Saturday evening at about 9pm, one of my neighbors went for a walk about the neighborhood.  As he hit the intersection of Delaware and Woodland Avenues, a Honda Civic pulled up.  A young man got out, aimed a rifle at my neighbor, and demanded his wallet.  The perpetrator drove away and out of the area before police could catch him.

As one who frequently goes for runs around the neighborhood at that hour, this news was particularly alarming to me.  It’s also a bit ironic that I felt more comfortable going for evening runs at Balad Air Base in Iraq–where mortar attacks are a nightly occurrence–than I feel jogging within a 1-mile radius of our house in SE Atlanta.

In an effort to “take back the streets,” our neighborhood has been gathering on Saturday evenings by Ormewood Park Presbyterian Church from about 7pm-9pm.  Children and dogs are encouraged to come.  Last night, there was a tractor for the kids to ride, and City Council candidates came to discuss their positions and hear from local voters.  This Saturday, the group will gather at 6:30pm, and the tractor will be back.  Please consider participating!

Last Thursday some friends and I went out to eat in East Atlanta. We went to meet at Blue Frog Cantina but there was a 30 minute wait. We weren’t up for that so we went across the street to The EARL. Every table was taken. We tossed around a few other ideas and then I mentioned the new southern cooking restaurant, Chazz, on the corner of Flat Shoals and Glenwood.

Chazz is at 517 Flat Shoals Ave. next door to Club 529. I’m a little anxious for Chazz because it’s in “that spot.” You know the spot where nothing ever stays open long, where a new business opens and closes every 3 months?

If Chazz keeps doing what they did on Thursday then I’m optimistic for their future. We asked who Chazz was, Chazz is the owner’s son.

As soon as we walked in we were welcomed warmly and the wait staff quickly set up a 4 top for us. I got the feeling I was at someone’s home, not a restaurant. Old soul music from Al Green and James Brown played. A birthday party was happening in the middle of the restaurant and they were having a great time, laughing and shouting.

The waiter came over and took our orders. I love soul food so everything on the menu looked good, so I asked for his recommendation. He asked if I had any diet restrictions and I said no. He recommended the pork ribs, with candied yams and mac ‘n cheese. I know this is heresy to some but I’m not a big fan of yams. So I opted for the collard greens.

It only took a little over 10 minutes for our food to arrive. I had 5 ribs covered in sweet BBQ sauce. The meat fell off the bone. The mac n’ cheese was delicious. The collard greens were my least favorite. I don’t like my greens chopped, I like them in long strands and with a little kick of spice. Each plate also came with cornbread which was also excellent.

After we ate the owner came over and talked to us. He asked if everything was ok. He put his hands on my shoulder and gave me firm, caring squeeze. He genuinely appreciated our business. All 4 of us were happy with Chazz.

I loved the personal touch at Chazz. Again it feels like you’re at someone’s home, not a restaurant in the middle of East Atlanta. My meal was only $10 and I left a $2 tip. So for $12 I got a great meal and great service. I highly recommend checking out Chazz when you’re in the mood for some great soul food.

i am training right now for the 2009 marine corps marathon with the georgia chapter of team in training (which by the way is an incredible org and if you are thinking of trying an endurance event i highly recommend them.) i’ve trained for and run four marathons now, but this is my first time training for an early fall event. and what i have learned is that means i am training right through the heart of atlanta’s summer.

and it’s humid. damn humid.

actually i have been quite unprepared for how difficult it is to run long mileage in this humidity. the runs are draining, i sweat like crazy and no matter how much water i drink i can’t seem to get through the run without sweating out everything.

so how about it atlanta runners….those of you with lots of experience running through this humidity. do you have any advice for me? what tricks do you use to get through these dog days of august.

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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My day to write for this blog (if you don’t do it any other day during the week…) is Sunday.

I’ve sucked it up for weeks trying to meet this goal, excuses excuses. This week it’s because I was pissed AGAIN and I don’t want to be pegged as that angry girl. Even if I am an angry girl.

Pissed why, you ask?

You’re so thoughtful. Let me tell ya, it was a helluva Friday.

My morning meetings ran long but I was determined to make a stop to see a friend in need of a hug, so I bolted out of my office downtown and made a beeline for my hood – O4W at Inman Park.

I popped in to see him at his place on Irwin St. and parked under a big pretty fluffy tree who promised me with the sign language of leaves that if it started raining again it would protect me.

What it didn’t mention was that it had no intention of protecting me from ashole thieves jumping out of bushes.

The 10 minute visit really was, and as I came back out to the truck to find her rain-free, I opened my door and shit was strewn. Everywhere.

Because 10 minutes is all an opportunistic thief needs to cut your window (even if the doors are unlocked) and take two bags of items that are only valuable to you out of your life forever. Bags you can’t even inventory for the police 20 minutes later because you never think of their contents. Books. Notebooks. Electronics for recycling. A frizbee.

