Hush Yo' Mouf!!

A little vintage southern in the city gossip courtesy of Time Out NY:

Monkey Bar
Though Monkey Bar opened in the '30s, its simian murals weren't painted until the '50s.
Tennessee Williams made his home at the Hotel Elysee above the Monkey Bar. He died there in 1983, allegedly from choking on a bottle cap.

Tallulah Bankhead also lived in the Elysee and was known for her provocative behavior at the restaurant—one tale has her on the piano wearing a mink (and nothing else).


Graydon Carter's revamped version of Monkey Bar is open now.

SCENE: ST EOM's Pasaquan OPEN this Saturday, May 2

photo Bombsite

St EOM's Pasaquan re-opened for the 2009 season on April 4 and will be open to visitors the first Saturday of each month thru November. Next up is this Saturday, May 2.

"I built this place to have somethin' to identify with, cause there's nothin' that I see in this society that I identify with or desire to emulate.

Here I can be in my own world with my temples and designs and the spirit of God. I don't have nothin' against other people and their beliefs. I'm not askin' anybody to do my way or be my way.

Although, when I'm dead and gone, they'll follow like night follows day."

St. EOM to his biographer, Tom Patterson, 1985

Eddie Owens Martin was born at the stroke of midnight July 4, 1908. His father was a Southwest Georgia dirt farmer, an uneducated sharecropper whose only apparent interest in his son was as a farm laborer who could toil without payment in producing the annual cotton crop. Eddie, however, was "different" from the other five children in the family. Secretly assisted by his mother, he learned to read. He soon contemplated an existence far beyond that of the backbreaking day labor in the fields of Marion County. At fourteen, following an incident during which his father cruelly killed a puppy that Eddie had received as a gift from a neighboring black family, he left home. After wandering around Georgia and Florida for several months as an itinerant fruit picker, young Eddie drifted north. He eventually found New York City, where he stayed until the mid-1950s.

At a time in the late 1930s, during an extended and fever-ridden illness, Martin experienced the first of a series of phenomenal visions that would prompt and continue to drive his artistic efforts for the rest of his life. In the initial vision, he was confronted by a trio of extraordinarily tall personages who identified themselves as people of the future -- special envoys from a vaporous land called Pasaquan, a place where the past, the present, the future, and everything else all come together." He had been chosen by them, he later reported, to delineate an understanding of the peace and beauty that the future might hold for mankind, if mankind would take heed. On that day, Eddie Owens Martin of Marion County, Georgia, became St. EOM -- the one and only Pasaquoyan of the Twentieth Century.

The empowered visitors in his vision offered him extensive instructions on how to ritually prepare for the proper conduct of his personal daily existence. They revealed how he was to communicate with and receive cosmic instruction from the energies of the universe, and how to follow a course that would enable him to artfully render the futuristic world of Pasaquan in paint and pen, metal and concrete. The most compelling instruction that he received from them was this: To "return to Georgia and do something." That is precisely what he did -- for over thirty years.

The result is St. EOM's PASAQUAN. (excerpted)

Pasaquan is located in Buena Vista (bit east of Columbus, GA) and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Eddie Owens Martin died at Pasaquan in 1986 but his legacy and visionary environment lives on. You can support this project by visiting, voluteering, joining the Pasaquan Preservation Society and/or buying a copy of "the book."

ART: Marilyn Minter @ Salon 94 Freemans thru 6/13

GREEN PINK CAVIAR AT SALON 94

Green Pink Caviar
New Photographs and Paintings by Marilyn Minter
Salon 94 Freemans
April 28 - June 13

Continuing her critique of the underbelly of glamour, for her second solo exhibition, Green Pink Caviar at Salon 94. Marilyn Minter will present monumental paintings alongside large scale photographs. By showing extreme close ups of tattooed and freckled skin, mouths blowing bubbles and tongues licking candy her work undermines our cultural taste for the clean and flawless. Playing with her own vocabulary of zooming and focusing in and out of the body, Minter finds the exact moment before the bubble bursts, the sweat dries or the candy melts. Minter’s monumental 15-foot painting, Pop Rocks, her largest to date, she explores the idea of painting with the tongue. Directing her models to lick brightly colored candies, Minter shot photos from underneath a glass plate. The tongues mixed the ‘paint’ with saliva, slurping and pushing the color around the glass surface. The result of this very Minter-esque action paintings are featured in two photographs, in which the models seem to regurgitate their own makeup, Gimmie and Chewing Pink. (source)

Marilyn Minter was born in 1948 in Shreveport, Louisiana, and lives and works in New York.

