Woman in corn field, surrounded by harvest vegetable crops, holding a live turkey, Georgia, 1930s
Man holds an axe, looking down at turkeys in front of him, November 1940
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Step it up
12 AprThese photos, taken by Thomas Askew, were collected by W.E.B. DuBois and shown in his “Negro Exhibit” at the Paris Exhibition of 1900 to demonstrate middle-class African-American life in America. Askew photographed many of his scenes in Atlanta because that was where black middle-class life could be had. DuBois wanted to show progress, education, and prosperity – the lives of the “talented tenth” – in the African-American community, not the suffering and tribulation that was typically the focus of national and international attention on his race. Read DuBois’ description/review of the show, “An American Negro in Paris,” in The American Monthly Review of Reviews.
But on a lighter note – watch your step for some serious fashion!!
Atlanta University
West End girls
6 OctOn 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!
5th Street secrets
20 AugThe broad north-south avenues like Juniper and Piedmont have the showcase homes with the giant yards and consistent landscaping, things that belong on stately southern boulevards. But the narrower east-west streets have cobblestone alleys, idiosyncratic architectural embellishments, and sweet little carriage houses pushed right up on the sidewalk.
I have been obsessed with these first three houses for a long while now. This one below, right behind St. Mark UMC, is a duplex that was fairly recently fixed up. It still looks so strange – the facade has nothing to do with the rest; the windows on the side and back are all 1920s-ish.
This one I call Grey Gardens because…
New patterns for Summer 09
3 JulI can’t tell if Urban Outfitters had something to do with this street art or not. 
Poncey-Highland
The city too busy to change
17 Mar
Some selected quotes from that 1967 GQ I’m so happy about:
Atlanta is something of a liberal oasis on a desert of reaction.
If you want to sell something to Atlanta, just convince a handful of the right people that Atlanta can’t be a Big League City without it, and the proposition is as good as taken.
Civic-minded Atlantans are sensitive about their city’s progressive reputation. It’s not a chip that they carry on their shoulders, but an earnest sweat on their brows. Criticize Atlanta for what it lacks and the response is less likely to be “Whaddaya mean?” than “Okay, we’ll get one.”
But Atlantans’ blood does run cold at the thought that a gold star already earned may tarnish: there is a tendency to measure any event by its potential effect on Atlanta’s “image”.
From “Atlanta! Aflame again” by Bruce Galphin in April 1967.
These magazine pages are huge so I haven’t figured out how I’m going to scan them all. For now, here are a few. Click any photos for the larger image. (more…)
Luck o’ the gingers
16 MarI wasn’t able to submit to Access Atlanta a photo of Thomas because of the extensive registration process required on AJC. So here you go, readers. Happy Thomas “St.” Patrick Wheatley’s Day.
I did notice that another Loafer made it to the AJC gallery of redheads, but even if David Lee Simmons gave AJC all of his personal information, he still couldn’t slip his subtle plug for his employer past the censors.
Hmmmmm. When will the AJC admit that Creative Loafing exists?
Aaaah, Midtown
15 MarThis is the most hilarious patch of sidewalk on 9th Street.
This is is most hilarious utility box in Five Points. (maybe NSFW) (more…)
A window to the soul
2 MarNow for your weekly dose of what’s going on in Downtown Atlanta. This time from the more genteel neighborhood of Fairlie-Poplar, we have the latest window display of the Christian Science Reading Room. But first, some history: the windows of the Christian Science Reading Room are always immaculately decorated in construction paper with a little display pertinent to the current events of the time. For example, in late October, we observed this:
Reminding us to vote…with prayer. (Sorry, it was dark and that was the best I could do!)
So what’s the big news item of early ’09?
MASSIVE, TERRIFYING UNEMPLOYMENT!
Previously: Please – someone, anyone – hire this man
Made for prepaid
20 JanI had a whole love letter to MARTA brewing in my head this afternoon, but then I was left waiting for the bus for, I don’t know, 20 extra minutes to get home. I lost track of time because I was more preoccupied with watching the temperature drop from 25°F to 23° to 22° to 21° on the Five Points Coke sign than counting the minutes passing. Maybe when my face (and heart) thaw I will re-summon the favorable words I had for public transit and post it here.
But still, I can’t be in Five Points without noticing something amusing. Windy days whip up all the litter downtown and make it look even rougher, as you can see below in the photo where I noticed this (new?) sign for a V-Mobile store that perhaps was inspired by Crunch’s.
Previously: Five Points signage
A beacon of blight
4 Dec
I don’t know about you guys, but I am totally mesmerized by the Coke sign at Five Points. I want to take a million photos of it every time I see it, especially on days such as today.
Speaking of, oh dear god I missed the most unbelievable photo op. On Monday I witnessed the carnage of the Georgia Tech victory over UGA on the lawns of all the fraternity houses. There was your garden variety of discarded bottles and cans of repulsive domestic swill, crushed plastic cups, and a junk sofa spray painted “TO HELL WITH GEORGIA.” I guess the pledges were too hungover to clean up before class.
But! nestled in the grass of one frat house, amidst typical post-game day litter, was the door to an Easy Bake Oven. The celebration got so frenzied and out of hand on Saturday that it literally blew the door off of some frat boy’s Easy Bake Oven.
I feel lame that I have to describe this in words. I hate myself for not documenting, because by Tuesday all the yards were tidied up. I will just have to go to my grave with this image seared in my mind.
Please – someone, anyone – hire this man
8 OctThis is too depressing. On my way to work yesterday I noticed several key locations along Peachtree Street flyered with some guy’s resume. His objective is “to obtain a position with a company where I can contribute my exceptional professionalism,” so if you’re looking for such an employee then I suggest you check out the Wachovia ATM at Peachtree and 4th Street for this gentleman’s full name, home address, personal phone number, and email address.
Five Points signage
19 SepSometimes I’m in Five Points and all I want to do is put in an American Apparel and a cupcake shop and a faux dive bar and just yup the place up so I will want to be there when I don’t have to be. But then I see a restaurant that rips off the Church’s logo:
and I’m so charmed that I think, “You know what, Five Points? You keep it real. Keep it real 24/7.” (Or really, 10/5, because you shouldn’t be there too long after dark.) Because for all the soulless things that are getting built up and developed in town, Five Points just is what it is, despite Central Atlanta Progress’ best efforts.
Would you see an entire corner storefront at, say, Atlantic Station devoted to warding off that rascally Corn-Flex? (more…)
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