A Free Independent Newspaper
Issue 16 AUGUST 2014
News, Makers & Trends of the New South
MADEPAER.COM
ALABAMA’S MOST POPULAR WEBSITE. ALWAYS FREE.
AL.com delivers 24/7 local news, sports, weather and entertainment, all at an unbeatable price: FREE. Online 24/7 • Mobile Apps • E-newsletters ALWAYS FREE
Montgomery
MONTGOMERY
PUBLISHER MADE Paper
Issue 16 AUGUST 2014
EDITORS Brent Rosen, Anna Lowder, Caroline Nabors Rosen, Harvi Sahota CREATIVE DIRECTOR Harvi Sahota DESIGN Matter www.iheartmatter.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Brent Rosen, Caroline Nabors Rosen, Anna Lowder, Andrea Jean, Heather Steen, Tiffany Bell, Will Abner, Johnny Veres, Sam Wootten, Jennifer Kornegay, Melissa Tsai, Tom Jean, Edwin Marty, Evans Bailey, Tina Hofer Medico, Robert Wool,,Elliot Knight, Mark Bowen, Christian Kerr, Rebecca Seung, David Mowery, Brian Carroll, Blake Rosen, Josh Carples, Katie Lindgren, Natilee McGruder, CarolineTaylor, Skye Borden, Katie Vega, Rachel Fisher, Amy Collins
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Harvi Sahota, Grace Photography, Josh Moates, Jon Kohn, Ryan Muirhead, Luke Lindgren, Thomas Lucas DESIGN CONTRIBUTOR Jay Wilkins
Made is a free, independent newspaper published monthly. Modern design, authentic voices, smart articles and curated events. ISSUE 16 AUGUST 2014
DISCLAIMER: Made publishes news and commentary, critique and reporting, offering different views from our community. Our contributors offer a variety of views and perspectives on subjects covered in Made. These views and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher. Due to the nature of creative industries and the connections we foster with those around us, contributors may have some personal or professional connection with people, events, or organizations covered in the publication or website. All letters, messages, and emails sent to Made will be treated as intended for publication unless otherwise noted by the author. Letters and emails may be edited for space and content. Made celebrates the rich history of a free press and is proud to continue to strengthen this tradition.
CONTENTS © 2014 by Made Paper. Reproduction in whole or in part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the publisher’s express written approval is prohibited. The publication is free, limit two per reader. Removal of more than two papers from any distribution point constitutes theft. Violators are subject to prosecution under city ordinances.
MADE PAPER 505 Cloverdale Road, Unit 102 Montgomery, Alabama 36106 CALL 334.223.4862 EMAIL editor@madepaper.com
COVER PHOTO: THOMAS LUCAS
03 04 07 08 09 10 12 13
Column feature: Riverwalk Stadium feature: hardly retiring feature: dragon boat Food & DRINK MAKERS music Southern revelry
PAGE 4
MADE is a collective of citizens celebrating the local, the authentic, and the unique. We are creatives featuring other creatives and the engaging work being produced in our city. We call attention to all fields forging new pathways in expression and innovation. We are makers who love to eat, talk, collaborate, question, party, and laugh, and we want you to take part. Thanks for reading this and supporting the artists, craftsmen, creatives, and active citizens that make a city thrive.
No Lionness In Winter WORDS BRENT ROSEN
Dr. Susie Paul and I met when I covered the tour of cottages for MADE
residents is an accident of chance. Or, to put it another way, this town
last Fall. Her house was the second photographer Jon Kohn and I
has plenty of cool old people and plenty of young assholes.
visited, and I will never forget pulling up, looking at Jon and saying, “is it just me or does this house look like a concrete trailer.” Jon gave me
Now back to a cool old person. Dr. Paul’s contribution for MADE this
the non-committal, toothless smile that makes up so much of our
month provides another great lesson for the New Montgomery. She
interaction, and then we went inside. Dr. Paul and I chatted for only a
wonderfully describes how the changes in Montgomery over the last
few minutes before she said, “everyone says my house looks like a
decade have re-made our city, while at the same time reminding us
concrete trailer.”
that thoughtful, creative, inspiring people lived in Montgomery long before this city’s revitalization gained steam. It was the Dr. Paul’s of
What I loved immediately about Dr. Paul was her to-the-bones belief
Montgomery that built the foundation upon which all of the New
that her community, Historic South Hull, was the best in Montgomery.
Montgomery is built. Without people like Dr. Paul working to keep
The ex-president of her neighborhood association, Dr. Paul described
Montgomery vibrant during earlier, darker days, Montgomery could
the neighborhood of African Americans, White retirees, young families,
easily have slid into a permanent, lazy irrelevance. For that, we owe her
recent immigrants from Latin America, military officers, and a biker
our gratitude.
gang like they were all members of the same slightly quarrelsome family who had regular sit-com type moments of anger and frustration
But as Dr. Paul rightly emphasizes, her generation can serve as more
eventually dissolve into empathy and consideration. Like a Full House
than just a bridge between Montgomery’s past and Montgomery’s
episode acted by the Sons of Anarchy, the Golden Girls and the
future. What Dr. Paul has in spades is experience, and experience is
members of Team Zizssou. She observed that people had lived in
like a super power. Experience allows you to travel forward in time, see
homogenous communities for so long they’d almost forgotten how to
the steps that lie ahead, and then avoid mistakes in the present.
get along with different people, but now that diversity had been thrust
Experience recognizes failure before it ever happens.
upon them, her neighbors were relearning lessons taught in Kindergarten. Dr. Paul talked of them like a proud parent, beaming as
As we foray into the future, the Dr. Paul’s of Montgomery are our
she watched her children learn to share.
seers. They already know the path the New Montgomery is trying to take as they’ve been walking it before many of us were born. They’ve
If I hadn’t taken the time to chat with Dr. Paul, I would have missed out
seen the pitfalls and the traps, the pig trails to nowhere. They’ve seen
on an incredible educational moment, and too many people our age -
ideas for how to bring change to Montgomery come and go, and can
myself included - miss out on these sorts of conversations. Now some
separate faddish gimmicks from lasting accomplishments. They know
of you may be thinking, “what sort of flip-flopper is this guy? Doesn’t
how hard you have to work to bring change, but also that sometimes,
he hate old people?” Nay, nay, friends. My reputation for disliking my
hard work is not enough. They know even the loveliest beaches can be
elders is unearned. While I have openly questioned the ideas and
made of quicksand, so it’s better to check before throwing out your
actions of some older people in Montgomery, my anger was directed at
beach towel and getting comfortable.
their “Old Montgomery” way of thinking. That much of “Old Montgomery” thinking happens to be clustered in Montgomery’s older
Dr. Paul would like to share this knowledge. All you have to do is ask.
