Chattanooga, yesterday.

Kinda love this 1978 TV news report from my hometown about colored vinyl and picture discs. (From the WDEF archives, which, whoa.)

Last night Jack White played his first solo show in Chattanooga, Tenn., where I grew up, and I went (with my dad!) and reviewed it for Rolling Stone. If you happen to find yourself in one of the towns where White is going on a very very brief tour this spring, I’d recommend you go see him, absolutely, if you can—I’ve always felt a certain amount of affection for him and his music, nothing too intense, but last night was really something else.

Also: The photo above is by Jo McCaughey. Not sure if this is standard operating procedure for White, but last night—and, it seems, for all his recent and upcoming shows—taking photos and video is outright verboten, as in, there are signs up everywhere about it and a sharp-dressed roadie will make an announcement reminding everyone that they will be asked to leave if they’re seen with a camera. But! There are these amazing, professional, high-resolution photos available for download from White’s website pretty immediately uploaded after every show. I’m not sure too many artists could get away with this—White may be in a special place where he can make these kind of demands and fans are totally willing to comply—but as a precious delicate flower who can be and has been totally turned off at a live show by the omnipresence of amateur-ass wankers and their shitty iPhones taking shitty photos of shitty orange blobs just so they can impress some chick on Instagram or whatever—anyway, clearly I have Feelings about this, so I’m glad someone has some kind of a solution.

Do y’all remember Basil Marceaux? He’s running for office again! Although, really, I think he is just is a perpetual state of running for office—it’s not something he ever really stops doing, it justs crests and ebbs every few years. This time he’s angling for Hamilton County, Tenn., mayor. Joe and I were up visiting our families in Chattanooga over the weekend and saw a couple of these signs around town—they’re really huge, made of big planks of wood, and I think the lettering is some kind of insulation foam spray or glue or something that’s been painted over. Some versions of the sign also feature a giant wooden man-figure with what seems to be a print-out of Basil Marceaux’s face glued on the general head area, kind of! I have no idea what “33 Yrs. Double Jeopardy” means.

"25. Chattanooga, Tenn. A city stages a comeback fueled by artists and retailers. In 1969, Walter Cronkite famously called Chattanooga the “dirtiest” city in America. In recent years, though, it has undergone a dramatic overhaul with a radical gentrification plan and an aggressive citywide push to lure artists. In addition to a $120 million clean-up-and-invest 21st Century Waterfront Plan, an incentive program called Arts Move brings artists of all mediums into town; a yearly Southern arts fair called Four Bridges draws thousands each April; and several arts districts have been cultivated and nurtured. On the heels of this artistic transformation has come the inevitable, yet not unwelcome, boutique boom in places like the recently restored Warehouse Row, a Civil War-era factory turned shopping center filled with local, upscale and artisanal goods."

New York Times | The 45 Places to Go in 2012

Hey hey hometown! Right between Vienna and Dakhla, Morocco, where it belongs, I guess.

Nice weekend in Chattanooga, even nicer drive back to Atlanta.

Snaps from a weekend at home.

Disney Surprise Gone Wrong- We’re not going to Chattanooga??? (by rlzeller0522)

I am weirdly a sucker for the videos of parents surprising their kids with trips to Disney World, but I am EVEN MORE OF A SUCKER for this video of parents surprising their kids with a trip to Disney World and the little girl MELTING DOWN because she wants to go on their previously-planned trip to Chattanooga instead. The best part is where it looks like she’s coming around, when she runs to her mom and starts crying on her lap—I was like, OK, she was just really overwhelmed and didn’t want to change the plans! I totally get that! I feel that way often in my life! But then she just keeps crying about Chattanooga. I am going home this weekend (oh, did I mention that I am from Chattanooga?) and I guarantee you this will be all over the local news and probably co-opted by the visitor’s bureau by then and that “I WANNA GO TO CHATTANOOGA” will be a thing that my family and Joe and I say for way way way too long into the future.