Archive | October, 2010

Halloween, again: It’s never too late to not really try

30 Oct

Well, here we are again. Sheer hours away from the high expectations that your peers place on Halloween costume creativity and skill, and you haven’t thought of anything even remotely adequate to leave the house wearing. Don’t even THINK about going to Costumes Etc. at this point unless you have two whole hours to kill waiting in line behind people renting elaborate steampunk evening wear.

Here, we have made a little list for you, like we always do, of things you can be for Halloween. You barely need to make an effort.

via ABC News

Sexy King of Pops – Does that sound redundant? No, go all low-self-esteem-on-Halloween-style on his look. Dress exactly like the King of Pops, but with all the clothing cropped inappropriately short and revealing.

via AJC

Phantom of the Fox – Just throw in a phantom mask to be a little more literal, so you don’t look too much like the nightmare Six Flags man.

Ghost of discontinued MARTA routes- Roam the former bus routes like a lost MARTA soul!

Ghost of Grandma Gordon – What does a vengeful antebellum pecan tree spirit look like? Figure it out yourself. I’m just making suggestions.

Check cashing/payday lending/We Buy Gold/Title Max place – I don’t know, it seems timely. There are so many these days.

bottom half of photo by Jason Travis

Hobo Persona series – What do you carry in your hobo sack/trash bag/shopping cart? Cans of baked beans? Sugar packets? Napkins stolen from fast food places? Human teeth?

We came up with another really good one today but it requires some work and we gave it away to Thomas Wheatley, so you’ll have to stay tuned to see if he manages to pull himself together.

Previously: Your one stop Halloween costume shop

The Slugger’s Wife

26 Oct


Imagine this: a film that teams Hal Ashby’s direction with Neil Simon’s screenwriting with Quincy Jones’ executive music producing with Rebecca De Mornay singing Prince’s “Little Red Corvette”! A real “home run,” right? What could be better?

A lot of things, actually, because The Slugger’s Wife is a nightmare. The only reason it merits any sort of attention here is because it was filmed in Atlanta in the mid-’80s – its primary locations were Limelight and Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium so it truly is a period piece.
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Crossroads of Commerce

23 Oct

Screw the sad-sack City Hall East rummage sale – the Commerce Club moving sale is really more my scene. Why root through the rusty cast-offs of annexed city paper-pushers in a sweaty basement when I can peruse the finely-upholstered seating accommodations and Waterford chandeliers of the Atlanta’s most powerful business elite in a gently-lit dining hall?

Of course there was a secret pre-sale yesterday so everything at the Commerce Club was really picked over. Also, almost everything I was dying to own was expensive (see the $200 red sherry keg below) or marked as sold, but it was still a worthwhile adventure.

The beautiful map of Georgia’s industries on the outside of the building had already been removed. (And where they could put it on their new location, the 191 Peachtree tower?) Another sad day for Marietta Street’s old institutions, but a great opportunity to root through gravy boats and soup spoons that Atlanta’s most exclusive gentlemen used. The sale is still happening tomorrow for you suckers who didn’t know about it today.

Previously: Puttin’ on the Omni

Autumn refreshment; or, Pecanne Log tends the bar

21 Oct

This was something I made for a test drive at the Pride parade, really intending to officially debut it prior to the Little 5 Points Halloween Parade last weekend and then we just never got around to it. I guess it would also be semi-appropriate for the Candler Park Fall Festival this weekend, so here you go:

Copper John-o’-Lantern

Ingredients:

- Pumpkin vodka*

- Apple juice or cider

- Ginger beer or brew

Mix the first two ingredients in the proportions you see fit, over ice. Top with ginger beer. Garnish with copper wire sunbursts.

If you don’t have any copper wire, you can just use pennies like I did.

(Here is a heartfelt poem about Copper John if you don’t know! Or you can read about him in this weird Wall Street Journal article from last year.)

* Put pumpkin slices and all kinds of whole spices you like and maybe a vanilla bean (only if you really like vanilla) in vodka for however long it takes to make taste good – a couple of weeks?

