Twenty-plus years of documenting the South's vernacular art, visionary environments and traditions….plus modern art exhibits, Faulkner and Eudora, and This Week's Various. Welcome.
How very interesting, in Memphis — what people call ‘voodoo village’ is actually intended to be based on NT scripture and Masonic teachings:
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Councilman Alvin Tillman in Houma, Louisiana bringing forth a proposal to outlaw all colors other than white in three of Terrebonne Parish’s cemeteries in a post entitled, Eternally Vanilla in Houma. On our vacation, we again went through Houma to get to Chauvin (more about that later), so we stopped at one of the cemeteries in question, Southdown Cemetery:
Those tombs painted yellow, blue, terracotta, lilac…weren’t the least bit offensive or distracting. They added beautiful character:
(top center: this family wanted their family member to be with their loved plush animals, so they put them in waterproof containers. Another thing here was that on some of the monuments, rather than birth/death dates, they used ‘Alpha’ and ‘Omega’)
This councilman feels the need to legislate hue at a public cemetery. Again, I’ll say: Maybe Alvin Tillman should invest in founding cemeteries with ‘home-owners associations’ full of ordinances and self-important governing boards which restrict…everything that is at odds with uniformity.
Alas, the the Terrebonne Parish Council decided last week that all new tombstones at Southdown, Bisland, and Halfway cemteries would have to be painted white. Existing monuments will not have to be repainted.
From the Houma Today article:
Prior to the vote, Amedee, who said she once worked as a minister for her church and often comforted those who were grieving, said the ordinance is “an infringement on personal rights.”
My first-ever pig ear sandwich from the Big Apple Inn (and this is what it looks like inside):
March 1, 2012: The Big Apple Inn from Farish Street in Jackson will open an outpost in Atlanta. Atlanta!
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This bakery in California makes a gorgeous cheesecake decorated with magnolia; when I went to their site this week I found this: “Why should a tasting flight only be for wine? If you’re having a hard time choosing between our delicious selections of flavors, choose them all! Our latest and greatest is the flight of cake– a variety of flavors in one slice for everyone to enjoy! We carefully stack them so each filling compliments the next layer of cake; it’s the perfect way to give everyone the chance to taste all we have to offer.” Agreed.
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Wild hogs are on the loose and doing damage at the Vicksburg National Military Park.
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What an odd, odd, odd story in the NYT this week: “Now, in a quirk of fate laced with lawsuits, religious conversions and a small-town Southern narrative Harper Lee might deliver, a black pastor will eventually control what just might be the most famous…”
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Turn a Mason jar into a sippy cup, seriously. Cuppow makes a BPA-free lid for canning jars.
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The last real Daughter of the Confederacy in Alabama died this month; her brother is the last living Son.
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If no other restoration delays arise, the restaurant at the historic (and wonderful) Hotel Talisi in Tallassee, AL will open this year.
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Alcorn State has started a campaign to raise money for a Medgar Evers statue to be placed on campus, in time for the 50th anniversary of his assassination.
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Intuit: the Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art is putting together a tour of art environments in France for May of this year.
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Gothamist asks if readers are offended by this special menu at St. Luke’s Hospital in NYC, in honor of MLK’s birthday. Um, no. You could honor most anyone from the South with dishes like these. Feel free to honor my people with fried chicken, collards, cornbread, and pecan pie any day. Extra points for pralines.
Av went to a party a month or two ago and met…I can’t remember his position, but it was someone with CatHead Vodka which is made in Mississippi (the state’s first legal distillery), so of course Av later made his way to the bottle shop and brought home some. CatHead’s logo is from bluesman Pat Thomas’ famous drawings, whose son makes similar drawings.
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USA Today ran an article about museums trying to stay relevant, with a focus on Louisiana’s Civil War Museum, and touched on its relationship with the Smithsonian.
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2012 is the Year of Alabama Food from the state tourism office. They asked me to contribute a pic…so of course…
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Such a pretty, pretty king cake from Sucre.
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The Snake Man of Appalachia “follows the lives of Verlin and Reva Short, an Appalachian family deeply involved in religious snake handling.” Tivo-ed it last night; was really good. It’s a six-episode series on Animal Planet. Above is a pic I took of the Old Rock House Holiness Church in Macedonia AL that similarly follows Mark 16:17-18 in a literal fashion.
