Famous LA Poboys
Houma LA, 2012.
This Week’s Various
As always, all images unless otherwise noted copyright Deep Fried Kudzu. Like to use one elsewhere? Kindly contact me here.
Affiliate links are sometimes used. That means that if you purchase something via one of the links, it costs you nothing extra, but may generate a commission, offsetting the cost of DFK… e.g. as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Also: remember that Bookshop is fab because they’re giving orders to indie booksellers. Grateful for your support. xoxo!
Not certain what projects will be included in the exhibit; this is from a small grouping of RS homes in Greensboro.
The National Building Museum opens the exhibit South Forty: Contemporary Architecture and Design in the American South beginning tomorrow, February 15. Among what’s featured, Auburn’s Rural Studio.
Above, Rural Studio’s Glass Chapel in Masons Bend AL, from a 2009 visit — unfortunately, it has not weathered well.
Architect Paul Rudolph’s (he went to high school in Athens, Alabama) Sanibel Island FL Walker Guesthouse is on the market for $2M. From ARTnews:
Brown Harris Stevens has listed the one-bedroom, one-bathroom modernist structure, describing the guesthouse as “a monumental work of radical design and masterful skill,” “one of the most important architectural designs of the twentieth century (by one of its most influential architects),” and a “ground-breaking work of art.”
BTW, I found the 1965 copy of Life Magazine that features the Wallace residents in Athens online. It’s mentioned that the pillars are 9 feet around.
From Smithsonian: Archaeologists Discover Lost Burial Site of Enslaved People on President Andrew Jackson’s Tennessee Plantation.
The grave for Jim, in Old Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery:
“Here lies Jim, slave of S. Schuessler, died June 14, 1854, aged 30 years. Remembered for his virtue.”
one of the three free kindergarten buildings of Maud Lindsay’s Florence Free Kindergarten still stands
Maud Lindsay 1874-1941, who established the first free kindergarten in Alabama — she was principal of it for 40+ years — and wrote 18 books, has her Mother Stories (published in 1912 by Milton Bradley).
Nelson Grice’s sculpture in Avondale Park in Birmingham features Miss Fancy, an elephant that used to reside there. It initially recieved some criticism for not being more realistic but…that wasn’t the idea:
Last year, he installed Long Tall Silly at Aldridge Garden in Hoover, AL:
Snow Hill, Alabama, from a 2009 visit
Pics here from Noah Purifoy’s Joshua Tree Outdoor Museum — he was born in Snow Hill, Alabama in 1917 and got an undergrad degree from Alabama State.
Brett Anderson writes for the NYT on where to find the best oysters in New Orleans and yes of course Casamento’s and yes of course Drago’s, with several others. The recipe for Oysters Mosca is included here. I have a NYT Cooking subscription, so let me know if you’d like me to gift you the recipe.
I got to see the Southern Living Photographers exhibit at Aldridge Gardens in Hoover, Alabama this week — it’s on through the first week of March.
In December, I mentioned Mark Cline’s Lady in the Lake sculptures and some other “giant people” — one that should be added to the list, this Wagon Ho man I found this month in Rainsville, Alabama:
Had a fun supper with the boys at Seoul Good — a Korean fried chicken place — at Stovehouse in Huntsville last week.
The boys are in LA on a school trip having a wonderful time. Hope you’re off doing something fun this week too! Happy Valentine’s Day! xoxo!
Crown Royal
Crown Royal
Crawford MS, 2011.
Original Whataburger A-Frames
Whataburger is celebrating its 75th year in 2025. How many original architecture (not the reworked) Whataburger A-frames are left in existence? Not sure. It was estimated about fifteen years ago we were down to 16 or so.
The first A-frame was store #24, an Odessa Whataburger opened in 1961. It’s since been demolished.
Just five or so years ago, it was estimated that the number of original A-frames may be down to ten.
Alabama has two of the original A-frames — I visited the one in Chickasaw last month:
100 N Craft Hwy, Chickasaw, Alabama 36611
And the one in Mobile on Government Street is still the original architecture. This is from a 2020 visit:
2461 Government St, Mobile, AL 36606
The others:
1101 Thomasville Rd, Tallahassee, Florida 32303
6106 Cameron Rd, Austin, Texas 78723
121 N Shoreline Blvd, Corpus Christi, Texas 78401 — heavily renovated, the A-frame has second-floor seating
311 W Camp Wisdom Rd, Duncanville, Texas 75116 — renovated but still has the old a-frame in the back
510 S 14th St, Kingsville, Texas 78363:
128 E Kearney St, Mesquite, TX 75149:
If I’m missing any original A-frame Whataburgers you know of, please let me know and I’ll update. Thank you! xoxo!
