This Week’s Various

As always, all images here unless otherwise noted are copyright DeepFriedKudzu. Like to use one? Contact me.

The AIA‘s (American Institute of Architects) new short doc on Rural Studio

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And this is on the market on the beach in Ocean Springs for $2M but *where* are the interior pics? Because you know that is going to be interesting.

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Nothing revolutionary, but at the NYT: Enchiladas are the saucy, cheesy addition to your Dinner Table

I came here to eat at those restaurants, and in particular to eat their enchiladas, plate after plate of fat-dipped tortillas wrapped around their filling, topped with cheese and broiled into molten excellence. I ate enchiladas with intent. Because: It would be great to make enchiladas at home. It would be great to make them casually, often, for a weeknight meal for family and friends.

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If there was a Central Casting for names:
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Hoss Mack, Sheriff of Baldwin County, Alabama. On the website: “Keep Hoss Boss.”

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Ken Burns is going to make a country music documentary to be released in 2019. Nashville Mayor Megan Barry will use part of the $1.375MM in the proposed budget for ‘music and entertainment economic development and film initiatives’ to help, as it’s believed the film will bring more people to town.

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Part of State Highway 36 in Lawrence County, Alabama will be named in honor of Jesse Owens, who was from Oakville and went on to win four gold medals at the ’36 Olympics.

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Asics + seersucker looks like this.  Last month, Reeboks in seersucker became available.

Supposedly inspired by chicken and waffles, Nike makes this. And this happened when Nike teamed up with Krispy Kreme.

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Tamales from Hicks’ in Clarksdale

Tamales, Catfish and Meringue Pie: Delicacies of the Mississippi Delta in the NYT:

“I cried for three days when I moved here,” she said, leaning forward on her stool and resting her elbows on her bar. “But now, I don’t know why — I hate to love it so much. There’s something about the dirt. It gets stuck in your toes.”

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this pic from my visit in 2012, it’s so much more vivid now

Pasaquan’s Grand Opening (after all the love from the Kohler people and others, esp Fred Fussell) will be October 22.

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downtown mural in Rayne, Louisiana

Lucky Peach runs an excerpt from Donald Link’s Down South: Bourbon, Pork, Gulf Shrimp, and Second Helpings of Everything: ‘Late Night Frogging in Rayne‘

We got in Billy’s crawfish boat with another case of beer and a giant floodlight and headed out into the rice fields, which were flooded with about a foot of water. This is when I discov­ered that you definitely don’t want to be the person holding the floodlight. I’ve been around plenty of bugs and mosquitoes, but nothing like the swarm that consumes you when you are holding a bright light in a rice field in the middle of the night.

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At Smithsonian: Walker Evans Wrote the Story of America With His Camera

From the Getty:

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Traditional Home’s Southern Style Now Showcase is in New Orleans, and it’s full.

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from a visit to Paradise Gardens in 2009

HuffPo wonders: What Ever Happened to the Late Great Folk Artist Superstar and Cultural Hero Howard Finster? which is actually deeper than it sounds. It was written by Norman J. Girardot, author of last year’s Envisioning Howard Finster: The Religion and Art of a Stranger from Another World.

…I’m admittedly biased with regard to these matters. However I do not think that that I am totally misreading the signs of the times with respect to the relative eclipse of critical interest in Finster. The fact is that outsider art gatekeepers no longer spontaneously invoke Finster as an outsider giant alongside the pantheon of Ramirez, Darger, and Traylor. I do not mean to cast doubt on the greatness of this extraordinary triumvirate, but what explains the diminishment of Finster? What is truly curious about the case of Howard Finster is the rather dramatic shift in opinion and, even more peculiar given his cultural impact, the general lack of serious interest, analysis, and interpretation of his life and body of work. In the words of the new folk art curator at Atlanta’s High Museum Katherine Jentleson, the time has come for a “reappraisal“ of Howard Finster (Art Papers July-August 2015).


Phillip March Jones writes: Howard Finster’s legacy and cultural impact endure despite the folk artist’s status on the margins

This very curious piece from the chairman of Howard Finster’s Paradise Gardens Park and Museum in Georgia on how he sees the (as he puts it) ‘activist culture’ at NPS being used contrary to his own beliefs, and EOM’s Pasaquan is mentioned. Just going to keep in mind this sentence the chairman wrote himself:

Rev. Finster, a Baptist minister, had been the pastor of rural churches in Georgia, had become a beloved figure for his lifelong motto “I have never met a person I did not love.”

