Deep Fried Kudzu

The Green Warehouse And Rural Studio, Newbern

2009-07-03T00:32:00.001-05:00

The other day when we were in the Black Belt, we went to Newbern and saw some other Rural Studio projects, like the fire department / town hall - this was the first new public building in the town in 110 years:

Just a small-small distance from there, on the other side of the street is this:

Okay, are you thinking like me? Like...ohmygosh that is William Christenberry's famous green warehouse? It is!

So of course I got pics of the baby with it. You know me. Some people have pics of their kids with Donald Duck at Disney World and I have mine in front of The Green Warehouse.

Okay! So this is the area behind Rural Studio Chantilly House - the 1830s/'40s Chantilly House used to be in Greensboro but was moved here to Newbern to avoid demolition - the amphitheatre and Subrosa Pantheon. There's a bottle tree there, too:

The wood shop:

Tin. Rusted.

This is the Patrick House designed/built by the RS:

The 1887 Spencer House has been renovated and added on to by the RS and is where faculty lives (Jessie - we stopped here for a minute and talked with Don, who of course remembered you and we, of course, talked about how wonderful you are):

This is the back of the house, above. If you sit on the front porch, you can just look out at the green warehouse all day.

Behind the Spencer House is this guest pod:

Inside - license plates lining the exterior entrance wall:

The RS also did some work on ball fields:

...and just a little outside of town is this stand for an organic farm:

Butch Anthony did all that great metalwork with the signs, etc on the outside.

Ah, this isn't even everything around Newbern...

Independence Day Wreath

2009-07-02T00:56:00.000-05:00

This year for Independence Day, I came up with the idea of using bandannas in red, white, and blue to make a wreath. It was really fast and easy, and Shug had the best time playing with the extra bandannas. Peek-a-boo!

Materials:

The outer ring of a wire wreath form (I think mine was about 21" or so across)

bandannas - 5 each of red, white, and blue for this one

Directions:

Cut each bandanna into four equal squares, then make two opposite sides of each square meet to make a triangle, then roll the triangle into a tube, then tie it onto the wreath form:

You could make each color alternate, but here it's done four of each color:

I like the way this turned out!

Hummingbird Cake

2009-07-01T00:25:00.000-05:00

Last year, Shug's birthday cake was the Baked Alaska at Antoine's in New Orleans. This year - since we stayed in town - rather than getting something from a bakery, I wanted to make him a cake myself. And since my baby likes bananas and pineapple, what better than a Hummingbird Cake?

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

2-1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3 large eggs, beaten

3/4 cups vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

8oz can crushed pineapple, with juice

1 c. pecans, chopped roughly plus another cup or so for outside of cake

2 bananas, chopped

Cream Cheese Icing:

2 packages (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

2 sticks butter (1 cup), softened

2 lbs. confectioner's sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350*. Butter and flour three 8" cake pans. Place a circle of parchment paper in the bottom of each to make certain the cake won't stick.

Put the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in the Kitchenaid and mix together.

Add the eggs one at a time until each is incorporated, then the oil. Next, add the pineapple with juice, bananas, vanilla, and pecans. Be careful not to overmix! If the batter seems a little 'loose', add a bit more flour until you get a good batter consistency.

Pour the cake batter into the cake pans and bake at 350* until set, about 25-35 minutes.

When the cakes are cool, make the icing. Just beat together the cream cheese, butter, confectioner's sugar, and vanilla in the Kitchenaid:

Spread the icing between each layer of the cake and all along the top and sides. Sprinkle with pecans all over:

Shug loved it - okay, we all loved it. Yum!

In The Window

2009-06-29T07:16:00.002-05:00

In downtown Greensboro, there is a shop called 'Alabama Home Respiratory' - and these two vignettes make up their window display:

Yeah. Av knows a couple of people who used to be on the radio in B'ham. Back when the Seniors tour had their local golf tournament at Greystone, they would take their mannequin called "Zelda" and dress her up. They would put her on a lounge chair in the yard - which was right next to the golf course - and unless you actually got close, you'd have thought it was just a woman sitting out there watching the golf tournament.

Reminds me of Dottie in Starkville.

---

Bergdorf Goodman's 5th Avenue and 58th Street in NYC is - from just last week through July 20 - using pieces from the American Visionary Art Museum in their windows.

