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Born May 18, 1953; got saved at Truett Memorial BC in Hayesville, NC 1959. On rigged ballot which I did not rig got Most Intellectual class of 71, Gaffney High School. Furman Grad, Sociology major but it was little tougher than Auburn football players had Had three dates with beautiful women the summer of 1978. Did not marry any of em. Never married anybody cause what was available was undesirable and what was desirable was unaffordable. Unlucky in love as they say and even still it is sometimes heartbreaking. Had a Pakistani Jr. Davis Cupper on the Ropes the summer of 84, City Courts, Rome Georgia I've a baby sitter, watched peoples homes while they were away on Vacation. Freelance writer, local consultant, screenwriter, and the best damn substitute teacher of Floyd County Georgia in mid 80's according to an anonymous kid passed me on main street a few years later when I went back to get a sandwich at Schroeders. Had some good moments in Collinsville as well. Ask Casey Mattox at www.clsnet.org if he will be honest about it. I try my best to make it to Bridges BBQ in Shelby NC at least four times a year.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Update/Superbowl: According to Uncle Prentice, Cousin Rob

Feb 7 update, may call it Bayou La Battre Day; but more about that later.

Here are Uncle Prent's kudos for Rob. If I can get Rob's Sbowl pix up I will do that as well
On Tue, 6 Feb 2007 09:42:07 -0500 "Prentice
THE NEWEST AND THE BEST OF THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE THUNDERBIRDS, IS MY NEPHEW MAJOR ROBERT SKELTON FROM MOUNT BERRY GEORGIA. CLICK, AND YOU WILL SEE THAT ROB IS T-BIRD #7, THE OPERATIONS OFFICER. OUR FAMILY IS THANKFUL AND HUMBLY PROUD(?) THAT ROB HAS BEEN SELECTED TO BE A MEMBER OF THIS PRESTIGIOUS GROUP.(ROB IS VERY MUCH LIKE MY DAD, HIS GREAT GRANDFATHER(SHORTY FOX) WHO ALWAYS PLOUGHED A STRAIGHT LINE AND KEPT UP A GOOD AIR SPEED.they both know the difference between earth and heaven, and how to arrive safely. PRAY FOR ROB AND THE TEAM AS THEY "SLIP THE SURLY BONDS OF EARTH" GO, ROB!!! PRENTICE - - WPFCHLTCOLUSAFRET. .

That's cousin Rob, 7th from the left; or from the right just this side of the guy with the American Flag. There is a female to Rob's right in the pic.

William Kent and Spencer Hammond of the West Rome High School class of 87 are quite proud of you, Rob.






Here is the Official report from Rob's Mother, day after the Superbowl
Hi Steve, the Thunderbirds did fly over the Superbowl tonight at the end of the Star Spangled Banner. Being their operations officer, Rob was in the stadium calling up the sequences and timing to them. They seemed to have pulled it off okay. They are staying tonight at Homestead AFB, then returning to VEgas tomorrow. Thanks for asking. --Vicky

And on Tuesday, here is a link to pic and bio of Cousin Rob. Like My Dad Billy Fox, Rob Skelton calls Rome Georgia home. According to some accounts it was Cousin Nate and myself, there on Morrison Campground Rd around Christmas 72 who heard Rob Skelton utter his first words.
Rob's wife is a graduate of Greenville, South Carolina High School, 88 or so, alma mater of President Clinton's Sec Ed the Honorable Richard Riley, former governor of South Carolina.
http://www.thunderbirds.acc.af.mil/07OfficerHTMS/7.htm


Cousin Rob Skelton, a USAF fighter pilot, will be flying Thunderbird Number 7 in the Superbowl Flyover this Sunday; flying over Archie Manning's boy for Johnny U's Colts and Da bears as Well.
Waiting for email confirmation from Rob's Mother, Vicki Skelton, my first Cousin; Dad's sister Juanita's daughter; Juanita being Rob's Grandmother.
Rob's great Grandfather and my Grandfather Willie Dan or W.D. "Shorty" Fox are one and the same person.
I have contacted the Samford Alumni office about it all; Rob a 91 Samford Grad where his sister and a bro in law also matriculated.
Update soon if Uncle Prentice's info turns out to be factual.

Monday, January 29, 2007

All Baptists should be More Like Will

Come back to this post as I am on the fly today. I will add to the intro.
Tyler Coker and Vivee Monteagudo were in the same room with Will Campbell at the Pacers gig in Montgomery about 97 or so. I first met Will in 74, and bought his Brother to a Dragonfly the year it was published. He was a friend of L D Johnson and Carlyle Marney, great Baptists.
Among his admirers are myself, David Halberstam, Marshall Frady, Steve Miller, Todd Heifner and Kate Campbell.
Halberstam wrote about Leon Culberson, once engaged to Aunt Virginia who went in for Joe's brother Dom Dimaggio in the 46 World Series Bosox vs Cards, Game 6 in St. Louis. But that is another story.
When Roach, will remember his first name later, was about to be executed in Columbia South Carolina in 84, I got all torn up, near basket case and called Will on the phone from my Grandmother's Home in Rome Georgia. I said my homestate is makin an ass of itself near lynch party calling for the death of this poor soul with an IQ of 57 or so.
And Will said: "Hell Son, get a grip on yourself; There is not a damn thing I can do about it!"
Fleming Rutledge has a great tribute sermon to Will "God Damn Christians".
Frady devoted 20 pages of his 79 bio on Billy Graham to Will Campbell.

Here is the latest, from the Sat Jan 27, 2007 Nashville Tn.

Saturday, 01/27/07
Baptists of all stripes can take cue from Mt. Juliet's CampbellBy RAY WADDLE
An observer of the scene once described Southern Baptists as the "hyper-Americans." If Americans are considered patriotic, Baptists are super-patriotic. If Americans read the Bible, Baptists really read it.
Generalizations are dangerous. There's no one kind of Southern Baptist, but many — back-road saints, Nashville professionals, sweet-souled tithers, anti-tax ideologues, big-steeple autocrats, fair-minded conservatives, social gospel organizers, closet segregationists, rock 'n' rollers, evangelists, Texans … and ex-Baptists. If Americans are diverse, Baptists are hyper-diverse.



Left-of-center Baptists (led by former U.S. presidents Carter and Clinton) recently announced intentions to create an alliance of North American Baptists to rival the Nashville-centered Southern Baptist Convention — not a new denomination but an ideological, spiritual alternative. They want to rescue "Baptist" from negative connotations they blame on conservatives, who've controlled the SBC for two decades.
The new group's goal is to promote social justice, help the hungry and homeless, welcome strangers, promote religious liberty and respect diversity.
Scrimmages over "Baptist" really mirror a larger, contemporary clash over another word — "religion." Spiritual trends have complicated the definition of religion, infiltrating SBC life for a generation.
What does it mean to be religious?
The liberal side provides its answer, majoring in action. These people are less preoccupied with doctrinal purity, which they consider a false god, an arrogant illusion, a weapon for keeping people fearful. They seek a Jesus who's welcoming, not scary.
The conservative side gives its answer. These people saw trouble brewing after the 1950s — feminism, abortion rights, gay rights, multiculturalism, all birthed by liberalism. These had theological consequences — a fuzzy drift away from Scripture, evangelism and Christ's divinity, the decline of traditional decency.
Conservative social analysis triggered a like-minded surge in national political life — in the SBC, too. Conservatives emerged as brokers of assertive Christian truth.
While Baptists debate what Baptist means, one revolutionary Baptist goes overlooked, Mt. Juliet's Will Campbell. Virtually alone among white Baptists, Campbell turned publicly against racial hatred in the 1950s. Ever since, this author/minister/farmer/dissident/native Mississippian has lambasted unexamined prejudice and sanctimonious pretense.
As he might say, he gave up the church to go into the ministry. His eight-word definition of Christianity — "We're all bastards but God loves us anyway" — means Campbell has befriended racist Kluxers as well as victims of hatred. He makes both left and right squeamish. Yet his instincts are deeply Baptist — allegiance to Bible and discipleship, upholding Jesus' difficult ideal of love of enemy.
Campbell, now past 80, is a shadow figure in Baptist life — well-known and evaded. Baptists who would polish their public image should inject this feisty prophet into the mix and startle the world with new dreams of Christian discipleship. If they dare.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Carl

Here is What Carl Bernstein had to say today in an online chat about the passing of Watergate figure Howard Hunt.

