Scuffalong

Clear green water, tulip poplars, sepia photographs, Japan, creeks, metaphors, etymology, hand-lettered signs, holding things in my hands, old things, pocosins, passports, the sound of Portuguese, clean lines, muted colors, pomegranates, Mountain Dew in a can, Mount Olive-brand sour pickles, Havana, country roads, country wisdom, turns of phrase, hot sunshine, Sharpies and Uniballs, gods of the crossroads and protectors of travelers, small groupings of similar things, children on their birthdays, serendipity, ancestors, lists, Polaroid pictures, pedicures, back stories, Sapelo Island, soaking tubs, a hard massage, privet blooming at roadside, sliced ruby-red tomatoes sprinkled with salt, blackberries, wild cherries and hogplums, sensitive singer/songwriters, Orion and the Evening Star, Wikipedia, maps and atlases, nostalgia, New Orleans, slow winks, slow grins, scuppernongs, drawls, the long curve of an inner thigh, the warmth held in the hollow of a neck, a warm palm in the small of my back, the taste of salt on a collarbone, learning, grace.

May 16

Trailer from the 1920 silent film, Within Our Gates, directed by Oscar Micheaux. The film portrays the hardships blacks faced in Jim Crow America. The subject matter was so controversial at the time, that the film was severely edited. Most prints were destroyed, and the film was considered lost for 70 years until a lone print was discovered in a Spanish archive. Within Our Gates is believed to be the earliest surviving film directed by an African-American filmmaker. The full version of the film is available online.

May 9

NPR Fresh Air: Q: I wouldn’t want to be friends with Nora, would you? Her outlook is...

nprfreshair:

Q: I wouldn’t want to be friends with Nora, would you? Her outlook is almost unbearably grim.

A: For heaven’s sake, what kind of question is that? Would you want to be friends with Humbert Humbert? Would you want to be friends with Mickey Sabbath? Saleem Sinai? Hamlet? Krapp? Oedipus?…

May 3

brookehatfield:

“I am taking my 35mm camera into places around here no cameras have ever gone,” he wrote in one letter to Ansel Adams. “Into shanties, into tawdry, small-town cafes (not the Robert Frank kind, the south-Georgia, bible-belt kind), into kitchens and hallways of farm houses, and there, in the middle of things these people live with, I make their pictures.”

“He” being Paul Kwilecki of Bainbridge.

Apr 28

CHAKA KHAN

I’m a woman; I’m a backbone.

(via blackrockandrollmusic)

Apr 26

Good intentions gone bad. Atlanta, April 25.

Apr 18

“Probably stay out of their way. We’ve come a long way in the state of Georgia. We don’t need things like this being divisive. We think we have put most of those issues behind us. None of us condone things that would send the wrong message about where we are with regard to race relations. But by the same token, I think that people understand that some of these are just local issues and private issues, and not something that the state government needs to have its finger involved in.”

Nathan Deal on whether the state government should do something if another segregated-prom-in-twenty-fucking-THIRTEEN-type embarrassment comes to light in the future.

Yes, Governor Deal, the South has had a VERY STRONG HISTORY of folks just being able to work out all those local, “private” race relations issues on their own without some higher authority having to step in and say “HEY, WHITE PEOPLE, CUT THE SHIT.”

(via peachtreekeen)

Oh, Georgia.

Apr 10

justapinchofsouth:

Four things that make North Carolina particularly great.

Sweet, Spicy, Savory, Rich.

from bryanreganphotography:

From the incomparable Bryan Regan, a tribute to my home state’s foodways. (Though that is not, I can tell you, a barbecue sandwich from Parker’s.)

Apr 8

“My problem with the “it’s part of our history” argument is two-fold: (1) The history of Southern states extends much further back than the Confederacy, so I’m left wondering why that pivotal (and controversial) moment has become identified as the historical juncture that should define what “the South” is about. (2) The history of the Confederacy was extremely brief: it lasted less than five years. (By contrast, the Third Reich lasted more than twice as long, giving the Nazi flag a stronger claim to historical tradition.)” Miguel Centellas, a professor at the University of Mississippi’s Croft Institute for International Studies, explains the whole “why-that-Brad-Paisley-song-is-a-bad-idea” thing perfectly. Oh yeah, he has a great Tumblr worth a follow. (via shortformblog)

(via shortformblog)

Apr 2

Shine Parlor. Montgomery AL, Mar 31.

Member in good standing. Montgomery AL, Mar 31.

[What they mean they say “hair grease.” Confession: I love the smell of Ultra Sheen.]

Anne Pratt’s Hair Concepts. Montgomery AL, Mar 31.

Ben Moore Hotel. Montgomery AL, Mar 31.

Sunny South AL, Mar 31.

[Easter morning. I see only one church — Sunny South Baptist — but there surely are more, for Sunny South is otherwise inexplicably a-whiz with passing cars. I turn my phone this way and that; behind me, a rhythmic thwack. A grizzled man in a tan leisure suit is beating his floormats. His black dog pays me no mind.]

Snow Hill Institute, Mar 31.

[The institute is not in Snow Hill. It couldn’t be. Snow Hill is just an elbow of road off the highway. A sign points down a poorly paved two-lane. After a half mile or so, the woods on the right open up. The Institute. Two school buildings, four or five whitewashed cottages strewn up a hillside, a bell, and the loneliest basketball court in America.]

Apr 1

Icebox. Screen door. Between Gosport and Whatley AL, Mar 31.

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