Congratulations Atlanta!

13 Years in a row!

And every year is exciting.

I’ve only just bought the book, but from Weird Georgia: Close Encounters, Strange Creatures, & Unexplained Phenomena by Jim Miles, I’ve already learned the following:

• In the 1950′s Georgia Senator Richard B. Russell witnessed two UFOs during a tour of the Soviet Union. Which may have made Senator Russell weird, depending on your beliefs where UFOs are concerned, but not necessarily Georgia. Unless of course he was in then-Soviet Georgia – you know, that other Georgia. I digress.
• Apparently long-dead Native Americans have been heard wailing in the pre-dawn hours at Macon’s Ocmulgee Mounds…(note to self; do not spend pre-dawn hours at the Ocmulgee Mounds.)
• Apparently folk in Georgia regularly succumb to inexplicable odors that sicken them, even in locations as improbable – or perhaps probable – as a Marta Train.
• There is an allegation – I’m looking forward to reading about this one – that a UFO crashed in rural Heard County, Georgia in 1977 and was later recovered – by MiB’s I suppose. (Man, I’d like that story better if the crash had happened in Roswell Georgia.)
• One day in 1987, a house in Atlanta bled.

That’s just what I’ve read in the first 15 pages.

But strangely, no mention is made of traffic on the connector or the very existence of the Big Chicken. For me the persistence of the former and the existence of the latter qualify as the greatest mysteries known to modern-day Atlantans, at least. If you have another mystery you’d like to point out for my delectation in the comments I would be most grateful.

I will gleefully blog more about Georgia Weirdness as I continue to read…and hopefully be able to add some weirdness of my own in the mix. As if I didn’t do that by touching fingers to keyboard in the first place…

Check this out: I’ve been quoted in the Guardian in an article on academic blogging. The interview took place well before I began contributing here, but it’s pretty cool to get my name in the paper.

I took a trip up from Atlanta to Chattanooga, TN yesterday. Driving up I-75 was actually nice. There were lots of trucks on the road as I am sure many of them are headed to Florida to deliver still urgently needed things.

For any new people to Atlanta or for those of us that have not been to the N. Georgia mountains recently, head on up there. I don’t really have any major places to mention to you mainly because you might like a bit of adventure.

Find a map of Georgia, maybe get a travel book but, more importantly, feel free to just get off the Interstate and drive around the back roads. It’s not just the tourist attractions of N. Georgia that make it interesting, it’s the people too. All those country stores, the views, the cleaner air, are part of the adventure.

Anyway, that’s really all for now. I’ll try to get some good shots of the hot spots and put them here so you can see the attractions. Fall has a great feel to it in the mountains and I think you’ll enjoy just kicking around.

Photo: Amazon.com

From all your Atlanta fans and fans worldwide, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Ray was born in Albany, GA, on September 23, 1930.

Ray Charles Official Web Site.

You must click here and watch this multimedia special

To get some of y’all in the seats? I mean, I won’t be wearing tassles on my nipples, so y’all can just forget that right now. I forgot how to twirl them properly long ago, anyway.

Really, I’m just reminding you that Bizet’s Carmen opens tomorrow at the Atlanta Civic Center. Now, I could be bad and spank you about this…tell you how one should never pass an opportunity to immerse one’s self in high art, culture like this – but that wouldn’t be charming you into the hall, now would it?

There’s sex.

No, actually there’s not…there’s just the suggestion of it, in the music and atmosphere. Like Carmen’s slinky “Habanera”, or Don Jose’s poignant and passionate “Flower Song.”

And yes, there is me, this metroblog’s um, er, “Captain.” You will know me by the spear I’m carrying. Actually it’s a fake musket. As the curtain goes up I’m the sleepy disheveled soldier with a newspaper downstage right. Last night was our final dress rehearsal, and it went beautifully, on the whole. Come see this show for singers like our Carmen, mezzo-soprano Emily Golden, and the soprano singing Micaela, Jacquelyn Venable. Local singers Susan Galanes-Macmillan and Ryan Taylor are worth the price of admission. As is the chorus as a whole, comprised entirely of Atlanta-based opera singers. There are some who believe the Atlanta Opera Chorus is one of the finest opera choruses in the world. I can’t say this with any objectivity, but I’d bet we’re worth hearing too.

Come early and be prepared to drink at the intermissions. That’s half the fun of attending operas – that and checking out what people wear. Deep, I know. Either way, I’ll be having a ball doing it and hope that if you show up you have a ball watching.

