Progress continues along 6th and 7th avenue.

That former dusty empty gas station on 6^th (the last time it was open premium was $2.92 a gallon) has opened and become the 6^th Ave. Grocery.

It’s looking like the former Fire House #22 will be ready long before the Walgreen that caused its transformation to start in the first place is even close to opening.

The former (and future?) Golden Rule it going through even more changes.

I also note that a section of building that has been empty for years, set between an equipment rental place and a collection of seemingly abandoned cars, had the lights on for the first time that I’ve ever seen, with refurbishing going on inside. Now if they could just get rid of some of those rusty hulks littering the auto place they’ll be cooking with spam.

It looks like the Tinroof restaurant, its water main problems fixed, will be opening soon. I see they have moved in some pool tables.

While at the same time the condos on 7^th progress… though I have to think all that pounding they are doing this stage can’t be doing the lunch time business much good!

This End Up

The people going down 7 Ave. seem to know what it means, so I guess that's all that matters.

Just so you know what it is see below.

Note the street sign on the right, it has been upside down like that for years.

The Viewing of the Lights

Way back long in the long ago, well… not that long ago, but it seems like a long time ago to me a regular holiday event was to pile into the car and go look at the various displays of Christmas lights.

The main attraction being to head to the heights around Red Mountain and see how the rich people had decorated their homes.

This time mind you was the 60s, back when there were only three channels on TV and one, being Alabama Public Television, was never watched anyway, and the phones were not smart, heck, they were so stupid they had to be leased to the wall with a cord, I guess so they wouldn’t wander off into traffic, I’m just saying if you wanted entertainment you had to go out and hunt for it.  

I imagine this `viewing of the lights’ has go the way of Drive-In Movies, Bowling Allies and Putt-Putt Golf; I know the last time I got taken on one was when I was something like 7, and that was some time ago indeed.

I mean do the “rich folks” even do this sort of thing anymore? Or is it too gauche, or are too many of today’s rich too staunchly Objectivist to take part in such things?

Not that there aren’t all kinds of lights, alight… it’s just that most of the impressive displays I see seem to be on businesses.

Most, but not all.

                       Note the fire to the right of the light at the bottom

    After all those break-ins it had to happen sooner or later

Occupy Birmingham

You can easily miss it, but there is an on-going Occupy Birmingham demonstration going on in Downtown Birmingham.

Frankly like so many things that go on in the “Magic City” that also take place elsewhere, i.e. film festivals, music festivals, tries at major league sports, marathons etc… it is at best an anemic effort.

The only thing we really have other cities beat is in having the nation’s largest Veteran’s Day Parade. That’s where I took the photo here.

I sympathize with the Occupiers, heck as someone who works in education I MORE than sympathize with the movement.

But personally, as a movement, I don’t really give it much hope.

My reason for this is while watching news about it a comparison about it came to me.

Back in the 1890s after having been defeated again and again and moved to smaller and drearier Reservations some Native Americans, looking for something like hope, started to participate in the Ghost Dance.

The Ghost Dance was a way to dance into a trance where it was said those taking part could talk to departed relatives and ancestors, and if enough took part the white men would leave and the buffalo would return.  It at least gave those who danced something to believe in other than despair.  And all it was really was dancing, who could deny them at least that?

Never underestimate ignorance, fear and hate, the message from those in charges of the Reservations was “Indians continue to dance, send more soldiers.”

They did, and with the biggest and newest guns available, the scary dancing was stopped.

You get my metaphor?

Return of An Old Holiday Treat

I remember this old treat that use to show up around the holidays that I haven’t had literally in decades.

The part about it I remember most, other than how good it was, was the strange bit that at the time the cake came out of a can.

Seriously cake from a can? Yep a can, however I wasn’t even sure what sort of cake it was, this being such an old memory.

Doing some research (Google) I was able to find a picture of the can I remember it coming in. That’s when I found out that it was Dromedary Date Nut Roll, which has not been produced for years.

Out of luck? Hardly there are plenty of date bread recipes… yeah, forget that.

Going to the same place I found the picture of the Date Nut Roll* I found a local bakery that makes date Nut bread, to avoid making this an ad I’ll just say it’s in Homewood.

With that, and some whipped cream cheese, I was able to savor a treat I haven’t had since I was 12.

It was great!

* They may have enslaved half the world but it’s still the best search engine.

Sorry, there will be a slight delay with your steak… would you like some more bread?

Looks like there will be a bit of a postponement before you can order that 9 oz. porterhouse at the new Tinroof on 7^th Ave. South… busted water main, which they started to work on Monday the 5^th (after a rather long delay) but things had to stop with the heavy rains Tuesday and Wednesdays, so now there is a hole wider than a child’s plastic swimming pool as well as being pretty deep, now its almost filled to the brim with muddy rain water.

