I'm Human A video by the students of Liberty Middle School in Madison, Alabama. Featuring the students and faculty of Liberty Middle School, Bob Jones High School, and James Clements High School; and the music of Sigur Rós. (SLYT)
posted by BitterOldPunk
on Jan 17, 2012 -
12 comments
Think making beer at home is legal? Depends where your home is.
In 1978, US President Carter signed H.R. 1337, which, among other things, provided an exemption from excise taxes on up to 100 gallons of
homemade wine and beer annually. It was still up to the individual states to decide whether or not to allow their citizens to brew.
33 years later,
homebrewing is a very popular hobby, legal almost all states.
Except
Mississippi and
Alabama. [more inside]
posted by Marky
on Jun 13, 2011 -
70 comments
Say, you wanna hear a sad song? Eddie Hinton was a guitar player, vocalist, and songwriter from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Co-writer of one of the tenderest, sexiest hits of the late 60s, Dusty Springfield's
Breakfast in Bed, Hinton was a key member of the world-famous
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section from 1967 to 1971 (turning down an invitation from Duane Allman to be a member of the Allman Brothers Band) who worked as a studio musician on albums by Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, the Staples Singers, and Toots Hibbert, but his early success was
sidetracked by mental problems, booze, and drugs.
[more inside]
posted by BitterOldPunk
on May 31, 2011 -
22 comments
A wave of powerful storm cells swept the southeastern United States this week, spawning
hundreds of tornadoes that wreaked havoc from Texas to Virginia. While damage was widespread throughout the region, the most terrible toll was seen in Alabama, which has accounted for two-thirds of
the more than 300 reported deaths -- the deadliest since the Great Depression -- and where
many small towns were simply wiped from the map. Especially hard-hit was the university town of Tuscaloosa, the state's fifth-largest, where a monstrous F5 tornado (seen in
this terrifying firsthand video) tore a
vicious track through entire neighborhoods and business districts -- narrowly missing the region's primary hospital -- and continuing a path that rained debris as far as Birmingham, over sixty miles away. The disaster
prompted a visit from President Obama today, who declared
"I've never seen devastation like this" after surveying the area with Governor Robert Bentley, Senator Richard Shelby, and
Mayor Walter Maddox. More: photos from
In Focus and
The Big Picture,
aerial footage of the aftermath,
"before and after" sliders, the path of the Tuscaloosa twister
on Google Maps,
People Locator,
local aid information,
MetaTalk check-in thread
posted by Rhaomi
on Apr 29, 2011 -
102 comments
"What happened here in Jefferson County would turn out to be the perfect metaphor for the peculiar alchemy of modern oligarchical capitalism: A mob of corrupt local officials and morally absent financiers got together to build a giant device that converted human shit into billions of dollars of profit for Wall Street" - "
Looting Main Street" Matt Taibbi takes an in-depth look into how finance, deregulation, corruption, synthetic rate swaps, and greed decimated Birmingham, AL.
[more inside]
posted by The Whelk
on Apr 12, 2010 -
42 comments
When we reach these, the bleakest and coldest days of winter, my mind inevitably turns towards the warm days of summer and one of America’s favorite pastimes:
Barbeque.
[more inside]
posted by shiu mai baby
on Feb 17, 2010 -
74 comments
Slugburgers, hamburgers in which the meat has been supplemented with bread, meal, or crackers for filler, come from a triangular region that cuts across northern Alabama, northern Mississippi, and southern Tennessee and roughly corresponds with
the Tennessee Valley. They're called slugburgers in
Moulton, Alabama;
Decatur, Alabama; and
Corinth, Mississippi; doughburgers in
Tupelo, Mississippi; and breadburgers in
Cullman, Alabama. This regional take on the hamburger
became popular during the Great Depression, when the price of meat made it necessary to use fillers to extend supply. Though the exact origin of the term is disputed, it is most commonly held that Slugburgers got their name from the coin used to pay for them: when each burger cost 5¢, you could pay for one with a nickel which was then also called a slug. Corinth, Mississippi, has held
an annual Slugburger Festival since 1988. Take
a photographic tour of the Slugburger Trail.
[more inside]
posted by ocherdraco
on Sep 18, 2009 -
78 comments
The black backs by and on which the fortunes of the New South were built:
On March 30, 1908, Green Cottenham was arrested by the sheriff of Shelby County, Alabama, and charged with “vagrancy.”... Cottenham’s offense was blackness.... [After a brief trial] Cottenham... was sold. Under a standing arrangement between the county and a vast subsidiary of the industrial titan of the North — U.S. Steel Corporation — the sheriff turned the young man over to the company for the duration of his sentence.... he was chained inside a long wooden barrack at night and required to spend nearly every waking hour digging and loading coal. His required daily “task” was to remove eight tons of coal from the mine. Cottenham was subject to the whip for failure to dig the requisite amount, at risk of physical torture for disobedience, and vulnerable to the sexual predations of other miners.... Forty-five years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freeing American slaves, Green Cottenham and more than a thousand other black men toiled under the lash at Slope 12.
— from the Introduction to
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil War to World War II. The
book's website includes
reviews of the book, an
excerpt of the Introduction, and an extensive photo gallery that includes
disturbing images of enslaved and tortured prisoners. [more inside]
posted by orthogonality
on Jun 21, 2008 -
94 comments
The
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section was comprised of four session musicians operating out of the tiny northern Alabama town of town
Muscle Shoals.
