Pity the concert reviewer. Long nights, bad sound, no drinking and low pay.

Take, for instance, the Birmingham News’ review of Robert Earl Keen, who performed Thursday at Zydeco on Southside.

Well, you can’t really. The apparently unedited, unapproved review was pulled from the newspaper Web site before people could see it earlier today.

Except, we found a copy, reprinted here for your convenience.

Update: The published version appeared April 8. Ah, the wonders of proper editing.

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And now, our feature presentation, March of the past items …

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Congratulations to B. Abrams, winner of a USB drive/pen in the Big Brackets for Bytes Bonanza contest.

(Drop me a line with your address, so I can send you the prize.)

How good is Abrams?

• Well, our winner is so good at picking teams, none of the other players, including yours truly, can actually score any more points because our Final Four picks are lousy. (Abrams could boost the lead over second place from 180 points to 460(!) points with an LSU championship next Monday.)
• Abrams is in the 98.5 percentile among ESPN contest entrants.
• Abrams drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls. (Or maybe that’s Chuck Norris — we get confused.)

Thank you to all of our participants.

After writing this blog for nearly six months, I came to a conclusion.

I need another blog.

So, without further ado, my new blog, WadeKwon.com, a chance to tell a few more stories. While I focus on all things and faces Birmingham (and Alabama) in this blog, I’m going to stretch a bit and write longer pieces for the new site.

I hope you’ll visit it in the coming days. And I thank you for continuing to read Wade on Birmingham.

St. Patrick’s Day in U.S. at odds with Ireland’s religious holiday: Here in America, March 17 is a day of beer-fueled frivolity for many, a secular holiday filled with visions of shamrocks and leprechauns more than penance and prayer. “St. Patrick’s Day is a religious holiday in Ireland. The first thing you do is go to church. The big thing here is corned beef and cabbage. In Ireland, you’d have to go looking for it. It’s not served on St. Patrick’s.”

You should be working. You should be studying. You should be changing the baby.

You should be doing anything except thinking about March Madness.

Not gonna happen.

Three teams from Alabama are in. After Alabama snuck in, can it make it past the first round? Can UAB upset Kentucky again? Wait, South Alabama, really?

How to enter

Enter the Big Brackets for Bytes Bonanza. Pick the winners in the men’s NCAA Tournament and challenge your coworkers, buddies and barmates. We’ve made it easy for ya.

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Allow us to revisit February, best month ever …

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The City of Birmingham is taking crime on, one district at a time. Last week, residents of District 3 participated in the Cease Fire Anti-Crime Summit at Avondale United Methodist Church.

Can citizens and city groups reduce the crime rate together?

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Happy V-D! (That joke never gets old.)

If you’re writing a note for your sweetie, we like the classics. And did the “Roses Are Red” poem originate with Sir Edmund Spenser’s "The Faerie Queene" in 1590? See for yourself in Book 3, Chapter 1.

If you’re really stuck for rhymes (because real poetry rhymes), try these colorful suggestions. For pink, try … Wink, Rink, Sink, Stink, Drink, Kink, Link, Zinc, Blink and Mink.

Zinc? Really??

Or maybe you just need a good lesson plan.

Enjoy the crushing disappointment and loneliness! Kisses!

In case you missed 'em, check out some updates on our fave posts of late …

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Congratulations to Richard Kirby of Birmingham, winner of two tickets to see Mo Rocca on Saturday at the Alys Stephens Center. He’s the author of Cadet Spiff’s Deep Space Log. He and his guest will also be guests at the after party as an added treat.

Update: Richard gives his Rocca review.

And thank you to everyone who entered. As a small token of gratitude to our readers for linking to Wade on Birmingham, you’ll receive a free button, made lovingly by ButtonGuy.org. Just drop me a line with your snail mail address and I’ll get it to you right away.

(In fact, if you still wanna link up, I’ll still toss you a free button. Let me know your URL and your snail mail address to claim your swag.)

Thank you to all of our readers for reading Wade on Birmingham.

Just a friendly reminder: We’re giving away two tickets to see Mo Rocca this Saturday at the Alys Stephens Center on Southside.

It’s easy, so enter before 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Also, if you really really want tickets, a couple of other places are also giving away Mo tix … (We share because we care.)

• You can send your name and daytime phone number to contests@readbw.com by end of today.
• You can also enter at Al.com, which is also holding a live chat with Rocca at 2 p.m. today.

Good luck!

Happy Martin Luther King Day — or as it’s known at Bellsouth, Monday.

Mo Rocca, former “Daily Show” correspondent and host of Bravo’s “Things I Hate About You,” will be onstage at 8 p.m. Jan. 21 at the Alys Stephens Center on Southside.

And we’ve got two tickets for one shameless winner.

Spend a Saturday night with the author of "All the Presidents’ Pets" and raconteur on the VH1 franchise, “I Love the (pick a decade).”

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Growing up in Birmingham, did we dream of a more peaceful world, free from nuclear devastation and racial strife? As idealistic teens, did we yearn for the end to hunger, poverty, disease?

Heck, no. We wanted big bucks, big bucks, no whammies. (Stop!)

Which may explain why so many of my high school classmates have tried out and appeared on game shows. Earlier tonight, Craig Smith of Maylene joined this elite club, going braino a braino a braino on “Jeopardy!”

Answer: How Craig did.

Be sure to phrase your recap in the form of a question.

(Thanks to Biff for the tip on tonight’s ep.)

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