SCREEN: Nashville @ Le Poisson Rouge tonight @ 9PM?

Nashville is Robert Altman's 1975 masterpiece, exploring the lives of over 20 main characters over a couple of very eventful days. On the surface it is a film about the music and politics of Nashville, however it is really a film about the inhabitants who live there. With flawless performances, unbeatable music and wonderful photography, Nashville is not only an amazing film, but one of the greatest ever made. The acting is excellent, Ned Beatty, Lily Tomlin, Karen Black, Geraldine Chaplin, Scott Glenn, Barbara Harris, Gwen Welles and Keith Carradine. (source)

I don't see it on Le Poisson Rouge's site but per Flavorpill, there's a free screening of Nashville there tonight @ 9PM.

SOUNDS: Midsummer Night Swing '09 Line-Up Announced

Kermit Ruffins Photo by David Rae Morris

“Midsummer Night Swing heats up Damrosch Park with the rhythms that keep New York dancing. This year brings out the very best of swing, salsa, soul, tango, rockabilly, and much more, showcasing some of the finest musicians and DJs from this country and abroad. For dance fanatics, enthusiastic beginners, and everyone in between, Midsummer Night Swing is the city’s hot spot for three weeks in July.” Bill Bragin

Southern-tinged highlights include:

Tuesday, July 7
Kermit Ruffins & the Barbecue Swingers
New Orleans Jazz, Small Band Swing

Kermit Ruffins plays New Orleans jazz with all the swing and swagger of the late, great Louis Armstrong. His sweet horn blows jazz, funk, and standards that reflect the big brass tradition of his beloved city. Charismatic and confident, Kermit Ruffins and his band really cook - in every sense of the word - as he serves up hot barbecue as well as cool music at his restaurant & club in The Big Easy.

Thursday, July 16
Ponderosa Stomp: The Get Down
Feat. William Bell, Harvey Scales, and The Bobbettes with The Bo-Keys
Soul/R&B Soul, R&B, Funk

New Orleans’ renowned music revue, the Ponderosa Stomp, decamps to New York for several nights of great live music. The first night will showcase Stax/Volt recording artist and songwriter William Bell, whose strong yet smooth voice sang “You Don’t Miss Your Water,” among other R&B classics. Harvey (“Disco Lady”) Scales, also on the bill, has been active since the 60s. He credits James Brown’s funk as being a major influence on his music. The third headliner will be The Bobbettes, the first all-female R&B group to have a major pop hit record with "Mr. Lee." All three acts will perform with those champions of the Memphis soul sound, The Bo-Keys.

Friday, July 17
Ponderosa Stomp: The Best Dance in Town
Featuring Joe Clay, Carl Mann, and The Collins Kids
with Deke Dickerson & The Eccofonics
Rockabilly

Night two of Ponderosa Stomp will celebrate with a night of rockabilly starting with singer Joe Clay. Clay, a contemporary of Elvis Presley’s who mined the same rock, R&B, and blues roots, had some early hits before being rediscovered in the 1980s by British audiences. Carl Mann, singer and pianist, is an alum of Sun Records (as was Presley) who recorded a rockabilly version of Nat King Cole’s “Mona Lisa”, among other songs, that have fanatic fans to this day. The Collins Kids were juvenile rockabilly stars in the 1950s, singing hits aimed at a young audience. Larry Collins was a lightning-fingered double-neck guitar whiz from the age of 10, and the brother and sister (Lorrie) still perform together. All three acts will perform with Deke Dickerson & The Eccofonics, one of America’s foremost purveyors of roots music.

Sunday, July 19

Ponderosa Stomp Part 3: Lincoln Center Festival presents a Tribute to Wardell Quezergue, the composer/arranger responsible for shaping southern music and the soulful sounds of the Mississippi delta and New Orleans into giant hits.

Tickets are on sale now...

