A happy 'ham

So, often this town is the scape goat of residents' negativity and pessimism. There isn't a story on al.com that doesn't have a negative comment posted under it. Recently there was an article on the new funding for Children's Hospital. Bham continues to advance its already nationally recognized medical center. Good news right? An angry reader used it as an opportunity to bring up the sewer bond and other LaLa issues.

At the risk of sounding very 60s and brady bunch-esque, this town needs to take a step back, and focus on being happy and optimistic about our future. Yes, we have things that need to be improved, but we have positive things happening here as well.

A favorite blogger of mine did a post today on the steps to attaining happiness. So take a moments pause from criticizing, and try some of these tips on how to be happier.

ThrowDown - DownTown this weekend

For those that say the city center is dead, or beginning the slow fade into eventual demise, we are here to remind you that there has been not one, but two music festivals back to back in downtown Birmingham this month.

Coming of the heals of Schaeffer Eye Center Crawfish boil...fergie anyone...is the WZZK Downtown Throwdown. In it's first year, it will feature Sara Evans, Kellie Pickler and others.

Now I'm not the biggest country music fan. But I'll say this, I am a fan of the fact that Birmingham is stepping up its game and actually hosting more concerts than I can physically take in! For instance, Josh Ritter was at Bottletree this past Sunday. Heard the show was great, but I was a little tired from all the crawfish and subsequent wedding cake and couldn't make it. Sad but true.

So get down to downtown this weekend if you are into a little country sound