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