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.
These two little boys are lucky. We took them to the Irish-Italian Parade in Metairie, in March, and they got to yell “I’m Irish!” and “I’m Italian” (which are both completely true — from Rabbi Moshe Chafetz in Venice on Av’s side, to all the Polloks and Polks in Scotland and Ireland on mine) to the people with throws, but the fun thing about these parades is that (rightly so) *nobody* cares if you are or not! Fake it! Or don’t! Everyone’s just happy!!
We caught cabbages and carrots and potatoes; moon pies, frisbees, go-cups, what must’ve been more than 25lbs of beads, a giant foam finger, packs of ramen, bouncy-balls, great-big stuffed animals, and more. The good thing is that we know to bring several big shopping bags with us so we’re able to take it all back! We had terrific people around us and it was a great time!
It’s a fabulous cast of characters! One older lady on the neutral ground side *really* wanted a kiss and a flower from almost everyone she could get her hands on!
This gentleman was super-sweet and I think Shug was a little embarrassed (which doesn’t happen often!).
Shugie says he’s ready to tango!
—- Since I mentioned the boys’ (I think 8th-great-grandfather) Rabbi Moshe Chafetz from Venice, this is a pic of the Jewish ghetto there where he lived. This was one of our stops on our honeymoon. We ate at a kosher restaurant for lunch, and it so happened that we ran into Chabadniks who offered to do the sheva brachot for us! So sweet!
We went to the Jewish museum there in the ghetto and got to tour the synagogues. One of the interesting things was that they’re not necessarily built on the ground floor. They are *gorgeous* and something to see no matter what religion you are, really. Of all the places we went on our honeymoon — Amsterdam, Brussels, Milan, Paris and Disneyland Paris, Zurich, Copenhagen, and Helsingborg (Sweden) — Venice was my favorite. Just magical.
Great pics of each of the synagogues: Levantine Synagogue(In the entrance hall of the Scola, enriched by a beautiful ceiling, one reads on two ancient tablets: “If you understand, oh, man, what your end in the world will be, and if you show charity discreetly, then when you depart this life your place will be assured: then your chalice will be full of goodness and on your head will be placed a crown”) Spanish Synagogue(On the arch of the portal one reads the inscription: “Blessed are they that dwell in Thy House and continue to praise Thee” (Psalm 84, 5)) Canton Synagogue(Above the second doorway there is a verse from Solomon’s Proverbs (8-34): “Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates.” ) Great German Synagogue Italian Synagogue(Inside the small entrance hall of the ground floor one can read an 18th century style warning: “Humble in attitude and with sure faith May all devout worshipers lay here their prayers and even when their foot is turned elsewhere May their thoughts be always turned to G-d.”)
For a moment, consider putting the imagery that the word ‘poppers’ probably brings to mind. The John Besh – Brian Landry Borgne on Loyola is doing duck poppers and that’s just a whole other world.
Well let’s start with first things first. Cocktails, and bread that comes in a super-cute paper sack:
…and since I’ve come to the realization that sometimes two appetizers is worlds better (and often less expensive plus perhaps enough left to bring home) than one entree, here are those ‘duck poppers’ as duck wrapped around jalapenos, and cheese. Delectable:
and (most of these came home) the slow smoked pork empanadas with white sauce. When I ordered these, I asked the waiter if it was anything like white chicken sauce from Alabama, and knew exactly what I was talking about as he was also from Alabama! Sure enough. And crazy-delicious. You know that crust was just-right and the meat was tender and perfect: Columns wrapped with oyster shells:
There’s a piece in the NYT about vidalias (say it with me: vy-DALE-yuh) — not exactly about how terrific, tear-duct friendly, life-affirming, helloooo-spring-is-finally-here! they are. It’s about how farmers in Vidalia took the State of Georgia to court last year as to when they can begin shipping (it’s not the farmers who decide the initial shipping date (!!)): Armed with letters from grocery store executives who had complained about early-crop onions that went bad too quickly or didn’t taste all that sweet, the Georgia agriculture commissioner, Gary Black, pushed back. There would be no early shipments.
In March, a Fulton County Superior Court judge agreed with the growers. Mr. Black, the judge said, was exceeding his legal authority. Now Mr. Black, citing his responsibility to protect the Vidalia trademark, has vowed to appeal.
