University of Alabama’s ‘Seven Guitars’ pulses with vividness
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 11
In a show built around a young blues singer who scores an unexpected hit record, more than one refrain plays. That’s literally true of the sound design for “Seven Guitars,” which erupts with ecstatic blasts of Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and other blues greats. But it’s from within playwright August Wilson’s language, and the subtexts and themes of “Seven Guitars” that the strains of a musical style, called “nothin’ but a good man feelin’ bad” by Tuscaloosa’s own Johnny Shines, emerge. (What: August Wilson play, performed by the University of Alabama Department of Theatre and Dance).
Virtual bricks from Denny Chimes now for sale
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Oct. 11
The University of Alabama found a creative way for you to own a piece of Denny Chimes. You can now buy a virtual reality brick for $5. More than 108,000 bricks are in the structure. To buy one, log onto www.chimein.ua.edu or go to the University of Alabama home page and buy one. Money from the sale of the virtual bricks goes into the university’s general scholarship fund. After you buy a brick, you can look at it on your computer and even print a certificate showing you bought one. Alumni can put their names and years of graduation on them. A spokeswoman for the university says others can get involved too. “We would love to encourage any of our fans. It’s primarily for alumni, but any of our fans can buy a brick as well. There’s a way for you to enter other information as well. If you want to put Roll Tide instead of the year you graduated, that’s fine too. You can buy a brick for someone else, like buy a brick for your child who’ll graduate in 3 years or your grandchild who’ll graduate in how many years. You’re welcome to do that,” said Deborah Lane. So far, about a thousand or so virtual bricks have been sold.
WSFA-NBC (Montgomery) – Oct. 11
University of Alabama wheelchair tennis team hosts championships
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 11
Setbacks in life can be interpreted in a positive or negative light. For members of the University of Alabama’s wheelchair tennis team, nothing holds them back from going out and competing in a sport they love. The Crimson Tide and NorthRiver Yacht Club are hosting the 2013 Wheelchair Tennis National Championships this weekend. Senior Mackenzie Soldan said this collegiate tournament is just starting to grow and it is exciting to play on this level. “Collegiate tournaments are a different atmosphere than professional tournaments, because you have people shouting and cheering for you. I think it is going to be a good time,” Soldan said.
Moundville Festival (Photo Gallery)
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 9
Ex-Tuscaloosa council member says election hinges on keeping ties fresh
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 10
For the first time in almost a decade, the majority of the seven-member Tuscaloosa City Council will be made up of new faces. But unlike 2005, when two incumbents chose not to seek re-election and another abandoned his council seat to run for mayor, three challengers defeated incumbents in the 2013 election…Bill Stewart, a professor emeritus at the University of Alabama who chaired the political science department from 1991-2000, has a slightly different view. The voters who ousted the incumbents must have felt some disappointment in their elected leadership, Stewart said. He said that if some residents knew then what is now clear — that the incumbents could, in fact, be beaten — then even more City Council members, and possibly even the mayor, would have faced opposition.
Medicaid expansion could bring jobs and revenue to AL
WAFF 48 (Chattanooga, Tenn.) – Oct. 10
A new study by the Alabama Hospital Association conducted a study which shows that expanding Medicaid would create thousands of jobs in the state. The study shows that the state could create more than 30,000 jobs by expanding Medicaid. About a third would be in the medical field and the rest would be spread out as indirect jobs such as those in retail, food service and professional industries. Economists at the University of Alabama completed the study. They said the tax revenues generated from expanding Medicaid would pay for the state’s share of the expansion.
NBC 12 (Montgomery) – Oct. 10
WAFF-NBC (Huntsville) – Oct. 10
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Oct. 10
Ashtray Coffin
Deep South Magazine – Oct. 11
As Shelby’s four-inch heels click rhythmically on the hardwood Floor, the afternoon wind tosses the autumn leaves about the Earth of Carolina. Upon hearing the resounding Bell, Shelby reaches into the oven to take out the golden-brown Cornbread. She stirs the green beans that simmer on the stove and Enjoys the drifting aromas of a meal that she prepares in the Deep South. As Thomas’s frail body enters, his eyes whimper out of Despair. Tom Cries, “The doctors said that she was Poisoned.” Mary Claire has been dead for three days. (Forrest Maddux Blackbourn is a Ph.D. Candidate in Romance Languages at The University of Alabama and a lecturer of Spanish at Mississippi State University.)