October 2009

Artist in Residence - Spencer C Shoults Part 2

by Janet Elizabeth... | October 31st, 2009

Earlier this month, I told you about our Transformation Issue's Artist in Residence's installation pieces which you can read about here. Of course, as I already mentioned, Shoults isn't limited to only one idea or medium. Shoults' pieces are easily recognizable. The honey that dripped through muslin bore the raw, sepia qualities of his photography. Strange, scrawled markings in the pinhole photographs echo the brilliant streaks of color in his paintings, colors which are of course ever present in Cupcakes!

Peruse this gallery for examples.

Image Gallery:

Spencer C Shoults Paintings & Photographs

One Woman’s Version of the Southern Accent

by Lauren Lippeatt | October 30th, 2009

Many of us speak with some version of the Southern Accent. Some of us aren’t aware of it, some of us worked diligently to suppress it, and some of us aren’t even from the South originally, yet find ourselves saying “g'bah” instead of “goodbye.” Everyone who lives or has ever lived in the Southeastern United States understands that the Southern dialect is unmistakable. Read more...

Valley Creek Trib Trek II

by Janet Elizabeth... | October 28th, 2009

Our second installment of the trip up Birmingham's Black Warrior tributary, Valley Creek, features footage of the creek at the first point it hits the light of day on the Western side of town.

Video:

Hank Penny's Cowboy Swing

by Burgin Mathews | October 23rd, 2009

Listen:

There was a time—and these were great and glorious days—when country music teemed with Hanks. Consider the following dialogue from Charles Portis’ 1966 novel Norwood:

    “I’m trying to get into show business myself. Hillbilly music. You probably don’t like it.”
    “On the contrary, I do. Some of it. Hank what’s his name--?”
    “Hank Williams?”
    “No.”
    “Hank Thompson?” 
    “No.”
    “Hank Locklin?”
    “No.”
    “Hank Snow?” Read more...

Issue 02

Get Hexed on Wednesday the 28th

by Lauren Lippeatt | October 23rd, 2009

Will you get hexed at Hex and the City? Most likely not, but you never know. Next Wednesday's event, described by organizers as "an interactive networking event catering to Birmingham's young professionals," is certain to be one of the swankiest, coolest events Birmingham has seen in who-knows-how-long and it's located at one of the best venues in the city.

Read more...

Sweet Release, Bham - The Broken Letters

by Janet Elizabeth... | October 21st, 2009

Right now, I'm on the road with my longtime friend, Liz Durrett. Touring has always been rough stuff. It's dirty, it's exhausting, it's demoralizing, even. But these days, it's expensive. More people lose money on tours than make money. Even old tried and true venues around the country are dropping the cover charge in favor of just getting folks in to see the band. (It seems that we, driven by our anxiety over the "economy" are more prone to spontaneous spending than planned purchasing - so ticket sales have gone the way of cassette tapes.)
Read more...

Audio:

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All the Time

Letter from Janet

by Janet Elizabeth... | October 15th, 2009

Transformation seems to be what happens as soon as we get comfortable with the way things are. Or more specifically, once we firmly root ourselves in who we are, we can grow. Growth courses from the inevitude of change, whether it is at a cellular level or the body as a whole. Transformation can be intentional, unintentional, a factor of internal or external elements.

Synonyms for Transformation (according to thesaurus.com): flip-flop, alteration, conversion, metamorphasis, renewal, revolution, shift, transfiguration, transmutation...

When we are children, our transformations take place mostly unconsciously. They are rapid, constant, and we are largely unaware of them until our adult keepers point them out... "Look at how tall you are!"... "You can tie your shoes!"...
Read more...

From the Forge

by Jason Templin | October 14th, 2009

It's a familiar story really. Sure the bits and details are different, the names, locations, and times vary, but at its heart the story of Birmingham's Iron Man could be anyone's story. The basic themes of trial and triumph, loss and redemption are so universal they comprise the quarks of our daily lives as well as the cosmos of our destinies. Our existence determined equally by the moments we exact our wills upon our fates as by those we find ourselves subject to it. Our humanity told in how we can set our sights upon a spear tip pointed audaciously at the heavens even as we stand bare-assed to the world.

Read more...

More Images:

Artist in Residence - Spencer C Shoults

by Janet Elizabeth... | October 14th, 2009

Spencer C Shoults is NOT an artist whose paintings draw the eye of the collector of quaint landscapes or sunny abstracts. His art is neither quiet nor still. Nor is it exactly loud and full of motion. Instead, it is steady, persistent in its impressions, and full of layers that show his process. He works dilligently and constantly with many different medium, elements, and ideas. What is contiguous is his sense of humor and story - the viewer is party to an open ended dialogue with each piece. Shoults plays with our sense of things, makes us uncomfortable without us exactly knowing why -- at least at first.

Read more...

Photo Gallery Link:

Cupcakes!

Moments and Pathways, Birmingham and Everywhere

by Dan Carsen | October 14th, 2009

Pavo Magazine birmingham transformation dan carsen

In almost four decades of observing and pondering, one of the few sure things I’ve come up with is that there’s a pattern that exists throughout the living world. If you’ve ever stared at a fan coral from behind goggles or the windows of a glass-bottom boat, you know what I’m talking about. If you’ve ever marveled at the veins in a leaf or the intricacies of just a drawing of your own blood vessels, you know what I’m getting at. If you’ve ever looked at a tree – family, evolutionary, or wood – you know what I mean. It’s that pattern of one thick central trunk, which splits into smaller branches, each of which splits into smaller-than-that branches, and so on. That this pattern exists all around the living universe is interesting enough. It sort of makes sense: it’s the manifestation of a need – often the transportation of something – being met in the physical world in an efficient way. But what really caught my mind about it years ago was the fact that, besides being everywhere physically, it’s everywhere figuratively. Read more...