| Birmingham Startup taps Christian tech company
An online Christian social youth hangout emerged as Birmingham's newest tech company after an accelerated startup process. CrossConneXion.com launched on Sunday. It made it through a two-week screening and development process conducted by members of Birmingham Startup. Birmingham Startup met, shared ideas, voted to narrow the proposed projects to three before choosing CrossConneXion.com as its collaborative effort. Jim Sutton, youth pastor at First Church Worship Center in Tarrant, pitched CrossConnexion an online Christian social hangout where teens can connect with friends and God. CrossConneXion.com will allow users to seek job and mission opportunities, watch celebrity interviews, upload pictures and videos and find teen-related information such as peer pressure, dating, college prep tips and leadership.
Critic's notebook
Tickets: $18-$30. Rating: For adults, contains strong language, adult subject matter. Box office: (773) 871-3000 or www.eclipsetheatre.com. Reviewed by Barbara Vitello. 2 stars "Defiance," Next Theatre Company, Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St., Evanston. Next Theatre delivers a blistering Chicago-area premiere of John Patrick Shanley's drama, follow-up to his Pulitzer- and Tony-winning "Doubt," about a couple of career officers dealing with racial unrest and personal misconduct on a North Carolina base. A sharply written examination of power, duty and loyalty set against a backdrop of race and religion, it features terrific work by Steve Pickering, in his first performance for next in 10 years and newcomer Osiris Khepera. Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m.
Ex-choir director's wife files for divorce
A former church youth choir director facing charges in an ongoing case of sexual misconduct with a minor appeared in court on Monday, just days after his wife filed for divorce. Nathan St. Pierre, 25, is accused of having a sexual relationship with a now 15-year-old girl who was a member of the church where he worked, Washington Avenue Baptist Church. The girl was reportedly 14 when the alleged relationship began. .
Rojas's Rcrd Lbl: Free Song Downloads and Hold the Ad Clutter
In a FAQ on the site, Rojas and company ask people who syndicate tracks to outside blogs to take the whole widget rather than just host MP3s themselves. "We support the site and pay our artists through advertising and sponsorships, and the only way we can do that is if people visit the site or embed our widgets," the FAQ pleads. Rcrd Lbl isn't the first company to offer music promotion and downloads in a blog format; nor is it the first to offer ad-supported song downloads. Free download service SpiralFrog launched two months ago with a small handful of major labels agreeing to let it represent their catalogs. The company has been heavily criticized however for the Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions it places on downloaded tracks, as well as for its incompatibility with Apple's ubiquitous iPod.
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