Part of the Batimore Sun article reads:

There will be a window filled with wooden critters sculpted by Clyde Jones (including a pink horse and a turquoise dog), another filled with Devon Smith's robot family (including a robot dog). There will be a display of the jaw-droppingly intricate line drawings of Ted Gordon, whose faces are drawn without pen ever leaving paper, and a window devoted to the "Aliens vs. Angels" chess set crafted by Lyle Estill.

"I think this exhibit will be a delight that is very tasty in the palate of New Yorkers," says Rebecca Hoffberger, AVAM's founder and director, who will be in New York for the display's opening on Friday. While acknowledging that New Yorkers are "a tough bunch to impress," Hoffberger has no doubt they'll like what they see staring back at them from the Bergdorf Goodman windows.

I looked on Flickr to see if anyone had put pictures up yet of the new displays and found this one.

Missionary Mary Proctor

2009-06-26T00:30:00.000-05:00

Wednesday's Tallahassee Democrat ran a story about Missionary Mary Proctor having her home and studio vulnerable to being lost due to a $5000 debt to her landlord.

These are some of her pieces that I've taken pics of from different art festivals:

A portion of the article reads:
“I haven’t been able to go to shows, because people just aren’t supporting as much as they used to,” Proctor said.

Proctor said she’s made about $8,000 to $10,000 a year within the last year, but she remembers a time when she averaged almost twice as much.

---

“I’m a minister through art, and tell me how many ministers aren’t needed,” Proctor said. “I’m a visionary because I use my paintings to show people how to live and have inner peace in these times of chaos. I’m in trouble now and I need help from the community.”

Proctor will have an art sale Saturday at her studio located at 3919 Woodville Highway, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

---

They say that you can reach her at her also at missionarymary ---AT--- comcast ...dot... net

Her official website is here, and although it's very most likely best to purchase directly from her at this time, she's also represented (and you can see more pics of her work) here, here, here, and here.

American Artisan Festival

2009-06-25T00:32:00.001-05:00

This past weekend, we went to the American Artisan Festival in Nashville. This was the first time we had ever been, and some of the artists there were completely new to us - like these pieces by Linda and Rick Bachman from Aurora, Colorado:

This one above is called "High Noon" and his eyes shift from left to right as well as the target at his tummy.

"Grandfather" clock:

"Mark Twang":

This *gorgeous* pottery is by Amelia Stamps:

If she exhibits at this festival again next year, I'll have to get at least a couple of pieces.

These are all bottle/wine stoppers made from vintage doorknobs, pool balls, faucet handles (and more) by Knobstoppers:

This vintage flatware chandelier was made by their 'sister' company, Cake Vintage Table & Home:

When I saw that chandelier, I was thinking "wait - I've seen something vaguely similar in my Wisteria catalog...".

If you go to the Cake website, take a look at the really pretty linens. I have some burlap that I've been planning to print with a chandelier stencil that I have, and what they do is hand-screened with kitchen designs. I've also been planning to make a banner with my burlap and use some really ornate lettering - I'll probably post that project next week.

Oh! And if you click on 'limited edition vintage', guess what they're selling? Vintage French sacks (remember talking about how expensive those are?).

Next is Holden McCurry's art. This is one of the prayer towers I have of his - I got it because it reminded me of First Presbyterian in Port Gibson with the hand at the top of the steeple:

Inside each of the towers is a little slip of paper, which is meant for the owner to write his/her prayer or wishes:

Here's the church:

The hand in more detail:

...and after I bought the prayer tower from Holden a couple of years ago, we found a church in Alabama that also has a hand at the top of a steeple - the 1839 Mooresville Brick Church:

Closer view:

So anyway - Holden had a great selection with him at the festival:

They're just fantastic. I'd love to have 20 of them and put them everywhere.

One of his new projects is making these 'journey boats':

He has a selection of them here.

We took pictures with the boys at Dale Rogers' metal sculptures (his work is *amazing* - there are pieces at his website that he didn't bring and are just crazy-good). Love the giant dog with the bone cutout:

Right now, Dale is doing 'The Big Dog Show' which is the largest solo sculpture exhibition in New England.

Loved this festival and can't wait to talk with some of my artistic friends about showing next year!

---

The next huge-huge art festival we're thinking about going to is in July at the Southern Highland Craft Guild 62nd Annual Craft Fair in Asheville. The list of exhibitors is here.

...then there's the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market (we won't make that, maybe next year...), Folk Fest in August, Atlanta Arts Festival and Monte Sano Art Show in September, Bluff Park and Kentuck in October...

