University of Alabama Environmental Council,.

Race to the bottom: Alabama’s educational establishment is on the hot seat after some recent newspaper editorials blamed it for the state’s failure to secure coveted federal Race to the Top education grants. Alabama finished last among the 35 states and the District of Columbia that applied for the money.

But Brogan, a seemingly down-to-earth Maine native, didn’t mind making jokes about his field of endeavor to amuse 50 or so attendees at his presentation here, which was held in a conference area in the BJCC exhibition hall just off the busy expo floor.

GREEN EXPO NOTEBOOK: Yo, Green Spacers. Last week, the BJCC exhibition hall was the site of the Green Building Focus Conference and Expo, one of the largest events of its type in the Southeast, which is hosted by Birmingham firm Green Building Focus.

Toubab Krewe is an Asheville, N.C., jam band that blends West African music with American genres, including rock and bluegrass, to create generally upbeat instrumentals. In addition to drums, bass and guitar, the band uses African percussion, as well as the kora and kamelengoni (stringed harps or lutes).

“I’ve been an artist, but I’ve always felt the drive to bring people together. I can’t say I know exactly what that impulse is. But I like doing things for people. I like sharing. I’ve had moments of what might be perceived as success, with music and movies, but I like to create a collective consciousness.

Hi, Green Spacers. Jesse here. I made a mistake last week in editing Green Space intern Andy McWhorter’s excellent debut feature, A Road to nowhere? An update on the Northern Beltline. As editors tend to do, I changed some of Andy’s wording and referred to as an “opponent” of this long-planned freeway in northern Jefferson County. That was incorrect. My apologies to Andy and the CRS. CRS executive director Beth Stewart supplied me with the following explanation:

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.

Hey, Green Spacers, it’s Jesse. What up? I’m just chillin’ here at the Green Space cracker barrel. I’m giving Madison Underwood a break this week. I also want to welcome our enterprising new Green Space intern, Andy McWhorter, who will be our lead-off hitter this week with an item related to that damned depressing Gulf oil spill.

Free improvisation—a musical genre that grew out of the free jazz, modern classical and electronic music of the 1960s—seems to demand that musicians break all the rules. They may avoid references to any particular genre. They may cook up a bitch’s brew of influences from multiple genres.