Category: Uncategorized

Royal Barbers in Mobile, Alabama:

Above, complete with the ‘Christmas Story’ leg lamp in the front window (and I took this pic this past summer).  A Bear Bryant Coke bottle, too.

Since it re-opened, we have been wanting to stay at the Battle House Renaissance Hotel in Mobile — it was built in 1908 on the site of Andrew Jackson’s headquarters here during the war of 1812, and at the original Battle House hotel (that burned at this site, previously), Stephen A. Douglas was a guest the evening he lost the presidency to Abraham Lincoln.  The hotel closed in the mid-70s and was bought and renovated by the RSA, and reopened in 2007.  It’s just so pretty.

This skylight is original to the rebuilt 1908 Battle House:

These are trompe l’eoil — portraits of King Ferdinand V:

George Washington:

King George III:

…and Louis XIV:

Our room:

Not Front Desk, but the button for ‘Delighted to Serve’:

…and we had a great view of Mobile:

The hotel is right downtown, so it is perfect for walking to anything — anything on Dauphin Street, the Outlaw Convention Center, Bienville Square, Gulf Coast Exploreum…

As always, all images here unless otherwise noted are copyright DeepFriedKudzu. 

Dave Meaders, fourth generation of the famous Georgia pottery family, may be loading up his kiln for the last time if something isn’t done, from the Gainesville Times:
The family member who owns the Lula property where much of the Meaders’ family legacy is located — including Meaders’ kiln, his father Reggie’s old pottery workshop, and the house where David Meaders lives — wants to sell it to pay for the care of David Meaders’ mother, who is in assisted living.

“It’s the end of the world as I know it,” Meaders said.

GoFundMe Campaign here.

—

Above: one of the Rural Studio homes in Hale County.

The American Institute of Architects selected Auburn’s Rural Studio to receive the 2015 Whitney M. Young Jr. Award. From the press release:
The award was granted in recognition of the student-led design/build projects that Rural Studio established to address the dire needs of one of the South’s poorest and most underserved regions.

Established in 1972, the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award has honored architects and organizations that embody the profession’s proactive social mandate through a range of commitments, including affordable housing, inclusiveness, and universal access. The award is named after the civil rights–era head of the Urban League who confronted—head-on—the AIA’s absence of socially progressive advocacy at the 1968 AIA National Convention.

—

above: the Edmund Pettus Bridge at dusk

The March Quilts, to celebrate Alabama’s civil rights legacy:
…volunteers are invited to participate in open sewing sessions and create 7-inch quilt blocks, which will be used to construct large, commemorative narrative quilts. In March, the quilts will be exhibited in Selma and Montgomery during the 50th anniversary observance and then return to Birmingham for a special celebration.

—
Kentucky’s Ark Experience park with 500ft long ark-as-obvious-centerpiece will not be getting those millions and millions of tax breaks after all, as the party behind it seems to be reneging on their promise not to discriminate in hiring people of different faiths.

—

above: one of the Winterville Mounds around Greenville, MS

A Google Map of several U.S. mound sites to visit.

—

I was asked to share images of some of my visits with Wade Wharton, greatly missed, for this Huntsville Public Radio piece. I tried to listen to it, but had to stop when I heard his voice, as his passing is still so painful. Certain this is a great piece, though.

—
Whitney Plantation, on the River Road, is now open for tours. The main emphasis is on the slaves there, not some moonlight-and-magnolias tour of the plantation owner’s home.  From the website:
This year, the Whitney Plantation opens its doors to the public for the first time in its 262 year history, as the only plantation museum in Louisiana with the focus on slavery. Through museum exhibits, slave narratives, memorial artwork and restored, historic buildings, Whitney Plantation visitors will be immersed in the world of an 1830’s sugar plantation and the world of the people whose labor made it one of the most successful in Louisiana.

—

Above: one of the front rooms at Graceland Too

There was never any doubt, if you knew him, how eccentric Paul MacLeod was.  Going to Graceland Too was a thrill (as was receiving my Graceland Too Lifetime Membership card) — almost a feeling of having survived with this experience you can only have at this one place on earth — the manufactured stories about Bill Clinton and famous actresses visiting and making fantastical offers, the value of his collection, his guns, Paul’s Coca-Cola addiction, a song or two sung too loud in your face, the clatter of his dentures and shoulder pokes, and having to hear about Paul’s other predilections.

This article came out this week about both families — Paul’s, and the family of the person who allegedly was trying to break in for money.  Tragic.

