Southern Craving

After reading Dan Baum's "The Way of the Bayou," post on The Happy Days blog, I now long to visit the deep, old South. I've never been farther than North Carolina (Florida doesn't count), and I have this penchant to rent a car and drive through the lush lands of Georgia and Louisiana. I want to hit up all the local eateries, fill my belly with some good ole' soul food. Southerners always seem to have it right with their take-it-easy attitude and sense of community and celebration.
I would finish my trip in New Orleans, a fitting end to my southern sojourn. Baum's article describes the city just as it is: honest, vibrant, nothing more or less than it has always been. Despite the horror of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, the come-what-may attitude portrayed in the blog post inspires me to ease the fast-moving, formulaic tempo of my life. I would love to immerse myself in a culture that celebrates the simple joys of good food, good music, good company. That's how life (or at least my life) should be. Just dancing in the street to some sweet jazz.To tide myself over, I recently watched a favorite film of mine, Elizabethtown, which celebrates the color and verve of the southern lifestyle in small Kentucky town. Cameron Crowe's tale of a young man traveling to his roots for his father's funeral shows a myriad of characters, scenes, and a stellar soundtrack with some appropriately chosen songs from Tom Petty, Ryan Adams, Easternmountainsouth, among others. The movie offers viewers the leafy green, sultry landscapes like the scene below where Drew (Orlando Bloom) and Claire (Kirsten Dunst) sit on a ledge overlooking the Mississippi River and the Kentucky countryside.
Images located here, here, and here.