He mused again about Nixon, Sirica, Sam Ervin and President Ford. A great remembrance, synopsis; cogent.

Carl Bernstein: Talking about Watergate--in its larger context, with the benefit of hindsight, especially--can be interesting, and constructive. Re-hashing old facts, long ago confirmed (or assertions proved unfounded) is tiresome, and I try to avoid it. This seems to me a particularly important time to be talking about Watergate and its legacy--and I'[ve written about it extensively in two long articles relating to the Bush Administration and its war in Iraq. Both articles were in Vanity Fair and on its Web site--I'm a contributing editor of the magazine. Watergate was about a constitional conspiracy by the president of the United States and the men around him. Afterwards, it was often said that "The American System worked." It did. The press did its job as an independent entity trying to obtain the best obtainableversion of the truth--what good journalis really is. A courageous judge--John Sirica--refused to bow to conventional wisdom of the day: that no-one with ties to the Nixon presidency would be involved in something like the break-in at Dmocratic National headquarters. A great Senator--Sam Ervin of North Carolina, and a bip=-partisan group of senators, led by Republican Howard Baker of Tennessee, conducted one of the most thorough, un-biased and definitive investigations in the history of the Republic. From the beginning, Baker asked the right question: 'What did the president know, and when did he know it." a truly independent series of special prosecutors pursued the facts, and a courageous attorney general refused to carry out Nixon's illegal orders, or be part of the coverup, and forded the president to fire him--and his assistant attorney gnereral, rather than perpoetuate the coverup. A bi-partisan impeachment investigation by the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee definitively established grounds for impeachment: the key votes were cast by Republicans. When it was clear that Nixon would be convicted of high crimes and misdemanors in the Senate, leaders of his party--with Barry Goldwater, the great conservative at the front--demanded of the President that he resign. Nixon did. That long answer is intended to show that, yes, the American system worked--including Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon, that allowedthe country to move on. In the case George W. Bush, the American system has obviously failed--tragically--about which we can talk more in a minute. But imagine the difference in our worldview today, had the institutions--particularly of government--done their job to insure that a mendacious and dangerous president (as has since been proven many times over-beyond mere assertion) be restrained in a war that has killed thousands of American soldiers, brought turmoil to the lives of millions, and constrained the goodwill towards the United States in much of the world.
_______________________

For the full chat you may try

a click on this link
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/01/23/DI2007012301482.html

Proverbs 8:8 has been doing some serious Musing on Bush in Iraq. Hope he will make available his thoughts on or to this blog soon.

Monday, January 22, 2007

AU Prez Muse in Bham/Barron at County Tourney/Att Collinsville City Hall

Good to see Senator Lowell Barron at the Finals of the Dekalb County Tourney Sat Night.
Here is a link with text at end of this blog
http://www.gadsdentimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070121/NEWS/701210330/1009/SPORTS
Had a good laugh with Barron telling him about my live state wide call to Bama Dem Party Chair Joe Turnham Friday night on www.aptv.org/ftr 's for the Record. Asked Joe and Lowell both to be reading my friend Randall Balmer's Thy Kingdom Come and Tom Edsall's Bldg Red America.
Senator Barron said he was hurt I didn't call in the week before when he was on statewide taking calls. I told him I tried but the monitor at the station told me Barron said to be expecting a call from Collinsville, that it would be Jim Preuitt in disguise, and not to take the call.
Barron got a big laugh out of that one.

Could be an interesting group joining Auburn's Wayne Flynt at a book signing in Homewood this afternoon, many author's from the Flynt Tribute Hope and History in the Heart of Dixie. Then Flynt and maybe strong influence on Barron and Bobby Lowder may join Flynt and Kate Campbell for Dinner before the chatauqua tonight at Samford. We'll see.

Reports are former Auburn President William Muse joined Campbell and Flynt for dinner Monday night. It is my understanding Muse will return against next Monday Jan 28 for the event at Samford.
Glen Feldman, UAB History Proff was at the book signing. He has a chapter in History and Hope. I am proud of our Collinsville Mayor for reading a good portion of the book, as well as another influential on Main Street Collinsville.
Feldman also has an essay in Jumpin Jim Crow. Colleague Tim Tyson has an essay in that collection about Gaffney, and there is strong essay in there about Women's Clubs maintaining the history of the Civil War in Small Communities, a history that has largely now been discreddited according to the essay.
Which raises the question, who tells the truth in small communities.
Faulkner said it was not the Sunday School at the Baptist Church, or the Methodist, The City Council, the WMU, the Ladies Clubs, the Shriners, nor the proprietors of the debutante ball.
Like Will Campbell later, Faulkner said if you want to know the truth about any small town, go to the darkest cell in the most remote and dank corner of the local jail and there as you wash away the whitewash on the wall you will find a true record in the etchings of our gross and simple human heart.


Page 27 is the study page for City Council, Mayor Carter and the rest of Collinsville City Hall in this link

http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/documents/Immigration_Final.pdf

Miguel De La Torre raises some gut wrenching questions for true Christians as well. Never quite got to these in Sunday School when I was there; and I am not sure how to implement these ideals of the Kingdom of God.
Is it fair to ask Catholic Countries to use more birth control or is that racist? I don't know.
Maybe I shoulda done a better job at having my own 2.5 children, I don't know.
http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=8428


Time's a wastin while my friend Senator Barron and Jim Preuitt dilly dally with Const Reform while the crisis issues continue to mount in the Alabama Legislature. If you could it in a picture; would look something like my front porch, the metaphor for Bama legislature's dilly dallying.
I got plans for the porch; hoping the legislature can do something about Const Reform.
While I was lone gun raising the question when my friend Senator Barron had Town Hall Meeting in Collinsville back in June, it seemed to be the hot topic when Barron faced the reporters on statewide TV couple weeks.

Leah was at the game as well, And Rollo and Darryl Brown. The latter two big Sanford and Sons, fans. Sorry I had to beat them in the tennis summer of 95, but it was about the only sport I could contest them in, and I did what I had to do

Charles Bowers, and Terrell Spade and Cameron Indo were there also; Jojo, Cody Mac, Nick, Mark Dutton's brother,Chuck, and Mike McPherson.

Fyffe, Lions win DeKalb crowns
By Stan Veitch, Times Sports WriterPublished January 21, 2007
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RAINSVILLE - The dynastic duo of Crossville and Fyffe continue to make DeKalb County High School Basketball Tournament history.Saturday, Crossville won its fourth consecutive county title by defeating Collinsville, 72-48. The Lions (21-1 and ranked No. 2 in Class 3A) are the first boys' team to accomplish that feat.Crossville has been in the finals seven of the last eight years and has won six of those.At halftime, the score was tied at 28-28, but the Lions outscored the Panthers (23-2 and ranked No. 2 in 1A) by a 21-3 margin in the third quarter to break it open."I wish I knew what we did," joked Lion coach Tracy Hulgan. "I think we played a little better defense than in the first half and we were able to take care of the ball. We got good ball movement and got the shots we needed. We did the stuff we were supposed to be doing."Meanwhile, Collinsville didn't do what it was supposed to in the critical quarter."We didn't run our offense," said Panther coach Jon Tidmore. "Part of that was their defense. It looked like they were playing the same defense, but we let it get to us and we quit reversing the ball and getting in the flow. That led to no rebounds."Collinsville didn't score in the third quarter until Gavin Myers hit 1-of-2 free throws with 1:40 left. By then, the Lions had scored 16.Most Valuable Player Mick Hedgepeth grabbed a lot of the rebounds - 21 in all - to go with his 17 points and eight blocked shots."They came out trying to run on us," Hedgepeth said. "We were disciplined enough and focused enough to slow it down and run our stuff."This is the second straight county MVP trophy for Hedgepeth, still just a junior. Jasen Jonus scored 15 points and hauled down nine boards. Adam Lowery scored 13 and Jarrett Williamson had 10 points and five rebounds.For the Panthers, Tim Williams scored 18. Myers, Kory Oliver and Robert Gray all netted seven points. Myers had six rebounds.

I spoke to Senator Barron and we were down by four, then a few minutes later we were down by twelve and the disaster had begun. As the GTimes reports, it was a rough third quarter

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Brett Morgen 15 years from Collinsville

Brett is having a big weekend at Sundance in Park City Utah
I was his key consultant for his early if not the very first documentary, Blessings of Liberty Set in Collinsville, Alabama. He did put two xx's on my last name in the credits, but I am about to get over it. Bout the only time I guess anyone will ever see my name listed on a work that also carried Bob Dylan's Son Sam on it. Sam helped edit in LA, best I remember.
Mark Morgan did not make it past editting but his brother Matthew did.
I am in the Yellow Jacket in the docu, if you get a copy.
Timothy Smith and Bill Shepherd are the stars however, and of course, Bill Cook and Mildred Kerley.

