As always, all images here unless otherwise noted are copyright DeepFriedKudzu. Like to use one? Contact me first. Thanks!
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above: the coconut pie at the Twix -n- Tween, Centreville AL
There was a break-in at Arnold’s in Nashville, and it was the pie that did the thief in:
Arnold found an empty pie plate, with just a few crumbs along the rim. Then something else caught her eye.
“I noticed that the green beans were askew in the fridge,” she recounts.
When asked to speculate on the series of events that led to the suspect’s capture, she offered this scenario.
“I think he was planning on being there awhile because he had pulled the newspaper dispenser in front of the door to hide the broken glass. He was probably eating pie when he thought, ‘Damn, they got here quick.’ ”
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88-year-old Dr. Landrum, the only practicing doctor in Edwards, Mississippi (pop. 1034) has his car as his office and has been pressured recently by the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure to give up his license. From the C-L:
He parks in front of his old office space, which is now a completely abandoned shopping center adjacent to the Dollar General on Jackson Street. When he left his old office two years ago because of a couple instances of crime nearby, he could not find another space that suited his practice in town.
“I had my car, and I realized I could do most everything out of it that I needed to be doing,” Landrum said.
…The 2010 census showed that the income per person in Edwards is just $12,308 a year.
The most he charges his patients is $45 a visit. If his patients cannot afford the fee, he will often waive it completely or tell them to pay him later.
“I’ve lived (in Edwards) all my life, and Dr. Landrum has always been my doctor,” 62-year-old Leroy Mitchell said. “Edwards is a poor town. Us poor folks cannot afford to drive to Jackson or Vicksburg to go to the doctor. He isn’t out for money. He’s doing this because he truly loves helping us.”
You may add your name in support of Dr. Landrum here (it’s nearing 60k right now).
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above: this one will not be included, but this is Dori’s ‘Bounty, Jones Valley Farm’
Very happy that the Huntsville Museum of Art will have on display February 28 – June 14, 2015 Encounters: Dori DeCamillis (yay, Dori!!).
Each work depicts a character in a private mythology designed to personify an individual piece of the artist’s personality, shedding light on her own foibles, aspirations, and secrets. The portraits also reveal human attributes that are universal. DeCamillis uses animals to symbolize various aspects of her personality, taking her cue from the many cultures and religions around the world in which animals represent ideas, deities and demons, and human traits. The titles of the works come from the sonnets of Shakespeare.
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above: ‘Atmosphere of Jesus’ that we found in Montgomery
Mercer’s Southern Studies program just got a $500k challenge grant from the NEH. From the press release on the existing program:
Students who major in Southern Studies can take courses on the “Old South, the Civil War, the New South, African-American history, southern literature and African-American literature, along with topical courses such as Southern Jesus, Black Film History, Southern Foodways and William Faulkner,” according to the University’s course catalog.
I scoured the catalog for the course description on ‘Southern Jesus’ as is mentioned above but could not find it. *That* would be interesting.
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above: a sign I found in Sylvania, Alabama
Really random:
Tom Fitzmorris’ food show in New Orleans is moving back to 3p-6p starting 2/2
There’s now a Shake Shack in Buckhead, and their stock, which began trading on the NYSE today, +120%.
A Disney-esque theme park for the Shoals. What?
The history of Bob Armstrong dip.
When panorama photography goes wrong.
Birmingham is the most Bible-minded city in the US, according to the American Bible Society.
Does ‘Jittery Joes’ sound like the kind of place that belongs in a (Atlanta) Ritz-Carlton lobby?
Ralph Stanley has released a new album.
Apologies for the language at this site, but this is the hilarious thing that happened when a guest at the Hotel Indigo, SA Riverwalk made a request of the concierge.
Fellow bonnetheads, I was so tickled to hear that the Laura Ingalls Wilder memoirs that have just been published are already in their third printing because of such heavy demand. NPR story here.
Scientists in Australia may have just figured out a cure to peanut allergy. And it’s easy.
How apple pie became American.
Red Velvet Oreos are a thing.
The #1 restaurant in Cardiff, Wales according to TA is ‘The Clink‘ — where 30 prisoners are given work at this very upscale establishment.
The bricks-and-mortar version of Biscuit Love in Nashville is open.
NYT Travel: In Baton Rouge, They’re Still Singing the Blues
Will the Bible Become the Official State Book of Mississippi?
And: The upcoming Conway Twitty Museum. The upcoming George Jones Museum. The Daily Beast visits the museum at Angola Prison. The Tenn-Tom Museum opens in early February.
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above: where Faulkner once lived in the Quarter, now a bookstore
From the NYT: As I Lay Lying: The Web Fixes Faulkner
Deborah Clarke, an associate dean at Arizona State who is president of the Faulkner Society, said the revamped story was news to her.