So until the case is settled, the nation will not get its first Vidalia onions any earlier than April 21. — Georgia Public Radio did a piece several about the vidalia, including one of the farmers who explained that you really want to buy the squattiest onion you can get: “When the tops stand firm, there’s a tremendous amount of life in the stem. But when they’re browned a little bit on the tops, the onions are really beginning to grow so they’re sucking the nutrients out of the top of the quills,” said Walt Dasher, owner of G and R Farms in Glennville, Georgia.
According to Dasher, when at least fifty percent of the tops of the plant are collapsed, the onions are ready to pick.
Although onions can look very similar to the typical consumer, you don’t need to be an expert to pick out a Vidalia.
“You can tell strictly by its shape. All of the Vidalias are of the Granex variety. The X in Granex means flat. The flatter the onion, typically the sweeter it is. On the other hand, the deeper the onion, the hotter it is,” said Dasher. 1015s from Texas ship earlier than the Vidalia. Me, I’m a vidalia girl, and I’ll wait. Maybe it makes the heart and the tummy grow fonder. Why, last year I was so tickled about them showing up at Whole Foods, I posted this pic on FB with the caption, ‘Hallelujah!’.
Ever go to some cultural event — something that you’re not really a part of regionally / ethnically / religiously but you think *wow* I just enjoy this so much through the people who do/live it?
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
The pure wonderfulness that is how people see this earth, how it is to be understood…all our different flavors of how we see things now and what forevermore is all about…
One of my favorite holidays of the year is one I don’t even personally celebrate (it’s not part of my religion) but one I love seeing other people take part in: Saint Joseph’s Day. These pics are from a couple of years ago, when we visited three or four different altars:
Which leads us today to, of all things, Saint Lucy’s eyes. And Saint Lucy’s eye pies. Recently in the Times-Pic, Judy Walker asked about the custom of including St. Lucy pies in St. Joseph Day altars (Saint Lucy being the Saint of vision). A reader wrote in, explaining: “Vision Past: Eye on the past, members of the family that are in heaven, with photographs on the altar to be seen.
“Vision Present: Eye on those present to keep the family traditions alive and well, with pictures of the family today.
“Vision Future: Eye on the future, so they keep a eye on their grandchildren and great- grandchildren.”
Saint Joseph’s Day is March 19 each year. I hope all of you who celebrate Easter enjoy a meaningful, hopeful, happy holiday.
And I came up with a great name for this pizza I made on matzah! Making the cheese into rounds and arranging into a Mickey Mouse shape atop pasta sauce (bake at 400* for about 7-8 minutes), here’s our Matzah-rella pizza!
Passover starts tonight, and here’s what we’re having:
Charoset bar — guests made their own with choice of apple, honey, wine, pecans, walnuts, golden, and dark raisins
Beef ribs (simply, thoroughly seasoned and in the oven at 300* for 2 to 2-1/2 hours) Chicken piccata (Jeff Nathan’s matzah panko for breading, used this recipe as a base) Sauteed mushrooms Roasted potatoes (olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary — quartered red potatoes, roasted in oven on 400* 1 hour) Fried green tomatoes Collard greens (boil, then simmer hours on stovetop in chicken broth) Deviled eggs (standard, with watermelon pickles for the relish component) Chopped liver with red pepper jelly and Tam Tams MawMaw’s coleslaw Espresso sorbet Sephardic orange-almond flan Chocolate-dipped marshmallows Potato candy with hazelnut filling Passover cake baby bites
When I was in college, our school had a chapel. It wasn’t open very much. I imagined that since it was on a college campus that it would be open for us all to drop in (gracious knows, college students have a lot on their shoulders) during odd hours, and I campaigned for it to be open more. In my world, you can pray anywhere — including places that aren’t even your ‘flavor’ religion — and those doors should be available to you. I can pray in my car, in my bed, standing at the kitchen sink, but sometimes I need to pray in a pew, whether it’s at my home synagogue or somewhere else.
I do spend time at St. Louis Cathedral, but this particular day I was nearby and came in Our Lady of Guadalupe on Rampart Street:
(this particular shot of the building by Infrogmation, used via Creative Commons cc-by-sa-3.0. Thanks!)
Here are some interior images I made:
So gorgeous in person. Really wish I had brought my Digital Rebel.