National Sacred Harp Convention

2009-06-23T06:07:00.000-05:00

Late last week, the National Sacred Harp Convention was at a church just south of B'ham, so I took the boys to the singing (if you're not familiar with the name, but saw the movie Cold Mountain and remember the music from it - that's sacred harp).

Beautiful! I took a small-small movie, too:

At last year's convention:

This was from the first Sacred Harp singing I'd ever been to - a couple of years ago in Montgomery at the Archives building. *Oh* it was the most beautiful singing I'd ever heard...and since I uploaded it to YouTube, it's had over 10k hits:

There's also an excellent documentary about Shape Note called Awake, My Soul.

Pie Lab

2009-06-22T07:58:00.002-05:00

One of the main things we wanted to see in Greensboro was Pie Lab - there were signs downtown for it:

Here it is! Could it be any...cuter?

...and what's really genius is the sign, which can be reconfigured to spell out different words:

See how it's done, with bolts and washers and...um...what's that other thing called...oh I don't know all my hardware-y words. You probably know what those other things are, though. Wing nuts maybe?:

There was a nice article that came out about Pie Lab just late last week, after we were there - part of it reads:

PieLab, the newest eatery to open in Greensboro, Alabama, would be a familiar space to creatives who frequent their local cafes. It's a place you can order a slice of Chocolate Bourbon Pecan pie, maybe some lemonade or coffee, read a book, sketch a picture, review the day's headlines with your neighbors. Except PieLab is not really a cafe, it's a space created by fourteen designers as part of the design-for-good movement Project M, hoping to draw the community in to a neutral space for conversation and connections. And of course, because of one very obvious reason: Who doesn't like pie?

---
Bielenberg was inspired in part by architect Samuel Mockbee's Rural Studio, a program where architecture students built homes and public buildings for impoverished residents in rural Alabama. Bielenberg's connection to the cause was so strong that after visiting Mockbee's home base in Hale County, he decided to locate Project M there on a more permanent basis as M Lab, building upon its gravitational pull that attracts designers and architects who want to do good.

---
The entire article is here. Gorgeous interior pics are here.

Greensboro, Alabama

2009-06-20T07:11:00.001-05:00

Coming into Greensboro, we found the Hale County Animal Shelter that the Rural Studio designed/built:

In town, Mustang Oil is an...well, an institution. When the NY Times came to town, they even mentioned it as one of their "places to eat" in their "On the Path of Walker Evans" piece from April.

They wrote: Mustang Oil (2205 West Main Street, Greensboro; 334-624-9301) offers a local menu. Fried catfish with two sides, including fried okra or baked beans, is $8.99. Grilled catfish is $12.99. Diners can fill up their gas tank after dinner at one of the two pumps.

---

Someone had a dinosaur in their front yard:

This is my favorite building downtown:

...so of course I had to get a pic of Shug walking in front:

In 2005 I took this pic of the building when it was this blue color:

Rural Studio's HERO Knowledge Cafe:

Downtown:

Ah, like this old Allstate lettering:

2 Bruthas Music Shop:

This is the Dorothy Wilson home, built/designed by the Rural Studio in 1996:

I'm going to have to look up this house:

Next: Pie Lab!

On The Way To Greensboro

2009-06-19T10:29:00.001-05:00

These are just a few pics on the way to Greensboro:

Rather than put up scarecrows, the people that had this garden hung up clothes on hangers:

I think this was on County Road 38, I think near Sawyerville. The sign at the top reads "Apostolic Faith Church of Jesus Christ Temple". It was just very simple and beautiful and had kudzu growing all around it.

Reimagined Feed Sack

2009-06-18T00:42:00.000-05:00

I can't remember which, but one of my so-super-expensive-I-only-buy-when-it's-on-clearance catalogs had a few pillows made from antique French feed sacks. Gosh they were *so* pretty.

Except...although the French words and designs looked really nice and different and lovely (there are several sacks on eBay if you want to make pillows yourself), I decided I'd really rather get something with some connection to home. Sure enough, on etsy, Catnap Cottage had a vintage Alabama Feed Mills feed sack pillow. Perfect!

Love it - Cindy made it so quickly and shipped it out really fast. Some of the pillows she does are with vintage textiles and others are with reproduction fabrics.

---

Wisteria has table runners made from antique French feed sacks at $399. Okay, maybe it was my Wisteria catalog...

