As you my know, each month, normally on the first Tuesday of the month, I write a column for the Opelika Auburn News.  This month some thoughts about turning sixty.  I’ll start it here, but you’ll need to follow the link to read the whole thing on the OA News website!

I thought with Massachusetts in the news the past few weeks, I’d discuss my connection with the state. I had planned to write about a book I recently bought: 60 Things To Do When You Turn 60.  But instead as I turn 60 I thought I’d let Mom know I’m doing fine.

Not sure I’ve told the story here. I was adopted at birth, maybe had a twin brother and ended up with a Jewish Family in Spartanburg, S.C. Abortion wasn’t one of the things done at that time in our U.S. history.  Read the whole story on the OA News Website – Click Here!

Lee County Attorney Lance Abbott announced that he will be a candidatefor District Attorney of Lee County as a Republican to fill the seat of retiring District Attorney Nick Abbett. Prior to practicing as an attorney, Abbott served forover thirteen (13) years in law enforcement within the Lee County community as an Agent with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation (A.B.I.), a D.E.A. Task ForceAgent, an Alabama State Trooper, as well as serving in the Alabama AttorneyGeneral’s Office under former Attorney General Bill Pryor, Jr. “District Attorney Abbett is a man of exceptional integrity and has had an outstanding career as D.A. in our community. He has provided more than 44 years of loyal public service as a law enforcement officer and prosecutor in Lee County. As a former law enforcement officer and Agent with A.B.I., I’ve knownand admired Mr. Abbett for many years. As District Attorney of Lee County, I willcontinue carrying on those high standards and valued traditions of serious prosecution of those who commit crimes, strenuously representing victims in our community, and ensuring justice to protect our children and the citizens of Lee County.” said Abbott.“A prosecutor is only as strong as the law enforcement agencies that surround him. I have worked in conjunction with all of the agencies in Lee County, namely, the Auburn and Opelika Police Departments, the Lee County Sheriff’s Department, and the Alabama State Troopers. I am very proud of the agencies in our area and confident that they are foremost in regards to their knowledge, experience, professionalism, and dedication to duty within the State of Alabama.” said Abbott.

While assigned as an Agent with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, Abbott was responsible for the enforcement of federal and state laws. Abbott was selected to serve as a Task Force Agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration and received the D.E.A. Administrator’s Recognition Award in 2000. Abbott has been involved with numerous criminal and narcotics investigations to include: drug trafficking and distribution cases, clandestine methamphetamine lab investigations, Organized Crime Enforcement Drug Task Force investigations (O.C.D.E.T.F.), Racketeering Influenced Conspiracy Organization cases (R.I.C.O.), murder investigations, police shootings, and murder-for-hire cases. Abbott has also received Service Appreciation Awards from the U.S.Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Department of Treasury, the Auburn PoliceDepartment, the Alabama Department of Public Safety, and the Alabama Narcotics Officer’s Association. Abbott has been practicing law for several years and is admitted to the Alabama State Bar and the United States District Court in the Middle District ofAlabama. Abbott has tried cases in both the Circuit and District Courts of Lee County. Abbott is a member of the American Bar Association, the Lee CountyBar Association, and the Auburn Chamber of Commerce. Abbott is an active attorney in the “Wills for Heroes” campaign, which provides estate planning andother testamentary documents for first responders such as fire fighters, police officers, and emergency medical personnel. Abbott is also a referral attorney for the Police Benevolent Association (P.B.A.), which provides legal representationto police officers involved in incidents while in the line of duty.“I have been a part of the Lee County community since 1993. I feel that my vast amount of law enforcement experience, along with the knowledge I have acquired as a trial attorney has provided me the distinctive qualifications essential for the position of District Attorney of Lee County.” said Abbott.Abbott is a member of Auburn United Methodist Church and is married tothe former Jennifer Saville, an Architect with the firm Blondheim & Mixon, Inc.,and they have one daughter.Produced and paid for by the Committee to Elect Lance Abbott for District Attorney,Bill Ramsey – Chairman, Chris Murray – Co-Chairman, P.O. Box 1273, Auburn, AL36831

It’s back! Save the date! Friday, March 26th at 7PM at the National Guard Armory in Opelika, it’s the Opelika Historic Preservation Society Annual Money Rasing Event. Refreshments, Bar, Bingo (the real kind approved by Governor Bob Riley) and Entertainment.  Door prizes throughout the evening.  Those folks with the tickets each year, have them again.  Only 300 are sold.  Last ticket holder wins $10,000.  Milton McGregor, eat your heart out!

A quick reminder of this community wide event this Saturday, Feb 6th.  Now is a good time to check around the office for that old computer box, or monitor. 

The East Alabama Recycling Partnership will host an electronics recycling event on Saturday, February 6 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The event will take place at Mid-Way Plaza, 3700 Pepperell Parkway in Opelika.

The East Alabama Recycling Partnership (EARP) is composed of Auburn University, City of Auburn, City of Opelika and Lee County. The partnership was formed in effort to combine expertise and capabilities to make recycling more efficient in our area. In 2009, the Partnership was awarded a grant from Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) totaling $120,139.00.

The Electronics Recycling Event will allow all citizens of Lee County the opportunity to recycle their outdated or unused electronics. Items that will be accepted include televisions, computers, small kitchen appliances, video games, DVDs and telephones. Their will be a $10 charge for the disposal of televisions. The East Alabama Recycling Partnership is working with Creative Recycling to recycle the collected items. All items will be separated and shredded while properly disposing of stored information. Keep Opelika Beautiful hosted two similar events in 2009.   For more information on the Electronics Recycling Event, please contact Tipi Miller at (334) 749-4970.

What’s camping and racing without a special logo for the Jayco Camper.  Here’s the final cut that will be put on the camper and Gosh Knows where else this year.  Kansas, Michigan and Atlanta here I come.

After diving headfirst into the music scene with his 2005 debut, Above the Underneath, Sam Thacker released his sophomore album, Lines, in August of 2009.  But while it is often tempting to measure the careers of artists simply by their discography, much of Thacker’s story is found in the interim – it lives in overnight van rides and cramped motel rooms, grows through honest experiences and inspired collaborations, and it is written on the walls and stages of clubs and theaters across the country.

Indeed, taking such a substantial amount of time between albums was a conscious decision; one that afforded Thacker the opportunity to develop as an artist in a way that seems to have been forgotten by most of the music industry today.  He honed his skills as a songwriter and a performer over time and, perhaps most importantly, on the road.  “I’ve spent the better part of the last three years between a van, an SUV and a bus driving across the country playing music – following broken lines along highways and back roads to and from places I’d never been before,” he says.  “Every song on this album was shaped, in some way, by those stripes that lead me away from and back to my home…the lines that have made me the artist and person that I am today. They represent loss and appreciation for the past, growth and transformation, hope and excitement for the future. So this new album is called Lines. It is about crossing lines and drawing new ones. It is about the lines that bring us to where we are and the lines that will lead us to what we will become.”

Thacker’s journey thus far is evident on Lines.  Recorded in 2008 with renowned Atlanta-based producer Russ-T Cobb (Avril Lavigne, My Chemical Romance, Butch Walker), the album represents a remarkable growth for Sam both as a songwriter and a performer.  The twelve songs drip with relentless reality and emotion that demands notice, yet he manipulates melody and rhythm in a way that allows the songs to remain accessible to his diverse audience.  Performer Magazine notes, “Thacker writes lyrics that are personal while at the same time easily relatable.”

While Thacker’s sincere songwriting remains rooted in singer/songwriter tradition (think Bruce Springsteen meets John Mayer), he delivers his tunes with sweeping anthemic choruses that point to the influence of larger-than-life rock bands (like U2 and Coldplay).  Atlanta Music Guide writes, “Thacker combines the expected folk and country guitar riffs with an unexpected rock edge.”  Indeed, one listen to Yes (the opening track on Lines) forces the listener to immediately dispel any inclination to pigeonhole Thacker as just another “guy-with-guitar singer/songwriter.”

Ricky and Micol Davis, shortly after marrying in 1994, began their musical life together at an open mic night at Sassy Ann’s in Knoxville, which proved to be the beginning of something very special. After releasing their debut album, My Side Of The Road, in 1997, they moved to Nashville in 1998. Vanguard recording artist Mindy Smith, who had just moved from Knoxville to Nashville a few months earlier, encouraged Ricky and Micol to move to Music City, where open mics, jam sessions and songwriter rounds found the duo ready for 2001’s Delta Low ~ Mountain High, a release that continues to garner favor and attract media attention. 2005’s Miramax film, Daltry Calhoun, features Blue Mother Tupelo’s dreamy rendition of the Paul Anka classic, “Put Your Head On My Shoulder,” and the movie’s soundtrack also includes BMT’s version. Love Live ~ 5 Songs From The Road showcases some live favorites recorded between 2001 and 2006, and highlights BMT’s penchant for jams and spontaneous sincerity. The song “Without You” (from Delta Low ~ Mountain High) is included in 2009’s 1970s style film, Sugar Boxx, directed by cult film maker Cody Jarrett. Through the years, BMT has traveled wherever the music leads—touring, recording, and living through their music.

