#southern culture

[powerlineprincess]

☆a spider building a web☆35mm 2024 K.E.A Lux Hill☆

[tani-b-art]

South of Midnight, a third-person action adventure set in an original world of magic, monsters and giant, blues-playing skeletons. The game's debut trailer is a cinematic snippet introducing the protagonist, a young woman named Hazel, as she attempts to reason with an immortal specter on a dark dock. Hazel is hunting a monster — or, it's hunting her, as the trailer goes on to show — and she can wield bright threads of magic.

[yeoldenews]

Hi! It seems like fireworks and firecrackers were a very common item in Santa letters, to the extent that they’re often thrown in at the end along with fruit like a ‘default’ Santa gift. If you know, why and when did fireworks stop being a go-to present for kids to ask from Santa?

This is actually something I keep meaning to dig into more.

It was almost exclusively a Southern practice (particularly in the Deep South), but was so universal there that it's honestly more unusual for Southern kids to NOT ask for fireworks than to ask for them. I'm not sure if there were cultural aspects to this or was just because it makes more sense to give them where it's actually warm enough to shoot them off.

They seem to have been given primarily as a stocking-stuffers, as they are almost always listed alongside the standard fruit, nuts and candy.

From what I've seen, requests for fireworks dropped off sharply in the early 60s, though I as of yet haven't found any convincing reason as to why.

That's a bit early to coincide with the general shift away from little boys asking for firearms, which seems (from my observations at least) to be largely correlated with the advent of video games in the 70s and 80s.

It's possible it may have been a natural result of child safety standards evolving beyond the 'sure, give your six-year-old explosives, what's the worst that could happen?' that seems to have been the dominant attitude for the first half of the 20th century.

If anyone from the South has any insight on this I'd love to hear it.

[ludinusdaleth]

forgive me for bible belt & niche interest posting, but i think part of why me & a few other southerners im friends with enjoyed the southern reach book authority is because it plays subconsciously into the inherent horror & grief of understanding that the ground you stand on will probably be gone or at least entirely changed within a mere few years. jeff vandermeer is a floridian environmentalist, and while you can tell that through his books' worship of ecosystems, i feel you can also percieve it through how area x is a metaphor for its climate change. control is the perspective of a man who, even when moving forward to do what he can (in a government office job), has this inherent disjointed, numb-yet-about-to-panic view of the world he knows being in danger of something unfathomable. he is walking in what will soon be a ghost of a land. maybe, since the colonization of america and his father's family, he always has been. as the first book annihilation says, "desolation tries to colonize you".

the book reminds me of a quote by yuts, the man who created norco (a near-apocalyptic game set in louisiana): "we’re moving back to new orleans this summer after being away for a few years and knowing that it’s not necessarily a place we can settle, or it’s not a wise investment to stay there long term, is a difficult thing to factor into decision-making. but nonetheless, we want to be there for a while. we want to experience it. there’s something inherent in louisiana where you have to be present."

[personal-blog243]

Forgive me for sounding incredibly basic and cringey but I do think that “ballad of songbirds and snakes” deserves a bit of credit for positively portraying Appalachian culture and acknowledging the struggle of those people.

I know Rachel Zegler is not Appalachian, but she pulled of a bluegrass/country sound in a way that at LEAST seemed more authentic than modern commercialized stadium bro country. (With some help from auto tune possibly)

Her accent in some of her lines could use a little work, but even my fellow southerners sound TERRIBLY unnatural when we try to mimic our own accents so what do I know 🤷🏼‍♀️

I’m from a middle class suburb of Nashville though so might not be the best judge lol 😂.

What are your thoughts if you are an Appalachian or southern person who has seen the hunger games??? Is it’s portrayal of district 12 good or bad?

Apparently Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson were both born in Kentucky even though their accents are more “neutral”.