Open The Grill, Holy Smoke, NE Or Just N, And Rebel Cheese

2009-06-17T13:56:00.006-05:00

Just in time for Father's Day, we got the new Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book.

...which we will be cooking from for the next couple of weeks, probably!

It's Av's favorite ribs place, with of course a great sign:

They've won all kinds of awards, including Memphis in May 1st Place Pork for years in a row. I've never been to MiM, but I have been a couple of times to its (unaffiliated) kosher cousin - the ASBEE/Kroger Kosher Barbecue Contest and Festival, also in Memphis. Here are some pics from one year we went:

Yeah! Also, I'm not sure if they still do this, but Corky's, whose owners are Jewish, once or twice made a bunch of kosher barbecue, ribs, chicken, etc. and shipped it all over for a Memphis school fundraiser. I don't know if they de-treyfed everything temporarily or made it all in a different kitchen or what.

Well, back to Big Bob's...a couple of places have reprinted recipes from the cookbook, including dry ribs, loaf pan chicken and (gasp! my fave!) white chicken sauce. Yes, yes, yes.

---

The Huntsville Times has been doing a 'best of' feature and last month they had a poll for "Best Barbecue in Northeast Alabama".

I'm not sure *why* they made it NE AL and not just all of north Alabama...H'ville isn't exactly in the middle, but...if you ask most people what a city in NE AL is they would probably come up with Scottsboro or Ft. Payne more times than H'ville. Anyway.

Okay, so they had the poll for best bbq and Big Bob's only got 8% of the vote (which, to bring up the directional thing again, Decatur is north-central and not NE so maybe that had something to do with it). Still. Eight percent!

The winner was Big Cove BBQ in Owens Cross Roads and second place was New Market BBQ. Definitely need to try both of those now.

---

Garden & Gun has a photo gallery that includes Big Bob Gibson's at last weekend's NYC Big Apple Barbecue Block Party. Picture #12 shows Jim 'n Nicks (also from AL) serving a plate with smoked sausages and some really good-looking pimento cheese. Yum. Oh, and at the festival they even had seminars, including:

A native of New Orleans, Chef John Currence of Oxford, Mississippi’s City Grocery Restaurant Group designs his menus around classic Creole French and Deep South technique with a backbone of local and seasonal ingredients. So it’s no surprise to learn that when it comes to tamales, John doesn’t limit himself to beef and corn husks. Watch as he demonstrates his recipes for dressed up Mississippi Delta Tamales – contemporary versions of the region’s signature preparation – including one featuring that old Southern favorite, Pimento Cheese.
The next time we're in Oxford, we've got to go to his new restaurant, Big Bad Breakfast which has already been recognized by Esquire and Bon Apetit. And at the bottom of BBB's website, the fresh-squeezed juice is mentioned along with where they source different ingredients, including this:
We use Mississippi State cheese whenever we can...only because there is no Rebel Cheese, which would surely be more tasteful and refined.

Love it.

Greensboro Homes

2009-06-16T21:35:00.002-05:00

Greensboro has *the* prettiest houses. Some of them need a little help, but still:

The Gayle-Tunstall House (built by Gov. Gayle, his daughter married CSA Gen. Josiah Gorgas and was the mother of Crawford Gorgas who was US Surgeon General):

---
Tomorrow: Rural Studio in Greensboro

Akron, Alabama

2009-06-15T07:13:00.000-05:00

The other day, we went to Greensboro and stopped in a few other places in the Black Belt. On the way through Moundville where all the great Indian mounds are, this abandoned church with the great entranceway was a few miles out of town:

In Akron was this church on 7th Street:

Detail:

Auburn's Rural Studio has done a few projects in Akron, like the Seniors' Center:

The Akron Boys & Girls Club I (if you look *really* close you can see an old Coca-Cola ghost sign in the brick):

...and the Akron Boys & Girls Club II, which has a half-size basketball court under the lamella:

---
...and one of the churches that Rural Studio did in Perry County - Antioch Baptist - was listed as one of the "six Protestant churches that strive to match form with faith" last month in Christianity Today magazine.

---

(more Rural Studio visits tomorrow!)

Pineapple Pecan Bread

2009-06-12T00:56:00.000-05:00

Last week I made *the* best nut bread.

Here's the thing...really, it's only called "bread" because it's baked in a loaf pan: it's almost cake because it's so sweet and delicious. Ooooh it's so good...