AUGUST 2014 • MADEPAPER.COM
03
04
MADEPAPER.COM • AUGUST 2014
WORDS BRENT ROSEN PHOTOS THOMAS LUCAS
Friday July 18, 2014: 7:24 a.m. I lie awake through two titters of the iPhone alarm before gaining awareness of my hangover. Snooze button once, twice, three times, until 24 minutes becomes the limit I can hold out before going to the bathroom. I slap at the wall until the bathroom light turns on and get a good, painful look at myself in the mirror through eyes so dry they’re stuck half shut. Lifting the toilet seat I realize my hand is stamped in two places and I’m wearing a hunting-vest orange wristband. I hear a snippet of a Talking Heads song in my mind and I have to ask myself, “how did I get here?” Thursday July 17, 2014: 6:55 p.m. I walked into Riverwalk Stadium flanked by Katie Vega and Thomas “Bama Bear” Lucas, ready to find out why Thirsty Thursdays at Riverwalk Stadium seemed to have the liveliest singles scene of anywhere in Montgomery. I had been to a Biscuits game on a Thirsty Thursday a few months before and could not get over all of the young, good looking, clearly single people mingling about throughout the game. I had always wondered where all of the young people in Montgomery went, and that night I found them. I made a mental note to come back and investigate further. I’d been putting it off ever since. Tonight was finally the night. I was out to write “Getting Lucky at a Montgomery Biscuits Game: A Field Guide,” influenced by nothing more than some classic naturalist literature I’d purchased used on amazon.com, instinct, and pre-game whiskey from Central. Katie was there to make it less awkward when I walked up to women and asked them if they were at the Biscuits game because they were looking to get laid, and Bama Bear was there to take pictures. If the previous few sentences created the impression that this was a well thought out, highly-planned bit of newspapering, please think again. It’s when you walk through the gate on Tallapoosa St. and the usher takes your ticket and directs you to the “age verification” table with the huntingvest orange wristbands that you realize something more than baseball is happening here. Normally, someone checks your Id, if at all, at point of sale. That step had been removed. I sensed the Biscuits were ready for a borderline drinking-age crowd and high-volume liquor sales. Encouraged, we pressed forward.
A few $2 dollar beers and a bag of Houston’s peanuts later, we found seats along the first base line and caught a few innings of Biscuits versus Jackson Generals before going to work. Main memories: all white baseball players look the same, and all have the same goofy grin. I thought Ketel Marte name was pronounced like “Ketel One,” and Katie disagreed. Someone hit a home run and it bounced really, really high off of the concrete outfield wall, over a railing, and possibly onto the train tracks behind the stadium. For about half an inning. I sat rapt as Bama Bear told me about how he recruits models for his personal photography. I wondered if a baseball could derail a train. I noticed that Ketel Marte had almost no plate discipline and related to Katie and Bama the old baseball adage that Dominican players swing at everything because “you can’t walk off the island,” an idea that seems highly stereotypical but also likely to be the God’s honest truth. You know, we watched baseball.
“We go to Aviator after Biscuits games, but if we go out normally it’s to Head on the Door or GT South. The sort of girls we’re interested in don’t really hang out here.” Another curve ball from McGough - not one second of this interview had gone the way I’d expected. We talked a few minutes more about McGough’s work on heavy metal fan zines and GT South’s board game night before I had to excuse myself to look for someone more conventionally single and ready to mingle. I rewarded the team for our first successful interview with a round of drinks, happy to have met someone genuinely interesting even if McGough and the Uglies did not move the intended narrative forward an inch. It was time to get serious. I switched to the Budweiser of whiskey - Jack Daniels - and joined Katie as she smoked outside of the stadium. On the way out, an usher stamped my hand. Thursday July 17, 2014: 8:55 p.m.
Thursday July 17, 2014: 8:03 p.m. Youths began trickling in. The bar along the firstbase line at Riverwalk Stadium had a surprisingly strong draft beer selection, but we ordered Budweiser anyway. I decided to get all of my interview anxiety out of the way first, and scanned the bar for the most intimidating person I could find. I saw a group of tough looking guys wearing “Plug Uglies” biker vests and bandanas and decided the guy who looks like their leader was the place to start. I walked up to the big, red-bearded guy, introduced myself and asked, “so, tell me about your gang, the Plug Uglies.” The man introduced himself as Bob McGough and explained the “gang” was a group of music fans and supporters who helped bands go on tour by setting up gigs at local venues and then offering up couches or spare rooms for bands to crash. McGough explained the chapter got together at least a couple times a month, and that they chose to come to the Biscuits game because “we like to drink beer and the beer is cheap here.” Although not the intimidating biker I’d expected, McGough and I made a connection. I jumped right in, asking the first of what would be many variants of the same question: “so, how is the singles scene here? Is this a good place to, you know, meet people?” McGough started laughing, joined by some of the other Uglies who’d been eavesdropping a few feet away. “We’re not really your mainstream crowd,” McGough explained.
I conduct over one dozen interviews. Because of the somewhat suggestive nature of my questioning, I agreed to use no real names. I approached a group of about eight young, doublefisted beer drinkers and asked them “why does Riverwalk Stadium feel so much like a college bar?” One of the men responded, “College? This might be a high school bar,” as he looked at an admittedly youngish group of girls walking by on the way to their seats. Changing angles, I asked, “If not for girls, then why do you come to Riverwalk Stadium?” He answered, “there’s two dollar beer, and the social aspect of it. You know that people you know are going to be here. I know my friends will be here. People you get to bump into once a week.” I was hoping for sex-crazed, or at least fevered, but again relative wholesomeness reared its mundane head. Slowly, interview after interview, a theme emerged. I approached a tall blonde girl who I’d watched prowl the catwalk between the concession stands and the seating like it was the aisle of a grocery store and asked her what brought her to the Biscuits game. She responded, “to get us something to do. There’s nothing to do in Montgomery. The Biscuits are the place to go, to meet up, to have a good time.” She further informed me she attended AUM, was into cosmetology, and that the best part of the Biscuits game was “seeing all the faces.” She was but one example: again and again, interviewees touched on the theme of “there’s not much to do in
AUGUST 2014 • MADEPAPER.COM
05
Montgomery but go to Biscuits games,” as if Riverwalk Stadium was an oasis in the otherwise fun-free desert of Montgomery. I pulled Katie, who is significantly younger than I am, aside and asked her why the young people of Montgomery think there is so little to do. Katie explained Montgomery, especially for young people, isn’t so much boring as it is controlled. The restaurants and bars of this town are full of prying eyes and gossipy old twits ready to report “inappropriate” behavior to your mother, your friends, or your co-workers. Many young Montgomerians, Katie continued, still live with their parents, and many of their parents live in East Montgomery -- an area constructed for the purpose of smoothing spontaneity. Katie then asked me “has Montgomery ever felt small to you?” “Of course,” I responded. Katie took a sip from her drink, letting me think about that for a minute, then asked me to imagine how small Montgomery must feel for someone fresh out of college and living with their parents in Pike Road. With that assist from Katie, it dawned on me that Biscuits games are the best thing going in Montgomery on Thursday night because it is one place where young Montgomery can legitimately expose itself to the possibility of adventure. The game’s atmosphere felt so familiar because I’d lived it when I was on the cusp of adulthood but still living with my parents, going to events like county fairs and music festivals and my first few weddings. I remember hanging out in the shadows just beyond the lights, reaping the fruits of no
06
MADEPAPER.COM •
AUGUST 2014
adult supervision. You never knew who you’d meet on nights like that, where those nights might take you, what lies you’d have to tell in the morning. On those nights, you knew the taste of freedom. For young people in Montgomery, bound by social convention and its many enforcers, freedom is in short supply. Biscuits games provide something nowhere else in Montgomery can: a place where young Montgomery is free to get loose. It’s a place where eyes on the field means no eyes on you. It’s a place where only the batters have to worry about getting hit in the face with fastballs for violating old-fashioned, unwritten rules. Riverwalk Stadium on Thirsty Thursday isn’t about getting lucky, but the possibility of getting lucky, and that’s enough. I wanted to tell the blonde on the catwalk that it gets better, that as you age and gain independence the unwritten rules that constrain your life will fall away if you let them. But for now, she and her friends at the Biscuits game are still too young to realize only umpires enforce the rules, and everyone hates umpires. Thursday July 17, 2014: 9:25 p.m. We remembered that Central’s valet service ended at 10:00 and headed for the gates. I thought we’d left a few minutes too early, but Katie thought the valet was hot and didn’t want him to have to wait around all night. I walked out of the stadium toward Central holding my last Jack Daniels because I’m not too old to enjoy a taste of freedom myself, and on the way out the usher doubled me up on hand stamps.
