What do Alabamians and Iranians have in common?
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
It’s the answer to the question, “Is religion an important part of your daily life?” According to Gallup, “Alabamians, for example, are about as likely as Iranians to say religion is an important part or their lives.” About 82% of each.
I enjoyed the article in yesterday’s Press-Register from Sebastian Kitchen about the “group of lawmakers singing and playing country, rock and bluegrass music at the Goat Hill Tavern” on Wednesday nights.
Being that it is a bi-partisan group, I wondered what blue or red songs they might include in their playlist.
So here you go…
Top Ten Red and Blue Songs
10. “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” - Back when pop radio played country songs, this Crystal Gayle song went to #1 on the country chart and #2 on the pop chart.
9. “Little Red Corvette” - This song was a first introduction to Prince for many.
8. “Red Headed Stranger” - Title track of Willie Nelson’s multi-platinum blockbuster album which also has the list-appropriate “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.”
7. “Blue Moon” - The Rodgers and Hart ballad is probably known more widely as a doo-wop ballad by the Marcels.
6. “Blue Bayou” - The Roy Orbison original and the Linda Ronstadt cover are both terrific.
5. “99 Red Balloons” - No doubt the catchiest song ever written about the Cold War. The song was a hit for Nena in its original German and later in English.
4. “Blue Suede Shoes” - Sun Records’ 1st million-seller was a chart-topper for Carl Perkins. Many remember it for Elvis Presley’s later version.
3. “Red Red Wine” - Neil Diamond’s song is probably remembered more for the reggae version recorded by UB40. The B-side of Diamond’s original was a cover of the list-appropriate “Red Rubber Ball,” a personal favorite co-written by Paul Simon for The Cyrkle.
2. “Lil’ Red Riding Hood” - The follow-up to “Wooly Bully” for Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
1. “Devil with the Blue Dress On” - The most famous version is the medley with “Good Golly Miss Molly” recorded by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.
Honorable Mention by Category:
Wardrobe - “Lady in Red” and “(She Wore) Blue Velvet”
Christmas - “Blue Christmas” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
Neil Diamond (again) - “Song Sung Blue” and “Forever in Blue Jeans”
Miscellaneous - “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron” (a personal favorite), “Mr. Blue Sky,” “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion” and “Bluer than Blue.”
I’ve seen unusual things in my life. But this video of the Finnish rock band the Leningrad Cowboys singing “Sweet Home Alabama” with the Soviet Red Army choir may take the prize.
Great fun here, though your mileage may vary.
Hat tip to Tim Lennox OFFair and ONline
An 1888 photo of Tuscumbia native Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan has been discovered.
Researchers have uncovered a rare photograph of a young Helen Keller with her teacher Anne Sullivan, nearly 120 years after it was taken on Cape Cod. The photograph, shot in July 1888 in Brewster, shows an 8-year-old Helen sitting outside in a light-colored dress, holding Sullivan’s hand and cradling one of her beloved dolls.
Good article and a sharp photograph (a larger version is available at the story link).
My heart aches for friend and fellow Alabama blogger Kathy whose brother died unexpectedly Sunday.
No matter what search term you put into Google News, it returns no results. Search for Bush, Riley, Gore, Tuberville, Saban, what have you. No results. It also is showing no “Top Stories” here either.
It has been like that for a while. This is going to be a pretty interesting story. Except we won’t find it on Google News. For now anyway.
Update: It is now showing Top Stories. Still no search results.
Later Update: Within a couple of hours, it seems to be working as expected. Others noticed the problem, for example, here and here.
Glad to see our old friend Wheeler back in the blogosphere. He is no longer in Alabama or blogging at the Alablawg. You can find his new home and his new blog in northwest Lousiana.
Even from a distance it’s nice to have him back.
Sure, it’s way off topic… but how many times are you going to see a story about a Marilyn Monroe impersonator filing a complaint against a guy in a Chewbacca suit? After an earlier incident between them (or perhaps involving some other Wookiee) at the premiere of the new Harry Potter movie?
That’s a convergence of pop culture that you just don’t get every day.
Chewbacca, whose real name was not available, fled before police arrived.
Crossed my radar screen of late…
Emily Metzgar, a doctoral student in media and public affairs at LSU in Baton Rouge is researching the impact of blogs on state politics around the country.
She has an online survey for bloggers and blog readers that will be available through June 30. Help her out and take a few minutes to complete the survey online.
You can read a brief profile of her research, and this blog tracks her research as it progresses.
Memorial Day Weekend is an unofficial start to summer, and many Alabamians will be beach-bound.
You might call it the Redneck Riviera, but USA Today last week called it one of “Five hidden, affordable beach destinations.” Included on the list with East Hawaii, California’s San Mateo County and others is Alabama’s own Gulf Shores.
“Gulf Shores is a bit of Florida mixed with southern charm and hospitality,” says writer Andrew Der, who visited the area in 2005. “It rivals any Florida destination I’ve seen, but without the expense or the crowds.”
…
Going out to sample some of the local cuisine, fresh seafood with a southern flair, is a must. “Gulf Shores is known for some of the best seafood in the country—you should not eat anything else while there,” says Der.
According to a blurb on TV this weekend (ok, it was an old episode of Pop-Up Video), Americans on average watch 1700 hours of television in a year. I thought, that’s almost four hours a day, could that be right?
Then that evening, I read in Time magazine in an excerpt from Al Gore’s new book that “Americans now watch television an average of 4 hours and 35 minutes every day — 90 minutes more than the world average.”
Maybe many readers here watch that much TV or more, but I was stunned by that figure. Does that seem really high to you? As an average? No wonder it’s hard to get people to engage in issues.
Here is a link to an AP story from the fall that reports Nielsen Media Research’s finding that “the average person watches four hours, 35 minutes of television each day.”
