As always, unless otherwise noted, all pics here copyright Deep Fried Kudzu. Ask me before using in any fashion. Thank you.
A full week of regular postings starting again on Sunday…
The AP put out a report about Chattooga County purchasing Finster’s Paradise Gardens.
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Dillard House fried chicken recipe here (it’s just as easy or easier than you already do). From looking at their website, I think they’re trying to mimic the Loveless and their success with items by mail.
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Hoo-wee. Prosecutors Get Folksy in Alabama Gambling Retrial in the Montgomery Advertiser. Read that. Gosh.
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When you think of food in Montreal, smoked meat has to be considered (hallelujah for Schwartz’s) but the barbecue restaurants there are being targeted by the authorities there for air pollution.
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The Atlantic writes about Shreveport’s Moonbot Studios:
Comparisons to Pixar are unavoidable, but Moonbot’s work has a distinctive feel — an affinity for old things, an antique veneer, and a hint of southern gothic. With an eye for details like Buster Keaton’s straw hat and vintage French typography, Moonbot’s world is immersive and rich. Even in his noninteractive format, Mr. Lessmore will be a contender for one of those little golden statues.
This short animated film of theirs has been nominated for an Academy Award:
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.
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From this month’s New Orleans Magazine: The NOLA Pie Guy, a pop-up pie stand on Freret, and Bee Sweet Cupcakes at 5706 Magazine: “For Mardi Gras we do a King Cake in a cup called the Endemy-yum. It is basically a cinnamon-roll-based cupcake jazzed up with a Cointreau glaze…”
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Av got an invitation this week to see a screening of the Oscar-nominated short documentary, Barber of Birmingham but couldn’t go, so Leslie and I drove like crazy people but didn’t make it in time. Here’s the trailer:
Barber of Birmingham – Trailer from jacob steingroot on Vimeo.
Now, another documentary I really want to see:
“Linotype: The Film” Official Trailer from Linotype: The Film on Vimeo.
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The Women’s Industrial Kitchen in Baltimore which has a beautiful history, was favorably reviewed in last Sunday’s Baltimore Sun here. Pics here.
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From the press release: Ancient Walled City Unearthed Off Georgia Coast Revealed
A new web exhibit at LostWorlds.org, an online interactive museum of the American Indian, reveals an ancient walled city unearthed by archaeologists off the Georgia coast which predates the construction of Egypt’s pyramids. Known as the Sapelo Shell Ring Complex, this ancient city was constructed around 2300 B.C. and featured three neighborhoods each surrounded by circular walls twenty feet in height constructed from tons of seashells. Some of the earliest pottery in North America was also found buried in the remains of this lost city.
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This weekend, the second annual Heritage Cake Contest will take place, sponsored by the Lee County Historical Society. Last year’s winner was a Lane cake. The recipes have to be at least 100 years old or to have been passed through at least three generations.
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My friend Conor O’Brien makes a half onion sprouting one of the most beautiful things ever.
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A ‘Historic Resources Specialist’ position (which sounds more like operations manager in reality) is open at the Eudora Welty home in Jackson. Details here.
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You know how it hurts whenever a ‘Southern’ cake recipe begins with “1 box cake mix”? Well now we have a bakery offering their recipe for a king cake that begins with “2 packages of your favorite uncooked cinnamon rolls”.
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What a beautiful thing. The T-P reports: Operation We Care, a nonprofit organization in Ponchatoula, is seeking sponsors to send a taste of home to troops serving abroad. For nine years, Operation We Care (along with Randazzo’s Camellia City Bakery in Slidell, and several generous contributors), has been sending king cakes to deployed troops. Randazzo’s Camellia City Bakery is donating 500 king cakes. Operation We Care needs to buy another 500 and pay the postage for 1,000 king cakes. The king cakes will be mailed Feb. 24, so time is of the essence.
Operation We Care is working to ensure that local military personnel serving overseas can enjoy a taste of Carnival. A king cake can be sponsored for $25. Individual sponsorship can be made online at http://www.operationwecare.com/king-cakes.php. Checks also may be mailed to Operation We Care, P.O. Box 1306, Ponchatoula, LA 70403.
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I don’t buy tomatoes in the winter (after reading Tomatoland and a couple of other books/articles…) but Trader Joe’s has just signed a fair food agreement with The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which is a big improvement.
