I Asked My Lover For A Microwave Oven For Saint Valentine's Day : I Did Not Get One Yet

Did I get it, well no and I am still waiting .I guess I will be waiting because they claim they love me. But all I want is to try out this recipe for New Orleans Style Microwave Pralines that appears on page 92 of Deb Shriver's book

Stealing Magnolias Tales From A New Orleans Courtyard

ingredients:

1 pound light brown sugar

2 tbsp light corn syrup

1 cup of whip cream

2 tbsp vanilla or rum extract or 1 tbsp Luzianne instant coffee and chicory

2 tbsp butter

2 cups of whole pecans ( preferably toasted )

What is this ? you are getting a little disappointment too because I am not providing cooking instruction which are easy because it is done with a microwave. You know where to find them a few minutes in your local Barnes & Nobel. If I can not have candy, no one gets candy.But we can all look at the book and its' many delightful pictures and stories some about food and other New Orlean lives . Maybe if I beg hard enough someone will make these for me as a Mardi Gras gift .I really hate microwaves,they make us lazy popcorn eaten creatures.

Maybe the old lover was right maybe I should care because they care

DREAMS : The Children's Hour

This photograph Boy With Foxy Pop by Dawoud Bey intrigues me because I see myself in this little boy. It is hard to believe now, when children are treated as equals or friends who can express an opinion , that 50 years ago you if you were smart in most circumstances you repeated what adults wanted to hear.Not all kids got the message I guess they were the rebels . I was the observer from behind my eyes all I could do was stare. I was funny so funny I would fall off chairs laughing at improbable stories and loose thoughts that made little sense but the stories and laughter were like a drug to others. I was not the class clown there is always an edge.Then at about 45 I grew up. I miss falling off chairs in laughter the most.Laughing out loud too . The thing that remain was that odd sense that others never hearing what I said or what  I really felt...it is a mystery..I believe in what I say in the moment and then a new moment comes and I believe again.I like this kid unlike me he doesn't seem fazed by the camera.The picture for me has the contradictions I see in myself formal yet not too hot and cold but not warm

I never thought about living anywhere but Birmingham Alabama when I was a child,not brave enough and my dreams have always been small they could fit in my hand.I could whisper them to me .Love lead me away and when I am asked if I ever dream about returning home.The answer is one of my oldest dreams.Look a house,an entrance,a polished table ,a crystal vase in the vase magnolia leaves this photograph by Sylvia Plachy was taken in 2009 in Pike County Georgia ,leaves by god , dream and placement by me then I left.

To Kill A Mocking Bird

This blog was started as a satellite of Slowexsposure's and my exhibition Southern Memories in the fall of 2010 down in Concord Georgia. One of the many reasons I design that exhibition was the fact that I see so many photographs ,that touch me , flood me with emotions and memories, good and bad that I would like to share. Creating exhibitions force me to try and speak clearly to a large groups. I wish that the images could make a distinct language but I fear pictures are like words change with pitch.

The first time I read To Kill A Mocking Bird and the first time I saw the movie and the young actors who played in it they came from my home town, Birmingham Alabama.But for the life of me I can not remember how I met Hai Zhang.I know I took him to lunch in the Tower, and we have socialized over the last couple of years yet I still don't remember anything about the first time except when I went to his website

www. oceanmate.com

His pictures of a small lazy southern Alabama town amazed me. Here was an outsider who spoke to me and the pitch was right. I felt that place that thing of being exposed while in the shade . That balance between lush and spare All the contradictory moments of being human feeling that you and place are special yet knowing somewhere in some other place , someone is thinking feeling the same.

Hai has undated his website recently and I am still able to read what he is saying

MEMORY

These photographs were taken by Susan Kae Grant Sophie, Rene Effendi and Keith Carter Fireflies

Doing a blog is not easy if you are kinda shy, I stop posting because I have not decided what I want to do or show.I do not want an agenda on my blog maybe I just want to share random thoughts. My memory is a flowing mess so for the past week the lines of a Longfellow poem kept riffing through my head.I know that I learned it in grammar school.What year or day is not important. The opening stanza stays with me and some memorable images of child life that hints at secrets and wonder

The Children's Hour

Between the dark and the daylight,

When the night is beginning to lower,

Comes a pause in the days occupations,

That is known as the Children's Hour.

H.W.Longfellow

ON THE ROAD : drive through drive by drive in

The mysteries of the South are really based on being and not.The images here that should be sad or that may you angry when you look close are kinda funny .The images that should reassure can if you look carefully may make you feel sad and intrigue.These are about driving and stopping to take pictures.I like the idea of the road.One of my favorite lines in music is "The long and winding road..."Each day, new year opens up as a new road or path to follow.I love looking out of the window ,I must sit in the front seat. The artists top 2 photographs are by Hai Zhang take in Southern Alabama.Second row Atlanta, Marta Colton Vincent, Cemetery by Donna Rosser.Last pairing the road heading somewhere is by Brenda Fayard.The quick shot taken on a highway is by Jane Robbins Kerr

The Day After

Is the day to begin again.

Celebrating New Year : O CHRISTMAS TREE

My first Christmas in New York had a first New Year, I arrived in late November 1966 so my first New Year was spent watching the ball dropped in Times Square. I took a subway to 42nd Street alone in the early evening. There used to be a Howard Johnson on Broadway which I stopped into to have dinner.Then I wander up and down the avenue as other people streamed in to wait for the big moment.The fascination of being joined by so many people who wanted to be in the same place.I was young the future was not part of my thoughts , just that moment. Excitement,exciting as more and more people all covered in the residual happiness of Christmas kept coming into Times Square for that last hour to celebrate.In my small southern city there were only two types of people black or white men or women.To be here standing on a corner gave you a chance to see the world past by.I think back in the day Times Square use to be called the crossroads of the world.

Funny thing crowds in New York have a mysterious savage energy like a cat or a child that draws you in because you never know what to expect, 99 percent of the time . I think there were one or three TV cameras maybe a little planned entertainment .What I remember most was people being squeezed together saying hi and giving hugs and kisses a human warmth coming from smiles. The anticipation as if we were going to see the year changed visually .then the count down , the screams,squeals of joy lots of kissing , lots of hugging people hopping up and down horns popping corks more screams of happy new year.Ten minutes later you say to yourself what happened here. I was alone,I was with everyone it like a colossal one night stand. I headed over to Tad's Steak House (steak and potatoes and all the trimmings for $1.99 )for a late nite snack and a cigarette.

Before 9/11 all of this changed the city became afraid of itself,it also found out the importance of branding so things changed a lot.Other new year stories other new years,later

Last night I spent eating Chinese off of English plates ,listen to French love songs drinking Pepsi lite out of Swedish glasses.I received a few calls wishing me a happy new year( thank you Seattle.it was good hearing you ) At 11:45 I turned on the TV to watch the ball dropped,I had a friend here to watch also we had a glass of champagne,ate 12 grapes and open fortunes cookies, my cookie said you have a strong and sensitive personal nature. I put it in a memory jar.My resolution for 2011 is be a kinder person ,to be happy and to try and share my happiness more.

These two photographs are part of O CHRISTMAS TREE .I have been waiting to show them to you the black and white image is by Debbie Fleming Cafferey it is a picture of her mother kicking up her heels at a holiday party.When I saw this image it maded me happy and joyous, I knew this mad moment loved it and contacted Debbie to ask if I could share it with you. The color image is almost like a Mad Man scene .It is a fantasy of how we want Christmas to be, put them together and you can almost ...

Anyway have a healthy,prosperous new year, be happy be zany .be good be better

JB3