A look at Birmingham in videos …

Keep Birmingham weird? From Igor N. Rykov.

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An Oxmoor Landing homeowner deals with flooding. From Lisa Antoine.

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Skateboarding around town in the late 1990s. From Haoyan of America.

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The first Sloss Music and Arts Festival, filmed on a GoPro Hero 3 and an iPhone 5s. From Anagrace Salem.

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Birmingham City Schools Band Camp 2015. From Magic Moody Films.

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Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit performs “Emmylou” at Sloss Fest. From Seth Nelson.

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The Avett Brothers performs “Walking for You” at Sloss Fest. From Donna Gobbell.

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Attendees of the first Magic City Con this weekend at the Cahaba Grand Conference Center share their experiences. From Starnes Publishing.

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Celebrating Birmingham Black Marriage Day in March at the Harambe Room downtown. From CaptuREAL Photo and Design.

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Soca artist Island Rooster performs at Caribbean Day in June at Linn Park downtown. From Island Rooster.

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A look at WWE Smackdown earlier this month at the BJCC Legacy Arena downtown. From SmackTalk420.

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Attempting to fly into the Birmingham airport through a major storm. From Brandon Snider.

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The competition during June’s Magic City Mega Bowl disc golf tournament at George Ward Park. From The Disc Golf Channel.

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Promo for OnBoard Birmingham, a program to help regional employers recruit and retain young professionals. From Birmingham Business Alliance.

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Brandy Wood talks about her guide dog, Rascal, and her work at the Southeastern Blind Rehabilitation Center on Southside. From Starnes Publishing.

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A look ahead to the Birmingham Bowl’s 10th anniversary celebration on Dec. 30. From Birmingham Bowl.

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Michael Greer lacrosse highlight reel. From Susan Bryan.

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Promo for art pieces on Railroad Park from photographer Ginnard Archibald and painter Joseph Longoria. From Ginnard Archibald.

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Speeches from a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders earlier this month at Good People Brewing Company on Southside. From Left in Alabama.

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Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World performs “Polaris” and “The Kill” earlier this month at Saturn in Avondale. From Thomas Kreutzer.

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A family’s summer outing to the Birmingham Zoo. From Ken Lee.

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Tennessee country artist Shelby Lee Lowe performs in the Battle of the Bands earlier this month at Tin Roof in Lakeview (our vertical video of the week). From Dollar Bill Lawson.

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Primus performs “My Name is Mud” at Sloss Fest. From Mike Wallace.

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Artist Yaacov Agam signs his recently restored “Complex Vision,” a massive kinetic sculpture on the side of the Callahan Eye Hospital on Southside. From UAB News.

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More. Sloss. Fest. From Pedroam Marashi.

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Support group UAB Connections holds Dinner in the Dark in June, giving blindfolded diners an opportunity to experience a meal with a visual impairment. From UAB News.

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Send us links to your videos. | More videos on the Birmingham channel.

The following chapter is an excerpt from Birmingham author Blake Ells’ “The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME” [aff. link]. He is a public relations professional and music journalist, having written for AL.com, the Birmingham Post-Herald, the Birmingham News, Weld for Birmingham and Birmingham magazine.

His book looks at FAME Publishing, the epicenter of the musical revolution coming out of Muscle Shoals starting in the 1960s.

In this excerpt, we see the start of FAME and how Muscle Shoals has felt some, but not all, of its place in music history …

• • •

Chapter 2, FAME

There are a few Muscle Shoals stories of fame. There’s that one, the tale of a community at a crossroads hoping to age gracefully but not knowing how. There’s the fame that existed before the Quad Cities became known as the “Hit Recording Capital of the World,” the foundation that was built by Dexter and Ray Johnson, James Joiner and W.C. Handy’s blues before them. And there’s Florence Alabama Music Enterprises (FAME), the publishing company that evolved into a recording studio founded by Rick Hall, Billy Sherrill and Tom Stafford in 1959.

The original FAME Recording Studios was located above City Drug Store in Florence, Ala., the birth of the acronym that became a proper noun. The partnership dissolved, and the facility moved to another location on the south side of the Tennessee River briefly before Hall built the current studio at its Avalon Avenue location in Muscle Shoals. Arthur Alexander’s “You Better Move On” had achieved immeasurable success, having been covered by the Rolling Stones, and Hall’s empire was born.

The session musicians at FAME were known as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, and the first version consisted of Norbert Putnam, Peanut Montgomery, David Briggs and Jerry Carrigan. It was the second Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section that Lynyrd Skynyrd immortalized as “The Swampers” in “Sweet Home Alabama”: David Hood, Jimmy Johnson, Barry Beckett and Roger Hawkins. Junior Lowe, Spooner Oldham and Duane Allman also spent time in this version of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, but the first four men were the partners who would leave in 1969 to found their own Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield. Lowe bridged the divide to the first FAME Gang (a later incarnation of FAME’s rhythm section), Oldham largely stayed until he left for Memphis and Allman would leave to form an eponymous Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band of his own.

The group backed hits recorded by Wilson Pickett, Candi Staton, James and Bobby Purify, Clarence Carter, Arthur Conley, Etta James and, most notably, Aretha Franklin while under Hall’s roof. It was a famous, alcohol-soaked confrontation between Hall and the latter’s husband, Ted White, that is largely responsible for the collaboration’s demise. White was heavily intoxicated, and conflict emerged between himself and a trumpet player on the session. Hall’s efforts to defuse it didn’t help, and Franklin left Muscle Shoals. The Swampers joined her to finish her record and record a few more, including “Respect.” Shortly after their return from New York, their own studio was born, the location that welcomed Cher, Paul Simon and the Rolling Stones.

“In the ’60s and ’70s, there were periods every two or three months that we would have 10 percent of the Hot 100 in the world from our studio,” Jimmy Johnson said. “I think about it now, and I shake my head. I don’t even think we realized what we were doing. We were paying $50 a month for rent on that building. We started cutting some hits. That was the whole key. No hits? No business. We didn’t have to advertise. They’d look at Billboard and Record World and Cashbox, and that’s how they came. Based on the charts. That’s how we got known.”

But the departure of the Swampers wasn’t the end of FAME. Not even close. In 1971, Billboard named Hall “Producer of the Year” as he soldiered on with other incarnations of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, backing several styles of music into the new millennium. The Fame Gang carried on FAME’s tradition throughout the ’70s and ’80s with at least two formal versions but probably three or four: Junior Lowe, Harrison Calloway, Jesse Boyce, Aaron Varnell, Ronnie Eades, Mickey Buckins, Harvey Thompson, Clayton Ivey and Freeman Brown composed the first version, while Ralph Ezell, Chalmers Davis, Walt Aldridge, Jimmy English, Owen Hale and David Barone were the second, but definitive lines of where one group’s tenure finished and another began were blurry.

“I think it was FAME Gang Four or Five, actually,” joked Chalmers Davis.

A 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Dewey Lindon “Spooner” Oldham Jr. isn’t usually remembered as being a part of the Swampers. The entirety of his stay in the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section was under the FAME roof, throughout most of the ’60s. He left for Memphis in 1967 to join his songwriting partner Dan Penn. It’s his organ heard on “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge and “I Never Loved a Man” by Aretha Franklin. With Penn, he penned “I’m Your Puppet” by James and Bobby Purify and “A Woman Left Lonely” by Sledge. His departure from Muscle Shoals paved the way for Beckett’s full-fledged membership into the group.

“My songwriting partner, Dan Penn, had moved to Memphis to work in a new studio called American,” Oldham said. “He was gone a year before I decided to join him there. I was missing the songwriting partnership that we had at FAME. I didn’t want to abandon Rick Hall, and I was loyal to Barry Beckett. He had come up from Pensacola. We were walking from the studio to the grocery store one day to grab a soda pop, and he asked me if he could get some session work, and a light bulb went off in my head. Because [Beckett] could do anything that I did. So he came here, and I went to Memphis.”

Oldham eventually moved to Los Angeles. He backed Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker, Jackson Browne, Bob Seger, the Everly Brothers, J.J. Cale and Frank Black. He recorded Neil Young’s Harvest Moon and Amos Lee’s Last Days at the Lodge. He joined Drive-By Truckers for 2007’s The Dirt Underneath tour. He was a nomad.

“I remember touring with Dylan, and he called me in my hotel room one day, which he never did,” said Oldham. “We’d talk at the gigs and ride to the shows together on the bus. He would sit in his seat, and we’d sit in ours, and you didn’t talk a whole lot. But we were in Boston, I believe. And he said, ‘Would you walk with me to the record store? They want me to sign some records, and I’ve never done that.’ This was in ’80 or ’81. It was winter. I was cold, and I had on a long overcoat, and I said, ‘Bob, I’m cold.’ And he said to me, ‘I like it. It makes me feel alive.'”

In the half century that FAME has served as the centerpiece for the Muscle Shoals music scene, it has been responsible for “You Better Move On” by Arthur Alexander; “Steal Away” by Jimmy Hughes; “What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am” by the Tams; “Hold On to What You’ve Got” by Joe Tex; “Slip Away” and “Patches” by Clarence Carter; “Mustang Sally,” “Funky Broadway,” “Land of a Thousand Dances” and “Hey Jude” by Wilson Pickett; and “I Never Loved a Man” and “Do Right Woman” by Aretha Franklin. Arthur Conley’s “Sweet Soul Music” was cut in the same room, as were a string of hits by the Osmonds, including “Down by the Lazy River,” “One Bad Apple” and “Yo-Yo.”

As disco took over and sessions slowed, Hall, like his peers at other studios in Muscle Shoals, collected a group of songwriters and shaped the sound of Nashville in the ’80s. Walt Aldridge penned hits for Ronnie Milsap (“There’s No Gettin’ Over Me”), John Anderson (“She Sure Got Away with My Heart”) and Ricky Van Shelton (“Crime of Passion”).

Although FAME sold its publishing company in 1989, a new publishing company was soon formed by Hall and his three sons: Rick Jr., Mark and Rodney. Gary Baker penned one of the biggest hits that FAME was ever responsible for in 1994, John Michael Montgomery’s “I Swear,” a crossover hit that was later covered by pop act All-4-One. Mark Hall added Tim McGraw’s “I Like It, I Love It” to the Halls’ resume in 1996, shortly before joining his brothers Rodney and Rick to buy the remaining shares of the company from their father.

Under their ownership in the new millennium, FAME has scored hits from George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Alabama, Dixie Chicks, Sara Evans, Chris LeDoux, Travis Tritt and Billy Ray Cyrus, among others. Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers produced Bettye LaVette’s “The Scene of the Crime” there, and his band recorded “The Dirty South” there. Jason Isbell signed a publishing deal with FAME and recorded his debut, “Sirens of the Ditch,” there before leaving to tour with Drive-By Truckers. His publishing deal with FAME covers his catalogue up to the 2013 critically acclaimed and award-winning “Southeastern.”

James LeBlanc came to town and penned a number of hits, including “Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde,” which he coauthored with Walt Aldridge. The Travis Tritt tune peaked at No. 8 on the U.S. Hot Country chart and remains the singer’s most recent Top 10 hit. He penned “Learning How to Bend,” a Top 10 single recorded by Gary Allan. And LeBlanc wrote “Relentless” with Aldridge’s disciple, John Paul White, for Jason Aldean, a song that reached No. 15. His collaborations connected the past and present of Muscle Shoals as significantly as anyone.

“I met John Paul — he was working at Sam’s [Club] selling computers,” said FAME’s Rodney Hall. “We struck up a friendship there, and I said, ‘Well, why don’t you come over and sing?’ I gave him some of Walt’s tracks, and he came over and sang them. They were country. He wasn’t what he is now.”

This all happened — well, most of it — at a building on the corner of Woodward and Avalon Avenues in Muscle Shoals, Ala. And it’s still happening. The centerpiece, the foundation, the FAME that gave the community fame is a modest structure that has had little renovation and little updating over the majority of its 50 years. It’s nearly hidden now, as a CVS Pharmacy covers it to the Woodward Avenue side. Predictably, a Walgreens faces the historic studio from the other side of Avalon Avenue, while a Pizza Hut and Sweet Peppers Deli surround the building’s eastern side. There’s a mall, Southgate, that is barely surviving nearby, and Muscle Shoals High School isn’t far, either.

But the rest of Woodward and Avalon Avenues are covered with fast food restaurants, liquor stores, check cashing storefronts and doughnut shops. Back then, there was even less. There are affluent people in the community, but there aren’t enough jobs to ensure that there are many. There are teachers, lawyers, bankers and doctors, as there have always been. And there’s the Tennessee Valley Authority, which became the area’s largest employer after Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act and brought new life to an area devastated by the Great Depression. But the businesses that line the highways of Muscle Shoals proper line the highways of every blue-collar town in America. It’s far less romantic than the sounds it has created, sounds of which the community was unaware.

“In my household, all those songs that David and Roger and Jimmy and Spooner and Dan and all those guys played on, I had heard them a thousand times,” said Greenhill native Jay Burgess, lead singer of Muscle Shoals-based, Single Lock Records product the Pollies. “But I didn’t know that was Spooner playing piano. I didn’t realize that was David playing bass. I didn’t know that that was them. I knew I liked the songs, and I listened to it. I grew up here. I can remember being a kid and driving by FAME, and I’d ask Mom what it was, and she’d just say, ‘It’s a recording studio.’ It wasn’t that big of a deal for these guys — they walked around constantly. You’d see them everywhere. Those two words, ‘Muscle Shoals,’ were never really that big of a deal to me. That was one of the four cities. That’s all it was.”

Musicians came to Muscle Shoals because it wasn’t self-aware, and only now is the community beginning to realize its own appeal. It took outsiders to do that. It took the 2013 documentary “Muscle Shoals” and Billy Reid. It didn’t happen when the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, the Swampers or Fame Gang One, Fame Gang Two or Fame Gang Four or Five cut the biggest hits in the world. And if it didn’t happen when Mac McAnally and Donnie Lowery penned “Old Flame” for Alabama, it sure wasn’t going to happen when Patterson Hood tried to make it with a rock ‘n’ roll band with a punk rock attitude in 1991.

