‘Words’

• Lost & Found

  A delayed generation moves forward one sidestep at a time.

  Let’s start with the num­bers, shall we? Every­one knows that the cur­rent eco­nomic cli­mate is ter­ri­ble, but noth­ing throws an ugly sit­u­a­tion into relief like the harsh light of sta­tis­tics. Youth unem­ploy­ment rates are at record highs. Accord­ing to a recent arti­cle by The Atlantic, almost 14 per­cent of col­lege grad­u­ates who matric­u­lated dur­ing 2006–2010 are unable to find full-time employ­ment, and only 55.3 per­cent of those aged 16–29 are work­ing, which is the low­est per­cent­age since World War II. Glob­ally, the rates of unem­ployed youth are also at record highs,… Read the rest

  Lost & Found

  A delayed generation moves forward one sidestep at a time.

  Let’s start with the num­bers, shall we? Every­one knows that the cur­rent eco­nomic cli­mate is ter­ri­ble, but noth­ing throws an ugly sit­u­a­tion into relief like the harsh light of sta­tis­tics. Youth unem­ploy­ment rates are at record highs. Accord­ing to a recent arti­cle by The Atlantic, almost 14 per­cent of col­lege grad­u­ates who matric­u­lated dur­ing 2006–2010 are unable to find full-time employ­ment, and only 55.3 per­cent of those aged 16–29 are work­ing, which is the low­est per­cent­age since World War II. Glob­ally, the rates of unem­ployed youth are also at record highs,… Read the rest

• Of Owls and Buffalo

  Jesse Payne’s newest work is a multi-media trip down memory lane.

  In the not too dis­tant past I worked in a down­town office-building food court, and one day as I trudged home from the flu­o­res­cent dol­drums that filled my day, attempt­ing to get the ring­ing of Fox News blather out of my ears, I saw a pecu­liar sight. Perched on the edge of the top­most tier of a park­ing deck was an owl. A big one. It was absolutely still, and I stopped and stared, won­der­ing how… Read the rest

  Of Owls and Buffalo

  Jesse Payne’s newest work is a multi-media trip down memory lane.

  In the not too dis­tant past I worked in a down­town office-building food court, and one day as I trudged home from the flu­o­res­cent dol­drums that filled my day, attempt­ing to get the ring­ing of Fox News blather out of my ears, I saw a pecu­liar sight. Perched on the edge of the top­most tier of a park­ing deck was an owl. A big one. It was absolutely still, and I stopped and stared, won­der­ing how… Read the rest

• The New Sound of the Shoals

  Belle Adair brings a modern twist to Muscle Shoals

  The weight of his­tory hangs heavy in Mus­cle Shoals. Not many towns as tiny as this North­ern Alabama burg have such a strong con­nec­tion with celebrity past, and the result is that Mus­cle Shoals’ national iden­tity has been almost com­pletely con­sumed by events that occurred there many decades ago. I refer, of course, to the leg­endary music that was cre­ated in the Shoals in the 1960s by Aretha Franklin, Eric Clap­ton, Wil­son Pick­ett, The All­man Broth­ers,… Read the rest

  The New Sound of the Shoals

  Belle Adair brings a modern twist to Muscle Shoals

  The weight of his­tory hangs heavy in Mus­cle Shoals. Not many towns as tiny as this North­ern Alabama burg have such a strong con­nec­tion with celebrity past, and the result is that Mus­cle Shoals’ national iden­tity has been almost com­pletely con­sumed by events that occurred there many decades ago. I refer, of course, to the leg­endary music that was cre­ated in the Shoals in the 1960s by Aretha Franklin, Eric Clap­ton, Wil­son Pick­ett, The All­man Broth­ers,… Read the rest

• For the Love of Music

  Inside the Hard-Working Bands of Birmingham

  Birm­ing­ham doesn’t do rock stars. We aren’t the next “it” city, and we don’t have a “sound.” Peo­ple don’t move to Birm­ing­ham to get famous and launch their careers. Don’t get me wrong, there’s more great music being pro­duced in Birm­ing­ham than most peo­ple can imag­ine. We’ve got a com­mu­nity of bands who are com­mit­ted, hard-working crafts­peo­ple, and their out­put is con­sis­tent and engag­ing. On most nights of the week, you can see a cal­iber of… Read the rest

  For the Love of Music

  Inside the Hard-Working Bands of Birmingham

  Birm­ing­ham doesn’t do rock stars. We aren’t the next “it” city, and we don’t have a “sound.” Peo­ple don’t move to Birm­ing­ham to get famous and launch their careers. Don’t get me wrong, there’s more great music being pro­duced in Birm­ing­ham than most peo­ple can imag­ine. We’ve got a com­mu­nity of bands who are com­mit­ted, hard-working crafts­peo­ple, and their out­put is con­sis­tent and engag­ing. On most nights of the week, you can see a cal­iber of… Read the rest

• Reversing The Lobotomy

  On the frontlines of the battle to reclaim the history of hip-hop

  The hip-hop com­mu­nity is at war. I’m not talk­ing about the East Coast vs. West Coast bat­tle that resulted in the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Big­gie Smalls. The war I speak of isn’t a war of egos and guns, fought with real hard­ware and end­ing in all-too-real results. The war I mean is a skir­mish between ide­olo­gies, but the out­come is just as impor­tant, and the stakes are the very iden­tity of hip-hop itself… Read the rest

  Reversing The Lobotomy

  On the frontlines of the battle to reclaim the history of hip-hop

  The hip-hop com­mu­nity is at war. I’m not talk­ing about the East Coast vs. West Coast bat­tle that resulted in the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Big­gie Smalls. The war I speak of isn’t a war of egos and guns, fought with real hard­ware and end­ing in all-too-real results. The war I mean is a skir­mish between ide­olo­gies, but the out­come is just as impor­tant, and the stakes are the very iden­tity of hip-hop itself… Read the rest

• Bang! Boom!

  You know why you like the Fourth of July

  Fire is fas­ci­nat­ing. Even if you are ter­ri­fied by fire, it holds you in some amount of awe. Fire is the total destroyer, the giver and taker of life, which brought us out of the wild and gave us civ­i­liza­tion. I know I’m sound­ing like a fire­bug, but I’m sure I wouldn’t be far off in say­ing that most peo­ple, at one time or another, have played with fire (and I mean in the lit­eral sense… Read the rest

  Bang! Boom!

  You know why you like the Fourth of July

  Fire is fas­ci­nat­ing. Even if you are ter­ri­fied by fire, it holds you in some amount of awe. Fire is the total destroyer, the giver and taker of life, which brought us out of the wild and gave us civ­i­liza­tion. I know I’m sound­ing like a fire­bug, but I’m sure I wouldn’t be far off in say­ing that most peo­ple, at one time or another, have played with fire (and I mean in the lit­eral sense… Read the rest

• Capturing Idols

  Who Shot Rock & Roll explores the artists behind the photos

  Here in the good old red-blooded U.S. of A, we love our pop gods, our rock and roll celebri­ties.  In fact, in recent days, we like to eat them alive in a steady diet of real­ity crap and paparazzi offal.  Most of mod­ern celebrity cul­ture is a poorly pro­duced mess of cheap con­sumerism and will not with­stand the ero­sion from decades of even­tual indif­fer­ence. How­ever, peo­ple still have the need to turn musi­cians into idols, to… Read the rest

  Capturing Idols

  Who Shot Rock & Roll explores the artists behind the photos

  Here in the good old red-blooded U.S. of A, we love our pop gods, our rock and roll celebri­ties.  In fact, in recent days, we like to eat them alive in a steady diet of real­ity crap and paparazzi offal.  Most of mod­ern celebrity cul­ture is a poorly pro­duced mess of cheap con­sumerism and will not with­stand the ero­sion from decades of even­tual indif­fer­ence. How­ever, peo­ple still have the need to turn musi­cians into idols, to… Read the rest

• B-Metro Storm Updates

  5/16/11—5/31/11

  SORTING IT OUT: Crews of con­trac­tors sent to Madi­son County by the U.S. Army Corps of Engi­neers, includ­ing six crews from One Stop Envi­ron­men­tal LLC of Birm­ing­ham, have begun a sort­ing process designed to sep­a­rate harm­ful mate­ri­als from the debris. Many homes con­tain dan­ger­ous sub­stances, from gaso­line and clean­ing chem­i­cals to stoves and refrig­er­a­tors, which must be found and removed before haul­ing of debris can begin. Prop­erty own­ers are allowed to sort through their pos­ses­sions them­selves or may elect to… Read the rest

  B-Metro Storm Updates

  5/16/11—5/31/11

  SORTING IT OUT: Crews of con­trac­tors sent to Madi­son County by the U.S. Army Corps of Engi­neers, includ­ing six crews from One Stop Envi­ron­men­tal LLC of Birm­ing­ham, have begun a sort­ing process designed to sep­a­rate harm­ful mate­ri­als from the debris. Many homes con­tain dan­ger­ous sub­stances, from gaso­line and clean­ing chem­i­cals to stoves and refrig­er­a­tors, which must be found and removed before haul­ing of debris can begin. Prop­erty own­ers are allowed to sort through their pos­ses­sions them­selves or may elect to… Read the rest

• The Art Of Rebuilding

  Alabama artists band together to aid recovery efforts

  As we approach the one-month anniver­sary of the dev­as­tat­ing storms of April 27, many vic­tims are still strug­gling to recover from the dam­age done to their per­sonal prop­erty and emo­tional well-being. It seems but a moment since our placid sense of secu­rity got ripped away, leav­ing us vul­ner­a­ble and fright­ened. Piles of debris still sit on curbs wait­ing for pick-up, and some dis­placed res­i­dents live in tents while they wait for some kind of hous­ing alter­na­tive.… Read the rest

  The Art Of Rebuilding

  Alabama artists band together to aid recovery efforts

  As we approach the one-month anniver­sary of the dev­as­tat­ing storms of April 27, many vic­tims are still strug­gling to recover from the dam­age done to their per­sonal prop­erty and emo­tional well-being. It seems but a moment since our placid sense of secu­rity got ripped away, leav­ing us vul­ner­a­ble and fright­ened. Piles of debris still sit on curbs wait­ing for pick-up, and some dis­placed res­i­dents live in tents while they wait for some kind of hous­ing alter­na­tive.… Read the rest