Saint Jude, the Patron Saint of lost causes:
Saint Jude is sometimes shown with a flame around his head: more about that here.
— Since I mentioned my school above…last year, the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to Troy University, finding fault with the brand-new Newman Center co-ed dorm. From the AL.com story:
The dormitories give preference to students who maintain active spiritual lifestyles and are actively engaged in a campus faith-based organization. But Seidel wrote that preference violates the Alabama Fair Housing Act, which makes it unlawful to discriminate against potential buyers or tenants on the basis of race, religion, sex, familial status or national origin. The preference also violates the Fist Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as well as state constitutional provisions regarding church and state, Seidel wrote. “This amounts to Troy University making a determination of how religious a person is, and then discriminating among students based on that determination,” he wrote. “It is unconstitutional for government entities to make such a determination …” …The faith-based dorms feature a 2,300-square-foot Newman Center or Catholic ministry leased by the Catholic archdiocese in Mobile. They also have a small chapel and an office for the local priest and feature three Catholic and three Baptist resident assistants. While Schmidt initially said the dorms would give preference to Christian students, a university spokesman said Tuesday that was not the case and that the dorms are open to students of all faiths and denominations. Since the complaint sent in August ’13, the University has retained the Liberty Institute and the law firm of O’Melveny and Myers. This is the firm’s response on behalf of Troy. Just in regards to one of the last sentences in that document, that ‘the university does not maintain any statistics concerning the religious affiliations or activities of students admitted…‘ I do clearly recall being asked after arriving on campus and paying my tuition/board/fees (back in the ’90s when we still had to do that in person) what my religion was, and when I replied that I’m Jewish, the person responded with ‘we don’t have a box for that’ — which made me laugh! Now, whether that information was being compiled by the University and they aren’t doing that any longer, or if it was a student who had the University’s consent to compile the information personally for some Stats or other class, I have no idea. But it tickled me that I was so ‘out of the box’!
Since New Orleans has all these fabulous hotels in the Quarter, we’re blessed with great restaurants serving breakfast for all the tourists. So much for great restaurants serving supper only! The Rib Room that’s in the Omni on St Louis St is a lovely space:
and you can imagine from their name what they’re famous for…thus, the Rib Room Omelet:
prime rib debris, fontina cheese, horseradish creme fraiche. Large enough for two, really:
Terrific.
Tom Fitzmorris recently rated Rib Room as one of the dozen-best places for a ribeyes and prime ribs in the city. If your family celebrates Easter, they have a really nice holiday menu.
If you have a barbecue restaurant, may the line to your register be so long as to warrant its own Twitter account.
Franklin BBQ in Austin — we’ve been there twice, once when they were sold out already (knew that would happen but had to try anyway) and another when we just didn’t have the time to tailgate in the parking lot:
If you ever wonder if you can get some advice maybe on how to make such deliciousness that people literally wait for hours on end to get a taste, your prayers will be answered in 2015: In collaboration with KLRU-TV and Austin PBS, the new series, “BBQ with Franklin,” will educate its viewers on all things barbecue: its history, its techniques and its overall culture. From choosing the right kind of wood and temperature to learning how to properly slice a brisket, “BBQ with Franklin,” set to air in 2015, will answer questions about perfecting the art of smoking and barbecuing meats.
“It’s cool to learn stuff,” Franklin said. “People ask so many questions and send so many emails on, like, ‘How hot should I cook this?’ ‘What should I do?’ It seems like it would be easy to just show them.”
A little late this week! As always, all images unless otherwise noted taken by me and copyright, DeepFriedKudzu. Interested in using something in particular? Contact me. Thanks
— Yes! I’m an Alabama fan, but you have to give it to LSU’s Lloimincia Hall for her third perfect 10 score against Bama. Way to go! Hello, Olympics? You haven’t seen anything like this yet:
— A bequest from Margaret Mitchell‘s (yes, GWTW) nephew helped ease the Archbishop of Atlanta into a $2.2MM home in Buckhead…that he’s moving out of now. In fairness, he hosted guests and held events there. But still. From GPB: “Gregory sought guidance from three church advisory councils after public outcry over the home’s opulence and price tag. The archbishop says feedback from those meetings, as well as his own personal reflection and prayer, led him to the decision to sell the 6,400-square-foot home.
