VisitSouth.com is looking for a New Insider!

by MaryAnne Gragg | June 25, 2010

VisitSouth.com is hiring a New Insider!

Are you the person everyone turns to for the latest information on what’s new in town or where to take out-of-town visitors?

Are you passionate about writing, the Web, and social media and always eager to enhance your skills?

Then we invite you to apply to join our team of local Insiders at VisitSouth.com, the premiere southern travel web site. VisitSouth.com brings a personal touch to …

Hill Country Backroads Oxford, MS

Riding the roads of Oxford's famous writers

by Leah McCormick | May 16, 2010

Oxford is smack dab in the middle of  the "hill country," famous for serving as home for a slew of famous writers like William Faulkner, Larry Brown, and Barry Hannah. Brown, in particular, was noted for his love of family, farming, and hill-country land. You'll only have to take a short drive, east of Oxford on Hwy 334 to visit his old stomping grounds.

You'll pass through communities named Yocona and …

John W. Kyle State Park, Oxford, MS

Make memories while you get away and get back to nature.

by Leah McCormick | May 12, 2010

John W. Kyle State Park, located just 25 miles from Oxford, is the perfect locale for fishing, camping, hiking, golf and all sorts of water activities.

The Park is situated in the middle of Sardis Lake, the largest man-made reservoir in the state with a recreational pool that covers over 32,000 acres; it’s also a man-made heaven for sports enthusiasts with hiking and bicycle trails, golfing, tennis and volleyball.

Serenity, Oxford, MS

Prepare to be pampered in the heart of historic, downtown Oxford.

by Leah McCormick | May 04, 2010

I’d barely crossed the threshold of Serenity, aptly named for its glorious body treatments, when the receptionist asked, “Would you like a glass of red wine or hot herbal tea before your pedicure?”

These are my people.

“My people” also put the C in customer service, and the royal treatment continued as I was escorted to an enormous, remote-controlled massage chair complete with a raised, heated, foot jacuzzi. More importantly, I …

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Oxford, MS

150 years of service to the Oxford community on the corner of Jackson and 9th

by David Molina | April 01, 2010

Though the congregation was formed in 1851, the first services at the completed St. Peter’s Episcopal Church building were held on Easter Day, April 8, 1860—a few days shy of 150 years from this Sunday’s Easter services. Quite the sesquicentennial for the oldest religious structure in Oxford. (St. Peter’s survived the burning of Oxford during the Civil War.)

Architecturally, St. Peter’s is one of the first things you come across as you approach …

Rowan Oak, Oxford, MS

The place William Faulkner called home: beautiful grounds for a literary legacy

by David Molina | March 30, 2010

I knew about Rowan Oak long before I came to Mississippi. My high school English teacher, the read-Catcher-in-the-Rye-and-Confederacy-of-Dunces-for-the-first-time, take-Dead-Poet’s-Society-and-John-Updike’s-poetry-seriously kind of English teacher, was a Faulkner buff (evidenced by the various Faulkner character lineages scattered around the room). Somewhere between dragging us through “Barn Burning,” “The Bear,” and The Sound and the Fury, he would detour discussion to make reference to (or reiterate) the time he made a summer road trip …

Double Decker Arts Festival in Oxford, MS

A day-long celebration of music, food, and the arts on Saturday, April 24th

by David Molina | March 22, 2010

Places in Mississippi that are also other places, a selection: Rome, Carthage, Louisville, Lexington, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Oxford. And while I’m not sure exactly how the others got their name, I know about the last one: Oxford was established in 1835 in the hopes of attracting the not-yet-established state university, and with this in mind was named after the city that hosts the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world.