It didn’t happen when rumors would fly of acts like the Backstreet Boys sneaking into town during the height of their career, and it hasn’t happened when Alicia Keys has done the same.

Today, Court Street is the center of the Muscle Shoals arts community, but Court Street is in Florence. Rivertown Coffee is a block away on Seminary, and on any given Tuesday, you’ll find John Paul White or Donnie Fritts spending uninterrupted hours sitting at a table enjoying a cup of coffee. Some of it is because the community is polite, but most of it is because the community has no idea the magnitude of celebrity that calls it home.

Athens, Ga., residents won’t hesitate to remind you that they have 60 bars in six blocks. Seattle knows that it was the center of the grunge universe. Austin’s economy has always received a significant boost as the home to South by Southwest. But only recently have Muscle Shoals, Florence, Sheffield and Tuscumbia begun to realize their own appeal.

“If you acted too good, you were bullied,” said John Paul White at the 2013 Billy Reid Shindig. “To our detriment, we don’t want to sing our own praises. Who are we? Who are we to do that?”

Since 1982, the community has hosted the W.C. Handy Music Festival each summer in honor of its namesake native son. And each of those years, the festival, which engulfs every bar, restaurant and street corner in the Quad Cities, has seen musicians who have played on some of the biggest hits that were ever recorded — those hits that were recorded at FAME — jamming on cover versions at parks (like Wilson Park) and chain restaurants (like Red Lobster or Outback Steakhouse). These days, that’s a normal Thursday on Court Street.

David Hood, Scott Boyer, N.C. Thurman, Mike Dillon and Kelvin Holly have spent several years performing as the Decoys. Barry Billings will join half of Jason Isbell’s backing band, the 400 Unit (Jimbo Hart and Chad Gamble), on weekends at DP’s in Sheffield. Rob Malone, who recorded and helped write the first three Drive-By Truckers records, including “Southern Rock Opera,” often performs with Rob Aldridge at bars like On the Rocks. These artists are around, and it’s been that way for 50 years.

Outsiders began to discover the story of FAME, and the community has slowly become self-aware of its own fame.

• • •

Blake Ells will have an appearance Aug. 29 at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in Tuscumbia. Visit his site for more details.

“The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME” (June 29, Arcadia Publishing)

• Amazon [aff. link] | iTunes [aff. link]
• Podcast by al.com | Interview with the (Florence) TimesDaily

Blake Ells

• Website | Facebook | Twitter @blakeells

Also

• Read an excerpt from “Muscle Shoals Sound Studio”
• The 2013 documentary “Muscle Shoals”

A look at Birmingham in videos …

Cage the Elephant lead singer Matt Shultz goes crowd surfing during its set this weekend at the first Sloss Music and Arts Festival. From Carson Meadows.

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Sarah Collins Rudolph receives an award from the Birmingham Pledge at an event commemorating the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. From Sandy Jaffe.

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Orlando Renegades vs. Birmingham Stallions on May 27, 1985, at Legion Field. Stallions win 41-17. From USFL Forever.

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Singer Chris Brown performs Dec. 21 at the BJCC Arena downtown. From ChatinWitTrena.

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A recap of the Chattanooga Lookouts vs. Birmingham Barons. From Big Orange TTM.

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Birmingham, now whiter than ever. From the Stewart/Perry Company.

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Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band performs “With a Little Help From My Friends” on Feb. 15 at the BJCC Concert Hall. From Eric Hawley.

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A look inside the Negro Southern League Museum on Southside. From Alabama NewsCenter.

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Art’s second trip to St. John Kame Coptic Orthodox Church in Homewood. From Art Nichols.

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Singer Alvin Garrett hanging with the fellas after a recent performance in Birmingham (our vertical video of the week). From Alvin Garrett.

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Desmond Gullett sings the National Anthem at the start of a Birmingham Barons game (our other vertical video of the week). From Desmond Gullett.

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Time lapse of the Birmingham skyline. From Steven Nave.

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Railroad crossing on 24th Street; note the mechanical bell. From freebrickproductions.

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A confrontation with a Birmingham police officer over filming federal buildings downtown (our other other vertical video of the week). From Lynwood Golden.

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Sloss Fest, day 1. From Sloss Music and Arts Festival.

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Driving through Birmingham at night. From Eric Morgan.

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Trying out the skid pad at the Porsche Sport Driving School, Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds. From Laura.

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William Flowers, of the white supremacist group League of the South, speaks at a Confederate monument rally in Linn Park. From William Flowers.

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A look at the Summer Engineering Experience for Kids at Avondale Elementary. From Alabama NewsCenter.

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Boston rock band the Pixies perform “Velouria” on May 6 at Iron City on Southside. From treser62.

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Time Inc. building more test kitchens on Homewood campus. From WIAT 42.

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Music video for “Take It Away” by Bessemer gospel singer Netra. From Terri D. Smith.

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A mild disagreement downtown. From LiveLeak.

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Music video for “Grip” by Birmingham hip hop artist Lil Haze. From Dapper Donn.

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Music video for “Don’t Close” by Birmingham singer Jou. From UAB Film.

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Author John Green files an update from the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport while touring to promote his new movie “Paper Towns.” From vlogbrothers.

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Jonathan Jackson, star of “Nashville,” and Enation perform “Let the Beauty Out” June 18 at the Nick on Southside. From Outlaw Films.

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John Oliver discusses the Vestavia Hills High mascot the Rebel Man on “Last Week Tonight.” From Berto Majden.

• • •

Send us links to your videos. | More videos on the Birmingham channel.

A look at Birmingham in videos …

Soccer fans the American Outlaws watch the World Cup championship match pitting the United States against Japan at Good People Brewing Company on Southside. From ng11787.

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Jazz singer Esperanza Spalding performs July 1 at Iron City on Southside (our vertical video of the week). From Iris Navarro.

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Highlights from the second annual Birmingham Black Rodeo in June at Legacy Arena downtown. From Randy Wilborn.

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Birmingham, the perfect place for the upcoming Southeast Creation Conference, “uncovering the scientific evidence for creation.” From Institute for Creation Research.

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Iowa heavy metal band Slipknot performs in May at the Oak Mountain Amphitheatre in Pelham. From Brian Kell.

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Walking the cross near Uptown. From Jesus Is Real.

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Nashville blues artist Keb’ Mo’ performs “She Just Wants to Dance” in May at Iron City. From treser62.

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Praise break at the 2012 International AIM Convention in Birmingham. From Dorothea Cast.

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Hunter Jackson from Birmingham leaves a perfectly good plane. From Chattanooga Skydiving Company.

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The Church of God in Christ orchestra and the youth choir perform “I Wanna Be Holy” at the 2012 International AIM Convention in Birmingham. From Dorothea Cast.

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The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is part of Latino New South, a project designed to put it in touch with the city’s Latino community. From ArtsFwd.

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Birmingham mayor William Bell addressed the new roundabout and other improvements to Cahaba Road at a ribbon cutting on July 1. From Starnes Publishing.