The Last Days Of Graceland Too
Paul Macleod’s memorabilia-stuffed Elvis shrine was the pride of Holly Springs, Mississippi, for 25 years — until this July, when MacLeod shot a man to death over $10, then died of a heart attack immediately afterward. What will become of MacLeod’s dubious treasures, and two families ruined by hero worship at its most obsessive, is a drama worthy of a king.

—
Cozy Corner BBQ in Memphis had a fire, and there’s a GoFundMe to help them rebuild.

—
How Gone With the Wind Took the Nation by Storm By Catering to its Southern Sensibilities in Smithsonian. Nothing really stunning, but this was interesting:
So concerned were Georgians with Leigh’s preparation that they created an agricultural problem: when the actress said she wasn’t familiar with the june bug, hundreds mailed specimens to her at Selznick-International Studios in Culver City. The California agricultural commission, worried about the Georgia insect’s effect on western peach buds, reportedly asked the post office to stop mailings from Georgia to Vivien Leigh.

—
At Hyperallergic: A Single Woman Is a Witch: Battling to Save the Art Environment of Mary Nohl
The Kohler ran into opposition from Nohl’s wealthy neighbors — they objected to even the most restricted use of the house as a museum or study center. The building fell into disrepair and with each new winter has become increasingly fragile, weathered, marooned in uncertainty. Then, in March of this year, the property’s current owner, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, issued a press release stating that it had given up preservation efforts and will move the house and yard sculptures to Sheboygan County, where it is located. The center will sell the land to fund the move.

—
From Smithsonian: When America Invested in Infrastructure, These Beautiful Landmarks Were the Result: Explore eight of the Works Progress Administration’s most impressive structures.

—

Blue Dog in Metairie

The “Wendy and Me” Blue Dog painting that was stolen from the Rodrigue Studio in the Quarter has been found and returned.  Also, there’s this Blue Dog on Craigslist that landed the ‘owners’ in jail.

—
From the Times Free Press — the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle has been listed by the Tennessee Preservation Trust as one of its 10 endangered properties for 2014:
…steeped in some of the most important times in American history, figuring prominently in organized labor efforts in the South and as a training ground for leaders of the civil rights movement.

It was branded King’s “Communist training school” by the Georgia Commission on Education; targeted by a congressional Senate security subcommittee, IRS and FBI investigations; and padlocked by the state of Tennessee, which seized and later sold the buildings and land.

—

From The Atlantic: How White Flight Ravaged the Mississippi Delta

That wasn’t the only move from the Delta — there was the great migration of Blacks to Chicago, as well.  This article in the Chicago Reader mentioned it briefly, and there was this paragraph in particular on barbecue:
The north side thinks of itself as being in a barbecue renaissance, but to a purist like Adams, who tends a blazing pit all day long, the often acclaimed Texas-style barbecue that’s coming out of gas-fired rotisserie cookers with attached smoke boxes isn’t really barbecue at all. “You got to do it with wood fire on the south side. There ain’t no Southern Pride on the south side,” he says, referring to a brand of smoker commonly seen in barbecue restaurants. “Once you cook with a Southern Pride, you lose your whole heritage. You lose your whole lifestyle.”

—
//player.vimeo.com/video/116362234
Charlie Hebdo, Before the Massacre from The New York Times – Video on Vimeo.

—
From the WSJ: Young members of Louisiana’s Houma Nation try to reclaim tribe’s lost language
The fate of the Houma language is not unique. Linguists say that the rate of language extinction is accelerating and that by the next century, nearly half of the 7,000 languages spoken around the world today — like the Houma, mainly spoken by small tribes in remote places — will probably disappear because of cultural assimilation and globalization.

—
Really Various:

Trader Joe’s Customer Choice Award Winners: Favorite Products of 2014. And who didn’t know that Speculoos Cookie Butter was going to be #1?

A Whataburger customer gave the lady at the drive-thru a $10k mink coat.

Lilly is coming to Target, and Joni Mitchell is the new face of YSL.  And former GAP girl Joan Didion is the face of Spring ’15 Celine.

The posters that warned against a world with women’s rights.

Farewell, Little Jimmy Dickens.

Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter (and be sure to read the response by Scott Bercaw in the comments. Yes, this time you actually want to get in the comments.) And kisses to the Frederick News Post for not putting up with it.

Why I’m Mourning the Death of a Mall

The ‘regional burger’ at the new Smashburger in North Raleigh is the ‘Carolina Chili Burger’ with beef chili, American cheese, chopped yellow onion, coleslaw, and (what else?) Duke’s mayonnaise.

Chris Owen’s home looks exactly like what we all thought it would.

