GOBBLE GOBBLE!!

We're off somewhere stuffing our faces with turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie and hopefully some of that green bean casserole with the little onions sprinkled on top! Have a great Thanksgiving and we'll see you on Monday...

EAT: In Florida, we eat gator on Thanksgiving...

Photo credit Esthr/Flickr

“In Florida, we eat gator on Thanksgiving...and we put Tabasco on everything. Well now, we've got the pit dug out behind the FSU English building, in prep to roast this year's gator catch. On Tuesday, all the orange grove children get a pocket knife, and whoever comes home first with a full grown alligator wins, and that's the gator we roast. Whoever doesn't come back, doesn't win! Sometimes the other children get eaten by the alligators, but that's okay, it's just nature's way. We have very tough children in Florida, and plenty more where that came from.”

The folks at the Southeast Review got jokes. I think…?

Florida is one of those states – like Texas, Kentucky and even Virginia – that folks will get into a knock down drag out battle about whether or not it’s “The South.” But, makes no difference. It’s like what Jimmy Lerner wrote in his prison memoir You Got Nothing Coming: “I don’t care if he’s telling me the truth or not as long a he can bring a colorful narrative to the table.”

So with Thanksgiving fast approaching, a little Florida flava’s been stirred into the Southernist pot. Eat up!

The Southeast Review, established in 1979 as Sundog, is a national literary magazine housed in the English department at Florida State University and is edited and managed by its graduate students and a faculty consulting editor. The mission of The Southeast Review is to present emerging writers on the same stage as well-established ones. In each semi-annual issue, they publish literary fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, interviews, book reviews, and art. With nearly sixty members on its editorial staff who hail from throughout the country and the world, SER strives to publish work that is representative of its staff’s diverse interests and aesthetics, and it celebrates the eclectic mix this produces.

SCOOP/EAT: Orangeburg, SC by Four Moons Chef Charles Zeran and Pastry Chef Colleen Zeran

Four Moons restaurant Chef Charles Zeran and Pastry Chef Colleen Zeran share some of what they love in Orangeburg, SC, as well as their version of one of the South's most talked about treats, RC Cola and a Moon Pie:

ART: Leo Twiggs’ paintings are done in a unique, innovative batik technique that he developed after several years of experimenting with the traditional medium. He has had over 60 one-man shows and his work has received international recognition, with exhibits at the Studio Museum and the American Crafts Museum in New York and in U. S. Embassies in Rome, Dakar and Togoland among others. His work has been widely published in art textbooks and featured in several television documentaries. In 2002, he was selected to design an ornament for the White House Christmas tree. (source)

A native of St. Stephen, Twiggs received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Claflin University and later studied at the Arts Institute of Chicago. He earned a masters degree from New York University, where he studied under famed black painter and muralist Hale Woodruff. Twiggs was the first black individual to receive a doctorate in art education from the University of Georgia. At South Carolina State University, together with then-president Dr. M. Maceo Nance, Twiggs developed the Stanback Museum and established the university's first art department. The Stanback Museum has one of the largest exhibit spaces among Historically Black Colleges and Universities and is the only museum connected to a facility.

ROSES: If you enjoy the sight and scent of thousands of roses, grab a picnic lunch from Four Moons and head over to Edisto Memorial Gardens. The site is also host to the annual Festival of Roses each spring. While at the park, you can stroll the boardwalk that takes you through the Horne Wetlands Park adjacent to the banks of the Edisto River. The Edisto is a nationally recognized pristine black water river that flows from the midlands of SC to the Atlantic.

MUSEUM: The Stanback Museum at SC State University is a highly respected museum with a great space for exhibitions of the works of nationally recognized artists. The planetarium features seasonal shows and programs about night skies that can be seen in the Orangeburg area. The museum also features films from the Southern Circuit Film Series, a tour of independent films from independent filmmakers. Currently on exhibit, Journey from Africa to Gullah.