In a …

Oxford Maker’s Market, Oxford, MS

Bi-monthly market dedicated to local art and underexposed artists

by David Molina | March 05, 2010

There are few Oxford experiences more satisfying than a Saturday afternoon spent wandering around the Square. Weather permitting, of course. Thankfully, it seems that we’re approaching the end of what’s been a notably cold and precipitation-heavy winter (e.g. it’s been the first year that I’ve known the University of Mississippi to close or close early due to weather, and this happened a handful of times in January and February). While we still have mind-boggling and …

The University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS

A beautiful campus, rich with history and academic achievement

by David Molina | March 02, 2010

The University of Mississippi, known to many as “Ole Miss,” is an institution that seems to have been situated at the crossroads of history since its establishment in 1848. Just thirteen years after its founding, the University shut down temporarily as nearly all of its students enlisted in the Confederate Army; the Lyceum, academic/administrative centerpiece of the University grounds, was used as a military hospital; Chancellor Barnard left after …

Downtown Inn, Oxford, MS

Accommodating rooms and suites in an unbeatable location.

by David Molina | February 27, 2010

Location, location, location. Little difficulty in connecting the real estate mantra with the interests of a traveler. Proximity and ease of access is as crucial to building experience as it is to building, well, buildings. And, quite simply: there is hardly a better option for being better situated when visiting Oxford than the Downtown Inn, which sits just north of the Square, at the intersection North Lamar and Jefferson.

A mere stone’s throw …

Travel Guide to Oxford, MS

Why you should visit Oxford, Mississippi

by David Molina | February 22, 2010

For the visitor, Oxford’s initial draw may come with the season, athletic or climatic: Winter brings basketball and the Film Festival; spring brings baseball, crawfish, and Double Decker; summer brings more baseball, more crawfish, and various blues festivals and picnics; fall brings, well, football.

However, regardless of what brings you here, visiting Oxford is about visiting Oxford, first and foremost. Meaning not a particular event, not a particular shopping area …

Celebrating Mardi Gras in Oxford, MS

In case you haven't convinced yourself to make the five-hour drive to the Big Easy

by David Molina | February 08, 2010

Judging from the ample parking space on campus this Super Bowl morning-after, much of Oxford is already in New Orleans—certainly in spirit if not yet in body. And—as the colors of celebration shift from black and gold to purple, green, and gold—each day closer to February 16 brings more and more reason to take a couple days, skip town, and get to some serious revelry. As for me, I’m sure I’m not alone in the should-have-been-in-New-Orleans-for-the-Super-Bowl …

Oxford Film Festival, Oxford, MS

Local film festival celebrating seven years of great film

by David Molina | February 05, 2010

Today Oxford’s been cold and gray; tomorrow looks to be the same. Yesterday was all rain. There’s hardly better weather to find escape from in the half-light of a movie theater. And, given that there seems to be rather thin box office offerings as we enter the window between Oscar nominations and the award ceremony, there’s hardly better timing for the Oxford Film Festival.

Now in its seventh year, the festival will be showing …

Library Sports Bar, Oxford, MS

Without a doubt, the best all-around sports bar in the area

by David Molina | February 01, 2010

The novelty of a bar/club in Oxford being named “The Library” is short-lived.  So, perhaps, is the apocryphal story that the name derives from the founder’s desire to give undergrads a dog-ate-my-homework excuse when the parents saw the bill (as in: “Those are just crazy late fees”). Which is fine, because the Library Sports Bar  (120 South 11th Street, Oxford) itself is no mere novelty; on top of being the southwesternly anchor of the Square’s nightlife, …

High Point Coffee, Oxford, MS

Locally owned, locally roasted, locally brewed.

by David Molina | January 28, 2010

It’s just an hour after the end of the workday, and most of the tables and comfy chairs at High Point Coffee have filled up.  Just north of the Square, adjacent to the atrium of the Oxford Square North building (265 North Lamar Boulevard, Oxford), High Point is—in the evening or on weekend—a place where minutes separate the likelihood of a quick order or a long, arm-crossing line. This past Saturday I kept turning to get …

