My Trip To Birmingham, Alabama

In my quest to visit all 50 of these United States, I flew from Los Angeles to Birmingham last week. Actually, crossing one of the few remaining states off my list of visited places was a happy coincidence. The real reason I took the trip was to see my beautiful girlfriend Nicci open her production of RENT in Birmingham. She's right now in her second week of performances. She has been cast in the role of Mimi. I'm very proud. I'll write more about the show further along this blog entry. Having never been to Alabama, I thought it would be fun to explore the city. I've always reveled in being a stranger in a strange land. Birmingham definitely fits into that category. Rich in both culture and history, the city offers sundry learning opportunities. Although my trip stretched from Tuesday until Friday, I really only had one day to drive around and see the sights. Obviously that's not enough time to delve into any metropolitan city, but I'm happy with what I saw. Now if only they could change all the traffic lights from timers to sensors, I could have earned a few extra minutes with which to explore!

I arrived in the evening on Tuesday night following two flight delays out of Los Angeles. I was able to catch the tail-end of cast's last rehearsal, which ran until midnight. On my first night in Birmingham, I saw very little of the city. The drive from the airport to the theater was uneventful. It was hard not to notice how desolate the city streets appeared. I did not encounter a single person walking anywhere in the vicinity of the theater, and most of the local businesses were closed despite it being -- at the very latest -- 8:30pm. I tried to drive around looking for a supermarket or convenience store that sold flowers, but the only two businesses showing signs of life were an adult bookstore and a gas station.

On Wednesday morning, we decided to visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, located on 16th Street North (directly across from the 16th Street Baptist Church, which is mostly known for its racially-motivated bombing in September of 1963). It was an intense way to start one's day, but also an eye-opening experience. The fact that the city of Birmingham was so far behind the rest of the country when it came to desegregation made viewing the various exhibits and videos in the museum even more shocking. I am admittedly young, naive and spoiled by my having grown up in an era of improved equality. I cannot imagine having lived through such a dark period in our nation's history, especially in a city internationally acknowledged for its struggles. I had no idea the city of Birmingham actually had two elected city governments in 1963. Nearly ten years after the landmark Brown v. Board Of Education Of Topeka decision, Birmingham was lagging behind the rest of the country in recognizing equality amongst its populace. I don't want to say the Institute was depressing, but it is as moving as the Holocaust museum in DC and remains in your thoughts long after you've exited the building.

From there we traveled to Five Points South, an area that provided me with my first glimpses of people actually walking around doing things in the city. We had lunch at a nondescript Mexican joint with bland food and a solid beer list. Our waiter was nice enough to inform me there is a brewery near the restaurant that will allow you to call and request a tour. Unfortunately, I did not have the time to take a brewery tour during my trip. Also, the idea of driving my uninsured rental car around a new city after a brewery tour didn't sit well with me. Instead, Nicci and I walked through some of the stores in the district. There are two record stores within a few blocks of each other, but neither yielded a single purchase.

As Nicci left for a media-only dress rehearsal, I drove to The Vulcan Statue to enjoy a sunset over the city. It is the world’s largest cast iron statue. It’s the symbol of Birmingham. It’s pretty fucking mammoth. I arrived there at about 6pm, and stayed until 8 or 8:30, walking around the grounds, hiking up and down the stairs (is it 159 steps or 160?) to kill time between stages of sunset. The views of the city were amazing. I took about 200 photos, most of which came out blurry. Who knew I had such an unsteady hand? There was a cocktail party to benefit Breast Cancer awareness below the statue, so I stuck around to see how that played out. Upon leaving, I tried to search Yelp! on my iPhone for late-night coffeeshops in Birmingham offering free WiFi, but the FIVE different ones I drove to were all closed. Once again, the city (outside of the Five Points district) was dead. I killed some time at Wal-Mart before Nicci returned. That Wal-Mart, it turns out, overcharged me for flowers and wine. They must have seen my out-of-state license and figured they could plunder my checking account. Ugh. Wal-Mart.

