October 25, 2009

Hi Everyone,
After almost two months, I'm back to the BLOG, that word alone reminds me of THE BLOB, a movie I saw when I was much too young to understand that some glob from outer space couldn't really eat you alive and get bigger and bigger only to devour everyone in the world.

Here are just a few random photos from my last week. The first is taken from the open sides of the Trolley Car going down Canal Street in New Orleans. This whole bunch of young women were out for a big party. We were in New Orleans last weekend with the Ogden Museum of Southern Art - Party at a private home on Friday (good food, wine and in this case, art and architecture), Gala and Fund Raiser on Saturday. It was like the best of the old Southside Days-Dunlap, Virginia Mann (Sally's daughter), Maude Schyler Clay, Myrna Colley-Lee, my good friend David Rae Morris, and of course all the great staff of the Ogden, Richard Grueber, David Houston and so many more.

The second picture was in a park on our walk home from Lafitte's Blacksmith House, a place that used to be the coolest piano bar in the city, but now is a drunken watering hole for people who could care less that the piano player is trying to maintain the dignity of what the place used to be. Only when I requested Bye Bye Blackbird did the crowd react and join in singing! But just 20 feet away in the front of the bar, there was some horrible canned music that tried to draw people in from the streets I guess. We only stayed there about ten minutes, made our way out to Bourbon Street and walked back to our hotel in the gallery district (Julia Street).

Rest is in San Diego and last night he went to what might be "the best concert (he) ever saw". Ralph Stanley played his heart out at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts.
Forever a fan of Bluegrass music, Rest was still full of excitement when I talked to him this morning--just as much about the opening group, Cherryholmes http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=5156852&m=5156908 as Stanley and his Clinch Mountain Boys.

Here is a photo of David Rae and me in front of Ajax on Wednesday. He invited me to lunch with Curtis Wilkie and Ron Shapiro. I met two of Ron's oldest friends who are temporarily living here, too. We had a great time. David and I are talking about our photo project on Clarksdale, something we did together nearly 25 years ago. I shot color and he shot black and white. We met on Fourth St. and walked all over the independent Black community from the Sunflower River to the railroad tracks on the east end of 4th St. We used up rolls and rolls of film, capturing the spirit of what is now lost or at least drastically changed. We hope to do a show somewhere with those images next year. In the meantime, David is about to turn 50 and is running the New York Marathon on his actual birthday, November 1 (I think). I'll be pulling for him. Curtis has just finished his book about the Scruggs case, but I don't know the details about publication.

I was delighted with this morning's edition of The Oxford Enterprise. It was great to see the good work Ron is doing as a volunteer, along with Steve Allen of Gift of Love Ministry. They are helping people who are temporarily homeless, for example a man recently released from prison with no job. There is a completely furnished home which serves as a place of compassion in Water Valley, but Ronzo asks (paraphrased) "If Water Valley can pull it off, why can't we (Oxford)?" Good question. You can check all the news out on the web http://www.theoxfordenterprise.com/index.html

And I was happy to see my own guest column concerning recycling here in the Ole Miss/Oxford community. I had written it a couple of weeks ago, but heard from Sandra Knispel early last week that it would run today. It's cool to see your writing in print, but the message is vital. If we as Mississippians, especially here in Oxford, could set an example of how to become a sustainable society, what kind of positive message would that send to the rest of the country? We are pretty smart here, or so we like to believe, so why are we ignoring the major issue of our time?

Finally, thanks to Denise and Angie for staying on me about my blog! Hopefully, it will be more daily than bi-monthly from now on.

Love to all, and please recycle everything you can.
Milly

Traveling I've done and MIAL

Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Awards, 2009 Pictured here are Marshall and Jason Bouldin...

Last weekend Rest and I went to Laurel for the Institute of Mississippi Arts and Letters Banquet at The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art. We go every year to this event and I consider it a time for getting to know my old friends a little better. I'm not sure this year's event would win the award for food, though. Usually the food is incredible, but this year it was awful. I guess we were spoiled by the event in Natchez a few years ago and a couple of great meals in Jackson.

Luckily, we didn't go for food. We visited with Bill Dunlap, David Lambert and Vidal Blankenstein, Jesse Pinkston and Sally Scott.

