Month: February 2012

I’ve collected McCarty pottery for a while now.  My favorite…

This is a pic I took in 2005 of the entrance, covered in bamboo:

While the old water tower across the street is gone (it was the best landmark to find the studio — just drive to it), the bamboo is still there.

And inside (the studio began as a mule barn) there’s all this gorgeousness:

McCarty is so perfect in so many ways:

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Broken McCarty pottery as a backsplash.

Downtown Jackson, Mississippi — pics from one of our visits in May:

Isn’t that gorgeous:

The Mayflower, yum:

…and at night, oh yes:

As always, unless otherwise noted, all pics here copyright Deep Fried Kudzu. Ask me before using in any fashion. Thank you.

The Alliance Theatre in Atlanta is doing a beautiful, folk-art take on the Wizard of Oz (2/25 – 3/11): …will feature a folk art concept in details large and small — from a Toto made of spools to flying sock monkeys and a found-object Tin Man.

…Costume designer Sydney Roberts said the department looked to (Howard) Finster’s representations of angels to create original fabric for the costumes of Dorothy and the Wizard.

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Variety ran a lukewarm piece about the movie, Jayne Mansfield’s Car, written by Billy Bob Thornton and set in 1969 Alabama: “In line with some of Thornton’s earlier films…steeped in the language and atmosphere of the rural South; its characters’ tendency to speak in soulful anecdotes and monologues reps an unabashed throwback to a mostly bygone literary and cinematic tradition.”

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Rocky and Carlo’s in Chalmette had a fire this week but they plan to reopen in mid-April; the Shed in Ocean Springs had a fire this week too but they’re already reopened.

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There’s a place called Lynyrd Skynyrd BBQ at the Excalibur in Las Vegas.  You knew there was going to be a drink called the ‘Sweet Home Alabama Slammer’ (Southern Comfort, Plymouth Sloe Gin and orange juice) but some of these others (Jack Daniel’s and pickle brine, together?)…

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Auburn’s Rural Studio has 20k home news: In June of this year, Rural Studio hired Marion McElroy, a 2002 Rural Studio alumna, as the $20K House Product Manager.  …She is beginning to formulate an initial plan to move from $20K Project to $20K Product.  While continuing to research the target clients and how to deliver the product to them, Marion is taking steps to move the projects out of the research area. This includes activities such as conducting complete architectural reviews, including code review and FHA compliance; discussions of the need, placement and method of completing model homes, or show homes, for potential clients, and a branding and marketing plan.


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From the Smithsonian food blog this week: at a cookbook conference in NY, “one panel of historians and scholars extolled the value of texts traditionally relegated to the basements and attics: community cookbooks.


…includes an 1878 book from Mobile, Alabama entitled Gulf City Cook Book Compiled by The Ladies of the St. Francis Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South. As Alison Kelly, the reference librarian who curated the collection, said, “if you thought community cookbooks were just chicken croquettes, this book will change your mind.”


Compared to today’s cooking, some of the book’s recipes—turtle soup or terrapin stew, for example—reflect a changing Southern ecology. The recipes also serve as a document of a profound cultural shift: the decline of hunting, wild game, chitlins, and pig’s feet. Perhaps this is best exemplified by the utterly mundane treatment of squirrel. 


…Recently, Heather Smith issued a call for the resquirrelification of the American diet—an effort to transform the garden-variety rodent into a “drive-through cheeseburger of the forest.” While that may seem somehow exceptional now, the Alabama community cookbook is a reminder that, at least in 1878, there was hardly anything extraordinary about stewing up a squirrel.”

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Howard Finster’s daughter is displeased with his depiction in a play at UGA.  And the Chattanooga paper writes about plans for Paradise Gardens now that it is owned by the county.

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Eating Alabama, a documentary about a couple who took on a project eating exclusively food grown/raised in the state, will premiere at SXSW.


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Ruby C. Williams was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from her hometown’s Plant City Black Heritage Celebration. Ruby’s Produce Stand and Art Gallery sits on her portion of the land handed down by her grandfather and, after her mother’s death, parceled out to Williams and her six siblings. She grows black-eyed peas, strawberries, onions, turnips and other crops.


Brightly colored paintings share the roadside stand with turnips, collard greens and other offerings. Next to a hand-painted sign that reads “Ruby is in the field, call me, please” are her latest creations, some priced at $750 or more.


Yay, sweet Ruby!

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The Charlotte in 2012 DNC host committee has put out a RFP now that they are “looking to work with a Barbeque sauce vendor as part of the merchandising effort for the Convention. We are looking for a set of three different types of BBQ sauces, mustard, vinegar, and tomato that represent the different styles from around the Carolinas. They would be sold in our merchandise store.”


