FROM HIGH BROW TO OUT OF CONTROL IN ALABAMA!!!!

Oh my, what a couple of nights I have had.  I just had to share it right away.  I want music, lots of music and art and all that wonderful stuff that make images come alive and there is lots of it down here.  So last night I went to the opera.  It was a performance of "The Flying Dutchman" by the Mobile Opera.  It was wonderful, colorful, beautiful and fabulous.

So I left Mobile but will be back because I need to see flowers and green grass.  Nothing has popped yet!  I was excited to travel back to Montgomery where I have spent quite a bit of time.  This visit, however, was for a very special event - The Alabama Country Hall of Fame Inductees.  Was I in for a treat! Guitar players twanged and lights flashed and finally the entire audience danced in the halls. It was really rockin!

Then the Blind Alabama Boys came out...the audience went wild!!!! I did too!!!!

I had no idea what was still in store for me!  Pure Alabama Country and Soul!

Eddie Levert...That's right, Mr. Soul Train Himself.  By the time he was done taking us all on the train, I was worn out.  But it was not over.  The very best was the very last.  Thank goodness!!!

Percy Sledge......WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN.......!!!!!!!  Oh, my; Oh, my, my, my.
The original version no less.  But then he got down on his hands and knees.  I wept!!!!!

There he was singing my very favorite song right in front of me on his hands and knees.  I screamed and screamed and the floor shook with the audience going wild.  It was exhausting! Oh, Alabama, you have so very much to offer.  These talented artist are all Alabama born and raised.  I am just plain "lovin it" down here.  Now all I need is some warm days and I might even start to talk "southern."  Talk some "Dixie" talk.

Stay tuned for rattlesnakes and gun fights...and some caves too.

COWBOYS, JAZZ ARTISTS AND WILD ARTIST ALL IN ALABAMA!!!

It's been night and day down here in the the Heart of Dixie.  I'm running around with my camera on automatic and then staying up all night writing the database that must accompany every photo...but, I love it.  What a state!  What a state!  Alabama, home of the Crimson Tides, The Confederacy, Black History everywhere, Shrimp boats on the Bay, Rodeos, Rattlesnakes and Wild, Wild Artists.  I'm just about done with Montgomery, Alabama where I spent my first couple of weeks.  My final night was spent at the Rodeo

The American Flag waved and the horse trotted and we all ate popcorn and corn dogs and yelled and screamed!  (No, I lied - I'm not allowing myself any Southern fried food!)

Then the cowboy came out riding two tons of oxen!  Wow! I thought cowboys only did this in Texas.  I left Montgomery thinking I had just been in Austin.... it was fun and a night of entertainment.

I raced down to Mobile to see if anything was blooming yet. No such luck. Dead trees, dead grass and clouds.  So I just strolled the town and ventured down to the beach.

I am very interested in art in Alabama because most of it is colorful and different. There is no exception to this with the most famous artist in Alabama, the South and maybe even America.  His name is Nall and he and his art are unique. He dressed up for me and we went to town taking all sorts of images.  This is nothing new for him. When I got home, I looked through the book he gave me and saw his first self portrait was all curled up on a grave...with no clothes on in a fetal position.  Glad I didn't ask him to do any of that.  His art is fabulous and he is a character.  He lives 1/2 of the year in France so I was glad to catch him.

After a pleasant day in Fairhope, Alabama, I returned to Mobile and headed over to the Bienville Square to feed the squirrels. That's when I heard the sax man playing some of my favorite tunes. I put down a $5 and ask for a photo session.  He complied and I shot away while he continued to play.  Heaven. Two characters in one day and loads of images to pick from.

Now that I had my "artists" taken care of, I took advantage of the cloud cover and raced over to Magnolia Cemetery.  The angels were waiting for me.  I finished the day doing my wash across the street from the Whataburger - it even looked good with clouds.

I am really enjoying my experiences in Alabama because every day is different and unique.  All the people are nice and it is so easy to get around.  I have laid out my plan for the next two months.  There may be some spots that require that I call the Alabama Extension Services...they are way out there.  But today was good and tomorrow is the beach again  -  Shrimp boats and Forts and the ferry across the Bay.

Montgomery to Birmingham to Selma and back to Montgomery

I left Montgomery and continued to follow the Black History trail in Alabama.  I plan to do much more than Black History in Alabama, but I feel it is important to cover it throughly before I move on to all the vast aspects of this state.  Still emotional from my experience in Montgomery photographing Martin Luther King's parsonage and church...I could not get out of my mind how simple and peaceful his life seemed in his small home. With the sunlight pouring in the windows, it just seems so innocent.

Peaceful and innocent was really not the case at all during the time that Martin Luther King lived in this house.  My eyes were opened in Birmingham (previously called Bombingham because so many African American households were "bombed."  One neighborhood was even called Dynamite Hill.  My first stop was the 16th Street Baptist Church.

This beautiful stain glass depiction of Jesus was left pretty much intact the day four black girls were killed in May of 1961 when a bomb hit the church service they were attending.  After the bomb erupted, the only piece missing was his face.  As you can see, it has been repaired, but the story of the day the church was "hit" is still resonating.  I thought to myself, my birthday is around that time of year...and I remember 1961 because I was a teenager.  My main interest during that time was what color shoes I was to wear to various parties. I had no idea all girls my age were not experiencing the same life.  I did not know about fear or discrimination.  The park across the street from the church shows what the Black community was facing...every day.

These are water guns.  No, not squirt guns...real water guns that could really hurt you.  Note it is teenagers that they are pointed at...Children were targets too...no matter what age.  Then there were the dogs.

              Fierce and mean dogs.  The kind that are taught to kill.
Now there is also a place where the entire story can be told.  The story of the movement, the story of the girls, the story of the "Times, they are a-changin."  It is the Civil Rights Institute and it is across the street from the church and the park.

The exhibits in the Institute are brutally honest.  Colored and White.  Black and White.  White and Tan...just like the color of the cooler.  The Civil Rights Institute tells it like it was.  The hate, the discrimination and the struggle.

The Ku Klux Klan.  White Robes and burned crosses. Who was underneath. Could it be your local banker? barber? school teacher?  No one really knew for sure.  But they left their mark...and now they are gone.  But the Black History lesson continues.  From Birmingham, I drove to Selma to experience first hand what it was like to sing "We Shall Overcome" and march across the Edmund Pettus bridge.

I was there today to hear the speeches, listen to the songs and to walk across the bridge and feel the emotions.

They lined up like they did 45 years ago.  Hand in hand walking across the bridge.  It did not stop there.  Many of them plan to walk the 50 miles to Montgomery to remember the event to the fullest.  Even Jesse Jackson showed up.

How can anyone forget that he was there when Martin Luther King was shot. He was there during all of these events....45 years ago.

I drove on to Montgomery following the exact route that was taken for the original march.  It was 50 miles.  50 Miles of thoughts about my teenage years,  the black and white TVs  showing these "far away" events and realizing how far we have all come.  Or have we?

On to Tuskegee tomorrow.