Category: Culture

Kawasaki Lets The Good Times Roll

In case you’ve been in a total sensory deprivation chamber for the past two weeks, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Believe it or not, this has caused a lot of controversy, and there are many who feel strongly one way or another about whether or not this is a good thing for our country.

For the most part, I plan to leave those kinds of questions to the big boy and girl bloggers and the hardcore mainstream press such as People magazine. But I do want to address a particular rumor that’s been making the rounds, one that has a vital link to our national security:

Sarah Palin’s glasses are fake and she wears them just so people will think she’s smarter.

… Read the rest

Up Klose and Persun-uhl with Mike The Redneck

It was a Faustian bargain if there ever was one. The deal was that I could blog about the Olympics to my heart’s content if I would then feature a one-on-one interview with everybody’s favorite itty-bitty Bama fan, Mike the Redneck, who was about to bust his little beer gut to talk about the start of the college football season.

So yesterday the two of us sat down for a little Tuscaloosa tête-à-tête, and here’s what transpired:

MTEG: Well, look what the polecat just drug in! If it isn’t Mike the Redneck!

MTRN: Thahutt’s kute. Nice to see you too, Eyeball boy.… Read the rest

Southern Swimmers Are Tough

We were in Singapore for slightly over a week. I’m glad that I am from Alabama and know what humidity is because it was really, really humid. I got a big kick out of watching the majority of the team (who are all from the West Coast) wilt like flowers when outside for more than 10 seconds. Yes, we Southerners are tough!

–Margaret Hoelzer, US Olympic Swim Team

Margaret Hoelzer, Huntsville native and US Olympic swimmer, gets it right.… Read the rest

George Michael Was Right–Sort Of

Most of what I believe about the ongoing science v. religion debate can be discerned in this post from a couple of years ago.

Dr. Karl Giberson and I are pretty much on the same page, although he does a much finer job than I ever could of deconstructing the “new timey religion” of Richard Dawkins and Bama grad/Harvard biology professor E.O. Wilson.

Money quotes:

But let’s assume for the moment that this is possible — that science can be canonized, moralized, transcendentalized and politicized into a replacement religion, with followers, codes of conduct, celebrated texts and sacred blogs, houses of worship, “saints” of some sort and inquisitors of another sort.

… Read the rest

Hey Lionsgate–I’m Watching You

I promised that I would follow the story that I reported the other day about Lionsgate Picture’s apparent use of Ginny Owens’ “Be Thou My Vision” on the trailer for the upcoming release of Saw V.

This message was just posted on her website:

Friends: Sometime during the afternoon of Friday, July 25th, my voice on “Be Thou My Vision” was replaced by another singer.

The track still sounds nearly identical, and most websites continue to “credit” me for it, but the background music for the Saw V trailer is no longer my original version of “Be Thou My Vision.”

… Read the rest

You Can’t Keep A Good Song Down

“Be Thou My Vision,” that wonderful old Irish (we think) hymn, is one of my favorites. And if I have to explain to you why, then you haven’t been paying very close attention these past 3 years.

I’ve always considered sacred music, well, you know, sacred. So imagine my surprise to hear the strains of Ginny Owens’ hauntingly beautiful rendition of that hymn intermeshed with the trailer for the latest installment of the Saw series, Saw V.

We were waiting for the new X Files movie to start Friday night, and the misdirection totally threw me. I was thinking, hey this looks and sounds interesting.… Read the rest

Huntsville United

The Huntsville City Recreation Service’s Concerts in the Park summer series continued Monday night on an unseasonably cool and dry July evening. Citizens turned out in droves at Big Spring Park near the Huntsville Art Museum to the listen to the chillin’ sounds of two local bands, Anchor’s Eye and Band of Moose:

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Man, you know you’re getting old when the kids that you used to coach in t-ball and soccer are performing live on stage and recording a session in Nashville next week to boot. Where did the time go?