Everyone should know my affinity for free WiFi available in public places. Contrary to what it may seem, I think it encourages people to interact with each other more extensively. Every time I sit in a coffee shop that has free wireless internet, I see customers chatting with each other, showing each other funny webpage, web articles, etc. They also stay longer, so it just makes sense for a business.

Now that Philadelphia is planning to go all WiFi (I think I heard that it would be a charge of around $5 a month, but I could be wrong), I’m actually looking at another city with some jealousy. Some people may claim that this is a poor expenditure for the city. And, of course, there are other problems that the city could be focusing on. Let me explain why I would love to have this in Atlanta. First, it’s probably a good revenue source (with the bonus that it essentially charges the, uh, richer folks). It would cost several million to set up (Philly is estimating around $7 million) but then raking in $5 or $10 a month from people would earn that back fairly quickly and then some. Second, I love WiFi. It gets people out of the house and on the town. Imagine city parks filled with people interacting. Businesses all over the city blooming with people interacting with each other and buying their coffee, their food, their whatever. It would help the consumer also. The savvy consumer could use some sort of palm pilot to check alternate prices while in a store. The possibilities are so great to imagine.

Atlanta is such a young city that it could work really well here. I suspect that most wifi users are young and this would help us youngsters getting out around the town.

But, no. In Atlanta we have to deal with stupid sewage problems instead. I say, to hell with it (not really). Bring on the WiFi!

Support free wireless institutions. Peitition Shirley Franklin to bring it here.

We should start a campaign to bring ubiquitous wireless here to Atlanta. We could call it Free Atlanta. Is everyone with me? Rise up! We have nothing to lose but our wires!

It appears Marietta, Georgia resident Jack Hensley may have been executed by the Islamic terrorists holding him.

My wife and I were talking about the beheadings this morning, and of course one can only say, ‘this must stop.’ She was discussing it with someone at her school, and they said, ‘this must stop.’

I have to ask why? Why are countries the world over, not just America, being subjected to this horror – continually? What is being done about it? Why is it that political commentary on this seems so muted?

I am not trying to introduce a political issue. Screw politics, this is a human issue. An organized group of what western society would call sociopaths gets together and decides the best way to demoralize those they view as the enemy is to take innocent people – people who were there to help, in this case – and execute them in a particularly graphic and horrible manner for all the world to see.

How is the beheading of another innocent American civilian, most likely taped for the victim’s humiliation – and thereby his home country’s humiliation – displayed on the world wide web, a sign that we’ve won the war on terror? At first I thought these executions were the worst mistakes the terrorist cells could make. Now I think it’s a strategy so insidiously effective that they may in the end achieve whatever nebulous goal they have by doing it.

Very few of us know in any way what the Hensley family in Marietta must be going through. We should all be angry, though.

What you do with that anger is your choice. Politics is a field of gray in many ways – gray moral areas, gray goals…I make no claim as to dictating what one’s political bent on this should be. I just know this has to stop, somehow. For the sake of other families like the Hensleys of Marietta. For our sake, as well.

The Gauchos from Sal Grosso came to my workplace today to provide some samples and entice new diners. I needed no enticing, as I’m already a big fan of Churrascaria dining, and Sal Grosso, in particular.

I had my first taste of this meat-centric Brazilian dining experience several years ago when I went to Fogo de Chao for my birthday. I’m not normally the biggest carnivore–I probably eat meat about once or twice a week–but I fell in love with the atmosphere, the salad bar, and the multitude of skewered offerings. I ate until I felt like I was going to explode. (Ironically, one of my fellow diners did just that, losing most of his meal on the way home.)

Since that experience, I’ve eaten several more times at Fogo, several times at Sal Grosso (which is dangerously close to my house), and have even tried Fire of Brazil. They each have their own unique traits, while sharing the great atmosphere and wonderful tastes that this dining trend is known for. I have yet to try Fogao Gaucho, Boi Na Braza and Carro de Boi, but they’re all on the list for future experiences.

Who else is a fan of this eating style? Who has yet to try it? Like other specialized dining experiences (Tapas bars, Fondue parlors, etc), it’s not for everyone. But if you like your meats in large supply and great variety, it’s a nice treat every few months.

Just a bit of early afternoon humor to get your through the grind…

A friend of mine brought this article to my attention (thanks Teddy!!!)….
Apparently this guy, dubbed the Mad Tacker, has a beef with the po-po and was taking said beef out on their cars … Hilarious!