Standing with a statue of Jack Daniels on Beale Street

June 24, 2012
Memphis, Tennessee


Gentle Readers,


Pulling into Memphis, there is a skyline of beautiful old churches, some of which are captured here for you to see.  And then, of course, there is Beale Street, famous for music, block parties, and general tomfoolery.  We walked a stretch, having one of those pre-swirled adult slushies at Wet Willies, which was very refreshing in this southern heat.  We were entertained by the artwork at the joint, plus tunes from the band Sofa Kings, which largely played rock n'roll covers.  


A group of young women, all gussied up, were having a bit of a bachelorette party, with the bride-to-be all sashed and in white.  Our guess is that the wedding party was trotting from one venue to another, celebrating. 


After traipsing around a bit more, we landed at B. B. King's Blues Club, where we heard the B. B. King All Stars.  Again, not a lot of blues, more along the lines of decade music covers.  Awesome music!  The place was rockin' and the singer was especially versatile and expressive... and dance-y!

 Some of the cool art at Wet Willies

Harmonica Man

 The bride-to-be and her bridesmaids at Wet Willies

 Very artistic t-shirt designs on Beale Street

Looking forward to visiting some of the authentic Juke Joints in The Delta.

We're scheduled to go to the famous Po' Monkey Juke Joint this week...

One of the musicians on Beale Street

All of the artwork on Beale Street reminds me of one of the people I am reading about for the NEH seminar. As I continue to read Ferris' book "Give My Poor Heart Ease," I'm meeting folks who have musical as well as other artistic gifts.  One man, James "Son Ford" Thomas, who earned his living as a grave digger for decades,  plays guitar and sculpts from clay.  This is what Thomas has to say about his process for sculpting...

"...When it rains, I let the clay soak up the water.  Sometimes I mix a little wax with it to help hold it together.  Then I put hair grease on there to smooth it down and get the wrinkles out of it...  When I do my sculpturing work, things just roll across my mind.  If I see a picture in a magazine or on television, that's what I'll go by.  I look at the picture to get the future of it better.  The futures come in dreams.  I lay down and dream about the sculpture, about how to fix one of the heads.  I'm liable to dream anything.  That gives you in your head what to do.  Then you wake up and try it.  If you can't hold it in your head, you can't do it in your hand..."

I've always been fascinated and in awe of the many ways people pursue and create their art.  I used to keep a notebook next to my bed, writing down ideas in the middle of the night, things that came to me in a sort of semi-conscious, not necessarily in dreams. I often think of writing project ideas for my students in this hazy state of mind.  They tell me that I should lose that notebook that houses projects for them...

Here's one more quote by my new friend James Thomas, whose sculpting specialty is clay skulls:

"...A skull has got to be ugly because it's nothing but bones and teeth.  People are more likely to be interested in something like that than they would be in a bird.  They'd rather see a skull.  A lot of people have never seen a real skull, and they're probably wondering how it will be when they die.  they say, 'Will I be in the same shape that skull there is in?'  ...If I could get to a mountain where they have this clay like i use, I believe I could do me a whole man.  i believe I could put a whole statue of a man standing up in that mountain.  If the clay worked right, I could start at the head and come right down to the feets. I believe I could work a statue as big as a man.  i believe I could make him just as tall as me or you, if I could get the right height dirt.  That's six foot high.  I haven't ever did it, but I believe I could..."  

May this day bring you your own personal mountain of clay, to shape any way your day or nitedreams fashion...