Filed under: people, Birmingham, AL, music venues, current events, MySpace, News Media (as source & subject), Civic Engagement, Bottletree Cafe, B'ham social events, Birmingham art galleries, art, Chicago, Ensley, AL, Cities, Birmingham Alabama, music, The Birmingham Sound, Wikipedia, Pepper Place, Reg's Coffee House, Pine Magazine, plays, Alabama Dance Council
There are several things to do in the coming weeks for those that have a love for Birmingham, Alabama and the Jones Valley region. We’re going to take a quick look at a couple of them coming up this weekend.
“See Block City” opening tonight!
Charles Buchanan’s newest show “See Block City” will have its opening reception this weekend at Naked Art Gallery (located at 3815 Clairmont Avenue). The show, running until February 3, consists of more than 150 pieces that showcase his artistic expression of his love of old signs, architecture and design. There will be two events this weekend as always; tonight’s reception is from 5-9 p.m.; Saturday’s is a tea time affair with freshly baked goods from 1-6 p.m. Click here to read a recent article on the artist courtesy of Pine Magazine.
The 2007 Alabama Dance Festival is this weekend!
The 10th annual event is sponsored by the Alabama Dance Council allowing several area dance companies, and one from Chicago (River North Chicago Dance Company) to invade area theaters over the weekend. Please click here to learn more about the event from the host organization’s website.
“The Birmingham Sound” returns to Bottletree tomorrow night!
Those that attended the CD release party for “The Birmingham Sound” were not disappointed in September. Click here to see some images from the event. Well, it’s back for another round. Roscoe Robinson, Birmingham’s “Soul Queen” Roszetta Johnson (recently featured on the Magic City Music Sampler we wrote about here) and Leon McMillan will be filling the Bottletree and the east side of Birmingham, Alabama with the sounds of soul starting at 9 p.m. on Saturday.
Don’t forget to pick up tix for Reg’s Coffee House’s 10th Anniversary concert
Yes, the tickets go on sale Saturday morning beginning at 10 a.m. It will be a celebration of Scott Register’s weekly show being on the air, and now syndicated, for 10 years. Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit his favorite local charity, the Greater Birmingham Human Society. Visit his MySpace page and click on the Tickets on Sale blog post for additional information.
Boston Marriage starts up tonight as well!
A word of warning, you may find it difficult to get a parking spot near Rojo this evening. This would be due to an extremely large celebration of birthdays taking place there (all of whom are Capricorns). We’ve already highlighted one of the celebrators, Mr. Buchanan. Another one, Jill Marlar, is one of the actors in the most recent presentation from the Terrific New Theatre. Click here to learn more about “Boston Marriage”, by David Mamet and it’s current engagement here in the Magic City. Click here to learn more about the term.
Two more things:
First, I’d love to hear some of your answers to the question posed in yesterday’s post. Just wonder what some people are willing to do this year.
Second, I’d also like to throw out a last minute ask for a couple of volunteers for tomorrow morning. I’ll be taking down the bows put up for the Christmas holiday in Ensley and would love to have two or three more people to come out and help. If you’re interested, send me a note at acnatta@gmail.com. I promise that it will take less than two hours to complete this task if you’re interested.
That’s all for now. We’ll cover the festivities for Dr. King’s birthday this weekend.
Enjoy the day.
Cheers.
Filed under: B'ham social events, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Birmingham, AL, Civic Engagement, Civil Rights, Commentary, current events, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Social commentary, urban issues, yp events
With all of the focus on the Birmingham Museum of Art’s successful Art on the Rocks series, some folks would forget that there are other venues and events for people to get together and mingle. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute provides an opportunity for stimulating dialogue in our community and around the world throughout the year. Tomorrow evening (July 13), the Institute encourages young professionals to look at civil rights issues from the past and present with the start of its second season of Sixteenth & Sixth. The event’s name not only represents the location of the Institute, but the location of one of the sites normally considered as a birthplace for the Civil Rights movement in America, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
During a recent interview on a local television station, a member of BCRI speaking on behalf of the institute about the event stated that the Institute is not just a Black thing. It isn’t, and possibly making more people aware of events and discussions similar to what will most likely happen tomorrow evening will allow us to work towards removing some of those crazier stereotypes in our society. It is a difficult task, but one that must be accomplished in order for this city to move forward.
Running away from one’s past is not the best solution. It appears as though recently we have been trying to do that often in the area. Wade recently posted about some current examples. Real conversation is needed. So maybe we should do as the logo says for the series: speak. drink. mix. Bydoing that, we’ll start CHANGING some perspectives and EXPLORING ways to make our society better.
Cheers.
