Independent Hotels in the Mobile Bay area

Are you looking for somewhere to stay in the Mobile Bay area that isn’t another big chain hotel? Mobile Bay has a wonderful variety of historic homes that have been converted into inns and bed & breakfasts that offer you a personalized stay and true Southern hospitality.

Malaga Inn – Located in Mobile’s historic district, this hotel was originally built as two townhouses during the Civil War. In the 1960’s they were purchased by the current owners, who turned them into a hotel. The Malaga Inn is privately owned and ensures that guests experience the true gentility of Southern living. It has 39 private rooms that are individually decorated with period-inspired furnishings. The old carriage house serves as a hall for weddings and banquets as well as a general dining area for guests.

Fort Conde Inn – Built in 1836, this inn is the second oldest house in the town of Mobile. It was family owned until the 1980s and just opened as an inn in summer 2011. It is also located in the historic district and is within walking distance of other historic sites, museums, and other sites. Enjoy a stay in one of ten luxurious guest rooms and wake up to a gourmet breakfast each morning.

Kate Shepard House Bed & Breakfast – This Queen Anne home in midtown Mobile was converted into a bed and breakfast by an older couple who had always dreamt of owning one. It has been featured on the HGTV show “If Walls Could Talk” and features a library with historic documents from the early 1800s. Each of the three guest rooms is individually decorated in period style and named after people and places that hold meaning for the house.

Berney /Fly Bed & Breakfast – This cheery yellow Queen Anne Victorian home was actually built in three sections between 1859 and 1895, as it passed through the hands of multiple families. The three guest rooms are decorated in various styles, from French Art Deco to Spanish Bay. Historic relics include an original Victorian stained glass window and tunnels from the Civil War. It is located in Mobile’s historic downtown district.

Dauphin House Bed & Breakfast – This bed and breakfast is further away from the town of Mobile, but its location on Dauphin Island at the entrance to Mobile Bay makes it the perfect getaway. The island was visited by Spanish explorers, then became one of the first settlements of French Louisiana before the area became part of the United States. The Dauphin House has more of a casual beach house style than some of the historic inns in downtown mobile, but offers just as much hospitality.

(NOTE: The writer of this article has no connection to any of the establishments listed above.)

This article was written by Jenna Winkler, who has worked in hotel management for over 20 years. She also owns the site Hospitality Management Degree for students interested in getting a degree in hospitality management.

Yes … we are sweet lunacy’s county seat.

Mod Mobilian’s Tribute to Mobile Mardi Gras & The Conde Explorers
Kris Skoda & Benji ride with the Conde Explorers (www.condeexplorers.org)

All your favorite spots are here: Civic Center, Church St., Malaga, Royal St., Veet’s, Battle House, Bienville Square, Dauphin St., Government, Broad, The Garage, and more!

There’s nothing quite like a first ride … (or second, third, etc.)

Upcoming at Alabama Music Box:

Jan. 27:  1st installment of ELEMENTS which will be bringing together DJ’s, B-Boy’s/Girl’s, Graph Artist, & Mc’s to help show our local community what Hip-Hop has to offer. Rock Most (ATL) will be the first headliner, joined by Mobile’s very own local heroes Mob Towne Revival and DJ Fragment.

Feb. 18: 3rd Annual M.O.O.R.E. Mardi Gras Masquerade. This event has become a part of Mardi Gras in Mobile. For the past couple of years they have brought together our local heroes, as well as many regional and national musicians. There will be several different types of music ranging from folk, jam, metal, hip-hop, & electro/dub-step. Artists to date include Catfish Alliance (Tallahassee), Ashelea Penquite,  Western Lands, Digital Organix.

Donald Harrison Jr. & Congo Nation Mardi Gras Indians at the 2011 GCEH Jazz Fest “Hey Pocky Way / Ho Na Nae”

Donald Harrison Jr. at the 2011 Gulf Coast Ethnic & Heritage Jazz Fest (Mobile AL)

“Iko Iko” (with Second Line)

with Kent Jordan, Norwood “Geechi” Johnson (Wild Magnolias), and his band.

