2012 Party Planner Inside! Southern Lifestyle Begins Outdoors
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2012 Party Planner Inside! Southern Lifestyle Begins Outdoors The Coolest Outdoor Furniture - End of Season Sale Enjoy the simple pleasures of life with friends and family on the patio, deck or backyard by visiting our NEWLY DESIGNED SHOWROOM to see our new Peak Season outdoor furniture collection, gas grills by Modern Home Products, and Kamado Joe ceramic eggs. MHP Kamado Joe Hottest Grill on the Market $79500 ComboJoe Alabama by Komado Joe Kamado Joe Hottest Gaslight & Grill Grill on the Market 2828 Linden Avenue, Homewood • (205) 870-4060 www.alabamagaslightandgrill.com ´ABRAVEANDACCOMPLISHEDFILM. A marvelthroughout.µ Contents ÐRichardBrody,THENEWYORKER ´++++ Significantly,SpikeLeeisback.µ ÐJoshuaRothkopf,TIMEOUTNY 40 ACRES AND A MULE FILMWORKS IN ASSOCIATION WITH VARIANCE FILMS PRESENTS A SPIKE LEE JOINT "RED HOOK SUMMER" CLARKE PETERS NATE PARKER THOMAS JEFFERSON BYRD MUSIC SONGS PRODUCTION DIRECTOR OF CO- INTRODUCING TONI LYSAITH AND JULES BROWN BYBRUCE HORNSBY BY JUDITH HILL EDITOR HYE MEE NA DESIGNER SARAH FRANK PHOTOGRAPHY KERWIN DEVONISH PRODUCERJAMES McBRIDE WRITTEN DIRECTED PRODUCER SPIKE LEE BYJAMES McBRIDE AND SPIKE LEE BY SPIKE LEE BRIEF VIOLENCE, LANGUAGE AND A DISTURBING SITUATION /REDHOOKSUMMER 4450 Creekside Ave. Hoover STARTS FRIDAY, AUGUST 24 RAVE PATTON CREEK 15 (205) 982-4778 Naked Birmingham . 4 The 2012 Party Planner . 15 There’s something rotten in the city Everything you need to make your of Homewood. At City Hall, that is. next bash a smash. Your guide to local Diversions . 7 caterers, venues, event planners, DJs, and other vendors who can help you The Sidewalk Film Festival returns. create an unforgettable event. Beer Hopping . 14 At the Galleries . 28 If you’ve got the time, we’ve got the Vintage punk rockers, as captured by taste test. Beer after beer. legendary photographer Richard Peterson, showing at Beta Pictoris Gallery. Cover: Detail from “Monkeyforce: Planet X” by John Lytle Wilson, currently showing in Deux Ex Machina: A Robot Show, a group exhibition at Naked Art Gallery; www.nakedartusa.com. Wilson is also a featured artist for Artwalk, September 7–8 in the downtown loft district. Don’t You Think Executive Editor Alison Nichols This is Worth More REGULAR FEATURES Associate Editor David Pelfrey Cash Flow . 5 The Set List . 29 Staff Writer Than Scrap Gold? Ed Reynolds Events Calendar . 8 Concert Calendar . 30 Contributing Writers Outdoor Calendar . 9 Live Music/Clubs . 31 Bart Grooms Danner Kline J.R. Taylor We Do! Food & Drink Calendar 13 Strange Tales . 34 Calendar Editor Jane Longshore Editorial Assistant Lindsey McLain Art Director Cris Strickland Number 450 Interns Black & White (ISSN 1064-0134) is published every other Thursday, 26 issues a year, by Black & White, Inc. Business Offices: 2210 2nd Avenue North, Floor 2, Birmingham, Alabama, 35203. Catherine Farist (205) 933-0460. E-mail: [email protected]. Postmaster: Please send change of Alexandra Garvey address to Black & White, 2210 2nd Avenue North, Floor 2, Birmingham, AL, 35203. Contents © 2012 by Black & White, Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part without express written ——— approval of the Publisher is prohibited. The publication is free, limit two per reader. Removal of more than two papers, per person, from any distribution point constitutes theft. Violators Executive Staff: are subject to prosecution under city ordinances. Publisher All letters sent to Black & White will be treated as intended for publication unless Charles S. Geiss 2116 2ND AVENUE NORTH 35203 • (205) 251-3381 otherwise noted by author. Letters may be edited for space and content. Annual subscriptions (26 issues) are available for $50 for first class delivery. Send checks attention to “Subscriptions” General Manager WWW.LEVYSFINEJEWELRY.COM • FACEBOOK.COM/LEVYSFINEJEWELY at the address above. Publishing history: Black & White’s first monthly issue was published on Kerry Echols April 30, 1992; the first bi-weekly issue was published on October 2, 1997. 3 black & white • www.bwcitypaper.com • August 23, 2012 PUBLISHER’S NOTEBOOK f you thought Birmingham politics was dysfunctional, to my business. Because I can’t take another four years of I turn your attention to Homewood, Alabama. It’s an elec- NAKED keeping my mouth shut, I’m just going to go. As for the rest tion year and there is growing momentum to oust a cast of of the council that doesn’t speak up, they are cowards. If political incumbents on August 28 out of sheer frustration the media paid any attention to all this, they wouldn’t get with the current regime and their agenda. away with what they do,” he said. This scenic over-the-mountain community has grown Payne continued, “Our city is reaching a tipping point from a modest retreat south of Birmingham into a labyrinth and we need a strategic plan. The advice I would give to a