The Best Books of 2014, according to The Atlantic

John Besh will be a contributing food editor at House Beautiful beginning with the February issue.

This is what won $1M in the 47th Pillsbury Bake-Off.  It’s…pie crust candy.

A small college in Kentucky is offering scholarships for students to play certain video games well.  Here in Kudzuville, we are open to top-level college recruiters for Shugie, who is a master at Mario Kart — makes Rainbow Road look like a sunny Sunday drive on the Trace — and wants to be an internist when he grows up.

Interested in owning Wernher von Braun’s home in Huntsville?

All dogs go to heaven.  The Pope said it but we’ve known it all along anyway.

—
The Stalin Museum seems stuck in a Soviet time warp.  Ray Nielsen has given $2.5MM for the MS History and MS Civil Rights Museums, which will open in 2017.  At Art Basel, Jeffrey Deitsch called this “southern outsider art…very close to Mike Kelley“.  The Dallas Museum of Art is having a 279% increase in memberships since switching membership models.  A lost painting found by art historian while watching ‘Stuart Little’.

The sandwiches are named after men at the restaurant in the National Museum of Women in the Arts.  A Picasso plate was stolen during Art Basel Miami Beach.  If you were compelled to punch Monet’s “Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat” (1874) at the National Gallery of Ireland, you’d get five years in prison.  Since another Monet was punched in 2007, perhaps people can get it out of their system with the new “Punch a Monet” game.  If one is more into smashing Ai Weiwei vases, there’s AiWeiWhoops! (flashback to the vase-smashing scene in Harriet Craig).

The Whitney audio guide to Koons’ Play-Doh.  Playmobil versions of famous paintings.  Art is really good for our brains, bodies.  The Broad and its oculus (or bellybutton?).  And does the first amendment apply to tour guides?

—
Random find:

—
Watching:
   Hawking on Netflix
   The Great British Baking Show on PBS (this is the *best* reality show! Respectful judges, the (helpful) criticisms aren’t belittling, the contestants aren’t back-biting, and everyone is *so* likable!) and here, the very fun BBC site
   Downton Abbey on PBS
   Hindsight on VH1, because…90s nostalgia
   Girls on HBO (new season starts Sunday)

Listening:
   This story from NPR’s new program, Invisibilia, on human behavior

App-ening:
   Waterlogue turns iPhone pics into watercolor images

Embracing:
   This, from TEDxBirmingham:

And the next documentary I want to see:

Over the new year, we were in Knoxville and visited the Knoxville Museum of Art.  Because this weekend is the closing of the Regional Student Art Exhibit, I’m posting a few of those works now.

This work received ‘Best Sculpture’ — ‘The Envelope Dress’, by R. Nief:

‘What Dreams May Come’ by E. Ayala:

‘Best Painting’ — ‘Sweet Joseph’ by A. Orlandini:

‘Chaos on High’ by H. Allen:

Now let’s talk about Mardi Gras deliciousness.  I love making this traditional Galette de Rois for Mardi Gras season:

—

I am each year perfecting my recipe for the round, yeast-based king cakes that we see more often here, and if I get it exactly right this year, I’ll post it.  Ah.  We shall see.

—
The king cakes at Sucre are perhaps the prettiest, and they sell these as (completely delectable, oh these are so good) pastries during the year:

—
From the WSJ: The Surprise in Your King Cake Might Be No Prize at All: For Safety, Some Bakeries Leave Out Baked-In Trinkets; Children Cry

Here, some antique (c. 1900) French king cake babies I saw on display at The Presbytere:

—
Meanwhile, I’m watching The Kingcaker and Eater’s map.

It’s Mardi Gras season!

Tutorial for the feather and bead wreath:

and my favorite, MG ornament wreath (which I made in ’08 and *still* looks great!!):

…and there’s also this Hubig’s pie wrapper — framed in my kitchen:

On our way to Knoxville, we were looking for somewhere new to have lunch in Chattanooga.  In comfy traveling clothes and thus looking for something informal, quick, inexpensive, and hopefully new to us, a search on Yelp and UrbanSpoon agreed wholeheartedly (5* on Yelp and 96% approval on US) that we should dive directly to Taqueria Jalisco at 1634 Rossville Ave.

Perfect!

Really, it seems to be a food truck with two very small dining areas, the main one permanent where orders are taken and the other larger one walled in for colder weather.

