BLOODY MURDER
BULLDOGS SHINE OFF
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125th YEAR | ISSUE 17 @REFLECTORONLINE f /REFLECTORONLINE
OCTOBER 18, 2013
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Late night food contributes to culture, competition
Archaeology exhibit brings science out of classroom to public BY DUNCAN DENT Staff Writer
Saturday, the Cobb Institute, Mississippi State University’s anthropology research building, hosts the annual Mississippi Archaeology Expo on the Drill Field. The event is usually held at Milsaps but will be moved to MSU this year. The event is supported by grants and support from the Mississippi Humanities Council, Department of Archaeology and Middle Eastern Cultures of the Cobb Institute of Archaeology and the Mississippi Archaeological Association. The Expo is one of the biggest events during Mississippi Archaeology
Month, which happens every October. Carol Andersen, assistant director for the Mississippi Humanities Council, said the Council receives grants to regrant to programs like archaeology month. “They take scholars and real field experiences out of the classroom and make them available to the public. They put it in layman’s terms,” Andersen said. The Cobb Institute has high expectations for the event. Evan Peacock, North Eastern Coordinator and anthropology professor at MSU, said he thinks the Expo should be held in different places each year. SEE ARCHAEOLOGY, 2
MICAH GREEN | COURTESY PHOTO
Bin 612 has one of Starkville’s most popular late night food windows open 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. BY DUNCAN DENT Staff Writer
Transient vendors seem to come and go, but the Bin 612’s late-night window suggests there is staying power in the late-night street vendor market. The scene is something of a phenomenon of cultural importance for the Starkville area. Thursday through Saturday night around 1 a.m. the bars empty and the streets fill with people. They flock to the music playing at the cigar shop right next to the late night window. Many haul their coolers out and make a late night of it. Chip Donald, a line chef at Bin 612, said the late-night window is successful because of different people and reasons. “Ty and Paul (Brasfield, of Restaurant Tyler) put it together, the community and the
police support the late night scene. It is what you want after you leave the bar, food and music. And that’s why it has flourished and will continue to flourish,” Donald said. Paul Brasfield, chef de cuisine for Bin 612 and Restaurant Tyler, said this is just the beginning. He said they plan to have a food truck positioned somewhere closer to downtown. “We still want the food trucks,” Brasfield said, “You see a healthy food truck scene in a lot of college towns, so why not here? In these food-truckfriendly towns they vend to the street. People can walk right up and essentially be in your restaurant, and that is what we have tried to create with the Bin late-night window. We believe the food truck and food window scene is just taking
off. Pretty soon everyone will be doing this in some way or another.” Transient vendors have seen some trouble in the past. Despite their apparent popularity during big weekends, food trucks do not have the staying power that the Bin has created with the late night window. Clint Campbell is a manager in a local kitchen who used to run Tom and Mel’s Quik Fire Café, a late-night food trailer, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from fall 2010 to spring 2011. He said he fondly remembers frantically getting off work with his friend and business partner, Everett Hill, to hurry down to the Cotton District to set up the food truck and serve the hungry bar-goers until as late as four in the morning some nights. “We had a great spot behind
the Bin,” Campbell said. “We rented the trailer from Ty, and he would let us plug into the Bin. That was before they did the late-night window.” Campbell said the operation was run out of his house. He said they would prep early in the afternoon and pack a fridge he had at the house that was dedicated solely to Tom and Mel’s. They also had to get the trailer parked at Bin 612 before the night got too busy. After they got off work they would load the prepared food in some big coolers, drive it to the parked trailer and open the kitchen. “It was a lot of hassle, and by the time that summer ended and fall rolled around and we had to decide if we wanted to do it again, we just decided we didn’t have it in us,” Campbell said.
EVAN PEACOCK | COURTESY PHOTO
Kayleigh Sheppard, MSU Anthropology Club president, holds an 800-year celt set in a replica wooden handle.
SEE VENDORS, 3
Backyard crop provides commerciality Local businesses see BY PRANAAV JADHAV Staff Writer
Southern Bamboo, a Jackson, Miss., based company grows, harvests and distributes bamboo throughout the United States. The company conducts climate research on the southern U.S. as well as studies the logistics of bamboo farming on a large scale. In one study, the company found areas in the southern U.S. are perfectly suited to produce large bamboo groves similar to those in China, the world’s current leading bamboo exporter. The U.S. imports close to $1 billion worth of bamboo and bamboo-related products and produces close to none. Sean Hemmings, CEO and founder of Southern Bamboo, said large corporations have spoken about this issue, books, blogs and academic papers have been written on this issue but no one has done anything about it. “We set out to actually to do something about it, not just talk about it and actually, we’ve gotten to that,” Hemmings said, “We looked at lot of bamboos, we looked
what was around how much of it how difficult it was to get and we started harvesting bamboos for the poles.” Bamboo is highly sustainable and can be harvested four times per year. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, bamboo is the fastest-growing plant in the world. Some bamboo grow four feet in a day. Steve Turner, head of the Department of Agriculture Economics at Mississippi State University, said the U.S. is the most efficient agricultural producer in the world and it competes with many other countries around the world in both the domestic and international markets. Turner also said every commodity market is different and the market for catfish is much different than SOUTHERN BAMBOO | COURTESY PHOTO the market for corn or soy- Bamboo was used to construct and decorate the patio of beans or rice or bamboo. “It is much more econom- one of the clients of Southern Bamboo, a Jackson compaical to grow a lot of bamboo ny that harvests the sustainable and fast-growing crop. (China) than a small amount (U.S.). There could also be their bamboo poles, allowing to the U.S. are sub-standard restrictions (tariffs and quo- Southern Bamboo to com- and there are commercial ta) on selling bamboo to oth- pete with China in bamboo people who refuse to use er countries,” Turner said. production. China by and them. He said there is always Hemmings said import- large uses the higher-grade waste in every container that ers who import from China bamboo for flooring, and arrives from China as much have to wait months to get the bamboo poles that come as 30 percent in some cases.
effect of game days BY JAMIE ALLEN
State for football game weekends. Pat Ramsey, owner of OcOn football game week- casions, said football weekends, Starkville attracts ends bring in many out-ofaround 55,000 visitors who state visitors. She said she enjoys talking eat and shop in to them to town and generate greater revThere is an find out where enue for local excitement they are from and what businesses in the in the air, brings them area. and a lot of to Starkville. These restau“We are lorants, boutiques people come in the cated downand stores see store to look at the town, and their business as on football much as double, maroon things we game weekespecially on carry. I love to see ends, there weekends of the the camaraderie are tons of bigger games and the constant people millsuch as SEC ing around. games and the flow of people on There is an h o m e c o m i n g game days.” excitement in game. -Pat Ramsey, the air, and a As visitors walk through owner of Occasions lot of people come in the downtown bestore to look fore the game, they may see Occasions bou- at the maroon things we cartique. This boutique brings ry,” Ramsey said. “I love to out the maroon clothing and see the camaraderie and the anything else that relates to constant flow of people on Bulldogs, maroon or Hail game days.” Staff Writer
SEE BAMBOO, 2
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