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A farm family visits the Birmingham Zoo. From Farmtales.

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Dweezil Zappa and Zappa Plays Zappa perform Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention’s “Sofa No. 2” in April at Iron City. From treser62.

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Birmingham sunset on June 27. From David McElroy.

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The American Institute of Architects visits Pratt City on the 3-year anniversary of the April 27, 2011, tornado, documenting progress on neighborhood recovery and community building. From Joel Mills.

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A look at Operation HOPE Community Service. From LaTanya Millhouse.

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Teen Caitlyn shares her family vacation in Birmingham. From PassionatexBeautyx.

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The Yes We Code bus tour stops in June in Birmingham. From Alabama NewsCenter.

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See episodes from the 7-year run of concert series “We Have Signal.”

• • •

Send us links to your videos. | More videos on the Birmingham channel.

Video: Ex Hex on “We Have Signal”

The popular Avondale venue Bottletree Cafe closed on March 31 after 9 years of shows, drinks and vegetarian-friendly fare.

Tonight marks the final new episode of “We Have Signal,” the public TV series that brought Bottletree shows to the world.

The concert program aired on Thursday nights on Alabama Public Television since 2008. Some 131 half-hour episodes later, it bows with DC punk band Ex Hex, filmed Jan. 23.

The show won a regional Emmy Award in 2009. Each episode featured performance clips and backstage interviews with musicians. Most of the shows are available on Vimeo.

“We Have Signal” airs at 10 tonight on APT 10.1, with repeats at 10:30 tonight and 11 p.m. Sunday.

“We Have Signal”

• Website | Facebook | Twitter @wehavesignal | Vimeo

Video: The Green Seed and S. Fly, from Birmingham

Video: Beach House, from Baltimore

Video: Cordero, from New York

Video: Ghost, from Tokyo

Video: Monotonix, from Tel Aviv

Video: Waxahatchee, from New York, by way of Birmingham

A look at Birmingham in videos …

Fireworks, part 1, Red Mountain. From Caleb Light.

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Fireworks, part 2, Oak Mountain. From Corey Scogin.

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George Washington pulls sword from Dan Meyer at American Village’s Independence Day celebration. From Dan Meyer.

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Summer 2015 mission trip Project Cam. From World Changers.

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Performance by band La Dinastía. From Jose Aranda.

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The Birmingham Grotto trip to Gross Skeleton Cave in Jackson County. From Jeff Harrod.

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Gadsden native and rapper Yelawolf performs “Catfish Billy” in June at Iron City on Southside (our vertical video of the week). From Yonderhome.

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Promo for annual charity event Project Homeless Connect. From One Roof.

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The Birmingham-based Guadalupan Missionary Sisters of the Holy Spirit is a finalist for the Catholic Extension’s 2015 Lumen Christi Award. From cathextension.

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Fast-food workers go on strike for wages of $15 an hour. From al.com.

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Birmingham Community Mass Choir performs on “Atlanta Live” in May. From Emanuel Macon.

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Ashley Roberts and Colleen Perry sing a duet with the Unity Band. From Unity of Birmingham.

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Performing as Vulcan at DANCEe’s “Vulcanalia.” From Mario Gates.

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Swimming at the Turkey Creek Nature Preserve in Pinson. From al.com.

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A look at the 2015 Alabama Auto Show in spring at the BJCC Exhibition Hall. From Griffin Meyer.

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Behind the scenes of a traveling musical from Highland Christian Church in Asheville, N.C. From Story of God.

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A jaripeo bull riding competition. From Jose Aranda.

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Tourists document their visit to Birmingham’s Civil Rights District. From Ian Robinson.

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Biking group rolls through Mountain Brook. From Wes Douglas.

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Shooting for Beanie Babies at Children’s Harbor. From United for Life Foundation.

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See the holiday-appropriate short, “Fireworks.”

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See one of my favorite PBS shows showcase a Birmingham leader.

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See Birmingham’s Emmylou Harris perform at the White House.

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Send us links to your videos. | More videos on the Birmingham channel.

Video: “In Performance at the White House”
celebrates “The Gospel Tradition.”

The PBS music series “In Performance at the White House” has a familiar face in its latest episode. Birmingham’s Emmylou Harris returned to perform for the salute to “The Gospel Tradition.”

Joined onstage by duet partner Rodney Crowell and Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Rhiannon Giddens, the trio performs the old-time hymn “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.”

See the performance at 29:32.

The concert took place April 14 and debuted Friday on PBS. Harris performed in 2010 at the White House as part of the Gershwin Prize ceremony for Paul McCartney.

From left, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell and
Rhiannon Giddens

Video: “Roadtrip Nation” special, “Why Not Us?”
[Birmingham at 35:36]

PBS series “Roadtrip Nation” changed its format for 2015. The reality documentary show typically follows three college-age participants traveling across the country in a green RV to interview interesting people.

The goal is to discover how they ended up where they are in their career, providing inspiration for those seeking the path forward.

This year’s trip covered the same distance in a far shorter period, but still managing to squeeze in a stop in Birmingham.

The four roadtrippers shared one trait: Each one was the first in their family to attend college. And their journey was not shown in a dozen half-hour episodes that usually comprise a full season, but a 1-hour special titled “Why Not Us?”

The team stopped to interview Odessa Woolfolk, founding president of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (found at 35:36 in the video). Also featured in the clip is Barry McNealy, a tour guide and high school social studies teacher.

See the interview and its impact on the “Roadtrip Nation” crew.

“Why Not Us?” will re-air on APT 10.2 World Channel at 6 p.m. Sunday, 4 a.m. Monday, 5 p.m. July 7 and 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. July 8.

• More with roadtripper Jasmine Johnson | More on Odessa Woolfolk

“Why Not Us?” features (clockwise from top left)
Johnathan Allen, Jennifer Rogers, Jasmine Johnson
and Felipe Hernandez.

A look at Birmingham in videos …

Jazmine Sullivan performs “Forever Don’t Last” April 8 at Iron City on Southside. From Vevo.

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Birmingham N-Scale Modular Club shows off an N-scale layout in Helena. From Route29a.

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Trucker BigRigSteve rolls southward in his 2012 Peterbilt 386 on I-65 near Birmingham. From BigRigTravels.

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Special June 12 meeting of the Birmingham Board of Education. From SomewhereITN.

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Sarah and Jeff Mills’ Doggie Daycare wedding downtown (our vertical video of the week). From Just Happy Hounds.

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Promo for “HighLife” TV show. From High Life.

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Atlanta AC/DC tribute band Sin City performs “Riff Raff” earlier this month at the Tilted Kilt in Inverness (our other vertical video of the week). From Henry Perry.

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An elephant dining out at the Birmingham Zoo. From An Innovative Pursuit.

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Trailer for “For a Few Zombies More,” the sequel to “Hide and Creep.” Shot in Birmingham. From Chance Shirley.

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Music video for “Psalm 19” by the Corner Room at Cahaba Park Church. From the Corner Room.

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Birmingham rock band Massimo Eddy performs “Pickpocket” at the Nick on Southside. From Neurodegenerate.