SCENE: Hostel In The Forest

Photo: Arjun Mehta

Earth Day Pt. 2 - I stumbled across a link for the Hostel In The Forest during an online visit to Lafayette, LA's Blue Moon Guesthouse. Sleep in a treehouse for just $25 per night!

"The Hostel in the Forest has operated as an International Youth Hostel for 32 years. We are world renowned for our geodesic domes and 9 tree houses, which were built and have been sustained entirely by volunteers. Hundreds of loving hands have gone into making the Hostel what it is today, a fact that is evident as soon as one steps on the property.

The Hostel sits on 120 acres of forest and wetlands, 2 miles from H.W.95 in Brunswick, Georgia. It is located short distances from the famous 'Golden Isles' of St. Simons Island and Jekyll Island. There are also many pristine coastal barrier islands including the famous Cumberland National Seashore close by.

The area is unique in every way, with lush, dense sub-tropical forests containing palms, saw palmettos, magnolia, cedar, holly, pine, and myrtle. Huge live oaks draped with moss contrast with the broadleaf evergreens that are the dominant trees of the forest. Well over three hundred species of birds visit this coastal region annually and dozens of species of reptile and amphibian make this their home. Contrasting the forests and the coastal savannahs are the wetlands and swamps where alligators, river otters and wading birds are prolific."

The property also has a bunch of gardens and a sweat lodge. The Hostel is hosting a yoga retreat May 1 - 3. For more info click here. Namaste!

EARTH DAY 2009!

Red dirt, cotton, tobacco, peanuts, pecans, peaches, rice, indigo, catfish ponds, the Chattooga River, Kentucky bluegrass, golf greens, the outer banks, wild horses, Smokey Mountains...I could go on and on about all the reasons that every day is Earth Day in the South. For events in your area click here, and for volunteer ops click here. Reduce, reuse and recycle y'all.

BOOK: Outcasts United by Warren St.John

The extraordinary tale of a refugee youth soccer team and the transformation of a small American town. (source)

Clarkston, Georgia, was a typical Southern town until it was designated a refugee settlement center in the 1990s, becoming the first American home for scores of families in flight from the world’s war zones—from Liberia and Sudan to Iraq and Afghanistan. Suddenly Clarkston’s streets were filled with women wearing the hijab, the smells of cumin and curry, and kids of all colors playing soccer in any open space they could find. The town also became home to Luma Mufleh, an American-educated Jordanian woman who founded a youth soccer team to unify Clarkston’s refugee children and keep them off the streets. These kids named themselves the Fugees.

Set against the backdrop of an American town that without its consent had become a vast social experiment, Outcasts United follows a pivotal season in the life of the Fugees and their charismatic coach. Warren St. John documents the lives of a diverse group of young people as they miraculously coalesce into a band of brothers, while also drawing a fascinating portrait of a fading American town struggling to accommodate its new arrivals. At the center of the story is fiery Coach Luma, who relentlessly drives her players to success on the soccer field while holding together their lives—and the lives of their families—in the face of a series of daunting challenges.

This fast-paced chronicle of a single season is a complex and inspiring tale of a small town becoming a global community—and an account of the ingenious and complicated ways we create a home in a changing world.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Warren St. John is a reporter for The New York Times and the author of the national bestseller Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer.

On October 17th, 1982, St. John visited the set of “The Bear Bryant Show.”

In Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, he recalls the event:

“My father asked Bryant if he wouldn’t mind posing with me for a picture. Without so much as a word, the Bear put his arm around my shoulder and forced an unconvincing smile. We stood there in front of the Coca-Cola sign in this uncomfortable pose as my father fiddled with his camera, stalling in the hope that Bryant might loosen up. After forty-five nerve-fraying seconds, the Bear leaned over to me and thundered, “Son, I don’t think your father knows what the hell he’s doing.” We both laughed and in the photo that now hangs on my office wall we look like old cronies sharing an inside joke.”

St. John has also written extensively for The New Yorker, the New York Observer, and Wired. He went to Columbia University and lives in New York.

HOLY UPDATE: BIRMINGHAM BATMAN'S RESCUE MOBILE HAS BEEN SAVED!

Photo: Bham News/Beverly Taylor

From AL.com/B'ham News: The Birmingham, Alabama, City Council voted unanimously on 3/31 to keep the 1971 Ford Thunderbird driven by "The Birmingham Batman."

