I Got The Mangos!

Posted on April 26, 2007 by Varg

Some of you may remember this post from way back when The Chicory was just a li’l root.

Now it seems the Times-Pic has followed up on it with a short and informative slide show of their own. I must say that the fruit peddler is a has a very Caribbean look.

I wish y’all could have seen the look on the House Hunter’s crew’s faces when he rolled down our Mid City street back before Katrina.

I went ahead and posted another short video I have of him on YouTube. This one features a slightly different cadence.

One of the local brass bands should implement his vocalizations into one of their songs. I wonder would they mind if they suggested it?

Dear Rebirth,

Wouldn’t it be cool if you guys did a song that mimicked the vocalizations of our local fruit peddler?

http://www.nola.com/photos/t-p/index.ssf?fruit_peddler

Just a thought! Keep up the good work! Love the music!

Your friend,

The Chicory

Sent via MySpace. Worth a shot right?

7 thoughts on “I Got The Mangos!”

ashley says:

April 26, 2007 at 11:52 am

You ever heard the intro to “No Love Today” by Chris Smither?
Varg says:

April 26, 2007 at 12:05 pm

One fucking day I will have an original thought!

(sigh)

Buying it on ITunes tonight. Then putting it in my “Nawlins” folder.

Still though, it would be cool to hear a brass section do it.

Thanks AshMo.
Marco says:

April 27, 2007 at 7:37 am

I saw and heard the fruit vendor on NOLA.com. It was great. I’ll check out your you tube link. It’s a beautiful thing. Thanks.
mikesmiley says:

April 27, 2007 at 7:52 am

How about morning 40’s video with the fruit man?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFfcLYRn5LQ
Varg says:

April 27, 2007 at 8:58 am

That’s funny. I like how in the side shot it’s so obvious they are standing outside the fruit truck shaking it to simulate motion on the Bywater’s screwed up streets.
Jeff says:

April 27, 2007 at 7:43 pm

Didn’t the fruit peddlers get some mention on that recent PBS AE doc on New Orleans? Seems I remember a brief mention.
Varg says:

April 27, 2007 at 10:56 pm

Yea, Romy and I just looked at each other and smiled when they talked about it.

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Rejoice!

I say that a lot. I sign many pieces with it. I do this because I believe our lives are a true happenstance. A brilliant occurence from nothingness. We are so rare. We are so unlikely. And simply being born isn’t enough. From there we must survive, endure. So each morning, after our Sun departs and is reborn again. Please, for the sake of your ancestors and the Universe in general, hoist that cup of joe up and say, “Rejoice.”

Ours is a soulful existence. No matter how many McMansions, polyester fabrics, auto-tunes, modified foods and social networks we surround ourselves with, we are all still native, passionate beings made of ancient matter. We are organic and we have soul.

Wood also has a warm, soulful quality. Wood has a memory. It retains smells, traumas, events. It even has a calendar. This is why I have chosen it as my medium, for its old soul. I like to think the wood in my work is in its third incarnation. First a tree, then a home and now art. If you have a room that needs a little soul, get a piece. A room can never have enough soul.

My inspiration and subject matter comes from many sources, among them: Humanism, old ballads, trickster tales, flora and fauna, science, myths and folklore, stringed instruments, brass bands, amber spirits, lady vocalists, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Some of my pieces are there just to make a short, simple statement about what’s important in life. Some are more diffuse and abstract in meaning. A personal drama, an enduring line from a poem or novel, a poignant song lyric, the legacy of an important person, a fleeting thought … these are the subjects of my art.

I use hearts often because they are a very abstract way of depicting the human soul without also employing the very subjective human form. The symbolic heart is an apt representation for a person’s experience and essence. A body can immediatly conjure happiness, sorrow, youth, age, anger, bliss. These emotions can get in the way. Sometimes it’s simply about the experience.

I am the son of a sailor and a social worker, the grandson of a gypsy, a dancer and a nurse. I spent my youth moving from port city to port city, watching a lot of road go by and reading World Book Encyclopedia. After my parents settled down on the Gulf Coast, I was a miscreant youth, destroying cars and taking the wrongs things too seriously and the right things not serious enough. Eventually I began replacing my imagination with experience.

I will use any salvaged wood but prefer swamp cypress and longleaf heartwood pine.

I despise waste. Particularly the waste of organic matter. Trees are magnificent. They were here before we arrived and they’ll be around after we are gone. I’m making an effort to save as much wood as possible. Creating art is fun too. But beyond communicating with folks, but beyond making money ad providing for myself, beyond rescuing flooded parts, beyond reveling in the ethereal aroma of heartpine that hasn’t seen the light of day in 400 years, beyond all that, I am trying to make a simple comment on waste.