No Depression dusted off this 2003 article today.  There’s a pretty good history of  Stax Records in the article, as well as descriptions of some of the best spots in town.  What I really admire though, is the author’s attempt at writing about Memphis as a social phenomenon, or the city’s ”sense of place.”  Many people struggle to capture the character of places with strong identities.  Often such courageous attempts are met with criticism or complete rejection.  Trying to get at the meaning of a place is irresistible, though, perhaps because the real meaning of a place comes from our collective perception, and not anyone’s individual idea.  

Anyway, it’s a good article:
http://archives.nodepression.com/2003/07/memphis-in-the-meantime/

“Twenty-somethings with tattoos shared the floor with dancers in their 60s and 70s, all of them–no matter their age–swinging and swooping and hollering. Cajun culture, it would seem, is alive and well, and ready for another century.” Wayne Curtis for Smithsonian Magazine

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This year Sarah K. O’Brien received the International Housewares Association’s Student Design award for her Elizabowl.  O’Brien created the fruit bowl while studying industrial design at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Inspired by origami and ruffled Elizabethan collars, the Elizabowl folds and unfolds according the amount of fruit that it holds. The separate compartments keep the fruit from spoiling. Since winning the award, O’Brien has moved NYC where she is launching a product design department at the architectural firm 212box.

Read O’Brien’s design development document (very cool)
Read New York Times coverage

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Read Monday’s article
Read August’s article
Visit Audubon Insectarium
Audubon Insectarium on Facebook (become a “fan” and watch some creepy, crawly videos)

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posted with vodpod

Photographer William Eggleston is being honored with a retrospective at The Whitney Museum of American Art. You can catch the tail end of the show if you get there before January 25th. Apparently the exhibit is going to travel throughout the US, but details are scarce. I’ll try to get to the bottom of it.

Eggleston is a pivotal figure in the color photography movement. He mostly photographs personal acquaintances and places close to home: Memphis, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Delta. What I find appealing is that Eggleston doesn’t particularly want to be known as a Southern artist and he never sets up a picture. He’s less about “place” and all the preconceptions that go with it, and more about time and the senses: light, form and feeling in a given moment. In abandoning “place,” Eggleston shows us that consciousness of the moment is always available to us. Anytime. Anywhere.

Exhibit site
Eggleston Artistic Trust

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Andrew Bird is featured in today’s New York Times Magazine.
Read article
Visit Bird’s site (to pre-order “Noble Beast,” which ships January 20th)
Visit Bird’s Myspace (to see tour dates and listen to his music)
Visit Fat Possum Records (Bird’s label)

UPDATE: listen to all of “Noble Beast” on npr.org

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Fried Twinkies have become so ubiquitous that they’re no longer funny. Just downright disgusting. But this recipe from the White Trash Cookbook made me laugh:

Buy enough twinkies for your family.

You will need some used popcicle sticks or clean twigs.

Bowl of buttermilk
Bowl of unsalted cracker meal
Bowl of flour

First you have to freeze the twinkies. Once they freeze over, start to heat up your favorite oil to about 350 degrees. I use Goya lard because all the added saturated fat just adds more flavor. Next stick popcicle sticks or clean twigs into the ends of your frozen twinkies. Holding the twinkies by the stick, dip them one by one in your bowl of flour. Then one by one dip into the buttermilk. Finally the cracker meal. Dunk each Twinkie into the hot oil, holding it by the stick of course. Try not to be wearing your favorite tuxedo or silk shirt because the oil is going to be rocking and rolling with insanity. Some about deep frying twinkies does this. Anyway, let each Twinkie fry for five to seven minutes. Until golden brown and crispy.

You know it, you love it, you wait for it every year in your mailbox…The Oxford American Music issue. Then every year some goose steals the magazine, or you leave it in a rental car, or the subscription your old boyfriend gave you runs out just before this issue. (That weasel.) Now ten years of the best writing around is available all in one place. Just in time. Wish they had the CDs, too. Click here to buy it straight from the source.

Mr. Jackson Returns

Tootie’s Turn

Po’ Teddy and Betty Boop

Farm near Rolling Fork, Mississippi

1. Click here. And click on the first song. Then come back here.
2. Now click here.
3. Listen and look.