If y’all haven’t been keeping up with the Southern blogosphere, then you missed the launch of The Bitter Southerner. One such gentleman named Chuck Reece, a writer and editor with more than 30-plus years of penmanship, was fed up with the great stories of the South going undocumented, so he set out to do just that. Every Tuesday from now ’til the Rapture (Lord willing) the Bitter Southerner will bring y’all another great story from the South. Y’all can read his first stellar interviews with Holeman & Finch’s Greg Best and Patterson Hood, frontman for Drive-by Truckers. Here’s what Reece had to say about launching The Bitter Southerner:
This whole thing got started because I got pissed off. Bitter, as it were.
Here’s how it happened. My then-fiancée and I spent a week in New Orleans. We spent time with amazing barkeeps like Chris Hannah at Arnaud’s French 75, Kirk Estopinal at Cure and one of the granddaddies of the American cocktail revival, Chris McMillian at Bar Uncommon. We drank very well. We heard great stories. We learned.
Chris Hannah doing what he does best.
Shortly after we returned, Drinks International released its list of the top 50 bars in the world. Not a single bar in New Orleans — or anywhere in the South — was on the list. I felt a familiar twinge of bitterness. I remembered the first time I moved away from the South, to New York City, and learned that my accent could trigger certain negative assumptions. To my new NYC acquaintances, my twang equaled “dumb” or “backward” or worse. Of course, when people discovered that I was reasonably intelligent and could speak in complete sentences, their assumptions quickly melted away. I learned a lesson: Sometimes, you just gotta show people.
I decided somebody needed to show the world our region’s drinking secrets. So I rounded up a gang of co-conspirators — designers, photographers, videographers, whiskey geeks — with a plan to hunt down the South’s finest barkeeps and ask them to tell their stories. We would give them their due.
Then we started thinking: There’s a larger point here, a bigger story to be told.
You see, the South is a curiosity to people who aren’t from here. Always has been. Open up your copy of Faulkner’s 1936 masterpiece, “Absalom, Absalom!” Find the spot where Quentin Compson’s puzzled Canadian roommate at Harvard says to him, “Tell about the South. What it’s like there. What do they do there. Why do they live there. Why do they live at all.”
It always comes down to that last bit: With all our baggage, how do we live at all? A lot of people in the world believe that a lot of folks in the South are just dumb. Or backward. Just not worth their attention.
And you know what? If you live down here, sometimes you look around and think, “Those folks are right.” We do have people here who will argue, in all sincerity, that the Confederacy entered the Civil War only to defend the concept of states’ rights and that secession had nothing to do with the desire to keep slavery alive. We still become a national laughing stock because some small town somewhere has not figured out how to hold a high school prom that includes kids of all races.
If you are a person who buys the states’ rights argument … or you fly the rebel flag in your front yard … or you still think women look really nice in hoop skirts, we politely suggest you find other amusements on the web. The Bitter Southerner is not for you.
The Bitter Southerner is for the rest of us. It is about the South that the rest of us know: the one we live in today and the one we hope to create in the future.
According to Tracy Thompson’s brilliant “The New Mind of the South,” it’s been only two decades since Southern kids (including the entire Bitter Southerner crew) stopped learning history from censored textbooks, which uniformly glossed over our region’s terrible racial history. Even today, kids are studying texts that Thompson rightfully labels “milquetoast” in their treatment of Southern history.
And recent election results suggest that the Southern mind hasn’t evolved much, that we’re not much different from what we were in 1936, when Faulkner was struggling yet again with the moral weirdness of the South. Almost 80 years later, it’s still too damned easy for folks to draw the conclusion that we Southerners are hopelessly bound to tradition, too resistant to change.
But there is another South, the one that we know: a South that is full of people who do things that honor genuinely honorable traditions. Drinking. Cooking. Reading. Writing. Singing. Playing. Making things. It’s also full of people who face our region’s contradictions and are determined to throw our dishonorable traditions out the window. The Bitter Southerner is here for Southern people who do cool things, smart things, things that change the whole world, or just a few minds at a time.