Plus a debate: Dreamland vs. Saucy Q vs. Rodgers

I am still on my horror kick so I hope you are ready to ride this wave with me all the way past Halloween and into November!   This week some great films await to be discovered by you gore hounds.  A truly wonderful Italian Giallo, some Swedish horror from The Criterion Collection, human sacrifice in the big easy and a few more main stream releases all hit the shelves this week.  So check it out, try the trivia, and check out the whitest girls ever to grace the cover of a Hip Hop workout disc!  Oh and I must throw in a big…..Roll Tide, since I feature an Auburn football DVD this week as well.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon  DVD\BLU

Robots in disguise blowing shit up!  This is a movie where you just have to turn your brain off when you hit play and enjoy watching what Michael Bay does best; creating stunning action sequences with huge budget special effects and filming supermodels and cars from the most unique angles his little brain can come up with.

Ben-Hur 50^th Anniversary Edition  DVD\BLU

High-definition Blu-ray hits greater heights with the arrival of the visual splendor, thundering action and towering drama of this record-setting winner of 11 Academy Awards®* including Best Picture. Charlton Heston brings a muscular physical and moral presence to his Best Actor Oscar®-winning role of Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish nobleman in Palestine whose heroic odyssey includes enslavement by the Romans, vengeance against his tormentors during a furious arena chariot race and fateful encounters with Jesus Christ. Best Director Oscar® winner William Wyler masterfully grips the reins of an enduring and spellbinding spectacular.

Mimic (Directors Cut)  BLU

From acclaimed director Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labrynth, Hellboy) comes “a terrifying film of great elegance” (San Francisco Chronicle). Starring Academy Award© winner Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite) and screen favorite Charles S. Dutton (A Time to Kill) and Josh Brolin (True Grit) this electrifying thriller brings the epic battle between man and nature to life when a team of scientists discover a glitch in their miracle cure. With the power to mimic and destroy its every predator and the threat of an entire city’s destruction, their creation has taken on a horrifying life of its own. With the weight of extinction on their shoulders the team is forced to take matters into their own hands in this stylish hit that delivers heartpounding thrills from beginning to end.

Trigun: Badlands Rumble  DVD\BLU

The first new Trigun animation in over ten years featuring all the classic Trigun characters you know and love, plus new villains and heroes!  In town surrounded by quicksand, an outlaw from Vash the Stampede’s past has resurfaced after twenty years. His name is Gasback – and he’s looking to cause a little trouble. It seems Gasback has a serious beef with the town’s mayor, who’s paying dozens of bounty hunters to protect his turf. One of those hired guns is a beautiful woman with a vendetta against Gasback. Will she get a shot at revenge? Maybe, if she can get through Gasback’s bodyguard, Wolfwood. And what’s Vash got to do with this mess? Nothing much – except for the fact that he personally set off the entire chain of events two decades ago!

 Footloose Deluxe Edition  DVD\BLU

Just in time for the bastardized remake to hit te big screen we get a deluxe Blu-ray edition of the Kevin Bacon classic.  Who wants to play chicken with tractors on a dirt road in Wilmer with me next weekend?

Torso  DVD\BLU

A series of sex murders shock a college campus, and four beautiful young girlfriends head for the safety of an isolated country villa. But as they succumb to their own erotic desires, their weekend of pleasure becomes a vacation to dismember at the hands – and blade – of the lecherous maniac. Directed by Sergio Martino (MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD) and starring Suzy Kendall (THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE) and Tina Aumont (SALON KITTY), this Euro Horror chiller was originally released in America with much of its controversial violence removed by censors. Now freshly transferred in thrilling High Definition from the original negative, TORSO is presented in both its Uncensored English Version and Full-Length Italian Director’s Cut for the first time ever!

