This Week’s Various

As always, all images unless otherwise noted copyright Deep Fried Kudzu. Like to use one elsewhere? Kindly contact me here.


Amos Paul Kennedy's Letterpress Prints at Kentuck 2006

Kennedy Prints at Kentuck, 2006

Poster House in NY (the first museum in the US dedicated solely to posters) opened their Letterpress Posters of Amos Kennedy exhibit last week. It runs through January 3, 2021.


Senryu Sign, Birmingham AL

The senryu (cousin to haiku) on Hwy 11 in Birmingham. There are others from the Roadside Senryu project right now in Marfa, Natchez, Memphis, Woodfin NC, Annapolis, Cape Elizabeth ME, Ulysses NY, Holly MI, Mount Prospect IL, Minnesota City MN, and Santa Fe.


At PBA Gallery auction a few days ago, a copy of the 1930 Black Sun Press edition of Hart Crane’s The Bridge, which includes three photographs by Walker Evans, with an estimate of $10k-15k. It sold at $13200 with buyer’s premium.

Illustrated from three photographs by Walker Evans. 27×22 cm (10¾x8¾”), original wrappers printed in black and red, glassine jacket, publisher’s gold paper-covered slipcase. No. 46 of 50 copies printed on Japan vellum, signed by Crane. From a total edition of 284 copies.


Simon & Schuster released five new hardcover editions of F. Scott Fitzgerald books (The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Last Tycoon, and This Side of Paradise) with interesting jacket designs this summer, and The Great Gatsby  is now a graphic novel with an intro by Blake Hazard, his great-granddaughter. Text for the graphic was done by Fred Fordham, who adapted for graphic novel To Kill a Mockingbird.


Margaret's Grocery 2005, Vicksburg MS

above, the tower from a visit in 2005

Suzi Altman reports that part of the tower at Margaret’s Grocery in Vicksburg was destroyed by Hurricane Delta; they’re cleaning it up and figuring out how to keep it stable/upright. Can you help? Kindly contact Suzi here if so; the gofundme is here.


Super random:

armadillo
this week in wildlife news (updating since there was a squirrel in the house last month), there was a possum in the backyard, and an armadillo seriously tearing up the front yard. I saw that cayenne is a natural armadillo repellant, but that’s just a world of McCormick to spread on the yard, right? Also, would I burn the birds up? Would the robins be like “if you like it spicy, go to Ginger’s”?

live love laugh sticker
spotted in my hometown

Yes yes yes yes to Chris Stapleton’s new Cold:

Next-level Rice Krispie treats

The everlasting perfection of the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack

I’d never get a tattoo, but if I did, it would be this kind of thing. I wasn’t able to get any of my great-grandmother’s china (which wasn’t at all expensive, but of course rich with memories) so rather than letting it eat me alive, I simply got the same pattern on eBay and when I see/use it, I get all those same great warm feelings. This is sweet.

 

I sat through every bit of this Rolls-Royce piece for the new Ghost:

Popeyes is market testing chocolate beignets

Topgolf, Birmingham AL

Hey, Shugie is hitting the ball like a PRO at TopGolf. Shug is really getting in the groove at school. One of my boyfriends from high school won first place scuppernongs and third place muscadines at the county fair this weekend. One of my projects that at one point I thought was going to crash and burn because of The Great 2020 Unpleasantness actually might be okay after all. My niece is making huge strides in Atlanta, and another friend is healing quicker than doctors thought. Delighted to have friendly new neighbors. This is the kind of news I am just basking in — all the sweet victories, large and small. Seriously, anything of any size you want to share with me, I’m good with. Let’s celebrate together.

Here’s the ACL Fest 2020 stream. In this animation from Texas Monthly, Matthew McConaughey tells the audience, “It’s great to know that there’s no other coordinate in the universe that you’d rather be than right here, right now.” — sho nuff. And 2016 here, with Willie, doing ‘On the Road Again’

and in TM’s Why We Need Willie Nelson Now, More than Ever:

Last summer, some editors at the magazine broached the unthinkable: What do we publish when Willie is gone? It’s a question that media outlets around the world have asked every time he’s canceled a tour date in the past twenty years. But our answer was immediate and resounding: ***** that. We need to celebrate Willie—to thank him—while he’s around.

We should do this for everybody, all the time, forever.