The world knows too little about these people, which is, alas, another reason to be bitter. But it prompted us to create The Bitter Southerner™.
We’re talking here about people whose work embodies what my old buddy Patterson Hood once called, in a song, “the duality of the Southern thing.” The purpose of The Bitter Southerner is to explore, from every angle we can, the duality of the Southern thing.
Last time I saw Patterson, we sat in his van outside Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, Ga. We were talking about how his view had changed in the dozen or so years since he’d written that song.
The Drive-By Truckers rockin' out, photo by Stacie Huckeba
To him, the 2012 election results brought clear evidence that we are moving into a more progressive era, and that our southern home might actually be following, however slowly. “We may actually wind up living in a more enlightened country,” he said, and laughed a little.
Still, the tension — the strain between pride and shame, that eternal duality of the Southern thing — remains. Lord knows, most folks outside the South believe — and rightly so — that most Southerners are kicking and screaming to keep the old South old. But many others, through the simple dignity of their work, are changing things.
We’re here to tell their stories. Over time, you’ll see many pieces about bartenders, because a) that’s where we started and b) we very much enjoy a great cocktail. After all, one Southern tradition worthy of honor is the act of drinking well. But we’ll also cover the musicians, cooks, designers, farmers, scientists, innovators, writers, thinkers and craftsmen. We’ll show you the spots that make the South a far better place than most folks think it is. You’ll also see essays, short stories and poems — pieces that Bitter Southerners like ourselves create as we wrestle with our region. And every now and then, we’ll give you a peek at the oddities that seem to happen only down here.
We hope you’ll enjoy The Bitter Southerner and spread the word about it. Help us round up other Bitter Southerners, no matter where they live.
We hope you’ll want to contribute to The Bitter Southerner. In fact, we need you to. Right now, we have no budget and a staff of volunteers, so we’re starting in our hometown of Atlanta. But we know there are others out there like us, people with the skills to capture a good story, or create one. Tell us your ideas. Let us know who you are.
The stories are out there, all over the South. They deserve to be told.
Until we tell them all, we will remain as bitter as Antoine Amedie Peychaud.
The Bitter Southerner offers only this promise: one great story from the South every week. More specifically, every Tuesday.
Why only one story a week? Well, that word “great” is the operative one. We want to make sure that every story you see on The Bitter Southerner’s site gets treated right. Like any good work, that takes some time.
We do promise to keep you entertained between stories. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter @bittersouth and/or Google+. We’ll keep you apprised of praiseworthy and interesting stuff going on in the South, with a little bit of Bitter Southerner interpretation for lagniappe.”
Chuck Reece has been a writer and editor for more than 30 years, beginning in journalism and then moving through politics, corporate communication and the consulting world. He hails from Elijay, Ga., and calls Atlanta home.
If there’s one thing every Southern lady has in her closet, it’s that favorite pair of faded blue jeans. Miss Kelli Eidson of Atlanta has parlayed her love of simple fashion into a new blog: Faded Blue Jeans And Pearls. As she was already doing so many fabulous things on Pinterest, Tumblr, and Twitter, she has, “finally gotten around to creating a blog about my beloved home.” Here’s a lovely post from Kelli about our honeysuckle ways…
“I am so incredibly blessed to consider myself a Southern girl. I delight in saying “yes ma’am” to my mother and saying “God bless” when something takes me aback. I involuntarily spit out any tea that is not as sweet as the day is long. I address strangers as sweetheart and dear without so much as a second thought. My hair is forced to suffer through the intensity of the heat and humidity in Georgia during the summertime, but I revel in it because it allows me to wear charming little sundresses.
I think we’re made a little differently down here. I was made to play outside as a child only to return home with my feet, face, and elbows a little dirty. It is widely accepted that Momma knows best whether I tend to like it or not. I am a God-fearing woman and happy about it.
Southern hospitality is not a myth. If you come to my home, you will be greeted with a genuine smile and a warm hug from me (and probably my Momma too). Life’s greatest lessons were put under the banner of “growing up things.”