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Photojournalist Kerry Robinson’s news demo reel. From Kerry Robinson.

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Music video for “Escape Plan” from Birmingham band Nowhere Squares. From Nowhere Squares.

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Jack Royer reports on food relief efforts at the Christian Service Mission for Magic City Miracle, a day of service projects. From Jack Royer.

•

• • •

Send us links to your videos. | More videos on the Birmingham channel.

A look at Birmingham in videos …

Greater Birmingham Humane Society executive assistant Courtney Underwood explains Just One Day during the organization’s adoption day event. From Starnes Publishing.

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Vignette on Pepper Place Saturday Market for WVUA-TV. From Catherine May.

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WBHM (90.3 FM) looks to report Birmingham stories on the economic and cultural revival. From Rachel Lindley.

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Interviews from the Come Together Birmingham workshop in March at Desert Island Supply Company in Woodlawn. From Rachel Dixon.

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Liberty Loop, a performance at IMPROVable Fictions in Liberty Park in Vestavia Hills. From Sanspointe Dance.

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Music video for “Raisin’ Cain” by Mark Collie and the Boxmasters, featuring Billy Bob Thornton. Filmed at Workplay in Lakeview. From Zac Adams.

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Wes Porter and Marco Garcia Camacho meet once a week at Shades Cahaba Elementary in Homewood to talk about their goals and train for a 5K. From Starnes Publishing.

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L.A.-based talk show host and Libertarian activist Adam Kokesh speaks May 30 at the UAB campus. From Let’sAlbea4Liberty.

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Participants in summer camp Girls Rock Birmingham learn about rock music and collaboration through music. From APT IQ Learning Network.

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Birmingham couple responds to hateful, racist letter. From Fox 5 Atlanta.

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Drone footage for promo of West Homewood Farmer’s Market. From Kenyon Ross.

• • •

Send us links to your videos. | More videos on the Birmingham channel.

A look at Birmingham in videos …

Drone footage of Red Mountain and Vulcan Park. From Ken Heron.

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Drone footage of Vulcan at night. From Michael Mayhew.

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Garth Brooks performs “Shameless” at the BJCC Legacy Arena this weekend. From Anna Lacy McMains.

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One Huntsville guest’s guide to Y’all Connect 2015. From Moxie Beautiful.

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Tuscaloosa’s Deontay Wilder defeats Eric Molina in round 9 of Saturday’s WBC Heavyweight Championship at Bartow Arena on Southside. From ShoSports.

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Members of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus celebrate Blair’s 19th birthday in Birmingham. From HeyoDamo.

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Soccer match featuring the Birmingham Hammers at the Mississippi Brilla in May in Clinton, Miss. From Mississippi Brilla.

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Holocaust survivor Ben Karel Benninga shares his family’s experiences during World War II in German-occupied Holland. The lecture took place May 12 at Homewood Public Library. From Birmingham Holocaust Education Center.

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“The Nearness of You,” performed by Birmingham musicians Chuck King and Tony Lombardo. From King Power Cinema.

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“It was never my dream …,” a look at clients of Grace House Ministries in Fairfield. From Grace House Ministries.

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Top 5 Things to Do in Birmingham. From Megan Tsang.

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“Doggone,” a night of poetry and hot dogs February at the Desert Island Supply Company in Woodlawn. From Jeff Marley.

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Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex gets its signage. From Telegraph Branding.

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“No More Birmingham,” a public service announcement on ending violence in the city. From Marks Media.

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The National Transportation Safety Board shares lessons from the 2013 crash of UPS 1354 on approach to Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. From NTSB.

• • •

Send us links to your videos. | More videos on the Birmingham channel.

The following chapter is an excerpt from Mountain Brook author Patti Callahan Henry’s “The Idea of Love” [aff. link]. She has written 11 novels to date and has been listed on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Henry began her career as a pediatric nurse and spends her time now as a wife, mother of three and writer.

Her latest book focuses on a romance borne of little white lies between a Hollywood screenwriter and a South Carolina widow.

In this excerpt, two strangers become acquainted over Bloody Marys and coffee …

• • •

Chapter 1

In his mind, he was already writing her — the woman who stood at the patio table with her eyes closed and her face lifted to the sky. She was only a subject, or more precisely, an object. Her slumped shoulders folded inward and her beautiful mouth turned down. Did she know how obvious she was in her sadness? Right there in public, surrounded by syrupy sunlight and azaleas so garish they could be fake?

Could she be the one?

The towns blended together now. This one felt like the others, all dense light having to find its way through leaves and crowded branches. The briny water in rivers and tributaries, in basins and bays, rose and fell 12 feet or more with the shift of moon and Earth. Parceled plots of concrete-colored sand appeared and disappeared with the tides. And the marshes, winnowed out from one another, separated by swaths of blue-gray water, teemed with life. This town, Watersend it was called, felt the same as all the others, and different, too, because it was his last. He would stop here. So maybe he was noticing more, a kind of nostalgic impression where all towns blended into one.

The streets were old, probably original to the town’s founding in the 1800s. They didn’t force themselves into straight lines, but found their way through the existing landscape. Seafood restaurants and bars. Shops with names like Seashore Décor and Driftwood Sands. Coastal-themed hotels and homes. They all filled every one of these towns.

He focused on the woman across the street, her face lifted to the sky. This woman knew how to be still. She was otherworldly in the way he always imagined Southern women to be. Petite and fragile. While he stared, she opened her eyes and looked directly at him with a practiced air of “What the hell do you want?” She could have walked away, embarrassed, but she waited one more beat before sitting at the café table. He guessed her age about 5 years younger than his 49.

The details that would go in his notebook: She was small, her hair a buttery yellow, melting onto her shoulders. Bangs fringed her forehead and were pushed to the left, curtains swept aside for that sliver of sunlight to fall into a room. Her face was round and full until her chin, which was shaped like a little heart — almost an afterthought. Her dress was a flowery flirty thing that tied behind her neck, old-fashioned, at least in L.A. terms. He didn’t know her eye color yet, but he guessed it was blue. He wanted them to be blue. She was pale, but her cheeks held pink in them like a stain.

He exhaled. God, he was so cursed tired by now. All the highs of his earlier screenplays hitting it big thanks to bidding wars, with top stars and A-list directors jostling to make them. And then the lows, or more specifically two devastating lows. “Flops” they’d called the last two movies he wrote, and not behind closed doors, but in reviews heard on TV and at the cocktail parties of “friends” and printed in newspapers and magazines and online at a thousand different websites. Always online in the stories and blogs and especially in the comments below that you should never never read but you always do. “It’s all in the execution” was the catchphrase in the movie business. His execution seemed likely if he didn’t return with an idea for a great script.

He’d been traveling for 2 months now, wandering the southern East Coast. He’d found a few stories from women who cried on his shoulder and told him their latest heartbreak. He’d listened to them all: the way they’d met, the way they’d parted; the meant-to-bes that turned out not-to-be; the waiting and the longing and the angst. (Oh, the angst.) And every last one of them believing her pain was unique. In the end, not one story was worth telling again, much less worth putting on paper. To all of these women, his name was Hunter Adderman, and he was writing a book on Southern coastal towns. That’s how he presented himself. That’s who he was. At least for now.

Before he approached the woman, he glanced at his phone to see if Amelia had gotten back to him yet. Nope. He shook his head. How could he make it up to his daughter, if she wouldn’t even answer his texts? He stuffed his phone into his pocket and then lifted his head again to watch the woman.

He approached her casually so as not to startle her. He had a feeling — he got those sometimes — a slight tingle in the palms of his hands that let him know that a moment carried more weight than it usually did. He ambled toward her as if he hadn’t made up his mind where he was going. “Good afternoon,” he said, and tipped his head in some stupid Southern gesture.

“Do I know you?” she asked. She looked him straight in the eye as if the answer rested there. Sure enough, her eyes were blue. He must have stared at her too long because she dug into her leather purse and brought up a pair of sunglasses, which she shoved onto her face with too much force. Her wedding band was simple. Platinum. Small diamond without extra adornment. Married.

“No, we’ve never met,” he said. “But … well … I’m new in town and you look like you might know something about this place.”

Damn. He should have thought this through. He usually did. He’d spot a woman and weigh his best opening line. He was getting lazy. No, not lazy. Desperate. He hadn’t found the story he needed. And damn, maybe that story didn’t even exist. Maybe they’d all been told to death. Nothing new in the world.

“Can I help you?” the woman asked.

Blake realized he’d been quiet too long, just standing there, looking at her, mulling over his failures. This would not work.

“This city,” he said, trying hard to remember exactly which one he was in.

“Watersend,” she said slowly, as if he didn’t speak English.

“Yes, it’s beautiful. Magical. A place where you could fall in love.”

She laughed, but the sound seemed forced, unnatural.

“Sure thing. Love,” she said.

He couldn’t see her eyes behind the dark sunglasses, but she seemed to look past him, over his shoulder and into the park beyond. “You don’t sound convinced.”

She tilted her head and half-smiled. “Do you always approach women this way?”

“No,” he said, and took a step back. He’d screwed this one up without even sitting down. She’d looked so promising, too.

“Yeah,” she said with a laugh and a little shake of her head, “I wouldn’t try it again.”

“Can I start over?”

“Sure.” She looked up from under the fringe of her bangs.

Blake pointed to the empty seat next to her. “May I join you?”

“I’m waiting for someone,” she said.

“Well, then maybe you could point me in the right direction. I’m here to do a little research about Watersend and I’m looking for someone who can acquaint me with the town.”

“We have a visitor’s bureau,” she said. “You should have passed it coming in.”

“I did,” he said, and smiled in a way he’d been told was charming. “But I don’t want to know what the brochures say. I want to know what someone like you would say.”

“Like me?”

“Someone who lives here. Someone who knows the character of the place.”

“And how do you know I live here?”

“I’m guessing. Hoping.”

Finally she smiled. “Yes, I live here but I don’t think there’s much I can tell you.”

“Can I ask you a few questions anyway? I promise it’ll be quick. Can I buy you a coffee or something?”

She nodded toward the empty chair. “I guess. OK.”

He launched into his first question. “Can you give me one word to describe your town?”

She tilted her sunglasses down to look him in the eye. “Maybe a proper introduction first?”

“God, I’m so sorry,” he said “I’ve been doing this for so long, I seem to have lost my manners along the way. Forgive me. I’m Hunter Adderman, from Los Angeles. I’m doing research on Southern coastal towns.” The words came so easily, after weeks on the road lying to strangers about his name. He held his hand across the table.

The woman had a firm handshake. “I’m Ella Flynn.”

Ella. It suited her, almost as if he’d named her himself. This was a good sign.

“Nice to meet you,” he said.

“Doesn’t seem like I had much choice.”

“I can go bother someone else,” he said, “but I’d rather not.”

She clicked her fingers on the edge of the iron table. “Wet,” she said.

“What?”

“You asked for one word to describe my town. Wet.”

“How so?”

“Water. Everywhere you look: water. The bay. The river. The marsh. The ponds.”

“That’s nice,” he said.

“OK, is that it?”

Why couldn’t he remember his next question? “Could you excuse me for a minute?” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

“Sure thing,” she said. “If you’re looking for the men’s room, it’s at the far end of the café to the left.”

“Thanks.” He walked toward the café, with every intention of leaving by the back door.

Ella had never been one to confide in strangers or even to those she loved for that matter. Yet here she was talking to some man from L.A., bantering as if bantering was the thing she did best. Blah, blah, blah. He was so obviously a tourist it was almost embarrassing. He wasn’t tall, but he wasn’t short, either. His clothes were loose on him like it was the style, which it wasn’t, at least not here in Watersend. If Watersend even had a style. His hair was wavy, and swept back off his forehead, longer than how most men around here wore theirs. He had what her dad called a 5 o’clock shadow, but cleaner, more deliberate. He wore black-rimmed glasses, the kind that had been dorky in middle school and were hip now. And even as he walked off, he had a little grin as though he’d heard a joke.

He returned quickly and settled back into his chair without comment. He leaned forward and smiled. The furrows on his forehead made a road map as if he’d been more places than she could imagine.

“So,” she said when he just sat there. “You’re visiting every single coastal town in the South? That will take a lifetime, especially if you keep including ones as small as Watersend.”

“Not all, not really. I only choose the historic ones where battles were fought or lands conquered.” He lifted his arm as if holding a sword, and he laughed, nervous and jittery.

“I guess that makes sense.” Ella motioned to the waitress. She knew everyone who worked at this café. She came here often, to sketch, to have that third cup of café crème, and to pretend she was in Paris at Café de Flore with Sims, the man who had always promised her a trip to the City of Lights.

Darla came over to the table. “What would you like to drink?” she asked.

“Ladies first,” he said, motioning to Ella.

“I already know what she wants,” Darla said. “She’s my favorite customer.”

“Ah!” he said. “I should have known she’d be a favorite.”

The compliment was fluffy, made of spun sugar and nothing more. Who was this man and what did he want? Surely there was no harm in having a drink on a Saturday afternoon. Where else could she go? Home to cry a little more?

“I’ll have a coffee and a Bloody Mary,” Hunter said, pointing to a nearby table where a tall glass looked tempting and sweaty, the celery stalk growing in the thick peppery liquid.

“Perfect combination,” Darla said, and winked at Ella.

Darla dropped one menu on the table, on Hunter’s side, and walked away, tossing words over her shoulder. “I’ll be right back with your drinks.”

“Have you always lived here?” he asked, his focus returning to Ella.

“About 9 years. This is home now.”

“Lucky you.”

“Lucky me?” Ella shook her head. It was something he probably said in every town. Lucky you, he’d say. Tell me about living here. “So, why are you visiting all these towns?”

“I’m writing about them. That’s what I do. I’m a writer.”

“Oh,” she said. “Like a tourist book?” She leaned closer to see his eyes, which were brown but not just brown — boring word. They were different shades of brown, like yarn, something rich with a little gold inside.

