Only hours after rejoicing at the return of the Silvertron, my joy is tempered by the news that Nickel Creek is splitting up. Grhhh. How can you do you that after only three albums?
One of the best concerts I ever attended was Nickel Creek at the Alabama in November of ’02. They played for hours: Their stuff, serious covers, funny covers. It was great. But never again. Sigh.
All I know about it is what was in the paper Saturday:
Rickey Gross, a 38-year-old father of seven and former U.S. sailor, was shot as many as a dozen times – with the majority of the wounds in his back – Saturday night when police went to question him about the shooting of his girlfriend earlier that day.
Family members said although he’d had a gun and a knife earlier in the day, he was unarmed when he was shot.
“If he’d had a weapon and had stood them off, I could see them shooting him down,” his grandmother said Sunday. “I would rather for him to have killed himself than for the police to come in there and shoot him like they did.” . . .
Equilla Gross said she had her arm around him when police arrived at the home about 7:15 p.m.
“They rushed in and grabbed him out of my arm,” she said. The next few seconds were chaotic, she said. Officers, including Kerzic, were trying to handcuff Rickey Gross’s left wrist. A second later she heard a gunshot.
“I saw one (officer) shoot, and we went to hollering,” she said. “Four officers fired four shots, then a whole crew rushed in.”
Police ushered her and other family members from the house. “We said, `Please don’t kill him; we called you to help him.’
On guy – shot in the back – twelve times – by four officers. The thing speaks for itself. It’s also enough to get at least one councilman’s attention:
The Birmingham City Council demands to know the details of a deadly Saturday evening shooting by police as soon as the investigation is complete, a councilman told city attorneys today. Councilman Roderick Royal said the council would assert its right to know all details of the shooting death of 38-year-old Rickey Gross at the 3900 block of 44th Street North in Inglenook. . . .
Royal, himself a former police officer, said he wanted a quick investigation and would raise the issue again publicly if he didn’t hear from the city’s legal department within two weeks. Following the meeting, Birmingham Police Chief Annetta Nunn said she had no timeline for a final report. “They’ve been investigating since it happened,” she said. “We want a thorough investigation.”
No word on whether Satan is a possible suspect.
I know ridiculing the average ‘Letter to the Editor’ is like shooting fish in a barrel, but still I have to make fun of this one:
I must respond to Pastor Evans’ column, “Tactics hardly Christian.” He spent half of his column denying that he had a problem with The Conservative Christians of Alabama’s tactic of intimidating the Huntsville city council. After all, Jesus intimidated when cleansing the temple.
Evans later admitted that what he actually objects to is enforcing tougher immigration laws, but the proposed city ordinance is about illegal immigration. Evans thinks that Moses and Jesus would also object to such enforcement and he quoted some Scriptures in support. However those Scriptures do not support tolerating lawbreaking, such as illegal immigration.
It’s clear to me Jesus advocated obeying man’s laws while still honoring God. Evans also claimed that illegal immigrants wrote the Bible. Can Evans tell me which Biblical authors broke whose immigration laws?
Uhm, how about the methods employed by the biblical immigrants in Egypt:
And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said.
O.K. so that is not really the same thing. Moses and his people only killed innocent people in order to leave a country. Obviously, that is not the same thing as entering a country without the correct paperwork.
But what about immigrants killing people in order to conquer a country? I suppose the people of Jericho would have considered this unlawful:
So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.
Now, if that was what we had to fret about today, I might be a bit more excited about the whole illegal immigration problem. As things are, I’m not that concerned. The immigrants in the Bible killed men, woman, and children. The immigrants in B’ham cut my grass, put a roof on my house, and run some pretty good restaurants.
Silvertron Cafe fans can get their mouths set for the restaurant’s fare again starting tonight.
The restaurant, at 3813 Clairmont Ave., will be open 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. for a “training opening” today and Wednesday, said owner John Otey Hutchinson. The opening will give the staff on-the-job training.
Silvertron will open Thursday for its regular hours of 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays, he said.
I am really excited about this. Over the last year or two, several of my favorite spots – The Mill, Highland Coffee Company, La Reunion, Books-a-Million at Eastwood, The Festival Plaza Movie Theater, Silvertron – have either shut down or been seriously diminished by new owners. So that Silvertron will be back really makes my day.
Of course, we’ve only got about six more weeks in which to enjoy it. Then the twins will be here, and we’re done having fun for the next eighteen years.
contact me at: alablawg@hotmail.com
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