Friday, March 29, 2013

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Double Decker Goal: Food to Be as Much a Draw as Music



food Vendor committee says most applicants have risen to its challenge


By Tad Wilkes, Nightlife & Lifestyles Editor


tad.wilkes@hottytoddy.com


The Double Decker Arts Festival Presented by C Spire has taken a new tact in selecting and approving food vendors for the 2013 event, to be held April 26 and 27 in Oxford. The application process and criteria required has caused some initial confusion and frustration for some restaurateurs, but the net result will be a win for the festival and Oxford, said John T. Edge, a member of the Double Decker Food Vendor Committee.


“The Tourism Council asked us to develop a process to improve food at Double Decker,” says Edge, whose appointment to the committee certainly was not at random. His day job is as director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, and he’s the author or editor of more than 10 books, including the foodways volume of the New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Cornbread Nation: the Best of Southern Food Writing, and Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover’s Companion to the South. The new vendor criteria, Edge said, are aimed at developing the food component of the Double Decker fest into more than just an afterthought.


John T. Edge

John T. Edge



“The idea was to curate a roster of vendors to serve dishes that prove as much a draw as the music,” he explained.


One of the committee’s inspirations was the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, where the foods reflect the peoples, places, and ingredients of Louisiana.


“We’re working toward an Oxford version of that ideal,” Edge said. “And we’re encouraging vendors to source local ingredients for dishes. Buying locally grown ingredients, as we all now know, drives local economies.”


The culture shock some applicants have felt at first is worth the growing pains, Edge believes.


“Any change comes with challenges,” he said. “It’s been very gratifying to see the great majority of applicants embrace the idea and rise to the challenge. To date, no applicants have been denied, even though some did not even attempt to address the new guidelines. The reality is we had more applicants than we have vendor slots. If we’re going to curate the vendor roster, we’ll be forced to say no to some vendors, just as art curators accept and reject artists for a group gallery show.”


“We’re excited about supporting a dynamic and entertaining program like the Oxford Double Decker Arts Festival that combines the charm of Oxford with a first-class event that focuses on the region’s best in music, food, and the arts,” said Jim Richmond, vice president of Corporate Communications for C Spire Wireless, earlier this year.


The 18th annual Oxford Double Decker Arts Festival presented by C Spire Wireless will be held on Friday evening, April 26 and all day Saturday April 27, 2013. For an event schedule, click here .







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Thursday, March 28, 2013

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VOX Goes Between the Sheets April 5



Between the sheets poster Storytelling event goes with an intimate theme


VOX PRESS presents the first VOX STORIES: “Between the Sheets” event on April 5, 2013 at the Powerhouse Community Arts Center. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the show starts at 8.


“The event is meant to offer a familiar pastime the same legitimacy art and music already enjoy in Oxford,” says Wayne Andrews, director of the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council. “Ten storytellers will share true tales of intimacy, relationships, and bedroom relations-—live and without notes.”


Tom Franklin, Tyler Keith, Bill Boyle, Dottie Knight, Kaitlyn Wall, Tyler, David Lonesome, Mickey Howley, Allie Trotter, Andy Paul, and Ryan Pierce will be performing. “The audience may already know these Oxford locals, but not like this,” says Andrews. “Volunteers from the audience will be asked to tell one-minute stories after intermission in the same style.”


The event is free and open to the public. Dinner and drinks are available for a small voluntary donation.


VOX PRESS, INC is a non-profit literary press based in Oxford since 2004. All donations are tax deductible. The VOX PRESS ARTISTS SERIES is sponsored in part by the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council and the Mississippi Arts Commission.The Series seeks to offer a free community forum for the celebration and appreciation of the arts in Mississippi. For more information, visit www.voxpress.org or contact Louis Bourgeois at louis-bourgeois@hotmail.com.







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Double Decker Revamps Food Vendor Criteria



Square Pizza owner Tate Moore interpreted his initial rejection as a Double Decker food vendor as implying he isn't

Square Pizza Owner Tate Moore applied to be a vendor at the Double Decker fest and interpreted his initial rejection as implying he isn’t “unique enough to Oxford,” he posted on Facebook.



New approach requires local ingredients and unique twists for festival dishes


By Tad Wilkes, Nightlife & Lifestyles Editor


tad.wilkes@hottytoddy.com


Few would argue that Tate Moore’s Square Pizza on Van Buren Avenue isn’t a “local” establishment or that its food isn’t unique. Even though Moore grew up in Ohio, he’s lived in Oxford for about 20 years. As leader of beloved Oxford music group the Kudzu Kings, Moore, many would suggest, has earned his local stripes. His pizza is inspired by that of the Ohio Valley, and he opened Square Pizza a few years ago with the intention of presenting this, his favorite style, as a unique offering among other styles of pizza in town. More often than not, Moore is the one making and baking the pies, ringing up the orders, pouring the Cokes, and conversing with the patrons. It’s not a chain.


