Welcome to The Shot, G&G’ers, a cocktail we’ve mixed up just for you with what’s happening around the South.
Mas Topo Chico
What lives in Texas, cools you down faster than a trip to the walk-in freezer, and has a culinary cult following so intense it’s been called “the best mineral water in the world?” It’s Topo Chico, amigos, the sparkling water that’s sourced at a dormant Mexican volcano, but may soon be coming to a store near you. At least that’s the hope of bartenders, chefs, and hipsters everywhere with the news last week that Coca-Cola has acquired the century-old Mexican brand. The soft-drink company says it plans to “thoughtfully expand” the number of places where Topo Chico is sold without changing the mineral water that smitten Texans crave for its “aggressive effervescence.” Until then, consider this the only excuse you need to book another visit to Austin.
Mellon Sparkler
Photo: Courtesy of Sotheby's
Bunny Mellon with her second husband, Paul.
Bunny Mellon was so fabulous she had a landing strip for jets in her Upperville, Virginia, backyard. So you know she wouldn’t have put up with any basic book launch. Luckily for the late Mrs. Mellon, Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend is in the uniquely talented hands of author Meryl Gordon, who has crafted a biography worthy of the accolades it’s getting, including a new spot on the NYT bestseller list. See Gordon in points South this week at events in Richmond and Middleburg, Virginia; and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., just down the street from the White House Rose Garden that Mrs. Mellon designed herself.
Bank Shot
The International African American Museum, slated to open in 2020 in Charleston, got a huge cash infusion last week with a $10 million donation from the Lilly Endowment. Along with a recent major gift from Wells Fargo and state and federal support, the ambitious project is one step closer to reality. Museum boosters say its mission will be twofold: to illuminate South Carolina’s central role in the international slave trade, and to connect visitors to their ancestors. It’s been a passion project for years for leaders in the Holy City, and as Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said last week, “This museum has been a long time coming, but this museum’s time has come.”
The Judge
Photo: AUSTIN HARGRAVE/AUGUST
Chadwick Boseman
Every Friday you think about seeing a movie, and every Friday you wonder why they don’t make good movies anymore. You can stop wondering, because we’ve got a great one for you: Marshall tells the story of Thurgood Marshall, the Baltimore native who became the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. But instead of focusing on Marshall’s SCOTUS years, the film goes back to his time as a young attorney for the NAACP, specifically when he took a case defending a chauffeur in Connecticut accused of a heinous crime. Chadwick Boseman, a G&G favorite, stars as Marshall, along with Sterling K. Brown from This Is Us, and a young cast oozing talent and ready to tell a decades-old story about the fight for social justice that has never been more timely than today.
Raise a Glass
There’s a special place in our hearts, and our nightstands, for Southern literature here at The Shot, and it’s hard to think of anyone practicing the craft right now as deeply talented as Jesmyn Ward. The Mississippi author was nominated last week for a second National Book Award, this time for Sing, Unburied, Sing, her latest novel that takes readers inside a complicated, wounded Southern family. Ward won the NBA in 2011 for Salvage the Bones. A second win would confirm what we already know—that we are living in the company of one of the all-time greats.
Parting Shots
This week, the team at The Shot is Remembering: Tom Petty, a native of Gainesville, Florida. He did us like that. … DVRing: The CW’s Dynasty reboot Wednesday. The hair, the jewels, the fights, how are these women not from the South?. … Pulling over at: Biscuitville, for the new spicy-chicken-and-jalapeño-pimento-cheese biscuit, on the way to tailgate on Saturday. Is that wrong? … Waiting for: Your entries for the 2017 G&G Good Dog contest. The deadline is Sunday and the only requirements are that you have a good dog and a pic of your pup to upload. … Listening to: “Dear Hate,” the song Maren Morris and Vince Gill recorded three years ago and released last week for the Las Vegas victims’ fund. Beautiful, haunting, inspiring, and the assurance that, someday somehow, love will eventually conquer all.
Until next week, friends.
