AL Day 7 - Rust, Robots, and Rock Bridges
Today started with the last of my three chocolates from yesterday, the Mommy Dearest, which was a candy bar with coconut, caramel, and almonds dipped in dark chocolate and topped with coconut and sea salt. It was my favorite of the three chocolates and a great way to start the day.
I then took a trip to my nearest O’Henry’s coffee. O’Henry’s is a local coffee chain with 4 locations in Birmingham and one in Tuscaloosa, so I suspect they will slowly take over Alabama and then surely the world. The coffee was very good, and it was a pretty cozy location in the suburbs with lots of people hanging out and/or jogging. Jogging might be one the biggest signs of gentrification there is. I also walked by a group of college aged guys trying to use sticks to unlock the car they presumably locked their keys in. Either that or they are the most brazen car thieves I’ve ever seen just going for it at 10 in the morning. It’s funny how rarely people stop to ask you questions if you look like you know what you’re doing.
When I was walking back to my car, i saw this vending machine at a laundromat. The trend of kids eating tide pods on youtube is remarkably stupid, but it can’t exactly be helping if they’re literally in the same machine as the candy. Also in case anyone was wondering, no the college bros never unlocked their car in the time it took for me to get my coffee.
My last big stop in Birmingham was the Sloss Furnaces. These furnaces were once the largest manufacturers of pig iron in the world, and the jobs and commerce provided by the factory essentially drove Birmingham’s rise into a prominent prosperous city. The furnaces ran from 1882 to 1970, and I like what the city has chosen to do with them since they’ve closed down. Rather than tearing down all the rusted metal that helped build the city, they got it classified as a national historic landmark, and they turned the furnace area into a workspace for artists working in metals and the grounds into a walking museum as well as an occasional music venue. It’s so great to see something beautiful and celebratory coming out of what could have easily turned into just another hunk o’ junk shut-down factory.
In the visitor center where they give you a map to do your own self-guided tour (which is free!) there is also a display of the most recent artwork made by one of the most recent Artist in Residence, Ajene Williams. It’s incredible how dynamic and lifeline his sculptures are made out of such dull, cold materials. I thought they were really impressive, particularly his statue of a lizard entitled ‘Awaken’ presumably because it captures the exact moment that lizard woke up from having a nightmare. What would a lizard have nightmares about? These are the kinds of questions art should make you ask yourself.
After looking at the metal art, I then toured the grounds getting a feel for the pig iron making process. It seems like absolutely back breaking labor, but because it required such skill that at the time could not be achieved by machine there was a great deal of pride in it. One worker said of the difficulty of the work, “if it were possible to employ horses, mules, oxen to do this work, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to dumb animals would have interfered long ago, and rightfully so”
I was really impressed doing the walking tour of the whole process the way the informational markers gave an overview of the technological, historical, and social aspects of each stop. This greater context added some impressive lakers to stops that for the most part really weren’t all that much to look at it on their own. The things I found most fascinating to read about were the first hand accounts from former workers in the factory about their tasks and day to day experiences. The race relations on the job site were particularly interesting to me as Black workers were always given the most dangerous jobs and even when they excelled they almost never were put up for promotions. One former Black worker had an incredible quote about this saying “There wasn’t nothing you could do about it at that time, white folks had been white folks all their lives.” What an elegant and pithy summation of the concept of privilege and how much people just don’t even see discrimination happening when they’re benefitting from it.
The coolest part of the actual factory itself was the underground tunnels where the raw iron ores, limestone, and coke were mined and transported in little cars to a big hoist that took them up into big furnace. I was not expecting to plunge into the underworld today but I was into it.
Along the outskirts of the actual factory was a nice little sculpture trail featuring more metal work art. I was deeply impressed with the range of styles and textures different artists were able to summon.
My favorite piece was easily this very sarcastically entitled statue called “Self Portrait” by John Stewart Jackson.
And just in case you were wondering just what the heck pig iron actually is, like I was just about the whole damn time I was walking around the place, the best explanation came at the end of the whole thing with a big pig of iron. Iron doesn’t exist as a pure metal in nature but instead as an iron ore. Heating it with a carbon rich substance such as charcoal, removes the oxygen for the ore leaving molten iron The “pig" part refers to the shape of the dripping metal bars off of a pipe resembling piglets nursing at a sow. I guess Nipple Iron just didn’t catch on.
