Birmingham Film Actors Lab:

Finally, we managed to access the hidden unit and ride an elevator to the second floor where the members of BFAL were waiting for us. They were working on their own film project tonight, entitled “The Audition,� and David and I were along for the ride.

Little Donkey Comes to Avondale Gallery

During the Craft Bazaar

During the 7th Annual Holiday Craft Bazaar in the Avondale and Forest Park neighborhoods, there will be arts and crafts everywhere, from Naked Art to the Beloved Community Church. On the opening nig

Vis Arts Calendar

Dragons and Lotus Blossoms: Vietnamese Ceramics from the Birmingham Museum of Art..

Vis Arts Calendar

Send information on art classes, gallery openings, ongoing exhibits, lectures, and other art events to bhamweeklyarts@gmail.com.

EightDays

The Scottish born comedian has been touring in the states for several years now and has a self-titled show on late night network television. Ferguson is known for being a kind of zany and 'out there' comedian and at times almost seeming as if he has ADD switching from one topic to the next rapidly.

Events Calendar

Emmet O'Neal Library. 50 Oak Street Mountain Brook Long Lost Friend and Hope Cassity LLF is back in Birmingham on January 21st along with Nashville singer/ songwriter Hope Cassity!! This is a Don't Miss night of music!! Doors open at 7:30pm | $12 Moonlight on the Mountain.

Vis Arts Calendar

Send information on art classes, gallery openings, ongoing exhibits, lectures, and other art events to bhamweeklyarts@gmail.com.

Food & Drink Calendar

Half-priced wings at Fox & Hound.

Music Calendar

TUESDAY, 1/24 Cajun Steamer (Trussville)

The Number One Movie of All Time

Thanksgiving is the number one day for movie going. And this holiday season there is a chance to take a little road trip to see the number one movie of all time worldwide.

Film: Ides of March

With hopes held high for a George Clooney directed drama about the devious nature of the politics, audiences have to settle for a script that falls short with an anticlimactic feel and a transparent conclusion.

Sidewalk Film Festival 2011

Who doesn’t like a good film? Ok, who doesn’t like a weekend of good films?

Get ready to SHOUT

ALABAMA’S ONLY GAY AND LESBIAN FILM FESTIVAL IS BACK

Birmingham SHOUT Gay + Lesbian Film Festival, the only such festival in Alabama, returns to the Magic City Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 27 & 28, at various downtown locations.

Monkey Business

APES RISE, ALONG WITH THE QUALITY OF THE FRANCHISE

After Tim Burton’s unfortunate Planet of the Apes remake from 2001, I doubt that anyone was particularly hankering for another movie in the franchise, let alone a prequel, but Rise of the Planet of the Apes proves to be a smart, character-driven science fiction story that has both exciting action and an engaging emotional core.

Shoot to miss

People going to see a movie called Cowboys & Aliens may be expecting something comedic, or maybe just plain silly. Perhaps in response to this, the filmmakers have played the premise straight, but in making sure the movie wasn’t too jokey, they managed to remove all the fun as well.

They don’t make ’em like they used to

CAPTAIN AMERICA IS SINCERE, OLD-FASHIONED FUN

We’ve certainly seen plenty of superhero movies this summer, but the new film Captain America is a very enjoyable, unabashedly old-fashioned action-adventure story that is full of two-fisted fun and isn’t afraid to be earnest, even a little corny. It’s an interesting departure for Marvel Studios, in both tone and manner of storytelling, and it’s one of the best films they have made.

Graduation day

HARRY POTTER HAS A DIFFICULT EXIT EXAM IN DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2

After more than a decade, seven books and eight films, J.K. Rowling’s beloved saga comes to a close with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, which provides an exciting, emotional and satisfying conclusion to the series while also showcasing exactly how dark and somber the story has become since its wide-eyed beginnings.

Not so horrible

BLACK COMEDY HORRIBLE BOSSES GETS MILEAGE FROM UNIVERSAL PREMISE

Who among us hasn’t had a horrible boss, and thought idly from time to time how life might be easier without him or her in it? The new dark comedy Horrible Bosses knows this and gets a lot of mileage from its universally understandable premise.

Unable to transform

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON IS MORE OF THE SAME CRAP

All I really hoped for from Transformers: Dark of the Moon was that it would be better than the previous film in the series, Revenge of the Fallen, and thankfully it is.

Wrong turn

PIXAR’S CARS 2 IS NO CLASSIC

As further proof of my theory that Larry the Cable Guy can ruin anything, here is Cars 2, which ends Pixar’s streak of smart, emotionally engrossing, often sublime kids’ movies by being merely a pleasant entertainment.

Indie film gets crowded

MOVIE MAKERS FLOCK TO ONLINE "CROWD FUNDING"

It’s always tough finding the money to film your movie, even the 20,000 bucks you need to make that micro-budget feature. A lot of filmmakers work crappy jobs, sell their bodies for medical experiments or beg their friends and family members for money.

First Class is first rate

X-MEN PREQUEL HAS GOOD ACTION, CREDIBLE CHARACTERS

Prequels are almost always a bad idea. Telling astory that has a pre-determined place where it mustwind up seems to be a surefire way to stifle creativity.The awful, artistically bankrupt Wolverinepre

Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before

THE HANGOVER: PART II IS FUNNY, BUT FAMILIAR

Did you ever hear the one about the three guys who wake up in a hotel room with no memory of how they got there or what they did the night before? You have?

Yo-ho-hum:

THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH FAILS TO ENLIVEN PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 4

It makes sense that the plot in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides concerns the Fountain of Youth, because this film, the fourth in the series, tries and fails to keep a flagging franchise vital.

Back to School Primer - V is for Valium

Mix my martini, fast: it's back to school in the Magic City. As summer slowly folds up like the last beach umbrella at sunset, we shake the sand out of our sandals, dust off the Mary Janes, and brace ourselves once again for the sheer horror of what lies ahead: the back to school ride through hell.

Well, Melt My Margarita - It's July In Birmingham.

As another summer blazes through the Magic City (a town which might just as well have been built directly on the face on the sun), your very own Scarlet has taken to the porch swing at the Villa to watch the neighborhood parade, thoroughly...

A Southern Belle´s Survival Guide to Summer in Birmingham

June is once again upon us, and this sleepy Magic City slips slowly into its annual summer coma like the quiet summer rain on our rooftop as darkness falls. Awaiting the advent of football season, we slumber in our hammocks, up to our eyeballs in homemade peach cobbler, while visions of quarterbacks dance in our heads.

A Southern Belle’s Survival Guide to Summer in Birmingham

Girls Not Raised in the South

Mix your mimosa and settle into your hammock, the lazy days of summer have arrived. June is once again upon us, and this sleepy Magic City slips slowly into its annual summer coma like the qui

Shark-infested Waters

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water again, it’s “Divorce at the Beach�. More ominous than a shark attack, the beginning of summer heralds into San Destin an entourage of Birmingham’s illustrious divorce attorneys for their...

Shark-infested Waters

Girls Not Raised in the South

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water again, it's "Divorce at the Beach". More ominous than a shark attack, the beginning of summer heralds into San Destin an entourag

Who's for Dinner Party Etiquette

This curious southern ritual, while oddly entertaining, has always baffled me inasmuch as southerners seem to know quite well , at any given time, the intimate goings on of one another's personal affairs, and one is left to wonder just what remains to be discussed over the roast quail.

Who’s for Dinner Party Etiquette

Girls Not Raised in the South

Don your frocks, tie your bowtie, and break out the Valium--it is time once again to penetrate one of the most charmingly deceptive veneers of southern graciousness: The Dinner Party. This cur

Girls Not Raised in the South

Spring has arrived in the Magic City

Longer languid days, wisteria, and barbeques herald in once again the beginning of one of the most curiously intriguing and oddly entertaining of southern phenomenons: dating in the south. No one rivals a southern woman in her expertise in the hunt, capture, and inevitable destruction of her prey, as evidenced by the steadily increasing pile of wedding invitations on Scarlet's desk.

Girls not raised in the South.

One must always listen carefully to a southern woman, because even the most stinging insults are served up with so much honey that an unfortunate non-native, such as Scarlet, can be caught completely off guard. Like a snake bite, the gracious southern woman swiftly renders her victim paralyzed and defenseless.

Instudio

Palo Pallas is fascinated with transformation: most particularly in how transformation relates to individuals and life experience. Pallas also believes that thought is energy and as energy cannot only be transformed but transferred. These concerns are the basis for an exhibit of the artists' work at Avondale Bricks Gallery opening August 30.

Food for Thought

She doesn´t mean to disprove the adage, "You are what you eat." After all, the food we eat is the source of the energy that produces our thoughts, if not the energy produced in turn by them..

Instudio

Olympya Ortiz lives in a modest section carved out of one of the former middle class homes in the Vedado (which means sequestered or forbidden) section of Havana.

Vladimir de Leon

It is hard to tell whether the works of Cuban painter and collage artist Vladimir de Leon reflect a mind within a maze or a maze within a mind. Whichever the case, Vlado is working his way into and out of the images like a miner. The trail of the labyrinth he leaves behind is as notable as the end destination.

AVONDALE BRICKS GALLERY

We’d like to welcome you to the first exhibition of the Avondale Bricks Gallery, EN CADA BARRIO REVOLUCIÓN. The Birmingham Weekly sponsors all exhibitions at the gallery. The first exhibition is a collection of Cuban art brought back by Stephen Humphreys from his friends in the country over the course of 15 years.

En Cada Barrio Revolucion

We'd like to welcome you to the first exhibition of the Avondale Bricks Gallery. The Birmingham Weekly sponsors all exhibitions at the gallery. The first exhibition is a collection of Cuban art brought back by Stephen Humphreys from his friends in the country over the course of 15 years.

EN CADA BARRIO REVOLUCIÓN

Cuban Art Exhibition at Avondale Bricks Gallery

We'd like to welcome you to the first exhibition of the Avondale Bricks Gallery.  The Birmingham Weekly sponsors all exhibitions at the gallery.  The first exhibition is a collection of Cub

Instudio

Swann often includes weapons in the hands of the figures in his oil paintings. "The hammers and knives represent tools used to build or destroy human relationships,"� he said. "These tools actually represent relationships, which you're either building or destroying."

Instudio

I had a great time talking to the Mountain Brook Art and Music Club on the subject of Cuban art that will be in the first exhibition sponsored by the Birmingham Weekly at the Avondale Bricks Gallery. When we looked at various paintings I told Mrs.

Instudio

I had the pleasure of popping into the studio with my friend John Lytle Wilson, an artist with an international exhibition record. Strewn about the floor and wall are in-process pieces from past shows and shows to come. His style, like his personality, is unpretentious and easygoing.

Instudio

In the story, based loosely on Russian and German folk tales, Odette is an enchanted princess under a spell of the evil sorcerer Von Rothbart; she has been transformed into a swan by day and can only regain her human form at night.

Instudio

I "I'm a man without a shadow / in a room without walls" is a song lyric that could easily describe Hunter Bell's existentialist self-concept. The lyric is from Omni-Morphist's first EP, "We may be a joke. But it's a joke you can believe in." Hunter Bell and Aaron Slaughter formed Omni-Morphist when a sound check resulted in a 28-minute song.

Instudio

Think of the infinite amount of ways you can fill space. Without even thinking, you are filling space right now. It's kind of what we do, at least for the brief flicker in time we get here on earth and hereafter when we leave behind our bones. Think of this little rock we call home, floating like a spec in the perpetual depth of the universe.

Dick Jemison Countries

article and essay photos by Stephen Humphreys One thing you usually miss in art galleries and museums is the artist. That can be one of the pleasures of being a good collector, to gain entr&ea

POT LIQUOR

Sweet tea, smothered pork chops, fried green tomatoes, blackberry cobbler, okra, lima beans, hopping john, chow-chow pickle, tea cakes... these are only a few of the tasty delights you might find on a hunt for bon-a-fide southern cuisine. The list goes on and on.

The Mod Particle

What the discovery of the particle is supposed to reveal is existence of an invisible energy field that switched on a trillionth of a second after the big bang and provided the resistance that kept some bits of matter from moving around as freely as...

Let There Be Life

After four tries my Sunday school class finally made it through Genesis Chapter One, albeit with several mysteries unsolved in our wake.

The Spiritual Aspects Of Collaborative Law

Our adversary ´mindset´ has become a way of life. We think of "us" verses "them" within our relationships between countries, between Republicans and Democrats, and between other competing segments of society. We celebrate these differences and revere debate as a method of communication and entertainment.

In Spite of the Pain

The son of a school teacher and bank cashier, he was the oldest of three red-headed boys. Cuba was the perfect place for adventure, exploring and experiencing life in an oldfashioned way.

I am a Runner

At some point in all our lives, if we live long enough, we come to a point where we realize we are not ourselves. That we are living a life that falls squarely on the path that we thought we were supposed to be traveling. One that well-meaning parents and five (or more or less) years of college and the desire for more and more stuff paved for us.

All My Single Ladies

You don´t usually come across a personal stylist and esthetician (that´s Greek for skin care treatment specialist) who happens to be a youth pastor on the days she´s not on set for TV serving as a hair and makeup artist. You don´t find that person often and not usually in Birmingham.

All My Single Ladies

fashion and inspiration

She went into 2012 with this single thought in mind...To be in the season I'm supposed to be in, in the season I'm supposed to be in it ~A friend once told her as she was about to turn 30, "You

Your Integrity is Priceless

Have you ever had an opportunity to compromise your values for a little bit of cash, but instead you took the high road? I did a couple weeks ago and this is the story. When I arrived in my current city, I immediately started looking for a job.

