Spring Break 2015: "The Delta Hot Tamale Tour!"

“We were always looking for true north

With our heads in the clouds, just a little off course

I left the motor running, now if you're feeling down and out

Come on Baby drive south, with the one you love

Come on Baby drive south, with the one you love”-Drive South by John Hiatt



 

Soooo…. I am used to being lied to.  The government...Lawyers…. as a younger man occasionally women and certainly by my children.  Still, even at 53, even after watching Missouri’s Republican Legislature for several years, I can be shocked by the lies I am confronted with even (GASP!) on the Internet.  That is right, lies on Al Gore’s own Internet!

Perhaps the rest of you have not had these occasions and if you have avoided the heartless cruelty of being misled on line I urge you to close your computer browser now and keep it closed forever to avoid the heartache which has indeed cut me so close to the bone.
 

As some of you might know I have a penchant for tamales.  Going to school in Texas we would drive north to a place called Picks Tamales in Ardmore Oklahoma.  We would drive north and get a sack (about 40) and a case of beer and drive back to Fort Worth.  Tamales in St. Louis are limited to the ones you can find at good Mexican Restaurants that have popped up around town over the last 10 years.  Cherokee Street and Overland have places and I am told about a place called Mamis down on Bayless that I have not tried https://plus.google.com/116281950888952263616/about?gl=us&hl=en

but generally the tamales tend to be fairly bland but are given flavor by the tomatillo or other suaces that they come with.  This had driven me to make my own tamales from a web recipe which have been excellent although time consuming to make and also of the same masa heavy (though mine are spicy) recipe.
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/tamales/Gather_Tamale_Ingredients.htm
 

But I had done some reading and the reading had led me to a holy grail chase for the the “hot tamale” of the Mississippi Delta and that led me to a web site that was the answer to my prayers! The Southern Food Alliance had put together a history and explanation of the Delta Hot Tamale! http://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/hot-tamale-trail/ ,  Along with it they had provided me with a map!

The map was beautiful!  It was interactive!  You click on a star and it tells you about the proprietor and gives a cute history of how they came to be making tamales and gave their address and their phone number, the proprietors name!  Why...for a 53 year old white man with too much time on his hands this was a “vision quest”... a reason for living.  Unfortunately, for those of you not familiar with the Mississippi Delta… it is a long way from St. Louis.  It takes a commitment to get there and there is no other reason to ever go there.  Poverty wise, economy wise, tourism wise… there ain't no reason to go there.  It runs like the river from Memphis down to New Orleans.  The ONLY reason tourism wise to go is to follow the Blues Trail which charts black musicians as they fled the Delta to head north to Memphis, St. Louis and Chicago.  That is not much motivation… even for a person as abjectly pointless as myself.

But just look at this map!  It is an enticing prospect!

But why?  Why dear reader would I ever have motivation to travel 250-300 miles south along the river.  Memphis is 5 hours south of the Lou.  If I want to go to New Orleans I fly over this alluvial plain.  The answer was one you would expect.  My 22 year old daughter, a senior in college had no Spring Break plans.  We now have relatives in Baton Rouge so… why not a little drive south?

I was not at all certain this attempt at child abuse with my daughter would work but I sweetened it with:

1.    I would pay for everything

2.    We would spend 2 days in Nashville with friends getting drunk and listening to music.

3.    She could take a friend along

4.    I would pay for everything;

5.    After staying in Baton Rouge, I would fly home and she and her friend could return north without me! ;and

6.    I would pay for everything.

Pretty tempting.  And although I can only think of a handful of people, including my son Jon and of course sick, sad people like Rodney Barodte, who would make this trip, my daughter is if nothing else, cheap.  So we left Nashville and headed for Memphis taking LOOONG way to Baton Rouge.  We headed down Highway 61 which follows the Delta Blues Trail.  Robert Johnson, (as we all know) sold his soul to the devil to learn how to play guitar as he did at the intersection of Highway 61 and Highway 49...the crossroads.  Johnson also loved hot tamales and recorded a song enshrining them in history:

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got'em for sale

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got'em for sale

I got a girls, say she long and tall

She sleeps in the kitchen with her feets in the hall

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got'em for sale, I mean

Yes, she got'em for sale, yeah Hot tamales and they're red hot,

yes she got'em for sale

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got'em for sale

She got two for a nickel, got four for a dime

Would sell you more, but they ain't none of mine

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got'em for sale, I mean

Yes, she got'em for sale, yes, yeah Hot tamales and they're red hot,

yes she got'em for sale

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got'em for sale

I got a letter from a girl in the room

Now she got something good she got to bring home soon, now

Its hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got em for sale, I mean

Yes, she got'em for sale, yeah Hot tamales and they're red hot,

yes she got em for sale

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got em for sale

(spoken) They're too hot boy!