That’s why Moore says he was taken aback when, after applying to be a food vendor at the Double Decker Festival Presented by C Spire, to be held April 26 and 27 in Oxford, he received the following letter:


Dear Tate:


Thank you for applying to be a 2013 Double Decker Arts Festival food vendor. As you know, Double Decker has formed a food vendor committee to improve the selection process, revamp the food vendor guidelines, and help make Double Decker a food-lover’s festival, just as the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is now as renowned for food as it is for music. To do that, we need your help.


We encourage you to submit a revised application. We want to make sure that food served on Saturday is unique to Oxford. What’s more, we want to showcase foods that are unique to Double Decker.


Here’s how we put it in the initial call for vendors: “Does your dish use local goods? If you’re serving a burger, do you use ground beef from a local farmer? Does your dish leverage local recipes? If you’re serving a hot dog, do you cap it with chow chow, made from your Aunt’s recipe? That’s what we want.”A number of vendors rose to that challenge. A pizza franchisee developed a pizza topped with Mississippi Gulf Coast shrimp. A corn dog vendor decided to use sausages, made with pork from Lafayette County pigs. A cake company pledged to use butter from Lafayette County cows. A hotdog vendor, accustomed to selling ketchup- and mustard-slathered dogs, developed a homemade chow chow. The goal of our committee is to encourage and enable food vendors to sell unique dishes that are not available elsewhere. After reviewing your application, the committee asks you to take another look at what you plan to serve. We encourage you to develop and serve Double Decker-only dishes that reflect the unique culture of Oxford and Mississippi.


A number of businesses have submitted applications to sell pizza and we’re encouraging all to do something special, something that will be different, something that will be exceptional for Double Decker. What can you do? Use locally raised spinach on your pie? Incorporate locally-made sausage? Try a pimento cheese calzone?


We have enclosed another application with a complete list of guidelines. To be reconsidered for the festival, please return a revised application to us by Monday, April 1. Please feel free to call the Oxford Tourism Council if you have any questions about the guidelines or the application.We know that these changes present challenges for some vendors. And we thank you for working with us to showcase foods that will make Double Decker a destination for culinary tourists as well as music tourists.


Thank you for working with us. We are confident that the end result will be worth it.Sincerely,Double Decker Food Vendor Committee


Shannon Adams


Liz Coppola


John Currence


John T Edge


Richmond Smith


Soon after receiving the letter, which was dated March 25, Moore aired his frustration on Facebook, posting, “Looks like Square Pizza will not have a booth at Double Decker this year. Clearly I’m not unique enough to Oxford.” The post—by the guy who wrote “Bar-B-Q Blues,” an ode to now defunct drive-through Rebel Barn—was soon flooded with sympathetic comments, some suggesting that Double Decker, ironically, may have lost touch with locals and that foodies can’t see the forest for the fresh-made chow chow.


One comment to Moore’s post was by Oxford-raised Lamar Lounge Chef Charles Owens, who said, “funny……chicken and pork and catfish and many other products that we purchase from sysco or us foods ARE raised and packed here in mississippi for logistical reasons.”


Dish as Narrative


The changes in what decision-makers are looking for in Double Decker dishes are aimed at making sure festival-goers get a true taste of the town, the area, and the state. “We’ve overhauled our food vendor process this year in an attempt to make this portion of the festival better reflect Oxford’s culinary story,” read the cover letter applicants received from Double Decker organizers in February.


Only 25 vendors ultimately will be selected in the final lineup for Double Decker food, the form application states. The panel of five, which has been vetting the applications and sent the letters, includes John Currence (City Grocery), Liz Coppola (Farmers Market), Shannon Adams (Honeybee Bakery), Richmond Smith (Oxford School District), and John T. Edge (Southern Foodways Alliance). The application advised aspirants to “Think of your dish as a narrative. Does it tell a story of Oxford? Does your dish spin a tale about Mississippi?” The mission stated in the application is to showcase “the dishes that define this place.”


When a Letter Gives You Lemons…


Though local businessman and mayoral candidate Jason Plunk recently closed his Taylor’s Pub, he continues to operate a mobile hot dog stand with the name Taylor’s Pub Dogs in the downtown area and applied to include his stand among Double Decker’s food vendors. Like many food and beverage purveyors in Oxford, Plunk says he depends on the crowd the festival attracts for a big chunk of his spring revenue. But he opened his mail on Wednesday, March 27, to find the same letter Moore got.