Just four unassuming crackers who happened to have provided the funky underpinning for a
huge number of hit songs by, among others,
Aretha Franklin,
Wilson Pickett,
Paul Simon,
Joe Cocker,
The Staple Singers ,
Jimmy Cliff and
many, many others. Hey, they were the
house band to the greats. Big respect to the men from
3614 Jackson Highway!
[note: see hoverovers for link descriptions] [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Feb 24, 2008 -
27 comments
Spartacus Roosevelt Hour Podcast is a weekly hour of obscure noise, glitchy electropop, fake nostalgia, bastardized exotica, tweaky lounge, creepy ambient and musical non-sequiturs. Also, it features an Alabaman with a Skype account named Spartacus Roosevelt.
posted by panoptican
on Feb 14, 2008 -
8 comments
The
Delmore Brothers, hailing from north Alabama and active from 1926 to 1952, were an early country and western duo that married effortlessly relaxed (but very polished)
harmonies with soulful
country-boogie blues. Bob Dylan said of them: "The Delmore Brothers, God, I really loved them! I think they've influenced every harmony I've ever tried to sing." They're sure worth some
listens, y'all.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Nov 7, 2007 -
13 comments
NewsFilter: "A Montgomery minister found in his home this summer died with his hands and feet bound behind his back and dressed in two rubberized suits, an offical autopsy showed. ... The Rev. Gary Michael Aldridge was found dead June 24. Police ruled the 51-year-old pastor of Thorington Road Baptist Church was alone at the time of his death and that there was no foul play involved."
He's a
Liberty University graduate and former Liberty dean.
[more inside]
posted by ibmcginty
on Oct 12, 2007 -
133 comments
You've got just over two weeks to make it to the
John Henry celebration in Leeds, Alabama, where some folks believe the legendary steel driving contest actually took place. Maybe you already made it to
John Henry Days in Talcott, West Virginia (or read a
fictionalized account), where some more folks claim the same. John Garst, Scott Nelson, and other folklorists weigh in
here, supplemented by a wealth of links and resources on the subject. While you think on it let
Mississippi Fred McDowell,
The Boss,
Ralph Stanley,
John Jackson,
Merle Travis, and
Jason Isbell tell their own versions.
John Garst and his research mentioned
previously.
posted by Roman Graves
on Aug 28, 2007 -
17 comments
Patricia Todd won a tight Democratic party runoff in District 54 in Alabama. Patricia Todd is also gay and would be the first gay representative in Alabama's history. Gaynell Hendricks doesn't understand why she lost, but maybe it has to do with the
race baiting . Hendricks' mother-in-law
contests the election for numerous reasons including "illegal votes were given to Todd" and said that "I want this controversy settled.This is happening like when Bush and Gore were running for president. I don't like it." Unsurprisingly, "Hendricks said she is pleased that someone challenged the results. "
Weeks go by and the results don't get certified. A five member committee is appointed and
bickers. Eventually the committee refrerences an old by law that has apparently not been enforced since 1988 to
disqualify Todd. Although it does not seem quite
over, it should be by tommorrow.
Interestingly enough, Todd said she believes the challenge has nothing to do with the fact she is gay, but is about the fact that she is white and won in a majority black district.
posted by dig_duggler
on Aug 25, 2006 -
38 comments
Flash for cash If you contribute to her campaign Loretta Nall is going to show you the biggest boobs in Alabama politics.
posted by nyxxxx
on May 2, 2006 -
28 comments
Pot, boobies and panties in the Alabama Govenors Race Loretta Nall is running for govenor of Alabama on the Marijuana Party ticket and also trying to the the nomination from the Libertarian Party.
Her cleavage recently became an issue when a columnist for an Alabama newspaper got huffy because his newspaper ran a picture of her showing cleavage.
But that's not all. Ms. Nall was also denied permission to see her brother in jail because she wasn't wearing panties.
She tells all about it in her blog.
posted by nyxxxx
on Mar 24, 2006 -
50 comments
Some of the best still images of what remains in Hurricane Katrina's wake are up over at the
Washington Post; there are a lot of compelling shots there that put into perspective the horror of the situation. If you're looking for a well-edited group of photos that convey what the Gulf coast has faced over the past few days, and will face in the coming months, this is it; I'm in awe of the photographers that continue to work hard to document the disaster.
posted by delfuego
on Sep 1, 2005 -
48 comments
Alabama lawmaker to introduce a novel new way to keep people from catching "the gay". I can hear the ACLU drooling from here. Does the state have any power to limit the books available in a public library?
posted by ozomatli
on Feb 9, 2005 -
53 comments
American Savagery. "Our role was to try to keep people motivated about [the] election and then to undermine the other side's support by casting them as liars, cheaters, stealers, immoral—all of that." The brutal chicanery of
Karl Rove.
posted by four panels
on Oct 18, 2004 -
25 comments
Oh, You Mean Those Records The Pentagon released "newly discovered payroll records from President Bush's 1972 service in the Alabama National Guard." The earlier statement that the records were inadvertently destroyed was an "inadvertent oversight."
[Previously discussed here and here.]
posted by kirkaracha
on Jul 23, 2004 -
39 comments
Judgment Day: Roy Moore faces the music for defying federal law. Misconduct aside, will Roy Moore become a martyr? I think he should go, but is it wise? I believe it is; I mean someone needs to reign the "runaway" judiciary the Republicans are always talking about. (Who knew that their own straw-man would bite them it the ass?)
posted by Bag Man
on Nov 11, 2003 -
23 comments
Mr. Civil Rights reaches out Other, bigger fish ex-CEOs of companies brought down to earth by major accounting, shall we say, woes, may be keeping quiet, even if they haven't been convicted of anything. But not former
HealthSouth exec and would-be platinum
girl group-manager Richard M. Scrushy, who not only has
flaunted his wealth as of late, but produced a personal web site that plays up his humble Alabama roots and which, in a totally bizarre fashion, links his struggle to the Civil Rights Movement. (Note: The site's all screwed up on Mozilla, designed strictly for IE.)
posted by raysmj
on Oct 30, 2003 -
7 comments
