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Serendipitous Art
If you mat it, they will come. That could be the theme for the Serendipity Art Show and Silent Auction at the Mississippi State Hospital on Sept. 2. It's the best place to fulfill your dream of adorning your living or work space with unique, creative and original artwork at a price you can afford. Serendipity is that special event that serves more than one purpose, a fine example of another melodious s-word—symbiosis—in which a mutually beneficial relationship develops between the artists and the buyers.
Elli Williams
In front of Rainbow Whole Foods Co-Op grocery store, Elli Williams, 25, sits cross-legged on a concrete block. A small herb garden breathes behind her. She wears a simple blue and white tie-dyed shirt and jeans. Her long blonde dreadlocks crawl and twist down her back. A small silver hooped earring hangs on her bottom lip. Her originality is refreshing.
Gavin Guynes
A Tablet PC with WIFI—that's 28-year-old Gavin Guynes' current favorite piece of the technology pie. Excitement spilled over as he explained: "There's no keyboard. You use a pen to draw and write on it. And it recognizes my handwriting—I write horribly, too." It'll even recognize his voice, minus the Mississippi drawl.
Weight and Insurance
Almost every single Tuesday morning since July of last year, I've sat with a group of equally weight-challenged individuals at the Baptist Nutrition Center, talking mostly about how to make the food we're supposed to eat taste better. We also talk about our small triumphs—even one pound lost is cause for celebration—and our backsliding—the holidays were tough for many. We are each other's accountability in the program, even more so than the scales, and our personal cheerleading squad.
New Blue
Alt-country pioneers Blue Mountain have been through it all in the nearly two decades since they formed in Oxford, Miss.: changes in lineup, underwhelming management, tough salad days, success and dissolution of both a marriage and the band. But while many thought the seminal band's days were done, 2007 was a lucky year for Americana fans when the band officially reunited in a series of shows that led to a new album, "Midnight in Mississippi," released in August 2008.
Bad Moon Rises ... Again
Stu Cook and Doug Clifford were born just hours apart in Oakland, Calif., on April 25, 1945. By 1959, Cook and Clifford, along with brothers John and Tom Fogerty, then known as the "Blue Velvets," were playing sock hops and county fairs.
Women Done Wrong
You get 10 women together, and nine of them will have a story to tell about how a man has done them wrong. Give the tenth one a little time, and she'll have a story, too, says Anita Singleton-Prather over a dinner of bacon cheeseburgers, red beans and rice and crawfish etouffee at Que Sera Sera on N. State Street. Singleton-Prather—a large boisterous black woman who will tell you she loves her food—was in town Jan. 28 in all her glory showcasing her film, "My Man Done Me Wrong," which screened at Millsaps College as part of the Southern Film Circuit. It is a story of Singleton-Prather and six other black women recounting tales of cheating men—and of how those men got their due.
The Frame Is Crooked
"If I could just make it to daybreak/Maybe I could find my way by the light of the sun
Byram Town Center Gets $5.5M TIF Boost
Construction workers have begun a commercial development that will bring new restaurants, shops and offices to the young city of Byram. The Hinds County Board of Supervisors voted today to approve a $5.5 million tax-increment financing, or TIF, plan for the Byram Town Center development.
Small Town, Big Mystery
Critics have hailed Tom Franklin's latest novel, "Crooked Letter Crooked Letter" (William Morrow, 2010, $24), as his best and most accessible work to date.
Moran Pledges Smart Development
Connie Moran was six weeks into her first public-office position as the mayor of Ocean Springs when her world turned upside down. Hurricane Katrina nearly destroyed her coastal town, displacing residents and razing homes. Leading residents through the disaster and using it as an opportunity to reinvent her town are just a few of the experiences Moran, a Democrat, likes to talk about when she lists her qualifications to hold the office of state treasurer.
Reinventing Charles Frazier
Any discussion of Charles Frazier or his books is inevitably prefaced with a comment such as "You know—the guy who wrote ‘Cold Mountain.'" And while the novel has certainly garnered much acclaim, "Cold Mountain" has also doomed Frazier's future work to a lifetime of disappointed comparisons, sounding something like, "Well, it wasn't as good as ‘Cold Mountain.'"
McCain Attacks Open His and Palin's Closets to Scrutiny
The McCain-Palin campaign opened the floodgates when they told the media this weekend that they were about to start launching personal attacks against Barack Obama in order to "change the subject" away from the economy. In response to their (and especially Palin's) "terrorist" jabs (because Obama knows William Ayers, formerly of the Weathermen, when Obama was 8), media from national to local newspapers in Nevada are opening the doors of McCain and Palin's closets, revealing plenty. A sampling since yesterday:
[Ladd] God Bless the Little Man
When Wal-Mart first came to my hometown while I was in high school, I was ecstatic. It opened on a side of town where there wasn't a whole lot, and soon other businesses popped up around it. Back then, of course, it wasn't one of those Supercenter monsters; it was the smaller, more manageable kind.
[In Memory] Florence Mars, 1923-2006
I didn't know Florence Mars growing up in Neshoba County. She was from a different part of town—the side that had old money. I don't have memories of her walking around town in her floppy hat like Sen. Gloria Williamson describes, or driving her little bug around town as former Neshoba Democrat editor Stanley Dearman does. I don't remember seeing her at the Neshoba County Fair. I certainly had no reason to visit the stockyard that she owned, the one that white folks boycotted for awhile.
Life on the Mississippi
Eve Beglarian is a modern-day, female version of Huckleberry Finn, but instead of exploring the mighty Mississippi River on a raft, she did it by kayak and bicycle.
Snakes Infest Jackson Cul-de-sac
Two Jacksonians have a dangerous problem most city residents rarely come across: snakes. Monday, they went to the City Hall to ask for help with the slithering pests.
It Takes the Village Elders
A sense of place is a deeply understood concept in the South. The Piney Woods School, a private boarding school for black boys and girls, 21 miles south of Jackson on Highway 49, epitomizes place for its students and those who work there to make sure the education provided is pertinent, academically and practically.
Kaze and McLemore on WAPT
JFP columnist, rapper, Crisler supporter and all 'round man about town Brad Franklin (aka Kamikaze) gave his opinion about the Democratic runoff side by side with acting Mayor, JSU prof, Johnson endorser and former City Council President Dr. Leslie McLemore on WLBT. We heart them both. Click here to see the videos. (There are two, both about four minutes long.)