Brett in the thick of it all in the Chicago Tribune.
Congrats to him

First, however, the Variety Review

Posted: Fri., Jan. 19, 2007, 7:25pm PTChicago 10 (Documentary-Animated)A River Road Entertainment and Participant Prods. presentation in association with Consolidated Documentaries and Public Road Prods. Produced by Brett Morgen, Graydon Carter. Executive producers, William Pohlad, Laura Bickford, Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Peter Schlessel, Ricky Strauss. Directed, written by Brett Morgen. Voices:Abbie Hoffman/Allen Ginsberg - Hank AzariaDavid Dellinger/David Stahl -Dylan BakerThomas Foran - Nick NolteJerry Rubin - Mark RuffaloJudge Julius Hoffman - Roy ScheiderWilliam Kunstler - Liev SchreiberBobby Seale -

Jeffrey Wright By TODD MCCARTHY

Bret Morgen's 'Chicago 10' uses archival footage along with motion capture animation to show the trial that followed 1968's protests at the Democratic convention.-->A vibrantly crafted evocation of a convulsive moment in 20th century American history, "Chicago 10" is far less interested in offering a fresh, probing look at what took place on the streets during the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the circus trial that followed than it is in celebrating the stars of the anti-war movement and rallying the current generation to follow their examples. Brett Morgen's agit-prop documentary augments its excellent assemblage of archival footage with capture-motion animation to rep the courtroom antics, all in the service of an ideologically loaded approach dedicated to asserting parallels between the Vietnam era and today.

Commercial appeal to a young contempo audience is conceivable but decidedly questionable.
Morgen's previous docu was the entertaining "The Kid Stays in the Picture," and the director's enchantment with Robert Evans is matched here by his obvious infatuation with Yippie leaders Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, who dominate the new film far too much for it to be considered any kind of balanced take on the socio-cultural eruption the incidents in question represented.
Morgen, who was born in 1968, is reticent to encumber his film with too much historical context. In the rushed leadup to the August convention, he quickly mentions the killing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and LBJ's decision to step down, but can't be bothered to note the assassination of Robert Kennedy or even inform which three men were vying for the Democratic nomination when the surrounding events took place.

In fact, there are but two moments drawn from within the conventional hall itself, one of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley addressing the throng, the other of Walter Cronkite frankly describing the conditions in the city as those of "a police state." And so it does appear in shot after shot of violent suppression of protester activity that, at least for those four days, resembled what the world was accustomed to seeing in Prague or a banana republic but not in the U.S. of A.
In the very skilled hands of editor Stuart Levy, pic adroitly moves the action along on the parallel tracks of the convention protest and the trial, which hinged on the "intent to incite" by the accused. Hoffman often called what he was doing theater on a grand scale, and Morgen has taken this cue to present his principal players on a variety of stages, including, literally, that of a standup comic.
For his part, Rubin once called the Chicago 7 trial a "cartoon," and Morgen has taken him literally, rendering teeny snippets of the proceedings in stylized form that, thanks to the vocal readings, all too predictably weights matters entirely in favor of the defense while ridiculing the prosecution and, especially, the notorious Judge Julius Hoffman.
Even to those who were around at the time and remember the depicted events first-hand or from television coverage, there is plenty of juice to the footage here, which has been culled from a vast array of sources. Day by day and, especially, night by night, the tension of August 25-28 is evoked along with the sporadic breakouts of violence, bloody beatings and arrests.

As the most colorful and irreverent of the defendants, Hoffman and Rubin get the lion's share of the spotlight, and those who found them either admirable or obnoxious at the time will find what they need to reinforce their feelings herein. Still, the portrayal of their views is superficial, a problem far more pronounced in the cases of David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, Tom Hayden, John Froines, Lee Weiner and early-on eighth defendant Bobby Seale, whose demand to act as his own attorney takes up an inordinate amount of the time devoted to the trial. (Title's mysterious addition of two more figures to the accused list stems from Morgen's contention that defense lawyers William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass belong there because they were found in contempt.)
Although the film's lack of attention to the doings of the convention itself is obviously intentional and enables it to hold focus on the protests, for it to avoid any mention of the more mainstream anti-war movement represented by Eugene McCarthy and, before his death, Robert Kennedy, seems grossly unfair; as usual, the more extreme manifestations of political positions receive the most attention.
Underlying it all, however, would seem to be an impatience and irritation on Morgen's part with his own generation, and the one yet younger than himself, for not engaging the establishment today the way the Yippies did four decades ago. Pic's acceptance will depend in large measure on whether or not young viewers take the implicit critique personally.
Musical contributions lean heavily on modern, rather than vintage, pop music, and tech aspects are strong across the board.
(color/B&W; HD); editor, Stuart Levy; additional editing, Kristina Boden; music, Jeff Danna; animation, Curious Pictures; additional animation, Asterisk, Yowza Animation; animation production designer-digital camera, Todd Winter; sound designer (Dolby Digital), Paul Urmson; re-recording mixers, Bob Chefalas, Paul Urmson; line producer, Paul Leonardo; associate producers, Alison Beckett, Christopher J. Keene; casting, Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Crowley, Kerry Barden, Paul Schnee. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (opener), Jan. 18, 2007. Running time: 103 MIN.



http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-070119sundance-story,1,1516860.story?coll=chi-entertainmentfront-hed
Sundance opens with a blast from past provocations

By Michael PhillipsTribune movie criticJanuary 19, 2007PARK CITY, Utah --

On some subterranean sonic level you can hear Nick Nolte growling away in the far corner with some friends, even though the place is filling up fast. I am not in that corner. I suspect I never will be. I am in the opposite corner, around midnight Thursday in The Spur, a Main Street hangout in the ski town eaten alive for 10 days every January by the Sundance Film Festival.Writer-director Brett Morgen is talking about his movie, "Chicago 10," a freewheeling attempt to recreate what happened during and after the 1968 Democratic National Convention and how Chicago's image took a nightstick to the gullet over the whole bloody mess.Nolte, ruddy of cheek and trim of beard, is here with the movie. He's one of several well-known actors who lent their voices to recreations of the Chicago conspiracy trial, one of the subjects of Morgen's picture.
The film festival opened Thursday night with "Chicago 10" in the prestigious premiere slot. Morgen was a happy man at The Spur, with everyone saying "nice job" and the like."It was a really intense world to inhabit for five years," he said, as a woman handed him a glass of champagne. The film, he said, is not intended to be historically nuanced or "Frontline" in tone. It is meant to assault. As he put it in the question-and-answer portion of the premiere a few hours earlier, he wanted something brash and in the spirit of the Youth International Party--the Yippies, personified by Abbie Hoffman, superstar. (Hank Azaria does the voice of Hoffman.)

Morgen's film mixes archival footage of the clashes in Lincoln Park, Grant Park, Old Town and downtown, with Rotoscoped animated sequences depicting the trial of the Chicago 7. Or 8, if you count Black Panther Bobby Seale, who at one point was bound and gagged in Judge Julius Hoffman's law-and-order courtroom, in one of the most startling scenes in "Chicago 10."The film's title refers to the eight on trial, including anti-Vietnam war activist David Dellinger; Yippies and troublemakers Hoffman and Jerry Rubin; Rennie Davis and Tom Hayden of Students for a Democratic Society; Seale, of the Black Panthers; the so-called "forgotten defendants" John Froines and Lee Weiner; and defense attorneys William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass. Weinglass provides his own voice in the animated courtroom scenes; Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Wright and other actors provide the others.

The soundtrack, which rarely gets a moment's rest, features Rage Against the Machine and the Beastie Boys and Eminem along with Black Sabbath and, during one brutal clash between Chicago police and antiwar protesters near the Conrad Hilton Hotel, a mocking snippet of the old Bing-and-Bob ditty "Moonlight Becomes You."