[homiesondaweb]

GIVE ME JEFFERSON SENDING MILES DOWN TO HIS COUNTRY ASS COUSINS FOR THE SUMMER OR GIVE ME DEATH🗣️🗣️🗣️

The 100% get him into ATV and Dirty riding.

The boy has gained 25 pounds of muscle and 5 more inches by the start of July

Every college in Atlanta, Texas, and Tennessee is pounding on the Morales door for him.

Miles had made friends with multiple deer

Someone gave him a forest camo hoodie and a gold chain

They make him stand on a horse and he starts crying.

I'm still tryna decide if he's Midwest county or down south country

The Pentecostal church be triggering his Spidey sense and his great aunties gotta drag him to the car every morning

Charlie Wilson and Saturday mornings now trigger his PTSD

Cries because he can't get Big Granny's greens back home (Jeff cries wit him)

Has never ate this much pork in his fucking life

Had another life changing coming of age moment on a late night drive with 6 of his cousins in someone's pick up and a bottle of crown. They came back wiser yet more foolish.

Would like to go the rest of his life never hear cicadas every again, give him that city noise pls.

Cried seeing all the stars for the first time

Has made friends with every tamale lady in the tri-state area

[raggedysmiles]

Photographing my family and the environment I grew up in is something I love. For me, documenting my family and photographing every Sunday dinner when I attend something my family has been doing since I was a baby is a rich experience. I can look back and see these photographs and remember great times in that kitchen. Plus, I am positive that some grandmother's kitchens look just like my grandmother's kitchen.

[nickysfacts]

Autumn hayrides to a pumpkin patch, so cozy and fun!🥰

🍂🎃🍂

[bubbas-place]

[kimberly40]

An Ode to Cornbread:

Cornbread’s a staple in southern cuisine,

A comfort food present when suppers convene.

Cornbread is hallowed down south –sacred stuff.

Those boxed jiffy mixes just aren’t up to snuff.

It’s whipped up from scratch, or it ain’t the real deal—

Buttermilk, eggs and a heapin’ of meal.

Please don’t use sugar! No, sir. That would kill it.

The batter is poured in a hot, cast iron skillet.

When it’s all golden-brown, nice and crisp on the edges,

It’s pulled from the oven and cut into wedges.

Cornbread can also be muffins or sticks.

It complements many good things that we fix.

Cornbread’s a must with a big mess of greens,

It makes a good “pusher” for field peas or beans,

And I’m tellin’ you, you can use it to sop

The pot likker still on your plate---every drop!

Leftover cornbread gets eaten real soon---

Crumbled in milk, in a glass, with a spoon!

When Thanksgiving comes, cornbread’s more of a blessing

Cause down here, we use it to make yummy dressing!

There are all sorts of foods in the world one can eat,

But I’m cornbread-fed and my life’s pretty sweet

-Author Unknown

[zanderism]

my favorite kind of people grew up with in the hills with fake wood panels and leather couches

[powerlineprincess]

South Carolina Gothic. 2017. K.A./Lux Hill

[tani-b-art]

“…socially despised and yet artistically esteemed…”

This quote from Alain Locke can be applied to every non-Black person. Non-Black American people included.

Our subcultures, regional cultural characteristics (especially Southern Black American culture) are sooo extracted and copied, emulated and imitated, gleaned from while simultaneously being ridiculed, mocked and degraded.

Southern identifies, dialect and accents are belittled yet are modeled after and mimicked.

The specific disdain and shame for Southern Black American culture is truly something (which has really been highlighted since the announcement of this album).

And yeah, Beyoncé soo country! Been country! Is country and never shied away from it!

