HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

SOUNDS: My Morning Jacket @ MSG 12/31

If I wasn't going to be in Nashville for New Year's I'd be getting lucky with these Kentucky's. Time Out NY says: My Morning Jacket might not play sophisticated rock, but they’re easily one of the most vigorous and magical bands performing today. To mark the drama of this gig (New Year’s at MSG? Is there any greater honor for a band?), the Jacket asks that you show them some high style with black-tie attire. The dress-up thing might seem an odd match for a quasi jam band, but then again, when it comes to partying, My Morning Jacket always goes all the way.

When: Dec 31 9pm @ Madison Square Garden (tickets)

SCENE/SOUNDS: Auld Twang Syne (12/31 in BKLYN)

Brooklyn Country Music (the folks behind the Kings County Opry, CasHank Hootenanny Jamboree, Brooklyn Winter Hoedown, Johnny Cash Birthday Bash, & The Brooklyn Country Music Festival) are, of course, kickin' it country style this New Year's Eve and promising "the sweatiest night of twang ever."


A Brooklyn Country New Year's Eve

Kicks off @ 8PM on December 31, 2008 at

Freddy's Backroom

485 Dean St. (@ 6th Ave.)

Brooklyn, NY

BOOK/EAT: White Trash Cooking

I somehow ended up recently with the "Winter 2006" issue of The Oxford American in my mailbox. I'm a regular subscriber of the mag and a big fan, but Winter 2006 2 years too late??

In the issue though, there is a long sort of blowhardish intellectualization about Ernest Mickler's "controversial" cookbook White Trash Cooking. The essay goes on and on drawing similarities to various other works and authors - Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Agee/Evans, Nora Neal Hurston, and others. I guess seeing some great democracy in Mickler's book in its ability to preserve and share a local culture, and document folklore.

In addition and/or aside from of all that, it seems like a fun book and people like it. The Amazon.com product description points out that: "This is not a joke book or a parody. This is a warmly written, humorous, and quite serious cookbook filled with delightful traditional and unusual recipes. It includes wonderful photographs by the author of people and places and food all connected to his fondness and memory of growing up in rural and small town Mississippi. You may not be tempted to try every single recipe in this book, but you won't be able to resist trying many of them!"

And a reader review raves: "I first bought this book years ago, when it first came out-and itshows: the biscuit page has tea stains all over it-so does the potato-chip sandwich! The latter is worth a try, albeit a tad salty, but it IS delish. You absolutely cannot fail to make good biscuits with their recipe, it is simple, basic, and wonderful. What they do with food is real simple, and the low-priced version of "peasant food." It is worth it for the pictures in the center alone, it doesn't put down white trash, it celebrates 'em! Darn fine cooks, too. Really delicious summer produce recipes, and the tomato sandwich idea is one anyone can relish. This book occupies a proud, and well-used, pride of place in my cookbook collection. Unlike snotty cookbooks where they look down on the reader, presupposing a well-laden pantry groaning with esoterica- this is REAL FOOD, REAL SIMPLE. A tribute to all the white trash who built this country, and really tasty, too. Y'all try it some, hear?"

Seems like White Trash Cooking is a must own for anyone who, like me, has a loose resolve to learn to cook in 2009. Yum!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

BOOK: The Wettest County In The World

From the John C. and Olive Campell Collection Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina

I went hunting for moonshine once. Tooling around the backroads of southeast Alabama, with bright splashes of sunlight playing peekaboo from beyond the tippy tops of tall pine trees. We zoomed past the spot where the glittering sign once stood for the Big Daddy Club, a makeshift juke joint set up like a tent revival in the open space of a dirt yard in front of someone's trailer home. We ate lunch a bit earlier at a meat n' three in Hurtsboro and went to visit with some outsider artists in their humble and tidy unmarked homes. Yes yes all interesting stuff but we were looking for moonshine so kept on rolling along until we got to the rickety shack of an old bluesman....but his still had run dry.

Reading about Matt Bondurant's new book, The Wettest County In The World, got me remembering my almost brush with white lightnin'. But Bondurant's tale, albeit "a novel based on a true story," is the real deal. Sounds like some good holiday reading to me!

From Scribner: Based on the true story of Matt Bondurant's grandfather and two granduncles, The Wettest County in the World is a gripping tale of brotherhood, greed, and murder. The Bondurant Boys were a notorious gang of roughnecks and moonshiners who ran liquor through Franklin County, Virginia, during Prohibition and in the years after. Forrest, the eldest brother, is fierce, mythically indestructible, and the consummate businessman; Howard, the middle brother, is an ox of a man besieged by the horrors he witnessed in the Great War; and Jack, the youngest, has a taste for luxury and a dream to get out of Franklin. Driven and haunted, these men forge a business, fall in love, and struggle to stay afloat as they watch their family die, their father's business fail, and the world they know crumble beneath the Depression and drought.