After Katie dropped me at home I realized the only thing I’d eaten that night was a bag of peanuts, putting my whiskey to solid food ratio well into the danger zone. My stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the morning was going to be tomorrow. I pulled some leftovers out of the fridge and poured a nightcap, then popped on the internet. I learned the Jackson Generals were from Jackson, Tennessee, not Jackson, Mississippi, and also that the Biscuits lost 8-4. As I drifted off to sleep, I wondered if it was really necessary for the Biscuits to keep score.
WORDS SUSIE PAUL PHOTO JONATHON KOHN
I am on my mostly daily walk down a Cloverdale street when I hear the rattling of an engine. Dead ahead, a bearded young man is trying to start his antique truck, the logo for a small printing business decorating the door. I admire the scene, the small brick bungalow behind him, antique rattan furniture on its porch, his perfectly restored truck.
I don’t read magazines pitched at baby boomers, nor do
And we don’t live behind locked doors in constant fear
I ascribe to the notion popularized in those publications
of a changing world.
I smile all the way home, reminded of my friend Betty
But sometimes I feel the city I love doesn’t love me
Joe’s dad, his fix-it shop canted in the back out over the beach in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. He was an original, scruffy and kind to us kids, teaching us that good towns are places that tolerate individuals, in all their permutations, like Mr. Joe in his weathered mess of a shop, riding back and forth home on a fat-tired bike. I had always thought I’d retire in this town where I grew up, on the beach, near the Gulf and my family. Katrina changed all that; the Coast is no longer affordable on a teacher’s pension plus social security. Moreover, my hometown is no longer the quaint, somewhat shabby, but culturally rich village in which I spent my childhood. It’s abandoned itself to tourists and a self-conscious, mercenary display of the “local.” For too many years, once launched, young Montgomery fled in just the way I too had planned. Now, my friends and I see you everywhere. You are fresh and eager, and, finally, find yourselves welcomed, even courted: young professionals, artists, artisans, musicians, and creators of small and innovative businesses. We have so much fun watching you descend on a restaurant or bar in your colorful clothes, chatting and happy, bursting with news and ideas. I would number many of you among that class identified about a decade ago as the “creatives,” and all the most interesting cities are chock full of them, as Montgomery is now. If a changing Mississippi cost me my dream of going home, a changing Montgomery, Alabama, saved me here in my sixties, the raising of children and a career in teaching now mostly behind me. I am not ex-military returning to a warm climate, low cost of living including the Maxwell Commissary, and beautiful golf courses. God bless those folks, many of whom are friends.
of “reinventing” myself. I see it more like this: I am building on what I have made of myself, and I am hoping
In the hard years before Mayor Bright began to revitalize
to reap the rewards of what I’ve given to this town over
Montgomery and lead us out of an era of fear and
many years. I have discovered that through my renewed
insularity, we had a couple of sayings that helped us
commitment to this city I have had a small part in its
survive. “Montgomery is a great place to live if you just
renewal, its progress. After all, I taught so many of the
ignore it,” my friend Cynthia liked to remind the whiners.
young who have chosen to stay or to return. Now I study
Our other favorite, “A lot of amazing people get
under them, here in my second and, I hope, final
stranded in Montgomery.” We were much younger then,
hometown. I am learning so much, I am never bored, I
of course, but we found our consolation in the folks
am continually challenged, and, mostly, I am gratified.
whose orbits intersected ours. We hung in here, we celebrated and struggled, we stayed.
back, doesn’t always see me--beyond my aging person,
Now we find so much to do in this town, we can’t wait
making assumptions about me that cost it all that I have
for the weekends: Cloverdale Playhouse and ASF, the
learned and can offer. And multiply that by many: within
Capri; we go to the Montgomery Museum of Art; the
walking distance in my neighborhood, historic South
Montgomery Symphony and the chamber music series;
Hull, are my “senior” friends: a sociology professor; a
we love bars, too, and home-grown restaurants when
retired Latin teacher; an American literature professor
we’re in the money; we love the river front and any
who practices sports ranging from wind-surfing to
concert or festival that goes on there; we go to Biscuits
kayaking to rock climbing at 67; a social worker who
games and drink beer and eat hot dogs and pay
treats endangered children. I call the former Chief of
attention to the game; we walk the parks, kayak the
Police for Dannelly Field and his wife, retired from the
rivers, shop the little boutiques. We drink coffee on the
state, my neighbor and friend.
sidewalks, love the flea markets and antique malls. We shop and eat and play local every chance we get!
Just because we have retired or will soon retire from our
But does this city celebrate us as part of its renewal,
jobs doesn’t mean we’re dead. My friend Barbara has
especially all you young “creatives”? Or are we invisible
hiked the Carpathians, the Himalayas, and the Andes
because we wear the camouflage of aging bodies. For
just in the last several years. My neighbor Glenda
this is how we miss each other as persons, when we
recently traveled to Africa on a birding trip. Some of us
think - to mention only a few of our occasionally useful
lead what seem more ordinary lives, but we have time to
categories - black or white or brown, rich or poor, gay or
consider, to think deeply about what goes on in the
straight, young or old. In our case, you lose the energy
world, to talk it through. Clearly, we’re not sitting
and ideas, the vitality we still possess; you miss us.
around discussing the health and regularity of our bodily functions or parked in front of daytime television losing
Just as important, without our perspective, you lose that
our minds.
sense of history we carry in our minds and hearts, the memories and experiences of our rich pasts. Without us,
A telephone call and short car ride away are more of my
my friend in his shiny antique truck pioneering in his
friends. This is my special gang; among us we claim
artisan’s small business venture risks being, to return to
multiple ex-husbands and lots of grown children. All
an earlier trope, inauthentic. We think you guys are so
three of these friends are artists, practicing ceramics,
very cool, but don’t forget: some of us, we invented cool.
spinning, knitting and every kind of textile art, jewelry making, and, most of all, living a life that looks, when
This year some friends and I decided to celebrate the
folks do look, far more expensive than any of us could
beginning of summer; we would walk the labyrinth over
afford.
at the Unitarian Church. It was a soothing exercise in the intense heat and humidity still heavy at the end of
We live creatively. For each other and our children, we
that day. We got to the center pretty quickly, but that
sparkle, we laugh, we party, and we read and think and
was really no fun. We just kind of stood there, eager to
live in a state of intense curiosity about everything
get out and get lost in the winding way again. Call on us,
around us. Certainly we have not rigidified in our views.
