Moving Books

That's what they look like when you have to pack 'em up.

There are twelve copy paper boxes in front room full of these. About a month ago we sold our house...we're moving next Wednesday. I tried to put it off until Tuesday night but...Martha was having none of that. In fact I probably would have packed the boxes while the movers stood around waiting but, again, Martha. She's just got different ideas about these things.

All of these are in various stages of being read...which means none of them are actually being read.* 

It's been ten years since I stopped buying paperback books...if I can help it. I beat 'em up so bad that few of them would last through one reading. There must be two tons of books in this house.

In English, that's 4,000lbs...I looked it up. I have no idea how many kiliomillimetergrams that is but, it's a lot.

I know how badly you want to...but, NO you can't borrow it for your next holiday.

There's probably something in here for everybody.

Every time I think I don't have room in my life for literature two things come to mind...Portrait of a Young Man with Career. A brilliant description of the strongest of all human desires...that is to beat other people to death with a fire poker. The other is the Vicar from Handful of Dust...keeps recycling his sermons originally written for soldiers fighting in Afghanistan. Hahahahah. So, I stick with it.

Muj?

Don't you know I could flip through this for about five minutes...come up with somethin' cock-eyed

and ruin Adamparsons' whole weekend with nonsense?

Speaking of Adamparsons....

No...he's not an Anglican....he's a *&%$#@ archaeologist.

Dig this...

It's from a picture book of Aylesbury, England.

We'll end with a cherished favorite...

“Laid his trunk open from shoulder to hip—Like a beauty-queen’s sash.”

It might be the coolest thing ever written by a mortal...including the original. Read it. Love it.

Anyway, this is my life for the last 20 years and for the next six days. Books and boxes...books, cds, records, etc.

*Except for Mimi and Tou Tou...which I have read and love...and the one facing away, Danto's Unnatural Wonders. Another good one.

Signs and Wonders.

I'm leavin' Baton Rouge. I've been here for a couple of days doin' what I do...losing money on penny slots, eating pounds of sausage, talkin' tons of trash.



One of things I love about the kinda travelling I do...which usually involves crossing the tracks at some point and moving off the marketing grid...is the signs. There aren't too many things that I find more aesthetically pleasing than signs and labels.





Full bookshelves maybe..



Certainly...live oaks and azaleas...



Signs are hard to beat though...expressive and coded but deliberate...I love 'em.



An old favorite...



It's time to get on now...the sign we're lookin' for this afternoon is Jackson City Limits.

BOO! It's Books.

A lotta talk about the books on blogs this week.

I think there are a couple of reasons for this...one, people like to read. Two, a lot of people live in places where they're about to be shut in for the next couple of months.

I like readin' too I reckon. Mainly I like buying books but, what I really love is tormenting my friends and family.

This post isn't so much an effort to claim a tea cup at the book club, but to put Martha and Allan on the couch. Both of whom love books...and have a clinical obsession with order.*

Wackos.



That's me sittin' outside Beckham Books in the Quarter...burnin' one before I go in.

I needn't have bothered...they never have anything I want in there. Even for the book sniffers there's nothing...too many dirty cat boxes. I'd tell you to skip it but, if you're the kind of person that goes to these places...you're gonna go anyway.



Crescent City Books. We've been here before but the last picture wasn't nearly this crappy...and it didn't have a cat in it.

On this particular day I paid 25 bucks for a book on French Imperialism in Senegal. I found the same book for 10 dollars later that day but, that place didn't have a cat to feed.



Here's where the magic really happens...Arcadian Books. The place can't be much bigger than your dinning room....



...and this is the glorious result.

Relax you two...it's just a picture. You aren't actually there and the room isn't actually spinning.

Besides, this cat's got it under control.



Just ask 'im where something is. Besides, even though he's only got about a tenth of the space, it's still not as bad as Choctaw.

Speaking of books and Jackson...dig it.



This old place used to be a favorite of Mississippi legislators...evidently the state was practically run out of there at one time. According to Harry down at Choctaw...a blind drunk William Faulkner was often tucked into bed there by Eudora Welty.

The coolest thing about the Sun-n-Sands was the dance floor. Six by six parquet floor in front of a juke box. It would've been an effort to get two people on it at the same time...but worth it I'm sure.

Anyway....
________________________________________________________

Aside from books, there's also been a lot of talk of malaise...a lack of inspiration.

Look how easy it is y'all...just post some really bad photos and make a few asinine remarks. Failing that you could draw inspiration from your surroundings...which I'm assuming for some of y'all is gonna look a lot like this til April.



Night.

*I've got my fingers crossed that Adam also falls into this category. I think it's a safe bet.

The Week That Was...Maybe

I'm desperately tryin to get back to Jackson. Took me three hours to get from New Orleans to McComb, Mississippi...birthplace of Bo Diddley and Brittany Spears.

Road WORK!

I'm ready for the last 60 miles...I gotta cokecola, a bag a cold boiled peanuts, and two moon pies for the road. Just try and stop me.

Before I head out for the last leg...here's a quick runndown of the week. A list of events, one from each day, that were more interesting than the dissolution of REM.

Monday...it rained during my drive to Oxford.

Tuesday...I almost died when I inadvertently ate an under cooked piece of gator meat.

