To Thread - Forum Home

The Mudcat Café TM
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=20241
17 messages

BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'

10 Apr 00 - 11:41 AM (#209610)
Subject: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: Amos

In an age of Internet Time, T-1 messaging, fast forward and site-surfing, it is easy to forget the marching rhythm of reality in an earlier age. In a contemporaneous thread, involving a fictional riverboat race down the Mississippi, an anxiety to complete the story, which had grown long, resulted in a great collapsing of time, the race just begun being completed without due regard to the stately dimensions through which the authors hastily jumped.

It is worth pausing to reflect on the places through which such a riverboat would have to pass, traveling the mississippi, for the trail is extraprdinarily rich with singing names, each one of which represents lifetimes of labor and love, sex and treachery, fortune and misery in the building of it, new hopes and lost fortunes in the tides of history. Bear with me a moment and consider the following track of place names through which a riverboat would pass, if it set out from Saint Louis, Missouri, and traveled through the junction with the Ohio at Cairo, Illinois and downward through Arkansas, Tennesee, Mississippi, Louisiana, to finally land its cargo in New Orleans.

Every one of these place names is real, with honest and dishonest people living at it, except for a few which are riverine tributaries which your riverboat would pass en route. Consider the music of them, and the mysterious singing of language and passion and history that coincided in each one, to produce a human community under a single name in each.

You cannot fast forward the Mississippi, folks, for it would be a disservice indeed to miss these places and the people who made them on your way:

Kimmswick MO
Sunnyside MO
Sulphur Springs MO
Bushberg MO
Harrisonville Landing IL
Crystal City, MO
Kemper Landing IL
Isle du Bois Creek, MO
Brickeys, MO
Frenchman's Creek, MO
Kellogg, IL
Mudds Landing, IL
St Jude Acres, MO
New Bourbon, MO
Fort Gage, IL
Old Kaskasia, MO
Chester, IL
Claryville, MO
Missouri Chute, MO
Point Rest, MO
Degognia Creek, IL
Grand Eddy, MO
Seventy-Six, MO
Starland, MO
Loimbach Landing, MO
Brunkhorst Landing, IL
Lovejoy, MO
Running Lake, IL
Mocassin Springs, MO
Hamburg Landing, IL
Flora Creek, MO
Soakie Creek, MO
Juden Creek, MO
Old Clear Creek, IL
Cape Girardeau, MO
Dutchtown Ditch, MO
Thebes, IL
Zewapata, MO
New York, MO
Miller City, IL
Powers Island Chute, MO
Price Landing, MO
Big Lake Bayou, MO
Cairo, Ill
Wickliffe, KY
Carlisle, KY
Columbus, KY
Three Ponds, KY
Dry Lake, KY
Bayou de Chien, KY
Dorena Landing, MO
Running Slough, MO
New Madrid, MO
Portageville, MO
Harvardsville, MO
Caruthersville, MO
Kinfolk Ridge, MO
Boothspoint, TN
Midway, TN
Hickman Landing, AR
Tomato, AR
Rush Slough, TN
Lower Forked Deer Landing, TN
Daniels Point, KY
Osceola, AR
Cotton Slough, TN
Cold Creek, TN
Ballard Slough, TN
Sugar Creek, TN
Black Cat, AR
Brinkeley Bayou, TN
Island Forty, TN
Redman Point, AR
Bear Creek, TN
Ash Slough, TN
Loosahatchie River, TN
Memphis, TN
Bauxippi, AR
West Memphis, AR
Decker Bayou, AR
Old Horn Lake Bend, TN
Blue Goose, MI
Zanone Bayou, AR
Indian Creek, MS
South Alligator Bayou, AR
Mhoon Landing, MS
North Tunic, MS
Cessions Landing, MS
Mozart, AR
Beulah, MS
Wargo Landing, AR
Hobson Chute, MS
Catfish Point landing, MS
Lucca Landing, AR
Eutaw Landing, MS
Mound Landing, MS
Little Boggy Bayou, AR
Port Anderson, MS
Black Bayou, AR
Greenville, MS
Luna, AR
Refuge, MS
Wayside, MS
Dredge, MS
Eminence Bayou, AR
Soso Bayou, AR
Gassoway, LA
Homochitto, MS
Jack Falls Canal, LA
Lake Providence, LA
Transylvania Chute, LA
Fitler, MS
Arcadia, MS
Stamboul, LA
Wildcat Bayou, LA
Talla Bena, LA
Milliken's Bend, LA
Cypress Bayou, LA
Walnut Bayou, LA
Duck Port, LA
Paw Paw Chute, MS
Vicksburg, MS
Speed's Addition, MS
Hennessey's Bayou, MS
Redbone Creek, MS
Big Bogue Desha, MS
Yucatan Ditch, LA
Bayou Brun, LA
Choctaw Bayou, LA
Buffalo Bayou, LA
Waterproof, LA
Gurro Ridge Chute, MS
Argent, LA
Canebrake, LA
Blueskin Creek, MS
Cammarary Bayou, MS
Languedoc Creek, MS
Natchez-Under-the-Hill, LA
Vidalia, LA
Carthage, MS
Esperance Landing, LA
Running Bayou, MS
Glasscock, LA
Bayou Cocodrie, LA
Union Point, LA
Buffalo River, MS
Coochie, LA
Crooked Bayou, LA
Red River Landing, LA
Brake, LA
Sugar Lake Bayou, LA
Cow Head Bayou, LA
Racourci, LA
Morganza Landing, :A
Stonewell Plantation, LA
Pointe Coupee, LA
Alligator Bayou, LA
Anchor, LA
False Bayou, LA
Yattan, LA
Mulatto Bend Landing, LA
Poplar Grove Plantation, LA
Baton Rouge, LA,
Beaulieu, LA
Nicholson Estates, LA
Lukeville, LA
Sardine Point Settlement, LA
Eliza, LA
Saint Louis Plantation, LA
Bayou Marichac, LA
Bayou Goula, LA
Sunshine, LA
Cannonburg, LA
Belle Helene, LA
Philadelphia Point, LA
Bruly McCall, LA
Smoke Bend, LA
Uncle Sam, LA
Convent, LA
Batree, LA
Bayou des Acadiens, LA
Saint James Parish Canal, LA
Tchatchchou Bayou, LA
Sport, LA
Godchaux Canal, LA
Tigerville, LA
Lucy, LA
Mount Airy, LA
Laplace, LA
Killona, LA
Gypsy, LA
New Sarpy, LA
Destrehan, LA
Luling, LA
Lone Star, LA
Good Hope, LA
Avondale, LA
Bridge City, LA
New Orleans, LA

