Month: December 2011

The Atlantic found a little story about a young man who wrote to Nelle Harper Lee in 2006 asking for a photo; instead she wrote him a short note of advice:
“As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and don’t think you are the most important being on earth. Rich or poor, you then can look anyone in the eye and say, “I’m probably no better than you, but I’m certainly your equal.”

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Last week I mentioned that Leonard Knight, the visionary artist behind Salvation Mountain, was taken to long-term care. If you know Leonard and would like to write (no visits right now), the address is Eldorado Care Center, 510 E. Washington, El Cajon CA 92020. Sadly, Leonard’s caretaker, Kevin Eubank, passed away this week. Kevin’s last video, updating everyone on Leonard, is here. Sad, sad, sad.

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Honeysuckle Southern Inspired Gelato in Atlanta makes some of the most wonderful-sounding signature flavors: Moon Pie, the Kang (toasted banana ice cream with ribbons of peanut butter caramel), Mint Julep, and staple flavors: peanut brittle, divinity, sorghum, bourbon, rum raisin, bourbon pecan, and sweet tea. Oh yes!

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Scott Peacock’s holiday menu (which I found via Google, had no idea he was doing features for BHG) here.

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The Washington Post’s slideshow of Gehry’s Eisenhower monument in Washington.  Article here.

My friend Cindy always puts on the very nicest Christmas parties!  This year, not only did we get together for our usual fun (and a terrific cookie swap — I made my pistachio and cherry Mexican wedding cakes — everything everyone else made was fantastic as always but one of the really fun things was white chocolate peppermint popcorn balls) but we did a craft — Christmas trees!  All the girls made Christmas trees for their homes, and…well, since we’re Jewish…I made a forest tree with moss at the base and super-snuggly warm yarn at the top.

I think these are the ones Cindy and Darlene made:

It’s just a styrofoam cone, glue or straight pens to keep everything held onto the cone, and yarn:

…and here are all our trees! Mine’s on the second row with the moss at the base — loooved the moss, but it made the biggest, shaggiest mess everywhere when I was putting it on.  My favorite is the lighter green one with the pom-poms on the same step, but really they all turned out so great!!

At Barbara Lee Black’s gallery window:

You kinda have to know Amos Kennedy…this is in his studio window:

The very well-received documentary about Amos, Proceed and Be Bold, is here.

Each year, he’s at Kentuck selling posters and teaching letterpress:

Below, Amos and Shug a couple of years ago, in Glenn House’s gallery — and Glenn, who is crazy-talented, is really to thank for making Gordo into such a place so welcoming for artists.

I could go on forever about Glenn and bookarts, and letterpress in general, and all the other things he does, but there’s just no way not to love what he does in neon:

Studio 150 is next to Amos Kennedy’s studio:

The artist-in-residence at Studio 150 this summer…

…and this was on the door.

I’ve made these as gifts for friends, and sold them to people who’ve asked for them…these make great baby gifts for Chanukah — and if you don’t celebrate Chanukah, you just put the letters together for a nice new-baby present that can be displayed on a shelf.  From making so many of these, here are some tips…

You’ll need:
Alphabet blocks
Gorilla wood glue
Candle cups (if you’re making a menorah)
Hot glue, hot glue gun

You can get alphabet blocks at any general merchandise shop (Target, etc)…and I used those early on — but the nicest blocks are made by Lindenwood / Uncle Goose brand, and they are made entirely in Michigan using American ink.  Lindenwood makes different language blocks, and when I do a menorah using the baby’s Hebrew name, I use their Hebrew blocks.  Look at how gorgeous those Chinese blocks are, too!

Now, you can even purchase the individual blocks from them if you want just enough to make a particular name, etc.  And how fantastic are the braille blocks!?  And since I’m not obviously not done extolling the virtues of these fantastic blocks, the Presidential blocks, the heiroglyphic blocks, and the elemental blocks are all pretty wonderful too.

Gorilla glue can be gotten at any hardware store.

If you’re making a menorah, the DIY/crafty version is to use hardware bolts.  The nice way is to use candle cups like these.

There’s really no trick — Gorilla glue sets of three candles together, and clamp overnight, then the next day glue more on until you have the complete set done.  Remember if you’re making a menorah to glue an extra block on top of either the middle or the last block so that you have a shamash.  Then hot-glue on your nine candle cups (if you are putting the shamash on an end, put an extra block that will not have a candle cup on it *before* your shamash so there’s not one of the eight candles with flames so close to the base of your shamash candle — see the pic above).

 If you decide to put the shamash in the middle of your menorah, think about gluing on a glass pebble so that middle candle will be higher.

One of my favorite paintings at the Mississippi Museum of Art:

Carroll Cloar’s Kudzu, painted in 1976.  He was just fantastic, and this summer, Memphis Magazine reprinted an article they did on him back in the early ’90s.

The NYT Sunday Review runs an editorial, ‘Of Poor Farmers and ‘Famous Men” wherein the NYT author again visits Hale county.

And yet their faces show they were clearly and utterly defenseless. The book imposed a strange and unwanted fame on Hale County, where many saw its unflinching depiction of poverty as exploitive and cruel. That is what makes the descendants there still so angry, quick to vent their frustration on the occasional reporter who arrives asking for names and directions.