FOUR MOONS “MOON PIES”

CHOCOLATE CAKE
1 cup butter, softened
2 ¼ cups sugar
1 cup cocoa powder, euro dark
2 tsp. baking powder
½ Tbsp. baking soda
2 ¾ cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp. salt
3 eggs, large
2 cups hot water

Combine softened butter and sugar together in mixing bowl with paddle attachment. Cream until light yellow and slowly add eggs, scraping well. Alternate the dry ingredients with the water until well combined. Line sheet or two half sheet pans with parchment, pour mixture evenly and bake at 350 until tester comes out clean in center.

GRAHAM CRACKERS
8 oz. whole wheat flour
4 oz. all purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. cold water
2 oz. unsalted butter, softened
3 ½ oz. sugar
4 ¾ oz. honey
1 ½ oz. dark molasses
1 egg, large

Combine wheat flour, all purpose flour and salt, set aside. Cream together butter and sugar until light and pale in color. Add the honey and molasses and the egg, scrape well. In small bowl combine water and baking soda. Then add to creamed mixture. Add half of the dry ingredients until combined then add the remaining. Form dough into a disk and refrigerate overnight. Roll out dough into 1/8” thick and place on parchment lined sheet pans. Bake at 325 until lightly golden brown.

VANILLA BANANA FILLING
2 cups mascarpone cheese
1 cup heavy cream
½ cup sugar
Vanilla Bean, scraped
3 ripe bananas
Banana Liqueur to taste

In mixing bowl with whip attachment mix all ingredients together until well combined and thickened.

ASSEMBLY
Place one layer of chocolate cake on work surface. Take one pan of graham cracker and brush with banana liqueur place this side towards chocolate cake. Brush the top of the graham cracker with more banana liqueur. Press the two layers firmly together. Spread the vanilla banana filling evenly over the graham layer. Continue with another layer of graham brushed with banana liqueur and top with chocolate cake. Wrap tightly and place it freezer until almost frozen, then cut into a moon shape.

Melt equal parts bittersweet chocolate and cocoa butter and place in a Wagner paint sprayer. (Or if you prefer to use your paint sprayer for paint, you can arrange the Moon Pies on a wire rack set into a parchment lined sheet pan and pour the chocolate coating over the Moon Pies). Coat moon pie evenly and allow to dry before coating with gold dust.

TO SERVE
To make the RC Cola Float: Using a small glass (juice sized glass), add a spoonful of rich vanilla ice cream to the glass and pour RC Cola over it. Set glass on a plate dusted with Cocoa powder. Place the Moon Pie adjacent to it and garnish with a dollop of whipped cream and sprig of mint or seasonal flower.

SCENE/ART: Outsider Art Auction (online 11/22)

My friend Jim once told me about a bear of a man living in the mountains of Tennessee who holds public auctions of outsider art. When pressed to regale me with one of his tall tales though, Jim merely points out that “Kimball Sterling is a big, big man with big, big thoughts and even bigger shoes. I saw him clog dance once...you do NOT want to be in the way.”

Sterling has gathered together all of the Southern Outsider “bigwigs” plus some of the "Wildest" art in one location that you will ever find for the auction he is holding in person and online tomorrow (11/22) @ 11AM (EST). The lot includes works by Mose Tolliver, Howard Finster, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, R.A. Miller, Purvis Young, Charlie Lucas, and many others, as well as a very large collection of Southern unknown vintage folk art boxes, lamps, rugs, quilts and more.

Kimball Sterling is considered one of the top three cane auctioneers in the world. Sterling, Inc. came up in the fields of antique cars, jukeboxes and memorabilia, and is now considered the premier auction house in America for Outsider, Folk and Appalachian art.

Unrelated but incidentally, the keepers of Finster’s flame held a grand opening of the Paradise Gardens Gallery on November 8 and are currently looking for volunteers and donations to help save World's Folk Art Chapel.

