I love this Song!!!

Ooh -- the heady past days, when I first discovered the minor chords of Andrew Bird's violin, meandering in the background of a Squirrel Nut Zippers song. They were great, he was great, and I just could not get enough of where that music took me.

It was all deep 1930s nights where the stars were low in a field riding back down a dirt road from town. The smoke that clung to clothes after stepping out of a basement jazz club in 20s France. Faded beadboard paneling, and the smell of this morning's fried eggs still lingering near lunch in the back of the house kitchen where the windows were often open. And always root magic.

I'd forgotten that feeling until last week when, in the process of researching an article about the new band Screen Door Porch, I heard "Zemurray," a cut from their debut record, and remembered. It was right back there.

The full article is in today's Charleston Scene . The song is in my iTunes library. Take a listen.

Zemurray - Screen Door Porch

I'm not krackin' on Uncle Kracker

To me, Uncle Kracker's music is about shopping, possibly at Kohl's or when I am in the grocery and find myself humming something I don't even know I know while trying to decide between quinoa or just the basmati rice blend. Just because I don't willingly listen to his music doesn't mean others don't (whoa, check out that quadruple negative, Mrs. Nelson), so I was happy to have the chance to interview him.

He was calling from Allentown, PA when we chatted, and he was pleasant and well-intended during our interview. He also honestly tried to answer my questions and did not sound bored, even if he was. I thank him for that.

Here's the interview in today's Charleston Scene, complete with details about his upcoming date in Charleston.

Click here if you can't remember what he sings ...

Uncle Kracker

Childress interview hit newsstands

It's been months since I interviewed NASCAR celeb Richard Childress, and what I most remember about the interview was how gracious he was and how "non-NASCAR" his office was. First, it was huge, at least 2/3 of the square footage of my current dwelling, and second, it was obvious he is a serious big-game hunter. There was the animal skin rug, various heads on the wall, large oversized furniture and the like. It was like a Hollywood movie, which is the way I think he likes it.

Read the non-hunting article here in the current issue of Triad Living, and find out his persuits closer to home.

When I do my little turn on the catwalk

Well, it's fashion week in Charleston, and although I'm actually in Dallas (researching stories) I did have a chance to recently interview a true emerging designer whose designs will walk the Marion Square runway as part of Eden Boheme's show. Her name: Stephanie Teague. Her background: Charlottean, model, Miami maven, and most recently, hot new designer.

She's one of those people that have always cut up their clothes. You know those girls in high school that took the necks out of their sweatshirts or made a dress into a shirt and then used the leftover fabric to make all of her friends bracelets? Well, that was Stephanie. But she kept doing it after high school, learned more about fashion from wearing some of the best designers in the world on the catwalk, and her stuff just kept getting better and better. And now its good, really good.

As part of getting her designs out there, she started a shop on Etsy. She immediately started selling (sorry to the thousands and thousands that this DOESN'T happen to), and now she can barely keep up with demand. And then there is the fashion week thing, and a solo show at New Orleans Fashion Week ...

You can get the whole story here. And if you *ever* ask me "Who are you wearing?" the answer might just be "Stephanie Teague."

I'm positively bubbly

After 5 years of covering the Charleston Wine + Food Festival, I finally got a ticket to my most coveted event -- Bubbles and Sweets. The evening did not disappoint, so check out my review here:

http://www.charlestonscene.com/news/2010/mar/10/bubbles-and-sweets-bubbly-good-time/

You can't read Flannery O'Connor with spring fever

I recently pulled out Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge to reread. It was a rainy February, damp and chilly in an endless cycle it seemed, and the stories fit. I'd first read this book in high school (it was THE book that cemented my going into college as an English major) and was amazed at the flow, the tight stories, the spot-on characters with deadly demises.

I'd also taught this book in Southern Literature, and my classes, esp. the ones at Belmont Abbey, had a lot to say about it. So all that's to say, I thought I knew this book.

Whoa, this book is depressing. Let's just say, things do not end well. Men have problems with their mothers and women have problems with their egos. "The Greenleafs" matched my mood one day, "Everything that Rises Must Converge" another. I was reading it differently this time, looking for the writing clues, using it as a learning tool. Yes, it was depressing but beautifully depressing like a scarred desert landscape (or something).

But then a redbud tree bloomed, and that was it. Forget the scarred landscape. I can't read Flannery O'Connor when I have spring fever.

It's Time

Although the fiction project is still a little kite floating in the market sky, it is time ...

Time for me to write another book proposal. Now, this did not come out of left field, as I have been batting around this idea for some time (in writer speak, that means mentioning it randomly to friends and family in the middle of a discussion about Christmas gifts, who had a baby or what was their favorite meal @ the Glass Onion). Still, having an idea and writing a proposal are two different things.

It has to be formal. It has to be informed. You have to know about the possible market competition, about the possible outlets for sales. It has to be organized (not like my verbal ramblings), and in short, I have to sell the idea.

Now, this is for another non-fiction book, and I'm pitching it to a new publisher. Although I've been down this road before, this is the place for me where the blank page is daunting. I haven't quite got up the courage to put something on that blank page, but I'm working up to it. I have saved the blank document in my book proposal file. :)