Cilla McCain's Blog, page 5

truTV.com: Haunted Crime Scenes: Mercer House

Millions of readers and movie fans know Williams as the slightly sinister character at the heart of John Berendt’s “nonfiction novel,” Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which starred Kevin Spacey when it was made into a film by Clint Eastwood. By that time, Williams himself was dead. The reason he gained such notoriety was because of the shooting that occurred on May 2, 1981 in Mercer House, which resulted in the death of a young hustler named Danny Hansford. . .read more. 

Southern Living: 40 Things Every Southerner Ought To Do!

#27  Talk the Talk

To live in the South you need to speak the lingo. If your vocabulary is rusty, bless your heart. Here’s a quick lexicon. Y’all: short for “you all” and infinitely more functional than “you guys.” Fixin’: getting ready to. Reckon: to think, imagine, or suppose. Dear, hon, sweetie, shug: universal terms of endearment. Click here to read the rest: http://www.southernliving.com/travel/40-things-every-southerner-ought-do-00400000008108/page28.html

 

‘Gone With The Wind’ actress Alicia Rhett dies at 98

 

(Reuters) – Actress Alicia Rhett, who was the oldest surviving cast member of the classic 1939 film “Gone With The Wind”, died in South Carolina on Friday, officials at her retirement community said. She was 98.

 

Savannah, Georgia-born Rhett portrayed India Wilkes, sister of Ashley Wilkes in the award-winning film based on Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer Prize-winning historical novel of the same name.

 

“Truly a beautiful woman, her passion for the arts and love of Charleston were unrivalled… Alicia was a kind and gentle lady,” said Bill Trawick, CEO of the Bishop Gadsden Episcopal Retirement Community in Charleston, where she had lived since 2002.

 

Other surviving cast members from “Gone With The Wind” are 97-year-old Olivia de Havilland who played Melanie Hamilton, Ashley Wilkes’ cousin and wife; 93-year-old Mary Anderson, who played Maybelle Merriweather; and 81-year-old Mickey Kuhn, who played Beau Wilkes, Bishop Gadsden said.

 

Ann Rutherford, who played protagonist Scarlett O’Hara’s optimistic younger sister in the film about white southerners in the American Civil War era, died in June 2012 in Los Angeles.

 

Rhett was born on February 1, 1915 and moved to Charleston with her mother after her father died in World War One, Bishop Gadsden said.

 

She was seen as “intensely private” and uninterested in the “trappings of celebrity,” and preferred a quieter, art-filled life connected to the Deep South, according to a biography on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) website.

 

Rhett was the great-granddaughter of South Carolina senator Robert Brunwell Rhett, whose “anti-Union rhetoric and pro-slavery stance in the years leading up to the American Civil War earned him the sobriquet the Father of Secession,” TCM added.

 

She was devoted to painting and illustration, producing on-set portraits of fellow actors, including her “Gone with the Wind” counterparts, and works seen in books, a state library, and a theatre in the coastal city, Bishop Gadsden said.

 

Beside her work depicting high society, Rhett also volunteered to paint public school children, workers, and others at its periphery, TCM said.

 

She died at Bishop Gadsden at about 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT), officials there said. The cause of death was not immediately known.

 

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/oldest-living-39-gone-wind-39-actress-dies-055904009.html

 

Christmas at the Biltmore

Click to view slideshow.

Christmas at The Biltmore is a magical experience. Every room of the largest home in America is filled with the most luxurious Christmas Decor imaginable. Built by George Washington Vanderbilt, this 8000 acre estate is located in the beautiful mountains of Asheville, NC. You visit anytime of year and never see the same things twice. But Christmas time at the Biltmore is spectacular!

 

It’s Christmas Time Pretty Baby

A Southern Tradition: Graceland all in lights!

In the South, the Christmas Season begins the first night Graceland lights up the night sky! Since Graceland first opened to tourism in the early 1980′s, the house is decorated using the same themes that Elvis himself loved! If you’re having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit visit Graceland!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Truman Capote

In Cold Blood (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I aspired to be Truman Capote long before I read any of his works or even knew his name. This is because as far back as I can remember, I wanted to write a true story that read like an engaging novel. As a young girl I wrote short stories about things that happened around me and I modeled them after the fictional story books I read. I thought I was doing something unheard of. I didn’t know that somebody had already accomplished this feat until I was in my early teens and read Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood for the first time. Boy, did I feel silly. Since then, I’ve read In Cold Blood countless times, hoping – most likely in vain – to absorb some of Capote’s greatness.

Truman Capote was a flamboyant Southerner who charmed the high society bitches of New York. He was openly gay in a time when most homosexuals were still in the closet; a tiny man with an odd voice that has been likened to that of a “Brussel sprout, if a Brussel sprout could talk.” But he didn’t let any of this stop him from living large.