[ludinusdaleth]

ive discussed this with my friends a couple of times, and birdie/zathuda really made me think on it again.

cr has always but especially the past few years come in swinging with a very oddly specific representation: the bible belt. i could go into that itself in infinite detail, but im here to focus on one aspect.

something about.... syldor's one night stand with elaina. ludinus taking in liliana as a ruby vanguard general. and now athion's arranged siring of fearne with birdie. there's a pattern here: syldor/ludinus/zathuda. extremely upper class, european (usually british) coded, white/white-coded - and they are elves, which, by tolkien's merit, were "superior" to humans. elaina/liliana/birdie. none of them elves, two human. noticeably much lower class, all with southern state roots (elaina being from a town based on laredo, central/northern texas-coded liliana, liliana & birdie having heavy southern accents), with elaina being bipoc, & liliana being disabled.

i keep fixating on this. the way these women have been lured into impossible power dynamics either due to coercion or desperation to break from their simple downtrodden or small-town life. the way it is rare, for me, to see such specific showcases of how southern women can be lulled into cults and/or abusive relationships/situations in a way thats very hard to describe if you havent been down here, havent seen the vice grip of the christian housewife on the entire small world around you. i see these fictional women in the women of my own life every day. i see them in giggling young college girls my age, clinging to a man who hurts them because theyre someone new, from beyond their hometown no one will ever remember the name of. i see them in girls barely out of high school married off, destined to have 4 kids by 25 because it's "god's plan", or else be shunned. i see them in my great-aunt, timid & quiet as a mouse beside her loud, angry preacher husband. i see them in single mothers raising their kids, like my own mother, who refuse to discuss a father knowing they are judged severely for it. i see them in every cult thats too small for hollywood to care to make documentaries of.

i don't know how to end this meta, i just.... i think part of why cr appeals so much to me? is because it's a show about fae, & robots, & weird fucking red moons. but i see home, too, in a way no tough-guy western show airing on cable could ever truly portray.

[ausetkmt]

With a renewed interest in juke joints, it is good to understand the origins, the elements, and the owners. And some of those owners were enterprising Black women.

The word juke can be spelled and pronounced “jook” or “joog” and has its roots in both Gullah and West African cultures. Historians Peter M. Rutkoff and William B. Scott stated, “The juke, or jook joint, also came from West Africa. The word ‘jook’ derived from the Baramba word ‘dzugu’, which means wicked or bad.” 

In the documentary “Alabama BlackBelt Blues” juke joints were described as places where people came to have a good time and sweat from dancing all night long. There were a few juke joints that offered gambling, yet another reason to be hidden in the woods or backfields. 

Though juke joints were primarily owned by men, some of the savviest Black business women in the South owned juke or jook joints in the American South. These are the women who probably would never make the pages of Black Enterprise, simply because the work lacked a certain respectability or bourgeois appeal. No, these were the mothers, grandmothers and aunts of those people. Proof of their business savvy wasn’t in their ability to sell liquor or the blues to patrons, it showed up in their use of food as a primary moneymaker. Patrons needed food to soak up some of the moonshine and muscadine wine they were imbibing. On a Friday or Saturday night, working men and women would spend some of their hard-earned money on a meal and to be with good people. 

Blues singer Sandra Hall received her start in music playing her mother’s juke joint, which was also a weekend fish fry. “She’d cook up a batch of fish and sell Black Label beer.” 

If a plate was not in your budget, women owners sold dill pickles, pickled eggs and pig feet from huge jars behind makeshift bars. On the pit could be pig’s snout, tripe and other parts of the pig and bovine to be slapped between two pieces of white bread and slathered in BBQ sauce. 

Running a successful juke joint was not easy for Black women owners. They had to be marketing geniuses to bring back repeat customers and attract new ones. They kept the books that sometimes included payments to law enforcement to avoid being shut down, pay staff that wasn’t family to act as bouncers, cooks, and bartenders, and they had to keep great talent performing. And they did all of that while keeping their families intact. 

[spending-life-pretending]

*through a megaphone*: I love being southern! I love being from the American Deep South! I love learning about my home and my history!!! No one can take that away from me!! The south is not hopeless!!! The south is worthy of respect and consideration!! The south is important and lovable!!!