Ingredients:

1 stick butter

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1-1/2 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking soda

8 oz. pineapple preserves (but you can use other preserves: apricot, strawberry...whatever you like)

1/4 cup sour cream

1 cup pecans, roughly chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350*.

In the Kitchenaid, cream together the butter and sugar until light. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly:

Mix in the preserves, sour cream and pecans. NOTE: if the pecans are nice big pieces, you can run the risk of them sinking to the bottom of the batter and all winding up at the bottom of each slice of bread rather than studding the bread all over. Personally, I kind-of like the pecans winding up at the bottom because it's a nice crunchy part of each slice. If you don't, take a small bowl and add a tablespoon of flour to all the pecan pieces. Make sure all the pecan pieces get coated, then add them to the batter. Flouring the pecan pieces helps them stay suspended in the batter while the bread cooks.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda - then add it to the Kitchenaid bowl so that everything is together. Mix until well incorporated but don't overmix.

Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and fill with the batter (you could flour and butter the pan rather than using the paper, but I like being able to lift it all out without having to worry about any sticking):

Cook at 350* for 45 minutes - 1 hour, until nice and golden brown. Pretty:

Soooo good!:

Hand-Lettered Signs

2009-06-11T11:00:00.004-05:00

This is part two of the Vernacular Typography post from earlier this week...these places are also all over B'ham:

Love the 'meat deal' ribbon over the top:

The best ribs in the whole city:

This sign isn't hand-lettered - it's stenciled:

"We beg you with tears in our eyes to please leave us alone"

You can't even see the house because the fence is so high. What happened? Have they been robbed or bullied or...? Oh, that makes want to just march right over there, open that gate, and give whoever that is a great-big hug.

Selling fish:

Favorite graffiti in the city:

There's a whole neighborhood of these kind of houses by one of the interstates. This one has Bible verses:

We went to have lunch here one day last year but it was the day they were closed (and someone on Chowhound lately said that they've closed for good).

This place is my second favorite meat & 3 in the city - Eagle's:

Like I could even say that and not show a picture! The *best* chicken & dressing. Ever.:

Hungry now.

Email

2009-06-10T07:21:00.001-05:00

I'm behind on emails. Really behind. I'll be catching up today and tomorrow!

The Alabama

2009-06-09T06:52:00.000-05:00

After touring the Lyric across the street, we went over to the Alabama. We've been inside for shows, etc several-several times, but the baby had never seen it, so...

Every summer, they have a movie series, and there are a couple I'd love to go see - Gone With the Wind (wknd of July 18) and Sunset Boulevard (August 9). The calendar of everything is here.

There's a 360* tour of the whole theater/theatre here.

-------------------------

I just saw that the Alabama Shakespeare Festival is going to let "Bear Country" (the play about Coach Bryant) be performed at the Virginia Samford Theatre in B'ham from August 6-20. Part of the press release read:

The Montgomery productions, mostly sold out, were so popular they attracted tailgaters, former Crimson Tide team members and theatergoers dressed in their game-day crimson.
---

To add a little nostalgia, the Birmingham performances are being sponsored by Coca-Cola and Golden Flake, which also sponsored Bryant's popular Sunday afternoon television shows. The shows, which featured Bryant drinking Coke and eating Golden Flake potato chips while narrating replays of the previous day's game, are recreated in the play.

---
As he did in Montgomery, veteran ASF actor Rodney Clark will play the adult Bryant. The play takes place on what is supposed to be a retiring Bryant's last day in his Tuscaloosa office. The coach reflects on his life, including how he got his nickname by wrestling a carnival bear. When he retired in 1982, Bryant had won more games than any major college coach in America.

---
"The show turned into one of the most fun plays I've done in my life," Clark said. "On opening night we had 20 of his former players in the audience and they just loved it."

Clark said the atmosphere during the play's run in Montgomery often resembled a football Saturday outside a stadium, rather than a theater that in recent years has staged high tragedies like "Othello" and "Macbeth."

"We had people tailgating. For a theater to have people tailgating, that's a dream," Clark said.

After Birmingham, Vigilant said ASF hopes to take the play to Tuscaloosa and other locations around Alabama. He said ASF has been getting calls from theaters around the state that want to host the production.

"At ASF, one of our missions is to tell Southern stories. We want to bring this story to more people because we were pleased with the response," Vigilant said.

Tickets might be a nice Father's Day present! Hmmm...

