The Mississippi School of the Arts (MSA) will launch an exciting pilot program for 2023-2024 incoming juniors. The program will allow students to earn a high school diploma and associate degree at the same time. Through a partnership with Copiah-Lincoln Community College (Co-Lin), juniors can apply to be part of a Collegiate Academy program to pursue an associate degree while at MSA through Dual Enrollment/Dual Credit with Co-Lin. Since 2011, MSA has partnered with Co-Lin to offer dual credit and dual enrollment opportunities to students through online and in the MSA class schedule. The pilot program will be offered free to enrolled students! In addition, dual credit courses taken by students will be paid by MSA. “We have been working on this since 2018. Now, MSA juniors who want to save time and money for college will have the opportunity to do so! We are so grateful for the funding to be able to make college accessible to all our students,” said Dr. Suzanne Hirsch, MSA Executive Director. The dual enrollment/dual credit coursework will support graduation requirements of MSA as well as degree requirements of Co-Lin. Student application procedures will be distributed by summer 2023 with an application deadline of early fall 2023. The program will begin in January 2024 with anticipated completion date in May 2025. “We are thrilled to bring this long-awaited pilot program to fruition for our MSA students,” said Co-Lin Dean of Academic Instruction Dr. Stephanie Duguid. “As the only performing arts school in the state, these dedicated and determined students from MSA have unique skill sets, opportunities, and intense focus that drives them daily. Co-Lin is proud to partner with MSA not only with academics leading to a degree, but also collaborate on other fine arts ventures forthcoming.” Dual enrollment is when a student is enrolled in a community college while enrolled in high school and receives college credit for work. Dual Credit is when a student is enrolled at both the community college and high school and receives both high school and post-secondary credit for coursework. To enroll, students must meet minimum ACT and Carnegie Unit requirements as set by the college as well as MSA. MSA is the state’s only residential high school for Mississippi eleventh and twelfth grade students to intensively study the arts – dance, filmmaking, creative writing, theatre, visual art, and vocal music. Auditions for the Class of 2025 are open for application at www.msabrookhaven.org. Auditions will take place on May 12, 2023.

By Kara Kimbrough I’ve been open about my obsession with soup. I could easily eat soup every day of the week with one caveat: someone else would have to make it. As much as I love and in fact, do make soup quite often, it’s a time-consuming chore if done right. Boiling the liquid, braising the meat (if it’s meat-based), adding vegetables at just the right moment and then watching the stockpot to make sure hot bubbling liquid doesn’t boil over can’t be hastily done at the end of a long day. As a result, I’m always searching for restaurants with homemade (not shipped from a warehouse in a can) soups. I’ll recommend a few places further down, but first, a new favorite soup that’s been around awhile but has only recently hit my radar is worth a mention. Originating in Vietnam, pho (pronounced fuh) is a light, flavorful soup composed of clear flavorful broth, thin slices of beef, a combination of spices and my favorite part, flat rice noodles. If nice noodles are hard to find, fettuccini, linguini and angel hair pasta are acceptable substitutions. Pho (not to be confused with ramen bowls, which are made with bone broth, pork and wheat noodles) is a versatile soup that can be made with either beef or chicken for protein or omitted altogether for a vegetarian version. Despite its simplicity, pho is usually adorned with some type of greenery. Regular toppings are sprigs of cilantro, mint leaves, bean sprouts and slices of lemon or lime. Crispy wonton strips are my topping of choice. The best thing about pho? It’s a light, “clean” soup; the perfect antidote if you’re suffering from any type of ailment or are simply in need of a healthy meal. Pho is easy to make, but if you’re like someone else to do the cooking, a few restaurants around the state to enjoy it include: * Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant in Flowood * Pho Huong Vietnamese in Jackson * Pho Saigon Vietnamese in Hattiesburg * D’Iberville’s Henry’s Bakery and Cake * Kim Long in Biloxi If you recommend other pho places around the state, drop me an email and I’ll include them in a future column. And, there are many restaurants around the state that still take the time to make their own soup, gumbo and chili. A few that come to mind, along with their specialties: * Mary Mahoney’s in Biloxi - gumbo * The Strawberry Café in Madison – cream of crab soup * Primos Café (Ridgeland, Madison and Flowood) - vegetable soup * Harvey’s (Tupelo, Starkville and Columbus) - chili * Snackbar in Oxford’s French onion