Morgen, who was still in his mother's womb in August of '68, is a Sundance Film Festival alum. His earlier documentaries "On the Ropes" (1999) and "The Kid Stays in the Picture" (2002) premiered here. For "Chicago 10" the hype is high, though you never can tell with festival hype: Sometimes the distribution bidding wars do not materialize. At a Thursday press conference, Sundance co-founder and iconic figurehead Robert Redford tried to minimize the festival's marketplace function. He stressed that it's all about the work--everyone's wearing "Focus on Film" buttons this year, which is actually sort of sad. With "Chicago 10" Sundance director Geoffrey Gilmore found a way to open the 2007 festival with an unconventional documentary as well as a reminder, he said, "about the kind of risk-taking it takes to make a change in this world."

Six weeks ago, as he was putting the finishing touches on an animated segment of his film, I talked to Morgen by phone. The film, he said, was conceived in late 2001 "on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan." That was one invasion; the war in Iraq was quite another, and "as we moved the front lines into Iraq, and Bush and Colin Powell made statements we realize now were misleading to the United Nations, it seemed like more people were gathering and raising their voices."But the opposition never really materialized. So it seemed like there was a need for a film to remind people how to protest, in the age of the Internet…We live in a culture today where a lot of people feel making a 10-dollar contribution to a political organization online is a form of protest."

At Thursday's press conference Morgen downplayed the political content and told the crowd he just wanted to make a film that "would entertain you guys for a couple of hours." Later that night, though, after repeating the same just-enjoy-it sentiments, Morgen told the opening-night crowd that he'd love it if "Chicago 10" could get people thinking about the protest movement. And maybe, he said, "mobilize the country and stop this [gol'-darn war]."A quick poll of some colleagues Thursday night suggested "Chicago 10" may play better with folks who, like Morgen, weren't yet born in the summer of '68. Morgen says he wants the film to go over with moviegoers in their 20s and 30s. His use of animation, akin to the style of Richard Linklater's "Waking Life" and "A Scanner Darkly," was done with the younger, less tradition-bound audience in mind.

So was his deployment of an "intense" (his word) sound design, dominated by the polyglot musical score. To at least one pair of 45-year-old ears, that score is far too much and surprisingly dull: The aural rage of the musical selections, and the hackneyed original background score, flatten the rage on screen rather than heighten it.Whether or not Morgen's film becomes a hot bidding commodity, its maker says he was privileged to make it his own way. "It didn't matter to me about reaching out specifically to Democrats, or Republicans," he said in December. "There were issues of democracy at play here that concern all of us."I wondered then if the project wasn't risking that screedy Michael Moore "Fahrenheit 911" tone, which some believe helped Bush's re-election bid. (It obviously didn't hurt.)

"It's funny," Morgen said, "When Geoff Gilmore called to invite me to open the festival, that's the thing he said to me. He didn't mean it as any sort of criticism, really, but he said that majority of the films Sundance attracts and ultimately programs are films that preach to the choir. And then he said the thing that he found remarkable about 'Chicago 10' is that it's not intended for the choir. It's intended for an audience that hasn't experienced the events."At the Spur, I ask Morgen if he wrestled at all with how much to lionize the protest movement. Some, he says. After all, post-Chicago, "the war went on for several more years and Nixon won the election.

So the question, I guess, is this: Was this all just an epic piece of theater? Did Abbie Hoffman and everybody else intend the [riots] to go down? Was this the Yippie agenda from day one, to expose the militancy of the government and make sure the Democrats lost the election?"Morgen didn't answer the question. Anyway, it was party time at the Spur, and he was the big dog of the evening. And another festival had officially begun.mjphillips@tribuneFollow the Sundance Film Festival with Michael Phillips and Mark Caro at www.chicagotribune.com/popmachine.>

Words to some of my favorite songs

Traipsing around exploring a notion on bl.com I got inspired to find the words of some of my favorite songs.
Dirty Old Town is on my tribute Video to myself on the occasion of my 50th birthday. I have a grainy video I taped from SNL. If anybody out there knows where I can find the CD or DVD of David Byrne's performance, please let me know. His Marachi band when it got movin was sublime and has never been filmed again to my knowledge.
Would also like Leon Russell's version of Marvin Gaye's Aint That Peculiar. I caught it late one night after I came off the 2nd working at Straight Line in Gaffney summer of 74, best I remember, and have never heard or seen Leon's version since.
But here are some great lyrics.
My apologies for how the transfer ran all the text together.
Maybe I can bring up Lyle Lovett a little Better.

Here is the best from Lyle, maybe the explanation of everything. And after that explanation will put it in context. Only thing comparable is Vesta On "Class" in Woman Named Drown.
John and Susan Weaver Morgan think Edisto is Padgett Powell's best, but they are mistaken; it is Woman Named Drown with the Irrepressible Vesta.
But Now, Lyle

Now there was two little imps
And they was black as tar
And they was trying to get to heavenIn an electric car
And that car wheel slippedOn down the hill
Instead of going to heavenThey went to jacksonville
Singing, Hallelujah

Now the whole deal as Biblical text.

I went to a funeralLord it made me happySeeing all those peopleI ain't seenSince the last timeSomebody diedEverybody talkingThey were telling funny storiesSaying all those thingsThey ain't saidSince the last timeSomebody diedBut you take a look around youDon't it seem like something's missingI said something that weren't missingLord the last timeSomebody diedYou took him from the last timeTo that hallowed groundI'm praying take me to the next time lordSo i can hang aroundThen the people start to lookingAnd some of them start cryingAnd all the little childrenLord they're scaredBecause they ain't never seenA dead man beforeYou took him from the last timeTo that hallowed groundI'm praying take me to the next time lordSo i can hang aroundHe's swimming through that jordanGoing to the other sideBut if it's all the same to you lordI think i'll stay dryNow it's church on sundayIt's a bar on friday nightIt's work on mondayThe preacher lord you know he might singHallelujahSing hallelujahSing hallelujahSing hallelujahHe's got church on sundayAnd he got drunk the night beforeAnd he got his good gal when he got homeThe preacher said he wants some more of thatHallelujahSing hallelujahSing hallelujahSing hallelujahNow if you want to get to heavenLet me tell you what to doYou better grease your foot up buddyWith that mutton stewAnd when the devil comes after youWith them greasy handsYou just slide on over to the promised landSing hallelujahSing hallelujahSing hallelujahSing hallelujahNow there was two little impsAnd they was black as tarAnd they was trying to get to heavenIn an electric carAnd that car wheel slippedOn down the hillInstead of going to heavenThey went to jacksonvilleSing hallelujahSing hallelujahSing hallelujahSing hallelujahThank you, you've been so niceAll my friends they cameNow close the lid down tightlyAnd quit cryingBecause when they close themThey all look the sameAnd grab hold of the handleIt won't be too heavyAnd take me to the graveyardI went to a funeralAnd lord it made me happySeeing all those peopleI ain't seenSince the last timeSomebody...

I hope it is rendered honorably at my funeral along with Some Arvo Part.
Oh, Why the Hell Not while I'm at it.

Arvo on the Virgin MAry

English (Book of Common Prayer):
My soul doth magnify the Lord : and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For he hath regarded : the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold, from henceforth : all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath magnified me : and holy is his name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him : throughout all generations.
He hath shewed strength with his arm : he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat : and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things : and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel : as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed, for ever.






foxJoined: 12 Aug 2004Posts: 2951Location: South Dekalb County Bama
Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:35 pm Post subject: What's his face

