Archive for October, 2009
in the grip of fall
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009Vote 2009: City council, board of education runoff results
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009Final unofficial results from today’s Birmingham city council and board of education runoff elections, with 15,302 votes for a 14.5 percent voter turnout.
Incumbents Carol Duncan on the council and Carolyn Cobb and Odessa Ashley on the board lost their races, while four incumbents held on for another term.
City council, by district
2. Kim Rafferty
5. Johnathan Austin (I)
6. Carole Smitherman (I)
7. Jay Roberson
9. Roderick Royal (I)
Board of education, by district
3. Brian Giattina
4. Edward Maddox
6. Willie Maye (I)
7. Alana Edwards
(I) = incumbent
Also:
- City council and board of education runoffs on Tuesday
- City council, board of education election results
- Birmingham News endorsements then and now
- Vote as if your city’s life depended on it
• • •
More Vote 2009 coverage.
Wade on Birmingham: Happy Fourth Anniversary
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
For those of you who love milestones, we have a milestone.
Today marks the fourth anniversary of Wade on Birmingham, another year of exclusives and poems and slices of life from our favorite misfit Southern city. We’re still going strong after 2,280 previous posts. Whew.
A few of the highlights from the last 365 days …
- The Daily Haiku on this site is now featured on the Alltop Poetry page.
- You know what makes this blog go? Reality television. So why not cover a truly memorable season of “Survivor” with a couple of Alabamians?
- What’s stranger than reality television? Reality history. Meet Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks.
- I’ve picked up a new bad habit: tweeting (as shown above). You can witness the debacle at @WadeOnTweets.
- I’ve also picked up a new gig: teaching. Welcome to the Birmingham Blogging Academy.
I know Birmingham has its best days ahead. I look forward to sharing them with you.
Thanks for reading, for sharing, for talking back. On to Year 5!
• • •
Also:
the unblogged life
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009Vote 2009: City council and board of education runoffs on Tuesday
Monday, October 5th, 2009Districts 1 and 8, you can sit this one out. But for Tuesday’s runoffs for Birmingham city council and board of education, voters in the other seven districts have unfinished business.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. More voter info available in this earlier post.
Listed are the candidates still standing from the Aug. 25 general elections. The Birmingham News has made its endorsements, and in the seven races with incumbents, the editorial board endorsed only two, Carole Smitherman and Roderick Royal on the council.
City council, by district
2. Carol Duncan (I) and Kim Rafferty*
5. Johnathan Austin (I) and Elias Hendricks*
6. Carole Smitherman* (I) and Sheila Tyson
7. Jay Roberson* and Ernestine Williams
9. Leroy Bandy and Roderick Royal* (I)
Board of education, by district
3. Elisa Burns-Macon and Brian Giattina*
4. Carolyn Cobb (I) and Edward Maddox*
6. Gwendolyn Bell* and Willie Maye (I)
7. Odessa Ashley (I) and Alana Edwards*
(I) = incumbent
*Endorsed by the Birmingham News
Join us Tuesday for election results
on Wade on Birmingham.
More political news:
- City council, board of education election results
- Birmingham News endorsements then and now
- Vote as if your city’s life depended on it
- Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks
- Joey Kennedy explains what’s at stake in the runoffs
• • •
More Vote 2009 coverage.
mask of uncertainty
Monday, October 5th, 2009yard warfare
Sunday, October 4th, 2009The yard next door has
an abundance of leaves, which
makes this yard pristine.
• • •
Read more haiku.
trapped on a shuttle bus
Sunday, October 4th, 2009things you learn
Sunday, October 4th, 2009First look: ‘Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness’ at the Birmingham Museum of Art
Thursday, October 1st, 2009Yale collection in town Sunday through Jan. 10
The Birmingham Museum of Art is the last of three stops for “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery” after Seattle and Louisville, Ky. The collection features 232 works from the late 17th century up to the brink of the 20th century.
The museum held a media preview today. Here’s an exclusive sneak peek …
Video: Graham C. Boettcher, curator of American art
at the Birmingham Museum of Art, discusses
“General George Washington at Trenton”
by John Trumbull.
Boettcher discusses Edward Hicks’
“The Peaceable Kingdom and Penn’s Treaty.”
“The Bermuda Group (Dean Berkeley and His Entourage),”
by John Smibert, is considered the
first painting done by a trained artist
on American soil
“The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack
on Quebec, December 31, 1775,” by
John Trumbull, depicts the namesake
of Alabama’s capital.
Artist John Trumbull considered
“General George Washington at Trenton”
to be his best portrait of Washington.
Washington’s popularity spawned a “cult of Washington”
in which his likeness was used in art
and objects like a saint, such as
the mantel clock by Jean-Baptiste Dubuc shown here.
“Spinning By Firelight — The Boyhood of
George Washington Gray” is a work by Henry
Ossawa Tanner, who studied under noted artist
Thomas Eakins and was the first African-American artist
to gain international acclaim.
Jeremiah Dummer made these candlesticks
in Boston circa 1685, the only ones
in existence from that period by an American silversmith.
A teapot by patriot and silversmith Paul Revere.
“Self-Portrait” by John Trumbull
What’s remarkable about this photograph by
George Frederic Barker, appropriately titled “The Moon,”
was that it was shot around 1864,
with a camera and telescope. Note how the
image is reversed, because of the telescope’s reflected image.
“Poughkeepsie Iron Works (Bech’s Furnace),”
by Johann Hermann Carmiencke,
one of the landscape paintings in the exhibit.
This Albert Bierstadt painting, “Yosemite Valley,
Glacier Point Trail,” may remind museum visitors
of one majestic painting in the permanent collection,
“Looking Down Yosemite Valley, California.”
A series of sketches of the Amistad captives by
William H. Townsend, including a close-up of Boro.
“Portrait of George Eliot and Family,”
by Jonathan Budington, was one of
my personal favorites (though I have no idea why).
“The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776,”
by John Trumbull, doesn’t show
the signing, but merely a presentation of a draft version.
“Captain Cold or Ut-ha-wah,”
by William John Wilgus
“English Syndicate (British Gold)” is one of
several political cartoons by Thomas Nast,
“father of the American cartoon.”
The exhibit runs through Jan. 10. Tickets are $12, $10 for veterans, military members and age 65 and older, $6 for students, free for age 6 and younger.
- Official site
- Yale University Art Gallery press release [PDF]
- Birmingham News: “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art Exhibition opens in October at Birmingham Museum of Art”