After these impressive works of man it was time to take in some impressive works of nature. I drove up to see the world’s largest Naturally occurring Rock Bridge in a town called Natural Bridge (what a coincidence!). The bridge clocks in at 148 feet long and 60 feet tall and is now part of a state park on what used be land belonging to the Creek Indian Confederation. A fun historical sidenote is that the county the park is in opposed seceding during the civil war and remained a neutral "free state” once the rest of Alabama joined the confederacy.
Because it’s a state park and has to be maintained and stuff there’s a very small admittance fee to go see the bridge and use the walking trails but it’s well worth it. The woman at the cash register gave me a little pamphlet and said I couldn’t miss the bridge it would be right after the giant Indian head. While not quite impressive as the Bridge, the giant Indian Head makes for a two-for-one impressive geological specimens deal. Nobody knows for sure if the shape happened due to natural processes or if the Indians who used to live there before written records carved it intentionally. It makes for a fun little mystery.
Of course the big showstopper is the bridge itself, which is absolutely stunning. It arches over a cool little grotto like area, and it’s amazing such a perfectly carved scene just occurred essentially due to well placed random water droplets over millions of years.
I didn’t do the full loop of the hiking trails because I was anxious to get back on the road, but what I did see was really impressive with some more smaller scale wonders of naturally occurring geological shapes. One kid got so excited over the rocks that I think I just watched a geologist get born. Based off my friends that are really into geology, I think it’s much more of a passion than a mere academic interest.
Naturally it took every ounce of restraint in my body to not buy one of these real raccoon skin caps from the bridge gift store.
My next stop was Tuscaloosa, one of the biggest cities in Alabama I had missed so far and also according Groucho Marx an excellent place to hunt elephants. The first thing I wanted to see was Goldie- 1971, a giant sculpture of a rusty, sleeping robot in a quad on the University of Alabama's campus. It was really impressive, and reminded me of the Iron Giant one of the greatest movies of all time as far as I am concerned. Along with Of Mice and Men, it's one of the only works of art that makes me cry every damn time no matter how much I know what's going to happen.
My next stop was the Tuscaloosa Museum of Art. It was open late and free to get in which was very much my speed. What I didn’t expect was that it would be in a giant pagoda hidden in the woods. It used to belong to Jack Warner of Gulf States Paper (now the Westervelt company), and, seemingly like a lot of old rich white people, he had a big old boner for exoticism. The pagoda was also still a a functioning business office for the Westervelt company so some of the hallways were off limits for museum goers. This was easily one of the strangest “traditional;” art museums I’ve ever been in.
Once getting over that strangeness though, it was a really good museum. The total collection spans over 1000 works of fine and decorative arts, including some pretty big names (read names I recognized) including James A. M. Whistler, Robert Henri, and William Merritt Chase among many others. Not bad for a little pagoda in the woods.
The thing that I found most surprising were war painting by Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper. That kind of genre work seems out of their more traditional wheel houses, but they didn’t skimp on adding their own touches. Hopper’s civil war soldiers look just as isolated and lonely as his 30s housewives, and Wyeth's Washington and Lafeyette look much more wispy and dreamlike than most other representations of them.
Other highlights for me included an impressionistic horse painting by John Singer Sargent; a beautiful painting called Magnolia Loading Cotton by Moonlight by John Stobart that captures moonlight reflecting off water in a really lovely way; a funny painting called Uninvited Guests by Edward Lamson Henry that shows a bunch of animals walking into a house after an old man falls asleep with the door open; Niagra Falls as documented by Albert Bierstadt; a really lonely and bleak looking Western scene by Frederic Remington; and an early sketch by Mary Cassatt showing her process (I think she's maybe the best artist at drawing babies I've ever seen, which is actually saying something because so many paintings of babies look like weird space aliens).
In the main lobby of the pagoda was also a small but interesting gallery of "primitive" art from around the world.
