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Category: music

City Stages 2007 – First Night

A little rain (actually, a lot of rain) didn’t seem to keep festival goers away from Birmingham, Alabama’s City Stages festival. Yours truly figured that he’d wait out the storm and then go, and it turned out to be a good thing. Festival organizers delayed the start of performances but that didn’t seem to keep steady, decent sized crowds from showing up.

Day One line - 4th Ave North

I’ve been trying to update the online guide I created for The Terminal, so I’ve been a little groggy for most of the day.

But I didn’t want to get too far into the second day without sharing a couple of shots from last night.

Another City Stages is upon us, and the gloves are off

It’s crazy how much can change in a year. Last year I was squeezing in a trip to the Unplugged stage at the Harbert Plaza between lunch and traveling out to the city’s west side to go to meeting (while I was still on crutches mind you) as City Stages 18 was just getting started.

One year later I’m healthy but sleep deprived and figuring out just when I’m going to find time to actually buy my ticket to what was once referred to as Birmingham’s block party. I’m going this year, more out of sentimentality than anything else, but also because of this site:

http://bhamterminal.com/citystages/

It’s my first attempt to do a “special section” in The Terminal, and it’s sort of a test to see if viral marketing can in fact work. There are some other things that are about to happen that aren’t that viral, but this is a test to see if a site can make even a small difference in a conversation. Pass it on if you have a chance. Or at least check it out yourself.

I realize now that when I started blogging I did it so that my voice could be heard. I also realize that most that blog have something to complain about, thus it provides a great platform since you get instant feedback and a chance to argue your own point. My problem is that I always want to try to provide something positive (or sarcastic to cut down on the cynicism). Makes it a little difficult.

I realized months ago when City Stages began asking for help, I was thinking about the old days as an outsider. I was told recently that I probably shouldn’t consider myself one, but knowing the ways of the South, I will be for some time. I still approached it as someone that sees the potential of a festival like it being “fixed” and “saved”. I also realized that I wasn’t taking that positive approach in part because I was thinking about what my future was going to be. Now that I’ve had a chance to have some things slow down, I realized that I was not necessarily around all sides of an issue like I normally try to be. Now, I’ve got some thoughts: