Mississippi Day 1- Confederates, Catfish, and Comedy
My first day in Mississippi started with a trip to one of my favorite named coffee shops, Sneaky Beans. I got their signature drink a Sneaker which is coffee mixed with chocolate, hazelnut, and caramel. It was a lot, but it was mighty tasty. The cafe also had a super cool aesthetic, friendly service, and the most mischievous little bean as a logo. That guy is up to something.
Once I got my coffee, I decided to drive to Biloxi which was a bit of a hike, but It was closer to where the open mic would be and it actually had museums that were open on Mondays which were two big pluses. I worked up quite an appetite on the drive over so I stopped at my second restaurant of the day to have a truly ridiculous name: Slap Ya Mama's Barbecue. The name comes from the fact that food will "be so good you'll wanna slap ya momma!" It's bold marketing to bring slapping people's moms into things, but they lean into the silliness with big pig paintings on the outdoor walls and a personalized vehicle that's slightly hard to miss.
I don't think I could slap my momma and live to talk about it, but the food did love up to the hype. They were having a lunch special for $6 beef brisket sandwiches and it might be the best meal deal I've ever encountered. The brisket was tender, savory, and covered in BBQ sauce and crispy onion straws. As good as the inside was, the outside might have been even better with the lightly fried and buttered sourdough bun taking everything up to another level. The side of macaroni and cheese didn't hurt much neither.
After lunch I went to Beauvoir, the house and library of the only president of the confederacy, Jefferson Davis. I was a little on the fence about this one I’ll be honest, because I wasn’t sure if they’d be relatively objective or entirely celebratory. I know the Civil War was about more than just Slavery, but it was too much of a major issue that I was gonna have a difficult time with anything that celebrated Davis without acknowledging this. I get that people want to celebrate family history's of military valor, but there has to be a way to celebrate the people without celebrating the cause, right? These pajama pants in the house gift shop didn’t exactly instill me with confidence.
I decided it would be worth seeing the house though, because, even though I’ve heard a lot about the history of the Civil War, I realized that I didn’t actually know much at all about the man at the head of the confederacy, and skipping it would be letting my own biases deprive me of new information.
As it turned it out, my worries were unfounded and the house and library were really interesting and tastefully done. Davis was a much more complicated character than I had expected. I suppose his moderateness was probably a large factor in him being chosen as the president as opposed to some of the more virulent Southern politicians.
The museum portion of Beauvoir started with a hallway of posters explaining a bit about Jeff Davis' life and career. The thing I was most surprised to learn was that Davis actually had an adopted son of mixed race ancestry named Jim Limber. In general while his racial views would fall short of today's standards, he did seem relatively progressive compared to his contemporaries. The family plantation run by his brother, Joseph, allowed their slaves to read and write and govern themselves in an experimental attempt to try to create a slave utopia (which seems a bit like an oxymoron to me). Once the Civil war ended, Joseph sold his property to former slave, Ben Montgomery, who continued to run the farm, now called Mound Bayou, as a safe haven and working community for freed Blacks. His son, Isaiah, became the first Black mayor. As a senator, Davis was also a big proponent of free immigration and open borders. I wonder how people with confederate flags on their porches would feel about that.
After the little hall of history, I went to the second floor of the museum building while I waited for my house tour to be ready. The second floor had civil war exhibits, Davis memorabilia, and Jeff's presidential library. It also had this collection of debutante Barbie dolls. I don't know why they creep me out so much, but they really really did.
The civil war artifacts were particularly cool. They had paintings of Davis, muskets, a presidential carriage, and shrapnel from old-fashioned mortars and cannons.
My favorite item though was this woman's overcoat Jefferson Davis was wearing when Union soldiers caught him fleeing at the end of the war. It is unclear if he tried to escape detection disguised as a woman, or if his valet just gave him the heavy shawl by accident to help him keep warm. I do like the idea of him being the confederate Mrs. Doubtfire though.
The library was pretty interesting too, with some of Davis' actual books as well as more contemporary scholarship about him and the Civil War in general. They also have pretty complete army records for the confederacy so a lot of people like to go there to research their ancestry which is pretty neat. I didn't have time to do any researching (plus I'm 99.9% sure that none of my family was even on this continent yet), so my favorite part of the library was the dioramas and paintings of civil war battlefields.
After the library, it was time for my tour of the actual Davis Home. Say what you will of the man who lived there, Beauvoir is a beautiful home. The raised Louisiana-styled cottage cottage was initially built as a summer home for James Brown, a wealthy plantation owner and entrepreneur. The house then came into the possession of Sarah Ann Dorsey, a historian and novelist who was sympathetic to the confederacy. By the time Jeff Davis was released from prison, she was a very wealthy widow, and he had almost nothing so she invited him and his family to live at her house while he wrote his memoir. On her deathbed, she left it to him in her will, and he stayed there until his own death.
I also enjoyed that Jeff Davis had a special sit down wash basin right in the bedroom because he would get uncomfortable in tubs. I don't care how long you've been married that's some comfort with one another, because there's no way sitting in that thing was a flattering image.
