Street Talk

Sunday morning found me standing over the kitchen sink washing and stripping the spines out of a big bag of Eddie Rogers’ collard greens. Had a big mug of chicory laced coffee and the new Water Liars CD playing on the kitchen’s mini-boom box. Pretty restful way to get an early Sunday morning going. By the second cup and the end of the CD, the leaves were all jammed and steaming in a big pot along with some Coughlin smoked pork and several guesstimated applications of salt and spices.
Eddie had been up way earlier than me the day before. He had picked several five-gallon buckets of collards and a big 96-quart igloo cooler of leafy lettuce to be at the Farmers Market by 8 Saturday morning. He wasn’t the only early riser.
Melissa Ondrovcik and Kerry O’Donoghue had also been up early. Melissa O had her Mudline Farm carrots and turnips and green stuff looking fresh picked gorgeous. Kerry O had her Poultry In Motion Farm just baked bread and jams. Trust me I sampled plenty, stuff is good. The Farmers Market is off to a somewhat slow start due to no tomatoes. But they are coming soon; in the meantime make a pass this coming Saturday morning from 8 to 11.
It was a pretty good weekend for creative Valley people. The gallery openings featuring local artists (three Yalobusha, one Lafayette) Friday night drew a big crowd, seems to be bringing in folks from a wider area as well as local folks who had never been to the openings. Nice to see that.  
John Forsyth and the Pine Valley Mod Squad put together a ripping art and music event Saturday afternoon at the Pine Valley schoolhouse. Beaucoup music, pottery, paintings, photographs, statues, hoola-hoops, kids art tent, D and D BBQ eats, LeMoJo Bakery sweets, and all in a lovely setting on the old school grounds. Kid friendly, old folk friendly, hipster friendly, even redneck friendly in a kindler, gentler, creative way. John and his posse did a super job.
Sean Ennis is a writer, a good one. He lives a couple of blocks off Main Street in Water Valley in an old house.  I think many here don’t know him. He is quiet and thin and moves fast. You just don’t see him or hear him. But he is a strong observer and has a good ear and that comes through in his writing. His book “Chase Us” was just printed by a big New York publishing house. A really big deal.  Last Saturday night at the Powerhouse in Oxford, Sean had a book signing and reading. Lots of the Oxford writer types were there and they had genuinely good things to say about Sean. Sean signed my book, “Go Water Valley. Good People!”
He means that for all of us and I agree with a few exceptions.