Uh Oh!

Birmingham the 7th saddest city in America?

According to an unscientific survey in Men's Health Magazine Birmingham, Alabama is the 7^th saddest city in America with only 1. Petersburg, FL, 2. Detroit, MI, 3. Memphis, TN, 4. Tampa, FL, 5. Louisville, KY, and 6. St. Louis, MO being more sad.

All this being based on each cities' suicide rates, unemployment rates, a percentage of households that use antidepressants and number of people who report feeling the blue all or even most of the time.

There's a “Blues” index somewhere? Where does one go for information like that, and how do they arrive at a number? Count the number of Muddy Waters CDs sold and divide by PI times the number of earth tone clothes sold?

Sad?

Hey....look around, we're just aware baby!

Fargo, Omaha and Sioux Falls are just fooling themselves!

Sad Cities

Construction Has Started

Well, the much delayed new construction on 29^th street and 7^th Ave. South is indeed underway, got a crane and everything.

And that little `frozen in time’ building (see photos below) that sat there on 29 – 7 for so long is now gone, it use to stand in the space found at the bottom left of the picture above.

So it looks like the “feng shway” of the neighborhood will indeed be getting a major overhaul in the next seven or eight months.

One of Those Rare Days

Where Autumn feels like Spring.

Enjoy them, they won't last long.

Indeed it has started.

It looks like the long delayed construction is indeed about to start on 7^th ave. South.

Even that little frozen in time building, the one to the left of the shot there which I have other photos of on here, has been thawed out.

Seems I just did get my pictures of it just a step and a half before it disappears.

Getting Closer to Opening It Seems

Just an up-date...

Looks like the two new places around to open on 7th Ave. South and 29th - 30th street are moving apace.

And the next day

Renovated Avondale Park Nearing Opening Day

Avondale Park Close to Reopening


Avondale park, which has been around for more than 100 years, is headed for the completion of a major renovation.

Over the years Avondale park has been the sight of stage productions, a small zoo where the elephant was taken for long lonely Sunday strolls by his inebriated keeper, the most major incursion of “hippie shenanigans in Birmingham during the 60s, and lately, sadly, a lot of drug deals, but also for the better the occasional musical recital and art show.

With the improvements coming together hopefully there will be more of the latter and none of the former of those last three.

If they are as diligent as they have been at Railroad Park things should be very nice.

Here are some shots of the as yet unopened park.

The Grotto, fed by a spring found in the park.

Not sure just what these are, sort of like balconies, found near the Grotto

The place were the water comes from underground that feeds the Grotto.

What can I say... I like the Grotto

The ball park.

And as I said, no word yet on when the park opens.

29Seven and counting

For the last seven and a half years there have been plains to build a 7-story condominium tower with space for 66 one and two bedroom apartments... pardon me... units, if you have to pay a mortgage on it, even if it looks and functions like an apartment it's a home, as well as space for 8 retail businesses.

While the businesses that were open and thriving there, the Southside Cafe really did serve a good breakfast, were closed up and torn down, there was nothing to worry about, think how much better the new thing would be?

It didn't happen.

Three years later the plan returns, this time with 4-story, building with 71 condos and 9 spaces for retail.

That didn't happen either.

Well.... it's back again (they just can't keep any body locked up Arkham Asylum for very long can they?)

This time however they say there is a really, really good shot of it taking place.


We'll see.

Now while the question of the new building remains to be seen, there is one thing that was set up on the sight by the 29Seven people. And I think it's just a little bit odd.

You see it on your right, if you're driving west down 7^th Ave. South, and you would probably never give it a second glance.

It's the home of 29Seven, or I assume that was it is meant to be, and that is what it looks like, however if you walk up to it and take a look it's another thing altogether.

In China Miéville's 2010 dark fantasy Kraken he had one point has his characters visit the Embassy of the Ocean in London, in which the watery part of the world indeed does have an embassy on the surface world.

The 7^th Ave. “home” of 29Seven looks as if it could be the Embassy of Mold.

Once you get a look inside the place you find that no one could possible be using it, as everything is rotting, covered in mold, what looks perhaps to be fire damage smoke, and / or thick sheets of dust.

While at the same time it does not look as if it is completely abandoned either, but a working place that that just got left, the tin walled... I don't know.... transporter chamber? still looking usable, whatever that use might have been, it looks as if the population just fled from some Cinematic style disaster with plans to return once the zombies / alien invaders / or mutant whatevers were taken care of.

I think the zombies may be winning.

Anyway.... here are some shots of the place.