This is nothing really, compared to what Paulie went through the day before – it was just my vehicle that had been voilated – not my home. Still…hurt, pissed, adrenaline flowing like the Nile.

I’m pissed because it’s my neighborhood, because I got comfortable in the middle of the day and wasn’t paying attention to what was going on around me. I’m pissed because the door was unlocked and they cut the top anyway. I’m pissed because that was upwards of $300 of my hard earned dollars that went out the window (HA! See what I did there?) instead of to an upcoming and much earned vacation I’ve budgeted for (you asshole) I’m pissed because I know better than to leave anything in my truck. I’m pissed because the jerk was lurking at a MARTA stop and left a footprint on my bumper proving he was acting like he “owned” it (yeah, baby, CSI on the scene right here).

So here’s where my rant ends and the 411 begins – listen up.

The responding officer enlightened me on two counts:

1) The #POCATL (perception of crime in Atlanta, TM http://twitter.com/andishehnouraee) may be a non-issue. ? The problem according to my officer isn’t getting the guys off the streets, it’s keeping them in our overfilled jails on “petty theft”. What do we do? I don’t know. Someone tell me whose door to bang on, phone to call, email inbox to assault.

2) He’s waiting for the vigilantism to kick in. Apparently the incident at Graveyard last spring wasn’t enough – he’s waiting for Atlantants to get PISSED and start fighting back. I’m ready. Who likes the sound of a shotgun?

3) It’s not the kids, apparently they tend to strike at night when all the older thieves are worn out from their brazen assholeness. Daytime crime is about the grownups who would rather take your stuff than work for their own.

4) There was/is a thief hanging near the *bucks at 7th and P’Tree with the same MO: he knew how long it took to make a latte and since there’s no line of sight between the parking lot and the shop, he’d smash and grab. Keep your heads up and your eyes open.

4) I wanted to give Inman Park Patrol a heads up – didn’t’ expect them to respond just to BOLO – but couldn’t…because I’m not paying. WTF? There was an email address on the website to apply to pay…thanks for nuttin’.

Enlightening, disheartening, disappointing, annoying. My heart is broken for this…for a million reasons. I just haven’t found it in me to let go of my anger yet.

I hope you don’t go through anything like it anytime soon.

take this, o’hare, heathrow, frankfurt, jfk and other assorted mega-hubs.

monday morning i showed up atlanta’s hartsfield airport to catch a flight to florida. the security line was backed up all the way to through the atrium. but, the top-notch outfit that is atlanta’s tsa squad had every xray machine open, at least a dozen id check stations and we got through the whole thing in TEN MINUTES.

seriously.

the tsa is something i should roll my eyes at and most places i do, but here in atl, they do incredibel work.

can we lay off the complaining about our airport please?

well, i do reserve the right to complain about the cops ;-)

A few weeks ago I took a date to Yogurberry in Buckhead. Yogurberry is situated in the Terminus Building across from Flying Biscuit and next to LOLA. I was looking for a different place for a date besides the usual things I do such as coffee shops and touring bookstores.

Yogurberry proved to be a rewarding experience. My date and I were greeted by a beyond enthusiastic Brian Hah. Brian high-fived me at least twice and was jumping out of skin to tell us about the yogurt. We both got the Brian Special. It was a mix of the Korean yogurt with toppings selected by Brian.

The texture is like any other frozen yogurt. The taste is quite different. It’s tart but the sweet toppings balance it out. It doesn’t melt quickly.

Yogurberry is not cheap. I did get the large though, she got the medium and it was $18. All in all, that’s an inexpensive date. We had a great time talking outside and people watching.

The experience of meeting Brian is worth it alone. He tells each customer to, “Have a positive day,” with sincerity and enthusiasm. If you’re in the Buckhead area I highly recommend checking out Yogurberry.

Facebook Page
Yogurberry
3280 Peachtree Rd., NE #140B
Atlanta, GA

there are times when enforcing the “no waiting” policy in front of the terminals at hartsfield makes very little sense, such as around 10:30 pm on any evening, or early morning on a weekend. as you might guess, these are the times during which the atlanta police stationed at the airport seem most interested in enforcing this so-called “rule” to the extent that i almost watched a dude get cuffed, henry louis gates style, while waiting on a ride late on night.

then there are other times when there is a ton of traffic waiting to pick people up and enforcement of this rule seems like it might make a lot of sense. weekday mornings, weekdays early evening and sunday afternoons in the summer when everyone like me is coming home from vacation (yes, this post is directly correlated to my flight home from aruba yesterday.) as you might guess these are times when an atlanta police office is impossible to find.

