Corey Smith - Hard Headed Fool

I like some country music even though it's not really "cool." Still, I really like Corey Smith, a Georgian musician. On his website he talks about how he combined multiple music formats he heard while growing up in the South (country, gospel, hip hop, rock, blues) into his style. I can hear those different styles, but I'd still say he's mostly a country artist.

I recently bought his most recent album, Hard Headed Fool. I got most of his other music as soon as I learned about him from friends at Mississippi College. The first song I heard from him was "If That's Country", which makes fun of popular country music:

Straight out of Nashville, here’s your next big star

He don’t write the songs he sings, but he knows the words by heart.

Wears a cowboy hat, and some tight blue jeans,

And he struts around the stage like he’s the coolest thing you’ve ever seen.

He looks like a super model, knows how to strike a pose

And he don’t mind the makeup, as long as no one knows.

And he’s got that crooked grin, and talks with a southern drawl,

Acts like Toby Keith, but sounds a lot like Tim McGraw

But if he’s country I’ll kiss your ass,

And throw all my Willie Nelson records in the trash.

He’s the same old shit in a slightly different bag,

But if he’s country, well then country’s pretty bad.

I don’t watch CMT

Naw that shit makes me sick.

And that ole Kenny Chesney,

What a hypocrite.

He’ll swear he’s country,

But he lives in the Caribbean.

Sings all about the islands now,

What happened to the Tennessean

Aw if he’s country I'll kiss your ass

Throw all my Johnny Cash records in the trash

He’s all about image cuz image pays the bucks,

Aw but if he’s country, well then country really sucks.

I'm also a huge fan of his song "Maybe Next Year".

He's playing in Houston, TX soon, so maybe I'll actually go to that concert even though I usually don't go to concerts.

Federation of International Static Teams (FIST)

Santonio Holmes scores winning

touchdown in Super Bowl XLIII

Matt Cashore, US Presswire

I just created a new fantasy football league with a bunch of friends from church in Jackson, MS. Most of us were part of a 20s ministry called "Static" at First Baptist (hence the "Static" in the league's title). I honestly got a little giddy while creating my team and looking over my draft options. I'm so ready to waste hours watching games and guessing which players will give me the most points. Oh... wait... I'm moving to Scotland where I won't be able to watch the games... crap. I guess my team will suck this year.

Last year I accidently asked a friend who played fantasy football, "How's your fantasy going?" I didn't realize what I said or how it sounded. We were at church. It was awkward.

Book Review: Mississippi Secrets

I bought Mississippi Secrets at a Barnes and Noble in Biloxi because the authors (Dr Gary McDowell and Ruth McDowell) were having a signing there. I figured I might as well support a local author.

The book itself is average and not overly impressive. The narrative is easy to follow but not very deep. This shallowness is not always a problem, especially if that's what you want. For better or worse, the best word to describe this book is "folksy."

I did enjoy the sections about the Native Americans in Mississippi because I didn't know their legends or myths. The section about Holt Collier (the former slave who found a bear for Teddy Roosevelt) gives a different perspective about the Teddy Bear incident that I had not heard. The McDowells' description of the Jim Bowie's knife fight near Natchez was also interesting and read more like a short story than like a history book. For me, the most interesting part of the book was the personal interview with James Meredith, the first African American to attend Ole Miss. At the time, Governor Ross Barnett was adamantly opposed to James Meredith enrolling into a white university. Gary McDowell asked, "How did you feel when Ross Barnett got up in your face and started yelling like he did?" James Meredith answered:

Well, you see, I was not just a soldier. I was a politician also. I always had a good deal of respect for Governor Barnett. I knew that what he was doing was not aimed against me. [...] You see, the whites in Mississippi were as restricted by the rules of White Supremacy as the blacks were, and not a single black was hurt during all those years I was involved in that in Mississippi. I credit Governor Barnett for that. I gave him almost total credit for being the one that kept the blacks from being hurt. He deliberately kept he whites under his hand, kept them believing he was going to take care of the problem so that they wouldn't go out hurting, shooting, lynching or whatever. [...] So actually, I always considered him mostly on my side. I thought that he wanted change in Mississippi just as much as I wanted change. But he knew there were certain processes that had to take place before full citizenship could be established after the system had been in place for more than 100 years. (118-119)

During the interview, James Meredith also said that whites lynched other whites who had broken the White Supremacy Rules. His responses fascinated me, and it's very insightful. I'm not sure if Ross Barnett deserves such a kind critique, but this answer would make a great prompt for a political science class discussion.

However, there were parts of the book I did not enjoy. The UFO story did not deserve to be in this book. The entire chapter about famous Mississippians could have been omitted. I'm sick of hearing about which famous actors and singers are from Mississippi. Faith Hill, 3 Doors Down, Lacey Nicole Chabert, Morgan Freeman, Elvis Presley, Afroman, Lance Bass, Oprah Winfrey, Jimmy Buffett, BB King, and LeAnn Rimes DO NOT make Mississippi special or important. I know that last sentence was probably blasphemous. I'm surprised this chapter does not include any famous Mississippi writers. This chapter would have been better if the McDowells had told Faulkner's and Welty's life story and contribution to literature. At least those two (unlike many they do mention) actually stayed in Mississippi.

They said Katrina was the most powerful storm ever in the Gulf of Mexico with 175 mph winds, but Camille had 190 mph winds. We simply don't know and never will know how powerful Camille was (including the storm surge's exact height). Katrina was a much broader storm with weaker winds, but this does not make Katrina the "most powerful storm ever in the Gulf of Mexico." I understand that the Katrina vs Camille debate can be very contentious, especially since Katrina memories are fresh and salient.

