Filed under: Birmingham, AL, Mass Transit, Photographs, Sustainable Development, The Rambles, Transportation, transit, urban issues
The city of Birmingham is served by the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority, known by many citizens by its much shorter name, MAX (Metro Area Express). MAX operates the largest bus system in the state of Alabama and recently updated its website to better serve its customers The new site appears to be quite user friendly. There are hundreds of metro area residents that would take the time here to talk about how bad the transit system is and of the ways that we need to improve it. I believe a better issue to point out to the community is a service offered by MAX that is not mentioned at all on its new site and should be.
For those not familiar with the area, Birmingham’s had ozone problems in the past. Click here to view the latest ozone alert level courtesy of our county department of health. Whenever the county’s ozone level reaches a point that is deemed unhealthy, several things are done throughout the region. Notices are placed on electronic signs located on our major interstates. Our local newspaper places a small box at the upper right hand corner of the front page of the paper informing residents of the air quality levels for that day. Local news broadcasts’ weather segments include the current air quality level. A look at the front of some of our buses would provide another source of notification; a red flag with a white hole in the middle. A closer look would show that because of the ozone alert, the fare on the bus for the day is 25 cents! That’s right, one quarter! The question is, at that point is it too late to catch all of the people that would consider riding the bus, as they’re walking to their cars getting ready to drive to work? Wouldn’t it make more sense to place this information on the website to encourage riding the bus?
Filed under: 70s film, Birmingham AL restaurants, Birmingham, AL, Photographs, Random shots, Sunflowers, films, urban farms, urban parks
This sunflower is enjoying the good life. It’s growing across the street from the site of phase 2 of the Park Place development in the city center. Come this Sunday (July 15th), it will be hanging out inside someone’s home. That’s when Jones Valley Urban Farm is hosting its First Annual Sunflower Harvest Block Party at the Gardens of Park Place. Click here to view JVUF’s homepage to see additional information about the park and the event.
In case you can’t wait until Sunday to enjoy yourselves, we’ll start listing some events going on throughout the week. Apparently Steak Verhoeven are presenting a 1970s American Film Retrospective at Rojo beginning tonight at 7 p.m. and admission is FREE. Check out some of your favorite films from the 70s (or at least those that you enjoy that you know were made in the 70s). Click here to view a PDF providing some background as to why they’re doing it. In case you don’t want to read all that, here’s the list of movies (and thanks to Arik Sokol for the heads up:
Date, Movie, Year Released, Director
July 11: McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) Robert Altman
July 18: Scarecrow (1973) Jerry Schatzberg
July 25: Means Streets (1973) Martin Scorcese
August 1: Electra Glide in Blue (1973) James William Guercio
August 8: The Phantom of the Paradise (1974) Brian De Palma
August 15: Shampoo (1975) Hal Ashby
August 22: Network (1976) Sidney Lumet
August 29: Jaws (1975) Steven Spielberg
There’s more going on. Check out the activeculture.info link to the right to see some of the options.
Enjoy the day.
Cheers.
Filed under: Birmingham AL restaurants, Birmingham, AL, Bottletree Cafe, Comedy, Feminist Debutante Guild, Photographs, Random shots, Uncategorized
The vacation is over, and some fun was had. Check out yesterday’s post to see the ferocious animal that helped keep me from blogging over the past week. When Boomer did let me out of the house, much laughing ensued, including laughs at this past Saturday’s Feminist Debutante Guild show at WorkPlay (and yes, this is their MySpace page, a la our continuing focus here to point out the online revolution taking place). Christmas in July was quite funny with puppets, spit takes, visitors from California, spit takes… (you get the idea).
Our own local scene, with regular performances around town including Fresh Ground Comics at Safari Cup Coffee and the national and regional acts being booked at the Bottletree Café and Lounge, should keep us rolling in the aisles for some time to come. And those are merely the ones that are being spoken of the most nowadays. It’s definitely a great way to unwind from our fast paced world, with imposed deadlines and rushing from one place to another.
I do have some pictures available from the show in this gallery. Hopefully the Fem Debs will not take so long between shows in the future.
BTW, I’ve also added a couple of new things here on the site. Right click here to subscribe to my new RSS feed. You may also click on the link to your right that allows for subscribing to an e-mail feed of the site. Considering I hate being spammed or sent crazy messages, the only reason your e-mail would be used would be if I wanted to warn you of another vacation from posting, or something else along those lines. And you can always e-mail me some story ideas or suggestions for neon signs and the like.
Take your pick. We’ll see you tomorrow.
Cheers.
P.S. Don’t forget about keeping the searches for Lori and the Martin family relevant.
We’ll celebrate our nation’s 230th birthday with fireworks, barbecues and parties on Tuesday night. Let’s take a second to take a look at the document that best represents what we’re celebrating, Our Declaration of Independence, courtesy of our country’s National Archives website. Take a look and take a moment.
Enjoy the holiday, and remember to keep Lori and the Martins relevant.
Cheers.
Click here if you wish to subscribe to the Ramblings via e-mail.
I’m one of those individuals that always look for the bright side of a story. I blame my years at SCAD and working for the student paper and community weekly for that bias, though it is one that has definitely served me well as time has gone on. It is also a great thing for people to have available to them, especially at this point and time where we enjoy focusing on the negative as much as we do without thinking about solutions. This blog has shifted focus tremendously in recent months from more opinion pieces about issues going on in the area to one that looks at events and issues taking place. In both cases, it still meets the overall goal; taking a look at things that makes life a little easier to live around here. Just let me know if there’s anything you want to see here.
One interesting thing about this metro area is their love of giving. Even more interesting is the things that are tried to increase giving while having a good time. An upcoming example of this is the 20th Annual Junior Achievement Bowling Classic. While the event takes place in August (the 12th, 13th and 19th), the registration deadline is July 14. You can learn more about the event at its website, jabowlingclassic.com, including how to register yourself and some friends for this worthy cause. You can also visit the organization’s regular website from that page and find out how you can give of your time as well.
The weekend of the registration deadline, you will hopefully be seeing throngs of people surrounding the new Gardens of Park Place in downtown Birmingham celebrating a harvesting of sunflowers. Edwin Marty and the gang at the Jones Valley Urban Farm are looking for additional people to help organize and pull off what promises to be an incredible event. They will be meeting from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. at the Park Place conference room, located at 600 24th Street North, 2nd floor on June 28th to discuss the current status of plans. You can learn more about this project by reviewing this post and clicking on the link to their website. Or just click here and check out the site directly. E-mailing Edwin may also help him know how much to expect for this meeting (click here).
Enjoy the day.
Cheers.
