James Franco’s Adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God This morning I watched James read more...
The Redeemers By Ace Atkins I just finished The Redeemers, a fine book by Mississippi writer Ace read more...
In 1969 a young Marine returning to civilian life after a tour of duty as a helicopter pilot in Viet Nam found refuge in a remote and read more...
Not since the sold out
This week I had the pleasure of chatting via Facebook with Alabama musician Scott Ward, producer and director at Lucky Dog Records. read more...
The Righteous Brothers may sing about a "rock and roll heaven," but when I die I want to go to jazz heaven. And if there read more...
Henry David Thoreau went to the woods because he wanted to "live deliberately." I go to
There’s something maternal about a train. It carries you where you need to go and rocks you along, sheltering as new horizons read more...
Award-winning novelist Joshilyn Jackson will be the featured author for the Arts and Humanities Speaker’s Forum at Northeast read more...
The Coffee Shop Chronicles of New Orleans, Part 2: The Last Beaucoeur by
I met Jerri Chaplin read more...
Last night as I sat with friends on my porch overlooking Elk River, I put
Crossing the Creek: The Literary Friendship of Zora Neale Hurston and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings University Press of read more...
Summit Records, April 2010 Released internationally on April 13, 2010,
Reviewed by Penne J. Laubenthal
Rank Stranger Press, November 2009 Reviewed by Penne J. Laubenthal This month
Published by iUniverse, Inc 2009 Reviewed by Penne J. Laubenthal I have been a huge fan of humor in read more...
If you love to cook or just love to collect cookbooks, start making space on your bookshelf now because there's a new cookbook in town. This delightful compendium of all things culinary, Gimme Some Sugar, Darlin' by Mississippian Laurance Daltroff Triplette, is true piece of southern Americana, as much about the culture of the south as it is about the cuisine. A read more...
It's almost that time again when the hills of North Alabama are alive with the sound of music. The 31st annual W. C. Handy Music Festival, which runs July 20 through July 29, 2012, is a ten day annual celebration of over 300 events at locations throughout read more...
By Patsy Glenn, Guest Writer Dr. Brandon Sparkman is not a tall man, but he has accomplished tall things. Born in read more...
The new documentary film, "The Jefferson County Sound: Alabama's Black Gospel Quartets," (One State Films, Stone Ridge, NY, 2012) is a tribute to and an affectionate preservation of roots music, in particular black gospel a capella quartet music. The film is directed and produced by renowned filmmaker
Visitors to New Orleans who think the city is defined by the French Quarter and the Garden District are in for a delightful surprise when they wander past Esplanade and across Elysian Fields into the fabulous Faubourg Marigny. Popularly known as the location read more...
HOMEGROWN is a special exhibition of regionally influenced, culturally significant, contemporary design, bringing the designs to an underexposed market outside of the major design centers. The exhibit will take place from place from June 1 through June
"My pen sustains me, " writes poet Matthew Nolan in his poem "Muddy Hearts" from his first volume of poetry and prose Crumpled Paper Dolls (2004). Nolan, through his poetry, strives to make meaning in an apparently senseless world. Recently on the radio show
Caterpillar Girls (from Crumpled Paper Dolls, 2004) Should have known! Should have known! Between a phony butterfly and a never evolving caterpillar— Her pleasant sincerity is a funny hat that droops over her face, a blind dunce, a cartoon caterpillar; a squirming, eyeless caterpillar, on its read more...
by Jane DeNeefe First among Alabama cities to integrate public facilities relatively peacefully, Huntsville could thank musicians and the Army for modeling positive race relations for the rest of the city. The Army made sure local bar read more...
by Patsy Glenn So many of the high points in my life are framed and on the walls in my computer room. One of those is the program from the 1985 State Conference of the Alabama National Organization for Women. We met in October that year at the Econo Lodge on Battleship Parkway in Mobile. In the midst of the Reagan Revolution, our theme echoed our commitment to continuing read more...