I don’t know why we like to scare each other.  I wonder if it’s a southern thing or does everyone, everywhere like a good scare?  I wonder if other countries celebrate Halloween by scaring each other?  I don’t think so.

In China, Halloween is called Tend Chiech.  In Hong Kong it is called Yue Lan, it is know as the festival of the hungry ghost.  In Mexico Halloween is known as “El Dia de los Muertos” it is a joyous day, a day to remember those pasted. Hell, France doesn’t even celebrate any holiday like Halloween.  Most countries celebrate Halloween as some kind of nod towards the dead.  Down here in my south, we get drunk and scare little kids.

It’s been happening for a few years now.  It started small, Stacey and I, well just I, got board just handing out candy one Halloween and took it to the next level.  I put on this old man mask I had and hid in the bushes.  The rest is history.

And tonight we plan on making more history.  Stacey has got a few new toys for us to use to scare anyone dumb enough to come to our front door.  She bought a fog machine, a ghost that runs up and down a line between two trees and a really scary witch that screams and dances and lights up.  I will take a photo and post it tomorrow.

This has gotten to be an event and we don’t even have to invite friends, they just show up for the show.  Lots of guys now come dressed up and ready to help. They are rewarded with a beer and a bowl of homemade gumbo, if they do a good job!

So whatever you do tonight- DON’T SHOW UP AT MY HOUSE!

I love to have a Martini, but I can only have one at the most, cause after two I’m under the table and after three I’m breaking in to my neighbors house!    

So, Stacey and I are sitting out on the front porch having a cocktail.  It’s about dark and like any good southern I’m on my third martini by then.  All the sudden we hear a fuss coming from somewhere close.  It’s coming from across the street and it sounded angry.  Shit, goddamn, motherfucker, you no good yellow-belly sap sucker!  We quickly realized it was our neighbors pet-sitter, and she was having trouble getting in the house.  She is also so our pet-sitter and my friend.  So, naturally I asked if she was o.k.  Well, actually, Stacey asked her if all was  o.k. 

Anyway, next thing I know, I’m explaining to my neighbors neighbor that it is in fact o.k. if we break into this guys house because she, my friend, is the pet-sitter and she is locked out.

Of course I have called my neighbor, the guy who owned the house I was about to break into.  He informed me that the sitter had left a few messages that had transgressed from pleads to threats of murder,  if he didn’t answer his “goddamn”.  phone,  and tell her where  the “fucking” keys were.  He asked me to please help the sitter get in and that there was only one window to get in.  He further explained that his new 50″ plasma TV was hanging on the wall right under this window.  Please, oh god please,  he begged, don’t jump on my TV.

Like I said, I love to have a martini, but after three,  can ya really expect me to be able to climb a ladder, open a window and jump in the window and miss the the TV directly under the window ?  

It was my neighbors lucky day!

O.K. so we went to Mobile Friday night to see a movie.  It was a documentary on the life and times of Eugene Walter.  Like I said a few post back, the name of this film is The Last of the Bohemians by Robert Clem.  It was a pretty good film.  I met Mr. Clem afterwards and spoke with him.  I ask him how he chose to do a film on Eugene, his reply was that he had written a movie based on a autobiographical novel by Alabama native William March.  Both the book and film are called Company K and they are a graphic account of a soldiers experience of World War I.  He said during that project he learned of Eugene and decided he wanted him to be his next project.

This was the first showing of the film.  I believe Clem will do a little more work on it and then fully release it.  I doubt it will play in a theater, but I bet when it is released you can get it on Amazon.com.

Stacey did a little photo shoot of downtown Mobile Friday night during their ARTS!ALIVE evening.  Enjoy!                        

There was an iron pour in the streets.

I have always thought, Religion, Buddhist, Tibetan Monk whenever I heard the words Dalai Lama.  Those two words actually mean “Ocean of Wisdom”.  But I have always thought the Dalai Lama was all about Religion, I never new of his political position in the world.  I grew up as a Catholic and was never exposed to other Religions of the world, well there were the Southern Baptist and all I really knew about them was that they were not supposed to dance, drink or gamble.