that now controls a $54 million city operating budget, a City Council President would be to gather current coun- $14 million education budget, and capital assets of $93 mil- cilors, former councilors, business leaders, and residents, lion. With that kind of money at stake, Homewood politics and come up with a plan, a mission, and a vision. I would has become something far more than smiles at a Little identify every asset the city has over $100 of value and League game and a polite gathering of neighborhood detail a rolling capital plan to improve infrastructure. If the friends and church folk. plan is not obtainable, then redo it. We should focus on In recent years, some citizens have come to refer to it public safety, commerce development, and supporting our as “an ugly machine.” Those who complain do so because existing business community. We have everything we need they have learned that questions and opinions about city to succeed, except leaders.” elections, budgets, zoning issues, and various projects are Kevin Forsyth operates a consulting business and not welcome at city council meetings, or anywhere else at participates in an organization called Leadership City Hall. One particular point of contention is a Park and BIRMINGHAM Homewood (LH). LH’s mission is to keep citizens active in Recreation Board filled with appointees that make large the community’s political process. He regularly attends decisions with large amounts of money and that details of BY CHUCK GEISS council meetings, Park Board meetings, and zoning meet- their agenda fail to be transparent. ings to study the process. It is his belief that Homewood Some Homewood residents don’t like what they see. At the very last politics has become broken and he’d like to see it change for the better. minute, Bruce Limbaugh filed to run for City Council President against incum- Because the climate in Homewood has become so contentious in recent bent Jackie Langlow (council president candidates run in a city-wide election years, he will not elaborate on the group’s membership, in large part out of for that position only, representing no particular ward). Limbaugh is respected fear of retaliation from current members of City Hall—and for good reason. by many for his 10-year tenure on the Homewood Board of Education, and Recently he has become a victim of dirty politics instigated by those that he’s credited with the development of long-term strategic plan for the school would like to see him shut up. system. “I simply believe folks should have a choice. [Langlow] was appointed “There is an agenda at City Hall and if you disagree with it, they will to this position, there was no election, there was no debate, it was just consid- attempt to kill the messenger. Now that there is a slate of candidates running ered to be ‘her time.’ I saw that as wrong,” he said. against a group of incumbents, some have become scared about losing their There are a variety of issues that trouble Limbaugh, none more controver- positions,” he said. sial than the development of a $17 million Recreation Center adjacent to “There have been attempts from City Hall to attack and discredit our family Homewood Park. “There was a public hearing for this project but many peo- business. The entire effort originated from the office of city clerk Linda Cook. ple didn’t know about it. We didn’t know we were going to discuss closing Most worrisome is that some of the information being circulated about our certain roads. We just didn’t know basics, and to me one of the biggest prob- business by the city clerk to the city council is proprietary under state law.” lems in Homewood is a lack of communication. In a day when instant commu- Forsyth’s activism has indeed gained some attention at City Hall. At some nication is available, I just don’t get it. Do the residents have any idea how the point in 2012, it was determined that there may be as many as 1,900 business- city plans to pay for it? I would say no,” Limbaugh said. es in Homewood operating without licenses. The Council hired an outside A former Park and Recreation Board member, speaking anonymously, agency to bring those businesses into compliance. “Instead of spending their stated “Most people had no idea they were going to tear down the whole time going after unlicensed businesses, they showed up at my business with complex, spend more than $15 million, and close access to the property for badges in hand and told my wife that we were operating multiple businesses 18 months. Public hearings, board meetings and other city business meet- illegally and needed to get six additional licenses. We offer several different ings are scheduled for weekday afternoons at 5:30 p.m. I would argue that [services]. Most businesses do; the Mayor’s funeral home offers multiple serv- most citizens cannot get there due to work schedules, managing children, ices, but the city clerk is not telling him to obtain multiple licenses,” he said.