soup * Broma’s Deli in Brookhaven and McComb – homemade broccoli and cheese and spicy chili * Scranton’s in Pascagoula – crab and loaded potato soups If I’ve missed any that deserve a mention, let me know and I’ll include it down the road. If you haven’t sampled pho and want to make it at home, email me and I’ll send an easy-to-make recipe. While it’s simple, the recipe is a little too lengthy to add here, so I’m including a new vegetable beef soup recipe given to me by a friend. With a spicier broth, it take plain ol’ vegetable to an entirely new level. Spicy Vegetable Beef Soup 1 pound ground chuck (or leftover roast or steak slices) 1 medium onion, diced 1 (24-ounce) jar pasta sauce 1 can beef broth 1 cup water 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained 1 (10-ounce) can Rotel tomatoes, undrained 2 tablespoons ketchup 2 potatoes, sliced and cubed (or 2 cups country-style hash browns) 1 package frozen mixed vegetables 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper Cook the beef and onion in a large nonstick skillet. When beef is no longer pink, drain off grease and transfer the beef/onion mixture to a 6-quart Crockpot. Add remaining ingredients and stir together. Cover and cook on low or 6 to 8 hours or on high for 5 to 6 hours. Kara Kimbrough is a food and travel writer from Mississippi. Email her at kkprco@yahoo.com.

Wesson Municipal Park is a busy place where children frolic in a newly resurfaced splash pad and enjoy other playground delights, and families and town groups utilize a pavilion for special events such as birthday parties, and different kinds of get-together. Unfortunately, it all leaves a mess that the town’s public works department has neither the time nor manpower to address adequately. “It takes a town to keep a park clean,” Town Clerk Angela Hester. The events in the pavilion generate lots of trash, and much of it does not finds its way to garbage barrels. Even though the park is a smoke-free facility, people not only enjoy a cigarette while sitting on a bench and throw the butts on the ground. Restrooms get dirty. “The park is a nice place, but the town needs the help of park users and citizens who care about it to keep it nice,” says Hester. “The town can’t do it alone.” While park users need to assume responsibility for the their messes, Hester is calling on citizen volunteers. “Pick up trash and put it in receptacles,” she says. “If a garbage bag needs to replaced, don’t wait for town public works personnel to do it. If you see people smoking in the park, remind them it is smoke. Ask people nicely to respect the park’s facilities and help keep them nice for people to enjoy.”

By Bob Garver When I first heard that there was a movie called “The Pope’s Exorcist,” I thought maybe it was about a guy that performs an exorcism on The Pope. That could be a cool idea – the holiest man in the Catholic Church himself needing an exorcism. But no, it’s just about The Pope’s preferred exorcist going off and performing an exorcism on yet another possessed teenager. Ho Hum. Russell Crowe plays Father Gabriele Amorth, a real-life figure in the Catholic Church whose story, I’m sure, is more interesting than anything in this movie. He’s described in the movie’s advertising as “wisecracking,” but that’s a stretch. He offers a few dry remarks, plays some head games, makes some goofy noises, and is flippant with a review board, but I never felt that “wisecracking” was a particularly accurate descriptor. Maybe because I never found any of his “jokes” to be funny. The Pope (Franco Nero) sends Amorth to Spain to investigate the possession of young Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney). Henry, along with his mother (Alex Essoe) and sister (Laurel Marsden) just moved into an abandoned abbey, and soon enough the boy is hissing vulgarities and throwing around local priest Father Esquibel (Daniel Zovatto). Since the abbey is in Spain, it’s not hard to guess the dark secret of the house’s history. Supposedly nobody expects it, but I did. The literal demon forces Amorth and Esquibel to confront their figurative demons. Amorth feigned death during World War II and has survivor’s guilt. He also botched the treatment of a young woman in his care. Esquibel is guilty of something much sleazier if the demon is to be believed. I suppose these sins are necessary for character development so that we know these men are flawed, but the scenes of flashbacks and confessions just scream “padding the runtime” to me. How can a movie this short seem to take so long? Roger Ebert said that no good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough. I’ve seen some decent movies that could use some trimming (“John Wick: Chapter 4,” anyone?), but far fewer exceptions to the latter rule. Name a tired element of the exorcist genre, and it’s probably here. Veteran exorcist teaming up with a novice priest? Check. Possessed kid speaking in a voice that clearly isn’t theirs? Check. Crab walk? You know that’s a check. Head spinning around? It doesn’t do a 360-degree spin, but one does go backwards for a bit, so a faint check. Ineffective jump scares? Check, if the movie even thinks it’s doing jump scares. Lame finale with bad CGI and a lot of thrashing? I’d almost be disappointed if this movie got better in the last ten minutes and that wasn’t a check. “The Pope’s Exorcist” is a hacky horror movie with Oscar winner Crowe supposedly lending it credibility, though it really just makes me feel sorry for how far his star has fallen. It managed to make a meager $9 million at the weekend box office, getting dominated by “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” with nearly ten times that amount (that movie gets two more weekends to lay waste to everything in its path). You’d be better off giving your money to almost anything else, including fourth-place weekend finisher “Renfield, which has a few funny ideas and is at least good for a “C” grade. It’s hard to forgive this movie for wasting so much of my time. Grade: D “The Pope’s Exorcist” is rated R for violent content, language, sexual references and some nudity. Its running time is 103 minutes. Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu.

They seem to be everywhere in any town you drive through. Signs promoting the services of a local ‘TAROT CARD READER,’ ‘FORTUNE TELLER,’ and ‘PALM READER’ seem to be on every block. Look online and there are also the online psychics - the “Call me, and I’ll tell you your future” people. And don’t forget, most newspapers run daily horoscopes that are available to the ‘seekers.’ Evidently the practice of predicting the future has proved to be a lucrative business in our country. But why trust a person to predict your future, when they have to ask you your name? Shouldn’t a psychic already know it? What in the world is going on? Is there such a driving need in folks for inept and inaccurate predictions? Do they really have a burning desire to hand their money over to a person who claims to be able to see into their future and tell them what will happen? Don’t people already have enough bills to pay and money pits in their life that are sucking their cash into a black hole, never to be seen again? Are people simply so nervous and stressed out over what is coming down the pike that they are willing to grasp at those kinds of weak and illogical straws? People, I promise you on the authority of the Written Word of your Creator; There is a much more effective way of finding out what is coming in the future. You just have to be willing to read about it in Scripture. God says in the Bible that He has known for all of eternity what your life and mine is all about. The Almighty Creator has all life in the palm of His hand. And He clearly stated in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” That is His plan. But you certainly can derail, delay, and thwart His original plan for you, if you deliberately set your mind to the self-destruction that comes along with turning a blind eye to His will. It is up to you. You can choose to trust Him, even though you can’t see Him – kinda like the electricity for your house. Or, you can decide to find a self-professed reader-of-the-future to conjure up what they think might happen in your life. Or there is always the third option. You can get resentful and prideful, and choose to take matters into your own hands. Deciding that trust is for the birds, and begin creating your own future without any consideration as to what your Creator has in mind. But let me know how that works for you. Because in all my years of living on planet Earth, I have yet to see those two last options, that include ignoring the Creator, work out well in the end. But it really is your choice.

The Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum is hosting the Night on the Town event from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 6, 2023. Admission is $40 for online presale and $50 at the door. This event is for ages 21 and up. Night on the Town is perfect for couples planning a date night or individuals looking for a night out. With the purchase of admission, guests will receive a complimentary drink ticket and heavy hors d’oeuvres presented by the Tasty Side of Agriculture. While at the Museum, enjoy a special viewing on the big screen, dance to music, play yard games and go for a stroll through Small Town, Mississippi. Night on the Town is an outdoor event taking place rain or shine! This event is sponsored by the Mississippi Agriculture & Forestry Museum Foundation, Cathead Distillery and Southern Beverage. To purchase tickets online to the Night on the Town event, visit link. The Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum, located at 1150 Lakeland Drive in Jackson, is open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. For more information about the Museum, call 601-432-4500 or 1-800-844-8687, visit www.msagmuseum.org or visit the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum on Facebook. The Ag Museum is a division of the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce.

