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above: at the Old Monroe County Courthouse
From the Daily Mail: Vietnam veteran who was cleared of murdering pastor in the Deep South tells how Harper Lee interviewed him for a true crime novel that has never been published
It came after he shot and killed a notorious pastor, Will Maxwell, in Alexander City in 1977 – in front of 300 witnesses.
He was subsequently found not guilty by reason of insanity, and named man of the year in the town for his effort.
Burns said he met with her twice, but was warned she may not be able to write the book because the attorney both he and Maxwell had retained, Tom Radney, was married to someone in the family, and she knew it might incriminate him.
…though the Guardian should consider proofreading a little more seriously, as the article states that:
Those gathered in the courtroom applauded when the forearm announced the decision.
From the AP article:
“She had this cute wit about her,” she remembered. “It was obvious she was brilliant,” she added. “I think she smoked a lot, drank a lot and cussed a lot and was completely and utterly charming.”
The Radney family has one tangible bit of evidence that Lee’s book was real: four typed pages, the opening of the novel that Radney’s wife and daughter say Lee sent to the attorney. It begins with an early morning phone call from the accused black preacher to his white lawyer. Names have been changed, a sign that Lee maybe planned a slightly fictionalized account.
Hand-scrawled at the top is the title “The Reverend.” The text is dotted with handwritten b’s, filling in where a typewriter key apparently stuck. Radney’s granddaughter, Madolyn Price, said the family confirmed that the stuck “b” was consistent with the typewriter Lee used at the time.
Here, the article from the Alex City paper (from March) that got this latest stream of articles going.
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Also: yes yes yes to this map of Maycomb, Alabama.
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Brotherhood, in Bessemer AL
Buddy Guy interviewed at NPR on the future of the blues:
I worry about the future of blues music whether you are black or white. If they don’t hear it like I did and listen to it and don’t know about it — you ever been to Louisiana where they cook all this gumbo?
…So if you never tasted it, you wouldn’t love it. That’s what’s happening with the blues. Now, the young people don’t know nothing about it unless — I know satellite [radio] do play blues, but we need more than that.
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Kudzu in Prattville AL
At Smithsonian: The True Story of Kudzu, the Vine that Never Truly Ate the South:
Now that scientists at last are attaching real numbers to the threat of kudzu, it’s becoming clear that most of what people think about kudzu is wrong. Its growth is not “sinister,” as Willie Morris, the influential editor of Harper’s Magazine, described in his many stories and memoirs about life in Yazoo City, Mississippi. The more I investigate, the more I recognize that kudzu’s place in the popular imagination reveals as much about the power of American mythmaking, and the distorted way we see the natural world, as it does about the vine’s threat to the countryside.
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…but do they decorate anything like they did at Roger’s Car Lot Barbecue in Winfield?
From the NYT: American Barbecue in Paris: American food used to be a “goofy novelty” to the French, but now they’re tucking into ribs, pork belly and wings, with all the sides.
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above: a Rural Studio home in Greensboro
A Rural Studio 20k House will be built at Serenbe’s Art Farm — the first 20k outside Alabama.
The Art Farm at Serenbe is the site for the first wave of 20K Houses built in collaboration with Auburn University’s award winning Rural Studio program, to be used as live-work artist cottages. The project broke ground last Friday with completion expected November 2015. The first 20K House artist cottage will support over 50 artist residencies in 2016.
A Rural Studio bathroom at Perry Lakes Park is a finalist for Cintas’ America’s Best Restroom award.
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above: what no one wants to see at Franklin
All Things Considered did a piece on the 5-hour wait at Franklin Barbecue in Austin.
“You guys all know what’s going on? How long you’re waiting already? Somebody talked to y’all, all about that?” he says to a group halfway down the line. “I’m gonna throw a really crazy number at you: 2 o’clock.”
At this point, it’s about 9 a.m., and already some 100 people are in line for a meal they won’t get to eat for an average of five hours.
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From Sky News: Engineers have said that part of the Mississippi delta must be left to deteriorate completely if New Orleans is to be saved from another powerful hurricane.
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Annnnnd Waffle House has sold its one billionth waffle.
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above: Lonnie at Kentuck, 2010
Very nice piece on Lonnie Holley and his new work at the Halsey in Charleston.
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Terrific short piece at NYT Magazine on blues scholar Don Kent, who recently passed away. From one of his writings:
If Geeshie Wiley did not exist, she could not be invented: Her scope and creativity dwarfs most blues artists. She seems to represent the moment when black secular music was coalescing into blues . . . Her guitar technique is unusual: Her use of an A-minor chord in “Last Kind Words” is rare for a rural blues artist, and her adoption of a riff in A normally associated with Texas artists shows a shrewd appreciation for exciting sounds.
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above: the streetcar barn on Jeannette
The Telegraph: The Resurgence of New Orleans (the writer stays at the Old No. 77) includes a couple of groans but also the best quote:
Among them was a pugnacious New York financier, Ron Bienvenu, who relocated his hedge fund to New Orleans after meeting Cummings. “I never looked back,” he grinned. “In New York you lose a little bit of yourself every day. New Orleans is the opposite – I feel more alive and joyous.”
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above: Bryant’s Grocery in Money
The Chicago Tribune on Popular Culture’s Embrace of Emmett Till and Emmett Till’s death, and history, fading in Mississippi town. NPR with the Emmett Till Archive at FSU.
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San Diego CityBeat on Should Slab City Grow Up? with cameos on East Jesus, Salvation Mountain, and — there’s a boat at Salvation Mountain now.
The future of the Michigan art environment created by Dmytro Szylak is uncertain after his death in May.
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YES to Boing Boing’s Weekend of Wonder.
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Wired with The Architecture that’s Hip Again in New Orleans
Let’s face it: Shotgun has always rocked.
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Nall’s The Pansy mosaic at Ross Bridge
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Truly random:
Five essential ingredients for cooking in Charlotte, according to Kathleen Purvis: Cheerwine, Duke’s, stone-ground grits, Neese’s sausage, Southern flour.
Even McDonald’s is switching to cage-free eggs but Duke’s is probably sick of hearing from me asking about them switching.
Know who bought Niman Ranch? Perdue. Yep.
…incl some great reads:
Racked on Altar’d State
The Most Misread Poem in America from The Paris Review
At WaPo: Why Americans Dress So Casually
The Busboy who Cradled a Dying RFK has Finally Stepped Out of the Past at the LA Times
The Incredible Life and Haunting Death of World Traveler Harry Devert also at WaPo.
…and:
All buildings shall henceforth be joined thusly.
Anyone who’s traveled I-65 between Birmingham and Montgomery will recognize this phrase, now on a tee at Old Try. This is me.
NBC is developing a show on a corrupt New Orleans political family. And the tile is: House of the Rising Sin. L-wd.
…but in better news, Tory McPhail (Commander’s) has a line of sauce/marinade/dressing available now. Also: get ready for rum vinegar. And there are now bite-size Goo Goo Clusters.
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Paveen “Beer” Chunhaswasdikul will be an exhibitor
September 25-27: Tennessee Craft Fair
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Lastly, Taco Morro Loco at a Jet Pep in B’ham. Yum.
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Reason 1597523156813515 to love Dorignac’s: I’ve made Creole cream cheese, but they keep it in stock.
Best croissants in New Olreans are across the river in Terrytown, at Hi-Do Bakery:
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(and they make fabulous animal-shaped breads!)
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Netflix: Paul Williams Still Alive
Reading: Mindsharing: the Art of Crowdsourcing Everything, Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey
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