Freakwater's Scheherazade

After nearly eleven long years, one of my favorite bands -- ever -- of all time --  bar none -- released a new album.  I love Freakwater. And yes, they did release and album and CD and download entitled Scheherazade.  It is a great title for a Freakwater album as they are wonderful storytellers.

Freakwater has always been fronted by Janet Beveridge Bean and Catherine Irwin.  They produce raw and aching harmonies that one can never forget.  In a world of cookie cutter pop songs and predictable country, Freakwater is a breathtaking alternative.  Often tossed in the alt-country pile, they are much more. 

Their lyrics seem straight forward, but they often have a undercurrent of pain like salty chips on a cut lip.  And then, so funny and poignant one cannot help but smile.  The writer Chris Parker might have written the best description of the band (damn, I wish I had written this.)

"Freakwater is a 27-year-old Chicago-by-way-of-Louisville, Ky., combo founded by singer/guitarists Janet Beveridge Bean and Catherine Irwin, whose vocals intertwine like vines climbing a country-folk trellis in the Carter Family's backyard."

Well that is exactly what they sound like.  Actually, it is the old Carter family, channeling  Maybelle and Sara into snarky, wicked lyrics.

I once had the band playing in the background. A friend heard them and had little appreciation for the melancholy twang.  But to this day, she still remembers them.  To have such a unique sound; one that lingers in the mind years later, that is greatness.  Be forewarned by this story, not everyone will be drawn to the music, but if you give it a chance, Scheherazade might become your favorite album of the year.  In fact, you might just buy every album Freakwater ever recorded and play them over and over again, like I do.

The Black Dancing Body

One of the good things about being trapped in the house through snows and floods is getting to catch up on various documentaries you have missed.  About once every two months I click through all the documentaries that will be shown on Direct TV and tape the ones I am interested in.  They usually sit for several months until I finally get around to them.

The first doc I watched was Carmen & Geoffrey.  Directed by Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob, the 2009 release follows this dynamic partnership.

Geoffery Holder was a theater and dance fixture beginning in the early 1950's.  His stunning art work has often been compared to that of Paul Gauguin.  In 1955, Carmen de Lavallade appeared with Holder in "House of Flowers"  and they married shortly after and spent 59 years working and creating until Holder's death in 2014.

The documentary is a bit heavy on the Holder side, and the dance sequences featuring de Lavallade could have been much longer.  Still, a wonderful look at two giants of dance.

After watching it, I pulled Brenda Dixon Gottschild's The Black Dancing Body off the shelf.  The book looks at race, racism, body image, body language, and stereotypes in dance and how they echo and comment on racism in society as a whole.

When I got to A Ballerina's Tale, the story of Misty Copeland, I was glad to see that one of the interviews was with Gottschild, whose book was published long before Copeland's rise.  The contrast of time is very interesting.

Copeland is like a rock star, mobbed every time she walks out the stage door. She is, for many young girls, the corporeal realization of what can be. Even as a dancer, Copeland speaks eloquently about seeing black dancers on film and weeping as they were dancers she never knew existed.

One hopes that with the Netfixification of culture, films like A Ballerina's Tale as well as Carmen & Geoffery will have a much wider audience and all little girls and boys can envision themselves dancing... or what ever they want to do.

Beachfront Property

The view from the front door.

I know nothing is more boring than the weather.  While about 98% of the time, living in the country is great, there are those other times. Many of them are in the winter. Aside from being cold and white, much of the day is devoted to the weather.

The last week is a case in point. We had snow. We had to make sure we had gas for the generator in case the power went off. We had big, fluffy wet snow...but the power stayed on. Until it went off. The generator keeps the pump working, it keeps the refrigerator running, it keeps the Internet and television on, but not the heat.

Power returned and we were warm again. But the temp dropped into single digits so we had to worry about the water freezing. Once it freezes, there is no getting it back on until a thaw. This week there was a seven day stretch of below freezing weather. So water dripped like some sort of Chinese water torture. We kept the water going, until the cold water in the kitchen froze. We opened the faucet and hoped that the bright sun would hit it just right and free up the water.

The sun worked. It freed up the water while I was vacuuming. Not only was the water line frozen, but the drain was frozen. When the vacuum turned off, one could hear the water pouring into the floor. After sopping up water, towel were left outside to freeze solid.

