But we did make it to Stax, – otherwise known as Soulsville, USA. What used to be a recording studio and the label’s HQ is now the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. Great museum, really great music, and a pretty dead neighborhood. Hand-painted hairdresser signs, BBQ joints that look condemned until you notice wisps of smoke rising from the back. Stax is working on the area though. Next to the museum is a partner music school that helps out local kids and throws occasional concerts. Get there if you can, if only to peep Isaac Hayes’ gold plated Cadillac. It gives a whole new meaning to big pimpin’. Continue reading →
I’ve wanted to visit the Smoky Mountains ever since I saw an interview with Dolly Parton on TV a couple of years ago. She was talking about her upbringing near the mountains and mentioned how they are the most beautiful place on earth, and I couldn’t help but take her word for it.
And Dolly was right. These mountains, named for the early morning haze that settles between their spiked peaks, are stunningly beautiful. They’re covered with giant rhododendron bushes (which were not yet in bloom) that put their measly northeastern kin to shame, and you can’t walk 100 yards without running into a rushing spring-fed creek full of picturesque boulders and sparkling water fairies that hand out lollipops to passersby. Continue reading →
This was perhaps the most amazing lunch I’ve ever encountered. It was at a restaurant called “The Old Lighthouse”, located (near no body of water) somewhere alongside of the road leaving Charleston on the way to Tennessee. The meal consisted of fried catfish (“delta-style”), deep-fried hush puppies and freshly-fried potato chips. Each of these items was quite delicious individually, but put together the three created a vortex of grease that no human should ever be forced to eat (at least without a side salad or fruit plate). No one should be surprised that this menu item was actually part of a promotion sponsored by the restaurant’s cooking oil supplier.
Christopher had the “breakfast on a bun” sandwich, by the way.
For the past couple of years I’ve been working in the environmental sector, giving me the opportunity to learn about all sorts of environmental atrocities that are happening throughout the US and the world. One of the issues that has stood out among all of the messes of our time is Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining, a kind of “mining” which really doesn’t involve mines – or miners – at all.
When we think about coal mines, we generally imagine a deep hole in the ground that miners go into to dig coal out. With mountaintop removal, there is no hole. Instead, the earth itself is removed so that coal is exposed and can simply be picked up and trucked away. It is an engineering feat of massive proportions that is known to cause proportionately massive damage to the environment and the communities that live around it.
My long-standing fascination with this practice is the reason why Christopher and I found ourselves in Southern West Virginia. Let’s call it “environmental degradation tourism”. Before heading out there we called around and found some community activists that agreed to talk to us and get on camera (outside of a Hillary Clinton rally where they were protesting). They also gave us directions to Kayford Mountain, a location about thirty minutes outside of the state capital that provides a great vantage point for viewing mountaintop removal. Continue reading →
Guh. Before this whole thing started we packed up an apartment and put everything in storage. Gwen and I are hoarders. We like to tell ourselves that we only save nice things or handily reusable items but as we packed I got this sneaking suspicion that mostly we save crap. So we were leaving it behind and taking off with a pared down, sleeker version of our lives. Right.
Living out of a car allows for a lot more potentially useless items than a suitcase or backpack. At every new spot we settle down and start spraying stuff all over the place. We mark our territory. The back seat of the car is pretty spectacular. I’ll post a photo when I remember to take one. We don’t really need them for sitting anyway. It’s all a little embarrassing but at this point I’m not sure what to do about it. Maybe we can stop at some yard sales in Mississippi and trade in our junk for some southern junk. New crap. Yes! That’d make me happy.
This is the sign that greets you upon entering West Virginia. Open for business? At least we should be able to get some coffee and a slice of pie before the next state border.
This was a very tasty pulled pork sandwich from the Gold Dome BBQ in Charleston, WV. Their specialty is topping it with homemade slaw – I love cole slaw and have never actually put it directly on the sandwich before, so this was an interesting treat. And the beer was only $5 for a big pitcher (it was happy hour – normally the pitcher goes for a pricey $7).
West Virginia politics confuse me. For most of the twentieth century the Mountain State had a strong legacy as a blue state. Even now its current governor, both its senators, and two of three house reps are all democrats. So people outside the state were a little surprised when Dubya eked out a victory there in 2000, and then repeated the feat in 2004. Apparently when your state economy rests on coal then your identity rests on contradictions. Strong unions and big energy anyone? Yikes.
All of this is by way of introduction because I didn’t know diddly about West Virginia politics until we happened to be there as the democratic primary police kicked in the state’s door. In the course of 48 hours Gwen and I went to one Hillary and two Obama events (because the first one was sold out). To be honest, seeing them in person is no more revealing than seeing them on TV. But worthy of note: Hillary is skilled at picking out individuals in a room full of screaming people and forging a personal rapport, while Obama appears even younger in person and is a damn good looker. Continue reading →
Recession Road Trip 