Wed...we had some work done on our roof. In the process a horde of misquotes descended on our yard like panties on the stage at a Tom Jones Concert.

Thurs...I heard OOPS I Did It Again on my way to Louisiana.

Fri...I got burned for ten bucks on a book at Crecent City in New Orleans...and then I ate two Moon Pies on the way home.

That's it...as far as I know.

Blue Father's Day

This mornin' The Boy brought me a present wrapped in the funny papers.



The book was put together by Roger Stolle owner of Cat Head Records in Clarkesdale. Cat Head and Fat Possum records have done a great job helping to ensure that Blues..real vibrant hard-country Blues...has it's own space to operate in.

Hava little taste of Como Mississippi...and Mr. R.L. Boyce.




The Boy doesn't yet know how lucky he was to have been born where he is...but he will. I'll make sure of that...just like my Daddy is the reason somebody would automatically think to give me a gift like this...it's all cause of his Blues and Soul records (or tapes).

He was here last week and and actually took a better picture of The Blue Front Cafe than one on the cover. His has patrons.

I hope The Boy feels lucky to have me as a Daddy one day...the same way I feel about his Grandaddy.

We'll leave it with Duwayne Burnside singin' his Late Great Daddy's song...

No Smoking at the Old Absinthe House

New Orleans.

I had a call in Chalmette yesterday and after it was over I went down into the The Quarter.



Just as stanky as ever. Bourbon St. runs through the middle of the quarter like an open sewer line. It produces this violently acrid cloud of stale beer, urine and vomit that grudgingly dissipates the closer you get to the river.



Of course, state law prohibits you smoking in The Old Absinthe House so you needn't worry about your health down there. Get blind drunk and pass out on the steps of one of those dank strip clubs ridiculously billed as a Cabaret...your plans of living forever will not be affected.



That's Bourbon St. though and despite it there are some lovely places in The Quarter.



You can even get books down there.



Crescent City Books.

Of all the bookstores around...Square Books, Lemuria, Choctaw (Allan's favorite...they use a peculiar shelving system there that really puts his mind at ease and allows him to linger so he can find the title he's huntin) are all great and all have their specialties. Crescent City caters to mine. That's the British History shelves (complete with the mandatory separate section for Winston Churchill). Africa, India and the rest are well represented too. I've got a book in my bag from there now...The Rise and Fall of the Asante Empire. On my shelves at home, among others, are a copy of The Pro-Boers, a review copy of The Seed is Mine, and a collection of Boer primary documents translated into English (you try to find it). I love that place.

I'll tell you what else I love.... muffalettas!



There's no better place to get 'em than Central Grocery.



You just can't beat the place...that's all.



I had a half...washed it down with a frigid root beer.

Then it was time to go.



I've got a few calls in Picayune, Mississippi...which means one thing.



Paul's Pastry.

I'm a little worn out with the road and can't wait to get home to the boy and Martha...but, I reckon there are worse places to be away from home.

Oxford, Mississippi

I was on the road again last week...



Oxford, Mississippi



One of the prettiest towns you'll ever come across.



It's not a trick...They named it after Oxford, England as part of a successful effort to have the University of Mississippi located in the town.





Ole Miss was founded there in 1848. Bones (not the actor :) ) from Star Trek is an alum, John Grisham, Charlie's Angle Kate Jackson...the school's produced three Miss America's...



and of course William Faulkner was a student there.



The school also produced The University Greys*, Company A of the 11th Mississippi Infantry...only 4 students showed up for class in 1861 after secession.



The other 135, along with much of the faculty, enlisted. They suffered 100% casualties during the war...that's everybody either killed or wounded. Got farther than anybody during Pickets Charge...and paid dearly for it. Gen Barksdale was killed on the second day of the battle leading his men from the front. One dumbfounded yankee was overheard saying "we don't have officers like that." Damn right they didn't...they were past-masters in burning and raping things...and slaughtering Indians though.

Ole Miss is a fine academic institution but, more importantly it's the home of The Ole Miss Rebels**...founding members of the SEC. It's been about 60 years since they were dominant force on the field....but, off the field, in The Grove, they're still champs.


"Don't win many football games but, they've never lost a party." ***

Lots of music around Oxford. It's the home of Fat Possum Records...R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough territory. The Silver Jews and Modest Mouse have recorded records there...Johnny Marr used to have a house there.

Books...Books and more Books...



Square Books is annually rated as one of the best privately owned bookstores in the country (along with Lemuria in Jackson...we are book lovers)...it's even too big for one store...



It's just a pretty place.

Grenada (that's Gre-nay-duh in Mississippi) is not really that pretty of a place but, I like it all the same. Had business in Kosciusko...so I stayed there Wed. night.

I ate my supper here...



Looks great...sorriest BBQ I ever had south of the Ohio River...pulled pork straight from a bucket. I've had better pork in a school cafeteria...place should be shutdown by the cops.

Should've eaten here...



or maybe here...



Anywhere but High on the Hog.

Anyway fortunately I made it home in time to see this...



Next week...Baton Rouge.


*That's GrEys...we spelled words correctly down here until after the war. Evidently a part of being reconstructed was learning a peculiar New England way of spelling English words.

**Let's not go there for now.

*** Sorry Jenny Q, Sister...I'll make it up to you after my next trip to Starkville.