Hindu Temple in Pelham

In a celebration of India with its roots in the old Festival of Arts at Boutwell Auditorium that, like the Alabama School of Fine Arts, was originally orchestrated by Mrs. Edwin A. "Bill"� Rose, Supervisor of Speech Arts of the Birmingham Public Schools, the religion of India was highlighted at the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center in Pelham.

Episcopalians Try to Defuse Delicate Situation

One of the speakers at last week´s Lenten Lunches sponsored by the Cathedral Church of the Advent had a surprising theme. The Reverend Canon Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of the diocese of South Carolina and editor of the Anglican Digest, was criticizing conservatives for their lack of civility in debating issues.

Art Reflects Life in Swan Lake

You may have heard of the most horrid person I ever met, otherwise known as the country girl. Funny, she first revealed herself in church, when it was time to go forward for communion she was afraid to leave her purse in the pew. I guess she feared that one of the doctors or stockbrokers at Cathedral Church of the Advent would steal it.

Look Me In the Eye

The photographs, paintings, and video images show torturers especially evil for delighting in cruelty. It shows good people afraid to do the right thing. It shows crass betrayals. It also shows people who took the risk and reached out to help. They are stories of survival that in the end prove that life is more than that.

Advent Lenten Soul Food

Ash Wednesday marks the start of the Lenten season everywhere. In Birmingham it marks the beginning of the Lenten Lunch series at the Cathedral Church of the Advent downtown. And this truly is one of the best programs in the world, and I am not exaggerating.

My Catholic Faith

I remember watching in awe as my mother and the other grown-ups took communion while I stood with my finger pressed to my lips as Father Hayes blessed me. I so desperately wanted to be a part of what I was being taught was a miraculous version of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, my savior.

Olimpia Abajo

Sentences from under the Streets

Did you ever dream of ships sailing by unattainable ancient cities in a lonely universe? Close your eyes, open them again, and find yourself in Cuba. 

I Love You Just Because You´re You...

You can make it, you can do it! I´ll be here cheering watching you get through it! It doesn´t matter what you do or don´t do, I love you anyway, I love you just because your you!!!.

We Poets

Proclaiming progress and success in the face of our fears and terrors. Preparing the way for generations to come,.

In This Class Called Life...

Recognize the chemistry and stay/away from explosive combinations/Learn your algebra, life brings a/series of mathematical equations./Problematic biological creations./Ongoing unresolved situations./Several episodes will require/literary interpretations.

Crit Lit

The Only Poem

First having read the book of myths, and loaded the camera, and checked the edge of the knife-blade, I put on the body-armor of black rubber the absurd flippers the grave and awkward mask. I am having

HOLY INFANT OF PRAGUE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Catholic Church is known for its charity and public service, and Holy Infant of Prague Catholic Church in Trussville is no different. "We are a stewardship parish," says the parish priest, called "Father Bill" by his parishioners, "and we focus on gifts of service to the Lord.

Transport me

I ride the city bus. Hold your applause! No autographs, please! I’ve ridden the bus in Birmingham all my life. “Unnatural,” you say? “Unheard of,” you say? Well, wait for this shocker. Hold onto your hat, assuming you’re wearing a hat while reading this.

The wire

A WHIMSICAL CONVERSATION FROM THE EDGE OF REALITY

(A hypothetical scenario that may or may not happen to any politico, local or otherwise. There’s no actual evidence that these conversations ever took place...but we sure hope they did.)

Nobel at last

Prizes, from the Oscars to the Heisman Trophy to the Nobel, matter not at all to me, which is perhaps why I was surprised to find that so many of my friends were surprised last October when Mario Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Syd wants to be a star!

YOUR HIGHNESS AMUSES WITH WHIMSICAL NAUGHTINESS

Hi, kids. I’m back. It’s Syd. What up? After a long, strange trip from L.A., I’m in New York, chilling in Gramercy at the Carlton Arms.

Your story is mine

WOODLAWN STORIES BRINGS TOGETHER A NEIGHBORHOOD

We all have stories. We hold them close, for stories are the most potent form that memory can take. We carry them around with us, carefully polishing and honing them in the telling and re-telling, until they become integral parts of our identity.

Syd's road trip

TRUCK STOP MUSINGS FROM YOUR FAVORITE FEVERED DREAMER

I’m not having a good day. I have a splitting headache. I’m at a truck stop in Milesburg, Pa. waiting for the New York bus. My so-called book agent in Manhattan—a guy named Aubrey—is not returning my calls.

