The other night, I was watching the MTV2 show Subterranean and Atlanta’s Mastodon were guests (with Stone Mountain in the background). Then I see this link on Confessions of a Music Addict, and thought it was so cool, I should share it here, too.

It’s a pretty cool clip about some of the Atlanta bands (Deerhunter, Snowden, and the Black Lips) gaining national recognition, including interviews with the bands, discussion of the local scene, and some show footage. I liked that the bands recognized the Hip-hop mecca that Atlanta is and that they made it clear that there’s room enough for different genres to coexist in our fair city.

Um, also, who knew that Cee Lo hangs out at Lenny’s? Not me, but I don’t get out much.

One of the political blogs I read (no endorsement implied or argument instigated) – Majikthise – is asking this question today: What’s fun in Atlanta?

If you have an opinion or a suggestion, now is a great opportunity to chat up our fair city where “everyday is an opening day”_®.

For those of you who also have Atlanta blogs or are Atlanta blog readers, feel free to point out some of our wonderful posts here and elsewhere.

That is all.

Seems like everywhere I turn the last couple of days, I hear or read something about Clark Howard considering a run for Mayor of the City of Atlanta. I have to say that this is the first time I can ever remember being, in my 17 years of voting, truly excited about a candidate. And he’s not even a candidate yet!
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The grungy homeless encampment cum parking lot at the corner of 10th and Williams Street has lost it’s zeal. For some time it was designated as the site of the soon-to-come “10th Street Station” but no longer. The sign that previously announced “10th Street Station” as “coming soon” is gone.

The time of it’s initial grand opening – Fall 2006 – has long since past and I think whatever developers were attached to the project wanted to spare themselves the embarrassment of falling short for yet another season.

I’ll admit I haven’t done much detective work for this post, but I did find some online chatter about the space and a realtor’s PDF of the proposed development.

If anyone has any additional information – like a city government link about zoning/planning or an article from a local pub – leave a comment.

The less janky that corner can look in the future, the better.

Don’t forget the East Atlanta Beer Festival is this weekend! Check out some unusual beers and local music, and support non-profits in bettering East Atlanta.

Saturday May 12, 2007
1 PM to 6 PM
J.B. Gordon School
East Atlanta Village
$25 per person

Learn more and purchase tickets in advance (you will want to buy in advance, after viewing the video of last year’s line) at their website.

On a side note, I sure do love that old John B. Gordon school building. I just hope someone does something cool with it one day. I’m guessing that either some real estate company has a stranglehold on it, or its lack of parking prevents someone from renovating it and developing something there. Anybody know the deal with the building? It would be cool if someone would do a McMenamins-style redevelopment.

Via The East Atlanta Yahoo Group

I came across a pretty cool photograph of a ticker tape parade in downtown Atlanta, celebrating the end of World War II. The Allied Victory in Europe (or V-E Day) took place on May 7, 1945. It is not clear exactly when this parade took place, but I am guessing it was sometime in Summer or Fall of 1945.

It is interesting to see the likes of this parade on the streets of Atlanta; It doesn’t seem like we get this excited about anything these days. Sometimes it seems like we spend too much time arguing, and not enough time celebrating things together.

This week I looked for places to buy comics and games around Atlanta. Typically, I get my comics from Criminal Records, where my subscription box is, and I used to get my games from the Atlanta Game Factory out on 10th Street, near Northside Drive. It is, like around a third of the game stores in the country, not there anymore. But I was curious what other spots around town were like, so I hit up a couple of places.

Now, I’m a fan who’s also in the gaming business, so I’d like to be nice to every game store and comic shop I find, but here I’m going to be honest, rather than nice. I went to each shop looking for a particular book (a new release for the Warhammer RPG), a Hellboy action figure (Johann the disembodied German medium) as a gift for a friend, and maybe something else that’d coerce a couple of bucks out of my pocket. Here’s how it went.
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yeah, no ironic or sarcastic title on this post. i came across this article in the ajc this week.

i won’t copy it all but the gist is this:

A 23-year-old man was stabbed to death Tuesday night in an apparent case of road rage, Atlanta police said.

Police said a man followed Anthony Newberry on northbound I-85, and then confronted him when he got off the interstate, authorities said.

Police Officer Steve Coleman did not know what prompted the initial episode between the two men.

Newberry’s family told WXIA that he was on his way to a friend’s house in Vine City. His 4-year-old daughter was scheduled to have her tonsils removed Wednesday morning.

i cannot imagine this. i am the father of an eight year old daughter and all week i have been trying to get my head around the idea of her waking up and finding out i am no longer around, because i was going to slow for someone on georgia 400.

i wish i knew why this happens. i wish i could find an easy answer like too much violence on television; too much red meat in our diet; an extra y chromosome; grand theft auto; something. because then at least we could do something about it.

but i don’t know that it is any of these or all of them combined. i just know that i can’t imagine getting so mad that i would want to kill someone over a driving error. we ALL do stupid things when we are in a hurry; i have and you have.

this is also why when someone is tailgating me i just try to move over at the first possible sign, or if i have inadvertantly cut somebody off i slow down and try to let them get ahead of me.

my pride isn’t worth making my kid fatherless.

my heart and my prayers go out to this family.

So, today is the annual Free Comic Book Day.

Me? I am not really into comic books. Not because I think they are dorky or anything high-brow like that. I read some of the Neil Gaiman and Frank Miller stuff, but I just don’t have enough time to geek out on all the other stuff I am into, much less getting addicted to some comic book series that will continue for years, cost me a ridiculous amount of money, and make me want to pull my hair out waiting for the next one to come out. That’s just what I need.

You? You are a master of multi-tasking and completely have the time. You can get free comics at different locations around the Atlanta area, including Atlanta Metblogs favorite Criminal Records. Also at Book Nook, Oxford Comics and Games, and laughably-named The Dragon’s Horde. (If you are going to follow your dreams of geekdom and open a comic book store, you might as well go big with the name, right?)

And free is good.

You may have noticed that i am kind of a history nerd, and that includes researching my own family’s history. Recently, my father uncovered an interesting letter written by his grandfather after the death of his grandmother during the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918. The grandfather died less than a year later from complications of the flu, leaving my grandfather and his eight siblings orphaned. My Grandfather was three, and the events of the flu epidemic had a very serious and real impact on his life that resonates with my family here in 2007.

I decided to learn more about the flu epidemic, and started reading up on it online. I was interested in anything particular about the effects of the epidemic on Coffee County, where my grandfather’s family lived. I couldn’t find anything specific on that area, but did come across an interesting University of Georgia site with a chronology of the events of the epidemic in Georgia.

The 1918 epidemic was the worst epidemic in U.S. history. (Why did I never learn this in American history? Seems relevant and interesting.) Almost 700,000 people died in one year, which is more than all Americans killed in all wars of the 20th century; That’s a pretty staggering number. I can only imagine the fear and sense of helplessness that must have been taking over the country, with the epidemic spreading, and the country fighting WWI.

Anyway, the site is interesting, with a chronology of the epidemic in Georgia, and specifics about Atlanta, which somehow had far fewer losses than other cities of comparable sizes.