The council also pledged money to refurbish the car and to find a permanent place to display it.

Marquetta Renee Hill, daughter of the late Batman Willie J. Perry, said she was pleased. "That's what I wanted."

Until his death in 1985, Perry took the colorful car around the city helping stranded motorists. Then city bought the car and stored at the Southern Museum of Flight and later at Fair Park.

More recently it was stored in a city garage after crews took down the building that once housed the car to make way for a redeveloped Fair Park. The council last week had considered but then postponed a decision to resell the car back to the family for $10, in "consideration for his valuable and meaningful contributions."

Councilman Roderick Royal questioned the city's motive and asked for the week's delay so he could talk with Perry's family. Royal and Councilman Steven Hoyt both suggested the city preserve the car and put it on display once Fair Park reopens.

"If it is a part of our history as we say, then we owe it to the memory of this resident who just wanted to help," Royal said last week.

Bham wiki recaps the life of this local hero:

Willie James Perry, also known as Batman or the Birmingham Batman (born 1941 - died 1985) was well-known for cruising around Birmingham helping stranded motorists and giving free rides in his customized 1971 Ford Thunderbird, dubbed the "Batmobile Rescue Ship".

Perry worked as a manager at window distributor J. F. Day. He lived by the motto "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." In addition to carrying gas, jumper cables and tools to help people whose cars had broken down, Perry gave free rides to people who had too much to drink, took elderly people to doctor's appointments and drove kids around to McDonald's or as entertainment for birthday parties.

When making his rounds, Perry wore a white helmet with the bat logo and a white jumpsuit with brown trim. He was featured in a 1982 episode of the television show That's Incredible!.

Perry died of carbon monoxide poisoning when his garage door closed unnoticed while he was working on the Batmobile in 1985. He was survived by his wife, Dorothy, and daughter Renee Perry-Hill.

In 2005, Bham B& W City Paper's Ed Reynolds wrote: Each night during the early 1980s, a pimped-out, maroon and white 1971 Ford Thunderbird with six antennas and fluorescent neon lights that illuminated over-sized tailfins cruised the streets of Birmingham. The contraption was customized to resemble the Batmobile, complete with the Caped Crusader's bat-shaped logo. A sign on each door read: "Rescue Ship . . . Will Help Anyone In Distress." Orange shag carpet covered the floorboards. The car's gadgets were mostly household appliances...Perry spent evenings and weekends cruising streets and highways for stranded motorists in need of roadside assistance. Perry would also pick up drunks and whisk them straight home (or to other bars) without accepting so much as a dollar in compensation...Willie Perry once fulfilled the dying wish of a 100-year-old man by taking him on a Sunday afternoon drive in the Batmobile. The elderly could often count on Perry for a ride to a doctor's appointment. His free excursions for kids at birthday parties or to McDonald's were legendary. He always carried jumper cables and was sometimes spotted siphoning gasoline from his Batmobile into the empty tanks of stranded vehicles.

My good friend Bobbye Wade of Dora, AL concurs: "This guy was for real. He was all over the free ways, and downtown."

Speaking of Birmingham, AL, be sure to check out the New York Times' recent "36 Hours In..." guide to the city!

SCENE: Waverly, AL 9th Annual OLD 280 BOOGIE 4/18

Standard Deluxe, my fave Alabama screen printers, are doing big things!

Whole Heap of Stuff Happenin' Over Thissa Way
Hope to SEE Yoo ALL Soon at Home or On the Road!
STANDARD DELUXE, FRED'S Feed & Seed and PAPA D's Super Grille
are proud to be bringing more Fine Cultural Events to South East Alabama

The Town of Waverly presents
The 9th Annual OLD 280 BOOGIE Multi-Cultural Arts & Music Festival
Saturday, April 18
10:30 am -5:30 pm / FREE
Art Exhibits, Kids Activities, Great Food and Live Music featuring:

DRAKE JENNINGS (Elvis) Performance, old pals The PINE HILL HAINTS, and from Lafayette, LA The FIGS! plus more ...Stay Tuned

SCENE/SPORT: Angola Prison Rodeo 4/18 & 19

Photo: NO Adventure

The Angola Prison Rodeo takes place this weekend (4/18 & 19) at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, LA.

