[ SECTION E ]LIFESTYLEE M 1 2 3

Sunday, April 25, 2010

ONLINE POLL

You be the Judge,and tell us whatthey’re Worth

Alright, alright, we hear you.Wemade some changes to our comics’

lineup a fewweeks ago, and scores of youhave responded that we should not havedropped the long-running comic “JudgeParker.”

Did wemisjudge the judge’s popularity ?Maybe.We’ll let you decide.

Many of you told us that we droppedthe wrong soap opera, or continuity, comicstrip, meaning comics whose storylinescarry over from day to day. “MaryWorth’sFamily” would have been the betterchoice, fans of “Judge Parker” say.

So, instead of inviting you, or the vener-able comic strip characters, downtown fora street fight, we’re going to put this to avote.

Go to blog.al.com/bn/comics and tellus who should stay in The BirminghamNews comics lineup: “Judge Parker” or“MaryWorth’s Family.” You have until Sun-day, May 2, at 6 p.m. to vote.

COMICSSMACKDOWN!NEWS STAFF/HAL YEAGER

Henry “Gip” Gipson, who got his first taste of the blues while growing up in Uniontown, has been playing guitar at hisBessemer juke joint since 1952. “Whether there is anybody there or not, he plugs into an amp, gets a microphone and singsfor hours and hours,” blues musician Elliott New says. “He loves themusic that much.”

This jointis jumpin’

Gip’s Placein Bessemeris one of thelast remainingauthenticjuke joints

JUDGE PARKERVS.

MARYWORTH

By BOB CARLTON j News staff writer

On a Saturday night in Besse-mer, under a tin-roofed shedat the end of a concrete drive-way, two couples shake theirmoneymakers to the home-

grown sounds of Curtis Files and theBluesmasters.

Nobody seems to notice nor care thatthe two women on the dance floor arewhite and the two men are black.

At Gip’s Place, it doesn’t matter.“We don’t have colors,” Henry “Gip”

Gipson, the congenial proprietor of thisoff-the-beaten-path blues joint, says.“We have people.”

Mike Hunley and his wife, Barbara,sit at a table near the front, sipping theirBYOB whiskey and tequila and listeningto their son, Chris, pound the drums forthe Bluesmasters.

The Hunleys live in Helena, andalthough he has been here several timesbefore, this is her second time at Gip’s.She could kick herself for not discover-ing the place earlier.

“The first time I ever came, I dancedwith some woman I didn’t even know,”she says. “We just had a great time.”

On the stage, Files, a 77-year-oldblues guitarist who used to work in the

steel mills around Bessemer, asks for ashow of hands.

“How many of y’all this is your firsttime out here?” he says.

A good third of the 30 or so early ar-rivals raise their hands, including J.T.Jones, who is in town from Chicagoand, at the suggestion of his friendJames Whittsett of Midfield, came hereto see what a real juke joint is all about.

And Gip’s Place is as real as it getsthese days — a true blues relic with

See GIP’S Page 8E

Go toblog.al.com/bn/comics to castyour vote.

‘Baby-SittersClub’ returns fora new generationBy MONICA HESSEThe Washington Post

Kristy may have had the “GreatIdea,” but she was kind of bossy,right? And Stacey was all “sophisti-cated,” but sometimes her popularitywas scary, like she was going to aban-don the club again for her coolfriends in New York, which MaryAnne or Mallory never, ever wouldhave done.

We are speaking of “The Baby-Sit-ters Club,” the 132-book mondo se-ries chronicling the adventures of

See BOOKS Page 5ENEWS STAFF/JEFF ROBERTS

In recent years, a new generation of blues fans has discovered Gip’s Place. Onmost Saturdaynights, it’s shoulder-to-shoulder. “We’ve got musicians whowill come and open for free just sothey can say they’ve played here,” says LennyMadden, who books the bands. Kathy Kemp

Is on vacation.

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SPECIAL

1959 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray prototype.