After the museum I set out to get dinner, but I couldn't resist stopping to take some photographs of this beautiful sunset over the Black Warrior River. I feel like students at the University of Alabama must have seen this a thousand times, but to me it was pretty dang stunning.
For dinner, I went to the highly-recommended DePalma's Italian Cafe. I really liked it from the moment I walked in mainly because of the big sign above the kitchen that said Pharmacy and a poster on the wall for a shockingly blunt titled old gangster movie called the Crime Smasher.
All the food is made fresh daily, and the prices are exceedingly reasonable for the quality and portions you get. I ordered the Pasta DePalma because it had basically everything a boy could want. The dish included angel hair pasta baked in a fresh rosemary cream sauce with garlic, ricotta, rosemary, and oregano, and then topped with mushrooms, a big old glob of mozzarella, and your choice of ham, chicken, Italian sausage, or artichoke hearts. I got the chicken and I was very happy with everything. If you're lactose intolerant though, this might have killed you because it was one of the cheesiest and creamiest pasta dishes I've ever had. The chicken was really good, but I think the mushrooms might have stolen the show as far as mix-ins went, and the fresh pasta couldn't have been much better. The meal also came with some mighty fine garlic bread, and to wash it down I got the Ghost Train Terminal Station Brown ale because I still felt a little bad for not going to their brewery.
After dinner, I went to Nehemiah's Coffee House, a pleasant little coffee shop run by a Baptist Church with all volunteer staff. The coffee was very good, and you felt like they had a strong sense of community which was really nice. And with that last caffeine boost, I bid Alabama a fond farewell and made my way to Jackson, Mississippi.
Favorite Random Sightings: Sneaky Pete's; Ram Tools; Beans and Cream (I think it was coffee and ice cream, but I pictured baked beans and it was kinda gross); Sudsonator
Regional Observations: Tuscaloosa really feels like two different cities on either side of the river. One side is very industrial and strip mall heavy, and then once you cross the river you're on the university campus and it becomes a totally suburban college town.
Albums Listened To: Omnibus: Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films by Various Artists (This is a real weird one with the likes of Tom Waits, The Replacements, Yma Sumac, and so many more doing medleys of old Disney songs); On How Life Is by Macy Gray (this is the biggest guilty pleasure on my iPod. I love this album, and I will not apologize for it); On Juhu Beach by the Mountain Goats (just Burned my Tongue); On the Corner by Miles Davis (not one of my favorites); On the Rag Time by Vic Ruggiero (just Vic and a piano, a lot of his solo stuff is guitar heavy so it's nice to see what he can do on the ivories); On the Road Live '92 by Big Audio Dynamite (just Rush); One and Only by Jim Palana (little 7" my dad made for my mom either for her birthday or Valentine's day one year); One Hit Wonder by Various Artists (just Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) by Looking Glass); One Step Beyond by Madness
Alabama Superlatives:
Favorite Coffee: Satellite in Birmingham
Favorite Beer: Haint Blue Porter
Favorite Bar: The Merry Widow in Mobile
Favorite Restaurant: Saw's Barbecue in Birmingham for pure food; the Ol Heidelburg Cafe in Huntsville for all around
Favorite Open Mic: Goulash Comedy in Birmingham
Favorite Burger: Hamburger King in Montgomery
Favorite Attraction: the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery
General Impression of the Comedy Scene: Honestly Mobile and Birmingham had two of the nicest, funniest, and most supportive comedy scenes I've encountered so far, and I only regret that I caught them in a snow storm and couldn't see more
People's Favorite Jokes of the day:
Nothing today so hers's one from the internet:
A new patient was quite upset when the doctor’s nurse led him to a small, curtained cubicle and told him to undress. "But I only want the doctor to look at an ingrown toenail!" he protested. "Our rule is that everyone must undress," replied the blond nurse. "That’s a stupid rule," grumbled the patient, "making me undress just to look at my toe." "That’s nothing," growled a voice from the next cubicle. "I just came to fix the phones!"
Songs of the day:
This is horrifying
two old friends just messing around in Germany.
This might be the whitest, gawkiest, most British thing ever committed to film and I love it