It was a time to bring your camp chair and beverage of choice, enjoy the music and meet and greet old friends:

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And new friends:

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The politicians were out in full force, including long-time Huntsville Mayor Loretta Spencer who is running for re-election and is seen here talking to a constituent:

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She even gave me this cool fan, although I didn’t really need it that night:

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No, that’s not the Mother Ship from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.… Read the rest

“We the People” Are a Motley and Colorful Crew

My Huntsville Times community column this month is dedicated to Chris and Suzanne, Jane, Father Ray, Marquez, Maricela and many others (e.g., Nic and Diane, Uncle Dick, M.C., Mike and Jeanette and their three fine sons and, of course, Elsie) who made our recent Washington D.C. trip one to remember but whose names I didn’t mention because they limit me to only 680 words.

But I mention them now because it’s my blog and I can if I want to!

Let freedom ring, baby.… Read the rest

Color Me Audacious

Recently, during a Bible class at my church, the teacher, a man in his early 30s, said something to this effect: I wish we could return to our 1950s morality.

I immediately thought: Which 1950s morality are you talking about? The black and white, warm and fuzzy, cut and dry predictability of Ozzie and Harriet or the black and white Jim Crow laws and state-supported racism which consigned a significant portion of our Southern population to second-class citizenship, public lynchings and other various and sundry travesties of justice?

And what year were you born in? 1975? What could you possibly know about “1950s morality?”… Read the rest

The Rite of the Funeral Parlor

Last evening, Eyegal and I stood in the receiving line of a local funeral parlor to pay our respects to the family of a man who suddenly died this past weekend. He was a great-grandfather, full of years, and a pillar to his family and community.

We arrived a couple of minutes before the visitation was to start and the receiving line already wound its way through the chapel and stretched out the door into the lobby, snaking its way through the narrow hallway past several other viewing rooms, the water fountain and the bathrooms, all the way to the casket display area.… Read the rest

And Away I Went

I got in the truck… and away I went.

Oh, that’s right, most people like reading the first paragraph, well, first:

A burned out ignition coil on the last day of a beach vacation is a real buzz killer. Oh, and another thing: The nearest dealer was over 150 miles away in Montgomery.

For the record, I’ve complained to the editor about the disappearing-first-paragraph problem in the online edition, and he said that The Huntsville Times doesn’t own the website but instead contracts out so therefore they have no control over it.

I say it’s about time The Huntsville Times joins the 21st century and creates their own website like so many other newspapers have.… Read the rest

I Got In The Truck

tow-truck.jpgI promised everyone more details regarding my “mad, moonlit dash into L. A. (Lower Alabama) with a chain-smoking, Diet Coke-swilling insomniac tow truck driver named Keith.”

In my community column in this coming Sunday’s Huntsville Times, I’ll deliver.

Looking back, I had two choices. I could have simply given the keys and a note to the dealer to Keith and had him deliver the car by himself and checked on it the next day as we drove through Montgomery on the way home. Or, I could get in the truck and see what adventures lay in store along U.S. 331 on a Friday night in the heart of the Deep South.… Read the rest

We’re All April Fools

april-fool-illus.jpgFor those of you who may have been wrong-footed by my April Fools gag post on being named the Duke University team optometrist (and sources tell me that there were several of you), don’t feel too badly.

You were not alone. If you want to spot these feints a little earlier, then you might want to check this out.

Besides, it’s not like I never bought a tall tale or two.

A couple of years ago, my friend Ed wrote a classic April Fools post that I swallowed hook, line and sinker like an eager large mouth bass.

Chariots of Fire is one of my all time favorites, and I wanted so much for that story to be true.… Read the rest

Here’s Your Handy Huntsville Guide

It’s the second Sunday of the month, and The Huntsville Times has published my latest community column entitled, “New to the city? Here’s a handy guide for you newcomers.”

Sigh. You know the drill. Here’s the first paragraph:

We moved to Huntsville 15 years ago this month. Back then, what I really wanted was a reliable newcomer’s guide. There are probably folks migrating to Huntsville from northern Virginia as part of the BRAC move who feel the same way. Maybe some of them will even read this column.

And here’s the rest.

For the uninitiated, BRAC stands for “Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission.”… Read the rest