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Even the Eisenhower family doesn’t like Gehry’s design for the new monument in Washington. The National Civic Art Society puts out a webpage about it that looks like an email you write in the heat of the moment to make yourself feel better, but they forgot the part where you walk away and then come back to heavily edit before pressing ‘send’.
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Florida Folklife from the WPA Collection at the Library of Congress.
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From the Tennessean: “Like a nervous couple at the altar, America’s newest art museum and one of the nation’s oldest historically black colleges are hoping a third party doesn’t disrupt their proposed union — again.
An appeals court upheld Fisk University’s right to sell a $30 million share in its famed Stieglitz art collection to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. But Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper, who opposes the collection leaving Tennessee, has a Jan. 28 deadline to challenge that ruling.”
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Best (Rube Goldberg) way yet to turn pages, article in the NYT:
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You can listen to Faulkner reading ‘As I Lay Dying’ here.
Coretta Scott King reads from her, ‘My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr.’ here.
Av and I have stayed at most of the casino hotels on the Mississippi gulf coast — Beau Rivage, Isle, Magic (which is gone now), Grand, Palace…but last week we had our first stay at a Hard Rock. We like staying at casino hotels because the nicer casinos have really nice rooms, and if you stay during the week, they are steeply discounted. For instance, we got this room for weeeellll below $100 when it books for over $200 on the weekends.
You never have to go on the casino floor, either. Another nice thing about this hotel was — because this is a Hard Rock, after all — the costumes and other instruments and props from performers. Furthest left are some teensy jeans from Elton John, then the red suit is from Steven Tyler, and the wedding dress from Madonna. The quilt at the bottom was commissioned by Frank Zappa in the 80s, to be made from…lingerie that was thrown to him at concerts!
I’ve been taking pics of the Kelly Mitchell (who was queen of the Romas here) monument in Meridian MS for several years now. The offerings that people leave here are an interesting mix.
Queen Kelly Mitchell died in 1915 while giving birth at a camp in Coatopa, Alabama, and her family brought her to Rose Hill Cemetery in Meridian to be buried. A recollection of that event is in the February 7, 1915 issue of the Meridian Dispatch:
“At one side of the parlors, with candelabra at the head and foot stands the magnificent silver-trimmed metallic casket. Hermetically sealed within, in all the barbaric splendor of a medieval Queen lays Mrs. Callie (Kelly) Mitchell, Queen of the Gypsies of America. Her swarthy face with its high cheekbones is typical of Romany tribes and the head, the upper portion of which is covered with bright silken drapery pinned at the back with pins, rests upon a cushion of filmy silk and satin. The hair is braided Gypsy fashion and the dark tresses shine. The body is attired in a Royal robe of Gypsy Green and other bright colors contrasting vividly with the somber hues usual under such circumstances. Two necklaces are around the neck, one of shells, an heirloom that was descended through generations. The lower part of the body is draped with “Sacred Linen” treasured by Gypsy bands for the use only when death overtakes one of their numbers. When the children arrive, each will put a memento of some kind in the casket and it will devolve upon the youngest child to place her mother’s earrings in the ear.”
The story goes on about the burial customs and that the grave was reinforced with steel bars and concrete so as to discourage thieves (since so many fine things were buried along with her body for use on the other side of the Styx).
This photograph below looked like this in 2005:
At my synagogue, we use a small chapel for services that are less well-attended (minyan, some Shabbats), and on the reader’s table, there are a series of interchangeable plaques for the phrases to do in certain prayers, based on what season it is, or additions for holidays or the new moon. I took this pic a few weeks ago, but ’tis the season…it stays up during football season…at the bottom of the line of plaques, it says in Hebrew “Roll Tide”!
Oh I had the most fantastic vacation this week with my sweet family! We went *everywhere* — beach, art environment, some ruins — and I got to take pictures with my Chanukah present from Mimi and Papa…a new Canon Digital Rebel (I was so surprised!!). We had the best, best time. All of that beginning tomorrow (Monday). Can’t wait to show!
Hope you are enjoying a fabulous 2012!
xoxo!
Ginger
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