Letter to Memphis

reflections in a green tomato

Having a browse at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis. (Photo by Joan Cusick)

I went down to Memphis, Tennessee, to see family and remind myself that, yes, there is a universe where people aren’t too busy making rent and sidestepping subway pee to smell the daisies every now and then. I ate and slept like a bear. I bathed in dropped consonants and elongated syllables. It was fried perfection.

A warning/prophecy outside the recording booth at Sun Studio.

And a one, and a two …

At Sun Studio, I breathed into the same microphone that birthed rock ‘n’ roll. I feasted on barbecue and fried green tomatoes and damn good donuts. My Aunt Joan showed me the best spots around town — most of ‘em have been around since long before I was born.

It was the kind of trip that recharged my bones and made me wonder … GOOD GOD, WHY AM I LIVING IN NEW YORK?

The level of financial, physical and emotional stress New Yorkers put themselves through each day is suffocating, although I do work much better and harder here than anywhere else. (I can also have pancakes delivered to me at any hour, which is certainly worth something.)

It was 97 degrees outside when Billups and I posed for this photo.

Shout-out to Billups Allen, a writer who has worked in record stores in Brooklyn, D.C. and (currently) Goner Records in Memphis. Billups’ latest book is 101 Films You Could See Before You Die: A Film Guide for the Disenchanted. Wish I could be down there next month for GONERFEST!

Another Memphis mention: At Burke’s Book Store I spotted a novel that screamed my name from its spine:

Following Richard Brautigan is about a young man in Oklahoma who decides to do just that. (I’d do the same — I keep a copy of Revenge of the Lawn next to my desk at work and at home.) The author, Corey Mesler, runs the bookstore with his wife, Cheryl. Burke’s has been around since 1875, and you can help keep it going by ordering something.

R.I.P., Phil Donahue.

Here’s a diary comic — wish me luck on my first colonoscopy next week!

I’ll be back before you know it. Have a golden weekend.

Yours in soft pants,
Vivian Vance