“Gregory says he will invest proceeds from that sale into north Georgia’s Catholic community.
“Pope Francis has challenged Catholic leaders to live simple, frugal lives. Last week, a German bishop resigned after news surfaced he spent $43 million on a new home and office complex.” — There’s such a thing as a grit chip.
— From the NYT, Civil Rights Sins, Curated by One of the Sinners: In the woods off Monroe Road, a truck is so rusted that it is melting into the earth. It was Vernon Dahmer’s truck, the one that he drove and that his family continued to use after his death, the circumstances of which can be inferred from the three penny-size holes in the back panel.
Five men were convicted in the 1966 firebombing and ambush that killed Mr. Dahmer, the local N.A.A.C.P. president. But his family is certain about one culprit that went unpunished: the State of Mississippi.
“They’re just as much to blame as the Klansmen,” said Ellie Dahmer, 88, who fled with three children to the barn that night as Mr. Dahmer, her husband, traded fire with the attackers.
So it was with some faith that the Dahmers agreed to hand over parts of the truck to the state, to be exhibited in the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Not complete faith, the family clarifies. This is only a loan. And the family has control over its use.
“If we can’t tell it like it really is,” said Mr. Dahmer’s son Vernon Jr., “we best not tell it at all.”
— (above: Scottsboro Boys Museum)
The estate of Scottsboro Boy, Clarence Norris, is suing the State of Alabama for wrongful imprisonment. Documentation here.
— They sent a glass one — he doesn’t want to spend eternity in the current plastic version — and they even customized the label for this gentleman (glad they considered that the red ribbon stating ‘smooth and creamy’ isn’t really appropriate here) who wants his ashes in a Duke’s jar.
— (above: pie from Pie Lab)
If you’re in Birmingham on a Saturday, Pepper Place Market begins this coming weekend, and Pie Lab will be there every week!
— Letters of Note published a letter from Helen Keller to the NY Symphony Orchestra in 1924 after listening to Beethoven’s Ninth: Of course, this was not “hearing” but I do know that the tones and harmonies conveyed to me moods of great beauty and majesty. I also sensed, or thought I did, the tender sounds of nature that sing into my hand—swaying reeds and winds and the murmur of streams. I have never been so enraptured before by a multitude of tone-vibrations.
As I listened, with darkness and melody, shadow and sound filling all the room, I could not help remembering that the great composer who poured forth such a flood of sweetness into the world was deaf like myself. I marvelled at the power of his quenchless spirit by which out of his pain he wrought such joy for others—and there I sat, feeling with my hand the magnificent symphony which broke like a sea upon the silent shores of his soul and mine.
— There’s a ‘Campaign for Real Barbecue‘ in North Carolina now that so many places aren’t cooking with wood (a shanda!). And what is this, from The Dispatch: He noted that a lot of restaurants are grandfathered to cook by wood, and new businesses cannot receive a permit to do the pit cooking. Due to health department regulations, having fire pits in restaurants are not allowed anymore. Barbecue restaurants open prior to the new rules are grandfathered, such as Lexington Barbecue No. 1, which opened in 1962.
— The Tennessean reports that the National Museum of African American Music is expected to begin construction in Nashville in early 2015.
— Great obit: There will be no viewing since his wife refuses to honor his request to have him standing in the corner of the room with a glass of Jack Daniels in his hand so he would appear natural to visitors. Speaking of Jack Daniels, there’s this.
— And *how* did I miss this one from last year, from the Northeast Mississippi News: Timothy Wayne “Tim” Hopkins, 54, went to be with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and Dale Earnhardt to contribute his building and painting expertise to the constructing of many heavenly mansions on Saturday, March 23, 2013, in Memphis.
Friends, if you’re leaving this world without an obit written (partially) by you or for you that does not in some fashion the wonderfulness that was you, that’s a grand missed opportunity.
—-
The Huntsville Botanical Garden will present a ‘Tribute to Wade’ (Wade Wharton) on Sunday, April 27 from noon-5p.