Who wrote the lyrics for Goodbye, that Emmy Lou sings on the Wrecking Ball Artist/Band: Harris Emmylou Lyrics for Song: Goodbye Lyrics for Album: Wrecking Ball I remember holdin' on to you All them long and lonely nights I put you through Somewhere in there I'm sure I made you cry But I can't remember if we said goodbye But I recall all of them nights down in Mexico One place I may never go in my life again Was I just off somewhere or just too high But I can't remember if we said goodbye I only miss you every now and then Like the soft breeze blowin' up from the Caribbean Most Novembers I break down and cry Cause I can't remember if we said goodbye But I recall all of them nights down in Mexico One place I will never go in my life again Was I just off somewhere or just too high But I can't remember if we said goodbye No I can't remember if we said goodbye Goodbye goodbye And then there is the Diddy Wah diddy by Redbone and the true Religion by Leadbelly--see my blog Also Uncle Dave Macon on Evolution And space Traveler of Leon Russell and Joe Cock err. Could not find the words but starts Once while travelin across the Sky This Lovely Planet caught my Eye.... And then of course there is Randy Newman's Rednecks about Lester Maddox, the No Neck Oilmen from Texas, College Men from LSU.... Heard him sing it live in Bham about four years ago. And then there is Talking Heads refrain in I wouldn't live there if they paid me and 16 people in Danny's Apartment. Collinsville Panthers should beat Ider tonight in the Semis of the County Tourney and if the seeds go right, play Crossville tomorrow night at 7 CST in the finals in Rainsville, alabama. Dirty Old Town, Governor One of my favorites Dirty Old Town by David Byrne (Thanks to JerryGarciuh on Livejournal for reminding me how appropos these lyrics are!) Well, there are sixteen people in Danny’s apartment Sixteen people are living in there Remember the days of rent control Grandpa remembers rock and roll These days won’t last forever These days won’t last for long You know, somebody somewhere owes us a favor That’s how things really get done In this World of Opportunities, it’s a Land of Possibilities We wanna live in a dirty old town Building it up, tearing us down With our head in the clouds and our feet on the ground We wanna live - dirty old town Dirty old town Now when the ladies come from Kansas They wear their traditional colors Today the fabrics are ragged and torn The clothes on their backs is all that they own They say, “Don’t draw attention to yourself They’ll tear you apart for a couple of bucks Keep you head down and keep you nose clean ‘Cause people who’re scared do dangerous things” These days can’t last forever These days can’t last for long You know someday things’ll get better Somehow things’ll get done In this World of Possibilities, it’s the Land of Opportunities We wanna live in a dirty old town Building it up, tearing us down With our head in the clouds and our feet on the ground We wanna live - dirty old town Dirty old town These days shoes are worn only on special occasions Battles are fought for fam’ly and nations Maybe you’ll pray, but God isn’t home And there’s no guarantee that justice be done We wanna live in a dirty old town Building it up, tearing us down With our head in the clouds and our feet on the ground We wanna live - dirty old town Dirty old town This entry was posted on Monday, June 12th, 2006 at 1:13 pm by Loki and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site._________________INFORMED GADFLY



foxJoined: 12 Aug 2004Posts: 2951Location: South Dekalb County Bama
Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:35 pm Post subject: What's his face

Who wrote the lyrics for Goodbye, that Emmy Lou sings on the Wrecking Ball Artist/Band: Harris Emmylou Lyrics for Song: Goodbye Lyrics for Album: Wrecking Ball I remember holdin' on to you All them long and lonely nights I put you through Somewhere in there I'm sure I made you cry But I can't remember if we said goodbye But I recall all of them nights down in Mexico One place I may never go in my life again Was I just off somewhere or just too high But I can't remember if we said goodbye I only miss you every now and then Like the soft breeze blowin' up from the Caribbean Most Novembers I break down and cry Cause I can't remember if we said goodbye But I recall all of them nights down in Mexico One place I will never go in my life again Was I just off somewhere or just too high But I can't remember if we said goodbye No I can't remember if we said goodbye Goodbye goodbye And then there is the Diddy Wah diddy by Redbone and the true Religion by Leadbelly--see my blog Also Uncle Dave Macon on Evolution And space Traveler of Leon Russell and Joe Cock err. Could not find the words but starts Once while travelin across the Sky This Lovely Planet caught my Eye.... And then of course there is Randy Newman's Rednecks about Lester Maddox, the No Neck Oilmen from Texas, College Men from LSU.... Heard him sing it live in Bham about four years ago. And then there is Talking Heads refrain in I wouldn't live there if they paid me and 16 people in Danny's Apartment. Collinsville Panthers should beat Ider tonight in the Semis of the County Tourney and if the seeds go right, play Crossville tomorrow night at 7 CST in the finals in Rainsville, alabama. Dirty Old Town, Governor One of my favorites Dirty Old Town by David Byrne (Thanks to JerryGarciuh on Livejournal for reminding me how appropos these lyrics are!) Well, there are sixteen people in Danny’s apartment Sixteen people are living in there Remember the days of rent control Grandpa remembers rock and roll These days won’t last forever These days won’t last for long You know, somebody somewhere owes us a favor That’s how things really get done In this World of Opportunities, it’s a Land of Possibilities We wanna live in a dirty old town Building it up, tearing us down With our head in the clouds and our feet on the ground We wanna live - dirty old town Dirty old town Now when the ladies come from Kansas They wear their traditional colors Today the fabrics are ragged and torn The clothes on their backs is all that they own They say, “Don’t draw attention to yourself They’ll tear you apart for a couple of bucks Keep you head down and keep you nose clean ‘Cause people who’re scared do dangerous things” These days can’t last forever These days can’t last for long You know someday things’ll get better Somehow things’ll get done In this World of Possibilities, it’s the Land of Opportunities We wanna live in a dirty old town Building it up, tearing us down With our head in the clouds and our feet on the ground We wanna live - dirty old town Dirty old town These days shoes are worn only on special occasions Battles are fought for fam’ly and nations Maybe you’ll pray, but God isn’t home And there’s no guarantee that justice be done We wanna live in a dirty old town Building it up, tearing us down With our head in the clouds and our feet on the ground We wanna live - dirty old town Dirty old town This entry was posted on Monday, June 12th, 2006 at 1:13 pm by Loki and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site._________________INFORMED GADFLY

Friday, January 19, 2007

"When you Kill a Man...."

There is a line in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven at the heart of the Movie that goes: "When you kill a man, you take away all he's had and all he's ever going to have."
That goes for Iraq and this blog

http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2006/09/september-12th.html

as well as for nearer at home with the themes of Neighborhood and the movie Blue Velvet; one the Christian Century named as one of its Top Ten for 1984.
Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth kept coming back to the motif of a "neighbor, in the neighborhood."
Hopper's Paris Trout has a great line, well several as evil goes, all "All Ether County gonna hear about this."
But the killer dies too. In the 1986 movie, The Mission, the Deniro character tells the Priest he killed his Brother; and the priest tells him but you loved your Brother.
Is there absolution for that, and what does the Brother gain from it all. Will Campbell seemed to want to tell Sam Bowers he could be absolved, if Fleming Rutledge gets it right in her sermon God Damned Christians.
How much do you take off a known bully. When is it time to kill a man.
The Second greatest man to breathe the air of Alabama in the 20th Century, according to me and Howell Raines, was Judge Frank Johnson. Of him Bill Moyers said if he had lived in Lincoln's time he woulda been Lincoln, and had Lincoln lived in Montgomery, Alabama in the 50's and 60's, he woulda been Judge Frank Johnson.
Johnson said there were two men he could never forgive, he would leave it in the Hands of the Lord. One was George Curley Wallace, and the other was the man who dynamited Johnson's Mother's home by mistake, Tommy Tarrants. Tarrants had intended to dynamite Judge Johnson's home.
Had a strong conversation last night about Iraq and George W. Bush with a borderline coffee addict. I did most of the listening, cause the other party was making more sense.
Other party sometimes checks this blog. Maybe he will read the link above to go with his Jonathan Franzen Devotionals.

On another front for the neighborhood, Miguel De La Torre has a troubling essay in today's Ed.com http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=8428 .

I'm not sure what to make of it. Would the chaos sure to follow his implementation of this aspect of the Kingdom of God override the aspirations.
Maybe the 80 progressive Baptists convening in Atlanta January 2008 have a clue, and maybe they have a plan to negotiate the South Carolina Presidential Thicket better than the good Baptists there let Richard Land and Karl Rove and the right to life community there get away with in Primary 2000.
And just maybe Artur Davis can unseat Jeff Sessions here in Alabama and Will Willimon will make certain sounds.
Who is to say. It is getting pretty much out of my hands, if I ever had a grasp in the first place.

Thornton, how did you like this one; I think it better than the golden spur.

Stephen Fox

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Wiilimon preaches about Collinsville, Alabama

He never mentions Collinsville by name, but I am sure it was Collinsville he is talking about; at least that has been my experience anyway.
Willimon graced our berg in April 05, when he first arrived, but I haven't set sight on him yet.
In this sermon he talks about the preacher whose children got beat up on the playground. I think the Morgans have a good enough sense of humor I could say the only time if there was one when Jojo mighta faced the locals was cause of something he more than likely started, not something caused by his Daddy's preachin.
It was different for the Fox children in Gaffney. Willimon knows about Gaffney, or he should since he went to college only twenty miles away, and for a man to have musings in his first collection of sermons, Willimon's Sighing For Eden, with a sermon about the 1946 lynching of Willie Earle in Willimon's hometown of Greenville, South Carolina, where Bob Jones is; then for sure Willimon knows about Tim Tyson, visiting proff at Duke, and his chapter on Dynamite about Gaffney in the collection Jumpin Jim Crow.
I know what Big Daddy Rice was talking about when he said
When I Jump, I jump Jis so
Cause Every Time I Jump
I be Jumpin Jim Crow.