White mule, white lightning, firewater, popskull, wild cat, stump whiskey, or rotgut -- whatever you called it, Franklin County was awash in moonshine in the 1920s. When Sherwood Anderson, the journalist and author of Winesburg, Ohio, was covering a story there, he christened it the "wettest county in the world." In the twilight of his career, Anderson finds himself driving along dusty red roads trying to find the Bondurant brothers, piece together the clues linking them to "The Great Franklin County Moonshine Conspiracy," and break open the silence that shrouds Franklin County.

In vivid, muscular prose, Matt Bondurant brings these men -- their dark deeds, their long silences, their deep desires -- to life. His understanding of the passion, violence, and desperation at the center of this world is both heartbreaking and magnificent.

STAGE: Home @ Signature Theatre in NYC

There's no place like home for the holidays but displaced North Carolinians can get a little taste on 42nd Street as the Samm-Art Williams play, Home, is currently in production at the Signature Theatre Company in NYC until January 11, 2009.

Time Out NY says: Fairy tales aren’t usually aimed at grown-ups, but Home is. The second offering of Signature Theatre Company’s season devoted to the works of the Negro Ensemble Company, Samm-Art Williams’s 1979 Tony-nominated play about the trials and tribulations of a black everyman has its stale points—his wide-eyed awe at discovering his small North Carolina hometown has become integrated seems a bit quaint. But its optimistic where-the-heart-is message is just as moving as it must have been three decades ago.

In evocatively poetic dialogue, Cephus (Carroll) shares his life story. All this God-fearing farmer (who does like to gamble) wants to do is work the land and marry his sweetheart, Patti Mae (LaVoy). But once his uncle and grandpa die, his girlfriend leaves him for college and another man, and he’s thrown in jail for refusing to fight in Vietnam, Cephus starts to wonder if God is “on vacation in Miami.” Yet he never completely turns his back on his Maker, and his faith is ultimately rewarded.

If that description sparks cliché-induced eye rolls, be assured that as it unfolds, Home is funny, poignant and, yes, uplifting. Carroll is totally engaging as the plucky protagonist, and he’s matched by LaVoy and Bonner, who take on multiple roles with gusto. In these gloomy times, it’s refreshing to see a show that insists that no matter how bad things get, there’s always a chance of a happy ending.

SCENE: Boycott Alabama Now?

Put up your dukes Dixie! The mitten state has taken off its gloves and at least one former GM auto worker is pointing the finger your way calling for a statewide ban of Alabama.

Boycott Alabama Now “has been developed by a grassroots number of true Americans who have had enough with uninformed politicians who are not helping the domestic auto industry, in this case Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama. Members of our website hold no grudges against all of the hard working people who live in the wonderful state of Alabama. However, it is time to fight back for America and the only way to do it is with our wallets. Our objective is to demonstrate to the senator what happens when a part of America is not supported; therefore we are launching a nationwide boycott of Alabama…And to the great people of Alabama, please keep in mind; we didn’t start this mess, our government did.”

Alabama’s Richard Shelby is certainly not the only Republican senator opposed to the 14 billion dollar governmental bailout of Detroit automakers so…I don’t really get it.

Discuss?

* * * * *

In completely unrelated news, except that Mississippi is next door to Alabama, former Senate Majority Leader and controversial Mississippi senator Trent Lott is speaking in NYC on Monday, December 15 @ 6:45PM. For location info, visit HudsonUnionSociety.com.

STAGE: Dividing The Estate

Texas playwrite Horton Foote has a good old family drama brewing this holiday season at the Booth Theatre on Broadway:

The eternally spry Horton Foote does a nimble Texas two-step in Dividing the Estate. Half the play is a leisurely, courtly, astutely observed portrait of cultural and generational change; the other half is a quick, lively comedy of manners and manors in decline. (source)

"Foote, whose upbringing in a small Texas town during the Depression shaped his enduring world view, is certainly not oblivious to the cruel things people can do to one another. He is keenly aware of the failures and frustrations that are the norms in life, and of the sheer pettiness that can be the only revenge of unhappy people. But in a world that more often than not can be cold, cruel and unforgiving, Foote also shows us how human beings can prevail in little acts of kindness, huge efforts of determination and will, and the magical healing powers (and coincident pain) of memory."--Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

In the dark comedy Dividing the Estate, matriarch Stella Gordon is dead set against the parceling out of her clan's land despite the financial woes brought on by the oil bust of the 1980s. In the course of the play, the power of petty self-interest and long-held resentments makes even painful compromise an elusive goal. Widely acclaimed in a 2007 production at Primary Stages, the play will run at the Booth Theatre on Broadway until January 4, 2009. (source)

HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS: Sister Louisa

A stream of consciousness e-mail conversation with artist Grant Henry and his “altar” ego Sister Louisa: my gallery Sister Louisa's Art Gallery in the Church of The Living Room And Ping Pong Emporium is in my home in a loft in downtown atlanta...i live in a work/live loft spacewhich caters to the art community by offering moderate income housing to artists,as opposed to single mothers raising litters of kids. it is what it is.

i bleed sister Louisa because that's what i do to process my former relationshipto societal institutions such as religion, politics, family, and community.

