Here’s some of the art hanging while we stayed at the 21C in Nashville — they’re always changing exhibits, so check what will be on during your stay. Also: a reservation isn’t necessary to see them, so anyone can visit, gratis.
Maynard Monrow, Self-Portrait. Pretty Ugly.
Norbert Brunner, You Are Enchanting
George Legrady, At The Bar. lenticular.
Marilyn Murphy, The Trade.
Hank Willis Thomas, Intentionally Left Blanc
Paul Rucker, Soundless
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Sanctuary 21 Artist Suite:
Even if we’re not going out now, thinking about where to go again — today, a look at the suite we enjoyed at the 21C Museum Hotel in Nashville — it’s in the 1900 Gray & Dudley building downtown. On Thursday, I’ll post some of their art collection.
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So far of the 21Cs, I still enjoy the one in Bentonville (I think we’ve been to five of them?) most as the usual guest rooms had a more quirky vibe — buuuut the Nashville hotel *does* have some specially-themed rooms that are pretty special. More about those on Thursday. See you, friends! Happy thoughts about what we’re all going to do fun when this is over. xoxo!
Jesus Love
Rural S Arkansas, 2016.
Salt Lake Temple
Salt Lake UT, 2017.
Lisa Kesler print of a line in TKAM, here in my office
Mary Badham does an interview with the Sydney, Australia Sunday Life Magazine and talks very briefly about her relationship with Nelle Harper Lee. Not a lot of revelation here. Seems NHL was on-brand regarding this, though:
Funnily enough, despite Mockingbird being an exceptional part of our lives, we never spoke about it. It upset her. Once, a family member came with a copy of the book to be signed. She was sitting out front and screamed for me to take her back to her room.
Super random:
1/ Okay, remember the armadillo red velvet cake in Steel Magnolias? Well for some reason, here is a it-really-looks-like-it Whataburger honey butter chicken biscuit that is…a red velvet cake.
2/ In an obit of someone who was obviously wonderful, and wonderfully loved, the mention that “She loved her coffee but nothing compared to her DUKE’S mayonnaise.”
3/ and PS Duke’s is entering the sauce game incl a take on white chicken sauce: “Duke’s Southern Sauces were created to emulate the true regional tastes of the south. Tasting is believing! From Northern Alabama’s zingy white sauce to Georgia’s Sweet Heat and spicy molasses sauce to South Carolina’s Gold signature mustard-based sauce, Tennessee Smoke & Whiskey and Hickory Moonshine.”
4/ Commander’s Palace has a new sign and of course the old one had much more charm.
5/ There’s a waitlist for the ~$3000 Aaron Franklin barbecue pits
6/ So anyway, Armadillo-eating coyotes are swimming between SC barrier islands
7/ Maybe maybe maybe the ivory billed woodpecker isn’t extinct after all, and Louisiana Wilds is offering a $12k reward for information leading to the discovery, of an active Ivory-billed Woodpecker roost or nest cavity
8/ and L O V E that a few of you sent me this tweet to share. xoxo!:
This is beautiful. People closed in their houses in Siena, but singing together through the windows. https://t.co/htq33vS5iK
— Rachel Donadio (@RachelDonadio) March 13, 2020
American Songwriter on Paul Burch’s new Light Sensitive
…a record rooted in history and place. It was inspired by a trip Burch took to his former hometown of Oxford, Mississippi, and includes a commissioned piece that tells the tale of “Mobile’s Renaissance Man” Eugene Walter.
kudzu doing its thing in Cornersville, Tennessee
There’s a tiny mention in the NYT of invasive species like kudzu being utilized for good by students at Tennessee’s architecture school but all the really great pics and ideas are here on the project’s page, Material Misbehavior, at After Architecture.
National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery
The NYT with Following the Civil Rights Trail visits National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, Memphis; Mississippi Civil Rights Museum: Jackson; Birmingham National Civil Rights Monument; National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery. Also as part of the NYT’s museum series, this piece on New Orleans’ Le Musee de f.p.c.
This New Orleans Artist Challenges the Way People See Things at the NYT on BMike (and check out his hoodie’s message: “I am my ancestors’ wildest dreams.”). “I want the kids coming through here to see that they’re worthy of being painted 12 feet tall with a halo, or just with beautiful colors,” said BMike, 34. “I want to challenge the way people see things.”
rice field outside Crowley, Louisiana
Meet the Louisiana priest behind a 100-gallon crop duster blessing — you may want to consider skipping to 19:30, where the interview begins.