The billy got back in a bumble bee nest

Ever since that he can't take his rest, yeah

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes you got'em for sale, I mean

Yes, she got'em for sale Hot tamales and they're red hot,

yes she got'em for sale

(spoken) Man don't mess around em hot tamales now

(spoken) Cause they too black bad, if you mess around em hot tamales

(spoken) I'm onna upset your backbone, put your kidneys to sleep

(spoken) I'll due to break away your liver and dare your heart to beat bout my

Hot tamales cause they red hot, yes they got em for sale, I mean

Yes, she got em for sale, yeah Hot tamales and they're red hot,

yes she got'em for sale

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got'em for sale

You know grandma left and grandpa too

Well I wonder what in the world we chillun gon do now

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got'em for sale, I mean

Yes she got'em for sale Hot tamales and they're red hot,

yes she got'em for sale

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got'em for sale

Me and my babe bought a V-8 Ford

Well we wind that thing all on the runnin board, yes

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got'em for sale, I mean

Yes she got'em for sale, yeah Hot tamales and they're red hot,

yes she got'em for sale

They're too hot boy!

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes, now she got em for sale

You know the monkey, now the baboon playin in the grass

Well the monkey stuck his finger in that old 'Good Gulf Gas', now

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got'em for sale, I mean

Yes she got'em for sale, yeah Hot tamales and they're red hot,

yes she got'em for sale

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got'em for sale

I got a girls, say she long and tall

Sleeps in the kitchen with her feets in the hall

Hot tamales and they're red hot, yes she got'em for sale, I mean

Yes she got'em for sale, yeah.  -Robert Johnson

A troubling version of this song by the Ukulele Orchestra may be found here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhnxi1BX4uI

I think it is supposed to be about 8 hours and 45 minutes from Nashville to Baton Rouge.  We would see about that.  I had contemplated starting the tour at Pasquales in West Helena Arkansas but that was judged a (Mississippi) bridge too far and adding Arkansas to the tour seemed excessive, even for me.  So we (me) decided to begin the tour at Buds in Tunica.  

BUDS!  Now the virtues of casino gambling in a community are well known.  I have personally seen how adding casino gambling rockets the Missouri Schools with all the extra income and the tourism related to these behemoths is without question and obviously, there are no social costs to legalized gambling.  While I thought I understood what a boon it is to any economy I really had not prepared myself for Tunica.  Tunica really, at the head of highway 61 is the gateway to the Delta and their could not be a sadder or more representative place to begin the festivities.  Now on the Southern site they admonish to call ahead but once I committed to highway 61… were going to pass a dozen of these places and if one or two were closed… so be it.  But nothing prepared us for the glories of Buds…

Surprisingly, at 1:30 on a Monday… Bud’s appeared closed.  Maybe on another trip?  It appeared from broken down ramp to the front that Buds might at this point be waiting for a fire.  Tunica from Highway 61 is nothing but a ghetto with breaks for casino entrances and the vision of the large casinos on skyline to the west.  Other than to take another stab at Buds… I cannot imagine making it back though I am sure the casinos are lovely, unique and represent the best of the Delta.  To a large extent the trip to Bud's really set the tone for the entire tour.
 

ERVINS!  

We moved on with high hopes to Ervins in Sledge Mississippi.  Surprisingly it too was closed.

Hicks Clarksdale!

We scored at Hicks.  Although unpromising from the front it sported a drive through window but I needed to use their facilities after all the excitement in Sledge and Tunica and when I went to the front door it was locked but a nice young man opened it.  I got to take in the ambiance.  He assured me the original location at the Clarksdale Grocery was much nicer but I orders a half dozen and I have to tell you, even with the over all failures of the tour I was extremely pleased to make the trip for the experience of these beauties.  I mean… BILL CLINTON ATE HERE!  That man knew food better than any other President since Chester Arthur!
 