— One of my (super-super talented) friends from college days, Dan Furman, wrote a musical called ‘Rip!’ about ‘a man who likes to believe anything is possible…until he goes off to war and ends up in a magical ‘Bowling Green’ and finds he cannot return to his wife and home. It is a radical variation on Washinton Irving’s classic tale of Rip Van Winkle. It is also about people in a town in the Catskills who didn’t believe the American Revolution was possible — until they found themselves carrying it out. It is about love, dreams, revolution, fish…and what is possible.’. The musical CD is available for download here.
— From WVTF Public Radio: A new church in southwestern Virginia is looking to local culture to inspire its congregation. It celebrates the Appalachian spirit of community and practicality best demonstrated by potluck dinners and conversation, followed by music and dancing. The new church, called “Wild Goose,” opened earlier this year in a remote part of Floyd County.
…“We took the pews out and put the rocking chairs in, we took the pulpit furniture out and built a fireplace and it’s all fiddle and banjo music and singing old time songs and very eclectic worship.”
…”One of the things I wanted to get away from with Wild Goose is the performance and audience relationship that I had seen in so many traditional church worship services. So we we have discussions, read scripture and everybody participates. I learned early on that just because I had a seminary education, does not mean that I knew as much about scripture or theology as a lot of people sitting in the pews.”
Although he didn’t disclose how much money he’d made from the movie lawsuit, Smith pointed to a picture of a 42-foot yacht on the wall of his office and noted Warner Bros. had bought the boat for him. — Now you can own a home Coach Bryant once lived in, in Birmingham.
— We did a ‘Day Out with Thomas’ at the Heart of Dixie Railroad and the boys really enjoyed their ride:
— Av had his birthday this week and we celebrated with a lunch at The Club: And for some reason now that I see this picture I realize I am the kind of person who takes my husband to lunch, forgetting to put on makeup. Ah. Who cares? We’re terrifically happy together.
If you can imagine, this peanut butter and chocolate dessert was even better than it looks:
Then went the next night for Family Night and the boys had a blast, including having their faces painted!
What is Alabama doing with the Bryce Hospital grounds? Plans to build a $60MM performing arts center featuring ‘a 350-seat drama theater, a 450-seat dance theater, a 250-seat studio theater and associated support spaces, such as a scenery shop and rehearsal hall’ — the scope and preliminary budget have just been approved.
From NPR: Stereotypes of Appalachia Obscure a Diverse Picture: When policymakers and news organizations need a snapshot of rural poverty in the United States, Appalachia — the area of land stretching from the mountains of southern New York through northern Alabama — is the default destination of choice. Poverty tours conducted by presidents from Lyndon Johnson to Richard Nixon, almost every member of the Kennedy clan, and religious leaders like Jesse Jackson have all painted the portrait of Appalachia the same way: poor, backward, and white.
…While there still is a way to go, a less whitewashed portrait of Appalachia seems to be gaining a foothold nationally, thanks in part to the efforts of scholars and grass-roots organizations. The term “Affrilachia” — a portmanteau of “African” and “Appalachian” coined by Kentucky poet laureate Frank X Walker — has brought together a loose collective of multiracial artists previously excluded from conversations about what it means to be an Appalachian. The word is now an entry in the Oxford American Dictionary, second edition. In 2005, Appalachian State University professor Fred Hay successfully petitioned the Library of Congress to change the definition of Appalachians from “Mountain Whites” to “Appalachians (People).”
That movement toward a more holistic regional picture may be a strong step toward tackling the larger societal ills. “In order to fix the issues of the region,” said Thompson, “we first have to recognize we have a diverse bunch of people living there.” — The NY Public Library has now made available over 20k maps as high-res downloads. Free. Yes, yes, yes.
Doug Friedlander says this in The Rotarian (reprinted in the CSM) about the Delta, and in particular the Helena area: Back when agriculture was king, we were the hub of a prosperous region. Mark Twain even wrote about Helena in Life on the Mississippi; he said it “occupies one of the prettiest situations on the river. ”
Our community has incredible architecture, culture, and history, but it’s been in a 40-year recession and has lost about half its population. I liken it to Cinderella: It’s from a good family, it took a precipitous fall, but it’s ready to be dusted off and taken to the ball. — Well, since I love that shot so much of Hallelujah Hairstyles (above) that we took last year, here’s a couple other favorites we’ve found:
Yo Majesty’s Beauty Salon Etc. in Port Gibson, Mississippi:
and Lord Make Me Over, Praise Jesus Salon in Decatur, Alabama:
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