Stay Positive: @#$% People Say Videos

A Bottle Tree: There Goes the Neighborhood

Mrs. Nasty and I installed an art project last weekend, and it got the neighbors talking.

Since we live in the Midwest, our neighbors aren't familiar with bottle trees. We never knew about them either until Mrs. Nasty went to school at Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi where John Grisham has a home, the guy who has a bottle tree in one of his (many) novels that got turned into a movie, A Time to Kill. In fact, a fine eating establishment in Oxford is called the Bottletree Bakery, and it's one of the best places I've ever eaten for breakfast. Really good strong coffee too.

I've always associated bottle trees with being a Mississippi thing although I've read that they're used as garden ornaments throughout the South. The folklore goes that bottle trees capture and/or ward off evil spirits. And I've always liked them because they're colorful and strange looking. They aren't subtle.

As we also found out, they invite questions. After we installed the metal tree with its empty bottles on Sunday, our next door neighbor stopped by that evening because, as she said, "The neighbors are all wondering what that thing is in your front garden." So the other neighbors sent her to ask about it.

I explained the whole deal to her--that we got used to seeing them in the South, we've always kind of liked them, they're supposed to have protective qualities, and so on.

I can certainly understand the initial shock of seeing a bottle tree since I had a similar reaction myself when I saw one. My initial thought was, "What the hell is that?" 

And probably to some, the bottle tree says, "Hey clowns, I really LIKE wine!"

To get the colorful array of bottles you see above, it took some time since our tree handles 16 bottles. And good God, I'm tired of drinking that crappy German white wine that comes in a blue bottle, whatever the hell it's called. Mrs. Nasty is crazy about the blue bottles, so I drank that stuff like a man as much as that cliche can be applied to drinking white wine. Unfortunately, I can't get one of the azure-ensconced bottles of wine I actually like in this little burg I live in, St. James Winery's School House White, a German style wine out of St. James, Missouri. Nevertheless, I prefer red wine, which comes mainly in green bottles.

One of the funnier comments I've heard about our bottle tree is what our neighbor told us her husband said over the phone. Her husband is long-distance trucker who travels mainly in the South. She told him about the bottle tree and how it's supposed to ward off evil spirits. His comment to her was that it obviously doesn't work since it didn't keep her from visiting our porch.

That's some funny ball bustin,' Doug. Cheers to you.

Elizabeth Cook on Letterman

The other night singer/songwriter Elizabeth Cook was a guest on The Late Show.

I featured a couple of Cook's tunes on a Music Friday a while back, but her visit to Letterman's show was to promote her satellite radio program on "Outlaw Country" since Dave seems to have taken a liking to her program.

It's one of the more entertaining interviews I've seen on a late night program in a while.

As much as I bristle at how both Dave and the audience were laughing at her because it's easy to make fun of someone with a Southern accent, I think Ms. Cook showed how she's one of the more intriguing music personalities out there right now. As they like to say in Alabama, she "showed out" on the program.

Granted, Cook did take a light-hearted approach to talking about her family background, and she showed how she doesn't take herself too seriously. However, I typically have sensitive antennae about how people might think Southerners or people from humble backgrounds like Cook are appropriate for close-minded ridicule and easy punch lines. The fools often get played with Southern accents in American culture, which pisses me off.

Regardless, Letterman having Justin Townes Earle on his program months ago was a good sign, and I look forward to watching Cook play on his show in the future. Now if he books Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit and Amanda Shires, I'd be really pleased.

!Viva Americana Music!

If you want to check out the interview, it's below. Enjoy.

Women with/out Whiskey

As I was driving the kids to school this morning, I was listening to the news segment on the local classic rock station, and one of the little factoids the DJ ended with was some research about women who drink whiskey.

Apparently, someone has studied the characteristics and attributes of women who drink whiskey and compared those women to others who don't drink whiskey. I can't speak to the veracity of this research, but the DJ reported that women who drink whiskey were singled out as being "risk takers" who usually weren't good people to have relationships with. In other words, it sounds like the "research" has uncovered that women who drink whiskey have a ramblin' mind.

I did some cursory searches for this study, but I have found nothing yet.

But I'm wondering who funded this research, who did it, and what was the purpose because if you're a listener to the blues or traditional country or even bluegrass, you already might have come to that conclusion purely by repetition.

So is this a case of art providing us some truth or at least a large dollop of Truthiness? I don't know.