Previously: The great Atlanta limeade shortage

This week in history: Edgewood Avenue increasing in importance and popularity

17 Oct

The Atlanta Constitution, October 25, 1925

and

The Atlanta Constitution, unsure about exact date but also 1925

Is it too obvious to say “sound familiar?“

Previously: The city too busy to change

Obligatory streetcar commentary

15 Oct

You will not hear three consecutive cheers from me about any streetcar funding until someone comes up with the millions for my pet project, THE PONCE STREETCAR. I think right now the Connect Atlanta plan gives Ponce de Leon Avenue a second-tier bike lane at some point. USEFUL. Really useful.

And all this hullabaloo about the streetcar has stolen the thunder from Atlanta’s real coup, which was scoring a 311 concert at the Fox Theatre on Halloween night! 

Not just regular Halloween, but 10/31/10! Think about it!


Members only

14 Oct

Doesn’t everyone just want to belong, after all? I wonder if any of us have what it took to maintain a membership at one of these fine organizations.

4-H Club, 1942

4-H Club, 1942

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Tech Trolley super style

10 Oct

Said the person who spotted this, “He was also carrying three boxes of cookies.”

Previously: Lighten up, it’s just fashion!

West End girls

6 Oct

On our way this Sunday to pay our last respects to the whale mural, we ended up way down Whitehall to Lee Street and Murphy Avenue, exploring peculiar signage and industrial parts on foot that you can also admire from MARTA going south from Five Points. I thought that by getting up close to the Atlanta Telecom Center and the Street Journalism building I might better understand them, but the mysteries of the West End and Oakland City are even greater now!

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The swing of things at Burt’s Place

5 Oct

Before Tyler Perry, there was Burt Reynolds. But beyond making Georgia the number three state in film production and bringing all kinds of movie stars like Sally Field to Atlanta, he also dallied in the ultimate celebrity investment – the restaurant/nightclub venture.*

I found this photo in the book Atlanta: A Celebration (1978), suspiciously also penned by Galphin and Shavin (the same Chamber of Commerce-funded authors of Atlanta: Triumph of the People). The caption reads “…or join in the swing of things (Burt’s Place, Omni International).” Yep, that’s Reynolds’ signature mustache in stained glass on the dance floor before a live rock ‘n’ roll band. (I’m not sure why the floor says “Burt’s Joint” instead of Place.)

Burt’s Place was a Burt Reynolds-themed restaurant/nightclub and was only open for one year in the late ’70s in the never-quite-successful-enough Omni International complex (also home to the short-lived World of Sid and Marty Krofft). After Burt’s Place’s long and storied tenure in Atlanta, the space later housed the Broadway-themed cabaret called the Manhattan Yellow Pages. I like to think that the energy and hipness of Burt’s Place and its clientele paved the way for Atlanta’s most famous Kroger-adjacent disco – Limelight!

*”Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges cordially invite [sic] you to Straits,” anyone?

Previously: Vintage violence

The endangered marine life of Overground Atlanta

3 Oct

This weekend brought news of the nearly-final demise of Robert Wyland’s “Whaling Wall” on the parking deck that overlooks the old World of Coke/Underground Atlanta plaza. The sea mammal mural is peeling, poorly executed (visible spray paint strokes everywhere), and totally inappropriate for its surroundings – you miiiight think it had something to do with the Georgia Aquarium except that it was completed 12 years before the aquarium and about a mile away from it.

It would be great if the parking deck’s possible new mural celebrated to Atlanta’s railroad roots, specifically as they relate to that exact location in the city, but the surface will be used for GSU promotion. I appreciate the existing whale painting in a “just another weird thing about Downtown Atlanta” way but it has nothing to do with that part of Downtown and distracts from the real beauty adjacent to the wall – the 1869 Georgia Railroad Freight Depot. The parking deck covered in this mural is also home to the zero milepost that put Atlanta on the map, almost literally.

Which brings me to my next point – the date is set for the next Unseen Underground tour, planned for Saturday, October 16. Cited as the “best intro to Atlanta history” by Creative Loafing (although they read it here first!), this is an excursion you really don’t want to miss, especially as your friendly and knowledgeable tour guide Jeff Clark only leads these a few times a year. The tour takes about 2-1/2 hours and covers a lot of area.

Contact me if you want Jeff’s email with full details so you can RSVP or ask him to include you in news of future tours. UPDATE: The tour is now full, but Jeff is planning another one this fall to try to keep up with demand!

Previously: Unseen Underground

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