Chicago’s Vox Arcana kicks off UA’s 2012-13 Sonic Frontiers Concert Series
AL.com – Aug. 30
Tim Daisy’s Chicago-based trio Vox Arcana will kick off the University of Alabama’ssecond season of the Sonic Frontier Concert Series on Sept. 28 in the Moody Music Building Concert Hall, followed by a wide range of international acts from New York, Germany, Alabama, the Czech Republic and elsewhere. The series is meant to further artistic diversity to the UA campus and invite creative exchange between music professionals, students and the greater community through public performances and class visits by world-class performers of adventurous music.
Alabama-focused documentaries stand out at Sidewalk film festival
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 31
Nestled in the heart of downtown Birmingham, the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival is always a good time, but hamstrung by personal issues and illness this year, I didn’t get to experience as much of it as I would have liked…Two documentaries that played at the wonderful Alabama Theatre on Saturday have distinct local ties, and they’re films that Tuscaloosans should check out at the earliest opportunity. “Eating Alabama,” directed by University of Alabama professor Andrew Grace, will finally screen in Tuscaloosa on Sept. 9 at the Bama Theatre (and keep an eye on these pages for more information as that date gets closer). If you’re free that day, I suggest checking it out; “Eating Alabama” is a warm-hearted, funny and satisfying examination of living off entirely locally sourced foods, and what that means in an age of corporate agriculture and the ever-dwindling culture of farming.
Community colleges call job training an ‘underfunded mandate’
Huffington Post – Aug. 30
Community colleges are more than ever being tasked with the critical role of putting unemployed Americans back to work — but they are being asked to do it with scarce funding and unrealistic expectations, according to a new report released Wednesday by the University of Alabama’s Education Policy Center. The study, called “Workforce Training in a Recovering Economy,” included numbers that leaders of community colleges and job training have observed for years. Of the 49 state community college leaders who responded, 45 said that business leaders are now relying on them for workforce training — up from 34 last year.
PAC money pumped into Oxford mayoral race
Anniston Star – Aug. 31
Political action committees spent money in this year’s Oxford mayoral race, part of a growing trend for state municipal elections some experts said Thursday. Two Montgomery-based political action committees each contributed $2,500 to Oxford Mayor Leon Smith’s campaign last week. Another Montgomery PAC donated $500 in July to Smith’s main opponent, Cristy Humphries. Some political experts said PAC money is no longer just associated with legislative and national races, but is being spent more in state municipal campaigns. . . . William Stewart, professor emeritus of political science for the University of Alabama, said PACs have spread into Alabama municipal elections in recent years. “It’s a new phenomenon as far as municipal elections,” Stewart said. “I expect PACs to be the primary mode to transfer funds to candidates for many years to come.”