Probably the thing I was most interested to learn while I was there was that the confederate flag design that most people think of wasn't the actual flag of the entire confederacy. The flag that Davis flew over his White House looked much more like the original circle of stars flag from when there were just 13 colonies. The image most people think of was actually the Beauregard Battle Flag. The actual flag was too similar to the Union flag, so they created a more distinguishable flag to wear into battle to prevent friendly fire. The flag was initially just one regiment's and lots of different generals had their own battle flag, so I asked my tour guide how it became the prominent image it did. He explained that it got adopted by the confederate navy and then later Robert E. Lee, which is how it started to get into the national consciousness. Though the thing that honestly put it over the edge into people's minds, was it's adoption as the flag of, to quote my guide, "those damn fools in the KKK". I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with having Southern pride, but it seems to me if there are two flags an easy solution to the debate around confederate flag imagery would be to just use the flag that isn't also associated with a current hate group.
After the Davis house, I started driving to an art museum and saw not one but two novelty stores with giant animal mouth sculptures around their front doors. I loved it.
The museum I went to next was the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Nearby Ocean Springs. Walter Anderson. Walter Anderson was a renowned painter, sculptor, and printmaker, but bouts of severe mental illness and volatile episodes led to him eventually retreating to a small island off the coast of Mississippi to live a hermetic life. This reclusiveness likely kept him from reaching the heights of success he may have deserved. On the bright side though, if this bust of him is any indication he may have been one of the few people in this world who could really rock a fedora.
At the cashier's recommendation, I started by visiting the Ocean Springs Community Center which is attached to the museum. This is because Anderson designed the murals for the center along every wall. The murals were absolutely stunning explosions of colors. They were loosely dedicated to capturing the history of the region as well its flora and fauna. It was a pretty incredible introduction to what Anderson was capable of when he was allowed to let his imagination run wild. His style reminds me of a mix of modern impressionism and cave drawings. Everything had a weird not quite two/not quite three-dimensional feel to it that made the painting seem to jump off the wall.
After the community center was the main museum collection. This included hundreds of works by Walter, as well as some by his brothers Peter (a celebrated potter) and James (another painter). The works of all the Andersons were done in a variety of styles but a few themes emerged most notably for the natural world around them. Walter's water colors of nature scenes were real highlights for their kinda lyrical use of shapes and color.
One of the coolest collections in the museum, as well as one of the things Walter received the most acclaim for during his life time, was his series of massive linoleum block prints of whimsical nature and fairytale scenes. The blocks worked similarly to wood cuts and could be used to mass produce images. Walter wanted to create fine art that everyone could afford so he used his blocks to make prints on inexpensive wallpapers. Some of the block prints were over 30' long which made them the largest art prints ever produced in America at the time. They were considered so impressive both in scale and in the way they crammed such impressive imagery into thin 2D spaces that they got their own exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. I have to agree they were really something special.
Next up came the Little Room, a small room that Walter would retreat to while not on his island. He wouldn't let anybody go inside, and when he died his wife finally opened the door and discovered that he had completely covered the room floor to ceiling in spectacular murals. This was probably my favorite room in the whole museum because it just had a real magical and tranquil quality to it. They also had some big photographs of other rooms that Walter had not quite finished painted to show his process.
The last room in the museum had a series of drawings and water colors he made of city scenes. These were really cool because they showed that while he found piece alone in nature, he wasn't really a misanthrope and he thought people and cities were beautiful too. He just couldn't handle them personally. He's definitely a bit of a tragic figure, but super freaking talented.
My favorite pieces from the entire collections were these block prints from a children's book Walter made called Robinson: The Pleasant History of an Unusual Cat; a mural he made for the Jackson Courthouse that never officially got put up, and a sort of Picasso-y oil painting of his friend Allison done on wooden boards.
I found out that the Anderson family pottery company, Shearwater Pottery, where all the Anderson brothers got their commercial starts, was still open to the public so I made a little pilgrimage. They were very nice to let me just bop around and look at everything without buying anything. With the exception of some unfortunately dated figurines of African-Americans, everything was really incredible, showing some free flowing imaginative designs even on commonplace tableware. My personal favorite was a little ceramic David and Goliath that really captured their size differences in an amusing way.
With that I made my to Hattiesburg where the open mic would be. Hattiesburg isn't a particularly huge city, but they actually have a pretty strong comedy reputation, even getting name-dropped in the title of Todd Barry's book Thank You For Coming to Hattiesburg. Before the open mic though, I needed some more coffee. I stopped at a place called T-Bones Records and Cafe. They supposedly have some of the best coffee and sandwiches in the city, and they're a pretty cool record store to boot which is a dangerous combination for me. I managed to show some restraint for once, and only got a coffee. I got something called The Jam, which is they say is their strongest possible cold brew which I needed. It was really good and full of caffeine, so double whammy. They also had some cool, creepy wooden sculptures by the bathroom. so triple whammy.