“I certainly understand the very painful nature of the word and the desire to shield readers, especially young readers, from its hateful associations,” she said. “It still seems inappropriate to change an author’s text without permission or any indication that a change has been made.”
Anyone who needs an anecdote about how the Internet is untrustworthy even when it is asking you to trust it, feel free to use this.
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Just below the top portion of the sign: “And Maxine too”
Maxine Sykes passed away.
…recalled one time when Zeigler Meats shorted the restaurant on its meat order. Maxine called their office in Tuscaloosa and in her “sweet little voice” chewed out the chief executive. “Two cars drove up with meat in the trunk,” Van said. “It was the CEO, Lackey Stephens. He said, ‘I have never been told off in such a nice way.'”
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above: from a visit I made to one of Rev. George Kornegay’s previous residences, in Brent AL
From Blouin, on the Outsider Art Fair in NYC:
Shrine, of Brooklyn, has a focus on assemblage by Southern artists, many of whom originally showcased the work in their own front yards. That includes Reverend George Kornegay of Alabama (whose sculptures incorporate things like wooden crutches and Nintendo guns), and Hawkins Bolden, who made elaborate scarecrows out of soup cans, rubber, and other found materials.
Note: Rev Kornegay passed away in June of 2014. I know of two other occasions when people in the art world — this sounds terrible — reported that he had passed away, once I think around 2009, and a couple of years ago I was even told that by a NYT reporter. Anyone have an update on the status of his works/environment around Selma?
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NYT: ‘On the Margins, but Moving Toward the Center: Outsider Art Fair Evolves, but Holds Fast to Its Roots‘:
Artists from the American South continue to play a prominent role. The Metropolitan Museum is adding 57 works from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, which is devoted to self-taught African-American artists, to its collection, and exhibiting them next year. From rural northern Mississippi, Will Branch and Emitte Hych are represented by bright figurative paintings at Pardee. At Shrine are sheet-metal and wood sculptures by the Rev. George Kornegay, an Alabama artist who makes outdoor environments. Arte del Pueblo is showing Minnie Evans’s crayon and graphite works from the 1940s. Ms. Evans lived in Wilmington, N.C., and was inspired partly by Airlie Gardens, where she worked as a gatekeeper.
Mary Whitfield, based in Birmingham, Ala., has paintings at Galerie Bonheur that depict violent scenes of lynchings and one of women, “Fleeing Darfur” (2006). Bruce Davenport Jr. is a New Orleans artist who draws marching bands in formation; his work is at Louis B. James. The art of T. A. Hay, a farmer from Kentucky who painted paper and gourds with brown shoe polish, is on view at Tanner-Hill.
and from the Washington Post:
Outsider art has become so popular that dealers are sharpening their search for phonies. “Sure, there are people trying to get on the train,” said Andrew Edlin, a New York art dealer who owns the fair. “Someone emails you saying, ‘I’m an outsider artist.’ That almost reflexively disqualifies you.”
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above: chicken and dressing, collards, peas, cornbread from Eagle’s in Birmingham
Kevin Gillespie, in June, is going to open a meat and three of sorts in Decatur (Georgia).
“I have fallen back in love with the traditional dishes I grew up eating, and those that represent the beautiful culinary traditions of the Deep South,” Gillespie says. “Inspired by the cooking of my grandmothers and the history of our region, I want to breathe new life into that classic family-style restaurant, or ‘meat and three.’ We hope to showcase the dishes with a passion and precision that is largely unavailable currently.”
Just…Kevin…how could you ever have fallen *out* of love with that kind of food?
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above: fried chicken from Coop’s Place in the Quarter
The Las Vegas Weekly actually sums up a review of the restaurant ‘Yardbird’ like this:
If the Confederacy had won the War of Northern Aggression, there’d probably be a lot more Southern food to go around.
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Amy C. Evans writes The Oysterman (in Apalachicola) at Bitter Southerner:
After more than half a century working on the water, Unk has an oysterman’s intuition. His hands feel the vibrations coming up through the worn wooden handles of his tongs, the steel rakes at the end rattling in just the right way, telling him he’s hit a bed of bivalves.
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above: not a Wilson suit, but one of the Mardi Gras Indians we met in 2012
WELL SUITED: The Costumes of Alonzo V. Wilson for HBO’s® Treme, Organized by the Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, NC is on exhibit at the Mobile Museum of Art through May 3, 2015.
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above: Shug as Kripsy Kreme doughnut for Purim
The Charlotte Business Journal wonders if a Phillipines-based firm could buy Krispy Kreme:
Of the choices, Kalinowski saw Krispy Kreme and Jack in the Box as “the most likely.”