‘Your Imagination Can’t Play that Game’ — Lonnie Holley in Conversation
‘All I’m trying to do is say what I have learned,’ says Lonnie. ‘Not what I think. I mean, think about me being an artist since 1979. For years I checked out more materials and the identification of materials and the materials’ value than pretty much any other artist than I know on Earth. But I don’t wanna boast about that because I’m not trying to act like I’m better than everybody else. I want everybody else to get better than me and learn from what I’ve been an example of. I am a geographic artist.’
learning shape note singing from Buell Cobb in 2011
Evelyn Lamb begins her review in Scientific American of Francis Su’s Mathematics for Human Flourishing with several beautiful paragraphs on Sacred Harp singing, and it works.
White-Bread Evangelist: The starchy Acadiana staple is anything but plain by Rien Fertel in 64 Parishes
This is where workers hand-twist two pieces of dough into a single, oven-ready plait, a bit of old-fashioned artisanry that gives Evangeline Maid—as well as Bunny Bread—its distinctive density and roof-of-mouth-sticking tensility. He offers an analogy: think single strand versus braided rope. Weaving provides strength. And though South Louisianans prefer air-pocked, feather-weight French bread for their po-boys, they depend on steroidal slices to hold scoops of peanut butter or breaded and fried pork chops. That twist defines our “regional profile,” Painter told me, “our taste repertoire.”
Pal’s in Kingsport, Tennessee
Pal’s Sudden Service on this episode of Tennessee Farm Table
Speaking of Commander’s earlier…hope we’re all back to eating at beautiful places very, very soon. Have a fun, healthy week. xoxo!
Some shop pics from our last visit with sweet Mr Cohen before he closed up his shop in Lexington, Mississippi, in 2017:
(well actually, this pic above is from a visit in 2004 — the rest are 2017)
So much sweet nostalgia for department stores and general stores. Always seek these out when we go to little towns, especially. The people who own and work at these are people just like us, carrying on tradition and winging it when they try new things, rather than getting directions from a corporate operation manual. All the love to the clothes shops, the feed stores, indie bookstores, country gas stations, family drug stores, the bakeries, the restaurants. The people who know they’re not going to have a lot of business because it’s going to rain, and those who stress out at the post office because the big checks aren’t coming in net 30.
Hammer’s, Oneonta AL
Hammer’s, Scottsboro AL
Neilson’s, Oxford MS
U.G. White, Athens
Pick Up & Go Food Store, New Orleans
Goodman’s, Greenville MS
Duchess Doughnuts, Cullman AL
Benton’s Country Hams, Madisonville TN
Pell City Steakhouse, Pell City AL
Gibbes Country Store, Learned MS
Taylor Grocery, Taylor MS
Fosters Feed and Garden Supply, Fosters AL
Mustang Oil, Greensboro AL
Shankerman’s, Clarksdale MS
Pond Store, Pond MS
Avon in stock at a parts store in Monticello, Arkansas
D&T Supermarket, Clarksdale MS
Simons-Wright store, Toomsuba MS
Jefferson Country Store, Jefferson AL
Variety Bakery Shop, Scottsboro AL
Coldwater Seed and Supply, Tuscumbia AL
B&B Soul Kitchen, Yazoo City MS
Square Books, Oxford MS
Dairy Freeze, Crystal Springs MS
Williams Brothers Store, Philadelphia MS
G-d is Good
Car Wash
All the Time
New Orleans LA, 2015
Some pics from my visit with Suzanne in Massachusetts:
Before driving through the cemetery, I was able to visit the Story Chapel at Mount Auburn in Cambridge. From Mount Auburn’s site:
A non-denominational chapel, Story follows the English Perpendicular style and features carved wooden beams, brickwork embellished with sandstone and carved limestone tracery, and carved wooden pulpits and pews, referencing the late 19th-century affinity for the Arts and Crafts aesthetic. It was built of Potsdam sandstone, chosen for its richness and variegation of color, with yellow bricks used in the interior.
Promise Land BBQ
Woodstock AL, 2015.
E&P Supermarket
Birmingham AL, 2017.