SOUNDS/SCENE: Gringolandia Closes with a New Orleans brass bang

photo credit: One Two One Three/Flickr

New Orleans post-apocalyptic brass sensation Why Are We Building Such A Big Ship sails into Manahttan tomorrow to help the magnificent Honey-Space close Mickey Western’s fantabulous Gringolandia installation.

Friday Saloon 11/21 @ 8PM til late
Closing party with live performances by Mickey Western, New Orleans brass sensation Why Are We Building Such A Big Ship, and Hurray For The Riff

Why Are We Building Such A Big Ship, which sounds like “singing yourself to sleep, and dancing yourself to alacrity,” floats over to Brooklyn on Saturday (11/22) to tape a performance at The Fort.

From NY Art Beat: Gringolandia is an installation, saloon, and full-sensory performance space created by Mickey Western. The title of the exhibition references America, while indicating, simultaneously, a fundamentally outsider perspective. The conceptual framework for the exhibition is built upon the mythos of the Universal Outlaw- that perennial character in American culture who exists on the margins of mainstream, polite society: the poets, preachers and vigilantes whose moral codes have been determined by an internal value system free from the laws of the state.

During the course of the exhibition Mickey will inhabit the space and interact with visitors passing through. Handheld audio tours of the exhibition will be available. A full calendar of events, readings and performances will be released with the first edition of the Chelsea Gonzo, and posted on the gallery's website whenever we recover from the opening party, with additions to the calendar coming in all the time. Regular evening programming will include a Thursday Saloon Salon, and a Saturday Speakeasy Saloon.

SCENE: Aberdeen!!

My good friend, and fabulous make-up artist to the stars, Billy B has returned home to Aberdeen, MS to buy and restore a bunch of amazing historic bungalows and manions to their former Southern Belle glory.

Fellow Mississippian and renowned celeb hairstylist Syd Curry has followed suit and the two are set to bring big city beauty to this sleepy enclave when they open their flagship store, Billy & Syd, in downtown Aberdeen in December.

The joint venture is located at 100 W Canal Street, steps away from historic downtown Aberdeen, Mississippi in a charming turn-of-the-century, converted Victorian cottage. The salon will feature the full line of billybBEAUTY products as well as offering a full range of hair salon services from the Syd Curry Salon. This shared space will also feature many iconic images and media from the accomplished careers of both Billy and Syd.

Syd and Billy have collaborated professionally for the last 20 years, working together on some of the most high profile celebrities of our time. It was Syd and Billy that created the look for Mariah Carey’s “wedding of the Decade” to Tommy Mottola, as well as in her music videos “Dream Lover” and “Hero.” Today, they are both “Celebrity Stylemakers” on the popular website WeLoveBeauty.com.

Billy and Syd currently reside part-time in Aberdeen, Mississippi, where both are restoring homes on the National Register of Historic Places. When not in Aberdeen, they continue to work as freelance artists in New York City and Hollywood, California.

SCREEN/SOUNDS/SPORT: Southern-ish Events in NYC 11/14 – 11/18

Lots out southern-ish things to do, hear and see this weekend and spilling into next week:

NOVEMBER 14 – 20 @ Film Forum: My good friend Harrod has a dad who has been touted by the NY Times as “one of our most original filmmakers…A master of movies about the American idiom.” Many of his documentaries were shot in, around or about Southern stuff: the blues, a Texas sharecropper, Louisiana Cajuns, cultural roots, old time tales, an Appalachian fiddler, backwoods characters, good whisky, native folkways. Film Forum is running a retrospective of Les Blank films 11/14 – 20.

SATURDAY 11/15 @ 3:30PM: The South Carolina Alumni Club of NYC invites you to watch the Gamecocks peck the snout outta the Gators…or something like that. Anyway, they’ll all be watching the game at Cooper Door Tavern.

SATURDAY 11/15: Oxford, MS Americana band Blue Mountain has reunited and hits NYC for 2 shows today: 7PM @ Lakeside Lounge in the East Village and 11:45PM @ Hank’s Saloon in Bklyn.