The Angola Rodeo, the longest running prison rodeo in the nation, got its start in 1965. The first arena was small, built by a handful of dedicated inmates and personnel. It wasn't much in those days, and the rodeo was staged just for the entertainment of prisoners and employees. But it was fun.

The 1967 rodeo was opened to the general public on a limited basis. There were no stands. Spectators had to sit on apple crates and the hoods of their cars to watch the performances.

The success of the 1967 and 1968 rodeos prompted construction of a 4,500-seat arena for the 1969 rodeo. A near disaster occurred when the bleachers collapsed during one of the shows. Spectators weren't alarmed; most didn't even get up. They sat on the collapsed structure and continued to watch. The 1971 rodeo was the wettest in history, but the show went on.

As years passed, the rodeo grew in size, adding events and sponsorships. The official Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rules were adopted in 1972 and the rodeo became a permanent fixture.

The Angola Prison Rodeo is a professionally produced rodeo. Angola contracts with professional rodeo stock contractors to provide the rodeo stock used in events; professional judges are contracted with to objectively judge each event. In addition, to ensure inmate participant safety, professional rodeo clowns are always present in the arena during events. A full complement of emergency services personnel are on-site to provide medical assistance to inmates and spectators.

In 1997, spectator capacity was expanded by 1000 seats and construction of a roof over the seating area began to provide increased comfort for spectators under Louisiana's blazing October sun. Hobbycraft space was also expanded to the point where it is no longer just a little concession area on the side for some inmate organizations to make a few bucks. It is now an all-day full-blown arts and crafts festival, complete with entertainment and food galore. The arts and crafts festival begins at 9 a.m. and continues throughout the rodeo which begins at 2 p.m. each Sunday in October. Many fans come to the rodeo for the arts and crafts show alone.

Ticket, concession, and hobbycraft sales for the next two years broke all records, prompting the administration to build another arena. Construction began on the new stadium in April 2000 and increased capacity to 7,500. The new stadium was completed for the first rodeo in 2000.

What began 40 years ago as a "fun" thing by a handful of rodeo-loving inmates and employees is now big business. Proceeds from the Angola Prison Rodeo cover rodeo expenses and supplement the Louisiana State Penitentiary Inmate Welfare Fund which provides for inmate educational and recreational supplies. (source)

SCENE: Alabama Book Festival - Montgomery AL 4/18

On Saturday, April 18, more than fifty fiction and nonfiction writers, poets, artists, illustrators, playwrights, and children's writers will converge on the grounds of Old Alabama Town for the fourth annual Alabama Book Festival (ABF). The state-wide literary event will kick off readings and activities at 10 a.m. and go until 5 p.m. The event is free and open to all.

This year's festival will include readings and signings by Harper Lee Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg, Alabama's beloved Kathryn Tucker Windham, acclaimed photographer Beth Maynor Young, and chef Frank Stitt. A dedicated children's area will feature Magic Tree House author Mary Pope Osborne, among others.

Again this year, the Alabama Writers' Forum will sponsor the Poetry South/West Tent on the grounds of its Haigler House headquarters.

A special concluding event from 4 to 5 p.m. will feature the national debut of Warren St. John's new book, Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, An American Town.

April is National Poetry Month. Celebrate at events such as the Alabama Book Festival, the Montevallo Literary Festival, the Limestone Dust Poetry Festival, and the Alabama Writers Symposium.

SCENE: World Grits Festival 4/17 - 19

In late 1985, the store manager of the St. George S.C. Piggly Wiggly Supermarket, Bill Hunter, was giving a broker of a large Grits company an order for grits. The broker made a remark that his company sure shipped a lot of grits into St. George, considering how small the town was and its meager population (around 2,000 at the time). A week or two later another broker from another major grits company made a similar remark about the large quantity of grits shipped into this small town. The manager spoke with the two owners of the Piggly Wiggly, John Walters and George Axson. They all agreed that if it proved to be true that we did consume a disproportionately large amount of grits that they would do some research to find out just how much we did eat.

As it turned out, the people of St. George actually ate more grits per capita than any other place in the world! We were the GRITS EATING CHAMPIONS!!! Thus the World Grits Festival was born. John Walters, one the owners of that Piggly Wiggly, was designated as the Chairman of the first festival, which was held in April 1986, and served in that capacity until 1988. Since the very first festival, this weekend long celebration has drawn much attention to this small Southern town, considered to be a bedroom community of Charleston, SC. It has been estimated that the crowds during this three day event sometimes exceed 45,000!