Good thing there is no controversy around Joe Joes.
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Vernacular Typography on Kickstarter. Vernacular Typography is a digital archive and community-based initiative dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and promotion of vanishing examples of lettering in the everyday environment. It seeks to explore, protect, and support the typographic environment in cities around the world that retain their rich traditions of vernacular signage.
…Typography is a powerful marker of regional identity and has a remarkable ability to capture the local character of a particular time and place.
Unfortunately, in some places globalization has all but erased the local typographic heritage. Cities that once had a unique typescape now look like they could be anywhere in the world.
For the past 10 years, I’ve been photographing environmental lettering and organizing the images by place and category on VernacularTypography.com. Right now the website has over 5,000 images of urban typography from 10 different countries, including Argentina, The Bahamas, Chile, Cuba, England, France, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the US.
The goal of the project is to gather as many images of endangered local signage before it disappears altogether; create an archive to document and share those images; and work to revive the tradition of creating new, original lettering in the built environment.
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I’ve been a Peter Chang fan for a few years now so was happy to see this article about him in the Washington Post; how cute is it that his business partner for his restaurants in Virginia is named Gen Lee?
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Chick-fil-A and football recruiting.
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The T-P reports: An intimate, candid painting of chef Leah Chase absorbed in slicing yellow squash in the kitchen as she prepares for the lunch rush at Dooky Chase restaurant has been added to the collection of iconic American images in the National Portrait Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
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There’s a bakery in Maryville TN that is licensed to make Moon Pie cupcakes (the only one anywhere). The owner contacted Moon Pie: “I emailed the VP, and I called him. He said we don’t really do that,” Rayburn said. “I asked if I could bring them down for him to try. He said, sure. So I brought them down and he took one bite and said, ‘You got it!'”
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John Besh’s king cake cupcake recipe here.
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The Pensacola News-Journal writes about the cheesemakers at Sweet Home Farm in Elberta: “We bought the farm when small farms were on their way out,” Wolbert said. “Everything was get big, or get out and use chemicals. We don’t use chemicals.” The couple had to scrounge up farming books from the 1930s and ’40s to learn the ways of small farmers. “All of my milking equipment is also from the 1940s,” Wolbert said.
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Teach for America in the Delta.
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The AJC reports (and I’m so happy to say) that H&M was called out on taking another local artist’s work, and they lost. “Our leverage was bad press,” said attorney John Seay, who said he negotiated a “creative settlement” with H&M. Representatives of the company did not respond to requests from the AJC seeking comment.
LaConsay said the retailer has agreed to contribute $3,000 toward a surgery for her best friend’s dog while also donating the remainder of profits generated by the “You Look Nice Today” items to charitable organizations.
“I am especially pleased that this agreement respectfully honors the true intent behind the original artwork, offering a message of love, compassion and community,” LaConsay said in a statement. “Additionally, I am heartened and vindicated in my belief that given the chance and support, that people want to do the right thing.”
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Pollard’s Barbecue in Memphis is going to be on Restaurant Impossible in May.
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Museums/Architecture: What is going on with the Slavery Museum in Virginia? Architectural icon, La Cite Radieuse, which was designed by Le Corbusier, had major damage from a fire this week. FLW designed a dog house, and yes, it leaked. The Road to Tara Museum in Georgia had some items stored in a facility that had a fire this week and it’s as-yet uncertain what was damaged. The NYT writes about architectural apps, like Richard Neutra’s VDL Studio and Residences, Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House #22, and FLW’s Fallingwater.
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Have you seen Snake Man of Appalachia on Animal Planet? It’s wonderful. The Chattanooga TFP writes about a professor at UTC who helped make a match so that the series could be possible.
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The NYT Frugal Traveler writes part 1 of his Texas Road Trip.
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The Jefferson County Sound doc on APT, airing again on 2/14 — and lots of Blind Boys of Alabama:
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The Hattiesburg paper writes that the Mississippi Craftsmen’s Guild is now up to 400 members, and the best quote: “Why pick china off a shelf that is mass-produced when craftsmen can customize for you and make a set of pottery like no one else has? These are the heirlooms of tomorrow. They are nothing that will be put in garage sales. These are things that will be passed on to people’s children and grandchildren.”