ASBEE Kosher bbq, 2001

ASBEE Kosher Barbecue Contest, 2001

Anshei Sphard Beth El Emeth (to everybody, just ASBEE) in Memphis is closing its building. The congregation is moving in at Baron Hirsch where they’ll still have their own services. BTW, I’m not positive if this is still the case, but in the 1950s, Baron Hirsch was the largest Orthodox congregation in the US (I know, we’d think it would have to be NY, but no). Anyway, 1/ ASBEE puts on a kosher bbq contest that is super fun 2/ the building was designed by Francis Mah and Keith Kayes in the Brutalist style and 3/ loooook at their sanctuary


ETHIC: Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center

The ETHIC: Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center in Glendora, Mississippi, from a visit in 2013

I saw Emmett Till this week at the grocery store by Eve L. Ewing

which absolutely stands on its own but immediately made me think of Allen Ginsberg’s A Supermarket in California. I saw you, Walt Whitman…


Niki's West, Birmingham AL

the line at Niki’s West, Birmingham, 2018

Munchies trying to get funny with The Growing Appeal of Desserts That Are ‘Not Too Sweet’: It’s time to bid farewell to candy-covered milkshakes and usher in a more complex idea of how we view desserts.

Um, I live in a town where warm banana pudding is no kidding considered a vegetable.

Also: super behind on the last season of Top Chef, but really turned off on the criticism that Kevin’s rendition of his great-grandmother’s banana pudding was too sweet (obv didn’t taste it, but haaa still feel qualified to say the idea that a ‘nana puddin can be too sweet is impossible). And: what a class act how Kevin handled the outcome in that episode.


Make It Right, Lower Ninth Ward New Orleans

see the peach-colored house in the background? Almost sure that’s it. From a visit to the neighborhood in 2010

A David Adjaye-designed home in New Orleans, a part of the Make It Right project in the Lower 9th, will be demolished:

On Sept. 30, the city posted a “Notice of Emergency Demolition” on the sagging structure. The canary-yellow document declares that the vacant building is “in imminent danger of collapse and/or threat to life,” decreeing that the property will be torn down at the owner’s expense, at a cost of $7,085.


Meril, New Orleans

the crab mural at Meril in New Orleans, from a 2017 visit

Eudora, Roger Mudd, and the crab casserole that serves zero.


Cotton Field, Danville AL

cotton field in Danville, Alabama from last month

Soly Cissé’s Cotton Field, 2019 at London’s Sulger Buel Gallery. £45,000


Alabama Farmer's Market, Birmingham AL

Alabama Farmers Market, from last week

Alabama Folklife Association is accepting submissions for the Tributaries journal (research articles, personal essays, photo essays, interviews, and reviews) right now.


Interview with potter Charles Smith in Mobile Bay Magazine:

I was an angry Vietnam vet with post-traumatic stress disorder. I didn’t want to be a potter; I was just being a renegade. Nobody else was doing it. My folks thought I had gone way, way in left field. Here you’ve got a storm trooper, a ninja, a guy that went into battle and he’s over here playing in clay. What’s wrong with this picture? They didn’t understand because, at that time, it wasn’t part of the community, they didn’t need pottery. They had Mason jars and Tupperware. Even now, do we need potters? Why would people do this? It’s just a calling. Some things you just can’t explain.


Had a glorious supper al fresco in Florence at Odette

Odette, Florence AL

Odette, Florence AL

Odette, Florence AL

Hope you’re off to a good week and have some delicious things planned. xoxo!


 

Atlanta Ritz-Carlton

I’m missing hotels.

How glorious to go somewhere and be completely taken care of while free to do whatever. I just want to shut my eyes and think about how perfect that would be for a while.

This morning, I’m thinking of one of Shug’s favorites, the Atlanta Ritz-Carlton (exactly why he especially loves it, at the very bottom of this post). They’re always just super kind to everyone.

What follows will be really, really random; I’m just pulling together some pics and thoughts from the last few visits:

Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

A welcome plate in the room with macarons.

Total macaron sidenote: I think my favorites are from Macaroon Boutique in Charleston, and maybe Le Cirque. Do you have a great macaron place? Laduree in Paris on the Champs Elysees is just dreamy, but I didn’t go when we were there (look how gorgeous), and didn’t even realize there was one in DC for our visit last summer. There are eight in the US now. Please do message me if you’re also a macaron fan and have a special place.

Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

The lobby is all dark and metallics

Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

Haaa I remember about ten or twelve years ago, I had a momentary lapse of judgment and told Av that what we needed in the dining room was a balloon chair a la the ones above at each end of the dining room table. Keep in mind our dining room is MCM: it’s Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb. Nothing would have looked more ridiculous (I mean, was I thinking traditional, or full-on Ashley Longshore with sequins?). Who even knows. 😂

Even better: I was making breakfast this morning (Thurs 10/8) when like a flash it occurred to me that I originally wrote those were umbrella chairs in this post. I’ve apparently spent too much time in the sun on a flag football field this summer without an umbrella chair

And further sidenote, these balloon chairs from our stay at the St Anthony in SA are maybe my faves. 

Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

When the boys were younger, they liked the RitzKids activities and some of the resorts have day- and partial-day activities to keep the kids busy with fun things while the grown-ups are out doing whatever.

Ritz Kids Check In, Ritz-Carlton Atlanta

The valet area water available upon coming and going

Valet Water Station, Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

Ta-da! The Ritz-Carlton cake. Yum.
I said this was random, y’all. It’s just a stream of consciousness of Atlanta R-C wonderfulness today. 

Room Service, Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

Here, the on-site restaurant, AG.

AG, Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta AG, Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

We really like having breakfast there. This is the H&F Jerusalem bagel:

H&F Jerusalem Bagel at AG, Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

Banana pudding french toast. Sigh.

Banana Pudding French Toast, G, Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

Really like all the LeCreuset serving pieces. The next time there’s a bunch of people over, I’m pulling out all ten thousand pounds of my LeCreuset just to recreate this look.

Breakfast at the AG, Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta Breakfast at the AG, Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

Breakfast at the AG, Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta Breakfast at the AG, Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

Breakfast at the AG, Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta


For Shugie’s birthday last October, we made a special visit, and besides these cupcakes they brought to the room, they brought another surprise plate with two just for him that said “Happy birthday” and his name spelled out in chocolate. So nice!

Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

In the concierge lounge, a caricature artist with Shug:

Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

I can start feeling like we can skip going out altogether when we snack from the concierge lounge. We always make friends and it’s fun to hear why people are in town and what they’re planning. The RC is close to so many other hotels there in downtown, though, that you can walk a couple of blocks in any direction and have just a full range of options for eating or just whatever, too. We’ve walked to Trader Vic’s at the Hilton and taken Marta (to give the boys a different Atlanta experience than just our car or Uber) up to One Eared Stag and then the High and MODA.

Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta

From another visit, they had these chocolate cupcakes waiting for us in the room as a surprise,

 

Ritz Carlton, Atlanta

…and the other big surprise was this gift of balloons for our summer birthday boy Falcons fan! They seriously think of everything.

Ritz Carlton, Atlanta

It’s birthday month here — both Shugie and I are October babies. It’s going to be a home-based birthday this year, but we’ll be planning how we’re going to celebrate big when we can. ❤ Hope we’re all making beautiful plans now and doing wonderful things together again soon soon soon. xoxo!

This Week’s Various

As always, all images unless otherwise noted copyright Deep Fried Kudzu. Like to use one elsewhere? Kindly contact me here.


Of Karen Freidt’s (Newport News, Virginia) gorgeous pies, via the Daily Press:

(Anna) Sui printed out pictures of the pie and tacked it on her inspiration board and developed a clothing line called “Heartland.” Sui tracked Freidt down and asked if she could use one of her desserts as part of her fashion show. On Sept. 15, Sui’s virtual New York Fashion Week debuted, and one of Freidt’s pies made a grand appearance within the opening seconds.

Karen’s website / her instagram


University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA

Poe’s room at the University of Virginia, taken 2019

One may access the contents of volumes of the Southern Literary Messenger via the University of Michigan (Poe was at one time an editor and contributor).


Pineapple Upside Down Cake

nostalgia this week, esp after they were made on the first Great British Baking Show of the new season

At Chowhound, an excerpt from Kelly Fields’ new The Good Book of Southern Cooking: A Revival of Biscuits, Cakes, and Cornbread, and her recipe for upside down cake

“Here’s the thing about upside-down cakes, y’all: there are no rules beyond caramel + fruit + cake batter = upside down cake. Experiment with the fruit you love that’s in season and think beyond pineapple (even though I do love pineapple)…I won’t tell you an exact amount of fruit to add because it depends on the actual fruit, the season, and your personal taste. The important part is to ensure the cake has a single, even layer of fruit.”


Like Soft Teacakes print by Lisa Kesler

my Lisa Kesler letterpress poster, with a quote from TKAM

In Two Texans Were Critical to bringing us To Kill A Mockingbird at the Dallas Morning News:

Nelle Lee, as she was known then, had dropped out of the University of Alabama in order to pursue her writing career, but at 30, she didn’t have much to show for it, and she had to walk around the block a few times to get up the courage to go inside. Once there, she left a stack of pages with the receptionist, mentioning that she was a childhood friend of Truman Capote and that some mutual friends had told her to come by the agency, which had a reputation for being kind to literary southerners.


A glorious Elijah Pierce exhibit at the Barnes Foundation brings us temptation, salvation, grace at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Pierce was born on a farm near Baldwyn, Miss., in 1892, the son of a formerly enslaved father. As a boy he began carving pictures on trees, and later he learned to cut hair to support himself. He left the farm and spent several years moving from place to place before he ended up in 1923 in Columbus, Ohio, where he spent most of his career.