I invited H.C. Porter to sit at our table and she and her mother Harriet joined us. Chris (Porter) won in the painting category. I also was there in support and happiness for Jane Rule Burdine. She is the recipient this year in photography.

The Lifetime Achievement Award went to the wonderful and amazing portrait artist, Marshall Bouldin. Jason Bouldin and his wife Alicia and his mother were there too, along with the lady who lives with and cares for his parents. It was an emotional time for the family, I could tell. He gave a wonderful talk about his work and career. That is an amazing family.

H.C. Porter, right, Jane Rule Burdine, left.

Here (right) is a cool picture of our friends Jess and Sally.

Sally Scott is from Gunnison, Jess from Greenwood, but they have a condo here in Oxford now and we had a great dinner with them a few weeks ago at the Blind Pig. Clarissa Romano joined us for a while. She was waiting for Jane Rule, but we all had a great time. Clarissa is my fabulous Yoga teacher. Finally, once again, Rest...

Good way to end today's blog. Hope you all have a wonderful day and evening. Tomorrow look for pictures from the beach at Dauphin Island along with some new art photos!

Love,

Milly

B.B. King and more...

June 15, 2009

Holy Moly,


I wrote a whole evening's worth of blog, and when I thought I was sending it to the big blog spot in the sky, it disappeared into a black hole. I wrote all about BB King and the museum, my trip with Rest to Indianola. I'm going to just add the photos now, identify the folks, then write more in the morning.


Here is the first photo. Taken last Thursday, week ago, on my way to Rosdedale. I was stuck in road construction and decided to document the fields. You can see the truck behind me in the rearview mirror. Also, I guess you know this by now, but there is no more cotton in the Delta.

Soy beans, milo, corn...yuk! who wouldn't have some nice cotton blouses more than soy???



Here is a picture of the front of the B.B. Museum. It's worth the trip to Indianola to see it.






Below is a picture of B.B. talking to a woman from Arkansas (I think) who told him it was her birthday. He not only signed whatever it was she had to sign, he kissed her hand. She was about as happy as a woman could be. He is sitting on his new "Throne".

My friend Steve Cheseborough was there from Portland, Oregon.

Some of you may remember Steve from his days here at Ole Miss as a Southern Studies major. One of his major projects was his book, Blues Traveling. The museum gives his book away to new members, so he was there that day signing the books. It was fun to hang out with him. Here he is on the phone with Eden Brent, the fabulous pianist from Greenville.

Finally, the cutest man in the world is here below (not Bobby Rush), my husband Rest with Bobby. All in all, it was a fun and memorable day. After that we went to Carrollton, MS to the Carollton Market. There we saw the Rebel Flag flying over the courthouse (I believe that there and the Jefferson Davis home on the coast are the only PUBLIC places it flies anymore).

I am blessed with a very full and fun life. I've met hundreds of talented and kind people. I've danced with lots of them and photographed even more of them. One day, maybe this year, I hope to get a book done of my work, maybe of the musicians, maybe of the artists, maybe of just the great "ordinary" people I know.

Love to all,

Milly

off to the delta...

thanks to all you who have followed my blog. Since i wrote you last, my uncle Monk died. I'm off to Rosedale now for the visitation tonight and the funeral tomorrow. I spent a lot of time writing something to read at the funeral. I have some good pix from last week at the BB King museum. will post some of those when i get back.
more later,
milly

Good morning.




I'm in a hurry to get to Rosedale for what may be the last visit with my Uncle Monk. He is the only brother
of my deceased father and since my father died when I was 2, I'm pretty close to Uncle Monk. And he loves me like a daughter.

I had time yesterday to get a few pictures of the garden as promised. My tomato plants have a few blossoms and here is a photo of my clothesline and a few wild flowers, too. I hope you all have a good day and enjoy your family and maybe even plant a pepper or tomato plant.

Milly's Photos, etc.

June 4th, 2009

Hi everyone.

Here is a picture I took of Kellie Owens and Stevi Woolworth at Gum Tree in Tupelo a few weeks ago. Rest and I went over there to hear the music of all the great Oxford bands. Kellie and Stevie won the songwriters competition that day.

Below is a picture of Tim Burkhead (right), everybody's favorite drummer, and Cary Hudson of Blue Mountain just before he and Laurie played.

I have heard from several of you about my photo blog, and Chico included it in his group email this morning.

My good friend from Tulsa, Alex Forsythe, joined as a follower. Alex is a chef in Tulsa most of the time, but currently is cooking for a group of researchers in the Gulf of Mexico as they measure the effects of climate change on life at different levels of the seas. He and his staff cook for about 30 scientists from all over the world while they do their important work.

One thing I noticed on one of his sites is that if all the world's ANNUAL supply of plastic bags were tied together, they would circle the earth 760 times! Is that O.K. for you? It's not for me.

I'm already trying to remember every time I go to Kroger to bring my big reusable shopping bag, but I'm not the best at that yet. But after reading that fact this morning, I will definitely make the effort. I have already put two bags in my car so that they are there even if I make an impulsive stop at the grocery.

Alex also has another project for school kids. Solar cooking. I'm going to have to get more details, but that's pretty cool, right?

O.K. I'm going to share a few more pictures. I'm looking in the backyard now. My clothesline is empty, but as soon as the clothes are done in the washer, they will go out on the line. I'll have to check my okra in the garden and see if the slugs are finally staying away.

Tomorrow, I'll try to have some pix from the back yard, but for now here are a couple of pix of the dedication of the Fred McDowell Blues Marker in Como last month. Dick Waterman here with Bonnie Raitt and the hot guitar in the purple lined case sitting on the street.

Hope you all have a great day and remember to conserve water. Turn it off while you are actually brushing your teeth, share a flush and imagine how the world will be for our grandchildren and great granchildren if we use it all up now.

Milly

Hey everyone,

For years my daughter has encouraged me to start blogging. Now I am. I have a lot of art (some from Cuba, some from the South) I'd like to share and maybe sell. Secondly, I have a lot of images/photos of my own I'd like to get out there. For example, here is a photo of some random people that happened to be at Marimekko Gallery the day my Cuba Art Show came down last month. Chico Harris was there selling his book, Alice Walker and Scott Baretta were there, Tom Moon, the owner of Marimekko, Joe York (film guy) and Chad Henson. There are two other people, but I don't know them. Sweet Angie who works every weekday at Marimekko was not there for the photo, but getting to know her was one of the pleasures of showing my work/collection there.

I have been taking photos for as long as I can remember. Even before I had a good camera, I used my mother's old Brownie. She took pictures too. Even on some fishing trips we took together, she had her little camera. Here is a picture from a couple of weeks ago of me (on the left) with my friend Susannah Furr. We were at an anniversary party for our friends Don and Linda Alexander.



I have had some success as a photographer and once as a gallery owner had a place to show my work all the time, but now I don't. So, I'm going to start sharing the images I love with anyone who wants to look.

The next night (after the anniversary party), my husband Rest and I went to Music in the Hall upstairs in Steve McDavid's office space on the square. My friend Daniel (who is just listed in my phone as Daniel Music) arranges a show every month or so, and for ten dollars you get an up close and personal look at some amazing established as well as up and coming musicians. Rocket 88 was about to play. As you can tell by the clapboard here, the show is getting filmed. DVD's are available for each show. Jeff Callaway and Shannon McNally were there. Both fabulous. Especially nice to hear Shannon pour herself into songs the way she did.

Aside from photography, I also am inclined to writing, so this (blog) is perfect for me.

We'll see. This is day one and I'm just figuring it all out. I'll forward this to some friends and look forward to your comments.

There are lots of photos to see and lots to write about. Oh. We have a new mayor! Pat Patterson won here in Oxford and I'm glad. One time when I was helping The Jones Sisters with a fund raiser, maybe it was even their CD release party at Southside, we went to pick up the T-shirts at University Sporting Goods (Pat's business) and I asked Pat for his rock bottom price. I'm not sure, but I think he gave them to us--a nice and very generous gesture.

My hope for this city is that we practice and lead the state in good environmental practices. From planting trees, to recycling, to building clotheslines. We have to start thinking differently about our lifestyles and what we truly value.

Finally, here is a picture I took the night of Music in the Hall. The rain came in suddenly and the Square was beautiful.

Take care,
Milly