The last chocolate chip.
The text message saying yes.
The sun settling down.

• • •

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With a few weeks left till Election Day, voters still have time to study the candidates and issues.

We have the sample ballots for Jefferson and Shelby Counties for the general election. (The Jefferson County ballot has 178 versions, one for every sub-district.)

Find your polling place/districts.

The ballot has five state amendments, top state and county offices, plus one contested Congressional seat for the metro area.

And check out the Alabama Voter Guide 2014, with voting procedures and frequently asked questions.

For easier viewing, you can print, download or zoom to full screen with each ballot.

Election Day is Nov. 4.

• • •

Sample ballots for all 67 counties.

• • •

Jefferson County

[Mobile version]

• • •

Shelby County

[Mobile version]

• • •

Alabama Voter Guide 2014

[Mobile version]

• • •

More Vote 2014 coverage.

Her magnetic smile
kept me going through the lulls
and hiccups. Thank you.

• • •

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Cask and Drum takes place in Lakeview on Saturday.

Video: “Live Forever,” by Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors

The second annual Cask and Drum music festival takes place in Lakeview on Saturday. Included in this year’s event is the sixth annual Kick’n Chick’n Wing Fest and a tent with 12 TV sets showing college football throughout the day.

Schedule

The event runs from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday between First and Second Avenues South and 27th Street in Lakeview [map].

Tickets are $30 in advance and available online. Proceeds from the event benefit Magic Moments, a Birmingham-based nonprofit organization granting wishes to children in Alabama with life-threatening medical conditions.

Video: “Tolerated,” by Girl Talk and Freeway,
featuring Waka Flocka Flame

Video: “Used to Be a Cop,” by Drive-By Truckers

https://vimeo.com/93424213

Video: Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires on “We Have Signal”

Cask and Drum

• Website | Facebook | Twitter @caskanddrum | Instagram

What they have, we want.
What they struggle with, we mock.
What they do, we shun.

• • •

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Audio: “The Beat Goes On,” by Gabriel Tajeu

Musician/doctoral candidate/ TEDx Birmingham performer Gabriel Tajeu released a new single Tuesday. “The Beat Goes On” features his social justice message with a mix of rock and soul.

Tajeu sang it at March’s TEDx event, along with “Raindrops and “Southern Skies.”

Video: Gabriel Tajeu at TEDx Birmingham 2014

Gabriel Tajeu:

• Website | Facebook | Twitter @gabrieltajeu | Instagram
• iTunes | Amazon [aff. links]

He declared his love
in a beautiful text that
was stuck in the cloud.

• • •

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Birmingham mayor William Bell speaks at the National Press
Club on Sept. 25 in Washington to campaign for the 2016
Democratic National Convention.

Birmingham mayor William Bell has not sat still for long. Since August 2011, he has traveled out of state on city business some 37 times, including 17 trips to Washington.

AL.com received information on the trips from city spending forms, including the total cost, $65,000. He most recently visited Japan in September for the Southeast U.S./Japan Association meeting, at the request of Gov. Bentley, and spoke at the National Press Club later in the month in Washington.

Official trips for the City of Birmingham, August 2011-July 2014:

*One trip combined with Baltimore, one with New York and one with New Orleans and Point Clear.

Al.com columnist John Archibald lists five other trips for Bell in that period. The City of Birmingham did not pay for these excursions:

• Ferguson, Mo.
• Geneva
• Liverpool
• Paris
• Saudi Arabia

Mayor Bell has traveled out of state 42 times in 3 years. For comparison, President Obama has traveled out of country 37 times in 6 years.

A nation forged by
exhaustion, expectations
and excesses. (Yawn!)

• • •

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Birmingham, July 2014
Photo: Wally Argus (CC)

Nine years ago, I
started blogging every day
on this very site.

I serve as a scribe,
reporter, commentator,
blogger and poet.

Birmingham is my
muse, an endless source of great
hope and frustration.

The secret is out,
as travelers flock to our
bistros and taprooms.

Underneath, the schools
continue their decay, in
foundation, in minds.

Room enough here for
hipsters to congregate and
leaders to plunder.

The good intentions
are not enough to wipe out
the lingering stench.

What will become of
our home, our community
and our livelihoods?

Birmingham’s motto:
“The people are the city.”
A blessing and curse.

• • •

First, second, third, fourth and fifth and eighth anniversary posts.

Sloss Furnaces, July 2014
Photo: Shannon (CC)

How lovely are the
simple sweets of our youth when
shared over some tea?

• • •

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A slight chill and a
few goose bumps settle in as
winter looms closer.

• • •

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He left the shore with
no cares, sailing toward home with
the promise of kin.

• • •

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The flow of jumbled
thoughts and half-truths sputtered to
more nonstop drivel.

• • •

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Better to ask for
forgiveness than to obtain
permission before.

• • •

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