EAT IT, RICHARD FLORIDA! Atlanta will have more Sandwich Artists per capita than any other city, ever! Aggregate that in your next little “creative class” index!
Archive | March, 2010
BREAKING NEWS: Jobs for everyone
25 MarFeast your eyes
23 MarY’all, FOOD CARTS, am I right? In case you’re not keeping tabs:
- The Atlanta Food Carts blog
- The Atlanta Street Food Coalition website
- The AJC editorial
- The petition
This Friday heralds the ASFC’s urban picnic at the Sweet Auburn Curb Market on Edgewood, from 11 AM to 2 PM. To celebrate, I dug up some photos of the Municipal Market/Curb Market in the ’70s from the Atlanta History Center’s archive. The Curb Market site has a nice brief history (with PICTURES!). If you have never been to the Curb Market and then finally go there Friday you will see that obviously it is a building and not a curb – this goes back to the days when the market was segregated and white people sold and shopped inside (the Municipal Market) while black customers and sellers operated outside on the curb. FYI.
From the looks of these photos, the Municipal Market was like the Manuel’s Tavern of farmers markets in the 1970s. (Did that analogy make any sense to you?) The market itself is not the only thing from these decades-old photos that is still around today – check out Jake’s Ice Cream and Andy Young’s haircut.
Plaza Drugs through the ages
22 Marvia Atlanta Time Machine
According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, Briarcliff Plaza was “Georgia’s first true shopping center.” Located at the corner of Ponce and N. Highland, it was the first retail space with an off-street parking lot in Atlanta in 1939.
In the 1960s, Plaza Drugs was a delightful place to buy Russell Stover chocolates, makeup, and mother’s little helpers.
(via Downhome Traces)
Of course, between being open 24 hours a day and Ponce de Leon Avenue’s departure from its genteel origins, Plaza Drugs’ scene changed with urban decline. You can see and read about Briarcliff Plaza social life in the very early ’80s in George Mitchell’s out-of-print Ponce de Leon: An Intimate Portrait of Atlanta’s Most Famous Avenue, which is worth every penny you have to pay for it.
In the mid-1980s, new wave kids The Plaza Drugs played at the 688 Club on Spring Street, and here on the American Music Show. They are so good! (more…)
St. Patrick’s Day, again??
17 MarIt would be so easy to write another throwaway St. Patrick’s Day post about Thomas Wheatley. TOO EASY. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT. Instead, we will talk about the most famous Irish person to ever emerge from Atlanta (really, Jonesboro): Scarlett O’Hara.
Okay, so she wasn’t a “real” person. And this isn’t a “real” photograph of her, but just a Madame Alexander doll. But you know what is real? This video Stevie Nicks did, the forgotten, original “Stand Back” music video, inspired by Gone With the Wind! (more…)
Happy International Women’s Day, Atlanta!
8 Mar
From a May 8, 1913 Atlanta Constitution story about Georgia’s rapidly worsening “girl problem.”
Two year later, in 1915,* Agnes Scott College was established.
In the late 19th century, the Atlanta Constitution had this feature called “In the Interests of Woman” that included a great deal of lovely, boring anecdotes like, “The friends of Mrs. E.J. Harris, of Macon, will be pleased to know she is with her sister, Mrs. N.C. Spence, at 251 North Boulevard,” and, “Miss Eva Hodges returned yesterday after a delightful visit to her friend, Miss Pearl Bridges, at her beautiful home in Ellaville, Ga. She will now join her mother at their country home near Norcross.”
And to think people these days are like, “TWITTER IS SO SCARY!! I DON’T WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHERE I AM AT ALL TIMES,” as though it is a new novel thing?
One thrilling thing I did learn from this section which was of interest to me as a woman was in a column titled “Trolley Parties the Rage” (August 6, 1895): (more…)
Google Freak View
8 MarWhile trying to find that ice cream truck graveyard in Castleberry Hill in order to tip off Atlanta Food Carts (sign the petition!), I happened across this startling animal on Walker Street. What is this thing?
Okay, it is probably a pony…but still.
Here was another fascinating Google Maps Street View discovery cruising down Moreland: THE FURBUS.
Housing boom
6 Mar
From The Atlanta Constitution, August 9, 1925. Full story here (PDF).
(Peachtree and 15th Street today.)
We got scooped
5 Mar
The ever-helpful Thomas Wheatley mentioned the 1992 sci-fi action film Freejack in the comments of one of the countless things I’ve written about Dowtown, but I didn’t notice until someone stole the clip for post fodder at Atlanta Metblogs. Fair enough! But I’m still using Thomas’ tip since I was just talking about Sharky’s Machine not so long ago.
Freejack, starring Emilio Estevez, Rene Russo, Anthony Hopkins, and Mick Jagger, is supposed to take place in the Bronx and Manhattan in 2009, but they shot this particular scene in Downtown Atlanta in the very early 1990s. The Civic Center MARTA station and the old Atlanta Constitution building have cameos.
This is basically no different than how people drive on West Peachtree now.
According to Thomas, this is the only scene filmed in Downtown Atlanta, but there are probably plenty of scenes like this:
Previously: Vintage violence
Planet Shark
3 MarI just have to say, I haven’t been to the Aquarium in a long time, mainly because I didn’t think my daughter was old enough to appreciate it, and because the crowds get to be a little much for me. But free blogger day passes? Yes, please. In all honesty though, I would have paid to see the Planet Shark exhibit. It was absolutely awesome. It’s really dark and there’s spooky music playing and friendly guides who come and chat with you about some of the items on display. The progression of the exhibit is pretty perfect, starting with the usual skeletons, teeth, and interactive computer displays. My two year old really liked looking at the shark poop. Then it transitions to the spooky portion, which includes long hallway/tunnel that is completely wallpapered in articles about shark attacks, and they play audio from interviews with shark attack victims. It’s pretty intense. It turns factual again, featuring all types of life-sized “shark suits,” before ending with a plea for help on behalf of the sharks. With my 2 year old in tow, I kind of had to skip some of the sections, since I didn’t want to scar her for life, but my husband was enthralled. I’m pretty sure if you were a ten year old boy, you would want to move in. What I wasn’t expecting was the emotional reaction that came up for me in the end of the exhibit. Maybe it was the case of snacks made of various shark parts, or the shark replicas tangled up in fish nets, but I admit it, I cried a little for those sharks. And I wasn’t even PMSing. I could go on, but I won’t. Instead, I’ll present you lovely readers first with a coupon for the exhibit, and then with some of the promotional media they passed on to me. Enjoy!
Puttin’ on the Omni
1 MarAs I promised, I’m going to now tell you about my trip to the DHS Sell-Out Center. Have you guys been there? First of all, let’s deal with the parking lot.
The parking lot at the Moreland Shopping Center is insane. I know I say things are insane all the time, but this time I really mean it – that parking lot is literally mentally ill. Even in the shopping plaza’s heydey the parking lot size was completely unnecessary: (more…)
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