Nesting is nature returning to its natural state.  A homecoming.  Through particles of equation, Jesse Payne and the talented group of musicians and engineers working with him have sculpted an image of what nesting may sound like.  The sound of strategic calmness through its progression towards the unconditional post-war is an audiopainting of the notion, “through chaos, peace is inevitable.”  The theory that the limbs of cycle spin continuously towards rehabilitation of dirt and bone provide the album with its contagious tendancy for repeated listening.

Jesse Payne stems from a soil deep in the Southeastern region of the United States.  He nests within scenic views of trees and mountains blending into valleys of skyscrapers and barns.  Canvas for his yellow shade of timeless polaroids transposing over lake and swing suggests an inheritance of owls and their nocturnal solitude.  His sound and sight each born from a landscape of heavy cotton hands and autumn chairs.

Habitation of the past four years has given three previous releases from Jesse Payne.  The first being a collection of songs entitled, “Humming the Tunes of Luxury” released on November 2, 2004.  Shortly after, Payne released his follow-up EP, “Ghosts in Mirrors” in 2005.  During the next two years he found himself touring the eastern coastal region as far north as Boston and as far west as Chicago.  Upon returning to his home in early 2007, Jesse Payne delivered the EP, “Songs from Beyond the Leaves,” which earned him a spot in The Big Takeover’s Top 40, alongside Band of Horses, Death Cab For Cutie, and Willie Nelson. His song, ‘Thief Among Us,’ also found its way on national compilations that included artists such as Ryan Adams and Sondre Lerche.

His latest LP (Nesting) being released on August 15, 2009 has brought with it, not only his past story but a familiar feeling embedded into unfamiliar sound.  Jesse Payne’s haunting melodies breathe across untraditional instrumentation and military rhythm of a mathematical mind. 

Jesse Payne’s team of sonic painters include optical biologist Mason Boyd,  mental dendrologist Nick Timkovich, audio botanist and wave manipulator Mike Creager, and geopolitical environmentalist Noel Johnson of the renowned musical group, The White Oaks. 

“Nesting” is an album that asks to be enjoyed with headphones and limited illumination.

With my favorite, Nascar just a few weeks away, it’s back to the track sooner for the guys out at APR here in Opelika.  It’s off to Daytona and the Florida 200 at Daytona next weekend.  You can catch the race two weeks later on TV.  APR had posted this video of a run around the track, so I thought I’d share it with you.  You’ll notice some left turns with these guys, as they come off the main track to the Grand Prix section.  I’ll have more from Jeff and the guys in coming days.

Opelika Middle School has been selected as a 2010 CLAS Banner School!  This award (CLAS= Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools) recognizes schools that serve as outstanding educational models for other schools in Alabama.  The CLAS Banner School program was created in 2001 to recognize schools in Alabama that showcase outstanding programs and services to students.  174 schools were nominated this year and 12 were chosen!  Only 3 middle schools were chosen!  Congratulations to OMS!

The Lee County Red Cross held a Kick Off for their annual Hero Campaign for the local chapter.  With the recent disaster in Haiti and nationwide money raising efforts for earthquake victims many will redirect money to the National Effort, and by pass the local effort.  Both are important, and I’d offer that it would be a good idea to save some for the home front.  It’s early in the year and the local chapter spends money right at home.  I’ve grabbed the following from the Local Red Cross website, so when it’s time to make a contribution, try to leave some of it at home.  The Publisher of the Opelika Auburn News, Jim Rainey is the chair of this years effort.  Each day, someone in our community is faced with a life threatening emergency. Emergencies come in many forms: hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, fires, heart attacks, choking, drowning, death of a family member, surgery requiring a blood transfusion, or an elderly citizen without heat in the winter. Each day our Red Cross Chapter is helping citizens prevent, prepare and respond to emergencies through life-saving services such as CPR, first aid or water safety; disaster preparedness training; armed forces emergency communications; blood collection and supply; and Project SHARE, which helps pay heating and cooling bills for the elderly and disabled. Currently, the cost to provide Lee County Alabama with the necessary resources to prepare, prevent and respond to emergencies is approximately $1,200 a day. We count on our neighbors in our county for their generosity to help us raise this money. Our local citizens are our every day heroes. From January through March (National Red Cross Month) we approach individuals to be “Heroes for the Red Cross”. A Hero pledges to raise a minimum of $1,000 for local Red Cross programs in our community. “Super Heroes” pledge to raise a minimum of $5,000. As a Hero you not only make a financial commitment, but you make a life-saving commitment. Won’t you join us today and help us save lives in our community?

The Opelika Daily News (no relationship with the OA News) will follow the campaign thru the next few months.  To find out more, you can click the Heroes Ad in the sidebar for more information.