Three chances to catch the mayoral candidates this week:

Tonight | 7 p.m. at WorkPlay [map], shown live on WIAT.com starting at 6:45, with an hourlong tape-delay broadcast on CBS 42 at 9 tonight. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters and several other groups.

Wednesday | 6 p.m. at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute [map], shown live on myfoxal.com, ticket required. Sponsored by One Birmingham. Update: No more tickets are available for the event.

Thursday | 7 p.m. at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens [map]. Sponsored by the Crestline, Crestwood and Red Mountain communities.

Who will actually show? How many paid political lackeys will hoot and holler? Seriously, 10 candidates?!?

Discuss.

• • •

Complete Vote 2007 coverage.

Just a reminder: Our free information session takes place at 6 p.m. Tuesday at John’s City Diner, 112 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. N. [map]. Free refreshments provided. Our thanks to John’s for the location.

Spend an hour with us, and you’ll see why you should come to the Gulf Coast with us for the Magic City Mission, a weeklong volunteer trip to Biloxi and New Orleans. Learn more about Hands on Birmingham and the journey we’ll take in November.

Signup deadline is Sept. 28.

If you have questions, let me know.

Magic City Mission: Make it your mission to help the Gulf Coast.

Hands on Gulf Coast rebuilds a house in East Biloxi.

We’re going back to the Gulf Coast. If you’ve been looking for an opportunity to help Katrina-ravaged Biloxi and New Orleans, you’ve found it.

I went with a team from Birmingham for a week in April to help rebuild New Orleans. So rewarding was the journey that we must return.

Fifty Birmingham residents are needed to join the Magic City Mission, a weeklong volunteer trip with Hands on Birmingham. We’ll divide into one team for each city, spending Nov. 4-11 working on projects, eating good food, meeting great people and having too much fun.

If you want more info, we have two easy ways to get it:

1. Visit MagicCityMission.org for all the details.

2. Come to our hourlong informational session: 6 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 18, John’s City Diner, 112 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. [map]. Free refreshments provided. Our thanks to John’s for the location.

We’ve already signed up several volunteers, and spots are going fast. Signup deadline is Sept. 28.

If you have questions, let me know.

Magic City Mission: Make it your mission to help the Gulf Coast.

Also:

• 10 reasons to volunteer on the Gulf Coast
• Hook up with us on Facebook | MySpace

As Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival gears up for its ninth outing later this month, you have a chance to see what’s on the lineup tonight.

As part of its monthly Salon, Sidewalk organizers will show trailers and discuss programming. See what goes into putting on a festival and what you can expect as a film fan.

The Salon takes place at 7 tonight at Rojo, 2921 Highland Ave S. [map]. Doors open at 6 for networking and drinks, plus free snacks.

Also, be sure to check out the festival site, which includes new features allowing users to create custom schedules and blogs related to the festival (such as this handsome one).

Look to Wade on Birmingham for more preview coverage of the film festival, including reviews and giveaways.

• • •

Action! Complete Sidewalk 2007 coverage.

Artwalk, downtown’s annual two-day event, takes place Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. If you haven’t been before, maybe you need a reason to attend.

We have 10 …

1. Someday our prints will come … Our pal and friendly printmaker Charles Buchanan will be back at Artwalk, in the tiniest space available. We helped carry his display boards to his car this one time, which kinda makes us like co-printmakers. Or not. You could stop by, just to praise his freshly revamped Web site. Or gush over his My Birmingham essay in August’s Birmingham Magazine. Or buy a print. Or 12.
• James Morgan, esq., 2314A First Ave. N. [map]

(more…)

The problem: You’re going to Art on the Rocks tonight, but you don’t have a thing to wear.

The solution: Toga. Toga. Toga.

Sorry, we meant … To-ga! To-ga! To-GA!

The summerlong series continues tonight at the Birmingham Museum of Art with a costumed theme, Vulcanalia, in honor of the upcoming Pompeii (caution: sound) exhibit. Those in togas will be in a drawing for … a Vespa. Isn’t it worth reliving your “Animal House” days for a new Italian scooter?

In case you need help with your outfit, watch this 1-minute instructional video:

And a tribute to the movie (caution: sound) that started the craze nearly 30(!) years ago.

If a society is judged by how it treats its least fortunate, Birmingham has serious work ahead. With about 3,000 homeless people in the city — a figure unchanged from 2000 to 2005 — what can be done about this problem that not only affects them but also businesses and residents? Five candidates shared their takes.

