Early Saturday morning, on a day trip organized by the Cahaba River Society, a group of committed naturalists, hardy outdoorsmen and women, and a metro something photographer trundled off I-59 from Bham and turned down Hwy 5 past Centreville towards Selma to the Perry Lakes and Barton’s Beach Parks.

OK, so it’s not in a studio, but the weather was too nice to stay inside and a day trip to Bluff Park is almost like going to a different world and time, which makes it worth the excursion.

The things I do to bring you all the swag and benefits of the Birmingham Weekly! Some say it is keeping the strict weekly deadlines that so quickly roll around again.

Stylist Cindi Horton met the subject at a local dinner party and immediately identified someone in need of a new look and update. “You could tell he had been focused on other things besides his appearance."

Frank Fleming learned to express himself the hard way, and some might say in another world, which shows up in his work today.

When it comes to what to do in Birmingham, it ultimately comes down to what’s cooking. When you have company in from out of town are you going to take them to Vulcan or Chez FonFon? And maybe that’s the way it is everywhere.

Last week my brother Ed wrote a good description of how I was ushered in to run the paper you now know as the Birmingham Weekly for the first time as a reluctant publisher. That was because at least a few inquiring minds wanted to know.

Not too long ago, Java Lewis’ studio was the street. When he first returned to Birmingham from Detroit several years ago, he set up at the corner of 1st Ave N and 20th Street, painting and selling street scenes, and sleeping nearby wherever he could find a hideaway from passersby.

DeeDee Morrison is achieving her dream of being an artist the unconventional way. Instead of attending SCAD or Rhode Island School of Design, she signed up as the only female in a class of 19 in a welding class at Bessemer Tech.

Now you are getting used to ideas of organics and sustainability in the food department, you may be aware that the same ideas extend to wine, with some caveats.