Sunday, Stacey and I went to hear the Dalai Lama speak, here in Atlanta.  It was billed as  the “First Emory Summit on Religion, Conflict, and Peace-building”.  Yea, that’s what I said, “what”?  In a nutshell it brought together five of the most knowledgeable people in the world on different Religions.  Jews, Hindus, Catholics, Muslims and Buddhist were each represented by some of the leading thinkers of their faith.

I didn’t know what to expect and someone made the comment that they did not think it would that big of a deal, they were there because someone in their family had invited them.  Well I wonder if that person was as impressed with the event as I was.

The panel was made up of Rabbi David Rosen, he was a very good speaker, rather long winded but I liked what he had to say.  Dr. An-na’im represented Muslims, of course, His Holiness the Dalai Lama represented Buddhist and Professor Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of the Mahatma Gandhi represented Hindus.  Sister Joan Chittister spoke for Catholics.  This lady was awesome.  She is a well known activist for women in the church and in society.

H H Dalai Lama didn’t speak the most, as I thought would be the case.  He started the conversation out with some thoughts on our mission in life. Then each of the other speakers was to give comments on this subject form their faiths perspective.  What they all agreed on was this, no one faith is the only way to God.  They also all agreed wars must not be fought in the name of religion and we must all, always show reasonable compassion to everyone.  It’s that simple, now get on with it!

So it’s today and this is where we are.  Three days behind and trying to get out of town for the weekend.  Friday night in Mobile, a film about Eugene Walter will be screened at an very old temple.  I am not sure if it was a Masonic Temple or what and I have never really been in the main part of the building.  Stacey and I want to see this film so we are just gonna go to Mobile for about 24 hours.  My back is almost 100% better, but I need to get back and get things done.  I need to finish two custom paintings, one is a pair of dogs and the other a wedding themed piece. I also have to build a full size bed, two twin bed swings, a coffee table, using an old Ford pickup truck tailgate for the top and a pedestal for a piece of art.  All of this by Thanksgiving.  No prob!

In Mobile we plan to see a film about Eugene Walter like I said.  The film is by Robert Clem, it is named Last of the Bohemians.  I have no idea what to  expect, but looking forward.

It is also the semi annual event ART! ALIVE.  Check out this page and read all about whats happen Friday night in downtown Mobile.   I wish I could stay and enjoy it all, but this has to be a quick trip.

Sorry, I really want to write something witty and insightful for you guys, but I hurt my back yesterday.  I was in the middle of the tough task of picking a piece of paper up off the floor and BAM!  I was also in the middle of writting a little something on our visit with the Dalai Lama Sunday. It will have to wait as I have NO pain pills and sitting at computer hurts like hell!  Thanks and feel free to feel sorry for me.

Last night I went out back to turn the shop lights off, it must have been about 1 a.m.  Well just as I hit the switch something hit me.  I must have been out cold, when I came to I looked like this and Stacey looked like that!  It could mean only one thing, we were in France !

  There is so much info out there about Eugene it is staggering.  I picked up one of the books  I had been looking at while writing about him the other day and quickly remembered what a great read it is.  The book is Milking The Moon, A Southerner’s Story of Life on This Planet.  It was written by Katherine Clark as told to her by Eugene.  How lucky was she, getting to hear all those stories first hand from Eugene.  They are great stories and this is a great book.  If you don’t have it get it.  If you have it read it.  If you have read it, reread it.

I am gonna keep writing about Eugene for a while.  There is to much to ignore, and it is all such rich material.  I ordered the cook book he did for the Time Life series about southern cooking.  It is from 1971, I can’t wait to get it and check out Eugene’s work.

This is from the forward of the Milking the Moon book.

 The Monkey was his favorite animal.  The highest accolade he pressed on the girls around the Cafe Tournon, across from the Hotel Helvetia where he lived, was that they were just a step or two below being “Queen of the Monkeys.”  They adored him.  He invited them in for candlelit suppers in his tiny one-room apartment, the light reflecting on the gold stars he had pasted on the walls.   He knew a lot about Southern culinary delights, gumbos, and so forth, but he was poor, and so for all the intended elegance of these little suppers, he did miracles with no more than an onion, a carrot or so, and some oysters.  A remarkable stew would come of this, not much of it for sure; one truly learned that taste was far more important than volume.   

These are the words of George Plimpton, referring to his contemporary, and his dear friend Eugene Walter.

Tonight we had a Seizure Salad, not to be confused with a Cesar Salad.  This is the turbo charged version. We found this recipe years ago in a Wine X magazine.  The magazine was pretty cool, but it struggled and I’m not sure it’s still around.

This is a really good salad and easy to prepare, it is not for those afraid of bold flavors.  I like the way you use the salt and pepper and a bowl with a rough surface to help grind all of the ingredients into a dressing. To make it Southern style,  try using the Piggly Wiggly brand Olive  Oil !

3 thick slices of slightly stale sourdough or rustic style bread cut into cubes
3 T olive oil
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2) Place bread cubes in a large bowl and add olive oil. Toss until the oil is evenly absorbed.
3) Place croutons on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Salad
1/4 t salt
1 t coarsely ground black pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 t anchovy paste
2 t Dijon mustard
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 t red wine vinegar
1 LARGE head romaine lettuce, thoroughly dried 
Croutons (see recipe)
1/2 cup grated Italian Parmegiano-Reggiano
1) Add salt and pepper to the salad bowl.  Grind garlic (with back of spoon) against the wall of the bowl until it becomes a paste.

Follow same procedure - add anchovies, grind, add the Dijon, egg yolk, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce one at a time.

Make sure that each ingredient is blended into a paste with the previous ingredients before adding next.
2) Add oil and vinegar. Blend well.
3) Tear or slice lettuce leaves into bite-sized pieces and add to the salad bowl. Toss thoroughly with dressing.
4) Add croutons and cheese, toss again, then serve immediately.

That’s it.  It is not difficult.  Just use the best cheese you can find.  Also use Anchovy paste, it is not hard to find, and is worth the effort.
 

I wish Ken Burns would have picked someone other then the women he did to represent the deep south on his show about the war.  I wish Eugene Walters was alive and could have done it.  He probably had the same slow, molasses coated voice that she had.

He ’s the kind of person I want to be my spokesperson for the deep south.  He was a real mans man, no pun intended.  The guy did everything, went everywhere, embraced his southerness and wrote many books about his south.

He was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1921. He was in the army, stationed in the Arctic Circle.  He lived in NYC, in Greenwich Village, in the 40’s.  Can you imagine the Village in the 40’s?  All the Hipsters, Bohemians, Poets and Artist setting the stage for the 50’s and 60’s. Blazing the trail for the Beatniks and the Hippies.

He also helped George Plimpton, who started the Paris Review, get it off the ground and going.  This was in the 50’s, he lived in Paris and one can only imagine who he hung out with and the parties they had.  Paris in the 50’s was wide open and jazz musicians from all over the world were living there.

Then he took his Southerness to Rome.  Italy that is.  He was known to always have an herb garden where ever he lived.  He loved to cook and entertain, and he love to prepare southern dishes for his high minded, international friends.  A cook book he wrote, American Cooking: Southern Style,  was a best seller for the Time Life book series.

In Rome, he worked for a guy named Federico Fellini.  He did set design on most all of Fellini’s movies and was in a few.  He played the  “tacky American journalist who keeps pestering Marcello Mastroianni”, in Fellini’s 8 1/2.  He said he was in over 100 hundred films while in Italy.  He stayed in Rome 23 years, then returned to Mobile,  Kingdom of the Monkeys.

Look, I have read the books and seen the movie, so to speak, and this guy was the real deal.  The above dosn’t even scratch the surface.  He did so much, knew so many and made a real difference.  I hear his name often here in Atlanta and he is a real inspiration to groups like the Southern Foodways Alliance.  I am sure in the near future he will be celebrated more and more, and I am very glad of this.  I would not mind if he’s the kind of guy that comes to mind when people think about Southerners.