My understanding (not presenting as fact, but after hearing from some Finster people) is that the author owns only the house adjacent to the property and has actually been banned from the actual Paradise Gardens. Lots and lots and lots of ill will here. I and many others agree that Finster would be very unhappy with this piece, as he did love everybody.

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The David Zwirner Gallery in New York are now the exclusive representatives of William Eggleston — he’s left Gargosian (Damien Hirst is back, tho, so ok) — and in November of this year they will mount an exhibit of works from his ‘The Democratic Forest’.

How abstract art brought a father and daughter closer on William Eggleston and his daughter, Andra.
http://www.cbsnews.com/common/video/cbsnews_video.swf

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In Edmonton, Alberta, there’s a new Southern (US) themed restaurant called ‘Have Mercy’ — some bits from the CBC article:

Tacky, trashy and tasty — it’s a winning combination…

…”This is sort of trashy food, and they’re OK with that,” Campbell says.

The fried chicken came with two juicy, crispy, salty pieces, and a doughnut on the side — because, why not? 

‘This menu is a really good representation of what you would find on the back roads of the Deep South.’

I am practically ready to start rending my clothes after reading that. Interesting that this is how the people behind this restaurant in Canada choose to portray their vision of the American South. Fun is fun. But fried chicken with a doughnut on the side isn’t a ‘good representation of what you would find on the back roads of the Deep South’ – not that I haven’t seen some crazy. But still. And these videos. Guns, and kids with guns. Have Mercy, indeed.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/173126622

The new Dixie in Chicago = completely beautiful with completely beautiful food.

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From the Art Newspaper: Bortolami creates US-wide mini-Marfas: Artists given non-traditional spaces and free rein to put on shows

The gallery has already established spaces for Daniel Buren in Miami, Barbara Kasten in Sante Fe and Eric Wesley in Cahokia, Illinois. Wesley’s space is a former Taco Bell restaurant “replete with ersatz Spanish colonial architecture”, according to a release.

Robert Irwin’s new untitled permanent work is complete in Marfa.

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a Vollis Simpson work at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore

Sunbrella has come out with a line of outdoor fabrics inspired by the work of Vollis Simpson.

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A Southern angel loses its wings every time a recipe in Mississippi Magazine starts with ‘1 box cake mix’ and watch out because Betty Crocker has made a Krispy Kreme cake mix.

The Krispy Kreme board has approved the company to be acquired by a German conglomerate. To help us forget, their two newest US flavors are cherry pie and strawberry shortcake.

Cheerwine and KK got together for a drink, and it’s called Cheerwine Kreme.

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at Anthony’s BBQ in Bainbridge, Georgia

Jed Portman writes How to Identify a Good Barbecue Joint for Garden and Gun. These kinds of pieces usually swim in the shallow end of the pool, but this one is alright.

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At the BBC: The People Who Can’t Stop Eating Dirt and there’s this documentary making the rounds, Eat White Dirt:
https://player.vimeo.com/video/38115198

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The NYT reminds us that (wonderfully) there are two Welty works playing in NYC this summer — Eudora Welty – Mississippi Stories (features Why I Live at the P.O.), and The Robber Bridegroom, though the Times’ critic called it ‘Southern-fried shtick’ and that the set was a combination of Hee-Haw and Dickens’ Old Curiosity Shop.

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The Improbable Rise of Mississippi Roast in the NYTimes, the recipe for which (by Robin Chapman of Ripley, MS) calls for beef chuck, a packet of dry ranch dressing mix, a packet of dry au jus gravy mix, a stick of butter, and some pepperoncini. Turns out, the recipe has been pinned over a million times. The most curious part is that when the NYT author asked some sources, one who was unfamiliar with it asked if it was called ‘Mississippi’ to be dismissive, as in the ‘White Trash’ cooking book. What? I’d never heard of it either, but yeouch.

Also: you know the aliens are out there but aren’t coming to visit because they’ve read the comments section at al.com and nola.com, and that was enough to scare them off, right? Anyway, the comments for this story are generally pretty great.

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at Po Monkey’s in 2011

Sorry to hear Willie Seaberry passed away. What’s the future of Po’ Monkey’s now that Monkey has passed away? from the C-L:

Jacks said Seaberry’s most lasting legacy was building a structure that allowed people of all races to intermingle without pretense — “people who in any other situation probably wouldn’t have said more than two words to each other, but for a couple of hours on a Thursday night they were best friends because (Seaberry) made it OK.

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Golden Flake is doing a limited time only flavor chip, Tangy Pickle BBQ, and Zapp’s has released a Drago’s Charbroiled Oyster chip.

Birmingham’s Golden Flake has been snapped up by Utz of Philadelphia.

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The old Louisiana Governor’s Mansion in Opelousas was destroyed by arson.