 The Phantom Carriage (Criterion Collection) DVD\BLU

The last person to die on New Year’s Eve before the clock strikes twelve is doomed to take the reins of Death’s chariot and work tirelessly collecting fresh souls for the next year. So says the legend that drives The Phantom Carriage (Körkarlen), directed by the father of Swedish cinema, Victor Sjöström (The Wind), about an alcoholic, abusive ne’er-do-well (Sjöström himself) who is shown the error of his ways and the pure-of-heart Salvation Army sister who believes in his redemption. Based on a novel by Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf, this extraordinarily rich and innovative silent classic (which inspired Ingmar Bergman to make movies) is a Dickensian ghost story and a deeply moving morality tale, as well as a showcase for groundbreaking special effects.

The Blood Trilogy  BLU

Herschell Gordon Lewis’ pioneering “gore” films in deluxe special editions. First, Mrs. Fremont hires crackpot Egyptian cultist Fuad Ramses to cater a party–and he prepares a Blood Feast made from the grisly body parts of nubile young women. The world’s first gore film. Then the Two Thousand Maniacs of a small Southern town celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Civil War by forcing a handful of Northerners to serve as “guests” in their macabre, blood-crazed fun and games. And when his girlfriend, Gigi, cuts her finger on a frame, maniacal artist Adam Sorg discovers a new shade of crimson that will make his artwork so special–human blood–in the shocktacular Color Me Blood Red.

Basket Case  BLU

Carrying a mysterious wicker basket wherever he goes, Duane Bradley checks into a flea-bag hotel in New York’s Times Square. What’s in the basket, you ask? Why, it’s Duane’s hideously misshapen Siamese twin brother, Belial. Together, they’re in town to hunt down and wreak havoc on the sleazy surgeons who separated them… With memorably gruesome scenes – such as the screaming woman with the scalpels stuck in her face – and some disturbing stop-motion animation, Frank Henenlotter’s Basket Case is one of the most beloved, cheerfully demented cult classicks of all time.  So go ahead and open the basket… if you dare!

Mardi Gras Massacre  DVD

Way down yonder in New Orleans…horror and human sacrifices are the name of the game, as a deranged Aztec priest starts carving up female partygoers to offer to the god Quetzalcoatl. This should be remade and set in the true home of Mardi Gras, Mobile.  So Trey Lane, Kris Skoda get on that and I’ll produce!

Defining Moments Auburn  DVD

Officially Licensed DVD Series exploring the stories surrounding three of Auburn Football’s Greatest Plays. Description You remember the moments. Punt, Bama, Punt. Bo Over the Top. The Title Run. Each played an integral role in Auburn’s rich football tradition. Defining Moments: Auburn takes you deep inside that tradition as former Tigers Players, coaches, and broadcasters share their experiences prior to, during, and in the aftermath of the plays and games that made many of them household names.

Workout Coach: Hip Hop Body Attack  DVD

I have never included workout releases in my column, but with a cover like this I had to put it in the prominent bottom spot.  I mean come on check these white girls out, they know Hip Hop.  To bad Atlantis closed down last week or we could be sure to see some of these moves in the club, or maybe out on the street dodging projectiles.

TRIVIA

The answer to last week’s trivia photo is Phantasm. Can you guess this week’s answer? Name the Film

check out Drunk Negativity’s blog

Follow us on Twitter @modmobilian @drunknegativity

Enough is enough. Events downtown threaten to ruin years of progress and something must be done.

Like clockwork, happenings draw people downtown who don’t come there with regularity, who don’t lend a hand to make it better but only arrive when they’re up to no good. And let’s be honest, the folks we’re talking about, the way they dress and act are not going to be anything you see in tourism material, in promotional ads and footage designed to ballyhoo LoDa.

Their presence is disruptive, accompanied by raucous behavior and blaring music. To say there’s chemical abuse connected with them would be kind. We all know what they’re up to. A great number of them are underage.

But the most harmful element is the violence. They get drunk or fall under the influence of other substances and the next thing you know, there are threats, shouts, punches, gunshots. It’s become so regular, it shocks no one anymore.

I don’t expect to see it end anytime soon. It’s grown too commonplace.

And you shouldn’t either. Why? Because once more late winter will come and Mardi Gras will arise again.

Recent shootings in the July heat have alarmed a lot of downtown regulars and residents, with good cause. It’s not something any of us relish or want associated with the area.