One possible solution is outlined in “Birmingham’s Plan to Prevent and End Chronic Homelessness 2007-2017” (pdf), a $50,000 study recommending 12 steps to address the problem.

The Birmingham Metro Diversity Coalition sponsored Tuesday’s 90-minute forum at Linn-Henley Library. Mayoral candidates took the audience’s written questions, screened and read by moderator Vickii Howell of Birmingham View.

(more…)

Love Artwalk but can’t stand the walking part? Show your support tonight at the Artwalk Preamble, from 6 to 10 at the Finaei Building, 2209 First Ave. N. [map].

The annual fund-raiser keeps the fall downtown art event admission free. Bid on art, dine on selections from Cobb Lane Restaurant and John’s City Diner, and enjoy free wine and beer. Also, jazz by Triad. Cost is $25 at the door.

Artwalk will take place Sept. 7 and 8 between Second Avenue North and First Avenue South between 22nd and 25th Streets.

Six candidates would like your attention, please, as the first Birmingham mayoral candidate forum kicks off tonight. The Parkway East District Business Association will hold the event featuring questions from the media and the chamber of commerce, as well as written questions from the audience.

The participants:

• Valerie Abbott, city council;
• William Bell, city council;
• Patrick Cooper, attorney;
• Bernard Kincaid, incumbent;
• Larry Langford, county commission;
• Carole Smitherman, city council.

(We guess that means Kincaid is, in fact, running for a third term.)

The fun begins at 7 at Parkway Christian Fellowship, 9753 Parkway East. And only 75 days until Election Day.

It’s not the first time Don Siegelman and Richard Scrushy have made Page One of newspapers.

But their sentencing-turned-shackling made for front-page news across Alabama.

Check out the full gallery after the jump.

(more…)

Find this year’s latest flicks
with our Summer Movie Guide.

The summer’s barely begun, but perhaps you’ve had your fill of pirates, webslingers and crazed killers.

Have we got a deal for you? Check out more than 50 movies coming to a neighborhood near you, and more than half of them for free. Free! FREE!! They’re all in our Summer Movie Guide 2007.

Kick back and enjoy classics and family films, cutting edge and in concert. Whether it’s in the park or in the air-conditioned comfort of the indoors, you’ll find it here. No megaplexes, no inattentive ushers — just the best movies outside of the chains from “The Ant Bully” to “Zoom.”

Updated with Israeli Cann’d Film Festival …

Updated with Movies on the Mall …

(more…)

The latest photos from City Stages Flickr group … Check back often for more images from the festival.

• • •

Complete City Stages 2007 coverage.

The 19th edition of City Stages kicks off today. Choosing from all those acts can be a challenge, so we again present our multimedia guide to the festival, including a playlist of 12 tracks representing the best of the fest.

Three are freebies, the rest will run you about $10 on iTunes. Plus, videos of performances and more.

(more…)

I’ve been a faithful City Stages fan for years, at least 15 or so. Most of the last 10 years, I’ve paid for my tickets and happily headed downtown for three days of music and fellowship.

I dare say I’ve spent more supporting the festival than most people I know. I consider that a point of pride, almost to the point of foolishness.

After all, even if the lineup was weak — and many a year, the lineup was weak — I could count on seeing old friends and discovering worthy up-and-coming acts.

Not this year. Not with my money.

Updated with Preserve Jazz Festival attendance, plus additional links.

(more…)

The Football Capital of the South has taken up a different kind of foot-ball.

Birmingham Kickball has assembled dozens of players for monthly matches in the sport of (schoolyard) kings. The group’s most recent match pitted two semi-randomly selected teams in an 18-17 extra-inning blowout at Crestwood Park.

And while the trash talk ran high — including a mooning — it was all for fun, if not charity.

The good-natured rivalry always leads to the same results: a post-game celebration at Rojo on Southside.

We interviewed Sam Frazier Jr., indie filmmaker and self-described kickball lackey, about this retro-hip game.

• Who started kickball in Birmingham?

As far as I’m concerned, kickball for adults started with Arik Sokol when he organized a charity game day three years ago. With the exception of a very painful and unpleasant personal incident I experienced at the hands of one of the “charities,” it was considered a smashing success and the most fun any of the participants had had with his or her clothes on.

(more…)