Filed under: Birmingham, AL, current events, music venues, MySpace, Savannah College of Art and Design, SCAD, The Rambles, urban issues
I’m proud to be an alumnus of the Savannah College of Art and Design, (though I know some of the people that know me would question the extent of that statement at times). It is definitely a different institution from the one where I began college. The college has more than tripled in size, both in terms of students and facilities. While this may have changed the rate of interaction among students of different majors on campus, it does provide a chance for alum to support each other and current students in their endeavors, and there are a lot of SCAD alumni in metro Birmingham. One SCAD grad and one current student are having events come up in the next seven days, giving you a chance to see just how crazy all of us art students are.
I’ve already written about Christopher Davis (BFA, graphic design, 1997) and the Feminist Debutante Guild’s show next Saturday. Click here and scroll down to view the post with that information. I learned about the other one after reading 3choboomer’s blog yesterday. Click here to view the details for that event, though they’re still sketchy. It sounds like it could be a lot of fun for $5 tonight at Sloss Furnaces.
While we’re talking about showing support…
Artwalk’s Brewhaha takes place this evening in Five Points South at the local Starbucks. This month’s artist is Trés Taylor. This month the artist assisted other artists (members of the Ticking Family) in completing the work. Click here to read the brief in this week’s Birmingham Weekly to learn more about this family and the twist on this month’s event to benefit them.
MySpace starts getting corporate
I was stumbling online during lunch yesterday and found this Ad Age article reporting that Seventeen was the first magazine to sign an official promo deal with MySpace. The article went on to say that it was the first print publication to have a MySpace page. Now, I’m not sure why they would say that when regional magazines such as Paste and Mental Floss have had pages for months. I do not believe that they have official deals; however their growing list of friends would have to be noticed by the guys over at MySpace. They have developed their pages to satisfy the needs of their fan base and have several “friends” as a result, of all ages. While there are people that have been concerned about the future of MySpace due to News Corporation’s ownership, this is the first time that the company has made changes that will be pointed to as a change in direction and priorities. Let’s hope that it will not change how resourceful this site has become, despite its being abused by others.
#2 According to Salary.com’s Salary Index Study
People who doubt that there are positive things going on in the region should take a look at a recent report written about by TechBirmingham’s Curtis Palmer on his blog earlier this week. Click here to read the post. Seems that we’re #2 (something that people may not believe at first, until you work your way down Curtis’ post). As more things like this are made public and reported, maybe some of the perceptions of the city and region held by residents will hopefully change. And CHANGE appears to be the word of the moment and the word that needs to be focused on.
Dre’s taking a break
Enjoy the weekend and the holiday. The site will take care of itself (posts will be made) while I’m off somewhere for the next few days (you’ll see what I mean next week). I am also going to add a link that will allow e-mail subscriptions to the site this weekend, for those that want delivery of content that way. Have a happy and safe 4th & I’ll see you on the other side.
And keep both this family and this woman relevant.
Cheers.
Filed under: Birmingham, AL, other cities, urban issues, music venues, city stages, current events, Blogging, Commentary, B'ham social events, cultural institutions, My Birmingham, AL, Cities, Birmingham Alabama, music, Charleston, Birmingham, The Terminal, bhamterminal.com/citystages/
It’s crazy how much can change in a year. Last year I was squeezing in a trip to the Unplugged stage at the Harbert Plaza between lunch and traveling out to the city’s west side to go to meeting (while I was still on crutches mind you) as City Stages 18 was just getting started.
One year later I’m healthy but sleep deprived and figuring out just when I’m going to find time to actually buy my ticket to what was once referred to as Birmingham’s block party. I’m going this year, more out of sentimentality than anything else, but also because of this site:
http://bhamterminal.com/citystages/
It’s my first attempt to do a “special section” in The Terminal, and it’s sort of a test to see if viral marketing can in fact work. There are some other things that are about to happen that aren’t that viral, but this is a test to see if a site can make even a small difference in a conversation. Pass it on if you have a chance. Or at least check it out yourself.
I realize now that when I started blogging I did it so that my voice could be heard. I also realize that most that blog have something to complain about, thus it provides a great platform since you get instant feedback and a chance to argue your own point. My problem is that I always want to try to provide something positive (or sarcastic to cut down on the cynicism). Makes it a little difficult.
I realized months ago when City Stages began asking for help, I was thinking about the old days as an outsider. I was told recently that I probably shouldn’t consider myself one, but knowing the ways of the South, I will be for some time. I still approached it as someone that sees the potential of a festival like it being “fixed” and “saved”. I also realized that I wasn’t taking that positive approach in part because I was thinking about what my future was going to be. Now that I’ve had a chance to have some things slow down, I realized that I was not necessarily around all sides of an issue like I normally try to be. Now, I’ve got some thoughts: (more…)