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‘Grunge was an Adjective'
"Grunge" is a term that reminds some folks of youth and the first tastes of music considered "alternative." Maybe flannel comes to mind, that infamous Mudhoney EP cover or the first time you ever saw Chris Cornell. It takes me back to being a kid watching Kurt Cobain sing "Heart-Shaped Box" on MTV.
[Jones] Time to Think, and Hire, Local
Calls coming last week from Oxford, my hometown, suggested that the mood of local residents was shifting toward disgruntlement as they waited to hear if John McCain would show up for the presidential debate.
Take This Life and Love It
Take two young men, both of whom write songs, sing and play guitar. Then mix in the Internet. Stuff the guys and what they'll need to survive on the road into a 2000 Chevy Blazer. Be sure they've left their regular-guy, 9-to-5 jobs. Shake, mix and move from town to town, state to state, from across the southwest and Texas, and continue on to the East Coast, then make your way back across America's heartland until you've reached the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. What you've got is the "Death of a Day Job Tour, 2004" complete with Matt Hopper, 25, and Andrew Norsworthy, 28, at the wheel.
Cassandra Wilson Brings Music to Town
Starting any new business venture in the current economic climate is risky. The fact that Cassandra Wilson, an internationally renowned two-time Grammy award winner, would stick her neck out and bring a new music venue to Jackson sings volumes about the confidence she has in her home town.
A New Spin in Town
Drew McKercher has played music since high school with about four different bands including Roosevelt Noise and Spacewolf. Spacewolf is his main and most recent band; he has played with the group for two years.
YDA National Conference Comes to Jackson - November 17th Through 19th
I'm not planning on going, but if you're aged 18-35, politically engaged, and not a Republican, this is a rare opportunity to meet national Democrats without leaving town. The folks in charge of our local YDA chapter seem to be really good people, and I wish them nothing but the best.
[Stauffer] A 21st Century Boom Town?
When we launched the Jackson Free Press seven years ago this week, it was with a cover story on Jackson's "creative class." Seven years later as the JFP rolls into Volume 8, I still hear from people surprised, amazed and (at least, more often than not) pleased to see the JFP is still kicking andin factgrowing.
[Stiggers] You Don't Have To Take My Word For It
Readin' Rain-Bro: "Greetings, fellow readers. The producers of Readin' Rain-bro present a special program commemorating the people of the Gulf Coast as they continue to rebuild their lives after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
JSU Town Hall Meeting on HIV/AIDS Today
In honor of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, Jackson State University is hosting a "Prevention is Power" town hall meeting today (Feb. 7) from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Jackson Medical Mall Community Room. Miss JSU Jasmin Searcy will moderate. Free rapid HIV testing will be provided by Crossroads Clinic, located on the third floor of the Jackson Medical Mall.
It's a Capital 4th
You won't have to look far for activities this Independence Day weekend. Today, start your holiday by celebrating the inauguration of Mayor Harvey Johnson Junior. The activities began early with a prayer service, but the whole town is invited to the inauguration, a reception following and the party tonight, all held at the Jackson Convention Complex, downtown.
The Best In Sports In 7 Days
College football, Ole Miss at South Carolina (6:30 p.m., Columbia, S.C., ESPN, 97.3 FM): The fourth-ranked Rebels will face their first real test of the season against the Chickens.
[Rob In Stereo] The Gaslight Anthem: Not Your Average Garden Variety Band
Bruce Springsteen casts a large shadow over New Jersey. Every rock band from the state needs to inevitably face comparisons to the man, no matter how similar or dissimilar their sound. Few musicians are as strongly and intrinsically tied to their home state as Springsteen is to New Jersey.
MDOT Approves Fortification Street Project
A Mississippi Department of Transportation commission voted to approve a plan to narrow Fortification Street and install traffic-slowing features Wednesday. "Obviously we're extremely pleased that we received an affirmative vote on the alternative 3B plan for Fortification," said Ward 7 Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon. "We've been working on this for years, and we think that with MDOT's blessing it will finally move forward.
Objets D'Espoir: Artists Put It Back Together Again
Every day after Hurricane Katrina decimated her studio and ripped her home off its foundation, Bay St. Louis artist Lori Gordon picked her way through piles of debris to the slab where her house once stood. All that remained of her work on the Gulf Coast was embedded there in the cement, a mosaic tile floor she'd laid herself. So in a daily ritual that bordered on the obsessive, Gordon would sweep the floor clean of every speck of dirt and trash that had blown onto it overnight. "It was the cleanest that floor had ever been," she says with a laugh. "There's something weird psychologically that happens when you lose everything—what you have left is very important."
The Kill Zone
Moving wounded and dodging American bullets in Fallujah
Entering the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah was difficult, but not impossible. We came in along the backroads, following the Euphrates River past beautiful date groves, villages of clay houses, and herds of goats. The air is marvelously dry, clean, and bright, the polar opposite of Baghdad's choking, fume-ridden skies. It is a fantastic and timeless landscape.
Spend the Day With Dad
Let's be honest: Dads kick ass. Who else could teach us the ways of the world (or at least those involving pyrotechnics, bikes, cards and fishing lures) so deftly and with such ease?
A Sweet Little Scene, by James Hughes
It's September 1983, and I'm hanging around the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, regretting that I've shown up six months too late to get into grad school and waiting to catch a bus to wherever. With evening settling in and the campus growing quiet, I drift into town, wander around awhile, and stumble into a little music lounge with handbill-covered windows called The Secret Garden—a bare-bones joint, nowhere near as sumptuous as its name, but one I'll still remember even 20 years later as the place where I first paid attention to the music of R.E.M.
[Greggs] The Storm of the Century
This is the first time I've written since The Storm of the Century hit the Coast. This has bothered me more than not sleeping in my own bed, as writing is my own form of sustenance. I've been a "displaced person" since Monday. I'm not quite sure when I will be able to return to my house, as I will probably be one of the last people to get power. During the storm, a 150-year-old oak tree fell on the power lines in my front yard. Minus it being one of the scariest moments of my life, it also means there is a lot of work to be done before I am restored on the Almighty "Grid."
[Viewpoint] My Mississippi Delta
Being born in the Bolivar County hospital on a sweltering day in August is just about my chief claim to credibility as a writer. I was raised in the Mississippi Delta, which seems to produce writers and artists in staggering numbers. I have many ideas as to why this is true, but I've refused to write about the Delta much, because my feelings toward it run deep and very conflicted. There is great disparity in the Delta between the "haves" and the "have nots," although often it's only about who owns the seeds.