Jackson Jambalaya

0 comments ??? Wow!

I was there all day-- a wonderful, well organized event.

6:43 - it was a wonderful, and well organized event, as it has been these last few years. And something the city and state can and should be proud of.

But there was one failure - not so much on the part of the organizers (except maybe for their initial selection of an individual) and that was at one of if not the premiere presentation panel of the day - the Katrina discussion.

Great panel -- Jim Barksdale (who served as the Chairman of the Recovery Commission), Dr. Mark Keenum (President MSU but at the time of Katrina COS to Senator Thad Cochran), Rep Manley Barton (current Speaker Pro-Tem but at the time of Katrina President of Jackson County BOS) and Governor Haley Barbour.

The failure was by the ego-maniac 'moderator', current radio talk show host Ricky Matthews who evidently enjoys nothing more than to hear himself talk. His job was to serve as the moderator of the panel, introduce the subject and introduce the panelists. Once the panelist finished their presentations (which he informed all of them shouldn be kept to the ten minutes allocated, therefore allowing for questions) he as moderator could help discussion by presenting a question or two as a follow-up to their presentations.

But NO, not Matthews. He started by spending some ten minutes, maybe longer, talking about his connection to Katrina - how it affected him, his businesses, and his life. Then he went on to discuss how his learning from the Katrina rebuilding he wrote a book - which would be available LATER (in other words, it was not a part of this year's book fest, and not the purpose of the panel) but that he HOPED would be a presentation at next year's fest.

Not finished, he went on to read part of HIS book. And after that, he discussed what he read, and then - not finished - he went and read another chapter. Then, after a good twenty, maybe twenty five minutes, he introduced the first panelist.

Needless to say, the schedule was shot by that time. The programs are all to be run on a tight schedule and its generally the moderator's job to try to keep the discussion within the time frame. But here, the moderator failed to do so because he found himself more interesting than any of the panelists.

The order of discussion started with Barksdale, then Keenum followed by Barton and then Barbour. By the time it got to Speaker Barton, the total time for the panel was basically gone. Recognizing this, Barton cut his presentation significantly so that there might be a minute or two available for the featured speaker, Governor Barbour.

Shortly after Haley began, the "cat herder" for the room began indicating a need to cut off the program, but found little support for her efforts. Haley continued for a few minutes until she stepped up and announced the program HAD to end as it had transgressed into the next scheduled program.

Thanks to Ricky and his supporting his ego, the hundreds of people that attended this session were robbed of hearing what would probably have been a great discussion; the presentations by Barksdale, Keenum and Barton were all great and educational. Hearing Barbour's few words were also good of course, but as he noted when he began - he was allotted ten minutes which obviously he was not going to get to use. (The total time for the session was one hour; evidently Matthews felt that half of that was his, the other half belonged to the four panelists.)

Hopefully the organizers will recognize that Matthews has had his day in the sun talking about his book, and won't offer him another opportunity at next year's festival.

love a bookworm with some finger and wrist ink...great interview!

Why was this only done in Jackson? Don’t other communities deserve the same thing?

This was a fantastic event, as it always is. I attended a few sessions and learned a lot and loved getting to peruse the book selection on Capitol grounds & meet authors & other book lovers. As to why it’s not held in other communities? Thousands of people come, and it takes nearly a year to plan. Jackson is the capital city and the Capitol grounds is a fitting place for it to be held. People travel for this, as they do the state fair, the Rodeo, etc. As to other communities, many local libraries host reading events. It would be worth connecting with your local library to see what events they have!

Thanks for that description, 6:05. ...reminds me of when Madea was in charge of the Funeral. But at least Mabel Simmons was entertaining. I just looked-up that 'Ricky Matthews' person, and see that he's everything his name would lead one to expect.

One another blogsite, I once saved a family from moving to Mississippi. They were asking about "walkability", "events", "culture"... the usual. So, I found a YouTube vid made at Highland Village (one of the few "walkable" places in the state), in which some White Trash jackass was hosting some sort of sports event for a local private school's football whatever (the school had its own multimedia "channel"). He was sitting on a tall director's chair, just running his mouth about nothing, in that White Trash accent you never hear in TV and movies - replete with long, drawn-out 'Hard R' sounds, and 'White' pronounced as 'Watt'/'Wot'. (that family chose Kansas, instead)

But that long harangue was REPRESENTATIVE of the "culture". And here, you describe more of that same "culture". One would hope that a BOOK festival might be a tad more inclusive. Instead, the panel consisted of nothing but White Males who are "naaaaaw-uh-muhl" (in the 'Old Jackson' Carpetbagger ersatz 'Southern' accent). I've barely heard of them, but each would rate a check in every single "Normality" box.

Heaven forbid a book festival panel should include women, or nonwhites, or "freaks" of any kind.

Women write books. "Freaks" write books. People with Olive skin write books. Women, "freaks", and nonwhites, also BUY books. Instead, attendees were supposed to sit and listen to THE USUAL?

Not only would I not walk two steps to hear Haley, I wouldn't even turn-around, to hear him. The Book Festival sounds like a wonderful idea. Pity it got HIJACKED, in the service of 'The Usual'.

6:38, that was a really ignorant comment. That was ONE panel. There were a bunch of panels, many populated by the people you praise. They were there. You just assumed and made an ass, actually a dumbass out of yourself.