The tamales were different then anything in my experience.  I got them to go in a nice clam shell.  Styrofoam seems to be doing well in the Delta.  These babies were hot and succulent.  Much smaller in volume than the behemoths I eat and make back home and at authentic Mexican places.  These were dripping with spices that were redolent of Franks and good chicken wings and it was a surprisingly delicious combination with the tamale meat.  I scarfed down 4 under the mistaken assumption that I needed to save room for later on in the trip but I can say, without reservation...GO TO HICKS.  I am going to see if they ship them frozen.  I mean, these would be world changing bar food back in the Lou!

From Clarksdale I rolled south and after my initial tasting of the delicacy I was pretty excited but over and over again the Tamale Trail disappointed and frustrated.  We were now headed for Cleveland Mississippi and although Stewarts Quick Mart was long boarded up, we missed the Airport Market but at least found Delta Foods.  Delta foods appeared to be a former gas station and it also appeared there was an active chop shop in back for stolen cars.  As I exited a young woman who appeared drunk or high veered by our vehicle but thought nothing of it and went inside to find myself a lone white man in a somewhat suspect environment.  I heard (but did not see) pool balls clacking behind a wall and the proprietor was on an important call he never got off of nut I signaled my interest in a ½ dozen tamales and after 5 minutes or so i had my prize and was headed out the door to see my daughter and her friend in my locked vehicle pointing towards the young women and now a gentleman caller (friend) and they appeared to be in an altercation.  My daughter texted me (although I did not see until I cam out) the following:

“SOS”

“Please come back soon”

“We are witnessing a fight”

“I’m a little scared.”

“We might leave you here.”

“You could come back now.”

“It’s time for you to come back”.

All of these texts were sent between 2:59 PM and 3:03 PM.  Needless to say no one died but in retrospect lets label Delta Foods in Cleveland Mississippi as “sketchy”.  The tamales were not heated but were similar in style to Hicks though not as tasty.  In light of the threats of physical violence towards my daughter I will give them a bad YELP review and not go back.

From there we continued south and although we considered stops in Greenville and Greenwood (yes, they are different places) we headed instead for “Pea Soups Lott-A-Freeze”.  Although it sounded promising and indeed was still operational it appears that they were closed on Monday leading to a very personal and very serious devastation of my psyche.  Pea soups is also famous for their “floating burger” but alas… I may never know it’s joys.  We made lots of phone calls to other establishments but indeed found disconnected numbers or disconnected people answering the phone.  The tamale trail was indeed badly outdated.

We eventually hoped for the best in Yazoo City Mississippi (indeed what could go wrong in such a place?) but the Yazoo Market and Hariss’s Hot Tamales were nowhere to be found although the town did seem charming in that “oh my God I want to kill myself because I am in Yazzoo Mississippi” type way.  Instead we could find none of the promised tamale havens and were left empty...distraught and deeply, deeply troubled.

“Her brothers and her sisters drove down from Jackson, Mississippi

In a great green Hudson driven by a Gentile they knew.

Drinkin' rye whiskey from a flask in the back seat

Tryin' to do like the Gentiles do

Christ, they wanted to be Gentiles, too.

Who wouldn't down there, wouldn't you?

An American Christian, God damn!

On the Dixie Flyer bound for New Orleans

Back to her friends and her family in the land of dreams” -Dixie Flyer/Randy Newman

We had been in the car approximately 9 hours at this point.  My daughter and her friend had been very patient but we were still several hours from baton Rouge and as such a key decision was made to head for Jackson, Tony’s Tamales and the relative safety and speed of highway 55.  Tony moved over to Jackson from Greenville (which evidently hosts a tamale fest each year! http://www.hottamalefest.com/schedule.html,) the Hot Tamale Capital of the Delta and wanted to run his own business.  Although I believe Tony’s might have two locations in Jackson we opted for one in a strip mall that was similar to a coffee kiosk with two drive up windows.  

The girls had sadly ordered a pizza rather than sample these delicacies. They ere fabulous.  Wrapped tightly in tin foil six delectable morsels of flavor hot and slightly drier and even spicier than those of Hicks.  At this point in my limited hot tamale experience I think these were my favorites but by going to strip mall in Jackson you give up a lot in ambiance, and the adrenaline of being afraid for your life.

Bottom line is that this was a great excursion.  The Southern Foodways people need to hire me or some other incompetent boob to update this list.  The making of the tamales is clearly an art handed down in families and these families are obviously not always the best business people.  Based on that the places will move but there should be someway to track the openings and closings of these Jewels of the Delta and I would strongly urge you if ever driving to the Gulf Coast, take the detour and see part of America that you will not see otherwise.  You can combine the trip with the Delta Blues Trail and make a long day of it.  it is a great country and there is great food everywhere… you just got to look...and drive.