In an attempt to keep the water running, we opened the faucets more, but a plunge in the temperature froze all the water. Yesterday, the temperature went up, but it took a full 24 hours of spring like weather to get water back to the house.

The spring like weather melted the snow, then it rained. Now the property is flooded.

It will be 24 hours before the water subsides. So we are spending another day trapped inside. A lot of time is spent under the SAD light. Even if one does not have seasonal affect disorder, the dark and cold and wet will eventually get to you.

So, we haven't been posting, because hey, if you don't have something interesting to say, why post.  But spring is around the corner.

Mardi Gras

Above is the Mardi Gras court from 1900 in Mobile, Alabama.  As you know, the tradition of Mardi Gras in America began in Mobile.  Well in 1703, when the tradition began, Mobile was actually French Louisiana, but we won't quibble.

Here is a cavalcade of vintage shots from some of Mobile's finest moments. Enjoy.

 1907 King and Queen of Mardi Gras

A 1919 postcard of the festivities.

Marching in the 1920's

Way to much revelry!

Mardi Gras court, no date.

Mardi Gras ball

Zippy Mardi Gras chapeaus

On the parade route, no date

Mobile Mardi Gras, Bienville Square

Snow Cooking

While trapped in the snow we decided to venture into the warm kitchen.  We saw a recipe by Annie Wayte for a Guinea Fowl Potpie.  We had almost nothing from the recipe with the exception of a guinea fowl.  That is the kind of kitchen we have!  So we improvised.  Our pie is simply guinea, onions, mushrooms, and a bit of bacon.

It turned out quite yummy.

Then we decided to make a cake.  We had a couple of white sweet potatoes that we had lying around from Christmas. They were actually lying UNDER as we moved a paper bag over them, and discovered them after we needed the bag!

We baked them at 400 for about 35 minutes until they were mashable and then set out to make our favorite sweet potato cake, only in the white version.

For Christmas we got several bottles of libations from Art in the Age, including a sweet potato vodka, so we gave out yellow raisins a soak.  We also had half a bag of self-rising flour, so we used that. 

White Sweet Potato Cake

2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup mashed white sweet potatoes
2 beaten eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon Art in the Age Sweet Potato Vodka (optional)
1 cup yellow raisins, dredged boldly

Soak your raisins for about 30 minutes in a tablespoon of liquor, if desired.

 In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, and spice together to blend

In a smaller bowl, mix the sweet potatoes, eggs, oil, and milk. I may look a bit lumpy and curdled, but that is the way it should look.

Add the sweet potato mixture to the dry ingredients and blend well.

Fold in the dredged fruit.

Pour into prepared Lucinda’s Wood Cake Box.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours.

Being snowbound wasn't too bad.

Snownado -- The Aftermath

We survived the 20 inches we got in the hollow. Surprisingly, we did not lose electricity during the 36 hours of snow and we tend to lose electricity every time it rains. Let's keep that up for the oncoming thaw. 

To everyone who worried about us and helped us out be making sure our generator worked and checking in every few hours -- thank you.

To those people who complain that everyone got snow and they are tired of watching everyone post snow photo -- here is your chance to lament even more.

And finally...

Snownado

We don't know where this came from, but we do love it.  After Snowmaggedon and Snowpocalypse we have dubbed this Snownado.

Be careful out there. 

If you are somewhere warm -- run outside barefoot for us!

Roll Tide National Champs

Yes, my team, The Alabama Crimson Tide are the National Champions.  That means there are just about 10 1/2 months before we start to worry about Auburn.

There was steak, because since our loss to Ole Miss, I have been cooking steaks outside, so due to paranoid superstition, the game day meal had to be the same.  I have a great ajvar sauce that I use for potatoes, a kind of red pepper ketchup.  I was at the end of the bottle, so it ended up looking a bit too Jackson Pollack in the picture, but it is the superstition, not the sauce that mattered.

Both Teddy,

and Trick took turns wearing the Nick Saban hat. It was actually a Christmas tree ornament from their auntie Beverly.

Not only was I adorned in my game day shirt, also from Beverly, but I wore my favorite elephant hat. Not everyone has a favorite elephant hat.  And lest we forget, this was my living room, not the Golden Globes.  However, had I walked that red carpet in my lovely elephant hat, I'm sure I would have been on many a Best-Dressed List.

And now on to break the Bear's record.  Roll Tide.

