either way, reagtor launched it’s iphone app today (download here) and we are more than impressed. it’s easy to navigate with a crisp ui. additionally they enabled landscaping, which is a huge bonus for any app that wants to build web browsing into the app (ahem tweetdeck) and seems on first use (we played around with it extensively on the bus this morning) to be almost bug free (again, amazing for a first cut iphone app.)

kudos to regator on a job well done!!!

in other atl web start-up news we are intrigued by spitter.com which looks to be a regator-type aggregator for sports combined with social-networking forum thingys. since it’s atlanta-based and sports oriented we’ll probably check it out and if we aren’t too lazy we might give you a report.

also, we don’t know why we are writing in the first person plural. we pledge to stop this immediately upon conclusion of this post.

we promise.

eat. sleep. tweet.

this author actually met albert last night at the atl tweet-up (and in interests of full disclosure he gave me and many others a free t-shirt) and i thought his stuff was cool enough to pass along. and since they are local and atlanta-based what better place to put it out.

you can check him out at eatsleeptweet.com.

also check out the site for his parent company micah apparel where you can learn all about his very strong commitment to social responsibility and clean water.

hope you like. i know i did and am already loving my new eat. sleep. tweet. t-shirt.

I Can Haz Twitter?

@atlantamusic – the atlanta music guide, keeps you up-to-date on all music going down in the atl
@atlanta_steam – atlanta’s lingerie football league franchise. this is pretty silly but too silly to pass up. btw – how sad is it that none of our major francises can figure out twitter (braves, hawks, thrashers> but the atlanta steam can?
@ATLHOMER – atlanta sports thought from the ultimate homer
@beeratlanta – the atlanta beer guide. i don’t drink but if i did this resource would be invaluable
@criminalrecords criminal records twitter feed – a highly entertaining feed from one of atlanta’s best independent merchants
@earl_eav – the earl – the newly created twitter feed for the popular east atlanta restaurant and music venue
@myATLevents – myATLevents – a great feed of atltana events
@peachyruns – Big Peach Running Company – twitter feed for the greatest running store in the world. a must-follow for atlanta runners

got all that?

good, now i have just one more that is a must follow:

@atlantametblogs – that’s right we are on twitter now too. give us a follow for updates and fastest notification of new posts.

and of course you can follow this intrepid author at @jeherv.

At The EARL I’ve seen performances by Dick Dale, two-thirds of Hüsker Dü (namely Bob Mould and Grant Hart performing solo shows), Mission of Burma, as well as others. And this weekend I’ll be at there twice, to catch both performances put on by The Long Ryders. Here’s the kicker about this… these shows will be the first United States shows put on by The Long Ryders in over twenty years, they are likely be their only performances in the United States, and there is a chance that they may never get back together again.

For those of you not as old as me, The Long Ryders were up-and-coming “alternative” music stars back when “alternative” music was in its infancy. In those days The Long Ryders toured the globe headling shows and were scheduled to tour with bands such as U2. However, their path to rock stardom was interrupted when some of the band members chose other paths and the band broke up in 1987.

Tickets for the shows can either be purchased via Ticket Alternative; or at The EARL on the day of the show.

So the Unwrapped event wasn’t my usual day-after-Christmas thing.  However, I was pleased to run into Thomas Wheatley and Jamsmooth, both friends of mine who happen to blog.  I was supposed to meet up with Will, but that didn’t happen (it has only just occured to me while linking to his profile here that he has a picture of himself on the page that would have aided me in meeting up with him.  I am that smart, people).  

While attempting to find Will, I asked Tessa if she knew him – figuring that the person who put the thing together and who everyone assured me was the social maven of the crowd would be able to point me in the right direction.  Turns out Tessa also went to high school in town, and we had a fun game of “do you know” that actually turned up quite a few names from middle and high school.  Atlanta is quite a small town in that regard, in that it turns out that some of our middle and high school debauchery took place within two degrees of people.

Tessa pointed me in the direction of Will, but it turned out to be the wrong Will, which accounted for considerable social awkwardness on my part and an interesting exchange regarding internet social heirarchies.  Wrong Will, I will call him, commented that apparently the first wave of people at Unwrapped had been the programmers and I guess “industry” types, while the bloggers were supposed to be coming “in force” later on.  Wrong Will, of course, was a tweeter.  I couldn’t help but wonder what the implied heirarchy to his comments were – were the programmers better than the bloggers, and the tweeters better than all of us?  Or was there some different structure?