The festival is not, however, all fun and games. From the very start it has been dedicated to communtity improvement. It provides the local folks a festival of wholesome, family fun and our students some needed scholarships while also attracting lots of vistors to enjoy the multitude of events that are designed to appeal to persons of all ages. (source)

The World Grits Festival runs from 4/17 - 19 in St. George, SC.

SCREEN: American Violet opens in NYC 4/17

Based on true events in the midst of the 2000 election, AMERICAN VIOLET tells the astonishing story of Dee Roberts (critically hailed newcomer Nicole Beharie), a 24 year-old African American single mother of four young girls living in a small Texas town who is barely making ends meet on a waitress’ salary and government subsidies.

On an early November morning while Dee works a shift at the local diner, the powerful local district attorney (Academy Award® nominee Michael O’Keefe) leads an extensive drug bust, sweeping her Arlington Springs housing project with military precision. Police drag Dee from work in handcuffs, dumping her in the squalor of the women’s county prison. Indicted based on the uncorroborated word of a single and dubious police informant facing his own drug charges, Dee soon discovers she has been charged as a drug dealer.

Even though Dee has no prior drug record and no drugs were found on her in the raid or any subsequent searches, she is offered a hellish choice: plead guilty and go home as a convicted felon or remain in prison and fight the charges thus, jeopardizing her custody and risking a long prison sentence.

Despite the urgings of her mother (Academy Award® nominee Alfre Woodard), and with her freedom and the custody of her children at stake, she chooses to fight the district attorney and the unyielding criminal justice system he represents. Joined in an unlikely alliance with an ACLU attorney (Tim Blake Nelson) and former local narcotics officer (Will Patton), Dee risks everything in a battle that forever changes her life and the Texas justice system. AMERICAN VIOLET also stars Emmy Award® winner Charles S. Dutton and Xzibit. (source)

BOOK: The Invisible Empire

NOTE: I debated whether or not to include this book but wow! seriously? Are these things still going on? Will the folks in this book seek forgiveness at the end of their lives like former Klansman Elwin Wilson? Anyway, here goes:

“We believe in our race—in the fellowship of our race and the preservation of our race. We are the only people today that are actually participating in the preservation of the white race around the world. If we don’t condemn the threats against our race, it will no longer exist…That’s basically why we feel the way we do. We also believe that no race will live up to it’s potential if it’s mixed with another race, it only dilutes as it does with any situation in the world”.
-Dale Fox, Imperial Wizard of the Brotherhood of the Klans

Established in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan still remains one of America’s most secretive organizations. New York photojournalist Anthony Karen first transcended that secrecy several years ago when he got the opportunity to photograph a KKK cross-lighting ceremony; since then, he has been documenting Klan organizations throughout the country. Those photographs are compiled to form an absorbing document of one of the most notorious groups in history in The Invisible Empire: Ku Klux Klan.

Taken with unrestricted access, Karen’s images bring us deep inside America’s most private white nationalist organizations. Beginning with a brief introduction into the history of the Klan, the book provides detailed visual accounts of modern-day Klan life, including candid shots of rallies, individual portraits of Klansmen and women, as well as a look at the naturalization process for new members. Presented in intimate profiles are a functioning Klan ministry, a group that has merged National Socialism with Klan ideologies, and a 58-year-old seamstress who makes custom Klan robes, among others. Accompanied by quotations from the late Dale Fox, Imperial Wizard of The Brotherhood of the Klans, The Invisible Empire offers an unprecedented glimpse into the shadowy society and its mysterious inner workings.

Anthony Karen is a photojournalist based in New York. His passion for photography began in Haiti, where he documented the various Vodou rituals and pilgrimages throughout the country before embarking on the Ku Klux Klan project. Karen served in the U.S. Marine Corps and worked for many years in the personal protection industry. He has traveled extensively worldwide and has worked with many humanitarian groups, including the Humane Society of the United States. He currently freelances for World Picture News.

The Invisible Empire is out on PowerHouse books today (4/15)

ART/SCENE: Walker Evans and the Picture Postcard

Image from Metropolitan Museum of Art website

Although Walker Evans was not from the South, a lot of the work that he is famous for was created there. His exhibit of Picture Postcards is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection and is on display thru May 25.