SUNDAY 11/16 @ 12noon: Allen Toussaint: New Orleans Benefit Brunch @ Joe’s Pub. I don’t see this listed on the Joe’s Pub site but Time Out NY says it’s on & poppin’.

SUNDAY 11/16 @ 4:15PM: Join the Tennessee Titans Meetup group at Sidebar to watch the undefeated ballers try to hold onto the top spot. Rory & Dan say: “In case you forgot to check today's power ranking, Yes, We are still #1!”

MONDAY 11/17 @ 7:30PM: We don’t really count TX as part of the South but these bands are too cool to leave out. Centro-Matic + One Baptist General + South San Gabriel @ Mercury Lounge. Also, playing the following night (11/18) @ The Bell House in Bklyn.

MONDAY 11/17 @ 7:30PM: New Yorker Josh Joplin + Nashvillian Garrison Starr = Among The Oak & Ash. They play “Appalachian murder ballads” tonight @ Joe’s Pub.

TUESDAY 11/18: C-A-T-S!!!! CATS!!! CATS!!! CATS!!!
Darin Sergent, GM of Mercury Bar and UK Alum, is rallying the b-ball troops: “We have a HUGE basketball game against UNC (11/18) and a big season ahead of us Cat Fans so come on by Mercury Bar (493 3rd Ave, bet. 33rd & 34th St) for all the NCAA action going on with Billy ‘Clyde’ Gillespie and his team led by big man Patrick Patterson. We will be showing all games through the ESPN FullCourt Package throughout the season so you don’t have to miss a game here in the big city…being so far away from home!!!”

SCENE: Book, Zine, Art & Music Fair - Bham, AL (11/14 & 15)

If I was in Alabama this weekend, I'd be headed here:

Greencup Books, Bare Hands Gallery, and The2ndHand announce the inaugural Greencup Books Book, Zine, and Music Fair, featuring local and regional writers, literary magazines, small presses, comix artists, record labels and bands, zine makers, and handmade book artists, along with live music and readings. The fair runs Friday and Saturday, November 14 and 15. Although aimed at promoting local and area talent, print and music organizations from Alabama, neighboring states, and beyond are welcome. The fair will be held at Greencup Books and at neighboring Bare Hands Art Gallery. Aside from our participants’ info and merchandise tables, the fair will feature readings from participating authors along with music each night from area bands, beginning at 7 p.m. Join us Friday night for a welcome party/reception for participating vendors, followed by a creative reading by THE2NDHAND, followed by live music. The party begins at 6 p.m. On Saturday, readings will occur periodically during the day, followed by performances and an afterparty at the bookstore. The afterparty begins at 9:30 p.m.

LOCATION: 105 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. South in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, one door over from Bare Hands Gallery. Call (205) 533-8445 for information.

Housed in the coolest rambling brick building in Birmingham, Alabama, Greencup Books is a not-for-profit community bookstore and publisher that publishes original titles in a variety of genres—including poetry, fiction, art, agitprop, and classics—and sells the most unique and eclectic selection of used and new books, original art, and ephemera in the area. Events at Greencup Books include book release parties, visual media premieres, readings, art exhibitions, improv, and music performance. The mission of Greencup Books is to foster an active community of grounded literati/art folks dedicated to creativity through collaboration. Sales proceeds pay the bills and fund the various free classes/events. Donations are warmly accepted and rapidly put to good purpose. Volunteers who are interested in working with Greencup Books please email mike@greencupbooks.org.

But luckily there's also some cool southernist stuff happening in NYC this weekend as well. More info tomorrow...

BOOK: Pure Country (out 11/15); Celebratory Event in BKLYN 12/10

PURE COUNTRY
THE LEON KAGARISE ARCHIVES 1961-1971
Introduction and Text by Eddie Dean, Foreword by Robert Gordon

Throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s, country music’s most legendary performers played backwoods stages in outdoor music parks, live and unfiltered. It was a time when Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and George Jones mingled up close with fans like kin at a mountain family reunion. These dollar-a-carload picnic concerts might have been forgotten if it hadn’t been for Leon Kagarise. An audio engineer by trade, he began recording the live shows on reel-to-reel tape and shot hundreds of candid color slides of the stars and their fans.