Flipside

INSIDE THE TWO PENS OF FLANN O'BRIEN

“Was it the drink was his ruin,” asked Hugh Kenner of Flann O’Brien in A Colder Eye: The Modern Irish Writers, “or was it the column? For ruin is the word. So much promise has seldom accomplished so little.” By the end of his life, “a great future lay behind him.”

To all the trolls and fools

CHARLIE SHEEN STAGES HIS OWN APOCALYPSE NOW

This is the end. My only friend, the end. See, I’ve been thinking a lot about Jim Morrison and the Doors and Apocalypse Now. I’m not alone. Charlie Sheen is drawing much of his snappiest patter from Coppola’s Vietnam flick, in which his old man Marty co-starred.

A literary strip tease

KAREN ABBOTT FINDS THE TRUTH ABOUT BURLESQUE ICON GYPSY ROSE LEE

Legendary burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee was not easy to categorize. The former vaudevillian—who became a big star in New York during the Depression after being discovered by burlesque impresario Billy Minsky—befriended such gangsters as bootlegger Waxy Gordon.

The Curl Particle

What may prove more elusive than the nature of the Higgs Boson is the quest to find how can curly hair be controlled. Just as the inner nature of things be revealed in art (Instudio), it is much the same with curls, according to Todd Kelly of Arlington Salon, who explored both sides of the equation, keeping curls intact and taming them.

Mono Madness Hits the South

Do you regret eating that last cupcake? I do, too. I know I'm a little off the subject, but my mind is detouring through the sixties (I see Marilyn, and she's a little pudgy, in fact), through the seventies (I thought about getting paisleys and peace signs for my de rigeur tattoo and navel ring before I decided, no, that truly is a stupid idea).

Shlomi Dadon of Angel Hair

The Birmingham Weekly once again settles the question whether anyone can be a master or slave to fashion. Shlomi Dadon even transformed our publisher from a picture of doggerel verse to eglantine refinement, and everyone remembers that picture of shirtless savagery from the last makeover.

No Apologies

David Ramirez at Bottletree Oct. 24

David Ramirez is an Austin-based singer/songwriter who has put out two full-length albums and one EP of achingly introspective Americana, folk, rock and country. He has received accolades from publica

THREE GREAT LOCAL BANDS PREVIEW UPCOMING SHOWS

The Great Book of John, Sanders Bohlke, and Lauren-Michael Sellers at Avondale Bricks Gallery

On Thursday, September 27, three great bands with ties to Birmingham will each play a set at Avondale Bricks Gallery to preview their upcoming shows in the neighborhood. On September 27, The Great B

Jon Black Builds Fort Atlantic

Another Alabama Act Plays Bonaroo

Jon Black has been one of the staples of the Birmingham music scene over the last several years. But recently he has transformed from singer/songwriter to Fort Atlantic, an act that pushes the envelop

Alabama Shakes

The Athens, AL-based Alabama Shakes have become one of the bands to watch for 2012. Numerous performances have shaped their blossoming career such as a stint on Conan and a string of critically acclaimed shows at South by Southwest. Their debut album, Boys & Girls, dropped April 10th.

Last Gig at the Spring Street Fire House

Wednesday, March 28th, two friends and I convened at the Spring Street Fire House in Avondale for the much anticipated Bomb the Music Industry! concert. We expected an excellent show, and were by no means disappointed. However, the opening band, Wisdom Teeth, was a highlight of the night.

Alabama Shakes

The Athens, AL-based Alabama Shakes have become one of the bands to watch for 2012. Numerous performances have shaped their blossoming career such as a stint on Conan and a string of critically acclai

THE MAGIC MATH

Plays Parkside on Monday

  Birmingham's The Magic Math open their double EP The Magic Math Humbly Suggest Living Is A Miracle with an enticing blend of violin and acoustic guitar driven alt-country esque pop

Catherine Shepard Smith

"God don't make nobodies. He gives us a choice we must make carefully; each person in this world has the chance to be somebody."� This line from Catherine Shepard Smith's song "Nobodies"� on her first album, Heart to Heart, is one she seems intent on living up to.

Breaking Laces

Breaking laces is a threepiece rock band out of Brooklyn, New York and their current tour led them all the way down to Birmingham to play at The Nick last Tuesday. I'd like to say that it wasn't a waste of gas, but gas is pretty pricey these days and a stellar crowd of nine people won't get you a half tank.

Thomas Dolby

I know that some of you were not born yet before my friend Yvonne was blinded by Thomas Dolby´s science in highs school in the '80s. Dolby started in London´s punk scene that was raging at the time--with authentic, not fake like some current bands we will not name, appropriated punk ethic.

