Sometimes “progress” can’t trump an experience. Listening to a vinyl record, waiting in anticipation for film to develop, the sound of a typewriter or flipping through the pages of an old book – these are just a few of the things that many still love despite advances in technology. And while more people may be doing their note taking on a digital tablet or smartphone, the guys behind Mirth & Co. believe you can’t replace a classic notebook and the notion of jotting down ideas by hand.
Author J. Wes Yoder never thought he’d move back to Nashville. Raised in a Music City suburb, he hopped around from one metropolis to the next after college – eight different places in just five years. He hammered out his first novel, Carry My Bones, at small cafes around New York City. But on a short visit home in 2007, he noticed a small East Nashville cottage undergoing a big renovation. After looking through the front windows, crawling up on the roof and getting in through an open window, Yoder was convinced that this little home was reason enough to return South.
You never know where and when the right mix of circumstance, passion and conviction will strike and resonate in you – so much so that you know it must not be a coincidence. For John Loftis, that moment happened in his late teens while watching a television show. “There was a pair of octogenarian plaster workers restoring an ornate antebellum mansion in the Deep South. The narrator said these two men were the last ones who knew their craft – and with their passing, the trade knowledge would die too. Even at that age, I found it tragic, and I was stirred.”
As autumn deepens, the weather cools and our moods turn contemplative, the time is right to light up a fine pipe.
Combining a passion for classic, illustrated travel posters and vintage Americana advertising art, Joel Anderson and his team of artists are canvasing the United States with images of heritage, nostalgia and local pride.