And in the wake of those incidents, we saw a lengthy discussion start on Mod Mobilian. It drew exponentially more attention than most of the site’s pieces do, with the little Facebook recommendation meter at the top of the page ticking up past 80. That’s nearly unprecedented for the website.

Some of the commentary took the form of doomsaying, with folks lamenting they’re ready to throw in the towel. They see no hope. They’re through with downtown.

I understand the concern but where’s the matching outrage connected with Mardi Gras mischief? For years now, we’ve seen violence crop up with Mardi Gras, some of it makes the news, some of it we merely witness. And yes, guns do come into the picture now and again with wounds and fleeing crowds.

So where are the calls for ending pre-Lenten events? Where are the lamentations that Mardi Gras is irretrievably lost?

They don’t arise because Mobilians can’t envision a world without the Carnival celebration. They are determined not to let misdeeds rob them of the experience.

So where’s that same resolve now? Where’s the belief this latest mess can be overcome?

Just as disturbing to me was something no one noted. You see, when Mod Mobilian has regular entries promoting bands and events, artists and craftsmen, they get a passing glance and not much else. Readers and viewers indulge and waft away, no recommendations, no comments.

Is this the pattern we should expect? Post something stimulating or thoughtful and nada, but give people a chance to focus on the negative and they come running?

It’s not the first time this has happened. I recall the “is Mobile too redneck” back and forth during the springtime and how participation escalated. I hope it’s not merely because people are quicker to complain than they are to lend support.

It’s a sad fact some people are going to bitch no matter what. That much was evident in the more reactionary comments from this past week, descriptions of downtown in decades past filled with crime-riddled confabulations that bear little resemblance to the reality others and I experienced then and still do now.

But the rest of us can make a difference. If we chose to, if we get involved, we can change what we want but it’s going to take a lot of people with a lot of faith and diligence. Self-determination is never easy but always worthwhile.

The current problems can be surmounted. Pressure can be brought to bear. Businesses can be made to fall in line. If they don’t, landlords can exact their own weight. If those property owners are willing to sacrifice the community for narrow self-interest, then it’s best for the public to have that information, too.

But there’s little doubt a solution is possible. If we can handle Mardi Gras, we can handle this.

A Benefit for Mobile Brass Band Leader Charles Mason

Saturday June 4th  1-4pm  Cajun Shrimp Shack

3156 Airport Blvd, near Springdale Mall (former Hooter’s)

featuring

Bay City Brass Band

Mobile’s Olympia Brass Band

Excelsior Brass Band

Ray Charles (Charles McGlasker)

Alvin King

Mario Mena Band

Charles Mason, who founded Mobile’s Olympia and played with all three area Brass Bands.  He has been hospitalized at USA Medical Center since February and has had both legs amputated, but is in good spirits according to Bay City leader Marcus Johnson.

Tickets for the event are $12, which includes a barbecue plate. Additional donations will be accepted. Johnson said all proceeds will go toward helping with Mason’s medical expenses.

Tickets are available in advance at the restaurant. For more information, call 251-458-9349 or 251-470-8116.  Or email doc@modmobilian.com.

 To see how INCREDIBLE this event will be check out the first benefit held at the Blind Mule in April:

Mobile’s Olympia Brass Band

From the historic meeting of the Mobile Brass Bands at the Blind Mule benefit for Charles Mason 3/26/2011.

Yes, yes … we ARE sweet lunacy’s county seat. And we love it.

Mod Mobilian’s Tribute to Mobile Mardi Gras & The Conde Explorers
Kris Skoda & Benji ride with the Conde Explorers (www.condeexplorers.org)

All your favorite spots are here: Civic Center, Church St., Malaga, Royal St., Veet’s, Battle House, Bienville Square, Dauphin St., Government, Broad, The Garage, and more!

There’s nothing quite like a first ride … (or second, third, etc.)

Were you there? - check and see.
Did you ride? – here is some Route A to last you til next year.
Didn’t go? What? See what you missed! (K Lee!)

We say goodbye to Mobile Mardi Gras 2011.