AR Day 4- Diamonds, Disability Rights, and Dens of Iniquity
Today started out with a trip to Baba Boudan's Coffee Bar in Fayetteville. This coffee shop could not have been more unassuming, sort of tucked to the side of a main road, but the coffee was probably the best I had in Arkansas. I got something called a Boiler, which was three shots of espresso finished with their house brewed coffee, so that was almost enough caffeine to keep me kicking for the day. It was amazing. I also got a breakfast burrito with eggs, cheese, and bacon which totally lived up to the expectations set by the coffee. Even better, the cafe is cash only so if you use their ATM they give you a free cookie to offset the withdrawal fee. I got a chocolate cookie and it was possibly the best part of the whole meal.
My first stop of the day after fueling up was to see a statue of Popeye in the small town of Alma. Alma has no official ties to the sailor man himself, but they have proclaimed themselves the spinach capital of the world, and every year they have a big spinach festival. The statue was originally a less impressive papier-mache sculpture, but it became such a popular attraction that eventually the town raised the funds for a more permanent bronze one. I used to really like Popeye cartoons growing up, and I even used to really like the Robin Williams live-action musical (which in adult retrospect was a coke-fueled disaster) so I got a big kick out of seeing him celebrated in a city park. The thing that really killed me though was how oddly well defined the statue's ass was because you know that was the artist's choice, since I don't imagine it comes up all that often in the cartoon.
After paying my respects to the spinach guzzling sailor, my next stop was the Regional Art Museum in Fort Smith. The museum was small, but it was free and the exhibits were very good.
The first floor exhibit was a showcase of an artist named Will Barnett. Barnett was known for very sleek yet expressive figurative paintings, drawings, and prints. He was really amazing, but what I felt was the most impressive part was that some of the later drawings were made when he was 100 years old! Imagine being that talented for that long!
My favorite pieces were of a drawing of a hilariously grumpy chubby child in a snowsuit, a drawing of two women and a staircase that captures a whole lot of emotion and personality in a very simple two dimensional space, and two color lithographs of women at rest, one hauntingly sleeping in a forrest and the other calmly reading in bed with a cat. His characters just so feel so rich and fully developed that I felt like I could read whole stories into his single freeze frames. I hope I can still do something that cool when I'm 100, but then again you all see what I eat everyday so who are we kidding to think that I'll even get that far?
The other big highlights from the Will Barnett exhibit for me were these woodcut prints of children because I am a sucker for both woodcuts and whenever artists do very serious work about children being silly so these were just completely in my wheel house.
The top floor exhibit was on the works of an acclaimed local artist named John Bell Jr. His works serves as a really nice counterpoint to those of Will Barnett. Where Barnett's art was elegantly clean and simple, Bell's paintings were lushly colored and richly detailed, alternating between impressionistic and highly realistic. His landscapes and portraits were totally absorbing.
The two main series of works collected in this exhibit were either of peaceful moments with his family or of historical scenes of downtown Fort Smith. I think the tenderness of the family scenes really packed a beautiful emotional wallop that made them a highlight for me, but the attention to period details in the historical scenes also blew me away. The historical facts I was happiest to learn were that For Smith is home to the first brothel ever entered into the National Registry of Historic Places and that the last words of the noted outlaw Cherokee Bill before he was hanged were "Goodbye all you chums down that way". My personal favorites of Bell's paintings are below:
And now that you've seen how amazing John Bell Jr's works are, I'll reveal perhaps the most incredible part of all. Bell was born with cerebral palsy, spent his whole life in a wheelchair, and only had complete functionality in one of his hands. I kept that bit of info back so that his paintings could be appreciated for their own merit, because he never considered himself a "handicapped artist". The paintings are objectively great no matter who made them, but the fact that he overcame so much especially being given that diagnosis in 1937 when disability awareness and services weren't exactly the best in the world (John's parents were told he would only live a few weeks) , does make him even more incredible just as a strong and indomitable person beyond being such a gifted artist. And while he did not want to be defined by his disability, he did use his acclaim to give back to the handicapped community going on tours of National Parks with his wife to campaign for more handicap accessibility so that everyone could enjoy the actual beautiful places he painted. I'll be honest I started crying a little bit reading about that, because working with children with various disabilities has been a huge part of my life and I thought John Bell's story was such a powerful example of how important it is to not underestimate the drive and talents of that community.
As I said, the museum was not very large so those two exhibits were basically the entire museum, though the basement did have a space for young kids to play and do community art works. Along the walls of the basement were pieces by different area schoolchildren representing their visions of the future. Art by children is always really endearing, but unsurprisingly the quality can vary quite a lot among age groups, so I was actually really impressed by how talented some of these young kids were. Their visions for the future were also so positive it was hard not to love them, I just really hope they're right.