“I’ve got three days to revamp my menu, and I have no choice,” Plunk said Thursday afternoon. “I’m going to, because that’s a huge payday.” He added that letter “confused” him, since on the music side of the festival, organizers enlisted a Memphis firm to book and produce the live music, rather than employing management. Plunk also questions why John Currence, owner of four restaurants in Oxford, including two on the Square, is on the committee—and thereby, in Plunk’s view, is in a position to “pick his competition.”


But Plunk has chosen to take the open-ended letter as not so much a rejection but a challenge and an opportunity. Already having planned to refurbish his hot dog stand, he said that after he received the letter, he sat “staring at the computer” screen brainstorming. A new idea came pretty quickly.


“The interesting thing for me that has come out of this is I have renamed the hot dog stand and will have a new logo and everything out by Double Decker,” Plunk said. “I’m renaming the stand ‘the Double Decker Dog.’ That’s one of the ways I’m going to keep it local. I’m going to keep that name year-round.”


Beyond a new marketing angle and cosmetic updates to his cart, the rest of Plunk’s plan is in line with the mission stated in the vendor application instructions, as it likely will “reflect the vitality of the local food economy”—per language from the application—when put into action. But executing his vision won’t be without feeling the adjustments that must be made, at least for this one event.


Despite that Plunk typically buys his hot dogs from local merchants, the items aren’t from local farms. Sourcing instead now from local farms and purveyors, “My costs will skyrocket,” Plunk said. He interprets the requirements as not dictating 100 percent use of local ingredients but to simply add some local flair into the menu. “If that’s the case, my thought is to get some local brats or sausages—or what I’m able to find—and add them onto my menu along with my regular menu. So, I’m expanding the menu to meet the criteria … The letter came yesterday. I’ve got one day, and then Good Friday, and then a weekend to figure this out—basically two business days.”


“I need the money, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure the Double Decker Dog stand is set up.”







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New ASB Officers Swore In at Lyceum Ceremony



Photo by Jared Senseman

Photo by Jared Senseman



The new slate of ASB officers for 2013 were sworn in at a ceremony on Tuesday at the Lyceum. Left to Right, they are: President: Gregory Alston, Vice President: Morgan Gregory, Secretary: Allie Winters, Treasurer: Carson Rutledge, Attorney General: Rob Pillow and Harrison Crabtree. Not shown, Harrison Crabtree, Judicial Council Chair.







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Guitars, Fiddles, and Dobros



David Wesley Williams

David Wesley Williams



Steel strings are the running theme in this evening’s Thacker Mountain Radio


It’s another Thacker Mountain Thursday, March 28 at Off Square Books at 6 p.m. Guests on this week’s Thacker Mountain Radio show will include Memphis author David Wesley Williams, fiddler Lisa Lambert, bluegrass band Magnolia Drive and Canadian yodeler, Petunia. Admission is free, and the show can be heard on Rebel Radio 92.1 FM or online: www.myrebelradio.com.


Lisa Lambert

Lisa Lambert



David Wesley Williams is the author of the novel Long Gone Daddies (John F. Blair), the story of three generations of guitar players, set in and around Memphis. His fiction has been published by Harper Perennial and others. He blogs about music and writing at The Soundcheck & the Fury and tweets fiction at @damnshortstory. By day he is the sports editor of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis. Of Long Gone Daddies, Publisher’s Weekly said, “The historical backdrop, including a cameo by young Elvis as a busboy, adds delightful texture and rich depth to Williams’ fictional account of the early days of rock ’n’ roll.”


For the past five years, Lisa Lambert played guitar and fiddle with the Pine Hill Hearts, one of the most popular bluegrass bands in Mississippi. Together, they performed over 100 venues a year throughout the Mid-South. Lisa is now a solo artist who has just released her first


CD, Come On Home: Songs and Stories from Tishomingo County. She is currently on tour with her husband (and co-songwriter) Scott Nunley on bass and harmonica with Nolan Wells on dobro.


Magnolia Drive is a Mississippi bluegrass band hailing from the southern part of the state, whose four members have a combined 100 years experience playing in various bands over the years. The band is Don Robinson, banjo/guitar/vocals; Steve “Speed” Nowell on bass; Mike Nowell on guitar and vocals; and Cory Burton on mandolin and vocals. Their latest CD is Magnolia Drive. Don Robinson’s song, “Sunday Morning Without You,” is currently #9 on the bluegrass charts. Magnolia Drive is at work on a new CD to be released later this year.