Decluttering Diary Volume I: Beginning To Sell My Children

Soooo…. I am old.  Recently my wife and I have come to the conclusion that we have too much stuff.  Looking around our home and in our basement it is hard to deny.  As discussed over the last several years I like music.  I listen to a lot of music.  I like to go to shows and historically I have liked to “buy” and “own” music.  I have come to realization that this is dark ages stuff.  Streaming has won and my 1500 (or so) CD’s will one day be of all the value of 1500 8-Tracks and it is going to happen sooner rather than later.  My albums… they are different at least for now. They have art and liner notes my 53 year old eyes can read.  But CD’s?  They never had any magic.  They were beautiful and functional but… they seemed like a logical place for me to start the decluttering process.

I have over the years ripped many of these onto various computer hard drives and subsequently lost some of the libraries when i got new computers.  iTunes solved that storage dilemma but only up to 25,000 songs so there was a picking and choosing process while also adding new audio files and downloads instead of actually buying new CD’s.  When I decided that this would be first test of my resolve I asked my son for my birthday to put together ripping machine and hard drive to rip all CD’s to hard drive and up into the cloud.  He built me a pretty little two disk drive Hacintosh and wrote out detailed instructions for how to rip and I have now started the process in earnest.

I type this after ripping (with Jon giving me a head start of doing 50 or so about 100 CD’s.  It is interesting and it is painful.  Interesting to see how many jewel boxes had concert tickets stuffed into them, a quaint habit I picked up somewhere along the line.  Interesting because he also hooked me up with something called “Delicious Library” which allows me to scan the barcodes of the ripped CD’s and it creates visual library of art together with information on the Cd as well as current value of CD on Amazon.  This “value” proposition remains to be tested.  But it was interesting too to see how the market has “valued” my collection (more on that later).  Painful is just because I love the music and I am a hoarder.  Seeing that I have 11 Yo La Tengo CDs is a thing of awe and beauty to me and the fact that 80% of you reading this have no idea who Yo La Tengo is magnifies my sense of the “importance” of my “collection”.

So I sit in front of my machine I load, I open as audio file in something called XLD, I get the track names downloaded and then I rip something called a FLAC file which my son tells me can then convert into an MP3 file.Each one takes about 10 minutes and I can do 2 at a time. I tried to find a high school kid to do this but couldn't and now realize that it would take all the profit out of it.  I have opened up an EBay account and I think I need to open Amazon account as well to sell.  

I took 96 CD’s to Euclid records and they were very professional with me.  I advised that I was coming in to sell my children.  The young lady did not seem sympathetic or interested but she was polite.  I left them my name and number and about ½ hour later she told me they wanted 26 of them and would pay me 72 dollars.  I had priced them Amazon as being worth about 300 total.but was looking at this first batch as an experiment.  She explained  that the ones I saw as “valuable were worth 5 bucks to them, the rest were either two dollars or one dollar,  That just happened.  I feel somewhat violated but I think when you sell your children you feel that way.  There is a site called Decluttr which will pay me .40 each for them and handle shipping but I think I try my hand at Amazon and/or Ebay and maybe make a trip to Vintage Vinyl.  I will report.  The process should take me well into the Spring and as of this point for CD’s that probably cost me 1000 bucks I am 72 dollars to the good but I still have 70 of them to get rid of. I have opened a special account for the liquidation of my “treasures” starting with the CD’s, followed by the books I am embarrassed of (Dick Francis, John Grisham and what not) and then...the comic books...scrap metal...who knows.  This might be an interesting obsession…. maybe a sad little book…”The Baby Boomers Guide To Selling Your Children, (Decluttering)”.  What could go wrong?

Diner Review : Best of 2014

Soooo… 2014 is over and it is time for the much anticipated “best of” for music.  OK, so maybe no one anticipates it.  I don’t blame them.  My tastes are well known and fairly limited but… consistent.  There has been a ton of good music in 2014.  That is the problem. There is literally good music everywhere.  It has never been easier for a talented artist to put music out where everyone has access to it.  It should be awesome but instead it has produced a numbing glut of music because there is no “talent filter”.  Everyone can make music and put it on iTunes or Spottify or anywhere else.  Everyone has a “voice” or a “vision” and they just want you to listen to their “album”... 12-14 songs that they want you to sit through and “get it”.  Anyone can buy “Pro Tools” and share their “vision”.  But the world has passed them by.  I don't just mean my generation.  Most of my heroes are still insisting on cranking out albums (CD’s whatever) and our children for the most part are stuck in that mode.  Everyone is crying about how the Internet ruined music with no appreciation of the fact that they would not have “made it” under the old model either.  With so much music out there, no one has time or interest in anything but the brilliant.  You can access the great instantaneously.  No one has time to wade through your vision or listen over and over again to understand your muse.  