Music journalist Eddie Dean spent many hours interviewing Kagarise before his death in early 2008. His introduction and accompanying text tells how an obsession created a view into a lost world that challenges easy assumptions about Country and reveals a secret history of Country music in the ‘60s, when the industry largely turned its back on its rural roots and produced a slick, studio-centric product known as the Nashville Sound.

Forced into commercial exile, traditional country performers scratched out a living in the outdoor-music park circuit, where Kagarise served as their unofficial court photographer. With a meticulous and loving eye, Kagarise captured dozens of classic country and bluegrass artists in their prime, including June Carter, Dolly Parton, Bill Monroe, Hank Snow, The Stanley Brothers, The Stonemans, and many others.

Over a decade, he amassed an archive of over 600 color slides and 4,000 hours of pristine sounding live performance as well as radio and television recordings, some of the only known surviving documents of the era. Pure Country presents 140 of Kagarise’s stunning color images, most never seen in print, from an archive now considered by historians to be one of the richest discoveries in the history of American music. (source)

NEW: The Bell House will host a celebration for the release of the book "Pure Country" on December 10. The show includes extremely rare color slides of hillbilly stars and their fans from the '60s music park scene, with stories by the book's writer Eddie Dean and a live performance by legendary banjo picker Roni Stoneman. Both will sign books after the show.

WED 12/10 @ 7:30pm ($10) - ALL AGES SHOW
Arthur Magazine & Process Books present
PURE COUNTRY: THE LEON KAGARISE ARCHIVES, 1961-1971
A very special evening with the first lady of banjo
RONI STONEMAN
THE TALL PINES
THE JONES STREET BOYS

Bell House
149 7th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 643-6510

SCOOP: FT. RUCKER, AL by Katrina Rodgers

Just in time for Veteran’s Day, Army wife-to-be Katrina Rogers gives us “THE SCOOP” on Ft. Rucker, AL:

When I tell people I live in Alabama, they usually think I’m close to Birmingham. I actually live 3-4 hours south of Birmingham and have never been here; Alabama is bigger than you think! Chances are, if you are not an Alabama native, you’re not exactly up to speed on your Alabama geography, and I’m sure if my fiance and I had not moved here with the Army, we would never have heard of the area known as the “Wiregrass.” This area includes southeast Alabama, very northern Florida, and southwest Georgia. You might be wondering what on earth there is to do in this area of the country—I know I was! Well, you just have to know where to look.

If you’re feeling ambitious, Atlanta is only 3 and half hours away, and there are so many thing to do there I couldn’t even begin to count (the aquarium is fun; the Coca Cola factory lets active duty military in free!) Montgomery, the capitol of Alabama, is not quite two hours away, and that’s where you’ll find the closest reasonably priced airfare. Panama City and Destin, Florida, are only a two and a half hour drive—here you can find the Gulf of Mexico, many beaches, and all accompanying activities (crab restaurants!)

But no one wants to go that far every weekend, and certainly not with the high gas prices we have had lately as a result of hurricane season. So what is there to do in your own backyard down here? The first thing you have to see in Enterprise is the statue in the middle of town. Long ago, the Boll Weevil, an insect, destroyed all of the area’s cotton crops. Farmers were forced to switch to another crop, peanuts, which turned out to be a fantastic economic change for the region. The statue was erected in 1919 to honor the Boll Weevil for bringing, in a roundabout way, prosperity to the area. Originally the statue was just a woman; the Boll Weevil at the top was added in 1949. The statue in the center of town now is just a replica—the original was moved to the Enterprise Depot Museum in 1998 due to vandalism (the Boll Weevil was stolen right off the top). It is the only statue in the country and most likely in the world to honor an agricultural pest.

