GORJUS: NO VIOLENCE, NO NOTHING

House rules, no exceptions.

THERE IS JUST ABOUT NOTHING I LIKE MORE than driving around and seeing what there is to see. That’s how I met this big old board guarding a car wash:

No Nothing, Copiah County, Mississippi, Fall 2020 (Polaroid SX-70)

I just admire the raising of the stakes: “NO NOTHING.” I have never seen a soul at that car wash, but I like to imagine one day I’ll drive by and there will just be three or four folks standing around, immobile, hands trembling, trying their best to do nothing.

The same day I ran into this cousin over in Natchez, which has lost a step in a renovation.

Adams County, Mississippi, Fall 2020 (Polaroid SX-70)

I’ve got a deep affection for proclamations of NO LOITERING, especially ones that tell you not to cuss or drink, and spent a couple weeks a few years ago trying to gather up some of my favorite examples of handpainted signs for Mississippi Folklife. The photos in that essay aren’t very good—in fact, some of them are outright bad—but the feeling is true, and I had a lot of fun doing it.

My favorite iteration of these countrified prohibitions is in Lucinda Williams’ great “2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten,” where she sings “No dope smoking / no beer sold after 12 o’clock.” She credits the art of Birney Imes for inspiring the lyrics on that record, so here’s the Columbus master on the subject at hand:

Birney Imes, Ferry Club, Lowndes County, 1989

Let me be honest with you. I would be happy to take even a watered down version of that photo, even just 10% of it. Just the dang angle is a lot; the careful tilt, which brings in just enough of a hint of the pool table, the cues, the timber supporting it all. Just that photo plus Billy Dee Williams for Colt 45 would be incredible.

On the classic structural bones of the framing and subject matter you layer in 21 To Enter and the rest and I just throw my hands up: I don’t know if it’s a masterpiece, I just know it’s killer, an incredible moment in time in a place I’ve never seen and never will, and Mr. Imes brought it all into a rectangle with precision. “House rules, no exceptions,” Lucinda drawls—good Lord!

(For a great essay on the song and this image, go pull up Clint Kimberling’s essay on the old University of Mississippi Press blog.)

I AM STILL WORN OUT from watching the Big 12-style shoot-out between Alabama and Ole Miss last night, which led me to then of course staying up late to rewatch the highlights (there are a lot of them—offense only, though, with a game hitting 111 points). I don’t feel like I talk a lot of trash but I sure did get a lot of texts at the beginning about the Rebs jumping out to an early lead. I, of course, innocent as a lamb in snow, did not deserve such callous treatment.

So this Sunday morning I plan to drink coffee while making biscuits with Lucinda playing in the background. I was going to write about how to make those biscuits but maybe I’ll hold off on that, as I might have jinxed them a little bit by naming them in honor of Alabama football (I’ve renamed them Country Gold).

Stay safe and as always I am gorjusjxn on Instagram and you can see more of my photography at McCartyPolaroids.

Chunky, Mississippi, 2018 (Polaroid SX-70)