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above: a little biscuit from my kitchen
The International Biscuit Festival in Knoxville will this year have a companion event with Whole Foods called ‘The Southern Table’ at which Southeastern foods will be featured.
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above: Carlton Garrett’s ‘Church Revival’ at The High
The High has filled the position for curator of folk and self-taught art after it received a $2.5MM endowment over the summer.
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above: Patrick Dougherty sculptures we visited at the Montgomery Museum of Art in 2009
The NYT’s T Magazine piece on Patrick Dougherty’s works:
Patrick Dougherty travels the world to leave his signature — handmade sculptures, crafted with twisted vines and trees — all around it. Throughout his career, he has erected a fairy-tale open-air residence in Northern California, created an enchanting dwelling without a roof (that quite resembles a maze) in France, installed a “Ballroom” outside of Federation Square in Melbourne and left a variety of other whimsical structures in very public spaces ranging from universities to parks. His first project, which dates back to the ’70s, is his own home — a log cabin he built with his own two hands just outside of Chapel Hill, N.C. And his most recent endeavor stands tall at the nearby North Carolina Botanical Garden.
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above: my Frito chili pie
The NYT has a feature on ‘Texas chili’ and thank goodness they don’t list beans, but they do list chocolate (going mole?) and coriander seeds.
And Slate reports in Texas: Beans Do Not Belong in Chili. Chili is a local specialty with a specific history. Please find another name for your spiced vegetable stew. Amen.
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above: a visit to Finter’s Paradise Gardens that we made in 2009
Register now for Divine Disorder: Folk and Outsider Art Conference 2015 on the conservation of folk and outsider art February 24-26, 2015 in the Hill Auditorium of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and Paradise Gardens in Summerville.
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above: the Spotlight Lounge in Greenville
From the Huffington Post: These Are The Last Remaining Old School Mississippi Blues Musicians (tho T-Model Ford has passed away).
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above: at St. Louis No. 1
Beginning March 1, the Archdiocese of New Orleans will begin a policy of allowing visitors to St. Louis No. 1 cemetery in *only* with a tour guide registered with the archdiocesan cemetery office. This policy will eventually extend to St. Louis No. 3 and St. Roch (my favorite, which I’m always very careful at) cemetery.
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above: the ‘redneck taco’ from Martin’s Barbecue Joint in Nolensville, Tennessee (which we had at the Franklin Food and Spirits Festival)
This week, #RedneckABook peaked at 24k tweets/hour. Not sure whether to posit that our enlightened culture would (rightfully) not stand for such a backwards, derogatory slur directed at other sub-sets and getting rid of such is long overdue — or that it’s good and healthy that plenty can poke fun, enjoy a laugh, and blessedly *not* be offended at what’s obviously intended as humor. Flip a coin.
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Atlas, the new restaurant at the St. Regis Hotel in Buckhead, has:
an extraordinary collection of modern, 20th-century art from some of the world’s most recognized artists including Freud, Chagall, Bacon, and Léger. All part of the noted Lewis Collection, each piece was thoughtfully selected and carefully placed for Atlas guests to enjoy.
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The home that was used for Skeeter’s kitchen scenes in The Help is for sale. It is a 1920 home in Minter City, Mississippi.
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above: ribs and bread from the original Dreamland in Tuscaloosa
The inaugural feast in Austin served barbecue to 17k people:
8,000 pounds of brisket, a ton of smoked chicken, 170 gallons of barbecue sauce, 4,500 pounds of potato salad and 340 gallons of beans, and 17,000 rolls.
1,700 little chocolate and vanilla buttermilk pies…
In Montgomery at Gov Bentley’s inauguration, 1000 people were served Dreamland. Also: Young Boozer rode a Segway in the parade.
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above: king cake, minus the boudin
There’s king cake, and then there’s boudin-filled king cake.
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Forbes on Linden Plantation in Glen Allan, in the Delta NW of Rolling Fork:
Linden is offering a “Porkapalooza” weekend, Feb. 26 – March 1, for $1,850 a hunter. The package features a hog hunt on horseback, a pig butchering demonstration by farmer Marshall Barlett of Home Place Pastures, a whole heritage pig roast and meals cooked by chef Tomas Curi of Skál restaurant in New York City.
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above: three Clementine Hunter works at the Pensacola Museum of Art (not included in this sketchbook)
On February 5, there will be a special event to mark the book launch of the Clementine Hunter Sketchbook, from 6-8p on the Main Floor of Goldring Hall at the Ogden:
The book contains twenty-six previously unseen oil-on-paper works by Louisiana folk artist, Clementine Hunter. These paintings are unique in her body of work, as they were the first group of sketches ever made by her, and show a very personal and thoughtful approach to her subject matter. $25, for sale in Ogden Museum Store.
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xoxo, friends!