Thursday was a hectic day. Members of the cast took the show's director, Ron, out to lunch at a really good barbecue restaurant. One of them said it was a regional chain restaurant, Jim 'N Nicks, but chain or not, barbecue is barbecue. I was invited. I drank my Good People Oatmeal Coffee Stout and listened as the actors discussed their craft with their respected director. As someone with absolutely no acting talent (but look at how well I played a dead coke fiend!), I was fascinated by their rapport, and preferred to listen to the wise and worldly Ron interact with his disciples. Following the meal, we returned to the hotel so she could begin her preparations for opening night.

I don’t think I have to explain the plot of RENT. Everybody knows the story, right? Well, this production was phenomenal. I know my review could be biased because of my girlfriend's involvement, but I swear I did not expect it to be so awesome. To my ears, there was not a single weak voice in the cast. The ensemble was ridiculous; the harmonies sounded perfect. I’d say the best three songs of the night were the reprise of “I’ll Cover You,” “Will I” and “Seasons Of Love”. The latter tune received a huge ovation from the crowd. To be honest, I was a little surprised by the audience's loud applause. I had no idea whether or not the show's characters would be loved and accepted in a city where equality has never come easily. Those who are closed-minded might deride the show for its perceived promotion of taboo behavior or lifestyle choices. Luckily, the audience got the underlying message of unconditional love. Much credit is due to both the cast and the director for delivering this message strongly and clearly. Now is probably as good a time as any to say that if you live in the Birmingham area, you should definitely go to the Red Mountain Theater Company's Cabaret Theater and see the production of RENT before its run ends on October 18th. And if you happen to bump into Nicci, tell her you read about it on the WFMU blog. Maybe she'll be as proud of me as I am of her.

There was an afterparty for the cast and crew a few blocks away at a bar called the Rogue Tavern. Since I don’t really have any other way of expressing joy towards others' accomplishments — especially when I don’t possess a theater vocabulary — I bought a bunch of people their first round of drinks. I think that was my way of saying, “Bravo” or whatever you’re supposed to tell actors and actresses when they succeed even beyond your highest expectations. It was a really good time. I drank a lot. I met a lot of super-nice people. The entire cast and crew are all so warm and welcoming. I am sure that is one ingredient to their success as a unit.

The next morning I returned to Los Angeles. It was a brief trip, sure, but a fascinating one. I'll be here in Los Angeles for another few weeks before I fly east to work/shop at the WFMU Record Fair. If my calculations are correct, my next blog post will be the day before the fair begins. I'll provide more details at that time, should you desire to approach me and tell me my blog posts suck, or maybe buy me a beer. Until then, feel free to share your thoughts on Birmingham in the comments section. Let me know what I missed out on, so that I can grumble about not having enough time to truly immerse myself in the city.

Comments

[Laura Kilgore]

There are many late night joints in Birmingham, but they are mostly north of Five Points South. I hope you get another chance to visit my hometown. When you do, head toward the Lakeview District around 29th Street and 7th Avenue South. Good food, good drinks and live music late into the night.
I work in local theatre here in Birmingham, and have heard many good things about this production of RENT. Please tell your girlfriend that the Ham loved having them here. Were I not stage managing a production this month, I'd have been there to see them, too.
--Laura K

[Rufus J Squirrel]

Birmingham actually went through all of these things before a lot of the rest of the country. Perhaps you have heard of the small hamlet of Boston?

It sounds like you were mainly downtown. Downtown has been dead for decades and, unlike other cities that somehow revitalize theirs and so many others that never do, ours may very well stay that way. But there are a lot of lofts down there now and some bars on 1st and 2nd Ave N that get pretty crowded. There is also a science center on 2nd Ave N called the McWane Center that's for kids but is even cooler if you're a grown-up. There's Sloss Furnaces on 1st Ave N that is really cool as a museum but even cooler for its Metal Arts program that has gotten a lot of national/international attention and hosts the biggest metal arts conference in the country. There's the Museum of Art that has some impressive stuff in its collection and gets some pretty decent touring exhibitions. And there are some really great junk shops down there. But that's kind of it for downtown.

Where you were, 5 Points South, and where our criminal mayor (101 count federal indictment - trial in ten days) decided to paint the whole street that horrible red color, is actually a very vibrant area. There and all of Southside has a huge student population that goes to UAB (that's supposed to be an international leader in cancer and AIDS research). There are lots of cool independent shops in and around 5 Points and lots of good places to eat. Also a really great dive bar in 5 Points called Upside Down Plaza that's in the basement of the building behind the one in your picture above. Vulcan is up on Red Mountain, as you saw, and it forever moons Homewood, the more affluent suburb over Red Mountain.