So we have two problems:

1. Two much music; and

2. Too many artists stuck in the old (moldy) model of making “albums”.

This year, I was going to  not list any CD’s or Albums of the year but instead just name a few with several great tracks and other than that I just wanted to give you a play list, give you some tunes, but… when i got into what I listened to this year I real;ized… I too am still stuck in the old model.

One more observation before we start though.  Streaming has won.  In five years they will not have a CD player in the car anymore.  It will go the way of the 8-Track and then the Cassette.  Additionally, iTunes is in the midst of dramatic decline.  My generation of Bushies (The Ownership Society) is on the way out.  The kids are not going to buy music for their hard drives or to burn into CD’s.  That is like… soooooo 2009.  Still, God Blessed us with a lot of good music this year and music...music makes life better and in 2015, you can get a few smiles by enjoying some of the greats of 2014.

Toward the end of the year, Lost on the River, an amalgamation of some of my favorite artists putting lyrics to and music to Bob Dylan.  Evidently when ensconced at “The Big Pink” with The Band he wrote and then performed a brilliant Album know as the basement tapes.  Also during those months and years in northern New York he wrote another 100 or so other songs, lyrics, snippets and these were given to a collection of musicians under the guidance of genius, muse, manager, parent, T-Bone Burnett.  The musicians:

Elvis Costello

Jim James

Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes

Marcus Mumford and

Rhiannon Giddens.

I was not familiar with Giddens.  Giddens was violinist, singer in The Carolina Chocolate Drops.  Anyway, if you get a chance watch the Showtime Special “The Lost Songs”.  It is awesome and will really give you some insight into the brilliance of what they did.  If you don't get a chance to watch that, do download or stream the following songs:

“Married To My Hack”

“Kansas City”

“Spanish Mary”

“Liberty Street”

They all are to nuanced to describe.  Just do it.  Seriously.  The whole CD is worth a listen.

***

In my normal pedigree, the Felice Brothers new CD “Favorite Waitress” is another winner.  Quality all the way through with the right quality of lightness and darkness and the always perfect time and heart ache and beauty that their lyrics and their years of playing together bring.  Recorded with the Omaha Genius Mike Mogis as producer it is a dance hall, and a party and carries on their brilliant discography.  Download or stream:

“Bird on a Broken Wing:

“Cherry Licorice”

***

Rosanne Cash surprised and delighted this year.  She has always had the pedigree with spots of brilliance always promising more but she never has put out anything even close to this years “River and a Thread”. If you like female singers and songwriters this is a great album and if you just like great music this is...a GREAT album.  The whole thing is good but download or stream:

“A Feathers Not  A Bird”

“Modern Blue”
"Will you still be there when I round the curve?
Will you hold my hand when I lose my nerve?
I went to Barcelona and my mind got changed
So I'm heading back to Memphis on the midnight train

I keep my head down, I keep my eyes on you
It's a big wide world"

***

My old Heroes The Old 97’s got together for another sing along.  The Band has always been a Rhett Miller vehicle but there is something special about the way the boys sing together.  20 years gone from Dallas they know their game and still seem to enjoy it.  I would argue that this is the best pure Old 97’s CD since “Too Far To Care”.  The Cd is is called “Most Messed Up” and the theme, politely is summed up by the song “Let’s Get Drunk and Get It On”.  It is a really good Old 97’s Cd and if you love them, you will really love this return to form.  The themes are somewhat distanced from Christian rock though i would still hold that it is, good for the soul.  Download or stream:

“Longer Than You’ve Been Alive”

“Let’s Get Drunk and Get It On”

“Wasted”

“This is the Ballad”

"I’m not crazy about songs that get self-referential

and most of this stuff should be kept confidential

but who even gives half a fuck anymore

well you should know the truth it’s both a blast and a bore

rock stars were once such mythical creatures

up there with presidents playmates and preachers"

***

Local and personal favorite Sleepy Kitty killed it with their sophomore release.  The band from Cherokee street runs a art printing shop that puts out some great stuff and the two of them,  Evan Sult and Paige Brubeck moved to the Lou from Chicago 4 or so years ago and are a brilliant example of a national artist who decided that we have a lot live ability and “scene” here and they are helping to make it so.  Evan Sult was formerly with indie rock demigods Harvey Danger who had a nice hit when radio was still something called “Flagpole Sitta”.  Anyway, their debut CD was awesome, this is more of the same.