The Lyric Theatre, Birmingham AL

2009-06-08T00:06:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, there was an open house at the Lyric and the Alabama Theatre in B'ham. The Lyric has been in poor condition for decades, and was recently listed as one of the 2009 'Places in Peril' just like Hobson City which we visited recently.

The press release reads in part:

When it was constructed in 1914, the Lyric Theatre was the largest theatre in Birmingham. The biggest names in Vaudeville performed here, including Buster Keaton, Sophie Tucker, Will Rodgers, Mae West and the Marx brothers. The building displayed classical elements on the exterior, and wowed its audience with an amazing interior, replete with hand-painted murals and decorations.

---

A step inside the theater reveals an ornate space including a white Alabama marble lobby and monumental staircase, and a large proscenium mural, “Allegory of the Muses,” painted by Harry Hayden Hawkins, a Birmingham designer who studied under the famous artist, John Singer Sargent. Plaster mythological figures also adorn the boxed seats and are seen in various forms throughout the theatre. The original painted stage curtain also remains intact with the word “Asbestos” (to presumably assure the audience that the curtain was “fireproof”) inscribed across the center.

Someone on Flickr has done a really great blended panorama shot of the inside of the theatre here. And there's a nice article on the Lyric here.

Vernacular Typography

2009-06-07T19:39:00.005-05:00

One of the groups on Flickr is called 'The Center for Vernacular Typography' - here are a few I've taken from all around B'ham:

A used car "diller":

Some of these are soooo good...beautiful lettering, or just different...

This I like because where else can you find these at the top of a huge gas station sign?

Hay you!

Cucumber Salad And Wild Rice Salad

2009-06-04T00:53:00.000-05:00

One of the great things about Summer is making all the cold salads.

Cucumber salad is easy - all you do is take a cucumber, slice it into medium-thickness slices, and arrange those on a paper towel-lined plate:

...then you cover the cucumbers with another layer or paper towels, put a dish on top, and weight it down with something. All this goes into the refrigerator for several hours or overnight to draw out the extra moisture:

The cucumber gets chopped up (I just have to say that when the cucumber comes out of the refrigerator, the paper towels that have been soaking up the extra water have the most wonderful fresh cucumber smell!):

Into the bowl goes a tablespoon of room-temperature cream cheese, a tbsp of sour cream, and a tbsp of mayonnaise.

Chop up some dill, add it, and it's the perfect filling for tea sandwiches or a summery dip for little crackers!

---
This is wild rice salad and it's nice and a little different. And just like things should be in the Summer, super-easy and fast. It's just a box of wild rice, cooked:

...with a 6oz. jar of drained artichoke hearts (broken up a bit, too), two scallions cut up (green and white part), and a cup of roughly-chopped pecans:

It's actually good just like that, but if you add a small dollop of mayonnaise, that makes it:

Signs Following

2009-06-03T00:19:00.001-05:00

I've been wanting for *so long* to do a post about my friend Scott Stevens, who grew up in Alabama and has his own art environment in Austin. I figured the easiest way to talk about it would be to do it like a q&a, so...

(me:) Why the name "Smut Putt"?

(Scott:) In the 80's I did comix for punker zines and as little "8 page bibles". My main character was named Mr. Fix. Mr. Fix, when not causing mayhem and cracking non sequiturs, played miniature golf at a place called "Smut Putt". Many years later my friend Jasun Huerta brought that up and said that everything I did was "Smut Putt". I had a solo art show in April 1997 called "Smut Putt Heaven 1997". Originally my place was called "Horseradish Dunes Proving Ground, Mannequin Farm, and Smut Putt Course". I consider Smut Putt to be surrealism with a hillbilly twist.

(me:) Did you just wake up one morning and decide to become a 'yardist', or were you tinkering with making one assemblage in the back yard for your own personal fun and it just grew & grew?

(Scott:) 14 years ago on Labor Day weekend Sunday I put 6 plants in a sunny corner of my backyard. Every year I would go to a cactus nursery and buy cuttings. There was no plan and there still isn't one. I add something and then I'm inspired to build something else. So it grows... I had maybe 10-16 baby doll heads on sticks in the yard when i had a friend over to hang out one night. Veronika was from Munich Germany and did the wildest expressionistic art I'd seen. She was really freaked by the dolls and said so. I thought "if 10 or 15 heads get such a reaction..what about 50 or 100?"