When I left the museum, I decided to go visit that nationally recognized historic brothel, but I got instantly side tracked by a cool looking antique store called Belle Starr Antique Mall. I always love seeing what kinds of weird things end up in these places, and I'm constantly fascinated by how any antique store ever has stayed in business. Personally in Belle Starr's case, I think it probably has something to do with their fearless captain.
Or perhaps they stay in business because people like me can't resist buying albums of obscure English chamber pop because of the insane man-penguin album art. I did end up really enjoying the album, but the art was especially captivating.
I did eventually manage to tear myself away from the antiques and pay a brief visit to the historic Miss Laura's Social Club. It is now a much more wholesome town visitor center, but it's seedier origins are still celebrated.
After bidding farewell to Fort Smith, I made my way to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfeesboro. Crater of Diamonds was the first site outside of South Africa where Diamonds were found in their natural state, and it is the only diamond mine in the world that is open to the public. The state park contains 37.5 acres of plowed earth where visitors can seek to find diamonds and other precious minerals of their own. There is a small admittance fee, and if you really wanna make a day of it you can also rent mining supplies, but anything you find is yours to keep. If you're like me, you're probably wondering, what are the odds that anyone ever finds anything? Well it turns out that on average at least two diamonds are found every day! It's like a lottery combined with a beautiful hiking area. I didn't have any luck finding anything more than a few shiny pieces of quartz and sandstone, but I had a nice time just enjoying being outside and digging. It felt like being a little kid in a sandbox again, except there was a slight chance you could win big-time cashola. I'd definitely recommend anybody go if they're in the area because it's really not like anywhere else.
Besides the main outdoor area, there was also a visitor's center with facts about the mining history of the region including a rivalry between two different businesses trying to operate tourist attractions on the same diamond field until eventually they got consolidated into what we have today. They also had exhibits explaining the different ways diamonds are assigned value and how they can be distinguished authentically from other similar gems. Also on display was the Strawn-Wagner Diamond, the most perfect diamond ever found in the United States receiving certified perfect scores in cut, color, and flawless clarity, and considered an extremely rare and valuable find. It was not on display, but if you were curious the largest diamond ever found in the Crater of Diamond fields was the Uncle Sam Diamond clocking in at 40.23 carats!
When I made it back to Fayetteville, where I had dinner at a funky basement restaurant called Hugo's, home of supposedly the best burger in Fayetteville. I'm not sure about the other burgers in Fayetteville, but this one was incredible. I got a guacamole burger, which is not any more complicated than it sounds, but both the guacamole and the patty were perfectly done. I don't know how they got it to be so juicy but there's no way I'm complaining about it. I washed it all down with a bourbon barrel Belgian ale from Ozark Beer Company, and it was a perfect dinner.
On the way back to my Air BnB, I got a hankering to stop at a nearby ice cream place called Maggie Moos. I guess they're a national chain, but I'd never heard of them before, so I still felt like I was getting to try out something new. I got a coconut ice cream with kit kat bars mixed in, and I was very happy with my purchase. Not too bad a way to any day if you ask me.
Favorite Random Sightings: The Whole Pet (I like the implication that other pet stores might try to sell you an incomplete pet); Greased Pig Lube and Tune; Grenade Holiness Church; Spongebob's Car Wash (I would have assumed there were rules against blatantly using a well established character as your mascot, but I guess no one from Nickelodeon is checking out car washes in rural Arkansas)
Regional Observations: THis probably won't be as shocking to people not born in the Puritan northeast , but I saw my first Taco Bell Cantina, a taco bell that also serves booze, in Fayetteville and my world is upside down.
Albums Listened To: The Pietasters 1992-1996 (Discs 1 and 3) by the Pietasters; Broadcasting from Home by Penguin Cafe Orchestra; Pin Points and Gin Joints by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones (just Graffiti Worth Reading); Pinata by Freddie Gibbs and Madlib (just an incredible album with top notch producer/performer synergy and some killer features); Pineapple Grenade by Ballyhoo! (just Battle Cry)
People's Favorite Jokes:
"The biggest joke is always our Cheeto-in-Chief"
Songs of the day:
This is very surreal, but I was at this halloween ska concert (Skalloween naturally) 6 years ago, and I just found this video where if you look closely you can very clearly see me and my friend Dan in the bottom right hand corner whenever they pan to the front row.
He’s got such a cool flow
Featuring some candid footage of the band when they’re not playing