I started off heading to Stax, the museum about the label that brought us Booker T and the MGs, Issa Hayes and Sam and Dave. the museum is built on the site of the original building, and is in a run down area, like really scary run down area, which would explain why i was by myself in the entire museum.
I drove back to the hotel to catch the Peabody ducks, the morning performance of the ducks is much better and more ridiculous than the afternoon one. music starts, the lift door opens, and 3 duck hightail it through the lobby and into the fountain. From here i nip into Lanskys clothing in the Peabody. For those of you who dont know, Bernard Lansky ran Lansky Bros on Beale Street, from here he clothed alot of the Stax roster, he also clothed a kid by the name of Elvis. the gold lame suit was Lanskys doing. i purchase a very nice shirt, and shake hands with Mr Lansky. The only problem with Lanksys is that they are very upfront and short with people as they walk in (especially when they dress like me.) But as soon as i started asking about a specific shirt i had seen on the internet, they were really nice and helpful. Its understandable, they are an upmarket gentleman's clothiers and tourists walk in repeatedly because of the name.
i catch the trolley down to the Civil Rights Museum, the museum is housed in a mixture of a purpose built building and the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. its a really heavy experience walking round and realising how f**ked up we can be as a race, one image stuck with me, a young girl carrying the sign 'integration is communism'. using a almost boogieman like fear and attaching it to racial issues is so messed up i don't know where to start. its like telling a kid his pet died because he wasn't a good christian. they two have nothing to do with each other.
from here i walk back into downtown and while looking for food end up back at rendezvous again, and it was just as good as the first time. the waitress told me that the last 5 presidents have all eaten there, and when Bill Clinton is passing they will take him a order to go to the airport.
from here i wander down to the Gibson factory and shop, shop was silly prices (ie $400 more than guitar center for a double neck epiphone, $600 more for a Les Paul classic.) the tour was interesting, me and another guy on the tour tried to devise a distraction so we could steal the guitars, but we couldn't work out how to disguise them as old ladies to pass by the guards.
i walk across the street to the Rock and Soul museum, which was the most disappointing of the 3, i think because i had visited Sun and Stax, there was allot of ground already covered. the museum seemed to stop around 1969 as well, which was strange.
i grab some food at Rum Bar Boogie, which was an interesting little bar (it has alot of signed guitars as well as the original Stax neon signs. Gumbo was good, the catfish I wasnt sure was cooked properly, which when mixed with alcohol made me quite ill. managed to catch an hour or so of Dueling Pianos at SilkyOSullivans before i had to leave feeling bad.
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