(me:) What was your inspiration for adding the "...Holiness Church of Wonders and Signs Following" - is that the significance of the snakes hanging in the yard? Were you already familiar with the 'Church of G-d With Signs Following' in Section, Alabama, where part of the service
included snake handling (and was the location centered around a Dennis Covington book)?

(Scott:) Yes the bottle cap snakes are definitely the reason for the "Holiness Church Of Wonders and Signs Following." I had the name before I read the book"Salvation on Sand Mountain". Big Chief recommended the book to me after hearing the name of the yard. One of my friend's moms (in Somerville, Alabama) grew up in the Holiness tradition. There is a Holiness Church in Valhermosa Springs between Cotaco and Lacey's Springs. I saw the sign out on the highway last December.

(me:) Where did all those mannequin heads come from, and does it ever spook you out at night?

(Scott:) The first two mannequin heads came from the Cathedral of Junk when Vince was disassembling it in early 2000. I came home to find them on my front porch. The next day when I went to work there was a cardboard box on my desk with a mannequin head in it! A coworker had seen it on the side of the road and picked it up for me. Most of the heads come from a local beauty college. The only time I was spooked by the heads was when I caught them talking about me in the 3rd person.

(me:) Do people call before coming over to see SPH generally, or do they just help themselves to a tour?

Most people call or send an email before they come over. The gate is locked. People can look over the fence and get a taste but will miss a lot. When people go to the Museum of Ephemerata or the Cathedral of Junk they will usually be recommended to see my place too. For a town of 750,000 Austin is still a small town, everybody knows each other, and there is a lot of word of mouth.

(me:) What's the best part about having an art environment right in your own yard?

(Scott:) How can you beat having your own artpark to do with as you please? There's wildlife...all kinds of insects, anoles, snakes (actual reptiles), skinks, are there and possums pass through at night. I have giant goldenrod spiders from time to time too. They're beautiful.

(me:) Is there a worst part?

The worst part is people showing up unexpectedly on broiling hot summer afternoons when I'm cranky and more in the mood to stay inside. People who want to second guess the why and wherefore of the place bother me. If you don't have a taste for the unusual and personal artistic expression why come by in the first place?

(me:) You've talked before about attending exuberant revivals growing up here in Alabama. Can you explain the connection you made between Marjoe Gortner and Alice Cooper? Did that have anything to do with you becoming ordained to perform weddings?

(Scott:) Revival time was a very, very important part of my upbringing. Church in general was very important. I went to a very small congregation Methodist church in Somerville. But I loved rock music, especially Alice Cooper. He was the first rock concert I ever attended. For me attending an Alice Cooper concert is like going to a very, very good revival meeting. The last one I attended, last year in Houston, I was taken by the Spirit and was shaking uncontrollably.

Steven Gaines wrote both the book "Marjoe" and the book "Me, Alice". That's the connection in my mind. Plus Alice was a very serious Bible student as a child as he accompanied his father when his father was undergoing the training for pastorhood. From his very first album "Pretties for You" in 1969 his music has religious themes. He does Bible studies on his tour bus these days.

In 2005 my best friend was electocuted in a swimming pool. In hindsight I realize the eulogy I wrote for him was a sermon. Two other friends of Dixon who were present at the memorial planned to marry. After his passing they asked me to perform their ceremony, saying that I had the presence of a minister. I was honored to be asked to do this and became ordained online in the Universal Life Church. I've performed 3 marriages in all, the last one being of the curators of the Museum of Ephemerata on the 3rd of April. The first couple have a yard full of blue bottles...a hundred or more.

I have a namesake from each side of the family. On my father's side Orange Scott Wight was a circuit rider for the Methodist Church and started the church in Cherokee Iowa. Many times in my 20s my mother told me I was missing my calling by not being in the ministry. Honestly, I enjoy being a minister and helping people more than I enjoy preaching. But I have done the latter too.

(me:) Who are your other favorite yardists?

Vince Hannemann of the Cathedral of Junk here in Austin. Dr. Robert Mace of the blue bottles. The Flower Man Cleveland Turner in Houston. Those are people that I've met. I love Ave Maria Grotto. I went there in 1968 with my church youth group. It was the first environment I'd seen. It was made by Brother Zoettl right? I'd love to go to Salvation Mountain and meet Leonard Knight. He seems to be really spiritually in tune and a really nice person. I wish I could have met Howard Finster. There are a lot of places I've only seen in books but would love to see firsthand.

(me:) Anything else you'd like to add?