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Alabama Football Saved My Life! — a documentary to be funded via Kickstarter. I can’t help but think that the $2000 level donation would make someone a wonderful present.

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The Bottle Tree Ranch in California has a feature in the LA Times, with slideshow.

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An article on Kathryn Tucker Windham in this month’s B’ham Magazine.

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Frank Gehry collection at Tiffany.
…and conversely, Dept. 56 introduces Chick-Fil-A.

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Treme Creole Gumbo Festival this weekend.

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Langston Hughes wrote ‘Black Nativity’ with gospel music.  It’s being performed in New Orleans — and there’s a fantastic interview about it on WWNO.

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The WPA post office mural in Tuscumbia will be back up in 2012 following a renovation.

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Sweet-sweet Leonard Knight, who created Salvation Mountain in California, is in the hospital.

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Lucky’s on James Island, Charleston — pimento cheese broiled oysters.

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http://www-tc.pbs.org/s3/pbs.videoportal-prod.cdn/media/swf/PBSPlayer.swf

Later this month, PBS’ American Masters series will show “Charles and Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter”

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Kodak Brownie nightlight.

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Half the walls in my home are painted in the same colors as Restoration Hardware, which really pales in comparison to the fact that you can now paint the walls of your home in the very same hues that the Guggenheim uses.  Really:
For more than 50 years the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York has selected the perfect wall colors to complement the celebrated collection of modern art showcased in its Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home on Fifth Avenue.

Now through an exclusive licensing arrangement with Fine Paints of Europe, Inc., of Woodstock, Vermont the Guggenheim shares these trade secrets with homeowners, interior designers, architects, and art lovers everywhere.

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The James Beard people say the new hot pastry item are Canelés.  And to make those, you need this unless you want to go silicone.  But French copper is really so much more…wonderful…

Oh, and they think doughnuts are about to take off, too.

Have you made your first (only?) (not going to?) fruitcake of the year? Because this is the part where I mention that now is the time to forget things like bricks from the grocery store studded with alien green candied cherries — and instead consider making your own (like the crazy-great glorious fruitcake cupcakes, like I made above) with things that are truly delicious like pecans, pineapple, golden raisins…chocolate…I can go on…

Oh, yes.

The first New Urbanism project — anywhere — is sometimes considered to be the Cotton District in Starkville, Mississippi as its development began in the ’60s.  These are pics we took from our visit this summer.  I really thought the first New Urbanism community was Seaside but…

When Dan Camp, the developer, was invited to speak at the Congress of New Urbanism annual convention this summer, he was described as a Renaissance Man:

Buildings close to the street, sidewalks, picket fences, and concealed vehicles all contribute to the unique community of The Cotton District located in Starkville, Mississippi. Boasting a twenty-eight person per acre population, The Cotton District portrays the ideals of “new urbanism” as developed by Dan Camp, community visionary. Now the hottest real estate in Starkville, The Cotton District was once one of the most deplorable areas of this Northern Mississippi town. In 1972, Camp began developing and constructing a student-centered community to house students of Mississippi State University. What began as eight apartments have blossomed into a whole community including retail spaces, restaurants, and living quarters that over four hundred people call home.

Dan has been recognized for his development through multiple publications and was awarded the first Arthur Ross Award for Community Design by Classical America. He has spoken at numerous Smart Growth and Community Development Conferences where he has shared his experience with others.

…found in downtown Bessemer, Alabama.

Queen City Park in Tuscaloosa, which has a lot of art deco style — the architect was Don Buel Schuyler — was built, and dedicated in 1943 thanks to the WPA and the Civil Works Administration, with additional funds from the David Warner Foundation.  If you’re familiar with Tuscaloosa then the Warner name will likely be very familiar, as that’s the family who, among other things, was the Gulf States Paper Co and gardens on site.  In 1960, Jack Warner “commissioned architect Cecil Alexander to model Gulf States Paper’s new corporate headquarters after an eleventh-century palace in Japan, complete with an interior garden inhabited by peacocks and black-necked swans.”  More about that later.

This article is about the Queen City Trails.

About the pool, at which this fountain (above) was at the head, it was written almost ten years ago that the “Friends of Queen City Park would like to see it filled to about the two-foot level and turned into a reflecting pool with flower gardens and paths over much of it….A plan commissioned by the city two years ago called for a garden and path over half of the pool and a small therapy pool on the other half.”


This is the bath house designed by Don Buel Schuyler:

It’s slated to become the Mildred Warner Westervelt Transportation Museum — it was written in October that it’s behind schedule to open because “Officials say the setbacks can be attributed mostly to bad luck. Plans to use the original flooring of the former Queen City Bathhouse were scrapped after construction efforts caused too much damage and the floor needed to be replaced.  Then, earlier this year, the original contractor on the project went bankrupt, which then caused delays in completing the $1.53 million in renovations and upgrades.”

What’s most interesting in all this is how the Warners have stayed close to this property, and the family’s art collection (which has undergone a great upheaval this year — while many important pieces have left Tuscaloosa, a collection remains as the new Tuscaloosa Museum of Art).  And for an idea of what the Warners collect, absolutely see this (paneled walls from an English castle were brought to Jack’s home in Tuscaloosa, for one).