Maddie at Christmas

You may remember last Holiday season we had a stray dog show up. She was beyond sweet, but with a house full of cats, she was not a good mix. The power of the Internet came into play. I sent her photo to Virginia, it was forwarded to Vermont, sent back to Virginia and forwarded to a neighbor who just happened to be looking for a new dog. We drove our Bunnymellon to Virginia where she became Cris and Maria's Maddie.

This summer we saw Jason and Neville, who sent us to Cris and Maria. Jason said Maddie was a ball of energy and he shared some photos. Evidently, Maddie is a bit hard to photograph due to her bounding energy. 

It seems that most photos of her are just a blur.

We took a famous "video" of the future Maddie as an introduction for her prospective owners. The video was about a minute of my feet, as even then, Maddie was hard to photograph.

For Christmas, Teddy and the Halloweener cats sent Maddie a little present. I think their Christmas joy was motivated by the fact that they were joyful Maddie was no longer in such close proximity.  It's a cat thing.  Finally, we were able to see a calm photo of Maddie, with her Christmas gift. She is no longer skin and bones, but a healthy and wildly happy dog.

It was a great present.

Happy New Year

It just wouldn't be New Years Day without black eyed peas and collards.  Plus, you will need some pork to cook the greens and collards.  And you need some cornbread and a bit of potato salad. So now I will be rich in 2016.

A few words about dinner.

Not to bitch and moan in the new year, but it is really important that we begin to expand the food on our tables.  If that means spending a bit more to shop with local farmers, then so be it. In an attempt to streamline our food consumption, we have let corporations take over.  Instead of producing more food, they have severely limited the food we see in the grocery store.  Yet all around the country, in back yard plots and small farms, people are planting seeds they have saved for generations.  Take a look at today's cornbread.

In a grocery store, one can fine dozens of different "brands" of cornmeal, but the corn is either yellow or white. In the most gourmet of establishments, one might run across an occasional bag of blue cornmeal. But what about cornmeal from the 1800's?  Our cornbread was made with an old dent corn produced in when Native American corn cross pollinated with white settler's corn. The result is Bloody Butcher Corn, a bright red, amazingly moist, with a truly beautiful texture unheard of with store bought meal.

In the hills of West Virginia, the corn was a staple and on many farms it still is.This corn was grown and ground at Hawthorne Valley Farms, just up the road from here. Like most families who grow the corn, the seeds originally came from ancestors who passed them down from generation to generation.  These farmers are seed savers and for the rest of the country, they often make the excess seeds available to others.

Our pork came from just down the road.  The Jennings Brae Bank Farm is run by young farmers who will quite literally put the food on our tables in the future...and now. They put a lot of the meat we eat on our table already! Once again, the meat we get from the farm bears little resemblance to the meat you find in a grocery store. Truth be told, you will find the prices of meat from a local farmer to be quite close to what you might pay in the grocery and the quality will be remarkable.

And now a personal plug. In late October as the weather looked like it would be getting colder (who knew it would be 72 on Christmas Eve) we set out make up a batch of Fire Cider, an old remedy for snifflily ailments.  Everyone has a different recipe, but mine went something like this.

Fire Cider

In a sterilized quart jar add...

1 sliced orange (or lemon, lime or whatever citrus one might have)
1 thumb sized piece of turmeric, sliced
1 thumb sized piece of ginger, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, smashed
4 habanero peppers, pricked with a knife
6 whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon of honey 
Bragg Organic Cider Vinegar to fill the jar.

Put a plastic lid on the jar and shake. Let sit on the window sill for 3 to 4 weeks. Strain out solids and store in a glass jar.

The few times we have found that little scratch in the back of the throat, we have taken a spoon or two of Fire Cider and felt much better.

Today when we were looking at dinner, we though about vinegar for the greens and remembered the Fire Cider.  While we have used it for medicinal purposes, we found it was a perfect accompaniment for greens.  The spice was great, the floral citrus undertones offered a complex contrast to the greens.

We do love to make things with multiple uses.  Fire Cider, healthy and tasty!

 So, once again, Happy New Year.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading our blog and checking in on our rambling life here in the hollers of West Virginia!  We don't tell you nearly enough how much we cherish your support and friendship.

Finally, if you are looking for a few easy to keep and thoughtful resolutions may we suggest...

Find and befriend a farmer.

Try new food.

Put something up, like Fire Cider or jam.

Read more books.

Enjoy life!

Again, thanks to all of you!