If you live above the Mason-Dixon line, I am terribly sorry, but you are a Yankee. If you happen to show allegiance to any New York baseball team, you will always be a Damn Yankee in my eyes. Enough of you lost souls have managed to navigate your way down here and we take you. We’ll try to teach you a few things.
I don’t don as deep of a Southern accent as I did when I was younger, but you will hear me say “y’all” and “fixin’ to” on a fairly regular basis. I could sit on a porch swing for hours and watch the world go by without so much as a glimpse of anxiety.”
We totally agree. Keep up with all our @Pretty_Southern sayings using #LoveTheSouth, and be sure to keep up with Kelli on Twitter too!
Kelli Eidson is a true Southern girl hailing from Kennesaw, Ga. She’s an avid reader, cardigan aficionado and Braves fanatic. Y’all can follow her on Twitter, and on her blog Faded Blue Jeans And Pearls.
The University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication experienced two great tragedies this year. The first was when long-time professor, Conrad Fink, passed away. Fink left behind a legacy spanning 80 years of fantastic journalism with almost three decades of teaching us young “rascals” of the world to become decent reporters, editors and publishers. His classroom was small (a rarity at UGA) where he gathered the best and brightest Grady had to offer to impart his words of wisdom. I can’t even think about Grady now without remembering Fink.
Grady’s second great loss occurred this week, when Polina Marinova resigned as Editor-in-Chief of The Red & Black. Marinova spent this past summer interning at USA Today. Her story profiling Aimee Copeland’s recovery process even made national headlines before she returned to Athens for her final fall semester. I’ve met Marinova only once, at Professor Fink’s memorial service. Upon meeting her, it’s easy to see that this girl has got “it.” I couldn’t think of a better Grady candidate to serve as Editor of The Red & Black.
I was in her shoes about five years ago. Back then it was my turn to captain the helm at UGA’s newspaper. For those who have never visited The Red & Black, the pretty two-story building sits atop a hill in Athens looking down over the historic campus. To write for The Red & Black is to be a part of history in the making. Established in 1893, as the independent voice for students, this newspaper’s mission is to empower its young journalists with their right to Freedom of Speech. UGA was home to some of the most famous writers such as Lewis Grizzard, and even The AJC’s own publisher, Amy Glennon. Other notable Red & Black alumni at The AJC include Kyle Wingfield, Greg Bluestein, Elissa Eubanks, Matt Kempner, plus many more.
Therefore, it was disappointing to see The AJC not take a stronger stance on the ruckus over in Athens this past week. For those readers who missed it, on Aug. 15 it was announced in a memo from the board (albeit a draft) that UGA’s students would no longer have the power to veto content for their own publication. Final discretion of all stories would be given to a newly created Editorial Director. Effectively, an executive committee presiding over the student newspaper was trying to take power away from its student journalists. This is the first time in 120 years such audacity was ever considered.
The national media, including The New York Times, Huffington Post, Gawker and The Poynter Institute gave more editorial space to this story than Georgia’s own leading newspaper. When I looked to The AJC for coverage, the best it could come up with was a story from The AP Wire. As a former Editor of The Red & Black, I was bombarded on emails, texts, and Facebook posts with the simple question “What the hell is going on in Athens?” I could only respond with the answer I knew to be true: if Fink was alive, this would never have happened.
Last Thanksgiving, AJC columnist Kyle Wingfield’s paid homage to Professor Fink as his mentor; yet, I’ve seen nothing from the staff of The AJC calling attention to the dire situation at their own college paper. Perhaps The AJC didn’t think this story was newsworthy. The other major media outlets who care about journalism in America sure thought this was fit to print.
Thank God…Marinova had the gumption to call “foul.” She and the entire group of desk editors resigned from The Red & Black, launching their own website and Twitter page appropriately called “Red & Dead”. Yet the AJC hasn’t published her side of the story. By the way, Marinova is from Atlanta. The young 20-something alumna from North Springs High School made headlines in The New York Times. Isn’t that newsworthy in-and-of-itself?