The Mississippi Museum of Art today announced 15 artists participating in the 2023 Mississippi Invitational exhibition, a survey of recent works created by contemporary visual artists living and working in the state. The exhibition will feature works across a variety of media by the following artists: Adrienne Brown-David, Water Valley Kwasi Butler, Brandon Brenden Davis, Jackson Adrienne Domnick, Jackson Rory Doyle, Cleveland Kariann Fuqua, Oxford Caroline Hatfield, Starkville Monica Hill, Jackson Sabrina Howard, Jackson James Kane, Water Valley Taylor Loftin, Water Valley Robin Martéa, Jackson M. Robyn Wall, Cleveland Hannah Wegner, Perkinston Brooke White, Oxford On view June 10 through September 17, 2023, this year’s Mississippi Invitational works were selected by guest curator Katie Pfohl, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts. “I am thrilled to work with the wonderful team at the Mississippi Museum of Art to create the 2023 Mississippi Invitational,” said Pfohl. From my seven years as a curator in New Orleans, I know the talent, depth, and thoughtfulness of artists in the Gulf South. I am honored to have this opportunity to continue a dialogue with artists from the region, and craft a project that responds to this moment in Mississippi’s history.” The art in this year’s Invitational reflects on the theme “Gulfs Among Us,” which confronts a world marked by social, political, cultural, and geographic divisions. The artwork in this exhibition responds to a series of ever-widening gulfs: between people and communities, humans and the environment, and our interior and exterior selves. These 15 artists from across Mississippi are united in envisioning how art can speak across and between divides. Invitational artists will be eligible to apply for The Jane Crater Hiatt Artist Fellowship—a grant of up to $20,000 awarded to one artist. The recipient will be announced during an opening reception on June 8. MMA Director Betsy Bradley said, “I continue to be excited and inspired by the artists in our state. The 2023 Mississippi Invitational, the thirteenth iteration of this exhibition series, will bring audiences together across our many divides. We are grateful to these artists to allow our community to feel more connected to each other.” A publication accompanying the exhibition will be available in The Museum Store. The Mississippi Invitational and its biennial exhibition, artist fellowship, and catalog are made possible with support from the Community Foundation for Mississippi/Jane Crater Hiatt Fund. About Katie Pfohl Katie A. Pfohl is a curator and writer who works to amplify the voices of artists, foster connections between communities, and create space to engage with the urgent issues of our time. Since July 2022, she has served as Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts. She was previously Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Some of her major projects included Mending the Sky (2020), which featured eleven artists responding to a world in distress, Bodies of Knowledge (2019), which invited artists to reflect on questions surrounding monuments and memory, Ear to the Ground (2019), which explored environmental activism in contemporary art, and Changing Course: Reflections on New Orleans Histories (2018), which focused on forgotten or marginalized histories of the city. In 2014, Pfohl completed her Ph.D. in art history at Harvard University, and in 2006 she participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York. Pfohl has also held positions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the LSU Museum of Art. About the Jane Crater Hiatt Artist Fellowship The Jane Crater Hiatt Artist Fellowship was created in 2005 by Jane Crater Hiatt and her late husband Wood (1930-2010) in response to the need to nurture and invigorate the arts within the state. The fellowship provides support to an individual artist in the development and creation of art over a two-year period. The funds may be used to purchase supplies and equipment, conduct research, or travel, and may be used for study with an individual artist or in a studio, workshop, or residency setting. Following the conclusion of the grant period, the artist is required to donate one original work of art, chosen from at least five works created during the grant period, to the Museum. Only artists whose work is selected for inclusion in the Mississippi Invitational exhibition are eligible to apply for the Fellowship in the year that their work is chosen. The recipient’s works should demonstrate the potential for significant artistic and cultural impact, as well as act as a catalyst for the development and realization of adventurous and imaginative ideas. The Jane Crater Hiatt Artist Fellowship is made possible by the Community Foundation for Mississippi/Jane Crater Hiatt Fund.

