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this image from 2007. It’s in worse condition now.
Co-Nita Manor in Uniontown, Alabama is back on the market — for $55k.
image from our 2016 visit
The Grammy Museum in Cleveland, Mississippi has opened its MTV Turns 40: I Still Want My MTV exhibit
This beautiful field of yellow in Blount County, Alabama
If you know El Palacio restaurants in Alabama (the O.G. one was in Huntsville), you know they 1/ had the world’s best refried beans and 2/ fab salsa, and I just found out that there’s an El Palacio in Ozark, Alabama which jars it and sells it at my local Piggly Wiggly. Voila, it’s just like what I remember
Perfect choice of the cover of the new Black Keys album, Delta Kream — a William Eggleston. Review here at Guitar
from a 2016 visit
Elliston Place Soda Shop — now 80+ years old — has reopened at its new, larger location in Nashville
The new Dolly/Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams flavor, Strawberry Pretzel Pie, is named after what we call strawberry pretzel salad
Super Random Section.
Errmuhgerrrrd I love this house: York, Alabama
The inspiration for Disney’s Cruella deVille? From Vanity Fair: Disney animator Marc Davis looked to real-life “bad” women, and though he admitted in the Los Angeles Times that he had “several partial models in mind when I drew Cruella,” just one earned a printed name-drop: “including Tallulah.”
More interesting than it should have been (cuz physics): One Man’s Amazing Journey to the Center of the Bowling Ball, at Wired. Also: fun
Vice, on Fresh Market: “it’s a far cry from the vibrating fluorescents most of us are accustomed to encountering at American supermarkets. Taken together with the smell of fresh-ground coffee and the subtly sedative effect of Chopin or Beethoven, it’s enough to make you wonder if you’ve died and gone to suburban gourmand heaven.”
On the new One11 hotel in the FQ but feeling more in the middle of parking lots…and from that pic: we’re just showering in the middle of the room now in front of everybody, seems
If you love a recipe enough, you can put it on your grave
Spent too much time thinking about this: how did fun C. Wonder die, come out of Ch 11, languish in purgatory, and come out…looking yeah, somewhat knock-off-y, but (kinda) charming, like these horsebit sandals at of all places, WM?
On our honeymoon, Av and I did the Eurail Pass for two weeks. We started in Amsterdam, and over the course of two weeks, visited Brussels, Milan, Venice, Paris, Zurich, Copenhagen, Helsingborg Sweden and more. Fabulous because we didn’t have to make any plans — just jump on the train whenever we felt like it to go just wherever. I just got an email that Amtrak has a USA Rail Pass for $299…thinking about this for next summer
Well this is perfect and pretty and smart and simple and happy and I want to eat it
I don’t see myself a White Claw person, but in the right setting (and Fall 2021, when this flavor comes out): Dos Equis Ranch Water Spicy Grapefruit
When a Sears Kit house goes…Japanese Craftsman
Recipes: baked Lynchburg candied apples // one-bite Texas sheet cake truffles
Wuxtry Records, Athens GA, from a visit last year
7 Nostalgic Texas Hotels with Vinyl Record Collections includes this quote from Hannah Hagar at the Hotel VanZandt in Austin: “You have to place the needle onto the groove, and you have to fire up the motor. In four to six songs, you have to flip the record because it’s silent in the living room, and you also have to be willing to listen to a record front to back. That, too, is a lost art—really sitting down and listening.”
In the last twenty-four hours I have been inundated by thousands of lovely compliments, memories and everything else about Crook’s Corner. Thousands. Thank you all. I’m sad, but I’m also fine. I don’t know what to say, so I’m going to shut up. I think a shower beer is in order. pic.twitter.com/RdLSd97nRO
— Bill Smith (@Chulegre) June 11, 2021
Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill is closing after 40+ years. From the Charlotte Observer, Crook’s Corner in 5 Classic Dishes includes shrimp & grits, Atlantic Beach pie, green Tabasco chicken, persimmon pudding, honeysuckle sorbet (and yes, recipes)
Jasmine Hill Gardens, 2012
The beyond-fabulous Jasmine Hill garden in Wetumpka, Alabama announced last year they were closed for COVID, and it appears it really is permanent. Anyone know what’s going on? Please contact me if so. It was a treasure.
Willa Jean, 2015
While we’re on a roll about things changing, Kelly Fields — who started Willa Jean in New Orleans — has left it. No idea what she’s doing next but of course it is going to be wonderful. In typical corporate-speak, BRG did the whole the-transition-will-be-seamless thing and maybe it will but she will be missed there. Her The Good Book of Southern Baking here at Amazon / here at Bookshop.
“I’ve got enough good sense to know they are not applauding because I’m a household name,” he writes. “What they’re standing for is that I’m still here, doing it my way.”
In my circles, Bobby Rush *is* a household name, deserving of all the accolades. His memoir, I Ain’t Studdin’ Ya: My American Blues Story (here at Amazon / here at Bookshop) is out June 22.
The American Folk Art Museum is partnering with Film Forum to present BILL TRAYLOR: CHASING GHOSTS. Those who purchase a ticket will get a care package including snacks, a copy of Bill Traylor (named Best Fine Arts Book, 2019), and access to an upcoming panel discussion with director Jeffrey Wolf, AFAM curator Dr. Valérie Rousseau, artist Dr. Leslie King Hammond, artist Radcliffe Bailey, and writer Greg Tate. The documentary will be available to access through June 25, 2021.
Leslie Lewis Sigler | Oil Painter from Leslie Lewis Sigler on Vimeo.
Leslie Lewis Sigler’s paintings of heirloom silver — on view at Commerce Gallery in Lockhart
My friend Henk who does such great work, and whose incredible Outsider Environments Europe site I’ve mentioned here before, featured this map made by Jon von Zelowitz of sites that can be visited in France:
Airmount from a visit in September 2020, before the hurricane
At the Clarke County Historical Society, among those things on the agenda, the restoration/rebuild of the Airmount graveshelter there, which has heavily damaged in Hurricane Zeta.
It’s always so hard to figure out if listings with this realtor are actually on the market currently or they just never got deleted, but the 1858 Greek Revival Reverie in Marion, Alabama either is/was on the market at $389k
…from Bill Ferris’ 1977 Four Women Artists documentary for the Center for Southern Folklore
So much to share! Hoping to get the kids on the lake today & hope you’re having a fun fun fun summer too. More soooooon!! xoxo!