Montgomery. Include us, see us.
AUGUST 2014 • MADEPAPER.COM
07
DRAGON BOAT RETURNS FOR ITS 5TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY WORDS STEPHEN WOERNER Montgomery is getting ready for the fifth annual Montgomery Dragon Boat Race & Festival. Anyone who has participated during the past four years knows what is coming; the Montgomery Dragon Boat Race & Festival is simply the largest event to happen on the Montgomery Riverfront. There will be nearly 1,750 paddlers on 70 different teams this year. The festival coordinators expect between 6,000 and 8,000 spectators. Time to gear up. Some of the highlights each year at the festival include the various grudge matches between local banks, churches, and city teams. The climax of these grudge matches is always the Battle for the Iron Paddle where the Auburn and Alabama alumni associations meet head to head. Of course, some of the most fun happens inside of Riverfront Parkway where teams “tailgate” with their fellow rowers in their custom designed tent areas. Best Tent Site, Best Dressed Drummer, and Most Enthusiastic Team are some of the awards that teams can win without their paddles. The Montgomery Dragon Boat Race & Festival truly does offer something for everyone, and you need to be down on the river front on August 23rd from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. if you don’t want to miss out. What you may not know is that the entire event is, and has always been, a tremendously successful fundraiser for two local charities. Five years ago the staff from Rebuilding Together Central Alabama and Bridge Builders Alabama, with support from the Central Alabama Community Foundation, sat down and dreamed up the festival. In less than two months, the festival went from dream to reality with 23 teams paddling in the first festival. The Festival has experienced tremendous growth, doubling in the number of participating teams just by year two. The staff of each organization remains deeply involved with one hundred percent of the proceeds supporting their programs. Rebuilding Together Central Alabama (RTCA) helps low income homeowners by providing critical repairs that help them stay in a safe and healthy home. They provide these repairs free of charge through the generosity of donors and volunteers from the community. RTCA’s service area includes Montgomery, Autauga, and Elmore counties, and the homeowners being served are elderly, disabled, veterans, or families with small children. Since 1993, RTCA has served
PHOTO COURTESY DRAGON BOAT RACE & FESTIVAL over 600 homeowners with the help of over 12,000 volunteers. Bridge Builders Alabama is a youth leadership program for high school juniors and seniors from across the river region of Alabama. They seek to bring together students from different social, socio-economic, geographic, and racial groups to build community; these students then make a difference in their communities. Bridge Builders students represent 35 public, private, and parochial high schools. Over the last year, these students contributed over 3,400 hours of community service to other non-profits in the area. Through grants, charitable contributions, support from local government, and the Dragon Boat Race & Festival, each student is provided a 100% scholarship to participate in both years of the Bridge Builders Alabama program.
To all of our paddlers and spectators who will be joining the crowds at the 5th Annual Montgomery Dragon Boat Race & Festival, remember: not only are you participating in the South’s largest tailgate party for a canoe race, not only are you paddling for bragging rights for the year, not only are you enjoying a piece of what has helped make Montgomery a town worth living in, you are also directly contributing to the ability of two important charities to continue to improve the region in which we all live. Join the festivities downtown at the Dragon Boat Race & Festival on August 23! Visit www.montgomerydragonboat.org to find out all the event details. Find out more about these charities by visiting Bridge Builders Alabama at www.bridgebuildersalabama.org and Rebuilding Together Central Alabama at www.rtbama.org.
South Pacific: September 4-30 WORDS CAROLINE TAYLOR Curated by New York-based Y&S, South Specific brings together the work of eight emerging artists. Hailing from the American North, West and South, each of the artists’ explorations of material and process ultimately results in works that supersede their own components to speak in the conceptual language driving contemporary art practice today. Dean Levin (b. 1988, South Africa/Los Angeles) challenges issues of form and space as they relate to human interactions. Evidenced in both process and medium of his paintings and installations, Levin confronts conceptual problems of architecture. New Orleans-based Julian Wellisz (b. 1988, Los Angeles) explores process in printmaking with his Stack series. Applied by an industrial lithography press, bleeds of two colors of ink are applied to two sides of copy paper, inevitably running together to create a third color on the paper stack’s spin. As three of the eight artists on the Still House Group’s
06
MADEPAPER.COM • AUGUST 2014
permanent roster, Isaac Brest, Jack Greer and Dylan Lynch work in the group’s shared Red Hook, Brooklyn studio. The group’s co-founder, Isaac Brest (b. 1987, Los Angeles) came across materials such as plaster, painter’s tape and spackle while creating the Brooklyn studio. The materials have since become an intrinsic element of Brest’s practice. Stitching together discarded scraps from fellow Still House members’ works, Jack Greer (b. 1987, Los Angeles) creates labor intensive tapestry-like canvases that are at once independent works and collected narratives. The original utilitarian purpose of ready-made objects is forgotten as Dylan Lynch (b. 1987, Los Angeles) finds a voice of permanence in their re-birth as sculptures and installations. Inherent familiarity in the objects is recognized while reason for existence is elegantly redefined. A former artist in residence at the Still House Group, Haley Mellin, (b. 1983, San Anselmo, CA) engages post-internet practices, working primarily in digital painting. Evn Robarts’ (b. Miami, FL) works enliven a sense of nostalgia though incorporated objects both fabricated and found. His hanging metal fence sculpture included in the
exhibition acts as “repurposed ephemera” drawing on childhood memories. Henry Levy (b. 1991, Atlanta, GA), a Los Angeles based artist, also incorporates found objects into his works, as well as text and pop imagery. Levy works across several mediums including sculpture, painting, installations and photography. Y&S is a New York City based non-profit dedicated to the support of emerging and unrepresented artists. Founded and driven by a group of art enthusiasts, Y&S strives to give young artists a platform on which an ever-broadening audience celebrates the works of their own generation. Y&S creates a bridge between young artists and a young audience, through group shows, lectures, studio visits and publications. youngandstarving.com South Pacific, curated by Y&S, will be at the Triumph & Disaster Gallery located at The A&P in Old Cloverdale. Show runs Sept. 4-30, 2014.
