poor boys and pilgrims

I'm back from Oklahoma City. Tracy's wedding was beautiful and moving. On the way, V and I stopped at Graceland. On the whole, it was sad mostly because it felt so real, so lived in. Even though Tim Gunn would say that he questioned the taste level of the designers of Graceland, and everything there is so over-the-top it, what was most striking was how clear it was that people had actually inhabited the space. Paintings that seemed done by someone's uncle in the vicinity of ceramic chimps. A kitchen range that seemed used across the hall from green shag carpet. A carport that looked like anyone's carport. Vanessa and I remarked on the racial stratification of the employees - the inside workers were predominately white, the outside predominately African American. After leaving Graceland we ate some tasty barbecue and later stayed in a small town in Arkansas where people stared at the road from seas of belongings under shelters and packs of dogs slept on the yard of boarded up elementary schools. Here are some of the striking patterns of Graceland.