Amelia’s, Oxford, MS

Vintage-inspired and craft-minded shopping on the Square

by David Molina | January 18, 2010

When talking to Erin Austen Abbott about her life, it seems that all signs point to opening up a place like Amelia’s.  Even though she’s moved around quite a lot (Erin says that her residence in nearby Water Valley has been the longest she’s ever lived in one house, including childhood), Erin’s always seemed to have gravitated towards the crossroads of local music and local art, and always seemed to have had a taste for the …

James Meredith Monument, Oxford, MS

A testament to generations of conflict and change

by David Molina | January 12, 2010

The very grounds of the University of Mississippi hold histories—sometimes in conflict, always in conversation; histories that fold into themselves, become their own commentaries, ironies, revisions. Like the rings of an old tree—this year rain, this year fire, this year drought—except a tree cut with the burden of history—this is the stained glass window for the University Grays, this is the observatory without a telescope, this is the Confederate graveyard, these are the bullet holes in …

Square Books, Oxford, MS

An Oxford institution: cultivating community for over thirty years.

by David Molina | January 10, 2010

There is little new I can add to the praise that Square Books has merited since its establishment 1979 (and since 1986 at its current location in the old Blaylock Drug Store). It is quite simply one of the best bookstores I’ve ever frequented, and its offerings are reason enough to visit Oxford: an outstanding selection of books, with ample locale-sensitive offerings in Southern Studies, Mississippiana, Faulkner/ Faulkner-related texts, and local authors (Barry Hannah, …

Southern Star Yoga, Oxford, MS

Find health and peace of mind seven days a week at the only complete yoga center in town

by David Molina | January 05, 2010

I have always been impressed by the ability of yoga studios to evoke a sense of calm detachment, especially in contrast to what must be left in entering them. And yet, it is one thing to bear witness to meditative departure when that’s what you’re showing up for (with payment, no less); it is quite another thing when you’re struck by it unexpectedly—while wandering around town in search of an exercise-related story to write about, for …

New Year’s Eve at Ajax in Oxford, MS

Ring in the New Year with local music on the Square

by David Molina | December 30, 2009

For those in Oxford looking to watch the ball drop, options are relatively limited. Spring semester at Ole Miss doesn’t start until late January, and although many students take advantage of intersession classes offered for the two weeks prior, most seem to stay home or gravitate towards city-generated crowds to usher in the New Year. Myself included: I’ll be heading back from Cleveland via Chicago, where I’ll pop open a bottle of bubbly and sing “Auld …

Bottletree Bakery, Oxford, MS

A bakery serving breakfast and lunch in an atmosphere of folk art and local charm

by David Molina | December 23, 2009

On many levels, the scene at Bottletree Bakery is an inviting assortment: an impressive array of folk art on the walls, a frenzy of familiar-faced sandwich makers and coffee pourers behind the counter, and an enticing range of freshly prepared baked goods in the display case.  On the whole, each aspect of Bottletree evokes an homage to the slightly off-kilter, the eclectic—with a casual, almost implicit resolve of a unifying theme.

Established in 1995 by Cynthia …

Hot Toddy at City Grocery, Oxford, MS

Stay warm with a winter cocktail that's a local favorite

by David Molina | December 19, 2009

Don’t let anyone tell you that Mississippi doesn’t get cold in the winter. Now, it’s rarely an inches-of-snow, highs-in-the-single-digits time of the year, but there’s nothing sweltering about frost in the morning and light flurries all day. Winter in Oxford brings, as it does most other places, heavier layers, emptier balconies, and—in the interests of this post—warmer cocktails.

Prior to researching for this piece, I’d never tried a hot toddy. I’d always noticed that the teacups …

Holiday Lights on the Square, Oxford, MS

Bustling holiday shopping by day, sleepy Yuletide glow by night

by David Molina | December 15, 2009

Oxford undergoes significant transformation as it approaches the holidays. Classes at the University break until late January, and the relative absence of students is hard to miss in the wake of a triumphant and/or tragic Ole Miss football season (this last season ultimately leaned more towards the latter, I'm afraid) and the anxious flurry of exams and final papers. So, by mid-December the Square is eerily calm in the evenings, with unhindered access to dinner reservations and …