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January 1, 2009...

• Dissecting how directors use time in films
• Tallying the 12 Days of Christmas
• Storytelling in african textiles and southern quilts
• Mountain Brook artist Maud Coirier-Belser

The New Year has many of us thinking about time. There's the countdown to the ball drop earlier this week. Some of us are already counting down the days until we drop our New Years resolutions. In the movies, a single cut can jump several decades. Bullets stop and linger onscreen. Time can standstill or move at frenetic speeds. This has three film critics dissecting how directors have twisted time in movies. Holly Willis is editor of Res magazine. Michael Fox is a film journalist for the San Francisco Weekly and David Laderman is a professor of film at the College of San Mateo. Our audio postcard was produced by Jonathan Mitchell.

The turkey's been picked clean, the wrapping paper's been tossed and the kids have already abandoned the high-tech present for its very low-tech box. Christmas is past, but the Twelve Days of Christmas are still underway and just in case your true love didn't give you the entire list, Melanie Peeples has it for you now, Birmingham-style.

The 12 Days of Christmas

The 12 Days of Christmas concludes on January 6th.

Whether traditionally made from hand-spun cotton or wool - or produced in modern industrial textile mills, fabric has long been central to African society. Fabric colors, patterns and designs mark ethnic identity, as well as status, wealth and achievement. Across the Atlantic - here in the American South - quilts are as deeply rooted in the culture. A new exhibit at the Birmingham Museum of Art juxtaposes African textiles with quilts from the American South. WBHM's Tanya Ott toured the gallery with three local experts.

Fabric of Life

That was WBHM's Tanya Ott, talking with the Birmingham Museum of Art's Gail Andrews and Emily Hanna and Judy Collins of the Birmingham Quilter's Guild. The Fabric of Life exhibit runs through March 1st at the Birmingham Museum of Art.

Artist Maud Coirier-Belser lives in Mountain Brook now, but she grew up living all over the world: Geneva, Sri Lanka, Bangkok, Milan, and Chicago. She tells Tanya Ott these early travels influenced not only her outlook on life, but her art.

Maud Coirier Belser

You can see Maud Coirier-Belser's paintings at the Hoover Public Library through January 6th.

Tapestry is produced by Tanya Ott and Michael Krall. I'm Greg Bass, and we'll see you next week.