I was jumpin a little Jim Crow in the Post office this morning and out by the fence last week.
I still be Jumpin.

But I digress.
I am gonna do my best to bring Willimon's attention to this blog post. I want him to know that when my Dad who loved Marney and Randall Lolley, LD Johnson and Stewart Newman with all His Heart, not to mention Jesus.
When Dad was pastor of Truett Memorial Baptist Church in Hayesville, North Carolina tween 59 and 62 he was called on to preach the funeral for the town drunk. Hayesville has periodically had the reputation of one of the most corrupt counties in North Carolina. Like the North Georgia of Billy Sunday Birt which Western North Carolina bordered; in those days Moonshinin was not to be trifled with.
So Dad has the funeral and he says, Now a Lot of you came today to see what the preacher would say about the town drunk. Well I knew this man, and we know of his problem, but like many of those in his condition, sober there was not a more beloved man in this community.
But as drunkenness is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, so also are the local grocers who stock their shelves with sugar on Thursday knowing the shiners are comin in on the weekend to get the stuff they need to make their stock in trade. ... And the bankers benefit and the civic clubs, and the schools are funded....
I asked Dad what kind of response he got. Said lot of bare knuckled cold handshakes when it was over.
Billy Fox knew what Willimon and Hauerwas are talking about here.


Here is the Great Willimon.
Whatever I said at FUMC Bham last November about Willimon and the Flynt initiatives in Alabama, I take it back for this blog.
Marney and LD are proud of Willimon for this one.


From the Christian Century.


Living by the Word
January 27, 2004
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Sunday, January 28Jeremiah 1:4-10; Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 4:21-30
by William H. Willimon
In Flannery O'Connor's short story "Revelation," Ruby Turpin is sitting in the doctor's waiting room, evaluating each person around her. Ruby judges herself to be superior, by more than a grade or two, to everyone there, especially to a poor, unkempt, teenaged wretch seated across from her who is reading a book. Ruby thinks it sad that the girl's parents did not groom her more attractively. Perish the thought of having a child as scowling as this one. As for the "ugly" child, Mary Grace, she listens for a while as Ruby chatters outloud about the superiority of poor blacks over "white trash." Then, without warning, Mary Grace fixes her steely eyes on Ruby and hurls her book across the room. The book hits Ruby in the head and she falls to the floor with Mary Grace on top of her hissing into her ear, "Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog!"This, says O'Connor, is the violent, shocked beginning of Ruby's redemption, the catalyst for her repentance and her heavenly vision. Revelation often begins when a large book hits you on the head.Now, the Bible is a violent book. That's good, because we are very violent people. Something about our system of government makes an average of 2,000 New Yorkers want to kill one another. This is the system that we graciously offer to the people of Iraq. But in Luke 4, in Jesus' sermon in Nazareth, the violence is different. Here the violence is due not to the aspirations of American democracy or lust for national security, but rather to Jesus. All the Gospels agree that from the moment Jesus sets foot in the pulpit, things get nasty.A friend of mine returned from an audience with His Holiness the Dali Lama. "When his Holiness speaks,"my friend said, "everyone in the room becomes quiet, serene and peaceful." Not so with Jesus. Things were fine in Nazareth until Jesus opened his mouth and all hell broke lose.And this was only his first sermon! One might have thought that Jesus would have used a more effective rhetorical strategy, would have saved inflammatory speech until he had taken the time to build trust, to win people's affection, to contextualize his message—as we are urged to do in homiletics classes.No, instead he threw the book at them, hit them right between the eyes with Isaiah, and jabbed them with First Kings, right to the jaw, left hook. Beaten, but not bowed, the congregation struggled to its feet, regrouped and attempted to throw the preacher off a cliff. And Jesus "went on his way."And what a way to go. In just a few weeks, this sermon will end, not in Nazareth but at Golgotha. For now, Jesus has given us the slip. Having preached the sovereign grace of God—grace for a Syrian army officer or a poor pagan woman at Zarephath—Jesus demonstrates that he is free even from the community that professes to be people of the Book. The Book and its preachers are the hope of the community of faith, not its pets or possessions. Perhaps the church folk at Capernaum won't put up such a fight. Jesus moves on, ever elusive and free.Those of us who have been trained to make rhetorical peace with the congregation marvel at the freedom of Jesus to preach over their heads, to wound in order to heal, to use their own beloved texts against them. How sly of the common lectionary to pair this linguistic assault by Jesus at Nazareth with Paul's pretty words on love. Poor preachers. Sometimes we love our people in the name of Christ, enduring just about everything with them, and sometimes we love them by throwing the Book at them. No wonder young Jeremiah resisted when God called him to "speak whatever I command you." Smart boy, Jeremiah. Kierkegaard noted that many great minds of his century had given themselves to making people's lives easier—inventing labor-saving machines and devices. He said that he would dedicate himself to making people's lives more difficult. He would become a preacher.In a seminar for preachers that I led with Stanley Hauerwas, one pastor said, in a plaintive voice, "The bishop sent me to a little town in South Carolina. I preached one Sunday on the challenge of racial justice. In two months my people were so angry that the bishop moved me. At the next church, I was determined for things to go better. Didn't preach about race. But we had an incident in town, and I felt forced to speak."The board met that week and voted unanimously for us to be moved. My wife was insulted at the supermarket. My children were beaten up on the school ground."My pastoral heart went out to this dear, suffering brother. Hauerwas replied, "And your point is what? We work for the living God, not a false, dead god! Did somebody tell you it would be easy?"Not one drop of sympathy for this brother, not a bit of collegial concern. Jesus moves right on from Nazareth to Capernaum, another Sabbath, another sermon, where the congregational demons cry out to him, "Let us alone!" (Luke 4:34). But he won't, thank God. He is free to administer his peculiar sort of grace, whether we hear or refuse to hear. This is our good news.As for us preachers: "See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow." (Jer. 1:10)—with no weapon but words.
William H. Willimon is United Methodist bishop of the North Alabama Conference.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Kate Campbell profile in Gads Times/ MLKing Tribute

Jan 16:
My friend Kate Campbell was profiled page A-3 of the Sunday Jan 14 Gads Times a year after she did a house concert for my sister on her 50th bday in South Carolina.
Momma woulda been proud of the coincidence for both of them.
Sad thing is when I was whitewashed and run out of the Collinsville Library I was strongly pursuing a Library Renovation project benefit with Kate headlining, and who knows where it woulda gone from there, even Bob Dylan, though I conceded that was a reach; but given Spooner and Bub are tight and there were other avenues as well, who knew; but I guess now we will never know.
Even so Kate rises and plays Feb 7 in New Caanan Ct. I am hoping Matthew Morgan and Ellen Rosenberg can make that gig.
I wanted to see Kate at Vestavia Hills, Sunday the 7th and then in Decatur last week, was toying with inviting Lucas Black's Mother from nearby, but ball bearing troubles tanked those aspirations.
This story originally from the Decatur Daily is one of the best profiles of Kate to date, up there with the lengthy profile in Washington Post fall of 05.
Go Kate....