There is also The BottleTree Café in Avondale - about 20 blocks east and 7 north of where you were in 5 Points that gets incredible bands from all over the world all the time. You should check out their calendar and see who has been there and who's coming up and hopefully you can catch one if ever you come back:

http://www.ticketbiscuit.com/bottletree/CalendarPage.aspx

The former drummer from Man... Or Astro-Man? does a lot of the booking there. He actually got Shellac to come down a couple years ago.

(Full discloure: I shoot a weekly live music show there for Alabama Public Television: http://wehavesignal.org)

There's also the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center that gets all sorts of big names all the time into town. David Sedaris is there this evening and I saw John Waters there a couple years ago.

We also have some serious food but every city has that. Milo's is a local burger chain known for its sauce, fries and sweet tea. There's a place out east of town called T-Bones that has the best cheesesteaks on the planet. Another great burger place called Hamburger Heaven. Storied hot dog shops downtown. And Frank Stitt, who is internationally renowned for his French-meets-South gourmet cooking.

AND then there's all the great urban exploring you can do in an industrial town whose best industrial days are behind it.

I'm sure I'm missing a lot of things but these are a few places to start.

That all being said, Birmingham and Jefferson County have huge problems. The county is teetering on bankruptcy caused by Larry Langford, who was County Commission President, now mayor and is set to stand trial for deals he made while on the Commission that lead directly to its financial insolvency. The local/regional banks that pulled Birmingham out of its rut after the steel industry left are all hurting too. And, although we've had a black mayor since 1979, we've still got racial issues - but so does everyone else. At least we don't kick black kids out of public pools like they do in Philly.

Long story short, Birmingham is a mid-size big city with all of the joys and travails that come with it. Hope you'll come back to see more of it sometime.

[islami sohbet]

I always wonder about birmingham, when I see this article I hurry to read, hope to see there soon. Thanks for this good writing.
I will take these advices.

[Gifts]

Birmingham is a good place for travelling and these pictures are really amazing and i wanted to visit Birmingham once in a life time.

[Joe]

You are mistaken in saying Birmingham was behind the rest of the country. They were right in step with the rest of the South, and despite revisionist history, many Northern cities who had the same policies, were just subtle about it.

[swan]

I am capable of accepting when I am mistaken. My statement came from walking through the institute and reading the details of the numerous timelines from the late 50s into the late 60s which line the walls of the museum. The comparisons between Birmingham and the rest of the country seem to be out of step, but as I said, a local would know much better than I. Thanks for reading the piece, I hope you enjoyed the rest of it.

[Georgia boy]

Don't forget the best thing to come out of Birmingham...I-20.
j/k

[Joe]

"but as I said, a local would know much better than I"

You don't need to be a local to know that racism/Jim Crow was not confined to Birmingham. Due to old newsreels, it may have become the face of Jim Crow, but certainly was not the only place it was practiced.

[Laundrygoddess]

Vulcan also hosts Proms and weddings. If you had gone straight down Richard Arrington Blvd into Homewood you would have found O'Henry's Coffee,they're open late and have WIFI. We also have The Botanical Gardens,a wonderful zoo,an NPR station,and MANY college campuses.
Come back and spend more time with us.Maybe you can catch some of our more interesting political scandals too.
Check out All of Alabama. Old South, with new century tech.

[Jultar Bovinius]

Hello, WFMU? Anyone? Best thing to come out of Birmingham would Sun Ra!

[Donna]

Hi...thanks for the blog...I enjoyed reading a visitors perspective of my home town. Someone once said...."Birmingham is a great place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit". I think that is a fair assessment. With the exception of maybe Vulcan and the Civil Rights Museum, we are not much of a tourist town. We have some fantastic restaurants, but most are tucked away and you need a local to point you in the right direction!....for instance, Highland Bar and Grill (down the street from the Mexican place you went)...was listed as #5 on Gourmet's "America's Top 50 Restaurants". There are some really cool "village" areas around town with a warm feel. English Village, Mountain Brook Village, Crestline Village...all have unique flavors with great local shops and restaurants.....Hope you get back some day!