shawn avery

my favorite record of the year. treat yourself to the 30 second video teaser for the (lights in the sky) tour that just concluded. on hand were tool's drummer, guns n' roses' estranged guitarist, and beck's bassist.

this is the piece that i submitted for the raindrop art auction . it is a 16x20 emulsion print on black mounting board, which sold to our friend lesley martin. my print below is titled 'buffalo mirrors.' the folks in the image are my parents on their wedding day, back in 1973. alison's piece called ' leaf garret ' sold for $160.00 during the live auction at the end of the night, much more than the retail listing. click here to view full size

By BOB THOMAS - The Associated Press, LOS ANGELES Bettie Page, the 1950s secretary-turned-model whose controversial photographs in skimpy attire or none at all helped set the stage for the 1960s sexual revolution, died Thursday. She was 85. Page was placed on life support last week after suffering a heart attack in Los Angeles and never regained consciousness, said her agent, Mark Roesler. He said he and Page's family agreed to remove life support. Before the heart attack, Page had been hospitalized for three weeks with pneumonia. "She captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality," Roesler said. "She is the embodiment of beauty." Page, who was also known as Betty, attracted national attention with magazine photographs of her sensuous figure in bikinis and see-through lingerie that were quickly tacked up on walls in military barracks, garages and elsewhere, where they remained for years...

the following is a snippet from the october 2008 feature article 'birmingham on the brink', which was published online by cnn.com's money section. it is an illuminating read. the full article can be found here : Langford has been in the public eye in Jefferson County for more than 30 years. He's a proud son of Titusville (the Birmingham neighborhood where Condoleezza Rice grew up) who rose from selling Popsicles from a pink pushcart as a kid to become a sports reporter on Channel 6, a PR man for the local Budweiser distributorship, and a three-term mayor of the Birmingham suburb of Fairfield. He left his commission post when he was elected mayor of Birmingham in 2006. The man defies easy classification. To some he's a scoundrel who's been cavalier with the public trust ever since, as mayor of Fairfield, he built Visionland, an amusement park financed with $90 million in muni bonds and featuring a statue of himself near the entrance. Visionland soon went into Ch...

the good : secretary of defense gates, will remain in office for at least a year under obama. obama makes some good choices for his security team. the bad : india's attack on it's financial center, pirates gaining strength, hillary accepts secretary of state position... too much clinton influence in obama's cabinet. the stupid : Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford was arrested this morning on federal charges and is being held at the federal courthouse, the FBI and other federal officials confirm. See documents and past stories from the investigation of Langford. A special grand jury for several months has been investigating county bond deals and Langford's financial dealings. Langford was Jefferson County Commission president 2002-06. Al LaPierre, a close friend of Langford's who also was part of the federal investigation, will be surrendering today, said his attorney, Tommy Spina. David McKnight, Montgomery banker Bill Blount's attorney, said Blount is o...