Mike Jones, a 1973 Co-Lin graduate from Madison, Mississippi, will be inducted into the Mississippi Community College Sports Hall of Fame on Tuesday, April 25 at the Hinds Community College Clyde Muse Center in Pearl. Jones graduated with an associate degree from Co-Lin, where he played baseball and basketball. He continued his education at Mississippi College, where he earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree. During his time on the Choctaw baseball team, he was named to All Conference. He returned to Co-Lin as the head basketball coach from 1985 to 1988 before taking the head basketball job at Mississippi College, where he remained for the rest of his career. He held the title of head basketball coach from 1988-2002 and 2006-2008. He also served as athletic director at MC from 2002-2006 and 2008-2021. Jones guided the Wolves to two National Junior College Athletic Association National Tournament appearances and was named MACCC Coach of the Year twice. His record during at Co-Lin was 112-20. At MC, he had a home winning streak from 1995-1999, won the 1995 Gulf South Conference Champions and had seven appearances in the NCAA Tournament. He was a three time American Southwest Conference Coach of the Year and a Five time ASC Champion. He posted an overall record at MC of 342-127. Of all his years coaching, Jones favorite were the two years he was able to coach his grandson, Zach Jones, at MC. Jones was inducted into the Co-Lin Hall of Fame in 1996, the Mississippi College Hall of Fame in 2002, and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2018. Jones and his wife, Jane, have two children, Michael Jones, Jr., and Amanda Rae Jones Sisson (Taylor) and six grandchildren -- Zach Jones, 23, Ansley Jones, 19, Will Jones, 16, Charlotte Jane Sisson, 10, Rhett Sisson, 7, and Ward Sisson, 4.

Painter and sculptor Edith Lotterhos, born in 1888, was the only daughter of well-known merchant Augustus Lotterhos and his wife Magdalene Lieb. Her father and his family came from Germany to the U.S., arriving by boat at New Orleans, later settling in Crystal Springs, while other members of his family chose Summit. Meliora “Ora” Newton Gibson, the Crystal Springs painter, and well-known artist Marie Hull taught Lotterhos, who also cultivated her art skills and made long-lasting friends at several colleges, receiving her primary education at Newton Female Institute, graduating from Mississippi Synodical College, a Presbyterian school at Holly Springs in 1909, earning a certification to teach kindergarten from Newcomb College at Tulane in 1914 and making other educational stops at the University of Chicago and the University of California at Berkley. In the 1920s. Lotterhos joined the Mississippi Art Association, became an active member and started exhibiting her works. The Municipal Art Gallery (known as the “Clubhouse”), which opened in 1929, honored her as its first artist as a lone exhibitor, displaying 60 of her oil and watercolor paintings, nine handmade and cast pottery pieces and an assortment of clay modeling, basketry and hand-painted china. She would go on to win many ribbons, honors and prizes over the years, along with a cousin, Helen J. Lotterhos, also known as an outstanding artist. Lotterhos participated in the Crystal Springs Floral Club, Southern States Art League, New Orleans Art Association and the Arts and Crafts Club of New Orleans. On one occasion, she hosted a Crystal Spring Floral Club Original Day at her home in which local authors competed for an engraved silver loving cup with their name, and Flo Hampton’s “Preachin’ All Day” received the grand prize. She exhibited in New Orleans on several occasions, mostly displaying works in which flowers around her Georgetown Street home in Crystal Springs were the subjects – wisteria, japonicas, black-eyed Susans and petunias. Foregoing marriage, Lotterhos took care of her father until 1945 and painted in their old home in Crystal Springs following her mother’s death in 1920. Lotterhos died in 1965, and her family’s old home, which had withered over the years, was torn down in 1972 to make way for expansion of the Methodist Church. Lotterhos is buried under a simple marker with the word “Artist” with her parents in Crystal Springs Cemetery. Her works are scattered, with a few, such as “Camellias” and “Chrystanthemums,” in the hands of Mississippi collectors. EDITOR’S NOTE: Throughout the 2023 Copiah County Bicentennial year, Wesson News will feature sketches of past and present visual artists, musicians, authors and photographers who are natives of the county.They will be excerpted from Tricia Nelson’s reporting in A Shared History:Copiah County, Mississippi 1823-2023 edited and compiled by Paul C. Cartwright and available through Cartwright for $25 plus $5 for shipping at 3 Waverly Circle, Hattiesburg, MS 39402.Nelson is a Crystal Springs writer who contributes to the Copiah County Monitor