“Yes,” he said as if it had just occurred to him that this is what he was doing. “Or no, more like a personality book but for tourists visiting, something to show them what the town is like, the personality along with the history.”

This was boring. Why had she let this stranger sit with her? “Do you have more questions?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said as if this whole idea were hers. “What is your favorite place here in Watersend?”

“The water. Always. I’m sure you’ve heard the same answer everywhere you go. Why else do people live on the coast? Right?” She sounded harsh and she knew it. Damn it to hell. It had been one of Sims’ complaints: Why do you always have to be so blunt?

“I guess it’s a dumb question. You’re right.” He looked away as if someone had called his name. “But you’re the first person to really answer it that way. Usually someone gives me the name of the dock or the beach they love. The dive restaurant or the oyster shack they go to every day. But not so general, not just … the water.”

“It came out rude, didn’t it?” she asked. “I’m sorry. That happens to me sometimes. I think I’m talking nicely but something happens between my head and you hearing it and it’s … all wrong.”

He laughed. “You’re funny.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I’m really not.”

He leaned forward as if he needed to tell her a secret, the one thing in all the world she needed to know. “Yes, you are.”

Darla returned with the Bloody Marys and a cup of coffee. She set them down, the glasses clanging against the metal table. “You want anything else?” she asked Hunter.

He nodded. “Yes, please. The spinach and feta omelet.”

Ella hadn’t seen him look at the menu. How did he know what he wanted?

“Anything for you?” he asked.

“No thanks. I’m not one bit hungry.” She tilted her head at him. “How did you know what you wanted?”

“I ate here yesterday,” he said.

She nodded. “Did you accost some other woman to tell you about Watersend?”

He laughed. “No. I just sat and observed. I watched everyone and tried to get a feel for what people are like here. You know, every place has its own personality.”

“Personality,” Ella repeated.

“We think it is just individuals who have personalities, but somehow people combine to make a place feel the way it does.”

Ella took a long swallow of her Bloody Mary. Yes, extra pepper the way she liked it. “I wonder,” she said to Hunter, the vodka softening the ache. “I wonder what comes first, individual personalities or the city. I mean … I don’t know what I mean.”

“No, go ahead. You’re onto something.”

“Well … do people conform to the city or does the city conform to the people who live there?”

“I have no idea. But it would seem that people choose a city for its personality, for its character. So maybe the city has its own life and we just choose.”

“You’re right,” she said, realizing how very true this was. In a single moment she had chosen this city as her home and never turned back.

“What brought you here?” he asked.

“My college roommate. She introduced me to the place after graduation.” It was vague enough to be true.

“Well, there are worse places to be,” Hunter said. “Are your parents here?”

“No,” she said. “My mom passed away 10 years ago, but my dad still lives in my hometown about 2 hours away.” God, she hated that phrase, “passed away,” but how else did you say it? Dead. Gone. Buried.

“I’m sorry you lost your mom. I lost my dad a few years ago.” Hunter took a long swallow of his drink and his eyebrows lifted high. “Wow. Spicy.”

“Oh, Darla must have given you the Ella Special. Yes, it has extra pepper and hot sauce. Maybe I should have warned you.”

“You just don’t look like a girl who would order extra spice.”

Ella laughed. “What kind of girl do I look like?”

“I don’t know.” Hunter shrugged and looked away. “I’m sorry. I just meant …”

“That I don’t look very daring? True, I suppose. Don’t worry about saying it. I just like this drink that way. So you’re right about me on the whole, I guess.”

“Right about you?”

Ella took another swallow and her limbs loosened. The knot under her chest relaxed. Yes, it was nice to spend time with a stranger. She could say anything at all and it wouldn’t matter. She had so many stories inside. She used them to stay calm or go to sleep or even to get through a boring shift when a bride spent four hours deciding between ivory and light ivory. Here she could be a ballet dancer. A call girl. What the hell difference would he know?

“So what else can I tell you about Watersend?”

“Well, I like to get to know the city by the person. So tell me a little bit about you.”

“Trust me, the town is much more interesting.”

“I’ll decide if that’s true,” he said.

“OK, fine. I’m here to prove you wrong. I was named after Ella Fitzgerald. My mother was obsessed with her. So embarrassing fact No. 1 is out of the way.”

“I think that’s kind of sweet.” Hunter leaned forward.

“Sickeningly sweet.” Ella wanted to chug the rest of her Bloody Mary. Her tongue was itching for it.

“So what else about you?” he asked.

“I was born and raised in a city 2 hours away. I went to college close to here, Durban College. I’m sure you’ve never heard of it. After graduation, I wanted the big city, you know? Something so opposite of here that I could become a different person and start over …”

“Why would you want to start over?”

“Youthful fantasy.” Ella stopped.

“What were you studying?”

“Fashion,” she said.

“Are you still in fashion?”

“Yes, I’m a wedding dress designer,” she said.

“Oh, what a great job. You must just love that.”

“I do.” She said this like a woman who knew how lucky she was. “With all the destination weddings and engagements in a coastal town, I’m plenty busy.”

“Yes, Watersend does seem romantic. And with this little café and the umbrellas and park, it’s like Paris almost.”

“But not quite.”

“You’ve been?” he asked.

“Yes.” Her voice went soft, downy, as if recalling a real memory. “Tell me about you,” she said.

“Me? Boring.”

“We all think we’re boring. And maybe we are to ourselves.”

“I write travel books, history books, coffee table books that people buy and look at once and then use as decorative stands for the Waterford crystal bowl they won at the golf tournament.”

He was funny, this Hunter from L.A. It felt good to laugh.

It was like he’d tapped water from stone. He was in now.

“So did you get engaged here like the rest of the world?” he asked.

“Yes. Not very original is it?”

“Love is always original to the person in it. It feels like no one in the world can feel the way you do. Like you’ve discovered the word itself.” He’d said this one sentence so many times he could feel the words rounding out in front of him before he spoke.

He could tell she agreed by the way she softened, by the way she looked away as if trying not to cry. “Yes,” she said in a whisper.

He wanted more. Her response hinted at a good love story. But how did he ask? He sat silent; sometimes this worked. If you gave the other person space, they wanted to fill it up as if it were an empty bowl.

“I’m sorry,” he finally spoke. “I’m being personal.”

“Thank you,” she said. “But I don’t want to talk about my personal life. OK?”

A swell of frustration filled his chest. “OK,” he said. “I understand. I really do.”

“Listen, it was a pleasure meeting you and I wish you the best of luck on your book, but I need to go now.” She took a bite from the celery stalk before dropping it back into the glass.

“Can I call you?” he asked. His food hadn’t even arrived and she was about to leave.

Her eyebrows dropped into the cutest Y, like a little road to her nose. “Why?” she asked.

“Because I’d love to ask you a few more questions. I’ll buy you dinner if that’s bribery enough.”

She nodded. “I guess so.”

He pulled out his cell phone. He’d have to trust that she would give him the real number, and not lie to him as he had to her. “What’s your number? I’ll just enter it in my phone.”

“Here.” She pulled out her own cell. “I’ll call you so I’ll have your number, too.”

“Great idea,” he said.

