Monthly Archives: November 2009

Thomas A Minor & The Picket Line

My younger brother (he’s taller than me so I hesitate to call him my ‘little’ brother anymore), Oscar Lee Riley Parsons lives in Louisville and spends his days making leather, doing some construction, AND making music. All the shy genes went to me and my older brother, James, I reckon, cause Oscar has been a singer and performer for as long as I can remember.

And people listen. His current bluegrass-ish band has backed Bonnie Prince Billy at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, been mentioned in the New Yorker, and now they have released their own EP.

They did a small run of covers. The banjo picker Bradley did the artwork (except for the moonshine jug that I drew and added at the last minute) and I typeset it, and ran them through my press x 250 or so. I think they are really nice… and appropriate for a semi-old timey bluegrass-ish rock band.

As a side note, the band members are in charge of gluing the covers onto sleeves. The ones I received were quite straight because Oscar did them. but I heard reports of crooked gluing. Adds to the charm?

Anyways, it is wonderful to hear my little brother sing. I can’t figure out what song is my favorite, but the first track “Ain’t No Doubt About It” is a familiar story about Daddy and JC racing towards the county line to get some booze before the store closed. We hear that story every christmas from JC. I am not surprised it worked it’s way into true permanence.

I also LOVE “Magnolia” and “Back In Town”. Ok. I love all of them. I will stop listing them… go to their myspace to hear a couple of songs! and check out their facebook page!

I am proud of you Oscar!

If you want to attain a copy, try harassing the band on myspace? I think they only have local distribution out of my brother’s truck right now.

BUT if you want your copy of their release, send $10 Cash and an address to:

Oscar Parsons
713 S. Barbee Way
Louisville, Kentucky 40217

(they prefer cash but checks are ok. make it out to Bradley Reinstedler to the same address)

He will pop one in the mail to you for sure….

for info email: thepicketline at gmail dot com

It really is ALBUM OF THE YEAR. except that it’s only an EP. WE NEED MORE!!

HOLIDAY! CELEBRATE!

Tis the season. I am working double time to do all the holiday cards and party invitations. It was so exciting to give my 2 cents for a holiday card article about city moms on the Stroller Traffic blog.

Family holiday cards are the funnest way to share your joy with everyone you know… one of my all time favorite holiday cards is this one – a Dirty Byrd Paper bird. I love printing on shapes. This one was for my friends over at Sillapere Events. It’s handmade, It’s green. And it’s a super cool surprise in the mail. 

What ends up happening because I am so busy this time of year, is that Thanksgiving will arrive and I will expect a pile of presents.

But it’s all good, cause I accept pies as presents!  Maple Pecan Pie… yum.

Style Me Pretty talks about Tiny Pine Press!

tinypinepress36-300x233What a surprise to find out that Tiny Pine got a BIG shout out on that fanciest of all wedding blogs.

Thank goodness for Gia Canali and her pretty pictures. And to Yifat Oren for styling (and planning) so so beautifully. I love it when our collaborations get some attention. Its so nice….

Here are some other photos of sweet Dara & Dan’s invitation and save the

date (photos taken from Gia’s blog….)

My only woe about the wedding is that they didn’t need an onsite stationer in the Turks and Caicos. But alas, I had to stay home on that one…

tinypinepress35-300x226

How to cook a bees, a coon, or a possum the Cherokee way.

I KNOW that everyone checks this blog daily for photos of new roadkill cakes and sundaes and such. I know that it’s a very popular subject because I can tell when you’uns search for Hillbilly Cakes or Road Kill Ice Cream. It’s just a subject that isn’t covered very often. So I am making a commitment to inform the interweb users that these desserts that I have such a love of creating are based on real recipes.

Just to be clear, I don’t actually put possum or pole cat in the ice cream cakes. They are just SHAPES. Inspirations from nature.

cherokee coverHowever, I was just in New Orleans and I stumbled in a delightful little shop in the French Quarter called the Kitchen Witch. It was a book store specializing in vintage eclectic cookbooks. I LOVED walking around and scanning the silly local cookbooks from all over the world. Right in front of me was this Cherokee Cooklore book. It was published in 1951 and is full of photographs of a Cherokee Chief’s daughter making bean bread from scratch. They even show the field where the get the corn for the meal.

As I turned the pages, looking for familiar recipes (I am 1/12 Cherokee and my family was from North Carolina where this book was published) and I found my very favorite hillbilly treat, Leather Breeches, which is basically dried green beans that are re-warmed and turned yummy again, but sort of leathery, like the name.

Then I looked further and found this recipe for Yellow Jacket Soup. Ok. I am NOT going to be attempting this one. I walked into a nest of yellow jackets when I was 12 and got stung 30 times, barely making it to the hospital. I don’t think so.

But you guys can try!

Also, on the other page is the recipes for Coon, Groundhog, and Possum.cherokeerecipes

Let me know if you can’t read these. I would be happy to transcribe them for you adventurous chefs.

Really Adventurous.