WORDS & PHOTOS WILL ABNER Believe it or not, there is such thing as an international cocktail convention. It’s called Tales of the Cocktail. Tales is a week-long event where distillers, bartenders, and people of the beverage trade get together for seminars, networking, and promotion. Parties are thrown every day, all day by the biggest names in drink, in the most professional manner (of course). Where is this set you ask? Well the entire city of New Orleans, obviously. And In a wonderful turn of events, I had the opportunity to attend this year’s Tales of the Cocktail. Given I am the bar manager of a restaurant, you could call it a working vacation. So the plan was set. My friend/sponsor/handler Caroline and I were to leave on the morning of Monday July 14, 2014, and return Sunday July 20th. Ambitious? Quite. A whole week in New Orleans just for a vacation is a lot, but throw in all the work and “research” we were scheduled to do and it was almost insane. The important thing to remember is that a week in NOLA is a marathon, most definitely not a sprint. While I was away I decided to write some friends and family about my experiences. Here is a postcard I sent to my mother: “Dear Mom, My friend Caroline and I are having a delightful time here in New Orleans at Tales of the Cocktail. Although we are having to work a lot, we are managing to find some time for a good dinner every night. We arrived on Monday and are staying at a friend’s apartment. The view is great, the famous trolley cars even pass right by the window every so often! I’m making “mock-tails” at the convention with Mountain Valley Water. It’s a blast being able to serve people cool drinks and not worrying about pouring alcohol. There’s enough of that in the other parts of the convention...people gotta hydrate! The event is based out of the Hotel Monteleone. It’s massive, with several rooms where seminars and various events take place throughout the week. It’s great for me to be here so I can make connections and bring new knowledge back to my workplace. We start our day bright and early, so we turn in for the night after dinner. On Wednesday we ate at the historic Antoine’s restaurant where the oysters Rockefeller was created! I think tomorrow we are going to seek out the best po-boys in town,
and don’t worry, we are staying away from Bourbon St...we have too much work to do! We plan to be back home Sunday after the final events are wrapped up. I can’t wait to tell you about the rest of our adventure! Love, Will” Later that day I sent the following email to my friend from work: Sam! I forgot to tell you that I’ll be gone for the week. Mountain Valley let me go down to Tales of the Cocktail to make drinks using their water. This place is insane. First thing we did when we arrived in New Orleans was sit down at the bar at the host hotel. It’s the Carousel Bar at the Monteleone, and it spins around in a circle while you drink. Anyways, it’s a pretty sweet setup. I’m making cocktails in the mornings, then we go to lunch, then just hit tastings and cool parties all afternoon and into the night. I don’t exactly remember which day it was, but we found this place called Antoine’s that does $.25 cocktails for lunch. Apparently the place is historic or something. The night before that a group of us took a cab to some bowling alley/rock show where Kahlua was passing out drinks and a bunch of hippies were wearing bathrobes. We got back home, which is like two blocks from Bourbon, naturally I went out to explore. I found this place tucked deep into an alley called The Dungeon. I couldn’t resist so I went in...turns out the girl running the bar remembers you from your bachelor party weekend! Last night Absolut threw a party that is going to be pretty hard to describe....Imagine if Andy Warhol was from Louisiana, owned a circus freak show, threw a Mardi Gras parade and hired various Disney characters to serve drinks. I’m pretty sure Sleeping Beauty slipped me something because before I knew it I was surrounded by little people dressed as Warhol. I’ll send pictures. Getting out of bed this morning was a challenge. We are staying at this awesome apartment but the damn trolley passes by loud as all hell starting at the crack of down so sleeping in is impossible. Fortunately they pass out bloody’s when you arrive back at the event hotel. You have no idea how awesome it is that I’m
working with the water sponsor for the week, with all the drinking that’s going on I don’t think I could drink enough water to keep up! Anyways, Redemption Rye is hosting the nightly pool party tonight so I gotta go get ready for that. It’s on the roof so there’s like no shade from the afternoon sun... such a pain in the ass. Bacardi was handing out sunglasses at yesterday’s pool party, but one of the synchronized swimmers stole mine. Enjoy work, make sure that everyone is arriving with their shirts and aprons pressed. Also, could you go ahead and knock inventory out for next week? Apparently there’s an absinthe tasting tomorrow and the last thing I’ll want to do when I get back to work is count things. We planned on being here until Sunday, but I think we are going to tap out on Friday. This week has been incredibly demanding so far, so I’ll need some down time before returning to work. Cheers!” Sorry mom. Mimosa Soda Recipe: I was to be making “mocktails” early in the day and wasn’t exactly sure what to do. After pondering how to sling the best before noon drinks, I decided that a brunch-inspired style soda would be a perfect fit for an event like Tales. A little variation here and there and … VOILA, the Mimosa Soda was born! To start, I use the juice, pulp, and peels from 10 oranges. Heat all in a deep sauce pan and add two cups of sugar gradually. I then add half a bottle of cheap champagne. Once the mixture begins to boil, lower the heat and let it all reduce to about 75%. Once reduced, strain it through a fine mesh and add sugar for a bit more sweetness. So I’m left with a rich mixture that tastes much like a mimosa, just without alcohol. So to pick it back up, I add about two ounces of sparkling water (Mountain Valley, of course). These were a huge hit at 10am on a New Orleans morning. For the adventurous, I would garnish the drink with a hefty pour of Cathead Vodka. I apologize for the lack of details in the cooking method; often in times of spontaneity you gotta go with the flow.
AUGUST 2014 • MADEPAPER.COM
07
Hunter Bell
PHOTOS COURTESY HUNTER BELL
WORDS CHANDLER HINES It’s that time of year again, and no, I’m not referring to football season. I’m here to talk about the awesome night of fashion that’s coming to Old Cloverdale on August 28th. “Festi-Welle” is bigger this year and local models will be showing off the latest fashions from hue studio, The Locker Room,
MADE Paper: First of all, congratulations on winning ‘Fashion Star’! I watched every week and found myself wanting every piece you made for the runway. What was it like being on a reality tv show? Do you forget the cameras are there? They all seemed super cool, but were you star struck at all when meeting the mentors?
Christine’s Feathered Nest, and Pure Barre. Fashion celebs including J Brand’s Oscar Adames will be here to help us fit into that perfect pair of jeans and ‘Fashion Star’ winner Hunter Bell will be the emcee! If any of you watched season 2 of ‘Fashion
HB: Fashion Star was amazing, it was such a unique experience. You forget the cameras are in front of you. Filming the show was intense with this show being a competition. I was very star struck by the mentors, but really surprised with how down to earth and cool each mentor was.
Star’, you know how infinitely adorable Hunter Bell is. Not only does she have great taste (I wanted every piece of clothing she designed), but she is the type of girl I envision myself being besties with! She can pull off bright lipstick like no other and her petite frame looks amazing in ensembles usually reserved for 6’ tall supermodels. Born and raised in Florence, South Carolina, Hunter is the middle of 3 girls and loved playing dress up with her mother’s vintage clothes. She comes from a creative family and it definitely shows! Here’s a little more insight to the woman behind the brand.
