17 December 2009

WPA – Part 2

During my internet searches earlier, I noticed there was a "wpamusic.com" site, so I clicked on it. What I thought was going to be old Lomax-esque recordings is a current band comprised of:

Glen Phillips (Toad the Wet Sprocket) – vocals, guitar, Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek, Fiction Family) – guitar, vocals, Luke Bulla (Jerry Douglas Band, Lyle Lovett) – fiddle, vocals, guitar

Executive Board Members:

Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek) – fiddle, vocals, Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) – piano, organ, Greg Leisz (Joni Mitchell, Bill Frisell) – pedal steel, Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello and the Imposters) – drums, Davey Faragher (Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Cracker) – bass

Audio Archivist:

Jim Scott (Wilco, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Rolling Stones)

Cool album cover art, eh? It is all based on old WPA posters. They are currently on tour – not in this area (figures!) but are worth checking out. I've listened to the album quite a bit and although it'd be great if there were more uptempo songs, overall it's a great listen and really enjoyable.

They have songs you can hear on the website. Read more about the band HERE.

WPA: Works Progress Administration

While doing my research for the Culinary Trail, mention of the Works Progress Administration or WPA has come up quite frequently. Eudora Welty (among other notable writers, artists and photographers) worked for the program in the 1930s, which is where she began photographing her now famous rural Mississippi scenes and people.


Recently while doing some Christmas shopping, I bought the book America Eats!: On the Road With the WPA by Pat Willard. The author revived the essays and photographs compiled that were to be published by the WPA and went on a personal journey in the process.


The book opens with a diatribe of how people always say America has no real culture (I have to admit I used to be one of them) being such a young country. Admittedly, we are a "mutt" of a country, so to speak, with the hundreds of ethnicities that make up our cultural landscape; but, ours is a strong cultural identity founded on pride in our individual ethnic heritages and embracing the new and ever-changing American life and landscape.

Works Progress Administration was FDR's 1939 New Deal initiative which gave millions of people work making buildings, bridges, theater, art and music. The WPA was rooted in the values of community and creativity, and helped to keep the fire of human dignity burning through the darkest years of the Great Imposters.

The funding eventually ran out and the program was shut down; but, what resulted was first-hand, in-depth accounts of America's culture and communities. Important research and works of art were conducted in the fields of visual art, literature and music. It's amazing to me that people thought this work was useless and irrelevant because it is a relative gold mine of American culture.


After doing a small scale search on the internet to see what all was out there and quite a few websites are there dedicated to WPA post office murals, like this one in Amory, Mississippi. There is a list of murals that can be found across throughout Mississippi, too.

I'm absolutely fascinated by this program, need to read more about it and wonder why something like this couldn't be established in present day to help promote and preserve our culture – and create jobs (I guess the government has enough debt already…but still, it would be valuable). Think of the amount of work and research that could be accomplished to continue to preserve our culture – especially in the digital age where so many people are disconnected from their home communities and more people, than ever before, cling to community values, family heritage and religion (or turn from organized religion). I'll write in more detail soon once I finish reading the book.

09 December 2009

Afterglow

The morning after the previous night's snowfall, it was still freezing cold outside; but the sun came out, melting almost everything by the noontime hour. We got up quickly to take a few pictures. (Poor little flowers so confused about what season it actually is)

Camellias in our side yard.

Not sure what these are but I love the bright fuchsia color.

My kitty, Greta, through the window. She was definitely warmer than I was!

Aww, sweet little roses.

05 December 2009

Our First Snow

QB and I had been inside playing Parcheesi when I wondered about the weather. After pulling back the curtains, I saw snow on the ground and he opened the door to discover it was really coming down.

Here was the view from our porch:
So, we bundled up and took a late-night walk around the neighborhood, hand in hand, under the heavily falling snow - a near miracle in these parts (not the hand holding, the snow)!

A view of our house from the street.
We walked past Miss Eudora's house on Pinehurst. I tried to take a picture of her house, but it was dark and my camera didn't cooperate. Maybe she just wanted to be left alone! So, here's a picture of the street sign.


We had our own small-scale snowball tussle, took some photos and enjoyed the moment. Below, a house on Poplar with their Christmas lights aglow.
We heard the Belhaven college students thoroughly enjoying themselves - yelling and laughing. We walked across the campus to find them sledding down the hills into the soccer bowl and having snowball fights. Photos of the campus:
QB wrote "I love U" in the snow.

We made our way here and there in the neighborhood, passing a house on Linden where several people were out on their porch, each wrapped in a blanket, talking and watching the snow. What a special and fun way to ring in our 1 week wedding anniversary!

Giving Thanks and a Memorable Wedding!

A week ago today, QB and I got married.
Our photographer, Erin Fults, about whom we cannot say too many fantastic things, created a slide show with some of the wedding images HERE.
(p.s. Erin's assistant Lindsey is fabulous in her own right.)

We were married at the Agricultural and Forestry Museum Chapel and our reception was at the Northpointe Red Barn in Jackson, Mississippi.
She also posted a little preview on her blog HERE, too.

QB and I couldn't have had a better wedding day. It was cold just like I prayed it would (because, I'll be honest, I didn't want it to be humid and to sweat - another reason why I'm glad we changed the date from May to November! Just several days before, it had warmed up and gotten a little humid...damn Jackson weather.) and our family and friends were around us to make the experience complete. It was great having everyone in town, hanging out, catching up, getting to know each other and giving everybody big hugs!

Everyone came to our house for Thanksgiving - we had a dizzying array of food and drink from turkey enchiladas, chicken and dressing, sweet potato pie, pecan
pie - suffice it to say, we still have way too much food in our fridge.

This week we keep having to pinch ourselves to make sure it really happened. Both of us have been so giddy and I'm truly thankful for my wonderful new husband.

Our first dance was a west coast swing routine
to the song "Soulful Strut" by Young-Holt Unlimited.


We got a lot of whoops and hollers for our frisky moves!

We're going to have an official honeymoon in 2010 - still deciding where exactly!

My dress is a Bari Jay bridesmaids dress that the seamstress at The Bridal Path, here in Jackson, helped tailor-make for me like I wanted. She put the tulle around the hemline for me, also made the lovely fabric flower sash out of the sash fabric and tulle, and fixed the sleeves for me. I can't tell you how helpful and resourceful they are! Both my pairs of shoes I found at Marshall's. Initially I wanted a pair from Nordstrom's but got both the teal and wine colored pairs for less, so my budget couldn't argue with that. (Truth be told, I'm glad I had the wine-colored pair to dance in - they are Sofft's and saved my soles! haha)

I got the mocha-colored bird cage veil and peacock-colored fabric flower/feathers in my hair from Etsy sellers, Tessa Kim and Miss Ruby Sue. (I added the tall feathers to the flower piece). Both of whom were easy to work with and extremely helpful. The bridesmaids all got handmade copper earrings from Purple Lily Designs and copper necklaces from Museglass.

Flowers were by Lesley Frascogna and Tulip Design Studios. She did an incredible job capturing the feel of the fall flowers along with the color scheme! Hats off to her.

Now that we are going through the registry and getting ready to buy a few more things, we have a Williams-Sonoma gift certificate on hand. After perusing the site for options, naturally, I was drawn to the food and look what piqued my Mississippi interest:
handmade tamales and Game Cocktail Tamales...!! Who knew?!

We are still on "cloud 9" and it will be a while before we float back down to earth!!
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