I mean even leaving marbles in the dish for art's sake? and the pillow showing Fox and Skully where the victim was overtaken by the intelligent moving mold thing?

It's the little details that make it different.

I really doubt the lamp works.

Anyway if you turned it on the extra weight from the light would crash it.

"Ms Johnson, hold all my calls."

The teleporter room.

Okay.... so those are really the transparences from the window circles just placed on the floor, but still, it presents a rather odd looking set up I think.

Hey.... track lighting!

Not the oddest place I've ever run into (that would be a log cabin I came accross in the wilds of the West Virginia woods that had no doors or windows.) But interesting enough.

Busy on 7th Ave. South it seems

Looks like there will soon be two new restaurants among that large collection of eateries, bars, pubs, bistros and what have you along 7th avenue south.

One is going to be in the building where there used to be a willfully grungy biker / off-road racer bar that went away when the owner forgot to renew his liquor license, who even admitted it when he announced the event one day with a hand written sign basically saying “oops, wasn’t paying attention, sorry about that.” Apparently it’s going to become a Tin Roof BBQ now.

Seems "Tin Roof" which is out of Texas has a web site

Tin Roof BBQ & Steakhouse

 
And here we see behind the future Tin Roof, with one of the stoves ready to be moved in.

The other is being set in the old, long empty, Golden Rule site.

I don’t know what this one is going to be, but it already has a round floor to ceiling mirror as a centerpiece.

So speculate from there.

Meanwhile work continues on the former firehouse and future home of Bogue’s.

Renovations Begin

Shots taken of the outside and interior of the ex firehouse # 22

Sadly no evidence of a pole, which no doubt was never really found in a many real firehouses.

Sort of like cowboys and gun fights in the middle of town at noon.

Other pictures of the inside of Fire House 22 can be found on my Flickr account.

My Flickr Account

Yes it will be a Walgreens... But wait... there's more!

Yes, it seems it will be a Walgreens; however Firehouse 22 will not be torn down but renovated to house Bogue’s Restaurant and the triple platinum salon, because what wets the appetite more than the smell of fried chicken and hair getting fried by peroxide next door?

However it won’t be until around the middle of the summer of 2012 before all this is finished, and at least according to that trader who’s interview on the BBC has gone viral, by that time we’ll all be dealing with a worldwide collapse while Goldman Sachs plays Tina Turner in a Road Warrior, leathers and feathers, Thunderdome hell-scape.

But… probably that won’t happen.

Here’s more about the deal on Clairmont Ave.

Walgreens Deal

Changes on Clairmont Ave.

I see there are some changes taking place along Clairmont Avenue, two old (ish) buildings, the former Fire House # 22, and Clairmont Auto Service,  are being take down with the space to be filled by ?

Perhaps the Walgreen that had been talked about some time back?  That plan, or so I’ve been told, would also have removed Bogue’s Restaurant, however at least for now it seems to still be open for business.

As a reminder for the last year Fire House # 22 has just been the resting place of some outdoor art, by whom I do not know.

Whatever they plan on putting there, they seem to be moving at a pretty good clip, so they should be gone and the new construstion should start soon and we'll what it is.

Homework Hotline Returns!

This Monday, September the 19th, starting at 4:00 p.m. and running until after 6:00 p.m., five telephone lines will be open and ready to help students from grands 3 to 12 with their homework.

Also, if they have access to the Brighthouse Cable digital channels they can see the teacher who is helping them by tuning to Channel 634 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. (for that matter if you have digital cable you can watch me do part of my job as I run four channels that go to the schools and one of them, Channel 11, also stands in for Channel 634 during the day.)

However that is not needed, they can still call the numbers below for help with their homework.

The numbers are:

231-2045 for grades 3 through 12 (visible on Channel 634 Bright House Digital)

231-2046 for grades 3 through 5

231-2047 for grades 6 through  8

231-2048 for English as a Second Language help and

231-2049 for High School

A scene from a Homework Hotline from a few years ago.

Where Did The Rest of Birmingham Go!

It didn't go anywhere, it wasn't there yet.

This photo is from almost 60 years ago, December 1951, take from the collection of Charles Cushman

Charles Weever Cushman, amateur photographer and Indiana University alumnus, bequeathed approximately 14,500 Kodachrome color slides to his alma mater. The photographs in this collection bridge a thirty-two year span from 1938 to 1969, during which time he extensively documented the United States as well as other countries.

The man traveled a LOT!

The link below will take you to his 12 photos take in Birmingham 60 years ago, from there you can find other pictures of his from around the world.

Birmingham, 1951

Natural B'ham

When most people think “city” they don’t think nature, however there is an abundance of it to be found if you looks.

These are from around Birmingham, Alabama.

More Such Shots Can Be Found At This Link