10 Apr 00 - 11:46 AM (#209612)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: MMario

Amos? You're stuck, aren't you? Having problems on the project and desperatly typing anything into the computer....(joking!)

I would have liked to see more of the river-travel

10 Apr 00 - 11:50 AM (#209616)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: Amos

This is a temporal-geographic meditation, for those who never read Kerouac's passionate passages in "On the Road" about digging the mighty Mississippi's endless waters. Quite the opposite from stuck, MM, this is the essence of motion made manifest!

A, PRUD CEO

10 Apr 00 - 11:53 AM (#209622)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: GUEST,Peter T.

Boy, you sure don't want to work, do you? (We're with you, guy). I am reading Melville's Confidence Man, and I was struck by the initial, and very substantive description, not of the extensive river, but of the vast array of people and jobs (barber shops, etc.) contained within the boat. We are most likely constrained by our experience of movies that focus on gamblers and captains. Not that there is anything wrong with that.... yours, Peter T.

10 Apr 00 - 12:13 PM (#209636)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: Amos

If you actually read the names of places listed above, tempting though it is to scroll by them rapidly, your tongue gets wrapped up in the poetry of the names and the amazing confluence of thought and effort which built each place -- think on why these names were chosen, and whose fortunes they represented, and you have a trip worth taking.

Amos

10 Apr 00 - 12:36 PM (#209651)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: MMario

Not disagreeing, Amos, just couldn't resist the chance to tease...

10 Apr 00 - 02:33 PM (#209734)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: katlaughing

So in my typical Arien impatience, Ah will nevah, nevah finish writing a complete book? Ah am doomed to short stories, forevah?**BG**

Hey, Amos, you have done some impressive work and it is appreciated! I promise not to try to rush things along, so if anything winds up being *premature* you boyos will have some explaining to do!

katlaughingforreal!

10 Apr 00 - 02:40 PM (#209741)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: Amos

An' here Ah thought you jes' had a dern headache!

10 Apr 00 - 08:30 PM (#209927)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: Stewie

Amos,

Smithsonian/Folkways recently released a great 2CD set, with excellent booklet, which you might enjoy: 'River of Song: A Musical Journey Down the Mississippi' SFW 40086. You can find out more about it:

click here

The URL is: http://www.pbs.org/riverofsong/

Regards, Stewie.

10 Apr 00 - 08:45 PM (#209940)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: catspaw49

Stewie, is any of that also from/used in the TV special of the same name, as I believe it was a Smithsonian program?

An Amos, wanted to let you know we'll be pulling in at Greenville, Missisippi on the Hansell to explore the history of the town and also get a good deal on its most famous linens.......well, just bedsheets actually, and only available in white, but a part of Greenville's "un"-colorful heritage.

Spaw

10 Apr 00 - 08:57 PM (#209945)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: Amos

Well, that's fine, 'Spaw...investigatin' bedsheets in Mississippi can be tricky, tho' depending on whose they are. Different sorts of passions, if you see what I mean.

BTW, where, according to your masterful Navigation tome, is the Hansell at, presently? I think I had mislocated her back to Saint Louis in a slip of the brain, that being North of the Ohio delta; but she has only spent part of her time steaming, as you might have discovered now that you have returned to yourself, as it were. Perhaps a refresh on present bearings and landmarks would be in order on the other thread, suh.

10 Apr 00 - 08:59 PM (#209947)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: Little Neophyte

Well Amos, if it were my riverboat, I would like to stop in...
Sunnyside MO
Lovejoy MO
Sunshine LA
Goodhope LA
Sugar Creek TN

I would want to stay away from...
Soso Bayou MS
Dredge MS
Little Boggy Bayou AR
Cold Creek TN
Tomato, AR (I hear they throw them if your music aint too good)

Little Neo

10 Apr 00 - 09:00 PM (#209949)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: Stewie

Spaw

Seem like it. The booklet notes under the heading 'Related Materials' that 'The River of Song' television series is available on video from Acorn Media (800) 474-2277. There is also a book 'River of Song: A Musical Journey Down the Mississippi' available through St Martin's Press (800) 288-2131.

Regards, Stewie.

10 Apr 00 - 09:05 PM (#209953)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: Lonesome EJ

Yep. Stay well away from Cold Creek, TN. :)

10 Apr 00 - 09:11 PM (#209960)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: Little Neophyte

Lonesome EJ, do they throw tomatoes there too?

Little Neo

10 Apr 00 - 10:18 PM (#209981)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: wysiwyg

Dat boy needs MULES tuh pull him offa that bar!!!

Float DOWN, A-man, FLOAT DAT BOAT!

~S~

11 Apr 00 - 11:18 AM (#210041)
Subject: RE: BS: 'On Time, Tongues, and the Mississippi'
From: Amos

Man that is one terrific project -- good web site, good idea, good music. Thanks!