Peanuts are also honored in the Wiregrass area. The city of Dothan, 30 miles from Enterprise, is known as the Peanut Capital of the Nation, and rightly so. Sixty-five percent of all the peanuts grown in the United States are grown within a 100 mile radius of Dothan! To celebrate this title, Dothan holds the National Peanut Festival every fall. The festival was first held in 1938 and lasted 3 days; it is now a 10 day event that draws over 163,000 visitors. Be prepared to wait in line to park! At the festival, you can find more than your average share of carnival rides, carnival games, displays (this year they had sea lions!), arts and crafts, a parade, fireworks, and a Miss National Peanut Festival Pageant. In addition, Dothan is a good place for many army wives to find jobs. There also an airport here, although it is horribly overpriced and only flies to and from Atlanta.

Speaking of army wives: last but never least, the Wiregrass area is the home of Ft. Rucker, the primary home of Army Aviation and flight training. It is also the home of Warrant Officer Candidate (WOC) School. Ft. Rucker opened on May 1, 1942 as Camp Rucker (the name was changed in 1955). The population on post in the 2000 census was 6,000, but many army folks live off post. The important thing to remember is that because of this, Enterprise and neighboring Daleville are much more transient areas than other towns. Flight training generally takes about one and a half to two years, so the real estate trends don’t necessarily follow the economic trends since people are always buying, selling, and renting. I have never seen so many townhouses in my life as in Enterprise, Alabama!

So, bottom line: there is more happening here than you think. A good place to get more information about local events and activities in the Wiregrass is on the website of the local radio station, WKMX in their “What’s Up Wiregrass” section. There are things going on at Ft. Rucker several times a month, so there are no excuses for not getting out and getting to know the area! (end)

Katrina Rodgers is a Gettysburg College graduate with a degree in Women’s Studies. She is currently living in Enterprise, Alabama with her fiance and looking forward to finally marrying him in December!

SCREEN: LAKE CITY opens 11/21 @ Quad NYC

In this searing Southern drama, a mother and son reunite under desperate circumstances years after a family tragedy drove them far apart. Billy and his son Clayton are on the run from his estranged wife's drug dealer after she stiffs him and disappears. With nowhere else to go, Billy returns to his mother's house in the Virginia countryside to hide out. As he searches for his missing wife, he reconnects with his childhood friend, now a local police officer and begins to confront his troubled past.

Dave Matthews plays a scary thug and Sissy Spacek, well, you know, she's the bomb in anything! Lake City opens in NYC and LA 11/7 and everywhere else a week later. The film is directed by Perry Moore and Hunter Hill, and produced by uber-fab socialite/art patron/actress Allison Sarofim.

Film opens at QUAD ON 11/21!!!

ART/BOOK: Ode To The Snapshot! Eudora Welty @ the Museum of the City of New York

I love me a good old Depression-era WPA photo! And, having traveled throughout Mississippi and NYC as a WPA press officer in the 1930’s, Eudora Welty has made plenty of them.

"[My snapshots] were taken spontaneously - to catch something as I came upon it, something that spoke of life going on around me. A snapshot's now or never."

Mississippi writer/photographer Eudora Welty would have turned 100 in 2009 and a year of celebratory centennial events kicks off today in NYC with a symposium on her work and an opening reception for Eudora Welty in New York: Photographs of the Early 1930s, an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York.The connection between Eudora Welty's celebrated writings and her photographs will be among the topics discussed by some of America's most distinguished writers, all of whom were friends of Welty. Suzanne Marrs, author of Eudora Welty: A Biography (Harcourt, 2005), will moderate a roundtable discussion that includes Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist; Robert MacNeil, journalist and former co-host of PBS's "MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour"; and Reynolds Price, novelist and recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award. Exhibition opening reception to follow.

Co-sponsored by PEN American Center and the Eudora Welty Foundation and presented in conjunction with Eudora Welty in New York: Photographs of the Early 1930s which runs thru 2/16/09.

SCENE/ART/BOOK: Rejoice!!