Dead Fingers

Indie-folk duo, Dead Fingers, consists of local songwriters Taylor Hollingsworth and Kate Taylor. Through complex,driving acoustic guitar figures, lyrical wordplay, and vocal harmonies blending two individual styles, Dead Fingers presents a captivating first record.

Music Calendar

Tuesday, 3/6 Barristers Tavern:.

Music Calendar

Eclipse Coffee (Montevallo):.

Scott Register

If you are remotely familiar with the Birmingham music scene, then you know the huge impact that Scott "Reg" Register has had on it. Last month marked the 15th anniversary of his iconic radio show, Reg's Coffeehouse. Every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., listeners are presented with Reg's signature blend of local, independent, and alternative music.

War Jacket

Birmingham-based photographer Caleb Chancey discovered two vital elements for the songs that would eventually make up his musical project, War Jacket. The first was the collaborations and friendships he had made through Grey Haven Community, a local music collective that he helped found back in 2008.

Brian Regan Talks to Scarlet

Daily To-Do List

Comedian Brian Regan has appeared on the David Letterman Show 25 times, which tells you something about his gourd, along with 207,000 likes on his Facebook page. He talked to our editor about his perf

Home Sweet Slam

I drive past the white picket fence surrounding the beautiful, ideal American dream because I know it doesn't belong to me, wasn't meant for me. I see the lamp posts and the buildings of the colonial village lit up on Friday nights, quiet but shining like a city on a hill.

Wicked Premiers in Birmingham

The worldwide phenomenon Wicked landed in Birmingham on Monday, not in a farmhouse, but in eleven semi trucks. The musical, based on Gregory Maguire’s best selling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, has become worldwide box office magic, selling out shows around the globe.

All Aboard!

Darlings, you all know how I love nothing more than dinner and the theatre, (except for a good laugh, of course, and this show has that, too!) and I am thrilled beyond belief to tell you about a wonderful show that is running at Terrific New Theatre, and you simply do NOT want to miss it!.

Laugh Yourself Thin!

If you're beginning to feel all depressed and glum because you have already fallen off of your New Year's resolution to get in shape and lose weight, then you are in luck, because this week there are several opportunities for you to laugh your a** off.

Dance for the jilted

ALABAMA BALLET SERVES UP AN ANTI-VALENTINE'S DAY EVENT YOUR DATE WILL LOVE

I hate Valentine’s Day. Call me the Love Grinch if you will, but as far as I’m concerned, never has there been a more loathsome, extraneous and humiliating holiday than the orgy of consumerism known as Valentine’s Day.

Get your move on

THE ALABAMA DANCE FESTIVAL KICKS IT UP A NOTCH

Dancing. We all do it, whether we trot our stuff on the dance-floors of Birmingham’s local clubs or wiggle to a favorite mix in the privacy of our own bedrooms. Even the most bumbling wallflower has surely tapped a toe to a good beat now and then. Dancing is a part of human nature, the physical embodiment of our urge to express emotion through movement.

Bloody grace

ALABAMA BALLET RESURRECTS DRACULA PRODUCTION

The smell of death is all around us, and it is rather pleasant. Or rather, one of the signature smells of fall, that of decaying leaves, has begun to permeate as the trees finally begin to drop the brittle carcasses of their foliage.

Modern mash-up

THE COLLISION AND COLLABERATION OF ART AND DANCE

Something different and unexpected was what Sanspointe Dance Company’s Artistic Director Shellie Chambers had in mind when organizing “Kinetic Canvas,” a dance installation inspired by the works and space at the Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA).

A batch made in heaven

POETRY AND BEER MAKE THE LIBRARY A HOT SPOT

The marriage of art and literature with beer is commonplace, with one frequently crossing into the realm of the other.

Third time’s a charm

Homespun comedian Roy Wood JR. takes a shot at comedy gold

If there’s one thing Birmingham has proven it knows how to do well these days, it’s vote. I’m not talking about the various elections that keep rearing their heads, turn-out is still woefully low for those occasions. I am, of course, referring to our uncanny ability to vote in winners of reality talent competitions on television.

More than a MILF

Jennifer Coolidge tries on stand-up Comedy for a Change

When you’re an aspiring actor trying to make it in New York, any role is a good role. After countless hours waiting in line for cattle-call auditions, only to be told you aren’t going to be seen after all, you would take anything, any “Third Moron from the Left”, space-filler of a role.

The brothers of Oh Brother

It was late in the afternoon on the last Friday in April, and Reed Lochamy and his brother Will were hanging out in the basement of Reed’s house, in Bluff Park. The basement’s shelves were lined with various musical instruments; on one wall there was a poster for a Velvet Underground album that prominently features Andy Warhol’s depiction of a banana. An ancient TV displayed a golf tournament, its sound muted. Reed fiddled with the settings on a digital audio recorder to his right. “Brethren,” a song by Birmingham songwriter Wes McDonald, started playing softly from a pair of headphones on a table between the two brothers.

