Justin Timberlake on the History of Rap

http://www.hulu.com/watch/181945

I know this has already gone viral, but if you haven’t seen Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon rap like they’re not white, please watch it. It’s hilarious.

Live from New York: It’s Claire Bryant!

Photo: Max Kitchell

Please tune in to WQXR 105.9 FM tonight at 9 p.m. South Carolina native, cellist Claire Bryant, will be featured as part of the “McGraw-Hill Companies Young Artists Showcase.” Bryant, a Julliard alum, recently received the 2010 McGraw-Hill Companies Robert Sherman Award for Arts Education and Community Outreach, and where I come from (which also happens to be Camden, South Carolina), she’s a pretty big deal. Huge. You can catch the program live on WQXR 105.9 FM in N.Y. or by visiting http://www.wqxr.org/programs/young-artists/2010/sep/29/.

Mallory May Shines Online

Check out my thoughts on artist Mallory May’s beautiful jewelry line, now available online, here.

Brooklyn’s Egg Draws a Crowd

Which came first, Southern food in New York or Egg?

Eater just added a new feature, called Brunch Bunch, in which they visit a popular brunch spot and canvas the crowd to find out why folks are queued up and how long they’ll wait for a table. The second installment featured Southern hotspot, Egg, famed for George Weld’s version of his grandmother’s buttermilk biscuits (which he shared with me here). Among the waiters (as in, line-sitters, not servers): a punk rock musician, a janitor and the manager of Frankie’s Spuntino. Not only is this City loving the South right now, it’s willing to wait an hour or more to sample her vittles. Amazing.

12 Reasons to Love NOLA Right Now

Check out my post on some of the places feeling the NOLA love in NYC right now here, on my Garden & Gun blog.

BBQ in the News

I'll forsake personal vanity here because I'm so proud to be in the company of Rodney Scott.

ABC’s Nightline did a Labor Day–inspired segment on BBQ, and who should appear front and center but Hemingway, South Carolina’s own Scott’s Bar-B-Que. I met pitmaster Rodney Scott at a party at Billy Reid’s Bond Street store after the Big Apple BBQ Block Party this past summer, but I had been a fan of his family’s establishment for much longer. Check out the video, featuring Southern Foodways pioneer John T. Edge, here.

This Week’s Festivities

Official tour poster.

A few things for the calendar this week(end):

1. Aziz Ansari is performing at Town Hall in mid-town tomorrow night. Tickets are sold out via Ticketmaster, but there seem to be some floating around Craigslist.

2. Friday marks the Third Annual Arkansas Razorbacks BBQ at Overlook Bar. $25 buys all-you-can-eat pork, burgers, dogs, grilled corn, cheese grits, barbeque beans and fried okra with all the fix-ins. For an extra $30, you can partake in the four-hour open bar of Bud Light drafts.

3. Football this Saturday: Arkansas vs. Georgia, Auburn vs. Clemson, LSU vs. Mississippi State, Ole Miss vs. Tulane, Florida vs. Tennessee, and more.

On the horizon: Eastbound & Down returns (next Sunday!!!). My Morning Jacket (yay) plays Terminal 5 (boo) October 18, 19, 21, 22, and 23. And the South rises in the theater with A Free Man of Color depicting a colorful pre-Purchase Louisiana (opening Nov. 18, Vivian Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center); Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, starring Southerner Benjamin Walker, on Broadway (opening Oct. 13, Jacobs Theater); and The Little Foxes, about a circa 1900 aristocratic Southern family, opening September 21 at the New York Theater Workshop.

Come See the Junior League Band!

I love, love, love Lissy Rosemont’s old-tymey, soulful voice and cannot wait to see her and the Junior League Band play at Mercury Lounge tomorrow night. Lissy’s from Atlanta and her family runs the annual Fiddler’s Grove fiddler’s festival in Union Grove, North Carolina. Plus, she roomed with a good friend of mine in college so in my world, she’s about as famous as they get. Now, it seems like the rest of the country’s taking note of her talent, as well. The show starts around 6:30/7pm so come after work for happy hour and be  home in time to watch whatever leftover shows you’ve got in the queue.

Belle Boggs Gets Love from the Daily Beast

The cover of Belle Boggs' latest short story collection.

Kudos to Virginia-born writer, Belle Boggs, who is one of the Daily Beast’s featured Best New Writers today.

Southern Design Stars

Yes, all of my friends are model-pretty and, yes, I love them anyway.

The latest Garden & Gun just hit newsstands.

I don’t often get to say, “I know her!” when I see a beautiful and accomplished gal on the cover of a magazine. But that’s happened to me twice this month already, and it’s only the 10th! First, I spied interior designer Rachel Halvorson (below) on the cover of the latest Garden & Gun, which profiled, among other things, her work for Ronnie Dunn, one-half of the duo formerly known as Brooks & Dunn. Then, I got an email this morning alerting me to the latest issue of Lonny, and who should grace that cover but my very dear friend and former colleague, Callie Jenschke (above), one-half of the very much alive Scout Designs (partner Nicki Clendening is a fellow South Carolinian). We’ve featured Callie and Nicki here before, but Rachel is a new friend who I met through another Southern friend and former Metropolitan Home colleague (where Callie and I worked together), Lenora Jane Estes (who’s now at Vanity Fair). (As if that’s not complicated enough, we were all together at a small birthday dinner party barely a month ago–and no one breathed a word of her impending celebrity to me!) Yes, my Southern world is small and shrinking more and more everyday. But back to the point: Congrats, Rachel and Callie! I’m so proud to say I know you both.