Born in New Orleans and abandoned by his parents to live with relatives in Monroeville, Alabama, Capote’s best childhood friend was literary great Nelle Harper Lee. The played together as children and she based the character “Dill” from To Kill a Mockingbird on Truman. What are the chances of two literary greats growing up on the same street?

The two were very close. In fact, Lee actually helped Capote research and write In Cold Blood. Unfortunately he did not give her credit for her valuable participation. At first this knowledge tarnished my reverence of him. But one day I came across a sentence that Lee had written for In Cold Blood describing killer Richard Hickock‘s oddly shaped face.  (Lee is also a hero of mine and her writing surpasses what I dare to dream.)  Anyway, Truman liked the sentence, but decided to brand it his own. Upon reading it, I forgave my quirky hero for his selfishness.

Lee wrote of Hickock’s face: It was as if someone cut it down the middle, then put it back together not quite in place.

The Truman brand: It was as though his head had been halved like an apple, then put together a fraction off center.

A minor change indeed. But it symbolizes Truman’s greatness.

Sadly, Truman Capote never wrote another book after In Cold Blood. From all I’ve read, the emotional strain of dealing with such a horrific subject sapped him of the drive to do so. I’ve written about horrible crimes and I know first hand that it eats away at the soul. You give up a piece of yourself with every chapter. For a writer, there is no choice. You can’t sleep at night until you get the words down. I wish readers could fully grasp that fact. If they could, even a mediocre book might somehow become great, given the knowledge of the raw, human investment it took just to write it down.

It’s All About the Bird

How many years did you watch your Mama get up and put the Thanksgiving Turkey on at 4am? By the time it was served, it was so dry the only thing that saved you from choking to death on its dust was the giblet gravy. This year, don’t torture your guests or yourself with a dried up turkey! Deep South Dish.com offers up some great ideas for the perfect roasted turkey!

Check it out here.

 

 

 

How To Tolerate Your Relatives During Thanksgiving

Apple Spiced Cocktail

Yes, Southerner’s take pride in our family gatherings. In the weeks before any event we are emailing, telephoning and dropping by just to make certain all of the food comes off without a hitch and that we don’t end up with a dozen green bean casseroles and no potato salad. But all of this extended family time can take a toll on the nerves. So, if you don’t have a prescription for Xanax or Valium, you might want to try the Apple Spiced Cocktail. It may keep you chilled just enough to prevent you from reaching through the phone and strangling your sister-in-law. Just remember: nobody likes a sloppy drunk, so please drink responsibly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Apple Spiced Cocktail

Ingredients:

1 ½ oz Ole Smoky Tennessee Moonshine

1 ½ oz Thatcher’s Organic Apple Spice Ginger Liqueur

1 oz apple juice

1 oz fresh lime juice

½ oz agave nectar (or any preferred sweetener)

Garnish: Cinnamon & Sugar rimmed glass, dried apple slice

Process: Add ingredients to a mixing glass. Add ice to tin. Shake well. Strain into cinnamon and sugar rimmed a cocktail glass. Garnish with a dried apple slice.

 

 

Recipe and Image Source: DrinkingMadeEasy.com

Willie Nelson by Artist Ray Ferrer

Willie Nelson by Ray Ferrer http://urbanwallart.wordpress.com/
If I could paint, I’d want to be Ray Ferrer. ~ Cilla McCain

I’ve just been introduced to the work of Ray Ferrer, a former Auburn University student whose urban wall art is quickly earning him a global reputation as a talent to be reckoned with. This painting of Willie Nelson was the first piece I noticed and it captures him to perfection.

I vividly remember the first time I saw Willie Nelson. It was not on stage, it was as he walked by me in a grocery store parking lot. He wore Wrangler jeans, braids and his bandanna. He turned around and looked at me as I pushed my overflowing cart of groceries. Of course that was the exact moment that the huge package of toilet paper I had purchased fell off to the pavement. I tried to inconspicuously get a better look out of the corner of my eye. After all, it’s not every day that a music legend shows up at your small town grocery store. From what I gathered, he was apparently riding a motorcycle followed by 4 white vehicles. He got off of the bike and stood at the passenger window of one of the white cars talking with the occupant. I soon realized they were sharing a “cigarette”  while the rest of his party went in the store to shop. None of the locals bothered him, they just let him have his privacy. If I had it to do over again, I would have asked him to autograph my grocery receipt. Or better yet, maybe I can someday purchase Ray Ferrer’s piece and get it to Willie to sign?

Be sure to check out more by Artist Ray Ferrer at http://urbanwallart.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

 

From Southern Living: Dramatic Purple Thanksgiving Table

To add a regal touch to your Thanksgiving table don’t be afraid  to experiment with color!

Click here for video!