i love playing with the symbols of what we all are taught to believe, without necessarily attaching myself to any of those beliefs.

i love the south. i love when one's faith is more sophisticated than the believer herself.i love injecting humor into serious, forbidden places.

foremost: i believe that god's love for me IS GREATERthan anything i can do, or say, to fuck that up!to diminish that sense of unconditionality.

i never apologize for my art. it's a balance.

i'm an artist who doesn't paint (i use found paintings/boards/windows), and a writer who doesn't write (i use as few words as possible), and i don't pursue a gallery because i'm the ultimate anti-artist, i don't do my art to sell my art (however quickly it DOES fly off my walls), i do it to process my feelings, process world events, (i'm working on the VIRGIN SARAH PALIN, and jesus peering across the water saying: I CAN SEE RUSSIA FROM HERE!)

i can't be so intentional as to be part of a DIY MOVEMENT, i just do it myself. i'm not a joiner.

i put SISTER LOUISA pieces on my website, i put SISTER LOUISA pieces on my facebook and myspace pages, i donate SISTER LOUISA art about 20 times a year to anyone who needs it, and i participate in shows if i'm asked.

we have monthly creative writing seminars in my space...going with the flow gets me where i'm going. i'm fortunate to have a local writer who writes about me, grant henry, and about my art, sister louisa, in newspapers, magazines, and books to have gotten some exposure for SISTER LOUISA.

people crave content, yearn for the truth, and want to say things they aren't "supposed to say", so sister louisa provides the levity and courage to face people's shit.

as far as galleries go? Hmmmmmmm…i've never pursued a gallery, i am fortunate to have a huge in home gallery, in the center of atlanta, in a space that give me ample exposure.

i price my pieces based on biblical numbers, not profit.

$33 for a small piece. $66.6 for a little bigger piece.$133.00 for an even bigger piece. $166.60........$266.60........not for religious reasons, but for giggles.

laura dern (actress) has pieces. tammy faye bakker (fabulous religious nutcase) has(had) a piece. ben harper (musician) has a piece. kate pierson (b52's) has several pieces. fred schneider (b52's) has several pieces. david arquette (actor) has a grant trucker hat. anne kristoff (blogger to the arts) needs one.

i've done several art cars and also an art house.......put an ad on the wall of the coffee shop with the art car on it stating: CRACK CAR FOR SALE: $80,000.00 (INCLUDES CRACK HOUSE)

my space has a last supper table complete with a jesus chair and 12 disciple chairs,church pews, a pulpit, revival lights, and real church chandeliers, and, of course,the ping pong table:

SISTER LOUISA'S ART GALLERY IN THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING ROOM AND PING PONG EMPORIUM...

Come On In, Precious....

Sister Louisa will be serving up some Spiritual Sangria:
December 6th & 7th, 2008 at
The 13th Annual Telephone Factory Art Show

828 Ralph McGill Boulevard NE, Loft 202
Atlanta, Georgia 30306

FOLKS: Recipe For Washing Clothes

Knowing that I am recently enfianced to a fine southern gentleman, my good friend and historical folklorian Bobbye Wade of Dora, AL has bestowed some wifely instruction upon me - A Recipe For Washing Clothes. And "Yes. It is for real Yankee girl."

Years ago an Alabama grandmother gave the new bride the following recipe. (This is an exact copy as written and found in an old scrapbook -with spelling errors and all):

WASHING CLOTHES

Build fire in backyard to heat kettle of rain water. Set tubs so smoke won’t blow in eyes if wind is pert. Shave one hole cake of lie soap in boilin water.

Sort things, make 3 piles1 pile white,1 pile colored,1 pile work britches and rags.
To make starch, stir flour in cool water to smooth, then thin down withboiling water.

Take white things, rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, and boil, then rub colored don't boil just wrench and starch.

Take things out of kettle with broom stick handle, then wrench, and starch.

Hang old rags on fence.

Spread tea towels on grass.

Pore wrench water in flower bed. Scrub porch with hot soapy water. Turn tubs upside down.

Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with hair combs. Brew cup of tea, sit and rock a spell and count your blessings.

(For you non-southerners - wrench means rinse.)

Bobbye went onto to explain: That was true in this area and other rural areas in the South until the early 1940s. You have a lot to learn if you plan to stay in the South very long. I think you will be learning a new language.

With the advent of T. V., the Scotch-Irish language is receding into the background and will soon be gone forever. The southern mountain language, Appalachian, is an almost perfect English of England in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth century. Remember they have been isolated for over 200 years until the 20th century......radio and then T. V.came along and the language is rapidly changing.

R.I.P.: Odetta

From Bham Terminal: The Voice of the Civil Rights Era, Odetta Gordon, will not get the chance to perform at President-elect Barack Obama’s Inauguration as she and others had hoped. The Birmingham, AL born singer/songwriter passed away last night at the age of 77, a result of heart disease according to her agent and numerous reports, including this one at nytimes.com (subscription may be required). They also have an extended Last Word interview with the folk music icon currently available on their website.