MP: When did you know you wanted to be a clothing designer and how did you translate this dream into a reality? HB: I have always loved and appreciated clothes since I was a little girl! My parents remember me always playing dress up and insisting to wear the most ridiculous things that my parents didn’t approve of. Around the age of 5, every Sunday I rocked my great grandmothers lime green turban to church w/ my smocked dresses. Lots of hard work with up’s and downs over the last 10 years have allowed me to grow as a designer and move the business along. I’m still growing and learning so much everyday.
MP: Your prints are so unique. Where do you get the inspiration for the designs? HB: I work with a design company based in Brooklyn, NY. I love picking prints, I always try and select prints that I personally would like to hang on my apt walls as “artwork”. MP: Do you have a muse? HB: Yes, I love following what Louise Roe and Mira Duma are wearing. Both embody amazing feminine style that I love! MP: What kind of girl do you envision wearing the Hunter Bell collection? HB: Our Hunter Bell girl is sharp, sophisticated, feminine but with an edge. She plays coy but knows what she wants and stands out. MP: Do you have any upcoming plans for the brand that you can share with us? HB: At the moment I’m trying to bring a surprise to the Spring/Summer 2015 collection but unfortunately cannot share at the moment. MP: Where can we find your clothes? HB: Nordstrom, Revolveclothing.com, Hunterbellnyc.com, HueStudio, Effies in Tuscaloosa, AL, Marella in Birmingham, AL. Festi-Welle is set for August 28, 2014 at The A&P in Old Cloverdale. This year’s event features children’s fashion and activities from 3:30, a VIP Party at 5:30, fashion show at 7:00, and bands from 8:30. Tickets to the VIP Party are available for sale at True restaurant.
06
MADEPAPER.COM • AUGUST 2014
FEATURE FILM
Through August 17 Mary Poppins
Alabama Shakespeare Festival
This summer ASF brings another family spectacular to the stage for the theatre’s $1 million season finale. Disney and Cameron McIntosh’s smash Broadway hit Mary Poppins is coming to town July 16-August 3. Very limited tickets remain and are expected to sell out. For tickets, call the Box Office at 800.841.4273 or visit asf.net.
August 8-13 Chef
Capri Theatre
PHOTO MOHO FILM, OPUS PICTURES, STILLKING FILMS, CJ ENTERTAINMENT
A chef who loses his restaurant job starts up a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise, while piecing back together his estranged family. Tickets are $7 for members and $9 for non-members. www.capritheatre.org
August 9 Second Saturday Riverfront Park
WORDS EVANS BAILEY
In the not-too-distant future, mankind’s lastditch effort to stem the tide of global warming has backfired tremendously. The earth is a frozen husk devoid of almost all life. Only a few human survivors remain, traveling the world on a super-powered passenger train stuck on an earth-spanning loop. An arm left outside the confines of the train freezes rock solid in mere minutes. The powerful and wealthy passengers enjoy luxury and decadence in the front of the train, close to the near-mythological engine. The downtrodden and poor waste away in the back, living in cramped spaces on daily rations of foul “protein” bars. So starts the first English-language film from Korea’s Bong Joon-ho, Snowpiercer. It’s a hell of a creative premise to begin with, and while it’s pretty obvious where Chris Evans and his band of backenders are heading after the first five minutes of the film, Snowpiercer is one of the most refreshing action/sci-fi films I’ve seen in years. As Evans and his team, including Montgomery’s-own Octavia Spencer, brawl their way to the front, Bong drops more details and nuance into the symbiotic lives of the train-goers. Fighting car-by-car leaves excellent pockets in between the brawling for the audience to learn more about the revolutionaries. Once Evans finally makes it to the front for a Matrix Revolutions-esque verbal showdown with the creator of the “Sacred Engine” (Ed Harris), the political allegory and claustrophobic action are running intersecting tracks at break-neck speeds. The supporting cast here is fantastic. In addition to the aforementioned Spencer and Harris, Tilda Swinton plays the (as per usual) creepy
emissary sent from the front to the back to encourage peace and order. William Hurt plays a former front-dweller and train designer, who mentors Evans while perhaps concealing a grander agenda. Kang-ho Song and Ah-Sung Ko (two veterans of the Korean film scene) play the clever father, daughter pair of sappers—opening each successive car door in exchange for blackmarket industrial waste. Their dark humor provides most of the films lighter moments. Bong, who also wrote, has created a fullyrealized vision based on his premise, and the execution is excellent. The scenes from the back of the train are gritty and dark like a coal mine (one character even wears a miner’s helmet). The decadence of the front (gardens, aquariums, dance clubs!) explodes with color and vibrancy only to retreat into darkness as the showdown at the engine approaches. Of course, any movie with Chris Evans (aka Captain America) in the lead is going to involve him kicking a lot of ass, and he kicks a lot of henchmen ass in Snowpiercer. His acting chops leave a little to be desired in the heavier scenes, but he still beats on screen ass with the best of them. There is more brawling than what you would expect from a Korean director, but the fight scenes that permeate the middle of the film are well-played. Bong’s fight scenes do wonders in the confined spaces of one train car after another. Snowpiercer deserves solid praise for its originality and execution, and I encourage any sci-fi or action movie fan to get on board when it comes to the Capri from August
Live music, games, food vendors, fireworks and a wakeboard competition are part of the fun in August. Only two more chances to go this year (runs every April-September.) Admission $1 with proceeds benefiting EAT South and the Urban Farm Project. 12 and under get in free. visit funinmontgomery.com
August 23 Dragon Boat Race & Festival Riverfront Park
Celebrate 5 years of the Montgomery Dragon Boat Race and Festival. 80 teams will converge downtown at Riverfront Park to paddle and party on Race Day for the Grand Championship Trophy. Proceeds support the missions of local beneficiaries, Bridge Builders Alabama and Rebuilding Together Central Alabama. montgomerydragonboat.org
August 23 Second Saturday Riverfront Park
Live music, games, food vendors, fireworks and a wakeboard competition are part of the fun in August. Only two more chances to go this year (runs every April-September.) Admission $1 with proceeds benefiting EAT South and the Urban Farm Project. 12 and under get in free. www.funinmontgomery.com
August 23 12th Annual ASU Black Film Festival
Capri Theatre 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The 12th Annual Alabama State University Black Film Festival is happening at the Capri Theatre Saturday August 23rd. Scheduled to screen: The Sisters of Selma, Killer of Sheep, 12 Years a Slave, 20ft from Stardom, and Hoodwinked. Free admission. For more info, call 334.262.4858.
August 28 Festi-Welle
The A&P Lofts
Hue Studio is now Welle Studio! Come celebrate and shop the latest fall finds at the annual Fashion Show, FestiWelle. Live music, fashion runways, cocktails and more - all happening at The A&P Lofts. Call 334.239.8884 for details.
25-21. Visit www.capritheatre.org for more details.