Courtesy photo“To me, the South is a combination of blues and gospel and country music. I think that’s what the South has given the world, and it’s that combination that you hear in a lot of my music,” says Kate Campbell, Decatur’s opening performer for the Year of Alabama Arts. Her concert is Thursday at Princess Theatre Center for the Performing Arts.
Keeping it realCampbell’s music weaves tapestry of her life experiences
By Patrice Stewartpstewart@decaturdaily.com· 340-2446
Kate Campbell’s life experiences are woven into every song she writes and every tune she sings.
She spent her childhood in the Mississippi Delta town of Sledge as the daughter of a Baptist preacher.
Her high-school years were more urban: Nashville and Orlando. Then she came to Alabama for college, earning a bachelor’s in history from Samford University in Birmingham, then a master’s degree in Southern history from Auburn University with Wayne Flynt as her major professor.
It’s not surprising that singer Campbell’s sound is as varied as her background.
You can hear that rich mixture Thursday at 7 at the Princess Theatre Center for the Performing Arts when Campbell is Decatur’s opening performer for the Year of Alabama Arts. Also, on Tuesday afternoon, she will lead a free professional development workshop for teachers, joined by Flynt, and a songwriting session for Decatur City Schools’ International Baccalaureate program and choral students.
Not every student gets her professor to join her on the road. But Flynt, a well-known Alabama historian, author, minister and activist, and Campbell are collaborating on a January series at Samford University. He will talk about race, religion and a sense of place, and she will sing songs she has written on those themes.
“He has kind of been my mentor,” Campbell said of Flynt, a retired Auburn professor who loves music as well as history. “When I started putting together my love of Southern history with my songwriting and music, people started paying attention, and everything made sense to me. I found my own voice, and he was a part of that.”
Campbell, 45, said in a telephone interview that she was considered a “late bloomer” in the music world.
“I’ve been writing songs since I was a little girl, but I got married, worked on a Ph.D. for a while, did some college teaching, and then things started coming together for recordings.” Campbell, who is married to a chaplain and lives in Nashville between singing engagements, said audiences responded well, so for the past 10 years she has focused on recording and performing, as well as writing.
When she was younger, Campbell said she was inspired by Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. They don’t do the same type of music, “but they are terrific models for women.”
Southern writers — especially Eudora Welty and Flannery O’Connor — also provided a lot of her inspiration, and Flynt will read some passages between her music during their sessions.
But Campbell’s Mississippi Delta childhood also plays a big part in her music.
“To me, the South is a combination of blues and gospel and country music. It all comes from the South — I think that’s what the South has given the world — and it’s that combination that you hear in a lot of my music,” she said.
There’s some Southern rock, rhythm and blues and soul mixed in, along with a bit of Elvis, another of her loves, but when you look for her CDs in a music store, better check the “folk music” category.
As a child in the 1960s in the Delta, she had to reconcile “a lot of images I didn’t understand. I think history has given me a way to talk about that,” she said, and her music includes civil rights history and songs about the South.
“I think it’s a continuing dialog, and now everything is global,” Campbell said. “As things change, the South is in a unique position to dialogue about this, and I think we should be.”
She finds it interesting that the largest market for her music is the Northeast, not the South. “I think it’s because I’m a white Southerner, and they haven’t heard many white folks from the South who are willing to talk about these things.” One of her performances was at the Southern Poverty Law Center and Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery.
She describes her work as “eclectic,” while storytelling is her style. Campbell’s CDs since 1995 include “Songs from the Levee,” “Moonpie Dreams,” “Visions of Plenty,” “Rosaryville,” “Wandering Strange,” “Monuments” and “Blues and Lamentations.”
Her most recent CD, “For the Living of These Days,” reflects her spiritual nature and was recorded at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals as Lent began. Spooner Oldham of Rogersville is the other musician on the CD, which features new songs written by Campbell, Oldham, Mark Narmore and Walt Aldridge, plus “Jesus Christ” written by Woody Guthrie and Kris Kristofferson’s “They Killed Him.” It includes “If I Ever Get to Heaven,” a few hymns, a new Civil Rights Memorial song, and a prayer that she set to music: “Prayer of Thomas Merton.”
When writing songs, she reflects on Jesus’ words about how people should treat one another. When choosing songs for her latest album, she returned to her favorite sources: the record collection of her parents, the Rev. Jim and Jeanette Henry, now retired and living in Orlando; the Baptist hymnal; classic folk, soul and country music; and Alabama songwriters.
Oldham, who is legendary for his work on many classic rhythm and blues songs, will join her for the Decatur concert, as will Narmore. Oldham wrote hits for stars as diverse as Percy Sledge and Barbra Streisand; he played organ on Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” and Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You” and has played on nearly all of Campbell’s albums.
Campbell usually plays guitar and piano onstage. “We’ll mix it up at this concert,” said Campbell, who last performed for a Junior League event in Decatur and has more recently played Huntsville.
“I love Southern rock and the music that came out of Muscle Shoals,” said Campbell. “And I love Elvis Presley — I have many tunes that mention him, and I may do a couple in Decatur.” She plans to sing some from her latest album, along with “Crazy in Alabama” and others in honor of her “second home.”
“I think it’s interesting that she’s as comfortable singing in a church or coffeehouse as in a theater or concert venue,” said Lindy Ashwander, executive director for the Princess. Some of Campbell’s winter concert settings include Vestavia Hills Baptist Church in Birmingham and churches in Massachusetts, Kentucky, Connecticut, California and Virginia, as well as a performance for the Alabama Historical Association, a library concert series in Hyde Park, N.Y., and an acoustic series in New England.
“She plans to do some of her Alabama tunes here when she and her guest, Spooner Oldham, help kick off our year of emphasis on the arts, especially those with Alabama ties,” said Ashwander. “She appeals to a lot of different music lovers with her style forged in soul, rhythm and blues, Southern rock, country and folk music plus gospel with some Baptist standards, and she’s been described as a country folk singer influenced by Bob Dylan, with a twist of Al Green.”
Former Decatur resident Lee Sentell, state tourism director, planned the Year of Alabama Arts (following years emphasizing the outdoors, food, and gardens, and has been invited to Campbell’s performance, said Ashwander. More than 600 events, from craft fairs, festivals and art strolls to plays and concerts, already are planned around the state for this joint venture between the tourism department and the Alabama State Council on the Arts. To get copies of the Alabama Calendar of Events, Must-See Arts Destinations and 2007 Alabama Vacation Guide, call (800) Alabama or visit www.800alabama.com.
Ashwander said Campbell’s artist-in-residence events in Decatur are sponsored by Alabama Bureau of Tourism and Travel, with grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
If you go
What: “An Evening with Kate Campbell and Special Guest Spooner Oldham” to kick off the Year of Alabama Arts in Decatur
When: Thursday, 7 p.m.

Jan 12
Here is my friend Jim Evans from today's Anniston Star.
Come back to this post later when I add the comment of another friend, Bill Leonard, Dean of the Divinity School at Wake Forest, about the Baptist incarnation of King as a moral conscience of his time, acting on his Baptist and Christian convictions, a full embodiment of the Baptist distinctive of the Priesthood of the Believer.
The last week has been a whirlwind for me. I regret not having approached the Collinsville School, my Mother's alma mater, to read Marshall Frady's closing thoughts on King.
As I have said elsewhere Cynthia Tucker has taken the measure of the King children and found them wanting. But they are not the only Baptist preacher's kids who have not risen to the Promise, the legacy, the high bar of their great cloud of witnesses.
Even So God Bless the Memory of Martin King.
See also the lyrics to My God They Killed Him at www.katecampbell.com
I have been tempted this last week to fly in the face of everything Martin stood for.
Pray for the neighborhood, and the one where you live as well.

Segueway here from Fox; Sadly enough Gardendale, Alabama, home of STeve Gaines, Debbie Medaris and Kate's in law's the Campbells, is one of the few municipalities in the state of Alabama that does not honor MLKing day.
Two things that stand out this year on Martin, make that three
1) the greedy way the King children are benefitting from his papers. Cynthia Tucker of the AJC who probably should have had my friend Lowell Barron's seat on the Auburn trustee board these last ten year has covered that extensively.
Three/Fifths of the money ought to go to scholarships and other programs at Morehouse, other historically Black Colleges and to promising African American Scholars at the University of their choice, even Furman.
2) Marshall Frady and Will Campbell's friend David Halberstam caught my attention again with his remark in the PBS documentary on King, that in from 1967 on when King was bucking LBJ in Vietnam, Johnson went back to his old ways of calling King: "That nigger preacher."
3) My friend Bill Leonard in the January interview of Baptists Today, ranks King one of the great Baptists of all time. King's testimony from 1957 when at two AM in the morning with all kind of violent threats against his family and well being, he was in a sweat striving with the Holy Spirit, like Moses, saying not Me Lord, call somebody else to do this.
And the Spirit kept saying, No Martin, you must make a Stand, take up the Cause.
And he Did.