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Elvis’ home in Tupelo

This piece at Curbed describes How Houses were Cooked before Air Conditioning and uses a pic of a small shotgun house without noting that the small shotgun house they’re showing is the home Elvis Presley lived in as a boy in Tupelo.

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Winterville Mounds

The AP reported that heavy rains in March caused a ‘slope failure’ on the largest of the Winterville Mounds. The section was approximately 24 ft wide, 18 ft deep, and 100 ft long, and it slid to the bottom of the mound.

The self-driving tour, Mississippi Mound Trail, is now available. Prepare thyself: papyrus font utlized.

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The first release on the new Blue Front Records label: It Is What It Is by Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, whose parents opened the Blue Front in Bentonia

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Recipe for a sazerac snoball.

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Yesss to Brooks Barrow‘s work in Alabama stone

https://player.vimeo.com/video/169537172

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in Alabama

At NPR: An All-Volunteer Squad Of Farmers Is Turning Florida Lawns Into Food

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Clementine Hunter painting of Melrose Plantation, at the High in Atlanta

Clementine Hunter murals have been restored and reinstalled at Melrose Plantation after almost two years.

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Goo Goo is doing a summer chef series and a couple of the examples are available online

Chef Margot McCormack of Nashville’s Margot Cafe & Bar and Marche Artisan Foods collaborated with us to create a Premium Goo Goo with unique flavors and ingredients for our Summer Chef Series. The Margoo is made with salted caramel, candied hazelnuts, hazelnut butter caramel ganache, and Willa’s Classic Shortbread, all coated in rich dark chocolate.

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also a fan of the egg and olive sandwich at Trowbridge’s in Florence, which…pretty sure they wouldn’t like, either

GQ Magazine did a piece on Five Gross Sandwich Combinations People Actually Eat — they dislike the idea of banana/mayo and pineapple/mayo, but I approve and am married to a peanut butter and bologna adherent. Last month, we hosted two Israeli girls for camp, and they introduced me to what they like: cottage cheese on a slice of bread, open-face. I would have never thought that up.

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Rural Mississippians Fight the Digital Divide in New Episode of ‘The Movement’: …how digital culture’s advances leave many impoverished rural residents behind.

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Well-written piece at the NYT on Fire at Virginia Smokehouse Leaves Pork-to-Table Movement Reeling

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Old Monroe County Courthouse

What’s the only movie available on Netflix in every country?

To Kill a Mockingbird.

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At the 20th annual National Cornbread Festival, the winning recipe was from a Maryland baker who made Cornbread-Topped Cordon Bleu Skillet (recipe here).

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175 Nashville restaurants depend on Chapier’s Bakery for their bread; wonder how many hundreds in New Orleans with Leidenheimer??

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The trailer for ‘The Bankheads’- a one-hour documentary screened at the 2nd Annual Tallulah Bankhead Tribute last month

https://player.vimeo.com/video/167899155

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via my fridge, because.

LA Magazine on 5 Regional Food Chains That We Wish Would Come to L.A. includes Waffle House and Whataburger.

And Texas Monthly does a blind taste test to see How Good is Whataburger, Anyway?

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Sign at Smoke House Restaurant (a meat and three) in Birmingham

The best thing I’ve read in months was At Tampa Bay Farm-To-Table Restaurants, You’re Being Fed Fiction

This is a story we are all being fed. A story about overalls, rich soil and John Deere tractors scattering broods of busy chickens. A story about healthy animals living happy lives, heirloom tomatoes hanging heavy and earnest artisans rolling wheels of cheese into aging caves nearby.

More often than not, those things are fairy tales. A long list of Tampa Bay restaurants are willing to capitalize on our hunger for the story.

and the author, Laura Reiley, is naming names.
She’s on a roll, too, because part two of the series is Tampa Bay farmers markets are lacking in just one thing: Local farmers

Over several weeks, I visited Tampa Bay’s outdoor markets. At a dozen different markets, I counted 346 discrete vendors, many of whom sell at multiple markets. Of that number, only 16 sold their own produce, honey, eggs, meat or dairy. Plenty of wind chimes and hot sauces, but less than 5 percent represented Florida farmers growing their own food.

and

I ask a young woman if the produce is from her farm. She says yes. I ask if it is all from her farm. She says no, they buy from neighboring farms. When I notice asparagus and apples, which generally don’t grow in Florida, I ask if it is resold produce from a broader radius. She says yes. And then I ask, specifically, which items are grown on Lee Farms.

Her answer: “We are currently replanting.”

In 40 seconds, Lee Farms went from growing everything to nothing.