhibit, “Drawing Pretty Pictures Is A Way To Meet G-d In The World Like It Is” at Visionary Growth Gallery in north Georgia featuring “Lois Curtis, a key figure in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that freed thousands of people institutionalized in mental hospitals and nursing homes” along with works by Carter Wellborn, Alpha Andrews, Betty Wansley, and Peter Loose. Through April 12.
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What a fabulous whirligig at the American Folk Art Museum.
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Doubleday Publishers has started the ‘#Literary Turducken‘ — combining the titles of three different classic works of literature into a whole new entity. Some of them are pretty good.
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Turns out, homeless people in Charlotte are not big pimento cheese fans.
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The Moline, Illinois post office is for sale and it houses a WPA / Section mural by Edward Millman entitled “Manufacture of Plowshares” — “It hangs on a north wall of the post office at 514 7th St. and is to be reserved for public access, regardless of whomever buys the building.” Nice!
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Smart, smart, smart: at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, their restaurant, the Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe, “enhances the museum experience by providing visitors the opportunity to enjoy the indigenous cuisines of the Americas and to explore the history of Native foods. The Cafe features Native foods found throughout the Western Hemisphere, including the Northern Woodlands, South America, the Northwest Coast, Meso America and the Great Plains. Each of the five food stations depict regional lifeways related to cooking techniques, ingredients, and flavors found in both traditional and contemporary dishes.”
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Thank you for people who are who they are, even after they’ve left, from the Times-Picayune: At the close of the service, the deacon stepped behind the pulpit and began an a capella rendition of KISS’s 1979 single “I Was Made For Loving You.” Some lyrics were subbed out: “I was made for loving you, baby” became “I was made for loving you, Jesus.” … Eventually, all in attendance joined in. Some sang the original lyrics; most simply filled in background vocals, clapped the beat, and drummed on the sides of the pews. The unplanned singalong may have been the most touching, and palpably emotional, moment in an unusual yet deeply honest tribute, and at the end, there was rock-concert level applause. A few friends held up the rock ’n’roll “devil horns” salute. “Rock on, Nino!” somebody cried out.
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Sotheby’s sale of Important Judaica on December 14 includes the Manfred Anson (whom I’ve actually bought something small from before ages ago, on eBay of all places) famous Statue of Liberty menorah.
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I’ve written about the Peter Sekaer exhibit at the International Center of Photography before, but I’m still trying to get over the perfection that is the image in 1936 at the phrenologist’s window in New Orleans. It’s the exhibit’s catalog cover.
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The new Legoland that’s being built to open in 2012 at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta has announced the ten city landmarks that will be created in Miniland and thankfully they include the Fox Theatre, the High, Stone Mountain, and the Varsity.
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Susan Knecht’s studio and gallery located at the new-ish Lowe Mill in Huntsville: chandeliers with squiggles.
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There’s a nice interview with the directors who made the documentary, Awake, My Soul about sacred harp singings here. Above is a phone pic Av took of dinner from when we were at the National Convention this summer.
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Can’t wait to read the new book by Elizabeth Engelhardt published by the University of Georgia, A Mess of Greens: Southern Gender and Southern Food. Part of this wonderful interview goes into Tomato Clubs:
How did Tomato Clubs empower young women back in the early 1900s?
In 1910, Marie Samuella Cromer, a young rural schoolteacher in the western South Carolina town of Aiken, organized a girls’ tomato club so that the girls would “not learn simply how to grow better and more perfect tomatoes, but how to grow better and more perfect women.” The tomato clubs and the women who organized them wanted southern food to transform Southern society — but not from the top down.
The girls had to plant one-tenth of an acre of tomatoes, which would provide more tomatoes than they or their families could use in a year. This forced them to learn how to can, market and sell them — and they could do whatever they want with the money. Glass jars were scarce, so they had to use big pieces of equipment to can tomatoes in tin. In order to finish a year in the Tomato Club, they had to write a report about how they harvested, presented and sold their tomatoes. It was a real lesson in technology, science and entrepreneurship.
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Belle Chevre, the fantastic goat cheese dairy in Elkmont, Alabama is doing a Kickstarter project right now to raise $100k for new land with a custom facility.
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For some reason, with all the baking I did this past week, I felt like the Cake Lady (at the NC Museum of Art) by Bob Trotman. An exhibit of Bob’s work begins at the Huntsville Museum of Art on December 4.
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Just for fun: Department 56 has come out with a model of Chick-Fil-A. They’ve already done a Krispy-Kreme building.
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This home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Rockford, IL is going up for auction mid-December. The most interesting part: FLW designed it to be completely wheelchair accessible. From this article:
In his letter to Wright, Laurent noted, “To give you an idea of my situation, I must first tell you that I am a paraplegic. In other words due to a spinal-cord injury I am paralyzed from the waist down and by virtue of my condition I am confined to a wheelchair. This explains my need for a home as practical and sensible as your style of architecture denotes.”
Built 40 years before the Americans with Disabilities Act, every aspect of this home and its furnishings, from light switches to doorways to tables, was designed by Wright to keep obstructions to a minimum.
The Laurent House Foundation Board is trying to raise enough money to purchase the home and turn it into a museum.
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Make plans now: 27th Annual Alabama Clay Conference is Feb 16-19, 2012 in B’ham.