That’s how he got Ella’s number. That’s how he felt like maybe, just maybe, something good was finally going to happen. He knew about peaks and valleys. He knew all the philosophical ways to look at failure, how the word crisis was just another word for change. He’d heard it all. Bullshit. He didn’t need failure to learn something new. He had liked everything in his life exactly the way it had been.

Still, he liked this Ella here and he would call her. He’d wait so as not to freak her out but then he’d call.

“Wait,” he called after her.

She turned and lifted her sunglasses. “Yes?”

“I thought you said you were waiting for someone.”

“I lied,” she said.

He smiled. This girl had nerve. “I’d love to meet your husband, too. Ask him a few questions about the town from his perspective.”

“You can’t,” she said.

“Oh?”

“He’s dead.” She paused, and then walked back to the table. “I’m sorry. That was rude. He’s passed on.”

Blake stood and reached for her arm, but then dropped his hand.

“I am so sorry. What happened?”

“Drowning,” she said.

“Oh, God,” Blake said.

She nodded. “It was so unnecessary. He was trying to …” She closed her eyes as if she could see it all again, a reenactment. “My hat flew off, and I reached for it. I wasn’t thinking. It was all instinct, you know? I lost my balance and I fell out of the boat. Sims dove after me, but it was the motor … it hit him in the head. There was nothing to be done. It happened so fast. And it was all for a hat, a stupid wide-brimmed hat, the kind you see in every beach shop.” She opened her eyes then, and Blake saw the tears collected in them. “I’m sorry, but I have to go now,” she said.

He readied himself to console her, but she turned away, her purse draped loosely over her shoulder. A broken V of white birds slung through the sky and rounded a corner as if to follow her. Blake’s palms tingled. This was it. This woman, she had the story. He knew it. And he had to be careful.

• • •

Patti Callahan Henry will have a launch party and Q&A for “The Idea of Love” from 5 to 7 p.m. June 20 at Full Circle in Forest Park [map]. Donations of new or used books requested.

“The Idea of Love” (June 23, St. Martin’s Press)

• Amazon [aff. link] | iTunes [aff. link]
• Review by An Interior Journey | Q&A with Henry by Advance Reading Copy

Patti Callahan Henry

• Website | Facebook | Twitter @pcalhenry

A look at Birmingham in videos …

Rethink 20/59 video on proposed overhaul of interstate stretch through downtown. From James Clark.

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Time-lapse video of artist Michael Fischler injecting paint into bubble wrap to create a portrait of Birmingham native and singer Beth Thornley. From Michael Fischler.

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Birmingham mayor William Bell interviewed on business news site TheStreet about downtown’s building boom. From TheStreet.

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Rock band the Pixies performs “Dead” earlier this month at Iron City on Southside. From treser62.

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Challenger Hellcat parade lap at Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds. From jeffscot26.

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Service project by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta-Birmingham branch to add playground mulch at Mitchell’s Place in Irondale. From skipdidit.

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The Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham presents a proposal for a bus rapid transit system. From South East Lake Neighborhood Association.

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Skateboarding on First Avenue South downtown. From David Sheetz.

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The “Ballad of Birmingham,” as told through Minecraft. From istone111.

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Narrating a drive through Birmingham. From the Jade and John Show.

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A promo for “Sweet Home Railroad,” one man’s journey to becoming a train engineer. From Daniel Hill.

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“Heads,” a weekend spent in eight downtown barber shops. From Dillon Hayes.

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Preparing for the Summer Flash Mob at the June 4 Birmingham Art Crawl. From Sanspointe Dance.

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Christian Hill highlight reel, Holy Family Cristo Rey High School basketball. From Street Light Recruiting.

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Scott Douglas, executive director of Greater Birmingham Ministries, on elevating the quality of life for working-class residents. From Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation.

•

See Noah Galloway in the “Dancing with the Stars” finals.

• • •

Send us links to your videos. | More videos on the Birmingham channel.

Noah Galloway and trainer Sharna Burgess tango (again)
to “Rather Be” by Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynne.

Noah Galloway has been an underdog throughout “Dancing with the Stars.” But this underdog made it to the finals, competing against the season’s leaders Riker Lynch and Rumer Willis.

Fan votes have played a key role in his week-to-week survival. It may again tonight.

The Alabaster trainer, paired with pro Sharna Burgess, stepped onto the floor for two final dances.

The first round was a reprise of their Argentine tango, which earned a 30 in Week 3. Tonight’s improved-but-uneven version earned 32 points out of 40 possible.

The second round was a freestyle dance to show Noah’s vulnerable side. The pair scored a perfect 40 out of 40, one of five perfect scores handed out this evening.

Their total 72 points put Noah and Sharna in third place, with Riker and Rumer tied for first with 80 points.

The standings for Week 10, with Round 3 on Tuesday:

• 1. (tie) 80: Riker Lynch, Rumer Willis
• 3. 72: Noah Galloway

The winner will be crowned during Tuesday’s 2-hour season finale, starting at 8 p.m. on ABC 33/40.

Noah Galloway

Noah balances Sharna during their freestyle routine.

Noah Galloway and Sharna Burgess dance to a mashup of
“Titanium” and “Fix You.”

•

More “Dancing with the Stars” coverage

•

Update May 19: Noah and Sharna dance the cha cha and Argentine tango to “Surrender” by Cash Cash for Round 3, the 24-hour fusion challenge. They earn 36 points out of 40, for a total of 108.

The final standings for Week 10, including Round 3 scores:

• 1. (tie) 120: Riker Lynch, Rumer Willis
• 3. 108: Noah Galloway

With audience votes, Noah and Sharna finish in third place, and Rumer wins “Dancing with the Stars.”

Noah Galloway and Sharna Burgess dance the cha cha and
Argentine tango in Round 3.

• How did Noah do? Let us know in the comments …

A look at Birmingham in videos …

“Chasing Kites,” a quirky, adventurous love story. From Greyson A. Welch.

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Paul Finebaum speaks about Birmingham’s “true gift” at last week’s sixth annual Leadership Luncheon. From al.com.

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A Realtor’s guide to living in Birmingham. From Christina Lowry James.

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Birmingham artist Wellon Bridgers painting an original piece, “Surely Goodness and Mercy,” based on Psalm 23 for Cahaba Park Church’s the Corner Room ministry. From the Corner Room.

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Honoring Nancy Goedecke, United Way of Central Alabama’s Outstanding Civic Leader for 2014. From Julie Luker.

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Tuesday’s Birmingham city council meeting. From citycouncilbham.

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A post shared by Ezra F. Gallo (@eazyrooster)

Polyphonic Spree kicks off its show Saturday by decorating a sheet at Saturn in Avondale. From Ezra.

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amy at Blue Lotus Mehndi (@bluelotusmehndi)

Mad Hatter Dance Company and MosaicoFlamenco perform in One Night in the Gardens of Spain Saturday at Das Haus downtown. From Amy Miller.

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https://instagram.com/p/2v-1N6G9W9/

Saturday’s Do Dah Day parade on Southside. From Andrew Salser.

•

See Noah Galloway glide into the “Dancing with the Stars” finals.

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