“Dont You Start”

Hold Yr. Ground”

“Batman The Ride”

This is loud music for my taste which makes it even better.  Her voice aches and his drumming…”spot on”.

“To whoever stole the Dodge Caravan,

In December 2010

I hope you graduated High School

And your not doing 12th grade again.

What do you do

when your born in 63118?

Where do you run to,

when you get out of the starting gate?”

Ultimate questions memorializing one of what has become the epidemic of touring band van thefts in out beautiful little city.

***

OK, the Last CD is probably not going to be for most of you but… Su Kil Moon (Mark Kozelek) is likely an acquired taste for moth but if you love atonal, brilliant (heart wrenching) songs about life and...life, the CD “Benji” cannot be beat.  He played for years to critical acclaim with The Red House Painters but his solo stuff with Sun Kil Moon is just stripped down and painful.  The songs are like Springsteen Nebraska without… Springsteen.  Download or stream:

“Richard Ramierez Died Today”

“Pray For Newtown”

“Carissa”

“Richard Ramirez died today of natural causes

These things mark time and they cause pause

Think about we were kids scared of taps on the window

What’s under the bed and what’s under the pillow

And the jim jones massacre got in our heads

And the TV headlines elvis presley's dead

And the ayatollah who too many? committed(?) hostages

and ronald regan died of ---”

As Omar from “The Wire” would say…”Indeed.”

***

Laundry List of other artists and songs who did great stuff in 2014:

1. Kurt Vile:  He just rocks and rocks hard in a Lou Reed patois that I love.  His CD KV Crimes is good all the way through but download or stream “Walkin On A Pretty Daze”.

2. Lydia Loveless:  Sweet heart wrenching, rocking country.  Tanya Tucker on steroids and not over produced.  Download or stream “Hurt So Bad”.

3. Curtis mc Murtry:  Son of the brilliant and (by me) lionized James Mc Murtry debuted with a really solid freshman effort that continues to prove that good genes count for a lot.  the kid is a thoroughbred songwriter.  Dowload or stream “Ghost In My Bed”.

4. My fave Mike Doughty (Soul Coughing) came out with “Live at Kens House”.  Download or stream “St. Louise is Listening.”

5. Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) came out with a great CD showing he is still cat fucking Stevens.  Download or stream “You Are My Sunshine”.

There is more but folks… you gotta put in the work.  Let’s see what 2015 brings but follow my advice and buy the upgraded Spotify and cur commercials out of your life and stream whatever you want, whenever you want.  I will be posting a best of 2014 play list for streaming to all comers.  

Fear and #Ferguson

Soooo it is the day after Black Friday, coming close to closing out a week joyously that we might all well just want to forget as we continue our hope that things “just get back to normal”.  We seem to hope that everyone just returns to their place, away from our place and stops complaining and protesting.  Al Sharpton can fly out to Philly where some poor rookie cop made a gruesome mistake and take the tourist protesters with him and we can get back to good old fashion St. Louis segregation (economic and racial) and be safe by empowering an underpaid group of primarily white males (whose lives are at risk every day) to profile and “broken windows” police the rest of us to peace and safety and bliss.

http://www.thenation.com/article/177842/its-time-end-broken-windows-policing

We are so afraid of the questions that have been raised…. again.  Forget about Michael Brown (with my apologies to the Brown family for their loss) and forget Officer Wilson (who whether he knows it or not will be haunted for the rest of his life).  Michael Brown is inevitable in our society.  Over and over again Michael Brown will continue to be gunned down.  Not every day.  Not every week, but certainly every month, year after year and the fact is that we as a society have decided we don't give a shit.  Let our underpaid police worry about it and take of it.  If they make a mistake we can crucify the poor cop and feel better about ourselves  and if they don’t make a mistake then killing people to keep us safe is just their job.