The weather is altering the plans for the Moonlight, Music and Meteors event. With the thunderstorms on Friday comes a cold front. So not only is Friday rained out, the cold front is dropping the temperature to below 65 degrees during the performance time of the original “rainy day plan date” the Sunday April 23. This means the Symphony’s instruments will not function well, and we are rescheduling the event entirely. The new date for the event will be Friday, May 19th . Saturday May 20th will be the “rainy day plan date”. The times will remain the same: 7:30pm-10pm Imagine a night under the stars with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra (MSO)! Guests may also visit with area physicists, astronomers, and NASA Solar System Ambassadors during the Lyrid meteor shower! “Moonlight, Music, and Meteors” will be held on April 21, 2023 from 7:30 p.m. - 10 p.m. at “The Den” in beautiful LeFleur’s Bluff State Park. Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets. Tickets are available for $20 at the door or in advance for $15 until Noon on April 20 at https://bit.ly/moonlightmusicmeteors. Concessions will be available (not included with admission). “We are delighted to provide a creative program of music from Star Wars, Apollo 13, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park to enrich an evening of star and planet-gazing. We look forward to exploring the cross-section of MSO and the Museum’s missions,” said MSO Maestro Crafton Beck. This collaborative event between the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (MDWFP), MDWFP’s Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (MMNS), the MMNS Foundation, and the MSO is supported in part by funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. “We are grateful for our partners and their support in helping us offer our community a unique evening under the stars that’s fun for the whole family!” said MDWFP Deputy Administrator Angel Rohnke. “We can always count on the MDWFP to provide quality programming for our community. This is a wonderful opportunity for families to engage their senses of sight and sound, embrace nature, and feel the wonder of music. The partnership that made this event possible speaks to the heart of collective ambition of shared interests and values to improve the quality of life for our citizens and visitors,” said Visit Jackson President & CEO Rickey Thigpen, PhD. For more information, visit www.mdwfp.com/museum or call (601) 576-6000. Follow us at www.facebook.com/msnaturalscience, www.instagram.com/MSScienceMuseum, and www.twitter.com/MSScienceMuseum.

By Guest Columnist Kayla Dowden I’m a fan of whatever plants happens to be in bloom at any given time, but sunflowers are definitely one of my top five favorites, especially for use in arrangements. Last summer, I decided I wanted to have sunflowers every week until frost. I got a little bit of a late start, then scorching June temperatures and several torrential downpours in July got me way off track. But with determination, fresh seeds and just a little planning, I was able to harvest sunflowers every week for about 10 weeks until Nov. 1. I live in northeast Mississippi right on the line between U.S. Department of Agriculture cold hardiness zones 7b and 8a, so my growing season is well over 200 days long. That gives me plenty of time to grow sunflowers. My favorite sunflower variety is ProCut Horizon. I love this series because they mature in 50-60 days, have very dependable germination and are pollenless. That means they don’t make a mess of your tabletop when you use them for arrangements. Whether you want to have sunnies (because it’s just more fun to call them that) all the way to frost or you just want to have an abundant supply throughout the summer, the process is the same. Most sunflowers bloom in about 50 days, but it’s a good idea to check the number of days to bloom for the variety you want to plant. Then find out when the first and last frost dates are for your area. I find this information online at the “Farmers’ Almanac.” My first frost date for 2023 is approximately Nov. 4, and the last frost for my area is approximately March 29. We know to never plant anything before Good Friday lest our grandmothers bring their switches out. I want to have sunflowers for as long as possible, so I will start my first round of Procut sunflowers March 27. I hope to have sunflowers in bloom by mid-May for this growing season. I already have seeds, but you can find Procut sunflowers from any reputable online seed retailer. I sow mine in a 72-cell tray with a moist seed-starter mix. I have grow lights, but I find natural light works just as well. Cover the seeds with soil, place them in a sunny area of your home, and keep them moist until germination. Normally, I let the seedlings grow in these trays for 8 days, which means the first round will be ready to go in the ground April 4. Even though this is technically after my last frost date, I will probably wait until April 7 for good measure and to stay out of trouble. When one round goes in the ground, I plant another round in trays right behind them. I continue this every week for as long as I have seeds or garden space. Count backward 60 days from the first frost date to let you know when to stop planting new seeds and setting out seedlings. I will stop setting out new plants around September 5. I pop my 8- to 10-day-old seedlings in the ground 6 inches apart. With just a little care, they will take off and you’ll be harvesting sunflowers in approximately 50 days. You can definitely sow sunflower seeds directly in the ground, but I have found that birds and mice love them and will stop at nothing to dig up your hard work. By putting in a little effort up front and starting them in trays, it’s less frustrating later when you were supposed to have sunflowers and have nothing. I hope you have a summer full of sunnies! EDITOR’S NOTE: Kayla Dowden is a Mississippi State University Extension Service agent in Monroe County and a Southern Gardening guest columnist. Locate Southern Gardening products online at http://extension.msstate.edu/shows/southern-gardening.