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‘Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial‘ opens at the New Orleans Museum of Art on February 24 and runs thru May 20.

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Just guess where the National Blues Museum is going to be.
St. Louis.

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On March 8, the contents of the now-closed Mardi Gras Museum in Kenner will go up for auction.

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The Army Corps of Engineers and local historians are reaching out to descendants of 300+ slaves who are buried in two cemeteries west of New Orleans that only a handful of people know exists, even though they’re on the National Register.  And there may be 5800 unmarked graves in the oldest black cemetery — Lincoln — in Montgomery.

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CNN’s eatocracy ran a piece this week about Bean Pie, and wow did they ever get comments.

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The T-P’s king cake winner is the pecan praline king cake at Manny Randazzo’s!

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Crystal Bridges’ $30MM deal + Tennessee’s Fisk University’s Stieglitz collection = lawsuit, thanks to a no-sale stipulation by the donor

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February 22-26: 24th International Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis.

Tonight, I attended the opening reception for the first annual Alabama Clay Conference show at the Art Folk Gallery in downtown Birmingham.  *Many* nice people and work there:

Paveen “Beer” Chunhaswasdikul:

Jane Marshall:

Kevin Irwin:

Scott Bennett:

Janice Kluge:

The conference is being held through the 19th at the BJCC, but all these works are in the Young & Vann Building, 1731 1st Ave N.  The website is here.

Last month, the Washington Post ran an article, ‘Sushi Standards and the American Way‘:

…He knows dining all boils down to enjoyment, not some mystic quest for authenticity every time you enter an eatery.

Still, in his more reflective moments, he worries about the state of genuine Japanese sushi, the kind that requires years of training, an almost obsessive attention to detail and a passion for fresh, clean flavors.

Every Sunday evening, Av and I have a tradition that goes back to when we were first married: we eat very good sushi and watch HBO.  We’ve gone through years of the Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Carnivale, Big Love…and now we’re enjoying Luck (which stars someone that married one of Av’s relatives: Dustin Hoffman, which is cute!) while holding chopsticks.

But once or twice a year, we’ll go out for lunch and will try some new sushi place, which explains the two pics above, one called a ‘Vulcan Roll’ and the bottom one that I’ve already forgotten the name of, but came from just the kind of place that the Washington Post article discussed, a place where the menus are inside record covers, and they serve things like the ‘Velcro Pygmies Roll’.  Yeah.  It’s okay that once or twice a year, but we know Sunday night we’re getting our ‘real’ sushi.

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This made me think about a conversation many people have been having about ‘what is Southern food’ — and the perception of it put forth by one particular network and one particular entertainer.  Southern food is sweet tea and fried chicken, but it is also collard greens (one of the healthiest foods you’ll find anywhere) and nearly-every-other-vegetable and tons of fruit, thanks to our very long growing season.  My children will tell you their favorite food — both of them will say this — is rutabagas.  Southern food is not what’s peddled by one television personality, but what’s prepared and served every day in real family Southern kitchens.

Just like the above, there are people and places and occasional times for everything.  But there is also beautiful foundation on which everything else stands (or falls).

Now I’m going to go have a vegetable plate lunch of collards, limas, peas, and a sweet potato or squash casserole at my favorite meat & three, where all guests are greeted with this sign:

This summer, we visited Dayton, Tennessee as part of a larger trip — at first, I didn’t remember what Dayton is famous for, but there are several signs around town, and one of the main attractions is the Rhea County Courthouse, as this is where the Scopes Trial took place in the summer of 1925:

The Tennessee statute — the Butler Act — made it “unlawful for any teacher in…the State…to teach any theory that denies the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible…”.  So when John Scopes was put on trial for teaching evolution in his science class, the ACLU offered to come up with some money to help his defense.  And one of the (non-ACLU, I think) defense lawyers was Clarence Darrow.

The other side included William Jennings Bryan, who had previously been nominated for president, and was famous for his ‘Crown of Thorns…Cross of Gold’ speech which he delivered at the 1896 Democratic National Convention).  He was remembered for this speech, and recited portions of it again in 1921 for a recording company; you can listen to it here).  There’s a sculpture of Bryan on the courthouse lawn:

He died five days after the trial had come to its conclusion.  The community raised money to build a college, and Bryan College is there today.

Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 (the conviction was set aside on appeal due to a technicality).

The following images are from the Smithsonian, and are under no copyright restrictions:

John T. Scopes

The seven scientists asked to testify for the defense

William Jennings Bryan (seated, left) being interrogated by Clarence Darrow. Court was being held outside since it was so hot in the courthouse