| Author | Message |
ChicoHarris
Member | Posted: Dec 21, 2008, 10:56 pm Quote
24 years ago today, I was buying beer at Kroger in Tupelo and my buddy Craig C. Cannon walked up and said, "Hey Chico, let's go get the Christmas present I'm going to give you." We had been in the ghetto that morning about 3 o'clock and I figured we were headed back there, so I said, "Let's go!"
But, we didn't go back to the ghetto, we went to the white people neighborhood where his brother lived. I was led into a room where a dog, Sadie had given birth a few hours before. "You get pick of the litter. Merry Christmas."
The one I picked, I picked him right away and I named him Wayne.
Here's something for you to watch while you're at work and either bored or just feel like sticking it to the man. This is worth watching for the Barry Hannah part.
I had an accident April 5, 1997, the day Allan Ginsberg died. Wayne died that day in the accident and I came very close to doing so myself. Wayne the Dog was named for Wayne in "Darlington County," from Springsteen's Born In The USA record. I named him the day he was born, December 21, 1984. He was a favorite son of Oxford. I was with Wayne and we were crossing the street and got hit by this dude's car at a big rate of speed. Folks in Oxford had a three-day festival as a fundraiser for my medical bills and it was a memorial for Wayne. Cary and Laurie from Blue Mountain got the ball rolling with organizing and bands came to play from New York to New Orleans, there was three nights of music at Proud Larrys by ten bands. There was a art auction, a golf tournament, a frisbee gold tournament and a reading in which Larry Brown read poetry and American literary treasure Barry Hannah, a dog lover, wrote and read an incredible essay about Wayne. Stephen Bransford and his crew made a documentary about the three days and here for you is the short version, at about only 15 minutes. I think Steve won some award or such for this in Savannah...I know the editing is superb, especially regarding Hannah. This version on Vimeo is kind of dark visually but does have a button to watch in high def but doesn't have captions, so I'll list them after the link:
http://www.vimeo.com/2436881
In the documentary, in order of appearance:
Barry Hannah, novelist and Ole Miss writer-in-residence, reads his essay about Wayne in segments throughout the film.
Chico Harris - the cause of all this.
Jim Dees - local writer and media personality
Mitch Ulrich - owner, Uncle Buck's Records on the square in Oxford. He worked on organiztion of the festival and he's sitting beside a statue of Faulkner on the Oxford square.
The Voice of Jamo - talking about Wayne as camera shot goes inside my then house.
Ron Shapiro - Owner of the Hoka and local shaper of Oxford culture from 1970s to the present.
Jim Dickinson - Musician, Yalobushwackers, Mud Boy and the Nuetrons, Rolling Stones, etc. Producer, Beanland, Alex Chilton, Bob Dylan etc. Father, 2/3 of the North Mississippi All-Stars.
Barton - Oxford character
Scott Caradine and Michael Nichol - Caradine is founder and owner of Proud Larrys, where the festival music was over three nights and Nichol is an Oxford musician. At the time and here in the film they were hosting an Ole Miss sports radio show.
Larry Brown with Dees and Hannah at the Square Books reading.
Where Wayne is buried.
Performance by the Continental Drifters at Proud Larrys (List of other bands at end of this list).
(Continental Drifters were a New Orleans band consisting of Vicki Peterson, Susan Cowsill, Peter Hosapple, Robert Mache, Mark Walton and Russ Broussard)
Russ Broussard
Dave Woolworth (Kudzu Kings bassist)
T-shirt and poster festival art by folk artist Blair Hobbs
1985 picture of me and Wayne on our way back from Jazz Fest in New Orleans.
Partial list of bands:
The North Mississippi All-Stars with Jim Dickinson and Jimbo Mathus
Blue Mountain
Continental Drifters
Kudzu Kings
Kate Jacobs
Amy Rigby
Cardinal Fluff
Wobitty
The Jazz Gestapo
The Ole Missbehavin' Choir
Scott Rogers was in no way harmed during, in, or by the making of this film.
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michael baker
Member | Posted: Dec 22, 2008, 7:01 am Quote
i met hannah a few times in the 80's; one time in a wild period of his, one time in this mode: compassionate, caring, funny. anyone who pretends to know the south, contemporary lit, or the pain of loss and who has not read Airships is doing a disservice to those three fields of knowledge. it is a great great book.
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michael baker
Member | Posted: Dec 22, 2008, 7:09 am | Edited by: michael baker Quote
hey
that clip has cowsills' ex holsapple and an interview with her present beau, broussard (i think)
i love that cowsills song about the park...
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ChicoHarris
Member | Posted: Dec 22, 2008, 9:17 am Quote
her present beau, broussard (i think)
Correct about that and Airships. Some Oxford DJs have named themselves Airships in honor.
Cowsills were a cool American band...
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Miss Faye
Member | Posted: Dec 22, 2008, 12:01 pm Quote
How is Dees these days?
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ChicoHarris
Member | Posted: Dec 22, 2008, 12:36 pm Quote
How is Dees these days?
Very well. He's got two great dogs, good looking women chasing him, recently released a new book, Lies And Other Truths,
http://www.lemuriabooks.com/index.php?show=book&isbn=WFES980016444
is host of a very cool live-audience radio show, Thacker Mountain Radio,
http://www.thackermountain.com/index.php?range=past
and writes a very cool column in a very un-cool newspaper, Oxford Town (so lame it doesn't even have a Web-site).
http://www.oxfordeagle.com/OT801.pdf
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Miss Faye
Member | Posted: Dec 23, 2008, 9:53 am Quote
So he hasn't changed a bit. Good to know!
Oddly enough, after asking about him, I came across him on facebook. I'll have to check out his book--he's one hell of a witty guy. |