so my frontline report from ga 400 north is this; apparently no one really cares that texting, emailing and updating facebook and twitter from the highway are now against the law. if anything it seemed lilke MORE people were typing on their phones. of course that could just be me paying a little more attention.

of course, announcing you aren’t going to be enforcing the law probably doesn’t help either.

and how does it work in atlanta. my dog wouldn’t go to the bathroom this morning. i had to walk her around and around and arounnd. because of that i missed the one bus that goes by my house every 30 minutes. because of that, i had to drive to the train station. that train got me to five points a few minutes after the north springs train left, which meant i waited there for 10 minutes on the next one. then that train waited at lindberg for 7 minutes and this ulitmatly caused me to get to north springs 2 minutes after the bus that only goes by my office every 30 minutes left.

sigh. so now i get to sit at north springs for a good 25 minutes.

it’s a stark contrast. i dream of a day when buses and trains run every five minutes. i suspect it will never happen.

rainpocalypse on glenwood

anyway, i steeled myself against the rain and threw my jacket on and headed out onto glenwood to wait on the marta #9. i hadn’t been outside four minutes before my foot was drenched from trying to cross the street.

i headed to five points to catch the northbound train and found out that marta was completely shutdown north-south between five points and lindbergh. i thought this must be because a tunnel was flooded but apparently it was unrelated.

marta was telling people over the loudspeaker they had a bus bridge set up but another marta rep was trying to get people to get on the #110 bus which runs up peachtree to midtown and then lenox. either way the scene at five points was utter chaos. i have travelled via marta long enough now to know that the system does not handle crisis well.

so i just walked back to the #9 bus, boarded it and headed home to telecommute.

how are the rest of you surviving the rainpocalyspe?

so to all you vegetarians out there. where should i go? where are the best places to go in town to get a meat-less meal?

i have discovered previously a wonderful veggie corn dog at the midway pub in east atlanta, and a decent black bean burger at canyons burgers in brookhaven, but after that i am kinda stumped.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

NOW YOU KNOW!!!!!

and what has my fandom wrought? well only three straight playoff seasons. and each one improving over the last one. consider this:

-the hawks snuck into the playoffs in 2008 as the eight seed in the east, losing to the celtics in the first round
-last season, the hawks finished fourth in the eastern conference, beating miami in the first round before getting swept by the cavs
and this season?

well, with the celtics loss last night, the hawks will be the THIRD SEED in the eastern conference. heading into tonight’s final game the hawks have 52 wins and are among the top six teams in the nba. not too shabby. and yes, i am totally taking credit.

playoff tickets are on sale. the hakws are the best thing sports-wise going on in this town right now. come out and support them.

Photo credit: Chris Bartelski From left: Pete Thomasson as White, E. Roger Mitchell as Black

thus, when scoutmob (twitter; @scoutmob) showed up in my inbox the next morning with a 50% coupon for the same play (thanks scoutmob!) i decided to check it out.
so last night i went to theatrical outfit (twitter; @theatoutfit), which is in a small theater next to the rialto and saw one of the best stage productions i have ever seen in this city.

a one-act play that deals with complex issues like race, religion, faith and futility and suicide is not an easy thing to pull off (see the wikipedia entry on sunset limited for a primer on the plot), and to make it work, the actors better be damn good. and in this production they were.

the actor playing “black” was amazing; forceful and tender and with an incredible grasp of the rhythm of the dialogue that mccarty wrote for him. in fact through most of the play i kept thinking that he was overpowering the actor playing “white” and this was my one criticism of the play.

until the end, when i realized the director had done this intentionally, keeping “white” subdued and almost and blank canvas for “black” to paint on. It stayed this way, until about 2/3 of the way through the play, when “white” burst forward dominating the stage and “black.” very impressive feat of acting to pull off if you ask me, being able to hold back like that and then scream forward right at the end.

it’s a complicated work and i am still digesting what it means and what i truly think of what was presented. However, you only have a few more days to see this, so i wanted to get this review out, because if you are a theatre fan or a fan of cormac mccarthy you really owe it to yourself to get downtown and see this before it closes out.

sunset limited
theatrical outfit
through april 11
balzer theater
84 luckie street nw
atlanta, ga 30303
678-528-1500

anyway, my list includes:

the wren’s nest
the margaret mitchell house
stone mountain laser show
the cyclorama
georgia state captiol
noah’s ark animal rehabilitation center (and home of evidence the zebra)
kangaroo conservation center
center for puppetry arts
the ben king heritage trail

okay that last one isn’t real. But it SHOULD be.

i’m sure there is more i haven’t done yet, but those are the things that cross my mind. i probably need to write it down to make sure i keep them all together.

how about you? what’s on your list of things to do in this town that you haven’t made it to yet?

even though i love the hawks and want to see the braves do good, and consider myself to now firmly be an atlantan, when it comes to baseball i will never be able to cheat on my one true love.

the lovable losers from chicgao’s northside, the one and only, chicago cubs.

as most of you know, the braves will be opening the 2010 major league campaign today at turner field. and they will be doing it against the cubs.

so my mark grace jersey from 1998 is now out and ready to go. and yes, i am going to be *that* guy. the obnoxious guy who shows up decked out for the visiting team and cheers so loud for them you want to kill him. the guy who knows every stat about every player that’s ever played for the visiting team and won’t shut up about it.

so if you see me out at the ted today and you have the urge to punch me, i understand. i feel it every time i go to philips to see the hawks play the lakers or the cavs or the knicks.

but before you cock back and aim a fist my way, remember, 102 years. that’s how long it will be this year since the cubs one the world series.

btw – the best part of all of this is that atlanta metblogs own ben k. will be going with me and my cheering for the cubs is going to annoy the ever living daylight out of him. BONUS!!!!

it’s interesting to me, and i have no rhyme or reason for it, that the old fourth ward is the inner core neighborhood around my house i know the least and frequent the least. and a huge o4w booster i am sure that delights maigh to no end too.

maybe i should rectify that.

enjoy.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/10119127[/vimeo]

there is lots of blame to go around, and a lot of it should be directed at the people who purport to “represent” clayton county. the governor and state leaders of course did their usual disappearing act when it comes to urban commuters who live within 20 miles of the urban core.

what it really speaks to of course is a lack of a central transportation vision for the region. a governor committed to the metro could probably do it if they had the stones to. a house speaker who cared more about the people he supposedly represents could do it. a strong dot with an interest in ALL modes of transportation could probably do it.

of course, Georgia has none of these. and so c-tran riders will be stranded come Wednesday.
11 alive has some good tips here for those c-tran riders screwed once again by their elected officials.