I did find an interesting article in Newsweek called "Women and Whiskey: Why Not?". What the alleged study noted above is not taking into account is that Southern women have been drinking bourbon for ages. It's the liquor associated with the South. And as the author details early on in the article, Jack Daniels targeted women in their recent advertising campaign by trying to morph the usually "manly" drink of whiskey into something very domestic. In other words, Jack is trying to Ophrahitize their brand to capture another demographic.

Of course, the message is troubling: get sloshed and bake, ladies. You go girls.

As much as I know women have imbibed whiskey for a long time, from my own experience working in a liquor store, whiskey does have a gendered presence. Well, we've given it that essence as the professor quoted in article details briefly. I can't recall women coming into Independence Ave. Liquors and buying much whiskey. Maybe a blended scotch, but Maker's Mark, Jim Beam, Old Grand Dad, or Black Velvet? Nah, didn't happen. They gravitated toward wine coolers, vodka, schnapps, and gin.

Like seemingly everything else, booze, well, it's gendered.

But the author, Kate Daily, notes, "... gendering drinks as “male” or “female “ creates arbitrary distinctions about how people should respond to certain situations, based on stereotypes. “'It’s all about people’s personal taste,” says Ruderhausen. “Just as there are men who don’t like a big, smoky whisky, there are women who do.'”

Sure, that might be the case that it's about personal taste, but I still see women going toward the "girlie drinks" and men quaffing "strong" stuff to show their manhood. In other words, I don't think we've come that long of a way, baby.

Interestingly enough, I don't see certain proprietors of whiskey targeting other important demographics. For example, I haven't seen Jack Daniels, a brand some might tend to associate with rednecks even though it is a fine sippin' whiskey, target African-Americans or Latinos.

Booze choices cut across socio-cultural lines too as I'm sure you can imagine. Where I worked the clientile was approximately 60-70% African-American because my dad's liquor store was on the "bad side" of town (a perception I always found patently stupid, by the way), the side of the Cedar River where most African-Americans lived. We trucked a lot in gin and brandy, Bumpy Face gin and Erk and Jerk specifically.

We may recognize all this, but rarely is there change. But is it that big of a deal?

When Mrs. Nasty and I go out to dinner tomorrow night, I suspect we'll order a pre-dinner libation. She'll get some kind of martini drink because she enjoys sweeter drinks without the strong taste of alcohol, and I'll either order a beer or a stronger cocktail like a gin and tonic or bourbon on the rocks.

If we're merely falling into gendered traps, I guess I can rationalize that they're our "personal tastes."

Porcine Goodness

The cuisine of the deep South is known for fried food. You got okra, chicken, and the ubiquitous chicken-fried steak. Those people will fry almost anything. Heck, even ribs and candy bars.

But one item you don't see in most parts of the country is the pork tenderloin sandwich. That delicacy is especially a favorite of my home state, the great state of Iowa, and other parts of the Midwest. 

This afternoon I did myself a favor and ordered a pork tenderloin sandwich from McHugh's, a fast food joint whose slogan is "Famous in Coles County, not the World." A smattering of pickles atop the patty coupled with adequate amount of yellow mustard on the bun is an accompaniment that befits this noble sandwich.

The Rise of Southern Football

Click HERE for an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal about the sociopolitical influences in regard to Southerners and their love and use of college football.

Question: How Do You Tell When a Bowden is Lying?....

Answer: His mouth is moving.

Tommy Bowden, head coach of Clemson (pronounced "Clempsin" in the South), has started the poor-mouthing early for his squad's neutral site game vs. Alabama. Click HERE for his comments.

With a stellar QB, two outstanding running backs, a solid set of WRs, and a strong secondary, Bowden cites his question marks at the o-line and linebackers.

Since Alabama's front seven is young, untested, and lacks significant depth, I see a tough task ahead of the defense when the Crimson Tide meets the Tigers for the first game of the season in the Georgia Dome. 

Regardless, and in honor of my hankering for college football to start, I bought this wonderfully cheesy shirt (see below) that references the crazy power of the Alabama tailgating subculture, a subculture that Warren St. John artfully describes in his bestseller Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer (LINK to that book's site).

Music Friday: "Dirt Floor Cracka'"

The link below moves you to a performance by JJ Grey and Mofro in which JJ provides a bit of a lesson on the origination of the term "cracker" and how it relates to Southern society/culture.

And, well, the song kicks ass.

Enjoy: Dirt Floor Cracka'