It is 2014 and the “wrong side of the tracks”, or highway still prevails in St. Louis and every adult who pays attention knows where the borderlines are.  We stay on our side of the tracks and the poor and the non assimilated stay on their side. If they kill each other or occasionally one of our policeman kills one of them… it is what Richard Nixon would have called “acceptable losses”.  We pay our police better on our side.  Our kids occasionally take their parents high powered automatic weapons and go on a killing spree. Then and only then our police need to shoot them down but otherwise God and only God can protect the officer that kills one of our fair and precious children.

We self identify as the most Christian nation on earth.  “In God We Trust” emblazoned on our money (think, just for a second how wrong that referencing God on our money should be for a Christian), the Ten Commandments chiseled into our courthouses, but we have totally rationalized the existence of an underclass that lives mired in cycles of poverty, violence and lack of education.  How can this be?  And don’t, PLEASE DON’T, for all that is Sacred quote Matthew 26:11 “The poor will always be with you.” as some kind of justification.  READ YOUR SCRIPTURE IN CONTEXT!  Christ was admonishing the law observes that since they had a brief opportunity to spend some time with their God incarnate, that perhaps they should take an opportunity to do so.

So we are afraid.  We say we are afraid of violence.  We say we are afraid of lawlessness.  We say we are afraid of REVOLUTION!  So we buy guns, we board up windows and we call out the National Guard.  We berate our politicians and leaders for not keeping us safe.  We cancel parades.  We don’t go “downtown” because it might not be safe.  

HOW MANY LIVES HAVE BEEN LOST IN THE FERGUSON RIOTS!?  

I am not perfect about it and I could be wrong but I do read the paper every day and I think a strong case can be made that the number is zero.  I pray for the business owners and people of ferguson who have lost property and might lose their businesses.  It is a tragedy, but no lives have been lost despite all the burning and looting and protesting.  But we, in Clayton are afraid.  There is also no reason that our police should be subjected to bricks, bottles and batteries being thrown and fired at them and I pray for their safety as well because they are our mercenaries in an undeclared war against whomever threatens our status quo.

I think if we would pause and be honest with ourselves we are afraid of the questions raised by the situation.  

Why are we comfortable with an underclass?

Why is it OK when they kill each other as long as they don't do it on our streets?

Why are their deaths only memorialized in the Law and Order section of the Post Dispatch?

Why hasn’t the privileged Christian Community lent their time and attention to their brothers and sisters?

Could the government do things differently to assist the suffering?

Why can’t we change the situation?

Why is it so hard?

Why can’t they just be like us?

Why do we want them to “be like us”?

Why do we need so many guns in so many hands?

What am I supposed to do as a Christian?

Are the government programs making it worse?

Why can’t the black community raise up leaders that are not self promoting?

Why can’t the white community raise up leaders that are not self promoting?

As a Christian, as a human, what am I supposed to do?

Sorry, these are my questions.  I pray that you have your own set and I pray it is not a set of questions about why “those people” are causing so much trouble.  As a Christian I beg you to remember that those people are God’s children and we are called upon not to turn our backs.  I am an old man (in my head I am perhaps an old Jewish man but that is neither here nor there but I am old enough to remember not only when Dan Fogelberg was alive but I remember when he was relevant.

“You better change, before the sun goes down.

You better leave, before you are, the last in town.

You better raise your fortresses, or tear them down,

tear them down.”

What a difference it makes when a community steps up. On South Grand they actually had property damage. They had protesters. They got out of hand and broke windows...a LOT of windows. They didn't board up in the face of loss that never happened, but when it happened they came out and made something beautiful. Something... thoughtful.  

I am not asking for anything other than we not accept a return to the status quo,  Think and pray about what God is calling you to do in response to the pain and suffering that he is showing to us.  Talk with people about it and stop being afraid of violence and looting and burning and property damage and start being afraid of why we cannot seem to work together and pray together to find answers.

PEACE!

The Peacock: Hipster Heaven...with Bacon!

Sooooo….The Peacock!

it is so rare for me to get to go review a NEW Diner in St. Louis.  Our breakfast scene is at best...sleepy and at worst...boring and unchanging.  Even when new places open like the new Courtesy on Laclede Station, it is just expansion of a proven formula.  So when I read about the Peacock I was elated. Although when I initially posted this review (and in my head) I kept calling the place the Flamingo (dementia) I believe I have it straight now.

Opened by the inimitable Joe Edwards in The Loop!  It is on first floor of a new building that I think is Wash U Student housing.  It is brand spanking new and it is open 24 hours a day which is pretty unusual, especially in that neighborhood.  I very admire Edwards.  I might look askance at his trolley but his unflinching efforts to make U-City a destination have really played out awesomely and along with the Pageant he is a civic treasure for the work he has done and he tends to do it all in a first class way.

