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Discovering Birmingham
Trying to create a comprehensive preview of this weekend’s Secret Stages festival downtown – in a span of a little over 900 words, no less – is a fool’s errand. Even reduced from the sprawling affairs...
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America sings out
Melissa Vandenberg, “Disorderly Conduct.” Image courtesy of beta pictoris gallery. Although things have changed a lot in this more egalitarian age, works on paper have traditionally had a little less...
View ArticleThe short happy lives of Drew Price
Drew Price makes weird music. Catchy music, cathartic music, evocative music, but weird music all the same. The Oak Mountain native will be performing as Drew Price’s Bermuda Triangle, supported by...
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Sixty seconds of panic
Do you remember the clammy palms, fruitlessly firing synapses and abject terror of elementary school spelling bees with fondness? Do you want to support the Desert Island Supply Co. (DISCO), a...
View ArticleRedemption songs
Carolyn Maull came from a good family. Her parents were well educated — her father, a college professor, also waited tables at the Club — and active in the community, including church. When Carolyn...
View ArticleCalling all locals
Our music culture is changing. Where once it was only possible for absolute top-of-the-line acts like Carnival Season to cut a record in Birmingham, now a band can go to any number of local,...
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Inconvenient truths
The myriad figurines of The Hate Project. Photo by Audrey Davis. Amid the panoply of commemorations for the 50th anniversary of Birmingham’s pivotal Civil Rights year, 1963, it’s easy to believe that...
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American gods
“Heated Flight Pattern Around An Innocent Flower,” scorches on paper by Willie Cole, 2013. Image courtesy of beta pictoris gallery. When T.S. Eliot published The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock in...
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Eclipse Coffee celebrates 12 years with outstanding double bill
Indie pop wunderkind Dent May will perform a free show at Eclipse with Dead Gaze. The tendency to romanticize local color isn’t unique to the South, but it may be uniquely common here. In Birmingham...
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The substance of style
Before it lent its name to the title of a series of video essays on Wes Anderson’s oeuvre by film critic Matt Zoller Seitz, The Substance of Style was a book by Virginia Postrel commenting on our...
View ArticleOnce in a lifetime
As a journalist, especially as one who focuses primarily on culture, it can be difficult to stick to the ideals of rigid objectivity that characterize good reporting. Unless you’re writing a...
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Looking for answers in Woodlawn
The Forge, an all-ages venue that predominantly hosts local hardcore punk acts and touring indie rockers, has been putting on shows in its Woodlawn space for more than a year now. You’re more likely...
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Pictures of obsession
“Bang” by Derek Cracco. Image courtesy of beta pictoris gallery. Second Avenue’s beta pictoris gallery is currently displaying two artists who work with intense, nearly obsessive detail, both in their...
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Reinventing Birmingham
Image courtesy of the Birmingham Museum of Art. Last Thursday, the Birmingham Museum of Art briefly unveiled six never-before-seen prints by Andy Warhol, which will remain in storage at the museum...
View ArticleGlobally Challenged
Inspired by the turnout at their first event in August, the team behind Spell Check: An Adult Spelling Bee will return to the Bottletree on Wednesday, December 4 with Globally Challenged: Birmingham’s...
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Hearing Christmas
I don’t think you have to be a believer to appreciate the holiday season when it rolls around each December. Christmas in particular is a fascinating study in contrasts, even for the secular-minded;...
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The songs that saved your life
Photo by Tim Richmond. Image courtesy of Atlantic Records. Without getting too dramatic about it, it’s fair to say that some musicians just have a way of feeling necessary when times are tough. Whether...
View ArticleSing your song
“King of Calypso” and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte will be inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame on Thursday, April 11, the culmination of an all-day film festival of his work at the...
View ArticleWomen’s Fund tackles human trafficking
The Women’s Fund has set its sights on an utterly daunting issue: human trafficking in Birmingham. The cover story for Weld’s February 28 issue dealt with the fact that Birmingham has become a...
View ArticleComing attractions
When Stereogum writers Timothy and Elizabeth Bracy were introducing their list of the top 10 Bob Dylan songs, they described it as “the Iraq invasion of long-form rock journalism, uncalled for and...
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