my buddy rich picked my up around 1 pm yesterday and was able to sit at the curb for about 15 minutes waiting on me. the truck in front of him had been there even longer as was still there when we left.

not an atlanta police office in sight. well not true, we did see one as we pulled away. standing in the cross walk at the end of the terminal “directing traffic” while she talked on her cell phone.

the things that make me go hmmmmmmmmm……

one of the items i am trying to do a better job of these days is to try to get out of the city and see some of the area’s sights that are within a day’s drive of atlanta.

to that end, recently my family and i got in the car and headed south to see franklin delano roosevelt’s little white house down in warm springs georgia. the little white house is sort of like w’s crawford ranch only about a million times smaller and occupied by a president that most people revere not revile. it’s a place roosevelt came as his retreat because the warm springs nearby and their positive effect on his polio.

it was a neat tour. it’s a pretty tiny facility; i was shocked by just how small the house was and it reminded of just how different life was back then. it is wonderfully preserved right down to the chair fdr was sitting in when he had his final attack that ended his life. you can even see the scratch marks the roosevelts’ scottish terrier made on the door frame.

afterward we headed into warm springs, which is a cute little southern town and ate at mac’s barbeque and steakhouse, which wasn’t the best food in the world, but made up for it all in ambiance, being in an old southern house with iced tea poured by the proprietor.

i say check it out. it’s a little bit of georgia history that has nothing to do with the ciivil war amazingly.

roosevelt’s little white house historic site
401 little white house rd
warm springs , GA 31830

Having only been to Zoo Atlanta once in the 15 years I’ve lived here doesn’t mean I don’t believe in it – I just loathe crowds.

That shouldn’t stop you though – especially when it’s free! This year’s Zoo Atlanta “Open House” is scheduled for Saturday August 8th and Sunday August 9, from 9:30 am-5:30 pm. Admission is free for residents of the City of Atlanta and Fulton County.

Any of the following forms of identification will permit one adult and up to three children to enjoy free entry on those days: GA driver’s license with City/County address; GA voter ID or GA ID; utility bill with City/County address.

For this week’s venue I’ll venture a few miles up Moreland Avenue from my East Atlanta neighborhood to Little 5 Points.

Without doubt my favorite music venue in L5P is the Variety Playhouse. For some reason my photostream over at Flickr doesn’t contain an image of the Variety Playhouse’s iconic marquee. However, I do have one of the inexplicably narrow door which is in the rear of the building:

(image used by permission)

The building which houses the Variety Playhouse started its life in 1940 as a movie theater; the theater occupied the space until the early 1960’s. For more than twenty years the building was not used for any sort of performances until it was resurrected as a performance space in the mid-1980’s. It wasn’t until the early 1990’s that Variety Playhouse gained its foothold as one of Atlanta’s better music venues. Remnants of Variety’s days as a movie / theatrical venue remain as the space contains a slanted main floor and what best can be described as “vintage movie theater” seating in the middle of the lower space as well as in the balcony. The seating is surrounded by fairly generous standing room areas including a patch of cement nearest the stage.

Because of the quality of the sound within Variety Playhouse as well as the size of the venue, it’s ideal for bands who come through Atlanta and are either too “big” to play in bars or are not “big enough” to warrant playing in the city’s largest venues such as Philips Arena or the Georgia Dome.

What I Like
• The sound is usually loud, but is mixed well and sounds great.
• Smoking is not allowed inside.
• Because of the standing-room locations if you get there early enough and you can almost guarantee a good place to see the show.
• It has three bars and all are located away from the music area. This keeps the “bar noise” down to a minimum.
• Shows rarely start at a late hour.
• Prices for shows are generally reasonable, and Variety Playhouse offers an online ticket purchasing option which is far better than Ticketmaster’s.

What I Dislike
• Parking/Traffic can be somewhat of a bother. I don’t much care for the parking lot behind the Variety Playhouse.
• People tend to talk a lot during shows (SHUT UP, PEOPLE. YOU ARE SUPPOSEDLY THERE TO HEAR MUSIC) and while the music is loud it can’t drown them out.

Address : 1099 Euclid Av, Atlanta, GA, 30307
Capacity¹ : Seated 750, General Admission 400-1050
Cameras Allowed? : Yes
Smoking Allowed? : No, smoking areas are provided outdoors
All Ages? : Yes (at least to the best of my knowlege)
Ticket Source : Ticketmaster, Variety Playhouse’s website, or at the Variety Playhouse’s ticket booth
Favorite Shows I’ve Seen Here : Bob Mould, Built To Spill, Manchester Orchestra, New Pornographers, Alejandro Escovedo, Steven Malkmus and the Jicks, Cracker, Dead Confederate

What’s your opinion of the Variety Playhouse?

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Sources
1: Wikipedia’s Variety Playhouse page