Author: cbcrenshaw

C.B. Crenshaw is a musician, artist, writer, coder, gardener, and maker in Alabama.

Milo Talon and the Walmart Readers

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I saw two ternagers sitting on the floor quietly reading in the Walmart books section earlier today, and something about the sight nourished my soul in a way few things have recently. As I’m wrapped up in a throw on the couch reading a Louis L’Amour paperback, it feels good to join them in spirit tonight.

I’ve mentioned Walmart books here before, I know. I have a real fondness for books from the grocery store, from the dollar store, from Walmart. These were the books that nourished me when I was a kid. I can remember standing in the magazine aisle at Winn-Dixie, choosing a paperback or a copy of Mad magazine to read on long summer car rides. I vividly and fondly remember most of those books, even as I’ve been trained by grad school and the middle brow internet literary culture to scoff at popcorn writers in favor of important literature. These books are not a guilty pleasure, but a wholesome and sincere one.

Tonight I’m standing with the kids from Walmart alongside Milo Talon in the shadow of St. Charles Peak. It feels like a good way to end 2018.

Camera Roll: Moultrie, Etc.

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Today we walked around Moultrie, Georgia, which was depressingly empty and clearly going through some bad times. It was Sunday, of course, so the downtown area was mostly shut down, but there were a lot of abandoned buildings and nobody walking around. Moultrie is a beautiful town, though, and I hope it finds a way through the ravages of the post-retail 21st neoliberal apocalypse we’re all living through.

The pizzeria is not in Moultrie. The pizzeria is a great joint right down the street from my house called Milano. You should check it out.

Anyway, here are the photos from today’s wandering.

 

Above the Clouds

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I just bought PhotoMirage as part of the Professional Photography Humble Bundle, which you should definitely check out while it lasts, and this is my first attempt at creating an animated photo. The photo was taken over the clouds on my flight to New York last month.

This may not be the best example because of all the little details in the clouds, but I think it’s still pretty cool. I’m looking forward to using this more!

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The Incredible Machine

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Somehow this 20 second clip of a solution to a level of the 1993 Sierra DOS classic The Incredible Machine represents the entirety of my creative output for today.

Honestly, though, I spent a fair bit of time running into walls all day while trying to solve problems for work. That was after going home sick, too, so I’m going to let this stand for today and get back to it tomorrow.

For what it’s worth, this is the very first video I’ve ever uploaded to YouTube. So there’s that, too. Here’s to more exciting videos in the future!

Camera Roll: Lake Talquin, Quincy, Tallahassee

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Today’s perambulations took me from the shores of Lake Talquin, where the wind bringing in the next layer of December cloud cover whipped the water to a hard chop–which is the only way I’ve ever seen Lake Talquin, to be honest–to the crisp winter understory of the Lake Talquin State Forest, where the pines are awaiting the distant spring in silent resignation. State Road 267 then carried me north to Quincy, where the clouds ruined my original plan (I’ll be back another day) but cleared enough for me to grab a few shots of a beautifully-restored Gulf Station on the Old Spanish Trail, US 90. A couple shots in Tallahassee caught my eye in the late afternoon and evening.

Creation 1 Inn, Quincy, Florida. A full service establishment.
Gulf Station on US 90, Quincy, Florida
Florida Christmas
Accidental artwork, Tallahassee, Florida
Lake Talquin. Cell Phone Camera.
Lake Talquin State Forest.
Lake Talquin State Forest
Gulf Station on US 90, Quincy, Florida
Gulf Station on US 90, Quincy, Florida

Sketch Book: Abandoned House in Cape Sable

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Today’s notebook entry is based on this photo of an abandoned house in Cape Sable hosted at Florida Memory. If you’ve never visited Florida Memory, it’s a wonderful resource full of photographs, documents, audio, video, maps, and other gems from the Florida Archive. It’s a bottomless source of inspiration for me as a historian, artist, and information geek.

Based on a 1925 photo in Florida Archives.

How Much Research is Enough?

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I always do this: “Oh, I’ll never have enough to say to make it to the page limit. I need to do more research!” So I gather more and more. And then I write well past the page limit with even more to say. In the end, it feels like I trained for a marathon and ended up running a 5K.

How many years of graduate school does it take to understand the “right” amount of research one needs to make an argument?

I’m reminded of an anecdote from a historian–and, sorry, I won’t find the citation right now because I’m in the middle of writing a literature review on web indexing–which basically goes like this:

Interlocutor: Hey, famous historian, how do you know when you’ve done enough research?

Famous Historian: Well, I read and read until I feel like I know what to say.

Which is to say that there isn’t a “right” amount of research to do to answer a question. Read until you know what to say.

I’m going to go and finish saying it now, page limits be damned. That’s what editing is for.