Please welcome the San Jose Metroblog, the 53rd city blog in the Metblogs stable.

If you’re still humming the tune or reminiscing about that Julia Roberts movie, I’m very, very sorry.

Happy Valentine’s Day from the cast and company of Metroblogging Atlanta.

If you don’t have a sweetheart, significant other or spouse, well, you can always have the return of winter to the ATL. Yesterday was gorgeous, but St. Valentine’s Day has us all shivering sans anticipation.

So snuggle up next to your keyboard and leave a comment on how you’ll be spending this questionably romantic day in our fair city.

Me? I’m going with my wife to her ultrasound appointment to find out the sex of our second child.

so the title of this post might need a little explaining. for those of you who don’t know what pandora is, it is an internet music site that is an outgrowth of the music genome project. pandora seeks to connect listeners with music that they will like but don’t know yet. it handles this daunting task much different from other recommendation sites though. most sites like last.fm or amazon.com use the listener’s rating of music or listening habits and churn it through an algorithm that compares it with people of similar taste to find recommendations.

pandora works much different. an actual human being listens to every piece of music submitted to the system for more than a half an hour and categorizes it along 400 different musical categories. the end user can then pick a song or an artist and pandora looks for other songs or artists that have been categorized similarly. thus the name “music genome” since that is what the categories strive to create; the genome of a song. listening to pandora helped me discover the now defunct folk-rock combo neutral milk hotel, which has been a staple of my ipod ever since.

well what does this have to do with atlanta you ask? stick around after the jump and i’ll tell you.
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We have a lot of buildings in our fair city. Some might even say that we’ve too many. But of all of them, which are most popular?

The American Institute of Architects conducted a nationwide survey to clear the decks and get to the heart of one of the most important questions of our age: Which American edifices are held most dear by the average? Their result is a list of 150 American architectural favorites. (PDF list here.)

The top ten is full of the usual and expected suspects, like The Empire State Building, The White House and The Golden Gate Bridge. You can even find the nearby Biltmore Estate at #9.

But Atlanta’s offerings don’t show up until #96. That’s where you’ll find The High Museum, designed by Richard Meier. Scan down a few more listings and you’ll see our only other listing: The Hyatt Regency, John Portman‘s 1967 masterpiece.

Admittedly, maybe those surveyed haven’t seen enough of The City Too Busy To Hate. So tell me … what other local works of multi-story art deserve to be on the big list of 150?

Last week the Hawks hosted a blogger event and then beat two Western Conference teams on the road over the weekend.

Five straight road victories?
Joe Johnson almost an All Star?
A potential playoff berth?

Anyone else out there excited about the Hawks or am I on the wrong bandwagon? Should I be looking for the Thrashers to make the playoffs for the first time in their history?

Leave a comment if you’re up (or down) on the local pro sports franchises.

On Sunday I had the most amazing, satisfying and delicious brunch I’ve ever had, no hyperbole!

Wahoo! A Decatur Grill had a fabulous spread, bright sunshine and some of the nicest people as offerings for a Sunday mid-day meal. Plus, $3 mimosas and bloody marys!

My favorites were their Blackened Chicken in a Creole Sauce, cinnamon pastries (like donut holes) and maple bacon. Yummy!

I wouldn’t hesitate to heartily recommend the place and I’m just lazy enough to spout out their “official” accolades, as though my ringing endorsement doesn’t count:

“Best Patio Dining” – Critics Choice, Creative Loafing (2006 Best of Atlanta)

“Best Seafood” – Best of Citysearch 2006

“Top Ten New Restaurants” – Atlanta Magazine (August 2005)

“Best Fisherman’s Stew” – Atlanta Magazine (December 2005)

“Wahoo! A Decatur Grill is the quintessential neighborhood restaurant, with a comfortable atmosphere and feel-good food.” – AJC’s Access Atlanta

“There isn’t a sweeter or cozier dining room anywhere…where the prices are as appealing as the dishes.”
- Atlanta Magazine (October 2005)

The name of place definitely sums up my “review”: Wahoo!

All this time, the Zocalo Taqueria was right there on Boulevard in Grant Park, with a million different kinds of $2 tacos, and I didn’t know. Why didn’t you tell me? The papa con chorizo taco was delicious (which should be obvious, what with the word chorizo right in there), while “Al Pastor,” the spit-fired pork treat apparently very popular in Mexico City, was fabulous. If you’re into cheap but tasty tacos, I recommend this place. Despite the prices I expected from the Zocalo website and what I’ve heard about the Midtown location (which may be great, but seems pricey and hard to park at), the taqueria is a bargain.

And if you like fried cheese (I’m from the Midwest), try the, uh… fried cheese crust. I know, I know, but it turns out to be a pretty simple, tasty and surely terrible-for-you cheesy appetizer. You break off little chips of fried cheese, put ‘em in salsa verde, and repeat. I liked it.

photo courtesy of Maureen

the dalai lama, the holy man of tibetan buddhism and a nobel peace laureate has accepted a teaching position at emory university.

according to a press release issued by emory, the dalai lama’s appointment is the most recent outgrowth of the emory-tibet partnership, which was founded in 1998 to bring together the best of western and tibetan buddhist intellectual traditions. it appears the lama will do most of his teaching with emory students while they are traveling and studying in india, but the dalai lama will give an inaugural lecture at emory during a visit in october.

this follows on the heals of another coup of emory’s in october of last year, bagging salman rushdie’s archives and appointing the author as a member of the faculty.

take that ivy league!

of course not everybody is over thrilled about it though*.

h/t to frequent commenter jim v for the tip via the submit a story link.

Tubes! (not Pipes)

See the full thing here.

I’ve also decided to start all my Metblog posts with “Atlanta:” from now on. Or not.

[Via BoingBoing]

yes, that funny little lite-brite like cartoon character from the adult swim show aqua teen hunger force has claimed yet another victim.

cartoon network president jim samples resigned today as a direct result of the ‘boston bomb scare.’

honestly, this is utterly absurd. the campaign was a funny, well-executed piece of guerrilla marketing. the devices were up in a whole host of other cities with no reaction, other than fans of the show stealing them for collectors items.

so, jim samples has lost his job. the two guys from the marketing firm have been charged with a crime.

and the people who ought to lose their jobs over this; the massachusetts and boston authorities who overreacted and then pointed the finger at turner, terrorists and capitalism are still running amok.

way to go, err.