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Birmingham
Oct. 1st, 2017 05:19 pmJust got back from our little trip to Birmingham! Weren't there a long time so we probably didn't get some sort of full experience of the city, but we had a good time while we were there. We got out early Friday evening after not being sure if we should cancel the trip 'cuz Mary Beth was worried about me being sick. We had a pretty uneventful drive in. It's only about as far a drive as Nashville (maybe slightly farther). We came in and first grabbed some food from this place called Hotbox. It's in an airstream in the back of some bar. So you've gotta go through the bar to get to it. It was a very popular bar and packed with, fratty's not quite right 'cuz they're older than college age, but I guess what you'd call fratty people who grew up. We got there just in time 'cuz they ended up closing for a few hours right after they took our order. We got it to go to eat back at the hotel. We splurged a little on the hotel (I mean, we usually just get the cheapest thing possible usually outside whatever city we're visiting) so we got something at least in the city. It's sort of in a transition, it seems like it was a hotel that was nice once and then was run down and now they're in the middle of remodeling and renaming to make it trendy. The rooms, at least, are redone (except maybe the sink whose off-position would shift sometimes after you used it). We ate our food in the hotel and passed out.
We slept in hardcore Saturday morning. I actually woke up pretty early (I thought it was the middle of the night 'cuz the room's clock was like two hours behind). I had tried to fall asleep propped up on pillows but ending up falling horizontal. I woke up with a fit of coughing, but I feel like I was actually clearing some stuff out. Friday the worst thing I was feeling was my throat was swollen and sore from the coughing. I gave it some time to rest and it started to recover over the weekend. I showered and got ready and spent some time looking out our seventh floor window and enjoying the view of a little slice of Birmingham. It was kind've a weird view with this castle building I have no idea what was for and a few scattered buildings making up the lower end of the downtown area. I had no idea Birmingham was the industrial center it was. That's something I learned on this trip. Well, so I'm awake and Mary Beth is sleeping longer. Then I pass out propped up and Mary Beth woke up some time after that and waited for me to wake up. So we ended up being in all morning. But that's fine. This was partly about recuperating so we did some of that. We did eventually make it out and wander around the area, which was their little five points. Charlemagne Records was right there and I went in. Alright little place tucked away upstairs. I picked up John Coltrane: The Heavyweight Champion: the Complete Atlantic Recordings.
We checked out the Birmingham Museum of Art (which is just always free, which is awesome). It's a really badass museum. There was this exhibit of contemporary stuff. They also had a large collection of old Asian art. They had a good collection of different styles and eras of American art, and they did some thoughtful juxtapositions of some of the paintings (a very realistic, romantic 19th century landscape with mountains next to an abstract expressionist piece that obliquely (abstractly) depicted a similar kind of scene while looking like a completely different beast. They had a Frank Stella similar to the one at the Brooks. They had a whole row of ten of Josef Albers's squares. They would often mix something modern in with the traditional collections. In the Native American area they had this one by Leon Polk Smith that took a Navajo pattern fused with a Mondrian influence and it was really awesome. Probably my favorite painting there. Lots of awesome stuff and it was a shame we didn't have more time to look at it all before it closed. After that a couple more record stores. At Renaissance Records I got: Radiohead: Ok Computer: Oknotok 1997 2017 and Galaxie 500: Copenhagen. At Seasick Records I got: Black Flag: Who's Got the 10½? and Future: Elevators. Overall not a huge record shopping haul, which I guess is good considering what I've been up to lately with all the damn cds I've been buying!
Okay, we went and got pizza at Post Office Pies. It was pretty good. The melon mint lemonade was really good. It was right across the street from the venue the night's show was at: Saturn. So we go over and all that. The opening band was called Personal Boy and they were pretty terrible. They were cheesy plastic soul covering fake motown to fake 80s kitsch. The band comes out with ironic matching outfits. They were all wearing the band's shirt (modified La Croix logo to say Personal Boix) and matching red jackets and white pants. Then the singer comes out in his green leisure suit. Then the joke's that the music and the singing and his performance is all sexy but he's fat and balding. Through the course of the set he gradually became topless. They did an "easy" cover of "Easy" and probably some others were covers that I didn't recognize given the audience reaction. Anyway, a little before Afghan Whigs started this woman bumped into me and turned around and said "where did you come from?" I just kinda shrugged and nodded my head or whatever then she started loudly and drunkenly berating me calling me an asshole and telling everyone around that I'm an asshole. She was probably trying to get me to move to take the spot I was standing in. I just ignored her and she finally quit it. The Afghan Whigs played and they were good and sounded like the Afghan Whigs! I used to not like them at all but I think over the years I've come around and started to get it more. I recognized a lot of the songs (not that I know them by name) but they didn't play the one I always think of ("I've got you where I want you motherfucker..."). Anyway, good show, the show part. I mean, you can never vouch for any band's fans but still, not sure what to make of Afghan Whigs's fans in general now.
Okay, so back to the hotel and then we got up this morning and prepared to get back home. First we had breakfast at this place called Saw's BBQ. Funny enough, we didn't spend as much time but I have a feeling we got the most of a real Birmingham experience on our way out this morning (though I did love love love the museum yesterday). Saw's was just fucking awesome. We had wings with white Alabama sauce and they were just amazing. Best thing I ate on the trip (again, not that I ate a whole lot, had also not felt a whole lot of appetite for all of it). We also had this chicken sandwich (chicken somehow fried with sweet tea) and greens and cheese grits. We sat in this tiny place while they played mostly real good soul music on the satellite radio. Then we went to Sloss Furances, an old pig iron blast furnace going back to 1882 and one of the big forces in Birmingham's position as the biggest industrial center in the south (and one of the biggest for iron in the country for a while). It closed in 1971 and was abandoned for over a decade before it got converted into a preserved museum park thing. So all this old huge machinery is there to walk around and look at and marvel at. It's pretty damn awesome. I took tons of pictures. They were also in the process of setting up a haunted house (good location for one and it is October now). After that we tried to visit Vulcan park but they were having a concert or something so there was a big cover, but we got to see the huge statue of Vulcan and drive away. Then we drove home and now we're home! It was a good fun vacation even though I was a little wonky for some of it though I seem to be almost better now, I think? Though of course Mary Beth might be coming down with it now. Sad face. Well, happy anniversary, my love.
