Lucero, Memphis Band, Awsome Pedal Steel Player !

My Buddy Todd Beene, musician, actor and great friend. Glad to see you out and about my friend, doing your thing with style!


Photos courtesy of Kirsten Housel

A Good Day Out, South of Pemba, Indian Ocean Mozambique

Nigel Cabourn is Close

I have been following Nigel Cabourn for a while now and I have to say he is close when it comes to putting together clothing that I find attractive for myself. I'm attracted to his overall direction right off as he designs updated versions of English/European Military Wear, very cool, looks rugged enough, possibly could actually be worn on the outside doing what I do. He does use probably The Best Zipper made, RIRI. Me, I'm looking for clothes that I can wear in from the woods to dinner at Frank Stitt's or Kelvin Terry's. Something that looks good torn, with a little mud on it. He's close but no cigar yet. And down at the bottom is my next purchase in footwear, a pair of Grensons with vibram soles. AP

New Painting, Needs More hounds I Think

Zombie Root Carousel

Zombie Root Carousel

Recipe courtesy of Warren M. Bobrow Editor & Food Journalist/ Photojournalist from Wild Table/Wild River Review.

In a cocktail shaker, mash several maraschino cherries to a pulp
2 oz. of Tuthilltown Manhattan Rye Whiskey
1 oz. Root USDA Certified Organic Liquor
Finish with a shake or two of Fee Brothers Rhubarb Bitters and some freshly scraped ginger root.

Add ice, top with ginger ale. Shake, strain and pour over fresh ice in a tall glass.

ahh, I Remember You.

I have many memories from the past that continue to influence me in ongoing ways. They are always with me, always there just under the surface out of the current, tucked away low, behind a submerged rock, tuft of grass or a dead limb. There they abide like the Dude, always guiding my way when I falter or pause en route to somewhere new that gives me a desperate chill of apprehension, or when backtracking to find my way around some obstacle that has appeared in my way. Those small devilishly clever glimpses of by gone time that will never come again, that have lived their moment, whether a day, hour, minute, or just a second in my life and have stayed right here, right with me. They push their way up to the surface of my being occasionally, some more often than others, some only once or twice in ever so long a while, and some I can feel down there even now, down deep, just waiting for the special reason they were put there for, that will bring a rise and put me strait again thankfully, providing a bit of Novocaine so to speak to my wayward consciousness. Funny how your insides pick what it picks as memories go. I often find myself wondering why I remembered this or that? Why that came to me when it did, what is the meaning of such thought? I may not get it right off, but I surely know that down the road somewhere I will see clearly, looking back I will understand because, there, will be the change in direction I took if ever so slight a change it was, it was a change that made the right difference for me. Remember what your dreams are, listen to their big pull or slight tugs as they massage your soul. Remember when they come up and disturb the surface, your surface, the one that matters to you alone, keep them close, if you can, pull them even closer. In so doing you will travel well and you will travel true. AP


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Where there's a will, "or an enterprising third world mind", There's a Way!

Talking about Van, Ralph Mclean, with the BBC and Anthony Toner

My friend John Briggs brought two Irish Brethren down from Nashville Sunday to introduce them around to various persons in the music industry here. They dropped by for a little libation before returning to Nashville and then on to South by Southwest out in Austin. Ralph McClean, of the BBC Ralph McClean Show and Anthony Toner singer/songwriter also from Ireland had been participating in a Nashville/Ireland hands across the ocean thing up in the Music City where they had met John who keeps ASCAP on course up there. John being firmly dedicated to Muscle Shoals Music, (he's the brother of David Briggs, famous keyboard player from here) is always introducing people to the history of Muscle Shoals. We are very fortunate to have him as an ambassador of our music heritage. Thanks John.
Ralph and Anthony at the house with John Briggs, Sandi and Mathew.