Congratulations to The Birmingham News who was awarded a Pulitzer Prize today.
The Birmingham News won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting Monday for Brett Blackledge’s exposure of corruption in the state’s two-year college system, which led to the ouster of the chancellor and an ongoing criminal investigation.
Alabamians are reaping the benefit of Blackledge’s solid and ongoing work.
According to the Pulitzer web site, the nomination was moved from the Public Service category to the Investigative Reporting category. The Seattle Times had two stories nominated in that category, and The Hartford Courant had a story nominated.
Hats off to Blackledge and The News.
Update: The Birmingham News site has a piece online with links to Blackledge’s articles that comprised the Pulitzer Prize entry.
Related Articles:
Today’s nice thought from Tim O’Reilly: “Free speech is enhanced by civility.”
Red State Diaries tells us… Editor & Publisher has an unofficial list showing The Birmingham News as a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
According to E&P, the News is a finalist, along with The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, in the category of Public Service for its reporting on corruption in the community college system.
We don’t focus on the national scene so much here in the Parlor, but this is no small story. Or two stories.
First, from AP
Citing Iranian involvement with Iraqi militias and Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, the Bush administration has shifted to offense in its confrontation with Iran — building up the U.S. military in the Persian Gulf and promising more aggressive moves against Iranian operatives in
Iraq and Lebanon.The behind-the-scenes struggle between the two nations could explode into open warfare over a single misstep, analysts and U.S. military officials warn.
This story alone was worth attention here. Then I saw this next story which is not directly related, yet it’s not entirely unrelated…
Also from yesterday, Reuters passed along this from the Pentagon.
A lack of armored vehicles, weapons and other equipment is hampering missions of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon’s watchdog agency said in a survey released on Tuesday.
Equipment shortages have been a near-constant issue since the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003…
… a Department of Defense spokesman said officials would work on the issues raised by the survey.
Birmingham’s dining destinations have caught the attention of today’s NY Times (registration req’d), thanks in no small part to the achievements of Birmingham chef and restaurateur Frank Stitt:
The novelist Pat Conroy recalls meeting Mr. Stitt on a flight in the early 1980s and asking about the impressive array of cookbooks stacked on his tray table. Mr. Stitt announced that he was about to open a restaurant in Birmingham.
“It’s a wasteland for good food,” Mr. Conroy told him.
The reply, as Mr. Conroy recalls it in the introduction to “Frank Stitt’s Southern Table,” was cocksure and quick: “It won’t be a wasteland anymore.”
There is good eating to be found.
Birmingham’s restaurants have become a lure for people who go on to develop a fondness for the city. Food lovers from Atlanta, Montgomery, Ala., and Oxford, Miss., make pilgrimages there (this year Highlands was named “best restaurant worth the long trip” in Atlanta’s weekly newspaper, Creative Loafing), and Mr. Stitt says his restaurants are often used as recruitment tools. “We landed Mercedes,” he said by way of example, referring to the plant in nearby Vance. “A lot of these people were probably brought to Highlands or Bottega to convince them that Alabama was a good place to live.”
Good article. Is your favorite Birmingham restuarant mentioned?
Makes me recall an earlier post on 100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama Before You Die.
Related Articles:
On January 1, 2007, Alabama native and Marine Sgt. Cody Baker will change his name to one chosen by the highest bidder.
Hoping to raise money for his family and an orphanage, a 29-year-old Marine is running an online auction in which the winning bidder will get to give him a new name _ and he promises to make it legally binding.
Mr. Clean, Mister Right, Mr. MyFatRobot.com, The Business of Kindness, George Bailey of Bedford Falls, and Oprah Winfrey have all been atop the list (found at his website, www.choosemyname.com), but at this writing “Finest Freshest Fastest” is the choice of the online coffee company with the high bid, $26,333.31.
Time to clean out the only somewhat interesting and irrelevant matters accumulating in the Nihil Ad Rem Department.
Medical clinics to open in Alabama Wal-Marts.
An Australian company owns an Alabama toll bridge, the Foley Beach Express Bridge. I would be interested in understanding more about the revenue from the “grants from the Federal Highway Administration and the City of Foley” and where it is going.
Crimson Tide recruiting a linebacker who wears an ankle monitor after being arrested for his role in the robbery of a Smoothie King.
Soybean-based fuel to be produced in Alabama.
A “casually tossed” cigarette butt in Decatur last month “sparked a daylong argument between four neighbors that escalated into a fight that sent at least three of them to the hospital and got them all arrested.”
My wife says she has never known anyone to be as excited to have jury duty as I am. Yeah, boy! Sure, sure, the stereotype is that jury duty is drudgery to be avoided at all costs, but…
I was summoned for jury duty back when, but couldn’t go because I was out of town at college. As a college-age student, I was really intrigued that I was selected and disappointed to have to miss it. I figured I would have another chance soon enough.
Nope…
…and for sixty-seven years* I have carried that excitement, that disappointment, that anticipation that I would have another opportunity. I finally get another shot this week, the only time since that I have been asked to serve.
And so who knows how that will affect posting here this week.
*Perhaps not 67 years.
I am curious to know if readers here have had experiences with an internet phone service like Vonage or Earthlink. I had considered it for home phone service before but the drawback was that until recently I would have to change the home phone number.
Now that I can keep the home phone number if I change, I am interested all over again. I would appreciate any thoughts or experiences that anyone here has to offer on the matter.
Folks interested in what is for now Alabama’s largest city may be interested in “five scorching sites” that “will change how you look at the city, its culture and its future” from Wade on Birmingham.
I particularly enjoyed the BhamWiki which “aims to become the foremost resource and guide for anyone curious about Birmingham and the region around it.”
Powered by WordPress