Positively buzzing, I set off for where the open mic would be. IT was at place called the Neal House, a neat little bar above a highly recommended restaurant called the Keg and Barrel. I signed up for the mic, and then went downstairs for some dinner. I got some grilled lemon pepper catfish with cheesy grits and veggies. To wash it down I got tSouthern Prohibition's Spoils of War Imperial Stout, which was very good and also very strong. Everything was incredible. The veggies were sautéed and well-seasoned, the grits were rich and creamy, and the catfish was perfectly grilled to e soft on the inside but with a nice crispy char on the outside.
I dragged my sagging belly back up the stairs and got ready for the open mic. This was basically the biggest weekly comedy mic in the whole state, so there was a good turn out of comics. Everyone was really friendly to me before the stage, roping me on the hottest gossip about a fight that broke out in a comedy show in Columbia, SC between a comic they all knew and a heckler.
On stage, they brought the funny with a pretty big range of experience and styles across the comics making for a really solid show that let new people get a solid go at things without ever having too long to wait before a more seasoned comic took the stage and crushed it for five minutes. It was what an open mic should be like, and everyone stuck around watched each other, and there was even a really decent audience of non-comics for a Monday night. There was even a really sweet pair of very old Black ladies who asked all the comics for their autographs after show. It was incredibly cute.
I would have a tough time picking a favorite comic of the night because there were a lot of strong ones, but I think my favorite bit belonged to a fellow traveling comic named Brett Hern about rednecks watching the olympics. "All the normal rednecks rules go out the window when they get really into it. It's the only time of year when you can walk into a redneck bar and hear someone say 'Turn that college football off, figure skating's about to start!'"
Other highlights for me:
Joe Carlisle (host)- I've never been in a feud. I think you have to own land to be in a feud.
Deveron Dennis- I think I might be gay. Have you seen this guy they got now called Bruno Mars?
Ben Compson- I've got bi-racial kids. The other day I asked my daughter if I could borrow some money and she said that she'd rather keep her money within the Black community. I couldn't tell if I was pissed off or proud of her.
Toya Freed - My daughter accidentally ate KY jelly.
I also need to highlight perhaps the most surreal set I've ever seen that closed out the show. Mitch the Science Guy, an actual Ph.D Student who after the show described his act to me as Andy Kaufman Science lessons, got up on stage and said, "I think I would be a pretty good mate evolutionarily. I think I have pretty good sperm, and I'd like to demonstrate that to you all now. Can I get a volunteer?" This was already pretty funny to me, but I did not see what happened next coming at all, which is absolutely a compliment to the act. A volunteer from the audience was given a big wooden stick, and then Mitch tore off his shirt to reveal that he had the words "Good Sperm" written on his bare chest. The volunteer was then asked to hit him on the back as hard as she could. She obliged. The host then took a few swings at it, and then Mitch turned the audience and said with a perfect dead pan, "Am I more attractive to you all now?" I was in awe.
My own set went pretty well. I went third or fourth to last, so I was very impressed that the audience was still so attentive and into things by the time I got there. I had a little energy dip in the middle, but I started and ended strong which is all any usually remembers anyway. Plus I was wearing a flannel shirt, which led to the host giving me the sweet nickname "Baby Lumberjack". (*Side note, I've found that in general if a comic teases you or references your act in their set without being mean, it's actually one of the best compliments you can get because it shows that they A. remember you and B. think you're funny enough to take a ribbing). Not a bad way to end the day.
Favorite Random Sightings: D'Tangles; Two Leaves and a Bud (tea drinking with friends); Sir Speedy; Swanky Vapes; Ed's Quickie (normally ED gets in the way of a quickie); Dandy Dans; Chubby Cheeks Pre-School; Jazzmo
Regional Observations: I love love love the added R's in really thick southern drawls. My tout guide at the Jeff Davis referred to George Worshington, and it still makes me happy,
Albums Listened To: One Trick Pony by Paul Simon (an absolutely amazing album that was unfortunately saddled to being the soundtrack of a good but very forgettable movie); One True Vine by Mavis Staples (she's just the best); Ongaku by Uzuhi (this Japanese punk band opened for some Boston guys I really like and they were one of the most fun opening acts I've ever seen. They got a crowded room of Boston punks to sit on the ground and sway for a big sing along finish. It was magical); Only Built 4 Linx by Raekwon (considered with Liquid Swords to be the one of the best Wu Tang solo albums. I'd put either Fishscale or Supreme Clientele first because I have a soft spot for the Ghostface Killah, but its a great album nonetheless)
People's Favorite Jokes: I didn't get any today so here's one from the internet.
A man and a woman have just had their 50th wedding anniversary. The husband turns to his wife and asks, "What do you want to do to celebrate our anniversary dear?" She replies, "Let's run upstairs and make love." He turns to her and says, "Well make up your mind, we can't do both!"
Songs of the Day:
What an amazing band, and I love that in the late 70s early 80s, movies had no problem letting people look sweaty and gross.
Pure and unfiltered power and beauty.
What a bunch of lovable goofballs