You can catch Ralph's Show on the BBC, Tuesdays through Fridays 8-10pm. www.bbc.co.uk/radioulster

Remembering Charles Moore

I remember meeting Charles a few years back in the town I now live, which happened to be where Charles grew up. He told me about his first part time job, developing film for a small photo shop here in Tuscumbia and how the whole Civil Rights thing happened for him. I've missed his face and voice ever since he had to move to Florida because of his health. He was a true Southern Gentleman through and through. Charles was never cross, always unruffled, relentlessly gentle. He was always entertaining with stories from his life like photographing Jackie Gleason, Rachel Welch and his adventures in Viet Nam photographing for Playboy Magazine. He was and always will be one very unique soul to me and my wife Sandi. One of my most poignant regrets is to have not spent more time with him, listening to his stories and basking in his wonderful spirit. Here is a photo Charles took of Sandi and I while on a shoot for Billy Reid, you can see his shadow in the forground, makes it that much more special. Charles was in very good spirits that day telling jokes and stories. Good Memories! Thanks Charles, we all miss you very much and I will always remember how you loved this country and stood up for what you believed.  Your Friend Audwin

My friend Charles Moore, I will miss him geatly

Published: March 15, 2010

Charles Moore, a photographer who braved physical peril to capture searing images — including lawmen using dogs and fire hoses against defenseless demonstrators — that many credit with helping to propel landmark civil rights legislation, died on Thursday in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He was 79.

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Mickey Welsh/The Montgomery Advertiser, via Associated Press

Charles Moore in 2005.

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Charles Moore/Black Star

James R. Jones, the Grand Dragon of the North Carolina Ku Klux Klan, driving with his Klan robe to a rally in the mid-'60s.

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Charles Moore/Black Star

Demonstrators huddled in a doorway, seeking shelter from high-pressure fire hoses, in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963.

His daughter Michelle Moore Peel said he died of natural causes.
Mr. Moore’s camera snapped the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. being arrested in Montgomery, Ala., in 1958, and James Meredith integrating the University of Mississippi in the face of a screaming mob in 1962.
He photographed Bull Connor using dogs and high-pressure hoses on peaceful civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963, and recorded a black man being viciously beaten by a white lawman during the “Bloody Sunday” march from Selma, Ala., in 1965.
These crisp, fluid black-and-white photographs appeared most prominently in Life magazine at a time when general-interest picture magazines remained such a powerful force that critics now speak of it as the “golden age of photojournalism.”
Both Senator Jacob K. Javits and the historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. credited Mr. Moore’s images with building popular support for the passage of major civil rights laws in the mid-1960s. Critics have suggested that the fact that one does not see who is aiming the hose at the demonstrators seems to implicate the whole nation.
Mr. Moore, who was white, grew up in Alabama as the son of a Baptist minister, who not only denounced racism but who also occasionally preached in black churches. The son said he used his camera to continue the fight. But as a Southerner, he well knew the delicate line he had to walk.
On the one hand, he said in an interview with The Montgomery Advertiser in 2005, he refused to get on his knees and beg as racists had demanded. On the other, he said, he did everything possible to avoid confrontation, explaining that if he were arrested he couldn’t photograph.
“I’d let people trip me, jostle me, pull my hair and threaten to smash my camera,” he told The New Orleans Times-Picayune in 1997.
Hank Klibanoff, who with Gene Roberts wrote “The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation” (2006), said in an interview Monday that Mr. Moore, almost always using a short lens, would immerse himself in the middle of the action. He often appeared in the pictures of other photographers who were standing back.
One of Mr. Moore’s images shook the author Paul Hendrickson to the core. The picture showed six Mississippi sheriffs and a deputy, some chortling, waiting to confront Mr. Meredith at Ole Miss. One appears to be showing the others how to swing a riot club.
Mr. Hendrickson wrote about the seven lawmen in “Sons of Mississippi: A Story of Race and Its Legacy” (2003). The photo is included in Mr. Moore’s 2002 book, “Powerful Days: The Civil Rights Photography of Charles Moore.”
“It was a two-second grab shot,” Mr. Hendrickson said on Monday. “The greatest photographers see the image before they click it.”
Charles Lee Moore was born in Hackleburg, Ala., on March 9, 1931, and took his first pictures with a Kodak Brownie. He served three years in the Marines as a photographer and then attended the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif. He next applied for a job as a photographer with the morning and afternoon newspapers in Montgomery: The Montgomery Advertiser and The Montgomery Journal.
His training in fashion photography at Brooks helped him get the job, Mr. Klibanoff said. When Mr. Moore arrived at the newspapers’ office, Mr. Klibanoff said, he was sent to a country club where the photography editor was taking pictures of bathing beauties. The editor, who hated the job, was having trouble positioning everyone.
Mr. Moore took over, all went smoothly, and he was hired.
At the newspapers Mr. Moore quickly proved his versatility. An article in Editor & Publisher in 1961 praised him for “turning pictures of everyday people into dramatic, emotional experiences for readers.”
In 1962, Mr. Moore left the newspapers to start a freelance career. He worked for the Black Star picture agency, which sold much of his work to Life.
Mr. Moore is survived by his brother, Jim; his sons, Michael and Gary; his daughters, April Marshall and Michelle Moore Peel; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Mr. Moore went on to cover the Vietnam War and many other trouble spots. He then decided he wanted to “shoot beauty” and moved on to nature, fashion and travel photography, in addition to corporate work. But he always said his civil rights work was his most important, and in 1989 he received the inaugural Kodak Crystal Eagle Award for Impact in Photojournalism.
His civil rights success resulted in part from cunning and resourcefulness. After being arrested in Birmingham in 1963, he was desperate to get out of town with his film the next day, he said in a biography prepared by Black Star. But a police car blocked the entrance to the airport.
He and his colleagues sneaked along the side of the terminal building and boarded the airplane just as the stairs were about to be pulled away.
“We flew away as fugitives from justice,” Mr. Moore said.

