By The Campfire

Inside the mouths and bellies and minds of Southerners, a war has been raging for years. OK, the conflict has mostly been in my own mind, but I did my best to start a bigger fight.

The rain came early and hard. The thunder and lightning came next. It went on all night and stayed in the morning. No one cared. They came for a reason and everyone who had a reason got what they came for.

Summer is officially here with Memorial Day past and the torched meaty smell of smoky perfume in my backyard every afternoon. People are grilling.

They gather at the Barnes & Noble early Saturday morning to drink coffee and discuss a few books. They speak in the hushed, reverential tones of people who have been raised to respect the edicts of a stern librarian. Seven of them congregate in the corner chairs; they carry several new books. Their camo apparel and thick [...]

Just a little piece north of Richmond, Virginia, on Lakeside Avenue amid the 1940-ish neighborhood and the plethora of auto repair establishments, there wafts the aroma of the 1960s. In a ramshackle square of a building straight out of a time where the world was viewed through black and white photos, sits the worldwide headquarters [...]

Recently, I was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on a shoot with Dee Briggs, and we happened by Rock City on top of Lookout Mountain, the granddaddy of Southern tourism icons. “See Rock City”, the barns, Ruby Falls — it made me think about Southern vacations. The South was a brutally poor place after the Civil War [...]

This past weekend, Shockoe Bottom here in Richmond filled up with liquid again. Except this time, it was not murky water from a Gaston-ish flood but a murky, gastronomical flood of Brunswick Stew that swirled and puddled around hundreds of people who jammed the streets as contestants tried to out-cook each other into vatted oblivion [...]

My back is hurting and I limp here and there around Rainmaker Studios, crablike, contorted and bent. This is not new. I have this ailment on a regular basis and it runs its course and then I’m fine. Today, however, I am not fine. Dee Dee looks at my Igor-ish stance, frowns, and says, “You [...]

By Dee Briggs, Production Guide I don’t get the NASCAR thing. This is what I tell people who bring up the subject. I don’t know if this is some pompous rendition of my pseudo highbrow tastes not to be linked with my Joe Six-Pack buddies, or just a vain attempt to steer the conversation into [...]

If you live in Richmond, this is probably not news. But for those of you who are not from around these parts, this is quite an interesting tail (yes, tail).