The Gulf City of Mobile, Alabama has a lot to offer visitors. While its more popular attractions are well-known (USS Alabama, Mardi Gras, etc), this website is an attempt to acquaint potential visitors and new residents with the lesser known aspects of cultural Mobile. Since its founding as the capital of French Louisiana in 1702, Mobile has had a very rich artistic and literary history. It is more akin to New Orleans in its cultural roots, than to fellow Alabama cities, for its roots are French and Spanish Catholic, and it has always had a thriving port. In fact, in its early days before the capital of French Louisiana was moved to New Orleans, Mobile was second to Quebec in importance for the French colony in North America. Its bay gave shelter to seafarers with their rich cargo, which, of course, attracted pirates!

Mobile is home to an array of cultural influences with its French, British, Spanish, African, Creole and Catholic heritage. The annual Mardi Gras celebration is perhaps the best illustration of this. It has evolved over the course of 300 years from a sedate French Catholic tradition into a mainstream multi-week celebration across the spectrum of cultures.

This website is for newcomers, visitors and tourists alike!

Also, may we recommend Moda!

If your explorations take you to Downtown Mobile, what better way to get around than to use our free trolley, Moda! Ride the Wave! Leave your car nearby and board our all-electric trolley, M-F 7am-6pm, Sat 9am-5pm.

Tonight: A Reading by a local playwright

The MAC is sponsoring a reading of Artbruted, a new play by Danielle Juzan on Friday, August 7th, in the old Parkside building at 51 S Conception (thank you Richard Dorman, building owner, and Lynne Weeks with Roberts Bros!) There will also be ceramics and sculpture by Zach DePolo and April Hopkins on exhibit. We're starting at 7:00; come have a glass of wine and enjoy the art, and the reading will start at 7:30. PS: It's Free.

"When the M&M art gallery can't pay the rent, owner Marian, aided by Mark, the ghost of her dead partner, concocts a scheme to pass a local soccer mom's sculptures off as the work of an illiterate outsider artist from Dead Mule, Mississippi. They manage to deceive the local arts critic, but how long can it last? Artbruted raises questions about the relationship of art's provenance to its value, both perceived and intrinsic."

Video Postcard: Dragonfly

Blue Porch Ceilings, With or Without You

People in the South have painted their porch ceilings blue for generations. There are a myriad of colors folks use, ranging from blue-grey to baby blue to even deep turquoise. Do we paint the ceilings of our outdoor spaces this color out of some fantastical superstition or is there a more practical reason? Walking east on Dauphin Street from my parents’ home in the Old Dauphin Way Historic District, I found myself looking up. Under deep porches, many of the ceilings are painted varying shades of blue. Some of these homes have been completely renovated and don fresh paint, while others fall deep into disrepair. Regardless, the blue porch ceilings of these homes seem to represent something significant about who we are as Mobilians today and who we were in years past.

Although there are many places to purchase paint around the Mobile area, The Paint Store located at 2051 Airport Blvd at The Loop is often chosen because of their high quality Benjamin Moore Paints and the expert advice they provide their customers. Charles Mallory and his son, Chuck, are known for taking the time to advise their patrons on the intricacies of sanding, painting and color choice. Mallory said the colors of blue ceilings will vary based on customer preference, but that most people tend to favor a more blue-grey color. Mallory said he had always heard the reason for porch ceilings being painted blue was because “bugs, mainly dirt dobbers, think the ceiling is sky and then won’t build their nests up there.”

Crawfish Crazy

My first crawfish boil was when my husband, Cortlandt and I lived in Seattle, WA. Many of our friends are transplants from the South and were craving the crustaceans, so Cortlandt ordered live crawfish from Mobile.

Transporting the mudbugs from the airport to the party, I could hear them crawling around in their corrugated cell. (Creepy). Our friend Kristen had a huge pot with a propane tank ready when we arrived. Cortlandt purged the crawfish, discarded the departed, and boiled the rest. Honestly, I thought it kind of icky. However, I have come around, and know while the culinary bounty is a matter of taste, the social reward is immeasurable!