I would like to think that we all fall into the larger social heirarchy above the random Drivin and Cryin fans that wandered into Vinyl from the show, but I’m not so sure.  Regardless, I had a decent time, met a few people, and paid way too much for parking.

• The older lady, in a proper hat, who asks me to fetch her waffles from the top shelf of the freezer case. “Multigrain?” I ask, pointing. “Mmmhmm,” she says, with a lot of song.
• The hipster couple with the skinny jeans so tight around their ankles that I think they must choose between flesh and bone to fit in there and, obviously, they have chosen bone.
• The greasy-haired shambling goatee guy with the limp, slapping loafers and the glassy stare, who looks down each aisle with the confusion of a foreigner in an alien market, who reaches for things on the shelves and then yanks his hand back and moves on, feeling kind of bad that he wanted that stuff at all.
• The two freshmen gangbangers with the tall toques, walking with a sort of bounce off each foot, side to side, laughing, it seems, at nothing and buying big crinkly bags of junk food.
• The grown-up young man with the black head scarf, intent casual-soldier posture, and serious look who doesn’t even notice me though I am standing less than a foot from him in line for the self-checkout machines. We’re side by side, strangers with a common purpose, but where I am looking all around all the time, afraid I’m doing something rude, he looks straight ahead and seems to see everything, simultaneously alert and thoughtful, though maybe he’s just thinking about what he’ll have for dinner or how he wishes he’d gotten to the post office today.
• The tall well-coifed young man in the nice suit, which I think had pinstripes, and who has come from the greeting-card aisle looking uncertain and glancing around a lot, over the heads of the other customers, as if for a person who will wave him down and tell him what to do with the greeting card he’s holding with both hands and the box of medicine resting on top of it. (I thought it might be film, but no one uses film anymore, so it was probably medicine.)
• The overweight and very short woman in layered sweatshirts and a tangled scarf, digging to the bottom of her giant purse, which she has hoisted onto the little check-writing counter at the end of the check-out line.
• The adult couple doing full-on grocery shopping at a good clip, as if they were buying Christmas gifts on the day before, and who constantly rearrange each other’s purchases in the cart and, though they talk a lot, do not look at each other.
• The large mother who is pulling things from her cart and putting them on the conveyor belt and the small son who is talking about things he will buy from the impulse-buy shelves, which is his way of asking if he can, but who gets no response from his mother, who has had this conversation enough times already and has found it most efficient and just as effective to say nothing and withhold permission than to have the talk again and actively deny permission. The son’s hands and eyes seem wholly absorbed with the candy wrappers and attractive logos spread out before him, but his head and his voice seem distracted and far-off, as if he were casually talking about candy while seriously contemplating the effect of the new annual numbers on the presentation he has to give to the board tomorrow.
• The tall woman with the elaborate hair who is talking loudly into a glowing earpiece, as if she were talking to the woman behind her, not in any kind of phone-voice, saying something I recited to my wife when I got home, because it was so dialog-y, but which I can’t remember now, because I said it out loud, but was something about getting respect from another person and being appreciated and how what people want from you may not be what you want to give.

One of these people was me.

For my part, I think the problem is three-fold: One part fear of crime, the poor, and crappy schools, one part irresponsible development that throws up more junk while neglecting the existing infrastructure, and one part geography: Most great American cities have grown up around a limiting geographical feature, usually a body of water, that hems it in and forces it upward rather than sprawling out. Pheonix, Dallas, and Atlanta are all limited by the room they have to spread their wings; NYC, Chicago, DC, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco. . . all are hemmed in and yet empowered by their geographical limitation.

What is the problem? What is the answer? I have no clue. Does anyone really think that Atlanta will be a great city in the vein of a New York or Seattle? I have my doubts.

Anything else you see as a great Atlanta Mystery?

1. Kangaroo Attacked the Zoo Keeper

It’s over pretty quickly and the zoo keeper got away w/ only some bruising.

2. Kool Korners is indeed closing

So says the indispensable Disposable Income blog. I’ll admit that, despite working nearby, I never ate a cuban sandwich there. :-(

3. Kid Rock Takes His Waffle House Very Seriously

Video of last year’s Kid Rock versus Waffle House fight.

Happy Tuesday

Anyhow, the local news is all about local news in the form of the AJC cutting staff and WXIA’s news director stepping down.

Me? I get all my information from the internets and the watercooler (an actual watercooler who bears a resemblance to Wall-E).

I rarely watch the TV version (save for the weather, how Atlantan of me) and I occassionally link/blog the paper version, though I prefer CL’s reportage and their blogs.