Where do I begin. My friend Charles Moore moved back to his hometown area and graced all who knew him with his gentleness and warm heart. A Southern Gentleman through and through Charles was an inspiration to me with is unruffled style and complete dedication to those who became his friend. My fondest memory was of Charles while on a Billy Reid shoot down at Nancy Oneal's place. He was on that day cracking jokes and telling those mesmerizing stories of times spent photographing Jackie Gleason, Rachel Welch and a playboy issue in Vietnam. One of my more poignant regrets is to not of spent more time with him recording all those stories that are now lost forever. I will always miss you Charles, your friend Audwin.

 Below, a cherished possession. Charles photographed Sandi and I that day on the hood of my old 46 International, his shadow in the foreground Charles Moore, Rights-Era Photographer, Dies at 79

By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Random, pics from Jackson Hole in the 70's on top of Bobcat Mountain with the crew of Pilgrim Creek Outfitters to Puerta Limpera Hondouras, Caratasca Lagoon, Zimbabwe, On the Stove at Home, Sunset over Niassa Reserve Mozambique, Sandi in Montepuez, In Guatemala on the Passion River with a few Amigos, to Down in Bariloche Argentina.

New Gear, Nice Design, Very Nice, on the Tactical Side but I like it!

T.A.D. GEAR

A good friend of mine sells clothes! Now he's going to sell a lot more!

 Well most of you around here in Alabama know Billy or know of him.  He's been a good friend since he came here and all of us (locals) are all very proud and happy for his success. For all my friends not aware of Billy,  here is the latest on the boy.  (see full  article)  from GQ.

And the Winner Is…

ON FEBRUARY 12, 2010 AT 2:44 PM

Last night, at an energized, jam-packed event at Manhattan's IAC building, we kicked off New York Fashion Week by celebrating the six finalists in our 2010 search for the Best New Designer in America. Each of the designers—from a transplanted Dutch veteran of preppy casualwear to two globetrotting (and enterprising) brothers—could have taken the title, but right now we couldn't be more pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2010 GQ/CFDA Best New Menswear Designer in America Award (along with a $50,000 cash prize and the opportunity to create a limited edition Levi's collection for Bloomingdale's) is... Billy Reid.

A true fashion journeyman, Billy won the CFDA best new men's designer award in 2001, but after investing in the production of his collection, his business was confronted with the grim reality of September 11th. Eight months after the attack, he moved home to Alabama, starting anew with his Billy Reid label in 2004. He now has seven stores selling clothes you could imagine William Faulkner wearing at his dapper peak, with bold shots of color mixed in at just the right moments.

Today we kick off a celebration of our Best New Menswear Designer finalists with a series of behind-the-scenes video studio visits by creative director Jim Moore and fashion editor Damien Nunes. Tune in for a new video, spotlighting each of the nominees in their own creative spaces, each day over the next week. Today we begin—naturally—with Billy Reid: