Y’all know Zita…Y’all know Hal and Mal’s…but did you know that her Dad is Mal and her uncle is Hal?

Lemuria and Hal and Mal’s have a long history of working on various events together through the years:  The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Jill Conner Browne’s Sweet Potato Queen books, Up From the Cradle of Jazz by Don Foose, Willie Dixon’s autobiography, and James McBride author of The Color of Water and Miracle at St. Anna and we have even sponsored a float in the Hal and Mal’s St. Paddy’s Day Parade.  We all have enjoyed some good food, good music and cold beer at Hal and Mal’s and the staff at Lemuria would like like to congratulate Hal and Malcolm and the staff, past and present, for 25 years of good times!!!  We will see y’all Saturday night!!!

25 Years, 25 Bands

Downtown hotspot Hal and Mal’s celebrating milestone with plenty of characters

Sherry Lucas • slucas@clarionledger.com • February 25, 2010

Music and meals at Hal & Mal’s both benefit from a long, slow simmer that brings out their best.

That combo has brought out just about everybody else over the years, too.

The restaurant and nightspot celebrates its 25-year milestone on Saturday. The actual birthday, coinciding with Elvis’ on Jan. 8, passed some weeks back, but this weekend boasts the party with a passel of Jackson bands – 25 at last count – and a shindig that stretches into the wee hours.

Hal and Malcolm White, the brothers in the title and at the helm, are seeing the next generation step up to the plate in the family business.

Jesse Robinson & the 300 lb Blues Band, These Days featuring Jewel Bass, the Bluz Boys, the Vernon Brothers, Buffalo Nickel and The Vamps are just a few of the bands kicking in the party mix. Word is, Hal and Mal will pop out of cakes as part of the fun.

In a quarter century in the old GM&O (Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad) freight depot, much has changed at Hal & Mal’s.

And much hasn’t . . .

Read full article at The Clarion Ledger with details on the night’s entertainment line-up.

I thought it would be fun to see how all this hoop-la about Valentine’s Day started! Here’s what I found:

According to some historians, Valentine’s Day started in the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honor Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage.

Some other experts state that it originated with St. Valentine, a Roman who was martyred for refusing to give up Christianity. He died on February 14, 269 A.D. At that time, the lives of young Roman boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing on the eve of the festival of Lupercalia (14th). The names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl’s name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose.

But this legend is my favorite! Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II, Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that Roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result, Claudius CANCELLED all marriages and engagements in Rome. The good Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II. He secretly married couples, and for this kind deed he was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, about the year 270. Legend also says that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer’s daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it “From Your Valentine”.

Gradually, February 14 became the date for exchanging love messages and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. The date was marked by sending poems and simple gifts such as flowers. There was often a social gathering or a ball.

Down through the ensuing ages, various peoples and countries devised their own unique ways of celebrating Valentines Day.

In Wales, wooden love spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favorite decorations on the spoons. The decoration meant, “You unlock my heart!”

In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

In the United States, Miss Esther Howland is given credit for sending the first valentine cards. Commercial valentines were introduced in the 1800’s.

Some people used to believe that if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine’s Day; it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be very happy. If she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a millionaire.

Where’s the nearest goldfinch???

by Kelly Pickerill

The drive from Jackson to “home” in southeast Florida is arduous, taking a whopping 15 hours from stem to stern.  I usually fly, but the times I’ve driven have been rescued from monotony by audiobooks.

I love listening to a good audiobook.  This is not always the same as a good book, however, as most of you who listen as well as read can attest.  Just because a book is wonderful doesn’t mean its audio counterpart will provide equal enjoyment.  It all depends on the reader.  The words “read by the author,” for example, always give me pause.  Some authors, despite their love affair with words, were never meant to be readers.  Other authors, though, are great readers of their own work; they know their work intimately and are best able to grasp its mood.  Neil Gaiman’s reading of his book Stardust is very good.  I had already read the book when I listened to it during my move from Florida to Jackson, yet hearing his rendition of the fairy tale was wonderful.  I bet Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna is amazing read by her, though I’ve been unable to find anything on the web about how it is.  Let me know if you’ve listened to it.

It seems like more and more audiobooks are being performed by an ensemble cast.  The Help, Kathryn Stockett’s gem of a debut, is read by her actress friend Octavia Spencer along with three other women, who take turns voicing for Kathryn’s unforgettable characters.

Octavia signs a copy of The Help

Libraryjournal.com voted The Help audiobook one of the best of 2009, saying,

Actresses Octavia Spencer, Bahni Turpin, Jenna Lamia, and Cassandra Campbell “immediately pull listeners in, breathing life into this touching [debut] novel” set in early 1960s Jackson, MS. [read the entire article here].

The new book by Elizabeth Kostova, who will be autographing and reading at Lemuria on February 17th, The Swan Thieves, is also read by a full cast, including Treat Williams and Anne Heche.

My favorite audiobooks, though, are those that are a little easier to listen to during short drives.  To and from work today I listened to David Sedaris’s new cd, Live For Your Listening Pleasure.  This is a collection of live readings he made in Denver, NYC, Durham, LA, and Atlanta.  On a short drive you can usually finish one of his stories, which you know is nice if you’ve ever tried to listen to a novel audiobook and sat in a parking lot for thirty minutes trying to get to a good place to stop.  Also, the live audience laughter factor makes you feel like you’re right there listening with ’em.

If you don’t want funny, but still want something you can take small bites of, poetry is a good option.  Mary Oliver has a new poetry collection on cd coming out in April, Many Miles, and I got a preview copy!  In the liner notes she writes about the virtues of listening to someone read,

For there is something heard in the actual voice that cannot be accrued from the printed page, though we read with care and excitement, even with a real falling-into-it passion.  There is simply no “connect” as there is between listener and speaker.  That, at its best, is almost touch.  Nuances unfelt on the page hang in the air.

Her first collection of poems, At Blackwater Pond, is still available!

“Read” an audiobook!  You’ll be taking part in the great oral tradition, keeping alive the days when troubadours and bards recited epics to the townspeople! Well, I might be getting overexcited, but I can’t deny, as Mary Oliver says, “my joy and appreciation at the salvation of voices otherwise vanished into the unknowable darkness.”

If you don’t live in Jackson then maybe you don’t realize that we’ve had no water for the last couple of days. We had a big freeze and a whole bunch of water pipes are broken – here is an article in our paper. Anyway, a lot of businesses are closed (after all, the bathroom doesn’t work) but we don’t stop – we are OPEN – so come on down if you are off of work – or order online if you’re out there somewhere and would like to say hello.

As I was sitting in front of my fireplace this morning, I was struck by the fact that Christmas is incredibly universal. Not many things can pull off involving the entire world; much less involving it in a spirit of goodwill and peace for all. I think that’s pretty amazing and I wondered what some of this “world” had to say about it…

“I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.”

Shirley Temple

“Do give books – religious or otherwise – for Christmas. They’re never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal.”
~ Lenore Hershey

”My first copies of Treasure Island and Huckleberry Finn still have some blue-spruce needles scattered in the pages. They smell of Christmas still.”
~ Charlton Heston

*     *    *

“Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall.  We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space.”

~Dave Barry

*     *     *

“To your enemy, forgiveness.

To an opponent, tolerance.

To a friend, your heart.

To a customer, service.

To all, charity.

To every child, a good example.

To yourself, respect.”

~ Oren Arnold

*    *     *

”I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year. As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year. And thus I drift along into the holidays–let them overtake me unexpectedly–waking up some fine morning and suddenly saying to myself: ‘Why this is Christmas Day!”
~ Ray Baker

*     *     *

“One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don’t clean it up too quickly.”

~ Andy Rooney

*     *     *

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?  It came without ribbons.  It came without tags.  It came without packages, boxes or bags.  And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore.  Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before.  What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store.  What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

Dr. Seuss

*     *    *

Happy holidays to you and yours!

You know those legends you hear about booksellers? The ones that always know where the book is – or you can say things like “I don’t know the author or title, but it has a blue cover” and they know exactly what you’re talking about – or the bookseller that got you started on not just one, but all of your favorite authors? Well, all of those legends started a few years back at Lemuria when Valerie Walley worked here. She’s one of the best booksellers ever and she worked right here in Jackson MS.  But, she had to go out to California for a while – then had to go to work for Random House and have influence over hundreds (even thousands) of the normal type of booksellers who can’t actually find every book and don’t have the super human bookselling ability. Well anyway, Valerie is coming back to Lemuria to work with us this weekend. Friday and Saturday only. So please come up to the store and test out her abilities. and please feel welcome to comment on this blog – we’d love to hear some Valerie stories.

I was lucky enough to spend some days in the mountains with nothing to do but hike and read. I arrived with a whole bag of books but here is what I read.

I finished reading Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz. Loved it. See my previous blog.

I also read Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls. She published a memoir a few years ago entitled The Glass Castle, and it is about her growing up with her parents . . . who today still choose to be homeless in New York City. I chose to read Half Broke Horses first because it is about Jeannette’s grandmother and gives a lot of insight as to why Jeannette’s mom chose such an odd lifestyle. I highly recommend Half Broke Horses and look forward to reading The Glass Castle in the next week or so. See Norma’s review of Half Broke Horses and The Glass Castle.

Out of all the books I read on vacation, I have to say that Love in the Time of Cholera is the dearest to my heart. I had tried a couple of years ago to read One Hundred Years of Solitude but never made it past 40 pages after three attempts. I cannot wait to give it another try now. Marquez is rewarding to say the least. It seems to me that Love in the Time of Cholera might be a good place to start if you have trouble with One Hundred Years. There is also a new bio of Marquez by Gerald Martin. But I think I am going to put Living to Tell the Tale first on my list as it is Marquez’s life in his own words.

And finally, I have to add that I enjoyed hearing about The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby. (My man read it and parts to me.) Unreason is an engaging, hard look at what she calls a “storm of anti-rationalism” in the United States. Jacoby’s work is striking in that she gives equal treatment to those on the left and the right.

Happy Reading!