The site is really cool, and the prison recordings are especially intense.
Just follow links to sound or video recordings. Some of the video from the Delta in the 70s is pretty sweet. I think Sam Chatmon might be my favorite. He claims to be the brother of Charlie Patton.
For the most part, music videos don't really excite me anymore. I just don't have the patience to scour the internet for them, or to sit on youtube and watch a grainy video in a tiny window. Or, maybe I still long for the heyday of MTV when Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Dr. Dre videos would cycle through all day - occasionally interrupted by some hip, affected veejay surrounded by a gaggle of sexy bikini-clad coeds in Panama City Beach. Shit I wanted to be there. Instead, I was in Mississippi, 13 years old, laying on the couch eating Pop-Ice, thinking that the MTV beach house must be what college is going to be like. It wasn't. Some music videos still grab my attention from time to time. Like maybe a Bob Dylan video featuring Scarlett Johansson...
It seems that some bands are beginning to acknowledge this boredom with music videos. Since MTV now sucks ass, bands are going to need to be a bit more creative with their videos. And with all them internets, the possibilities are pretty great.
Cold War Kids "I've Seen Enough" The interface allows you to pick and choose which of the four band members plays what instrument, changing the song altogether. http://www.coldwarkids.com/iveseenenough/
Arcade Fire "Neon Bible" Win Butler's face and hands doing weird stuff (which you control, of course). http://www.beonlineb.com/
MGMT "Electric Feel" You have to download the video, but its pretty wild. Numerous clips of trippy homemade looking videos which you can mix and match and alter the effects. http://www.whoismgmt.com/efvideo/
"Too much of anything is bad, but too much of a good whiskey is barely enough" --Mark Twain
The South is full of ridiculous liquor laws. No sales on Sunday. Beer sold only at room temperature. No sales after 10 PM. Or, no sales at all. Which is the case in Moore County, TN -- better known as the location of Jack Daniel's Distillery, where they produce somewhere around 35,000 gallons of whiskey per day. "Could I order a cold beer, Sir?" ILLEGAL. "Can I manufacture enough whiskey to inebriate the entire world?" Knock yourself out! Just so long as we protect the good Christian folks around here from buying it. Or just sell it in the next county over. Whichever.
This is the place where liquor and Jesus reach critical mass.
But, at any rate, they have been making some damn fine whiskey for over 100 years. Tennessee whiskey. Not bourbon, dammit. The two are very similar, save for a few key elements. TN whiskey is aged in plain maple barrels. Bourbon is aged in charred oak barrels. After aging, TN whiskey is filtered through charcoal. Bourbon isn't (it doesn't need it).
We toured the distillery recently. It's a pretty impressive spread, especially all of the barrel houses where they age the whiskey. And while you can't drink, you can get a bit of a head rush from the vapors seeping out of the few thousand or so whiskey-filled wooden barrels that surround you. It's kind of intense. Mostly just makes you fancy a drink. It is worth checking out. The tour guides are a hoot, and the tour is free.
When you go into town for lunch, just make sure you order a Jack and Coke.
"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato"
-Lewis Grizzard
Its also difficult to describe how far superior fresh summer tomatoes taste than the miserable fruit that passes for tomatoes at the supermarket year round. We have been enjoying these sexy little beauties for about a month now, and I will be sad when they are gone. But let's not think about that. Now is time for celebration. And feasting. I would recommend to anyone with a patch of dirt to do yourself a favor and grow your own. It's fairly painless, and it's legal. If you don't have space, or are just too damn lazy, then seek out your green-thumbed acquaintances and mooch. You will be glad that you did.
I’m still not exactly sure what this blog is going to turn into, or if it will amount to anything at all. This may well be my final post. Though, I should try to stick with it a bit longer than that if for no other reason than to not feel like a jackass for discussing the future of a blog that will never be written to an audience that will never exist.
Anywho, so far the only concept I have for the blog is to write about stuff I like. I don’t think anyone has really thought of that yet. Examples of things I currently like (in no particular order): vegetable gardens, Ray Bans, my dog, The Band, beer, bikes, Paul Newman, grits, old guitars, porch swings, fainting goats, that really creepy tranny at the local Kroger who still dresses like a construction worker despite the lady hormones.
Americana seems to be pretty popular these days, so I’ll probably just wax nostalgic a lot. Maybe work in a few pictures, some music. I’m hoping that creating a platform will prompt inspiration. Until then I will write about the aforementioned interests. And try to remember my camera. Or not. We’ll see.
"To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi." -William Faulkner