Last week I could not sleep due to some issues related to my work and got up at 5:30 and headed over to the Loop.  I always like going there, just to drive up and down and with Mission Tacos and Salt n Smoke on the scene there are now more reasons than just hitting Vintage Vinyl to cruise Delmar.  The Peacock is toward the east end of the strip on the north side of the street.  There is...surprisingly...a  large neon Peacock on the outside of it which makes it hard to miss.  Street parking is ample at 6:00 A.M. and I don't think you need to worry about U City meters until 8 but check before you rely on me.

The place is...retro.  As you walk in they have a full bar which seems decidedly un-dinery but I would guess that in the business plan it will make up a nice little chunk of the revenue.  There is an internet jukebox but on this particular morning I did not check it out. it is all stark white and seafoam green.  There is about 40 stools which run along a snake like river of counter as well as ample booth and table seating.  the decor is a little hard on the eyes for the early riser and full of kitsch from Edwards ample nostalgia collection.  I think it will make for a great place to take people from out of town but the space is a little too big and cold and a little too “retro” and intentionally “cool”. The counters break up into three different areas of different height for counter and stool...gently rising as they move to the rear of the establishment. A light bar that occasionally and randomly changes color runs along the counter.

The wait staff was certainly more of that same theme.  My server was very pleasant and helpful and he was… pierced all over the place.  Just the visible piercings were in the teens and while not off putting it is once again, a lot for breakfast.  I saw two other servers who also both appeared to be typecast for hipster/waiter/waitress positions.  Still, the service was attentive, my iced tea glass was kept full and I have no complaints other than I started to get the feeling that this place was out hipping the pretentiously faux him City Diner which I have slandered in earlier posts.  When i read paragraphs like this I am always amazed that I am such an asshole but...well, there it is.  

The clientele were much more racially diverse than my typical haunts.  Lots of different folks and it skewed younger.  Perhaps some of the hipsters and college students don’t sleep when I sleep.  There was a couple sitting at the bar having cocktails which at 6:00 A.M. is impressive.

The Menu is… interesting.  But mainly because it lists a lot of options with V (vegan) or GF for gluten free.  This would be first 24 hour diner in the city to provide such information.  Among other options they present their version of the slinger “The Loop Sling”.  Although an abomination of a real slinger it is 2 eggs, meat, Waffle, potatoes with chili and cheese.   They also offer a waffle sandwich , chicken fried steak and biscuits and gravy, none of which are gluten free. Other than that it is a pretty standard breakfast menu along with a full dinner menu heavy on soups and salads. The back page gives you an “About Peacock Diner”

http://peacockloopdiner.com/about/

Which tells you everything you need to know.

The Food was really good.  I just had bacon and eggs with breakfast potatoes.  The potatoes were pretty average and offered in an O'brien variety as well.  I am a favor of the hash brown and eschew the “breakfast potato” but these were fine.  The eggs were I am sure free range and from well loved chicken but they tasted fine.  The lighting in the place is a little off for breakfast food but as I said...fine.  On my initial visit I also ordered the sausage which was good and nothing special. But...it was breakfast. On my second trip with my frequent breakfast companion we both ordered the "Sunrise" with bacon and it was excellent and came with a little roasted tomato slice that mixed nicely with my eggs. On the second trip on a Saturday morning at 8:30 they started slow but got pretty crowded by the time we bailed at 9:30. Once again a lot of diversity of clientele, and a VERY high hipster quality to the serving staff.... almost over whelming.  

They also served gluten free toast.  For those of you which have not had the pleasure gluten free toast is...not much.  On the other hand you almost never see it.  It is bland but like I said, a treat...of sorts.  It was not toasted enough but it came with good butter so I liked it.

The bathrooms...although I only visited the mens room it was very clean and family friendly with a changing station and a single handicapped stall that was slightly larger than my first home. No hand towels and a hand drier. As an old man I appreciate the clean bathroom.

The Prices are pricey.  Bowl of Cheerios or Raisin Bran $3.50.  An egg is $2.00.  Potatoes $3.00.  The complete breakfasts $8.50.  So breakfast with a tip for the hipster is 11 to 12 bucks with an iced tea.  All in all this was an interesting trip.  I can see taking out of towers here for a late breakfast and a walk around the loop. On my initial trip I was worried about viability but on my second trip i have concluded that Edwards has another winner.