The Met is hosting a "Gallery Talk" about Walker Evans and the Picture Postcard today (4/14) and again on April 29.

April 14, 2009
11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
The Howard Gilman Gallery
Free with Museum admission

Museum curators, conservators, educators, independent scholars, and advanced students of art history regularly present Gallery Talks that focus on specific aspects of the collection, as well as on special exhibitions.

The exhibition displays hundreds of picture postcards drawn from the vast collection of the American photographer Walker Evans (1903–1975). This indigenous American realist art form directly influenced Evans's artistic development, as is demonstrated by a selection of his own photographs, printed in 1936 on postcard photographic paper.
Jeff L. Rosenheim, curator, Department of Photographs, MMA

STAGE: August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone

"It is August in Pittsburgh, 1911.... From the deep and the near South the sons and daughters of newly freed African slaves wander into the city. Isolated, cut off from memory.... They arrive carrying Bibles and guitars, their pockets lined with dust and fresh hope, marked men and women seeking to scrape from the narrow, crooked cobbles and the fiery blasts of the coke furnace a way of bludgeoning and shaping the malleable parts of themselves into a new identity as free men of definite and sincere worth."

Lincoln Center Theater's newest production is the first Broadway revival of August Wilson's JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE, by one of the country's most revered playwrights. Nominated for six Tony Awards in the 1988-89 season, JOE TURNER was named Best Play by the New York Drama Critics Circle.

August Wilson's JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE is set in a Pittsburgh boarding house in 1911. Owners Seth and Bertha Holly play host to a makeshift family of people who come to stay, some for days, some longer, during the Great Migration of the 1910s when descendants of former slaves moved in large numbers from the South toward the industrial cities of the North, seeking new jobs, new lives and new beginnings. (source)

August Wilson's JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE opens today (4/14) and runs thru June 13 at:
Belasco Theatre
111 West 44th Street (Between Broadway and 6th Avenue)
New York NY 10036

SCREEN: Goodbye Solo @ BAM BKLYN this weekend

Q&As @ BAM Rose Cinemas in Brooklyn
Friday, 4/10 - Cinematographer Michael Simmonds
Saturday, 4/11 - Actor Souléymane Sy Savané

On the lonely roads of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, two men forge an improbable friendship that will change both of their lives forever. Solo is a Senegalese cab driver working to provide a better life for his young family. William is a tough Southern good ol‘ boy with a lifetime of regrets. One man‘s American dream is just beginning, while the other‘s is quickly winding down. But despite their differences, both men soon realize they need each other more than either is willing to admit. Through this unlikely but unforgettable friendship, GOODBYE SOLO deftly explores the passing of a generation as well as the rapidly changing face of America.
(synopsis and map courtesy of film site)


View The GOODBYE SOLO guide to Winston-Salem in a larger map

Goodbye Solo is in theaters now.

SOUNDS: Bonnie Prince Billy Taking Manhattan in May

Re-post from Brooklyn Vegan!

a 2nd Bonnie Prince Billy show!

I'm not sure whether Bonnie Prince Billy's May 21st show at the Apollo Theater has completely sold out yet or not, but a 2nd NYC show has been added, much farther downtown, at Santos Party House. Tickets for the the May 20th show are on sale now (thx Keith!). Lightning Dust opens.

BPB's new album, Beware, was released by Drag City on March 17th.

BOOK: The Seasons Bear Us by Jeanie Thompson

From wandering the rivers and valleys of her upbringing, to veering off the beaten paths in Italy, for her fourth collection of poems, award-winning poet Jeanie Thompson carries the meditations of her heart across the span of a year. Returning to familiar subjects – love, motherhood, her elegiac Southern landscape, and the continuing search for a deeper connection “running with” her blood, Thompson’s poems bear lessons grounded in her favorite earth, rich with her most important people, and full of grace. Following the late James Wright’s counsel that writing is like the seasons, and “the seasons bear us,” Thompson refocuses her lens on the longings of the human heart. Masterfully crafted, poem after poem searches out the reader, each moment rich in its own season, bearing the good fruits of honesty and grace from a brilliant poet and a life well lived. -- River City Publishing