Memphis
By: Kai Crouse
Category: Uncategorized
| Aperture: | f/8 |
|---|---|
| Focal Length: | 28mm |
| ISO: | 320 |
| Shutter: | 1/0 sec |
| Camera: | Canon EOS 7D |
Eastern Tennessee has Bluegrass, Nashville has country and Memphis is the home of the blues. As music permeates all over Nashville so does the blues in Memphis. This photo was taken while the sun set over the famous Sun Studio. This was the tiny building that pressed Elvis’ first record and skyrocketed him to fame. Besides Elvis, it was also recorded music by BB King, Rufus Thomas, Howlin’ Wolf and tons of others.
My travel around Memphis took me from Graceland, which is as close to a pilgrimage as an atheist can get, to the Lorraine Motel and the sight of MLK’s assassination in 1968. The motel was in the exact same condition it was the morning he was shot except for a square piece of concrete that was replaced in the last place he stood.
After a wrong turn that took me to Arkansas I realized it was the first time in my adult life seeing the Mississippi River. I found that odd.
Opaque Ghosts 
Drop by and visit Huckleberry (aka Enoki) and Tom if you are in the neighborhood. Is Dolly’s place in that area as well? Meeting anyone interesting?
Passed up on Dollywood. That’s by the VA border
The MLK memorial/assassination site is moving in its starkness. It’s like a Civil War battlefield in that sense – no interactive exhibits or marble columns, just the lingering feeling that something powerful and world-altering took place here.
If you spend any more time in Arkansas you’ve got to swing by Cock of the Walk in North Little Rock. Great catfish, chicken and cornbread. You can also go visit my cousin Todd in Beebe, Ark., where all the birds fell out of the sky a couple months ago.
By the way, all these comments are filling me with a great sense of self importance.
The MLK site is like a Civil War battlefield in its raw simplicty. No intereactive exhibits or marble columns, just the lingering feeling that something powerful and world-altering (and terrible) took place there.
Did you eat BBQ in Memphis? I figure you did but people can stop thinking clearly and do crazy shit when they’re on the road.
Lots of good tamales in southern Mississippi and Arkansas. Have some on your way to WhoDatLand.