By Bob Garver It’s weird when a super-low-budget cult movie like 1981’s “The Evil Dead” gets a well-funded sequel. So many elements are bound to be better with a properly-paid crew of professionals, as opposed to amateurs with a scraped-together budget. The 1981 film cost $350,000, though I’d believe you if you told me it never got beyond five digits. “Evil Dead Rise” cost $19 million, and it looks like a perfectly-competent modern horror movie. But that’s exactly the problem with this movie, it rarely rises above the level of “competent.” The original undeniably did some things that were less than competent, but it wouldn’t have had the flavor that gave it success (and warranted this update) if it didn’t. The new film starts with an homage to the original as we get a fast-paced first-person perspective of a trip around a campsite. Turns out there’s nothing otherworldly about it, it’s just a drone controlled by a prankster. We’re soon introduced to an uninteresting group of young adults. One of them has been in bed all day, clearly affected by… something. Things go south and thankfully we’re soon introduced to an entirely new set of characters. I’m grateful that this opening was a fake-out, but I could have done without it at all. My guess is that it “had” to be included so the movie could claim it has a campsite scene (the setting of the original) whether it needs one or not. The new characters are a struggling family in a dilapidated apartment in Los Angeles. Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) is doing her best to raise her kids, Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), and Kassie (Nell Fisher) without her absentee husband. Her sister Beth (Lily Sullivan) comes to visit, and is happy to pitch in, but she’s struggling with problems of her own. Things go from bad to worse when an earthquake hits. Everyone’s okay, and there may even be a silver lining in the form of a cracked-open bank vault just below the building. Bridget warns Danny not to steal from the vault, but he thinks a certain old book he finds might be worth something. Too bad this book is… The Book of the Dead! Fans of any incarnation of “Evil Dead” know what’s coming. One by one, characters are turned into the possessed demons/zombies known as “Deadites.” The Deadites have the ability to sound like the normal versions of the people they’ve possessed, but that’s just a ruse to trick other characters into opening themselves up to attacks and possession. Characters have to make tough decisions about who they can save and who they need to kill. And it’s all incredibly gory. The scares are relatively effective. We get some nice long shots of characters in gruesome makeup, where a lesser movie wouldn’t let us get a good look, lest we have time to register that the effects are shoddy. The movie has some creative ideas for violence, though it’s hard to not be taken out of the movie by the thought of how badly the filmmakers wanted an excuse to use certain weapons. There’s also a typical-by-today’s-standards overreliance on quiet tension and jump scares, as if the Deadites are being dramatic on purpose. I know they’re into manipulation, but they’re not great at capitalizing on the element of surprise, so they’re basically doing it for the film’s audience and not their intended victims. If “Evil Dead Rise” were really bad, it would be easy to trash it and say that it couldn’t be as effective with $19 million as the original was with $350,000. It’s not bad enough to warrant that kind of dismissal. The actors are doing their best to give breakout performances, and the teams in charge of the violence and gore effects are clearly having a blast. But it’s also too bland for me to say that I was ever really enjoying myself. I guess the kind of charisma I need in a horror movie is something money can’t buy. Grade: C “Evil Dead Rise” is rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, and some language. Its running time is 97 minutes. Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu.