Street Talk

The Valley started filling up early last Saturday, earlier than normal for the Crawl. The hipsters were heading to the Hendricks Machine Shop on South Main Street where Yalobusha Brewing was hosting an event called “Analog Valley.” The Brewery crew had brought in a record collection numbering in the tens of thousands and was having a sale. That’s right, selling record albums as in LPs and 33 RPMs and 12 inches of round flat grooved vinyl.
Albums are cool again and back from an almost digital death. Why? Digital sound is crisp, but cold where analog sound is warm and fuzzy—yes I know I used that term in last week’s column. Warm and fuzzy beats cold and crisp. And there is the cover art. People collect albums for the art. So that art and music crowd had a great warm up for the Art Crawl.
It is always hard to put number on an event like the Art Crawl. A former Valley resident now living in Nashville who came back just for the event said crawl night is “like Halloween for adults” as there is art and music and food and fun by just going house to house. This year there were people not just from Memphis and Jackson, but visitors from as far as New Orleans and Atlanta who also came just for the crawl. That’s some good miles and outreach numbers. There were 40-plus artists showing or performing also, the number that sticks in my head this time is the range from oldest to youngest—right at 70 years difference. One veteran crawler told me this was the best crawl yet and thanks for that goes to a lot of folks. Of course it is the WV Arts Council initiative, but the city –  from the mayor’s office to the electric department to the street department really makes the town light up and shine that night. And because it is a free event, the hosts and sponsors really make the critical difference. The WVAC has a thank you ad in this paper and give it a read as to who has been helping and also thank them when you see them next.  
Patrice Frey, the National Director for Main Street, spent the night in the Valley last Wednesday. A whole bunch of Water Valley Main Street folks came out to see her at the Crawdad Hole.  She was positively im-pressed with this town and what is going on and where we collectively are going. I think the big questions for her was how does a small town do big things, be a place that matters while keeping and also attracting creative folks. She heard it from me, but also everybody else, that at the core it’s a common philosophy with collective effort and individual expression. She said she’d be back within 2 years.
The Blue Devils are well into the season by now and as this first week of fall starts they’ll slowly get a break on the weather. This week is homecoming week at WVHS and the downtown pep rally is this Thursday, Sept. 25 at 6 p.m. at the pavilion in Railroad Park. Come out and cheer the Blue Devils on and see the seniors and homecoming court.