Ron Fortugno, a.k.a. Petunia, practices the lost art of yodeling. The animated Canadian singer-songwriter’s voice ranges from the classic country twang of Hank Williams to the rough, raucous energy of Tom Waits. Petunia has been a regular on the Canadian touring circuit for the past decade. He plays 150 shows a year all over Canada and has recently begun touring the United States, including his current solo swing through the American South. He has seven CDs out, including his latest, Petunia and the Vipers, with more due in the coming months. Following his Thacker appearance, Petunia will play a full show Thursday night at the Lamar Lounge.


Magnolia Drive

Magnolia Drive



Ron Fortugno

Ron Fortugno, a.k.a. Petunia








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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

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jeffhamm





Jeff Hamm – double decker is right around the corner #godscountry








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cleveyreb





cleveyreb – Still loving our Rebs SEC Champions








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Greeks Bearing Easter Eggs



Photo by Christina Huck

Photo by Christina Huck



By Christina Huck, senior journalism major, Meek School of Journalism and New Media


Email Christina Huck at cfhuck@go.olemiss.edu


After the kids finished their homework, they filed outside to see a yard and basketball court speckled with brightly colored plastic Easter eggs. The kids jumped and squealed with excitement. Ready…Set…Go! And they took off!


The hunt was on! Easter came early on March 26 at the local Boys and Girls Club, thanks to local fraternity Beta Theta Pi and sorority Pi Beta Phi.


This is the second year Beta and Pi Phi has teamed up to spend time with kids and brighten their day.


“This is something I’m trying to make more of an annual thing that is set in stone –– something we do every year,” said Robert “Scooter” Smith, Beta’s philanthropy chair, who was in charge of coordinating the hunt. “It’s easy, it’s fun, the kids love it, and I personally like seeing the kids really enjoy it.”







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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The Willie Price Lab School at the University of Mississippi...





The Willie Price Lab School at the University of Mississippi engages its preschoolers and their parents each year to come up with creative vessels in which to put fragile eggs, which are then dropped from atop the three-story building (Kinard Hall) where the school is housed. Some eggs break, and some survive, but the event is always fun for the kids and their parents.






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VIDEO: The 2013 Willie Price Egg Drop



Preschoolers and parents engineer creative aircraft for safe egg flight


By Tad Wilkes


tad.wilkes@hottytoddy.com


The Willie Price Lab School at the University of Mississippi engages its preschoolers and their parents each year to come up with creative vessels in which to put fragile eggs, which are then dropped from atop the three-story building (Kinard Hall) where the school is housed. Some eggs break, and some survive, but the event is always fun for the kids and their parents.


Here’s a look at the March 26, 2013 Egg Drop:








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Groundhog Forecast



GroundHog -- Art Shirley Cartoon


Art Shirley graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1984 with a BA in Art.


While at Ole Miss, Art drew the daily comic strip Ernie, Skip & Joe which ran for a little over three years in the Daily Mississippian.


Art is currently the Creative Director for Quest Group, an advertising and marketing firm in West Point, Mississippi, where he and his wife, Becky, make their home. Art and Becky have two sons; Will, a junior at Ole Miss, and Drew, a freshman at Mississippi State.


Art has continued to do some cartooning “on the side” in the nearly thirty years since he left Ole Miss, contributing to several local papers, websites and trade magazines. He has just self-published a graphic novel, enjoyed some internet success with a cartoon about the Weather Channel’s alleged “Land Mass” gaffe and is particularly excited to be contributing cartoons for HottyToddy.com.







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Monday, March 25, 2013

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Birdhouse Auction Raises Funds for Habitat for Humanity



IMG_2287 Powerhouse reception is part of Art Crawl


The Houses for Houses program is raising money for Habitat for Humanity by putting a new house into the hands of those who give. The Powerhouse Community Arts Center will host a reception Tuesday, March 26, during the Art Crawl, for the fundraising initiative, which began March 4 and runs through April 1.


“We will be auctioning off more than 50 birdhouses made by local artists to benefit the Oxford/Lafayette Habitat for Humanity,” explains local artist Andi Bedsworth. The birdhouses are already on display at the Powerhouse Community Arts Center with bid sheets, and some bids have already been cast. “The show is open all day today and will be open tomorrow as well,” Bedsworth says. “The reception starts at 7 p.m., and bidding will close by 9 p.m.”


Bedsworth says the birdhouses are made with materials including fabric, tin cans, ceramics, wine corks, wood, beads, and metal.


“They are big and small, tall and short, and traditional and non-traditional. Some are purely decorative and some will be perfect for housing the birds in your yard. Please come out to the silent auction and make a bid. There will also be a raffle for a wood-turned house made by Cecil Bowers.”


Refreshments will be served, and the Double Decker bus will transport people to other galleries open in the Art Crawl.








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