AUGUST 2014 • MADEPAPER.COM
07
Dead Fingers – Big Black Dog Words BRIAN CARROLL
Lo and behold, the best new album this month comes from our own backyard: Big Black Dog is the sophomore long player from Birmingham four-piece Dead Fingers, and holy crap, it is fantastic. If music is the blood of Alabama, these guys (and one gal) might just be the antioxidants, pulling heaping globs of carcinogenic black goop out and replacing it with blessed lifehope. Gifted with a supreme knack for clever lyrics, catchiness, and reassuring familiarity, the band seems to have come to grips with what constitutes an “instant classic” to the point of weaponization. What’s more, it all sounds like it comes naturally.
yang, Kate, a muse who, like June Carter Cash, not only
wisecracking that takes aim at the insincere, over-
keeps the men in attendance at their concerts from
serious, and trendy, and when confronted by Kate on
getting too boorish or disheveled, but also elaborates on
record, in (never mean or maudlin) he-said-she-said
the band’s themes, experimenting with the Honky-tonk
arguments lite, it all adds up to the sort of confessional,
formula in unexpected, elegant ways both playful and
yet confident band that rewards the listener with hope,
serious. Her vocals and lyrics are sincere and nuanced,
whether through gleaned bravery, or comfort that
and combine to angelic heights when the element of
someone else out there already works and is making it
harmony is introduced, whether placed alongside her
work.
husband’s voice or overdubbed as backup on her own tracks. Despite Kate’s magnetically polarized position
While listening, you find yourself asking questions in
as the band’s fire douser, the straight woman, she’s
your head you’d never dare ask to the shy faces of its
self-aware enough to occasionally concede and to
members: “Where did they come from? How did they
occasionally lead, and when she does both at once she
meet? What does their record collection look like?” It’s
steals the show, live and on the record.
not difficult to imagine they’ll end up at the top, and their story, whatever it may turn out to be, would make a
And what a record it is: Like a Southern man’s Is This It,
biopic you’d like to watch.
the classic debut of The Strokes, Big Black Dog emits a tuneful, yet constrained sound, one handed down
These factors bode well for the band, Alabama music
from a line of dearly beloved bands, less a byproduct
in general, and you as the listener. Dead Fingers are
of calculated nostalgia than a reverential bewilderment
humble, attractive, massively talented, wield twin beasts
that popular tastes ever veered away from the sort
of hollow-bodied electric guitars, and really wow live,
of music they idolize. Essentially a hybrid of lo-fi
so it’s hard not to want to nominate them for the best
Indie Rock and vintage Outlaw Country, the band’s
possible ambassadors of Alabama music as they travel
songwriting grinder yields a genial, spritely, and acerbic
the country on their tour, underway now. Montgomery
approximation of Johnny and June Carter Cash in form,
music expatriate Bronson Tew (Wax Bars, Lone Gunmen)
The stars of the band, front and center, are dual singer
but it’s what goes into the machine that makes Dead
helped engineer this album, recorded in Mississippi.
/ songwriters Taylor and Kate Hollingsworth, married
Fingers unique compared to anything else in those two
couple. As with a Beatles record, one of the spoken,
music landscapes. A complex wine, ready to age, it’s not
Though highly rated by their fans – I get a kick at how
almost competitive joys Big Black Dog provides is
uncommon to guess at shades of influence as diverse
overjoyed they are to stand close to the stage, clapping
sorting out the complimentary and contrasting styles
as Cyndi Lauper, Wilco, Paul Simon, Mazzy Star, the
and singing along with gleeful abandon - to say Dead
of the songwriters, audiences immediately picking up
Pogues, Charlie Daniels, George Harrison, and T. Rex on
Fingers is under-known, even in these parts, is a heinous
which of the two contributed the song at hand by the
the palate while listening.
understatement. If you’re reading this and you know
personality of the arrangements as they burst forth.
what’s up, you should seek out Big Black Dog, purchase
Unlike the Beatles, however, the equality on Big Black
The setup of the album is, frankly, ingenious, and it all
it blind, and then maybe tell ten of your friends to do
Dog’s tracklist feels peaceable and communistic without
kicks off with the introductory title track, “Big Black
the same until we get these guys to the right level of
ever sacrificing quality through utter teamwork.
Dog,” a song, appropriately, about beginnings. Right
appreciation.
away, the duo takes turns displaying their individual Though a bit of buzz-bait (ala the White Stripes) feels
talents through color fields of vocals, representing
A sly record of gentle contrasts, musically and lyrically,
evident in the discussion of the pair’s union as a novel
elements. Kate lays a foundation of purple, blue, and
Big Black Dog sounds just right stone-cold sober, after
concept, it’s nonetheless necessary to mention the
green harmonies, chilling and poppy, that stands in
a few drinks, sitting around, driving around, bouncing
band’s synarchy as being comprised of one male and
contrast to her husband’s lead: oranges, reds, and yellow
off the walls or in a slump, AM or PM. No matter the
one female who happen to live together because the
lightning touching down in hops, like a skipping stone,
subject matter at hand, whether it be drug addiction
two distinct musical personalities of the pair transcend
impossible to pin down, creaking and bending with
or heartbreak, the band always handles it in a tasteful,
superficiality and blossom into a dizzying, blazing
movement and energy like a young Bob Dylan (were he
hopeful, and almost giddy manner. Over time you slowly
electricity when co-oped and overlapped, with personal
to have actually sounded young when so). Like a train,
pick up the band’s story in the deftly dictated cadence
secrets about Love (it’s hard work, sacrificial, full of
segmented and symbolic, the song inverses the concept
of the lyrics, the album’s not-always-rosy mysteries
joy, peppered with suffering, very real, essential for
of fleeting in ways not often realized in music. It’s the
unfurling with plenty of breathing room on repeat listens.
humanity, and nothing to scoff at) spilling forth in the
sound of birth, nurturing, and protection in an incubatory
lyrics like ancient wisdom.
bubble, nested right in the middle of the ashen madness
Proud to be traditional, Dead Fingers sit nicely among
of the world and drunk on the anticipatory gift of life
Alabama indie rock standouts like Drive By Truckers,
Taylor, providing more songs overall, sings like the
while faces and scenery zoom past unaware, full of
Alabama Shakes, The Banditos, and St. Paul & the Broken
missing link between J. Mascis and Willie Nelson,
corruption.