A couple other things bothered me about the book. For instance, they confuse Ole Miss with Mississippi State University. They aren't the same. The Bibliography showed they used 9 sources from Wikipedia, which is an academic taboo. There are also some grammatical problems. For instance, in Chapter 6 they use two spellings (Hinds and Hines) for the same man. I blame the publisher and editor for this sloppiness.

I hate speaking ill about certain parts of this book after reading Gary and Ruth's personal story in the last chapter. Dr Gary had been a history teacher in the public school system until 2005 when a student assaulted him in the classroom. Due to his injuries, he could not return to work and lost a lot of his vision. I could not infer if he was in a wheelchair before or after this attack. Later that year Katrina flooded their home, so Ruth had to pull up the carpet and make repairs without Gary's help. After the storm Gary dictated to Ruth this book since he could not see well enough. I'm impressed with anyone who dictates a book while blind.

Overall, I'd say Gary and Ruth wrote a descent, folksy retelling of Mississippi history with only a couple slight yet forgivable errors.

Mexican Turkey Burgers

1lb ground turkey

1 packet of taco seasoning

1 container of chive & onion cream cheese

Mix ground turkey with taco seasoning. Make 6 patties. For filling, put dollop of chive & onion cream cheese on 3 patties. Put remaining 3 patties on top of patties with filling. Grill.

Makes 3 burgers.

Notes: After finishing the patties, I put them in the refrigerator for an hour or so. I’m not sure, but I think they stick together better on the grill if I refrigerate them first. Instead of using ketchup or mustard, I like to put salsa and cheddar cheese on the buns. When I cooked these last time, I made 9 burgers, so I tripled the recipe.

Origins: A good friend, Jack Dean, gave me this recipe, and he got it from a friend. I don't know where that friend found it.

Cake Balls

1 chocolate cake in a box

1 tub of chocolate icing

1 package of almond bark

toothpicks

Bake cake according to box’s instructions. After cake cools, mix cake and icing until it is a consistent paste. Roll this paste into balls. Put balls into freezer overnight. Next day melt almond bark on stove in a “double boiler.” Take balls out of freezer. Stick toothpick into balls and coat balls with melted almond bark. Put balls on cooking sheet and allow chocolate to harden. Remove toothpicks and refrigerate.

Serves a whole bunch of people for days.

Notes: They taste like chocolate truffles. I used regular chocolate, but I could have used white chocolate bark. You can also bake your own homemade cake. I don't know how to do that, so I cheat and use the cake in a box.

Origins: One of Ryan's relatives owned a tea room restaurant and gave him a bunch of dessert recipes. Cake balls are supposed to be the latest fad around here.

You might want to try different sizes to see

which ones work better.

You need to freeze them overnight so that they'll

harden and not fall apart when you coat them with chocolate.

That's also why you don't pull them out of the freezer until

after the almond bark has melted and you're ready to dip the balls.

Don't use almond bark from a candy store.

It's too expensive. But the cheap stuff.

At least that's what I've been told.

This is not a "double boiler" like I mentioned in the directions.

Instead, it's a pot that's specially designed to melt chocolate.

You don't melt the chocolate in another pan because you'll

burn the chocolate or something like that.

Use the toothpicks so that you won't get

your hands messy.

Houston Beans

1lb bag of Camellia Red Kidney Beans

½ onion chopped

4-5 garlic cloves chopped

½ jar of jalapeños

1 red bell pepper chopped

4-5 slices of salt pork

Rinse the beans. In a large bowl, soak the beans in the refrigerator overnight with the onion, garlic, jalapeños, and bell pepper. Next morning, put all the ingredients from the bowl into a Crock Pot with the salt pork. Slow cook the beans for 8 hours until the beans are soft and tender.

Serves about 5 people.

Notes: I cut the bell pepper into large pieces so that I could have the flavor without eating them. I don’t usually eat peppers, jalapeños, or onions, but I use them to flavor the beans because bland beans are a waste. I would rather have too much spice than not enough because I can cut the spice with rice or something like that.

Origins: After watching my brother-in-law, Ryan, cook beans with a Crock Pot, I decided to make some alterations and add more spices. This is what I came up with.

Here's a picture of everything

in the bowl the before I refrigerated

it overnight.

After 8 hours in the Crock Pot, everything

was tender and tasty

Offensive Segways

While checking my email on AOL, I found this website called fanhouse, and there are tons of awesome sports photos.

Christian Petersen, Getty Images

Let's start with this photo of Kurt Warner with some other Arizona Cardinals during training camp on July 31, 09. There are several things to say about this photo. First, why does anyone on a professional football player need a segway to get around during practice? Second, why are there segways for each player? Third, could they play a scrimmage game completely on segways?

A USA Today article explained:

Many of the players are driving Segways around campus at training camp, from their dorms, to the practice fields and to the dining hall. Safety Adrian Wilson bought his but admitted it might not have many practical purposes when he returns home. "Maybe to make a mail-box run," he said.

I don't imagine any high school football teams will give their players segways for afternoon practices this August.

Kirsty Wigglesworth, AP

Michael Llodra from France collided into a ball girl while playing a match at Wimbledon. He looks like a creepster. She should be upset about him getting so close... after all, he is French. The article I linked above referred to her as "Blonde Erin" as if "Blonde" was her name. It's not. It's just her hair color. Do the English normally do that? "Meet my good friend, Brunette Janice."

Ezra Shaw, Getty Images

Being the pink gorilla in the race almost sounds like fun, except for being a pink gorilla running. I'm not sure how far I could run wearing that outfit before it got too hot. Kudos to him or her. This picture is from San Francisco's 98th ING Bay to Breakers 12k, which is one of the oldest and largest races.