Month: March 2012

Creation Story: Gee’s Bend Quilts and the Art of Thornton Dial and Bill Traylor: Drawings from the Collections of the High Museum of Art and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts will be on view at the Frist Center in Nashville from May 25-September 23, 2012.

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Addie Griffin Arthur, who owned the Dixie Pig in Virginia, has passed away.

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A certain type of sedge was the first found in North America by MSU researchers in Rose Hill Cemetery, in Meridian, where the royal Roma family is buried.  Interesting because they wonder if the seeds were unintentionally brought by visitors to Queen Kelly’s funeral, and that the plant was also later found at what was a campground in the early 1900s.

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The opening reception for ‘Reflections of Food in Alabama Art‘ at the ArtFolk Gallery in the Young and Vann Building, B’ham, is April 6.  It is going to be good.

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Martha’s Place restaurant is open again in Montgomery, although it is no longer in the home on Sayre Street.

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Can’t believe!  The Magnolia Pearl Ranch is for sale!  Fellow Pinterest lovers, the pics are on slideshow so you can’t pin them but print-screen to your Picasa for inspiration.  BTW, she has her own pinboard.  Robin/Pearl, I hope you are selling for the best desires of your heart and for no other reason.  You are wonderful!

Prepare to swoon over the fashion show she put together this year:

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We had lunch at Saw’s Soul Kitchen in B’ham (review in the News) today.

Barbecue over greens over grits = good.  Very good.

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Here in Alabama, people attempt to steal 1400 lb pieces of iron slag to bring home for yard art. Except you can get arrested for that.

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I want this house in Hattiesburg. Look at those gorgeous details! Can you *believe* this house for $235k!?

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Architectural Digest picks a dozen don’t-miss museum exhibits right now, and one of them is at the Birmingham Museum of Art (I’ve been to the exhibit; they give you an iPad for guidance).

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On Tumblr: the last works of great artists.

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Gallup releases results of study that shows Mississippi as the state with the highest percentage of people who identify as very religious, next is Utah, then back to the South with Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina, then Georgia.  Gallup: It appears there is something about the culture and normative structure of a state, no doubt based partly on that state’s history, that affects its residents’ propensity to attend religious services and to declare that religion is important in their daily lives.

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The Vieners are closing their Outsider Folk Art Gallery in Pennsylvania. They’re selling things off via 1stdibs.

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Antiques Roadshow appraiser puts a 1935 oil painting of nasturtiums by Zelda Sayre at $10-20k.

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Quentin Tarantino is filming his newest, ‘Django Unchained’, at Evergreen Plantation right now.

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In Alabama:
The Doo-Nanny in Seale is this weekend, as is Eufaula Pilgrimage and the Front Porch Festival in Gadsden.

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In Mississippi:
Pilgrimage in Natchez, Gulf Coast Pilgrimage, Columbus Pilgrimage, Aberdeen Pilgrimage, Renaissance Fine Arts Festival in Ridgeland, Art in the Pass, Stella’s Blues and BBQ in Bay St. Louis

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In Louisiana:
In New Orleans tonight, Taste of the Town.  Tomorrow, Fete Francaise. Also tomorrow: the PRC Shotgun House tour.

I was sorry to have missed Tat Bailey’s birthday party a little while ago (I think he turned 99!).  I had something that weekend and couldn’t get away but will make every effort to come see him again soon and for his next birthday especially.

While I’ve photographed sweet Tat and his home — and all the stone works he’s done around his home — there are some of his works that he’s done in the community, like this monument at Corinth Baptist in Joppa for family:

…and he did this sign:

I took all these pictures a few months ago; Tat encouraged me to go see what he had made here.  He’s told me much about his own crypt which he built years ago:

He’s also make this piece across the little drive, and some benches too:

Pics from one of my visits to Tat’s home are here.  Tat is among the most talented, one-of-a-kind people I know.  He built his own covered bridge, even:

  Happy birthday to sweet Tat!

Hurtsboro, Alabama is an interesting place (it gets better and better…).  Here’s the library, housed in a former bank with a vault:

A rare surviving example of signage for Jefferson Island Salt from Louisiana (which is now oddly known about for the 1980 Texaco disaster, which involved a whirlpool, geysers, and a 6′ deep lake becoming 1300′ deep).

Beautiful:

This Pat Perry Hardware store has the sign for the…

…Museum of Ordinary People — it was featured in the book ‘Little Museums‘ this way:
“One day there will be a place where art, junk, memorabilia, and a living artist will combine to make up a truly ordinary place to visit.”  Fluxus artist Mike Howard has long envisioned a place where you can see art “the way it’s supposed to be seen — in the environment of junk, bad lighting, and screaming kids.”…

What I really wanted to see was Mike’s construction of this ‘Unabomber Cabin Replica’ in his yard:

Yep.

Earlier this month, the AP ran an article: Dooky Chase Gumbo Fueled Civil Rights Movement.

At the famed Dooky Chase Restaurant, where veterans of the civil rights movement still recall making plans to change the world over bowls of gumbo, black and white foodies now line up for Leah Chase’s Creole cooking. Back before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, however, some customers had to enter discreetly and meet secretly. In the 1950s and ’60s, as the movement gained steam, many of its leaders dined at the restaurant, then used a back room for meetings.


It was here that plans were drawn up to help the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stage sit-ins and to shelter others trying to further the cause of racial equality.


Now, Dooky Chase Restaurant, run by Leah Chase and her husband, Edgar “Dooky” Chase Jr., is among a dwindling number of civil rights landmarks remaining in New Orleans.
“I feel like in this restaurant we changed the course of the world over bowls of gumbo,” said Leah Chase. “That’s how we always did the planning — over gumbo.”


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“I’ve seen a great change,” Chase said. “People tell me, well it’s still a long way from perfect, but I say, ‘Of course it is, this isn’t heaven it’s earth, and nothing is perfect here.'”

Not a restaurant, but in Montgomery, Georgia Gilmore was famous for feeding others from her home…and the proceeds going to fuel the movement:

The sign reads:

Georgia Gilmore
February 5, 1920 – March 3, 1990
Georgia Gilmore, cited as a “solid, energetic boycott participant and supporter” lived in this house during the days of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Once arrested on a bus, Gilmore was ardent in her efforts to raise funds for the Movement and organized “Club From Nowhere” whose members baked pies and cakes for sale to both black and white customers. Opening her home to all, she tirelessly cooked meals for participants including such leaders as Dr. Martin Luther King and Dr. Ralph Abernathy. Her culinary skills continued to aid the cause of justice as she actively worked to encourage civil rights for the remainder of her life.

We got to see the Mardi Gras Indians on Super Sunday while we were in New Orleans, too.

We were in New Orleans for St. Patrick’s Day and went to the Uptown and Metairie parades.

At both, they threw cabbages, potatoes, onions…and tons of throws (beads, tchotchkes, etc) of course. At the one in Metairie, Shugie caught a big teddy bear and Shug got another giant — bigger than him almost — stuffed animal.  We brought bags for all the throws and filled them all!

Afterwards, the boys wanted to know why we don’t have parades for every single other holiday.

We should!  Since our next big holiday is Passover, can you imagine the great float themes we could come up with?!  I think we will get out the shoeboxes and make our own mini-parade here at home…