"Rejoice" by Vicksburg, MS artist H.C. Porter seems to sum up how at least 50+ million folks are feeling this morning!!

H.C. Porter's mixed-media paintings begin as black and white portraits. Using a printing technique called serigraphy, Porter screens her photographs onto paper and begins painting. It is an unusual process but it's one that reflects a way of life. Beneath the vibrant colors are the black and white images that begin each piece.

Porter takes this process to the next level with her extensive documentary project, BACKYARDS AND BEYOND, which combines mixed media visual art with audio allowing each image itself to tell the story of Mississippians affected by Hurricane Katrina. “Amazingly, my time on the Coast has revealed that many people throughout the United States have no idea that Mississippi was affected by Hurricane Katrina,” states H.C. Porter, “much less that our entire Coastline has been annihilated. People’s lives have been altered for generations. This is not the Great Depression or The Dust Bowl Days, but it is Hurricane Katrina, a part of our nation’s history that unfortunately landed head strong into every single Coastal community of Mississippi. I am simply a vessel through which the story is being conveyed. It is about the faces and emotions and words of those I am documenting. This Exhibition will be their stories …our story … Backyards and Beyond … a story that must be told for a very long time.”

Porter is currently on tour throughout the south to promote the exhibit's companion fine art coffee table book.

SCENE: GO VOTE!!!!

Image from Yee-Haw Industries: Yee-Haw Industries has been covering America with unique, art-like products since 1996. Partners Kevin Bradley & Julie Belcher opened up shop from a back-40 barn in Corbin, Kentucky, with salvaged, antique equipment previously put to rust. Their vibrant, folk art, wood cut prints of country music's classic stars, such as Hank Williams, Sr. and Loretta Lynn, caught eyes and told stories. Handmade posters featured stranger-than-fiction characters, like ass-whooping grocer Cas Walker and daredevil icon Evel Kenevil. Soon, modern music acts, including Steve Earle, Buddy Guy, Trey Anastasio, Lucinda Williams and Southern Culture on the Skids began commissioning promotional posters and album art.

In 1998, having outgrown the bluegrass barn, Yee-Haw moved to a 100+-year-old building on Gay Street in historic downtown Knoxville (just a few doors down from where Hank Sr. was last seen alive). They began offering tours of the Yee-Haw studio in action and mainstreet store to sell their wares.

Shout out to Scott Peek from Standard Deluxe for the tip!!

ART: WILLIAM EGGLESTON: Democratic....Camera

William Eggleston: Democratic Camera

Photographs and Video, 1958-2008

The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

November 7, 2008-January 25, 2009

Curated by Elisabeth Sussman and Thomas Weski

One of the most influential photographers of the last half-century, William Eggleston has defined the history of color photography. This exhibition will be the artist's first retrospective in the United States and will include both his color and black-and-white photographs as well as Stranded in Canton, the artist's video work from the early 1970s. The exhibition will travel throughout the United States as well as to the Haus der Kunst in Munich following its New York presentation. Eggleston was born in Memphis, TN in 1939. (Source: Eggleston Trust)

ART: WILLIAM EGGLESTON: Stranded In Canton

Shot in 1974 with a Sony Porta-pak, the crazily careering ''Stranded in Canton'' documents a cast of hard-drinking Southerners with the intimacy, ease and instability of a seasoned participant.
In one sequence, a man with peroxide hair, makeup and a sequined T-shirt sings old love songs, swanning around with a toilet-paper boa. In others shots are fired; good old boys decapitate chickens; and a young bearded man with an angelic face raves about being stranded in Canton, a colloquialism for being out of one's mind on drugs or alcohol. Whiffs of Southern Gothic are not new to Mr. Eggleston's work, but here they rise to the surface -- fierce, tragic and proud.

(New York Times)

William Eggleston's "Stranded in Canton"

Directed by William Eggleston - Twin Palms, 2008

Book and DVD to be released Fall 2008 to coincide with Whitney exhibit