He worked in barbershops, toured as a preacher, and died in 1984 as one of the country’s most celebrated self-taught artists.

From WHYY’s piece on the exhibit:

“He’s a storyteller,” said Ireson. “Because he was a preacher he had a real sense of how to hold an audience, how to get people to listen. There’s a performative aspect to the pieces. He had a talent for getting the right story and communicating it in a way that hits a nerve.”


Jackson's Steakhouse Rosh Hashanah Supper, Pensacola FL

wish we’d been able to do our usual beach Rosh Hashanah, with supper at Jackson’s in Pensacola (this pic of Shug, starting the holiday with apples and honey, 2017)

Emma Specter at Vogue: My Jewish Holiday Plans this Year? Nora Ephron Movies and Smoked Fish, for One

A devoted You’ve Got Mail fan friend of mine pointed out that I had chosen “the most Christian movie in history” for my solitary Rosh Hashanah viewing party, and she wasn’t wrong—between the heavy Christmas theme and Meg Ryan’s perky blonde shag, the film certainly skews gentile. Nonetheless, I maintain that any film Nora Ephron wrote, directed, produced, or was in any way involved with is inherently a Jewish text on par with Chaim Potok.

True dat! The television in my office plays YGM at *least* a couple of times a week — I mean, what a perfect, perfect movie. Also: I have to mention Nora pre-planned her funeral to tha max, including the guest list, and having her recipes in the pamphlets. In the cookbook she had put together but never sold, the LA Times explains:

She insists that homemade pastry dough is a waste of time: “Don’t ever make piecrust. Just buy it.” Other recipes call for B&M canned beans, Heinz chili sauce and way too much mayonnaise.

Some introductions read like legal disclaimers, revealing the author’s ambitions (or lack thereof). For a complicated recipe for chocolate buttercream icing, Ephron writes: “I have never made it and I never will. But I have eaten it and it’s great.”

PS: the world needs more Meg Ryan + Tom Hanks movies.


Staircase, Square Books, Oxford MS

the staircase at Square Books in Oxford, 2017

The NYT’s list of 17 New Books to Watch for in October include The Dead are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X, Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck, and Red Comet: the Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath. Those are Amazon links, but the nice people at Square Books in Oxford can get these to you too.


Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia

Blue Ridge Parkway with rainstorm in the distance, 2019

Under Appalachian Tree Canopy, Forest Farming Enjoys a Revival at Whetstone


Ernest Tubb Record Shop, Nashville

Ernest Tubb Record Shop, Nashville, 2018

Harry Smith’s Musical Catalogue of Human Experience at the New Yorker:

Within those categories, Smith relished the juxtaposition of regional styles. A single LP might contain an Acadian one-step, a Delta blues, a lonesome Appalachian ballad, and a Sacred Harp hymn. Each of the three sleeves was printed in a different color and featured a drawing of a celestial monochord—a single-stringed dulcimer, tuned by the hand of God—taken from “De Musica Mundana,” a book by the Elizabethan alchemist Robert Fludd, from 1618.


Super random:

What if there were a Gehry x Hennessey collab? It would look like this. And Yayoi Kusama x Veuve Clicquot? This.

Sounds of the Forest

How I buy wine: “oh, that’s a pretty label! Come on home.” but here’s how to really read a label from the NYT.

At The Guardian: Are We Nearly There Yet? Take a 1980s Road Trip Down the A1 — in pictures

This: “I used to work at a shelter magazine dedicated to architect-designed homes for wealthy people. I’d estimate that half of the kitchens in those homes disguised Ikea cabinet boxes with custom door and drawer fronts.”

Thinking that the mix of architecture styles at ‘The Cottages at Symphony Grove’ — one of the WDW Resort planned communities is something like “let’s just do one of everythinghi, I mentioned this was the super random section


Willie Mae's Scotch House, New Orleans LA

Willie Mae’s, 2012

Willie Mae’s Scotch House is making fried chicken sandwiches — and in a partnership, they’re on the menu at HiHo in LA.

The sandwich, served with housemade HiHo pickles on a brioche bun, features a deconstructed slaw that adds nice acidity while preserving the crunch of the batter. There’s also a hit of sweetness from organic honey. And while the chicken has a little kick from cayenne pepper, this is not a spicy sandwich.

and

“I’m just grateful for anybody that comes,” she continued. “Every guest, every order big or small, I love it all. As long as they want some Willie Mae’s and they miss us and are thinking about us, I’m happy. I feel like we have our brand and when things get back to normal, we’ll be OK. We’re OK now. We’ll be OK then.”


Sunflower Field, Baileyton AL

Sunflower Field, Baileyton AL

Very happy to find this little sunflower field going strong this past week in Baileyton, Alabama. xoxo, friends!