Evans on Martin


James L. Evans: In memory of Martin Luther King
01-12-2007

In his elegant little book, “Finally Comes the Poet,” Walter Brueggemann writes that the task of the preacher is to be “a voice that shatters settled reality and evokes new possibilities.” If he is right about that, then no preacher in the last century has been more effective than Martin Luther King Jr. His words helped shatter the settled reality of segregation. He also gave voice to the possibility of what he called the “beloved community.”
King assaulted segregation with words bearing the full force of Biblical understanding and prophetic courage. For example, when we heard him say, “Segregation is the adultery of an illicit intercourse between injustice and immorality.”
Or this devastating insight about prejudice: “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
For a generation his powerful words defined how faith is able to confront the powers and bring about real change.
Of course, the settled reality of segregation did not yield quietly to the pleas of the preacher. It fought back with a fierceness that left many bloody and beaten.
But King was not drawn into the violence. Instead, he echoed the teaching of Jesus: “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.”
Of the many disappointments that accompanied King’s efforts, the deepest and most painful came from fellow Christian ministers who failed to support the Civil Rights movement. Of them King wrote, “In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
He was no starry-eyed idealist. He was not duped by some pie-in-the-sky theology. “All progress is precarious,” he said, “and the solution of one problem brings us face-to-face with another problem.”
And King knew that his vision of a beloved community was dangerous and difficult. But he believed in it and spoke about it with passionate eloquence, his words evoking new possibilities then and now.
“Non-violence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: The need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
And, of course, these most memorable of his words: “Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”
The great American poet Walt Whitman once wrote, “After the seas are all crossed, after the great captains and engineers have accomplished their work, after the noble inventors, after the scientists, the chemist, the geologist, ethnologist, finally shall come the poet worthy of that name, the true son of God shall come singing his songs.”
We have been visited by such a poet. And his words helped shatter a settled reality of cruelty and hate. But his words did so much more. The poet also helped us see a glimpse of what could be. In his vision of the beloved community we see the hope of a new possibility.
About James Evans:
James L. Evans, a syndicated columnist, also serves as pastor of Auburn First Baptist Church in Auburn, Ala. He can be contacted through his Web site at http://www.annistonstar.com/opinion/2007/www.jimevanscolumn.com.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Balmer email for Collinsville and Beyond

Friday Jan 12 2007
Got an email from Randall Balmer this morning, engaging the discussion about the new Baptist Covenant.
It is sad that my attempt to address the Southern Baptist politicization of the abortion issue was cavlierly silenced in Sunday school last year. If my temperament was offensive, I apologize, but I think temperament was a convenient excuse to silence a troubling aspect of this discussion.
Anyway Balmer has discussed abortion at some length in his Thy Kingdom Come and the appeal to Martha Barksdale, Gloria MOrgan and Mary Anne Cole to consider a view that Matthew sat in the classroom at Yale and aborbed; that appeal stands.

Balmer found the fundamentalist malcontent "churlish". I am hoping Balmer has the opportunity to go further up the feeder chain and engage the likes of Rove's Richard Land, as Newt Gingrich has suggested, in key Presidential Primary states like South Carolina.
It's a nuanced discussion for sure, one I think President's Carter and Clinton have advanced with Monday's gathering in ATlanta.

http://www.baptistlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3870

Weds
The preacher, the Baker,
The Mayor and The candlestick Maker
Every body from the All Americans to the Village Idiot.

VI here accounted for.

Was gonna take a break from naming names for a while, but sure would be nice if my friends Martha Barksdale, Mamie MOore, even Mary Anne Cole, GOP Committee Woman up in Fort Payne, and their network in the Study Clubs and Library boards and WMU and what not would take up the crusade to get couple copies of Randall Balmer's Thy Kingdom Come in the county and church libraries.
Balmer, taught Matthew Morgan as a visiting Proff at Yale; and the Clinton/Carter announcement yesterday in ATlanta is at the heart of what Balmer is talking about, especially in his chapter Where Have All the Baptists Gone.
I expect to be in the convocation next year in Atlanta if things settle down a little and I can continue to ride my bicycle up and down HWY 11 like I love to do.
And I imagine John Morgan and his wife Susan will be right there as well as this group of Baptists is at the heart of www.habitat.org
These folks nurture Becky Kennedy. You see where former Baylor President Herb Reynolds whose son Kevin did a Robin Hood Movie and one with Dennis Hopper WAtersomething; and former Baylor VP Underwood, now at Mercer.
So Becky Kennedy, my friend, is all over this convocation it appears to me.

But here is how the chat is going at www.baptistlife.com
Sheila Smith and her sister are registered there. I am sure Mamie and others can show them how to cut and paste if Mr. Thornton has any thoughts and would like for them to post there.

http://www.baptistlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3854

Sincerely not so much interested in picking at scabs with this invitation to engage the discussion, as to get some take as to how Pastor MOrgan's series on Baptist Indentity and what it means went this last fall at www.collinsvillebaptist.com
I kinda know how Richard Land feels, not gettin invited to the party and all.
I'm sure he and Balmer will get many opportunities to nuance it out between now and the late Jan 08 convo of authentic Baptists.
Romans 11:32; I thank it is.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Maybe Superman could fix This

Foul Odor Permeates Parts of Manhattan, N.J.
By Howard SchneiderWashington Post Staff WriterMonday, January 8, 2007; 11:12 AM
A foul odor blanketed lower Manhattan and parts of New Jersey today, prompting a brief transit shutdown, a rash of building evacuations, and a quick disavowal from New Jersey officials who wanted the world to be clear on one point.
"It did not originate in Jersey," Maria Pignataro, a press secretary for the Jersey City mayor's office, told CNN as emergency officials tried to pinpoint the source of the smell. Pignataro described it as similar to gasoline fumes "magnified," but others associated it with natural gas.
In a morning press conference New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said authorities were searching for the source of the smell but had determined through air quality tests that the situation posed no threat to residents. He said there had been a small gas leak near Bleecker and 6th Streets, but it was not large enough to explain the odor that spread from the Hudson River to the East River and across into the New Jersey suburbs.
"There is a large area of New Jersey and Manhattan that has this smell," Bloomberg said. "The smell is there. We don't know the source of it. It does not appear to be dangerous."
"Our suggestion is that people do their best to ventilate until this gas passes," the mayor said, suggesting that building owners and residents shut their windows and turn off their heating systems to avoid pulling the smelly air inside.
Bloomberg said the smell may have been caused by the release from a manufacturing or other facility of methanethiol, or mercaptan. The chemical accounts for many of the bad smells found in nature, but is also manufactured industrially and added to natural gas to warn about leaks.
Full transit service was restored soon after officials determined that the air in the city was not harmful.
But the incident still jangled nerves. Some offices sent employees home for the day, and the Department of Homeland Security reassured that the smell was not from terrorists.
© 2007 The Associated Press

And another big item in today's News, My latest Gaffney Hero is going to the Pros

"Top Ten, top Ten"

USC's Rice going proRecord-setting reciever makes himself available for draftPublished: Sunday, January 7, 2007 - 4:16 pm Last updated: Sunday, January 7, 2007 - 4:23 Pm
By Rick ScoppeSTAFF WRITERrscoppe@greenvillenews.com
What's your view? Click here to add your comment to this story.
COLUMBIA - University of South Carolina record-setting sophomore wide receiver Sidney Rice is gone.
Coach Steve Spurrier said Sunday that Rice has opted to give up his last two college seasons to make himself available for the NFL draft, according to USC sports information director Steve Fink.
``Coach Spurrier has confirmed that Sidney Rice is going to the NFL,?? Fink said. ``He?s disappointed that he didn?t stick around for one more year, thought that he should have played one year.
``But he supports Sidney in all that he does and wished him the best. Obviously this opens up an opportunity for one of the incoming kids to get a little more playing time next year. He did talk to coach and he is going to go to the NFL.??
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Rice said after USC?s 44-36 victory over Houston in the Liberty Bowl that he would not turn pro unless he was projected by the NFL advisory committee to be a top 10 pick.
``I?m still set on coming back,'' he said after the bowl.
Unless, he was asked, if he's predicted to be picked in the top 10, right?``Yes, sir,'' he said.Pressed, Rice was asked if he was projected lower would he go - and how low? Rice cut off the question quickly.``Top 10,'' he said. ``Top 10.''Rice could not be reached for comment Sunday, and Fink said he wasn?t sure where the committee projected the Gaffney native to be drafted.Rice had eight catches for 139 yards and one touchdown in the Liberty Bowl, giving him a school-record 11 100-yard games, breaking the mark of Sterling Sharpe. He also holds the school record with 23 touchdowns while also becoming the first player to have more than 1,000 yards receiving twice in his career.He had 1,143 yards last year and 1,090 this season, and his 2,233 yards rank him third all-time behind only Zola Davis (2,354) and Sharpe (2,497).
Sidney Rice holds the USC school record with 23 touchdowns, while also becoming the first player to have more than 1,000 yards receiving twice in his career.BART BOATWRIGHT / Staff