And perhaps The AJC thought the story would die away. Harry Montevideo, The Red & Black’s publisher of more than 20 years sure did. “I hate to say it, but from my viewpoint it was an overreaction,” Montevideo told The Poynter Institute. “It was our best attempts at creating discussion and dialogue around it. We were met with an emotional response.”
As a former Editor of The Red & Black, my heart broke upon hearing the news of the staff walking out of the building on Wednesday. Sure, it was an emotional response, but it was the right one, and the student staff should not be penalized for it. This is my formal request to The Red & Black board to reinstate Polina Marinova, Julia Carpenter, and the rest of student staff who resigned last week, should they so desire to return. I know the majority of Red & Black alumni feel the same.
Grady will be in dire straits if it cannot continue to supply its most talented student journalists the opportunity to manage their own newspaper. Although The Red & Black became an independent student newspaper in 1980, completely free from the influence of the University’s administration, perhaps it is now time for Grady to get more involved. The whole reason this hullabaloo occurred was because of money. The Red & Black went to printing once a week last fall, when it previously published Monday through Friday, due to rising costs. Continuous coverage could be found online at redandblack.com. But insufficient funds incited Montevideo and the board to hire a staff of professionals to help increase revenues. It was the new General Manager, a board member by the name of Ed Stamper, who wrote that terrible memo. Stamper has hence resigned, but the problem of funding remains.
Maybe it’s time Grady gave The Red & Black some financial help. If The Red & Black board cannot continue to protect its own students’ First Amendment rights, then perhaps Grady should play a stronger role in the management of its students’ media outlet. Without The Red & Black and Professor Fink, The AJC wouldn’t have the staffers it does today.
Editor’s Note: PrettySouthern.com was created on the premise of spreading good news across the South. In these dark times of demise regarding our First Amendment rights, it was our duty to publish the sentiments of one of our own contributors.
I, Polina Marinova, have resigned as the editor-in-chief from The Red & Black, the student newspaper covering the University of Georgia. The Red & Black’s top editors, design staff, photo staff and reporters walked out of the newspaper building this afternoon.
The Red & Black has covered the University of Georgia community since 1893 and has been independent of the University since 1980. The newspaper has always been a student-run operation, but recently, we began feeling serious pressure from people who were not students. In less than a month, The Red & Black has hired more than 10 permanent staff with veto power over students’ decisions.
In a draft outlining the “expectations of editorial director at The Red & Black,” a member of The Red & Black’s Board of Directors stated the newspaper needs a balance of good and bad. Under “Bad,” it says, “Content that catches people or organizations doing bad things. I guess this is ‘journalism.’ If in question, have more GOOD than BAD.” I took great offense to that, but the board member just told me this is simply a draft. But one thing that would not change is that the former editorial adviser, now the editorial director, would see all content before it is published online and in print. For years, students have had final approval of the paper followed by a critique by the adviser only after articles were published. However, from now on, that will not be the case. Recently, editors have felt pressure to assign stories they didn’t agree with, take “grip and grin” photos and compromise the design of the paper.
But what’s most alarming to me is that there was no input from The Red & Black student staff about any of these changes. I was doing an internship this summer, and I did not receive any materials related to these changes until I myself emailed the board member about it. Even then, nothing was solidified, and I still do not even know what the print product will look like in a week. I’ve worked at this paper since I was a freshman and held multiple leadership positions throughout. This semester, we have a really talented, smart and dedicated staff that had no voice in these changes. It all came from the top, not from the students.
The Red & Black has always been the best experience for student journalists. It’s no longer a place where lessons can be learned without “serious repercussions.” We don’t believe that is a learning environment.
As the former editor-in-chief, I stood by my editors and staff 100 percent and what I found out today was that we all stood together.
[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Polina.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Polina Marinova is a University of Georgia student and former fall Red & Black Editor-in-Chief. As of Aug. 15, 2012, she resigned from her post in the pursuit of her First Amendment rights. Follow Polina on Twitter and check back for more of her adventures. [/author_info] [/author]
Chuck Reece has been a writer and editor for more than 30 years, beginning in journalism and then moving through politics, corporate communication and the consulting world. He hails from Elijay, Ga., and calls Atlanta home.