A Chin of Gold
This monument in West Blocton, Alabama includes an excerpt from Emily Dickinson’s The Moon
Hickory Hill Cemetery
West Blocton AL, 2010.
This Week’s Various
As always, all images unless otherwise noted copyright Deep Fried Kudzu. Like to use one elsewhere? Kindly contact me here.
Affiliate links are sometimes used. That means that if you purchase something via one of the links, it costs you nothing extra, but may generate a commission, offsetting the cost of DFK… e.g. as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Also: remember that Bookshop is fab because they’re giving orders to indie booksellers. Grateful for your support. xoxo!
How Things Work: The Parade of Life, Thornton Dial exhibit, AEIVA, Birmingham AL, from a 2022 exhibit visit
At the Observer: Andrew Edlin Explains how the Outsider Art Fair Helped Establish a Market for the Genre
Too late for this year, but for going forward: sending a valentine through Valentine, Texas
On view through March 2 at the California African Amerian Museum in LA: World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project
George Washington Carver was a pioneer of plant-based engineering and one of the nation’s earliest proponents of sustainable agriculture. In the early 1900s, he built his “Jesup Wagon,” a moveable school to share soil and plant samples, equipment, and other agricultural knowledge with farmers. Carver’s then-radical ideas—including organic fertilizers, crop rotation, and plant-based medicines and construction materials—are now recognized as the forerunners of modern conservation. A trained and practicing artist, Carver used sustainable materials such as peanut- and clay-derived dyes and paints in his many weavings and still-life paintings. World Without End explores how contemporary artists and thinkers working today engage with Carver’s ideas and interests. Alongside contemporary artworks by thirty artists and artist collectives, the exhibition includes Carver’s rarely seen paintings, drawings, laboratory equipment, and notebooks. Both the exhibition and its forthcoming catalogue, which includes previously unpublished material documenting Carver’s life and work at Tuskegee University, reframe and center Carver’s lasting impact on art and science.
Here’s more about Carver’s Jesup wagon, why it’s called that, and today’s Jesup wagons.
Through May 10, Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice from LA’s Hammer Museum is on view at the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University in Houston. From ArtNews:
Brandon Ballengée’s “MIA” series (2020), including MIA Black Driftfish, MIA Redface Moray Eel, and other missing species, addresses the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill still palpable in Gulf waters. Ballengée, who is also a scientist, identified 14 endemic fish species that have not been sighted since the disaster. He then painted them in crude oil collected from both Deepwater Horizon and the Taylor Energy oil spill, still ongoing off the coast of Louisiana. To make the oil malleable, he had to mix in Corexit, the same chemical dispersant BP used to clean up the 134 million gallons it spilled in the Gulf. Arguably, this substance is as toxic as the oil itself. So to prevent off gassing of the works’ noxious media, Ballengée sealed his “ghost species” between sheets of glass.
Tailgating in the Grove, 2006
This piece today at Salon on tailgating sets forward that the first-ever instance of tailgating was for people watching the first battle of Bull Run — the Battle of Manassas — July 12, 1861. Preferably, let’s keep the term to sporting events. I imagine that throughout history, blood-thirsty curious humans have thought that while watching something awful happen, they still had the forethought to imagine they might get hungry. BTW, the crowd expected the North to win handily, but nope. Also, the spectators caused something of a traffic jam which impeded troops getting where they needed to go next.
The first-ever American tailgate took place on July 21, 1861. However, it wasn’t a pre-game function. Instead, residents of Washington travelled via carriages and buggies to Virginia, where they convened and enjoyed a hearty feast while watching the first major battle of the American Civil War: the First Battle of Bull Run. Some spectators even yelled out words of encouragement to their preferred side. All of this occurred far from the battlefield, of course.
Per The HISTORY Channel, Union Captain John Tidball reportedly saw a “throng of sightseers” and peddlers “in carts loaded with pies and other edibles.” According to the American Battlefield Trust, the food was less for celebratory purposes and more a necessity, considering that the spectators travelled more than seven hours by carriage to Manassas Junction. Still, the gathering was filled with much rumpus as spectators also drank copious amounts of wine and whiskey.
What I’d really like to tailgate? Steeplechase.
February 27 – May 25, the LSU Museum of Art will exhibit Golden Legacy: Original Art from 80 Years of Golden Books
A Man Looking for Something: Drawings by Thornton Dial is on at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts through April 27
(not in the auction) Ram, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, from a 2017 visit
At Kovels Antique Trader: A Vision in Stone: William Edmondson’s Masterpieces Command Top Prices at Auction
Case Auctions’ Winter Fine Arts sale saw remarkable results for the celebrated outsider artist, with his “Lady with a Bustle” sculpture leading the way at $268,400.
Waffle House Vistas at the Georgia Museum of Art through July 1.
Hope you’re enjoying a fun week! xoxo!
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