RIVER FRONT TIMES
MAY 4 2007
Carny, Art
BY JAMES WEBER
When Greil Marcus coined the phrase Òthe old, weird AmericaÓ to
describe the otherworldliness lingering in the grooves of old blues records and
Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes, he may have written his epitaph. That neologism so
clearly defines the meat-and-potatoes center of American culture, it will be
all anyone remembers of poor Mr. Marcus in 100 years. Photographer Virginia
Lee Hunter dives straight into Marcus Country with her collection, Carny:
Americana on the Midway. Her subject is not just the symbiotic system of
weary-eyed carny workers and the gleeful rubes who drift through each otherÕs
lives; her color and black-and-white photos capture the greasy vibe of
small-town summers across America, the joy of shaved ice, the precariousness of
Tilt-A-Whirls with grinding motors -- the old weirdness that no strip mall can
provide on its best Saturday night. On Friday, May 4, you can bask deep in the
weirdness' swampy glow at Left Bank Books (399 North Euclid Avenue;
314-367-6731 or www.left-bank.com), when Virginia Lee Hunter chats about Carny
from 6 to 8 p.m. A collection of her photographs hangs in Left BankÕs gallery
through Saturday, June 9.