(Scott:) I've noticed that whenever I give strong thought to wanting or needing something for my yard it manifests itself in my life shortly thereafter. This has happened time and time again. I suggest that everyone get the most they can out of every day, treat others the way they'd want to be treated, and be the best person they can every day.

(There's a fantastic panorama pic of SPH here too!)

Hobson City, Alabama

2009-06-01T16:09:00.004-05:00

Every year, the Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation come out with their list of 'places in peril'. This year, the town of Hobson City is on the list (the whole PDF press release is here).

Hobson City is knon as 'Alabama's First Black City', established in August of 1899. When we drove into town, they had this banner up:

I looked up the census data on Hobson City. In the 2000 Census, the Black residents made up 92.9% of the population and Whites were 6.8%. I grew up in Cullman, where the census bureau has the 2007 proportions as 96.8% White and 1% Black. For the whole county! So Cullman is "Whiter" than Alabama's Oldest Black City is "Black". Doesn't that seem strange!?

Oh, and I looked up Mound Bayou, Mississippi since I remembered that it was founded by former slaves, and it was their dream to make it the "largest U.S. Negro town" - that town is 98.4% Black according to the census, so it's more homogenous than either of the two places in Alabama. That's the highest percentage in the nation, unless (I went to Wikipedia and someone has even entered a list of cities with a majority Black population) you count McMullen, Alabama and Birdsong, Arkansas, both of which have less than 100 population but are 100% Black.

And there's a really nice article from Time Magazine in 1937 about Mound Bayou.

Anyway, back to Hobson City! While we were there, at the school they were having a conference on "Celebrating and Preserving the Legacy of Historic Hobson City through Tourism and Economic Development".

The AP ran an article about the town last week, and part of it reads:

With nearly one-third of its residents living below the poverty level, the town has only three businesses other than in-home operations: A small print shop, a barber shop and a convenience store.

Industries in nearby towns shut down in the 1980s, costing more jobs. The elementary school was moved from the center of town to the outskirts a few years ago, leaving a shell of a building where kids used to run and play.

City offices are now housed in the old school. The 1970s-era municipal complex stands abandoned. Unable to pay for maintenance, the city left it to the weeds and weather in 2006.

The city still has a police car and a fire truck, but it can't afford officers or firefighters. County deputies handle police calls, and neighboring cities help with fires.

Being tabbed a "Place in Peril" doesn't include any special funding, but McCrory hopes it will increase public awareness of the town's plight.

She dreams of a campaign to raise $1 million in donations, which could lead to federal and state matching grants.

I'm pretty sure the municipal complex they mention is the building in the pic above. Really, the town looks nice - the main street through town, MLK, was lined with American flags. And while some of the commercial buildings and houses were in poor condition, there were also plenty of them that were well-kept and well-maintained:

Just like almost any other town.

This house had bunches of daylillies blooming and a little courtyard to the side with a gazebo and some palm trees:

Hopefully being listed on the 'places in peril' list will get more people interested in investing in bringing the town back.

There's another nice article about it here.

7 Months And 23 Months

2009-05-31T11:38:00.000-05:00

Shug is 23 months old now!

...and the baby is 7 months:

So lucky to have these two cuties!

Buttermilk Ice Cream

2009-05-28T20:42:00.004-05:00

Tonight starts the holiday of Shavuot which celebrates G-d giving us the Torah; of Moses bringing the Ten Commandments. It's this really beautiful holiday, and one of the customs is to...of all things...eat dairy. I know! But really.

Usually I make a cheesecake, but this year, I made buttermilk ice cream - and it's *so* delicious (even if you don't like the taste of buttermilk). All it takes is: 1 quart of buttermilk, 1 pint heavy cream, 1 cup sugar, and 1 tsp salt.

Mixed all the ingredients together in the Kitchenaid:

Poured it into the ice cream maker, and over about thirty minutes' time, it goes through different consistencies:

Until you get the perfect creamy texture:

I didn't realize until I was making this that I don't have any Tupperware - nothing to store the ice cream in - so (embarrased!) what you see above is a Cool Whip container that I emptied out last minute for the ice cream. I actually had to use two containers, so now there's also a gallon Ziploc bag in the freezer with two 'wheels' of Cool Whip.

To serve, I put a couple tablespoons of butter with a couple tablespoons of brown sugar in a pan, brought it up to temperature to make a caramel sauce, added a sliced banana:

Put a little buttermilk ice cream in a tea cup:

Poured the topping over:

Ooooh that was good!