Sope, tamale, guacamole — all excellent.  We really liked this place — exactly what we were looking for.  Fast, inexpensive, fresh and delicious.  We even made friends with one of the men working there, helping him put together one of the space heaters.  Will be back:

—
Next time in Chattanooga when we’re looking for something more formal, this sounds divine:
TerraMae Appalachian Bistro — they have their own dedicated farm, and (what I’m particularly looking forward to), the ‘Appalachian Lunchable’:
Deviled Eggs, Pickled Shrimp, Benne Seed Bacon, Bleu Cheese Pimento Spread, Rosemary Biscuits,
Tennessee Country Ham, Pickled Vegetables. 

Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty.

(at Niki’s West in Birmingham)

Friends, I am so happy to be back to a regular schedule.  December was wonderful, and there was so much going on I felt as though I could really attend to things better in 2015 by taking a tiny break here.  I’m back, and have made a commitment to do regular postings here M-F.

Really, there are all kinds of commitments to start the new year.  The best Chanukah present Av got me this year was a subscription to Scribd, half a million books just a touch away on my iPad so I’ve been reading a lot, trying to learn a lot.  Here are some things I’m working on…maybe we can work on together…for 2015.

I’m thinking I may have gotten this list from Gretchen Rubin who studies happiness and well-being (and I’m starting to wonder: why haven’t we all been studying happiness all along? It makes us all so much more satisfying and terrific to be around).  I’m already a happy person, but who can’t be happier?  And I want to teach my children this while they’re young so they always know there are things they can do to set themselves up for happiness and well-being.  Tenets:

Strong Social Fabric
—I have a terrific family, close friends, and I keep in touch with old friends. I’d love to have more close friends. I’m proud of family we’ve made — and over winter break, we spent time in Atlanta with our BB/BS little sister and her family! Can’t even say how happy and in love I am of and for our Little Sister and Little Brother (our little brother will be graduating college soon!).  

Activities that fit Strengths
—My work at the magazine and my freelance graphic design work, so I’m good there.

Practice Gratitude
—I love to write thank you notes and send sweet texts and emails. Can do this more.

Optimistic Thinking
—Pretty good at this, but sometimes I can run into…say, a complete stranger…and let their dark cloud muddy up my sunshine.  So I need to work on being more resilient this way.

Volunteer
—I do lots of volunteer work (favorite? I’m a room mommy! (again!)) and I’m happy with that.  Also: I want to set new records this year with my food closet donations (I coupon a lot and can monthly turn $25 into a couple hundred in donations of food and toiletries).  There’s a group I’m thinking of starting too, for fun.

Perspective on Wealth
—Not sure what is meant here. Am I okay with not being a billionaire (yet)? haha, I guess.

Healthy Coping Strategies
—Work needs to be done here.  I can not just fall apart, but crazy-girl fall apart if I see an injustice or if someone close to me is hurting.

Focus on Health
—Never thought I would say this, and if you knew me circa 2001-2005 you might not believe it, but I work out for at least an hour 4-5 days a week (I’m not yet back to 117 but I’m headed there).  Each week, I do hot yoga, Sh’Bam, Zumba, Dance Jam, Stretch and Balance, and weights for strength.  I have a way to go, but can get to my goal this year if I work at it.  Okay, 117, you belong to me again this year.

Cultivate Spiritual Emotions
—Is this about finding more spirituality in the everyday?  I get in the zone easily at holidays and services, but I probably need to figure out how to imbue this — the emotion, not just the doing — more in daily life.

Have Direction/Strategy
—I think I’m okay here.  This sounds so beauty pageant interview, but I want to be the best person, best wife, best mommy, best friend I can be.  So I’m trying.  I probably do need to put some long-term goals on (digital) paper. 

Family
—My family is what I always wanted, and I’m working on making the very best experiences (special experiences/trips/etc plus everyday experiences — a comfortable, stable home life filled, filled, filled with love) for our children and husband.  

Also:
I want to keep our home *very* put together (I read this for motivation).  We have guests over a lot, so it never gets bad, but it could be even better.

I’m meditating with Headspace every day and trying to be more mindful.

For my next birthday, I want to do one of those projects where you do one good deed/mitzvah for each year of life.

I need to learn how to sleep better.

Annnnnndddd that’s just a start.  I hope you have beautiful plans for this year and we all enjoy a happy, healthy, mindful, well-read and well-rested 2015.  Oh, and ‘This Week’s Various’ will be back on Fridays (and I love hearing from you and learning from you (email me good things!) and you can always contact me here).  xoxo!

See you tomorrow! Happy New Year! xoxo!

DeepFriedKudzu will be back (daily!) on January 1! So much to talk about and see and enjoy together.  Can’t wait to join you then!

xoxo!
Ginger