Muse of Fire DREAM includes improv comedy

Christopher Davis doesn’t ascribe to that old actor’s adage, “Never work with animals or children.” During the day, Davis is a graphic designer for Southern Progress. At night, the 38-year-old Birming

Lots of luring local theatre

Last summer I wrote a story about the CenterStage production of the 1998 sexually charged revival of Cabaret. At the time, it seemed a lot of people wondered if Birmingham was ready for such a show -

Girls not raised in the South.

The holiday festivities are over, the crimson velvet mailbox bows have been put away, and now-like a feeding frenzy at a hen house-the well heeled ladies of Birmingham are eagerly disseminating this years list� of the years marital fatalities.

Filming The Great Gatsby—Borne Back Ceaselessly

Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. -F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby How do you capture, visually, a shiny, vaguely self-blinded reflection--of a shiny, vaguely self-blinded ref

Vis Arts Calendar

Dragons and Lotus Blossoms: Vietnamese Ceramics from the Birmingham Museum of Art..

Dragons & Lotus Blossoms

Fishermen trawling for fish accidentally discovered the shipwreck in the early 1990s, and in 2000, the Birmingham Museum of Art bought some of these treasures at a San Francisco public auction.

In Studio

Bluff Park 48th annual Art show

OK, so it’s not in a studio, but the weather was too nice to stay inside and a day trip to Bluff Park is almost like going to a different world and time, which makes it worth the excursion.

In Studio

Frank Fleming learned to express himself the hard way, and some might say in another world, which shows up in his work today.

In Studio

DEE DEE MORRISON

DeeDee Morrison is achieving her dream of being an artist the unconventional way. Instead of attending SCAD or Rhode Island School of Design, she signed up as the only female in a class of 19 in a welding class at Bessemer Tech.

Right place, right time

LONGTIME BIRMINGHAM PHOTOGRAPHER ROWLAND SCHERMAN SHOT A LIFETIME OF POWERFUL IMAGES

Woody Allen has been quoted as saying that “Ninety percent of success is showing up” and Rowland Scherman is a living testament to those words. In 1961, photographer Scherman showed up when a volunteer group called the Peace Corps came into being under the John F. Kennedy administration.

T-Ball Players Report on Rickwood Classic

by Matthew Thomson (5) & Henry Thomson (7)

Once upon a time two boys went to the old ball game. We had giant snow cones that were bubblegum flavor and were great.

Tag, You’re Art

A PHOTOGRAPHIC ARGUMENT FOR GRAFFITI AS AN ARTFORM

At this point, I think it’s pretty clear that I think graffiti is art. We’ve featured Birmingham graffiti in our SEEN section and on our cover on more than one occasion, and in an artistic context. What wasn’t clear to me until recently, however, was that the status of graffiti as art was in question at all.

Going out with a Shine

BARE HANDS GALLERY SAYS GOODBYE WITH FINAL HOLIDAY GROUP SHOW

When I arrived at Bare Hands Gallery downtown on a recent Saturday to talk to artistic director Wendy Jarvis, I came bearing tape recorder, notebook and list of questions. In return, Jarvis and Rachel Staggs, an artist and volunteer, offered me a cup of strong tea, refreshing on a cold afternoon.

Street Art

ARTWALK IS BACK IN THE DISTRICT

North and the surrounding blocks will turn once again into the bustling art show known as Artwalk, now in its ninth iteration. In recent years, Artwalk has blossomed into a premium event, featuring scrumptious vittles, live music, wandering street acts, work by over 100 artists to peruse and all at the cost of nothing.

Opening the kimono

Birmingham Museum of Art explores Japanese culture

There is an exhibit, Fashioning Kimono: Art Deco and Modernism in Japan, that allows viewers to both enjoy the beauty and craftsmanship of vintage kimono and to understand the profound part kimono plays in Japanese cultural identity, especially for women.The exhibit is currently on display at the Birmingham Museum of Art, one of nine stops on its itinerary. The show features nearly 100 kimono from the 19th and 20th centuries, courtesy of the Montgomery Collection in Lugano, Switzerland. The exhibit also features 50 archival photographs from the Hukusai Research Centre in Milan, Italy, that show how kimono were an integral part of nearly every phase of Japanese life.

Paint the town red

Digital art fest lights up the Loft District

Do you ever complain that Birmingham lacks its fair share of fresh, unusual or innovative cultural events and other entertainment options? Would you like to have something really different to do on

Shining a light on Alabama artists

Birmingham Biennial 3 now on display at Bare Hands

One of Birmingham’s most important visual art exhibitions is now on display at Bare Hands Gallery downtown. The Birmingham Biennial 3 (BB3), which deals with the rich but ever-contentious issue of rac

Work of Friction

A look at Margot Wade's “Pubic Places, Private Spaces”

Margot Wade will tell you that she’s not an artist. I suspect she has said as much to at least 300 people during the last month, and I can only hope that more than half of them shook their heads in di

Role playing at Lite Box Gallery

Litebox Gallery show puts focus on the figure

What a fascinating surprise that the second exhibition local artist Kate Merritt Davis has curated at Lite Box Gallery is focused on the use of the figure in contemporary art. I say “surprise” beca

Remembering Martin Hames

Larger Than Life Coming Out Party Nov. 2

Martin Hames left us ten years ago in November. After a conversation I had with a friend and fellow Trustee Board member, we agreed that even years after his death, our Altamont/ B.U.S./ Brooke Hil

By Red Mountain Miners

The extensive woodlands that house deer and even a wild boar population, used to be forbidding to all but a few humans willing to dare the expanses of kudzu and poison ivy.

Coming Home

ABC, CBS, NBC and other news stations are proudly welcoming our soldiers home from Iraq with a "Thanks for your service."� It is great and refreshing to hear good news on the TV. Many families are thrilled and filled with gratitude to have their loved ones coming home.

The End of the World as We know It

I remember him telling how his father, John W. McDonald, nearly lost his plantation because he countersigned a note for a friend who skipped off to Alabama with his debts unpaid. As Papa further described it with a great westward sweep of his arm, that remote fastness "might as well have been the end of the world at that time.

The End of the World as We Know It

Yore + Lore

Creek Indians and other Alabama refugees from Georgia Charles Franklin McDonald, my maternal grandfather, otherwise known as "Papa," was a landowner in Meriwether County, Georgia--but jus

Graduating to the Next Level

Here is it is, graduation time again, and have I had my share of graduations! The first one I remember, at age 5, was being with my Uncle Glenn when my mother -- who had finished at Livingston State Teacher´s College in about 1916, at the ripe old age of 15 -- graduated again from Howard College in 1937.

Chicken in the Rough for a Dollar

Memories of Belonging in Birmingham

Every time that I drive into the city limits of Birmingham my heart literally picks up a pace and I start remembering. As I think back on growing up in the "Magic City"� I realize just how magical my childhood was in a city that I just took for granted.

The Key to the Reverend’s Heart

April 13 dinner of the late Reverend's favorite soul food dishes

Like most men born and raised in the Deep South, Fred Shuttlesworth knew and loved good food. And although he credited his successful weight management on the fact that most of his life he ate only two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, he wasted no time or food at mealtime.

Memories of Ybor City in Tampa.

The Rose family often moved very long distances, especially for the times. I never found out why but assumed it had something to do with deaths in the family. I know my dad lived in Ensley Highlands in 1918 when two of his older brothers died and he was a teenager.

yore lore

It has been a long transition. The roots of the Birmingham Weekly are in a little paper called Fun n Stuff that belonged to my brother, Bobby. When my brother died suddenly after going to the beach and being pulled out in a riptide, I was a new attorney at Maynard Cooper, a law firm downtown.

Sidney Word Lee

I remember as a young girl hearing my father talk about family outings to the Calcis lodge. For reasons unknown to me now I thought the lodge, rather than the town in Shelby County, was called Calcis. Throughout my life I envisioned a beautiful retreat where Dad and his family and friends vacationed in the summer.

Bill Rose's Orchids Found Out

He had just seen it and wondered if I knew about it. I am glad he called because no one else did, and the library never told me about it. You can never assume what people know, even about themselves or their own family. Sometimes they are the last to know.

My Mother's Coat

Last night on TV we were watching a 1930's movie when the main actress appeared in a coat like one my mother also had in the 1930's. It was a princess style which meant it was fitted at the waist with a flared skirt. Around the collar of the coat were fox fur tails.

Coming Home

ABC, CBS, NBC and other news stations are proudly welcoming our soldiers home from Iraq with a "Thanks for your service." It is great and refreshing to hear good news on the TV. Many families are thrilled and filled with gratitude to have their loved ones coming home.

Plants in wild places

All places have some sort of native plants. In this part of Alabama, with our favorable elements, we have many beautiful native blooming plants and lovely evergreen ferns. My favorites are the ferns, I believe, because many wood ferns, being cold weather hardy, are outstanding all year long.