On Sunday, May 18, 2008, Birmingham AIDS Outreach will host its annual Arty Party fund raiser at B&A Warehouse from 3-6 p.m. Nearly two dozen hats made by members of the Mystic Krewe of Apollo Birmingham will serve as centerpieces at the annual celebration. Go to www.bradbrad.com to check out a slideshow of the hats being modeled by former Birminghamian Amy Cleckler.
Arty Party will also include live and silent auctions featuring more than 200 works of art donated to BAO by local and regional artists. This year’s featured artist is Veronique Vanblaere of Naked Art Gallery. The honorary chair of this year’s Arty Party is Patty McDonald.
In terms of participating in internet commerce, I’m something of a Luddite. I have only purchased four items on Amazon ever and I’ve never participated in a single eBay auction. But my life as an online consumer is about to change dramatically now that I know about Etsy.com. The website is a showcase for handmade goods of every sort — paintings, paper goods, clothing, candles, crochet and knitted items, jewelry housewares and all manner of useful eye-candy. Etsy’s explicit mission is “to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers.” The point, they say, is to build a new economy and make it possible to “Buy, Live and Sell Handmade.”
Perhaps the most dazzling feature of Etsy’s super-intuitive site design is the Geolocator, which lets you shop for local handmade goods. At present, there are a total of 66 Birminghamians hawking their wares, including Veronique Vanblaere, Kate Merritt Davis and Weekly contributing artist Daisy Winfrey (Bonus! here’s an awesome song titled “I’m Callin’ Daisy” by the blues legend Brownie McGhee!).
A lot of the local artists on Etsy are also on the awesome local artist marketplace run by the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham. The purpose of Ask Artie is to create connections between individual artists and arts professionals, arts/cultural organizations, venues and galleries plus a wide variety of resources and services of interest to the cultural sector.
Halleleujah, I am happy to hear about the advent of Greencup Books. Scheduled to open on Feb. 15, Greencup is the brainchild of once-and-future Weekly contributing writer Russell Helms: a community space located downtown whose explicit mission is “to propogate CREATIVITY.”
Besides selling new and used (!!) books, Greencup will offer eight-week writing and art classes year-round and provide a venue for art openings, yoga classes, community meetings, readings and other literary events.
Located at 105 Richard Arrington Blvd. South (right next door to Bare Hands Gallery) Greencup will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Events already on the bookstore’s calendar include a Feb. 8 reading and release party for Stories from Real Life, a collection of short fiction by Tony Crunk paired with art by Peter Wilm. Feb. 13 marks the start of two eight-week courses being taught at Greencup: “Writing the Memoir” with Tony Crunk and “Publish Your Book” with Russell Helms.
THE CONTENTS PAGE IS FULL OF LIES: Yep. The table of contents for Vol. 11, Issue 12 says that Kyle Whitmire’s “War on Dumb” can be found on page 4, when in fact what appeared on page 4 was a guide to the first-ever Downtown Holiday Open House (it went well, thanks for asking). And the contents page also said that Molly Folse’s story “Permission to Stare” about the awesome AXIS Dance Company was on page 23 or thereabouts, when in fact, it’s here. Otherwise, we meant every word we said, and that includes “Midterm Marks” for the Birmingham City Council, Courtney Haden’s consideration of I’m Not There, Jim Fahy’s contemplation of Dead Confederate and Carey Norris’ review of Lions for Lambs.
Next week, the truth will be revealed on the contents page – and a day early due to the holiday. Meanwhile, just prowl around www.bhamweekly.com
DEAD BUT NOT GONE: That’s the best way to think of your dearly departed, particularly if you plan to attend the fifth annual Dia de los Muertos celebration at Bare Hands Gallery. This week’s cover story offers some history of the local celebration of the Mexican holiday known as the Day of the Dead.
Or at least, put your eyes on their shoes. Dozens of empty pairs of combat boots will fill Kelly Ingram Park on Sunday, a silent representation of the lives lost in the war in Iraq. “Eyes Wide Open: The Cost of War to Alabama” will focus primarily on fallen soldiers from Alabama, but hundreds of shoes will also be displayed in remembrance of Iraqi civilians who have also lost their lives in war. The exhibit was first displayed in 2004 at Chicago’s Federal Plaza and has since been split up into smaller segments to memorialize people from different states. The Birmingham Friends Meeting, the Birmingham Islamic Society, the Birmingham Peace Project and Pax Christi sponsor the exhibit, which will be on display from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. An interfaith memorial service will be held at the Church of the Reconciler on Saturday at 7 p.m. This marks the first time “Eyes Wide Open” will be shown in Alabama. For more information visit www.asfc.org/eyes.
FINE ART & HAUNTING ARTIFACTS: Visitors to “Pompeii: Tales from an Eruption” will be treated to perhaps the most powerful exhibit that the Birmingham Museum of Art has ever had. For this week’s cover story, guest curator Robin Meador-Woodruff and exhibit designer Terry Beckham spoke to Glenny Brock about creating the exhibit.
Is your idea of fun making people crap their pants? Like chasing folks with chainsaws? Playing with knives? Love the dark? Drink blood? The Atrox Factory, the Southeast’s longest and scariest haunted attraction, is taking applications online, with auditions this weekend. Deadline is tonight, Friday Sept. 14, so hurry. Applicants must be over 19 and available to work the nightshift through October. And it pays!
If you would rather be on the receiving end of terror, you can learn more about the Atrox Factory here. Atrox opens October 5 and continues nightly through Halloween.
Or, rather, fine prints. The opening reception for “Plot Influential: A National Invitational Printmaking Exhibition” takes place at 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 7, in the Durbin Gallery at Birmingham-Southern College, but the gallery is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday. That means you can improve your mental health on any business day between now and Sept. 28 by viewing the show. Dozens of artists nationwide contributed prints and posters, resulting in an exquisite exhibit that reveals the myriad possibilities of the printmaking form. For more information, call 226-4928 or check out www.bsc.edu.
On Sunday, May 18, 2008, Birmingham AIDS Outreach will host its annual Arty Party fund raiser at B&A Warehouse from 3-6 p.m. Nearly two dozen hats made by members of the Mystic Krewe of Apollo Birmingham will serve as centerpieces at the annual celebration. Go to www.bradbrad.com to check out a slideshow of the hats being modeled by former Birminghamian Amy Cleckler.
THE CONTENTS PAGE IS FULL OF LIES: Yep. The table of contents for Vol. 11, Issue 12 says that Kyle Whitmire’s “War on Dumb” can be found on page 4, when in fact what appeared on page 4 was a guide to the first-ever Downtown Holiday Open House (it went well, thanks for asking). And the contents page also said that Molly Folse’s story “Permission to Stare” about the awesome AXIS Dance Company was on page 23 or thereabouts, when in fact, it’s here. Otherwise, we meant every word we said, and that includes 
DEAD BUT NOT GONE: That’s the best way to think of your dearly departed, particularly if you plan to attend the fifth annual Dia de los Muertos celebration at Bare Hands Gallery. 
PUT YOURSELF IN THEIR SHOES
FINE ART & HAUNTING ARTIFACTS: Visitors to 