We slept in hardcore Saturday morning. I actually woke up pretty early (I thought it was the middle of the night 'cuz the room's clock was like two hours behind). I had tried to fall asleep propped up on pillows but ending up falling horizontal. I woke up with a fit of coughing, but I feel like I was actually clearing some stuff out. Friday the worst thing I was feeling was my throat was swollen and sore from the coughing. I gave it some time to rest and it started to recover over the weekend. I showered and got ready and spent some time looking out our seventh floor window and enjoying the view of a little slice of Birmingham. It was kind've a weird view with this castle building I have no idea what was for and a few scattered buildings making up the lower end of the downtown area. I had no idea Birmingham was the industrial center it was. That's something I learned on this trip. Well, so I'm awake and Mary Beth is sleeping longer. Then I pass out propped up and Mary Beth woke up some time after that and waited for me to wake up. So we ended up being in all morning. But that's fine. This was partly about recuperating so we did some of that. We did eventually make it out and wander around the area, which was their little five points. Charlemagne Records was right there and I went in. Alright little place tucked away upstairs. I picked up John Coltrane: The Heavyweight Champion: the Complete Atlantic Recordings.
We checked out the Birmingham Museum of Art (which is just always free, which is awesome). It's a really badass museum. There was this exhibit of contemporary stuff. They also had a large collection of old Asian art. They had a good collection of different styles and eras of American art, and they did some thoughtful juxtapositions of some of the paintings (a very realistic, romantic 19th century landscape with mountains next to an abstract expressionist piece that obliquely (abstractly) depicted a similar kind of scene while looking like a completely different beast. They had a Frank Stella similar to the one at the Brooks. They had a whole row of ten of Josef Albers's squares. They would often mix something modern in with the traditional collections. In the Native American area they had this one by Leon Polk Smith that took a Navajo pattern fused with a Mondrian influence and it was really awesome. Probably my favorite painting there. Lots of awesome stuff and it was a shame we didn't have more time to look at it all before it closed. After that a couple more record stores. At Renaissance Records I got: Radiohead: Ok Computer: Oknotok 1997 2017 and Galaxie 500: Copenhagen. At Seasick Records I got: Black Flag: Who's Got the 10½? and Future: Elevators. Overall not a huge record shopping haul, which I guess is good considering what I've been up to lately with all the damn cds I've been buying!
Okay, we went and got pizza at Post Office Pies. It was pretty good. The melon mint lemonade was really good. It was right across the street from the venue the night's show was at: Saturn. So we go over and all that. The opening band was called Personal Boy and they were pretty terrible. They were cheesy plastic soul covering fake motown to fake 80s kitsch. The band comes out with ironic matching outfits. They were all wearing the band's shirt (modified La Croix logo to say Personal Boix) and matching red jackets and white pants. Then the singer comes out in his green leisure suit. Then the joke's that the music and the singing and his performance is all sexy but he's fat and balding. Through the course of the set he gradually became topless. They did an "easy" cover of "Easy" and probably some others were covers that I didn't recognize given the audience reaction. Anyway, a little before Afghan Whigs started this woman bumped into me and turned around and said "where did you come from?" I just kinda shrugged and nodded my head or whatever then she started loudly and drunkenly berating me calling me an asshole and telling everyone around that I'm an asshole. She was probably trying to get me to move to take the spot I was standing in. I just ignored her and she finally quit it. The Afghan Whigs played and they were good and sounded like the Afghan Whigs! I used to not like them at all but I think over the years I've come around and started to get it more. I recognized a lot of the songs (not that I know them by name) but they didn't play the one I always think of ("I've got you where I want you motherfucker..."). Anyway, good show, the show part. I mean, you can never vouch for any band's fans but still, not sure what to make of Afghan Whigs's fans in general now.
Okay, so back to the hotel and then we got up this morning and prepared to get back home. First we had breakfast at this place called Saw's BBQ. Funny enough, we didn't spend as much time but I have a feeling we got the most of a real Birmingham experience on our way out this morning (though I did love love love the museum yesterday). Saw's was just fucking awesome. We had wings with white Alabama sauce and they were just amazing. Best thing I ate on the trip (again, not that I ate a whole lot, had also not felt a whole lot of appetite for all of it). We also had this chicken sandwich (chicken somehow fried with sweet tea) and greens and cheese grits. We sat in this tiny place while they played mostly real good soul music on the satellite radio. Then we went to Sloss Furances, an old pig iron blast furnace going back to 1882 and one of the big forces in Birmingham's position as the biggest industrial center in the south (and one of the biggest for iron in the country for a while). It closed in 1971 and was abandoned for over a decade before it got converted into a preserved museum park thing. So all this old huge machinery is there to walk around and look at and marvel at. It's pretty damn awesome. I took tons of pictures. They were also in the process of setting up a haunted house (good location for one and it is October now). After that we tried to visit Vulcan park but they were having a concert or something so there was a big cover, but we got to see the huge statue of Vulcan and drive away. Then we drove home and now we're home! It was a good fun vacation even though I was a little wonky for some of it though I seem to be almost better now, I think? Though of course Mary Beth might be coming down with it now. Sad face. Well, happy anniversary, my love.
