Info meeting today in B'mer and the CMA review

In Bessemer today Norfolk Southern makes their case again by teaming up with the Alabama Department of Transportation for a second informational meeting regarding their planned Intermodal Facility in McCalla. The event will be held at the Bessemer Civic Center from 4 - 7 this afternoon.

Nominations for a community group will also be taken. Norfolk Southern will not have a role in selecting the members of the committee, which will be their primary community contact.

Let's hope the folks from McCalla can be a little more serious in their approach to the informational meeting this time. Remember August?

CMA's

This was not your daddy's Country Music Awards.

For one thing, Darius Rucker won new artist of the year.

But even better, two songs that were performed, two(!), included lyrics referring to Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Brad Paisley performed "Welcome to the Future," and Tim McGraw performed "Southern Voice."

I can't embed the video for "Future," but Watch the video for a lift. I really wish I could have embedded this. Paisley won Male Vocalist of the Year.

Here is Tim's video,



The highlight of the evening had to be 19 year old Taylor Swift winning Entertainer of the Year, after winning Female Vocalist and Album of the Year and Video of the Year. Here are her three acceptance speeches. She gets in a dig at Kanye without mentioning his name.

I think that the country music industry is a little more forward thinking than many of their fans. I don't think I have to explain that. Now if one or two of those closeted performers would come out and take a stand...

Oh, and you teabagging Republicans, the future that Brad Paisley is singing about is here, and there is nothing you can do about it.