Huntsville Art Museum

Went to the art museum in Huntsville today. Fantastic blown glass pieces by an artist named William Morris


There was a documentary showing him working with the four other people who help him get these amazing things realized. It doesn't really look like blown glass, which I usually don't care for. I loved this stuff though, very inspiring. Incredible work and the documentary was really worth watching, I wouldn't mind seeing it again.

Yikes! Just went to his website & checked out prices, just for the hell of it.
Hmmm, do I want a William Morris piece or that castle in Spain? Beautiful stuff though.

Coon Dog Cemetery Road

I really love my family. Some of them are just as strange as I am. Maryanne's son, John Paul, turned me on to http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/ --very scary.

I thought for sure I would be driving up to the Coon Dog Graveyard by myself but Maryanne came through and we went up on Sunday. I also thought it would be hard to find but there were signs, and it helped that it was located on "Coon Dog Cemetery Road". There were probably a hundred graves, the first one was "Troop" from 1937.

There were a couple of professionally done markers that rivaled the ones you see in regular cemeteries but it was the homemade ones that were the best. They were just scratched into rocks or burned into wood and probably took days to complete. It sounds like it would be really tacky, and I'm sure that's why everybody goes, but it was really kind of peaceful and sweet. There was a shelter there and some picnic benches and I think this must be how cemeteries used to be when we just buried each other off in a corner of the yard.

Labor day weekend they have some sort of a festival there that sounds interesting. Like maybe if you could watch from your car sort of interesting, but the cemetery really is worth experiencing and I can see why it's actually made it into one of the guidebooks that Maryanne has.
We stopped at Big Bob's Bar-B-Q on the way back and I had a smoked turkey stuffed potato that would have fed a family of four, and I'm not kidding. I'll be eating the leftovers for the next three days. It was really, really good though. There are a lot more grave stones shown at the website. As I browse through them I realize there are some I didn't see when we were there. I hope I just missed them but I'm afraid some jerk may have stolen them. Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard: http://www.coondogcemetery.com/

Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention

There were the usual booths with knitted pot holders and things made out of gourds but also, off in one little area under the trees, were the musical instrument displays. Some were in tents but some were just laid out on tables like lemonade stands. People would wander in, pick up an instrument, and start playing. Some of these people were very, very good. If you look closely at the guy in the cap playing a fiddle you can see a price tag hanging off of the bow.
One thing that struck me last year was the makeup of the various groups that would play together. Cowboy hats and John Deer caps, old and young and often it was a woman playing the Bass. It didn't seem to matter as long as you could hold your own within the music. There was one group we kept going back to that were really appealing. Two guitars and a mandolin. A kid, a middle aged guy and an older guy who sang out of the side of his mouth. I tried to get a picture of the older guy singing but every time I'd get it set up someone with a guitar would shift and block his face. They held their instruments as though they were just another appendage, like an arm or a finger. When you looked at the older guy straight on he looked kind of like a singing bulldog, but in a good way, if that makes any sense. They were the core group but others with fiddles, banjos, a bass etc. Drifted in and out occasionally.

We Done Give Up

We finally made it to the fiddle fest on Saturday. The stuff going on the main stage is great but it's the the little things you find going on all around you that are truly enchanting. I became aware of this note, right in front of my nose, as I was trying to get a photo of a five musicians who were just sitting around on folding chairs in the middle of the lawn.
For those of us who need reading glasses but can't find them, and yes, we did look on the tops of our heads. Also in the neck of our shirts and over there where we're absolutely, positively sure we used them last. Or was that yesterday and maybe they're in the car? Anyway, it says: (on Mt. Carmel Church of Christ stationary, no less) Larry & E - We done give up and went to sit in the chairs.
I love this place.