Welcome back to Discover Birmingham, where we've been around town to see "hidden" treasures, historic sites, restaurant treats, enrichment classes and more. This time we'll stay in to watch videos with familiar backdrops and treats you may not have seen yet.
Only the first exceeds three minutes, so come along on a brisk Tour de Birmingham. Click on bolded title to watch the video on YouTube.
1. Classic cruisers: Take a virtual Dream Cruise with scenes of muscle cars, creampuffs and other vintage collectibles parked along South Old Woodward last August and a fittingly classic soundtrack — Surfing With the Alien by guitar icon Joe Satriani. (Nearly 12 minutes, clearly made for motor-heads.)
2. Commissioner's tour: A three-minute overview of downtown and neighborhoods has an ideal host — Mayor Pro Tem Mark Nickita, an architect and New Urbanist who has visited more than 200 major cities worldwide. "I moved here to be part of a walkable community," he says in a video watched more than 5,000 times.
3. Restaurant Week: Andi Rehm of breezes through five hot spots in a two-minute video by Benjamin J. Friedman to promote last month's sixth annual .
4. Farmers Market: Regional produce will be back at the North Old Woodward May 1, seven weeks from this Sunday. For now, sun-splashed vegetables, spring blooms and music by Southfield bluesman Paul Miles set the mood in a minute and a half, thanks to the .
5. Downtown parade: , a yearly procession of bands, scouts, clubs and vehicles, traditionally wasn't over 'til kerchief-wearing bassets waddled — as you can see in this 2:54 video. (The pooches parade elsewhere this May 15.)
6. Village Fair: Another tradition moves to three streets around Shain Park this , when the sponsors carnival games, rides and refreshments. Last year's event was on South Old Woodward, as this 50-second walk-through shows. Eight other short clips of the 2010 fair are at the chamber's YouTube channel, displayed next to this video.
7. Art in the Park: Another downtown attraction, which this year will be in Shain Park, is recapped in a crisply edited two-minute video by Cathy Tishhouse of .
8. Booth Park: With camera in hand, the same local realtor also walked through the Rouge River trail's northern gateway to show how an in-town leads to a bucolic, naturally landscaped path secluded from nearby traffic, business activity and street sounds. Join her for a refreshing three minutes.
9. Amtrak to Chicago: A local rail buff takes less than a minute to show a form of passenger transportation in Birmingham since 1839. Stay tuned until the end for a sound our 19th century predecessors also heard.
10. Marian Melodies: The list ends with nearly three minutes of beautiful Christmas music by the liturgical choir at Marian High School, led by former vocal music director Rachel Creech in a nationally broadcast video produced by Bloomfield Community Television.
Close runners-up include two-and-half-minute visits to Toast and South Bar, as well as weekly Birmingham Public Schools videos starring students introduced by Superintendent David Larson.