Bones, but deliver a fragile, genuine, elemental folk spirit
and plays a crackling, vibrant lead on his hollow-
that lets them be romantic underdogs and carve out
bodied electric guitar as if his life depended on it, his
It’s a magic formula, one that the band explores to
their own turf. If you’ve not heard of any of those local
(very much alive) fingers gazelles in constant motion.
fruition throughout the rest of the album, leaving no
bands, there’s no harm in working your way through the
Surprisingly accomplished without the use of a pick and
thematic stone unturned while maintaining a constant
list, starting here and now.
right at home utilizing a glass slide, I first experienced
eye on the prize: to provide you, the listener, with a killer
Taylor’s rapid-fire guitar work as the standout in Conor
(and a very memorable) experience. You’ll be having four
Alan Rosser on drums and Matt Patton on bass might
Oberst’s Mystic Valley Band at a Delaware baseball
or five of the distinct songs on display here in constant
get tired of their bandmates hogging the spotlight, so
stadium five years ago, and it remains in my mind the
rotation on your mental jukebox as the emotions
a shout out to the equally hard working, ever-chugging
highlight of that show. Intricate, precise, and speedy,
contained within Big Black Dog reverberate in your daily
rhythm section is in order for keeping this highly
Taylor’s craftsmanship on the guitar begs to be seen live,
life, especially in silence and inner quietude where they
entertaining train rolling ‘round the bend. As I sit writing
and even when he steps back to let his partner shine, he
belong.
this I’m wearing their t-shirt because the album is so
still quietly leads with an assured understanding of the band’s direction at all times.
good, it makes you want to advertise. You will instantly Dead Fingers, and increasingly, their albums, are wisely
enjoy and eventually treasure Big Black Dog, so buy it.
built around the relationship of the two songwriters
Ala-Bam!
Balancing Taylor’s more straightforward, punky
in more than one way. Taylor’s distinct brand of not-
songwriting style and mischievous lyrical nature is his
always-self-deprecating charm reveals itself through
12
MADEPAPER.COM •
AUGUST 2014
Southern Revelry Calls Art, Food & Music Lovers to Opelika WORDS KATIE VEGA
PHOTOS JONATHON KOHN
Southern Revelry in Opelika, Alabama celebrates all things Southern—goods made by hand, toe-tappin’ music, and our famous food. Designed to build community and act as a jubilee of local, handmade goodies, Southern Revelry was started last year by three main players: Overall Company, Cottonseed Studios, and J. Marsh Advertising. Last year’s event was a huge success -- more than 1,200 people attended. “It was magical and we just had to do it again,” explained Laura Pritchett, part-owner of Overall Company and one of Revelry’s driving forces. Pritchett explained this year’s event -- modeled after a family-reunion-style gathering -- will highlight local businesses, makers, chefs, and musicians. Pritchett says the goal for the event is to “marry the Shoals, Montgomery, and the Auburn/ Opelika area” by creating an environment where creative southern folks can build relationships with one another. This year’s music lineup includes honeyhoney, The Weeks, Family & Friends, Dana Swimmer, Dallas Dorsey & the Rails, and The Roof Runners. I honestly can’t pick a favorite. honeyhoney--think jazz meets neo-soul meets alternative country. The Weeks—five guys who sound like a mesh between Shooter Jennings and Kings of Leon. Family & Friends— sincere folk rock, complete with stomping and clapping. Dana Swimmer—rock infused with soul, think Alabama Shakes. Dallas Dorsey—soulful country, right from Opelika. The Roof
Runners—expect a bluegrassy take on popular songs. See, told ya—fantastic. And music won’t be the only goings-on, y’all. Special guests include Chef David Bancroft (Acre, Auburn), Chef Rob McDaniel (Springhouse, Alexander City), and Chef Wesley True (True, Montgomery). And just trust me on this, if these three guys are in the same place, you’re going to be eating good. Don’t want to wait until Saturday to eat? Fifty seats are available for a farm-to-table supper Friday night by Chef True, artist RC Hagans, and musical ambience will be provided by Jen Coates and Adventure the Great. Buy now or regret later. A $25 ($35 at the door) ticket will buy you the ability to wander between 30ish vendors, including Billy Reid, Butch Anthony, and Loyal Stricklin. If music’s more your gig, you’ll be happy all day long. And we can’t forget about Overall’s famous pops! And, if you’re like me, you’ll be happy to know alcohol will be served (there’s even a two-hour tasting). So go, expect to have a fantastic time, buy some local swag, and dance the night away.
To get a better picture, watch Southern Reverly’s video on their website at www.southernrevelry. com. Like their Facebook page, /Southern Revelry to get updates on happenings. Southern Revelry will be at Overall Company, 1001 Ave B, Opelika, AL on 08-09-14.
AUGUST 2014 • MADEPAPER.COM
13
Hampstead PHASE II
N OW
OPEN the
LARGEST tour of
LAKE
LOCATED IN EAST MONTGOMERY ON TAYLOR ROAD
at Hampstead
IN THE CITY OF M O N T G O M E RY
Call
August 16-17th
334.270.6730
hampsteadliving.com
Beautiful Amenities in Montgomery’s Fastest Growing Neighborhood!
The Mercer
The Hudson
The Helena
The Bromley
3 BEDROOM 2.5 BATH 1,915 sq.ft conditioned approx
4 BEDROOM 2.5 BATH 2,610 sq.ft conditioned approx
4 BEDROOM 2.5 BATH 2,569 sq.ft conditioned approx
$286,750
$383,900
3 BEDROOM 2 BATH 1,768 sq.ft conditioned approx 518 sq.ft porch / garage approx
The Abbey
The Adele
The Ebury
The Maggie
3 BEDROOM 2.5 BATH 1651 sq.ft conditioned approx
4 BEDROOM 2.5 BATH 2,268 sq.ft conditioned approx 735 sq.ft porch / garage approx
4 BEDROOMS 2.5 BATH 2,440 sq.ft conditioned approx
4 BEDROOM 3 BATH 2,372 sq.ft conditioned approx
$359,650
$324,900
$271,900
$299,900
$289,900
$389,500
hampsteadliving.com
.
.
VISIT THE HAMPSTEAD INFORMATION OFFICE & MODEL OPEN DAILY CALL FORREST MEADOWS AT 270.6730 HAMPSTEAD IS LOCATED ON TAYLOR ROAD, 1.5 MILES SOUTH OF VAUGHN ROAD INTERSECTION Town building, design, & construction are an evolving process. The Hampstead master plan, features, floor plans, & pricing may change without notice due to a variety of considerations. Any illustrations are artist’s depictions only & may differ from completed improvements. This is not an offer to sell real estate property. Information is correct but not warranted. Void where prohibited by law. Equal Housing Opportunity.© 2014
Russell Lands On Lake Martin is an idyllic place on the shores of Lake Martin, Alabama’s largest lake. With 44,000 acres of
the southeast. Russell Lands On Lake Martin lies at the heart of Lake Martin and includes 25,000 acres of pristine forests with
pristine water and 750 miles of
more than 80 miles of hiking, bik-
shoreline, Lake Martin is a recre-
ing and equestrian trails, four flag-
ation destination unparalleled in
ship marinas, an outstanding, private golf course and country club, and a town center - Russell Crossroads - that harkens back to a simpler time, yet provides charming shopping and fine dining opportunities.
Throughout our country’s history,
the town center has served as a community gathering spot – a common meeting ground to shop, to dine and if luck had it, to leave with a few friendships formed. Located in the heart of Russell Lands On Lake Martin, Russell Crossroads perfectly blends these storied traditions with today’s conveniences. For more information, call 256-215-7011 or visit RussellLandsOnLakeMartin.com