Thanks to the Georgia Aquarium and my multiple blogs, I received invitations to “Planet Shark Blogger Day” this afternoon.  I magnanimously forwarded the invite to a “mommy blogger” friend to see if the display was kid-friendly (because I certainly wasn’t going to bring my 3-year-old around a bunch of flesh eaters).  We both thought the shark displays a bit intense for tiny ones, but the information given was interesting.  For instance:

• “galeophobia” and “selachophobia” are both terms used to identify excessive fear of sharks (”prudence” is the term for an appropriate level of fear of sharks).
• in the U.S., you are 200 times more likely to die from a deer attack than a shark attack (this is why my father shoots deer and not sharks).
• you are 700 times more likely to die in a plane crash than a shark attack (this is why pilots are paid more than marine biologists).
• the world’s largest fish is the whale shark, which can weigh 13 tons and measure 50 feet (luckily it doesn’t have to compete with the whale whale, its being a mammal and all).

The children and adults enjoyed seeing Nemo and other colorful swimming fish, and petting miniature versions of the creatures that killed Steve Irwin is always an enjoyable way to spend a half hour.

I did, however, see a preschooler get her head stuck between the bars in a shark cage on display.  I assume this is why preschoolers are not encouraged to drop beneath boats in the Pacific to film swimming sharks, right?

The verdict?  A good place to bring the family on a weekday.  I haven’t been on a weekend, but I assume there are significantly more crowds than I saw today.  But on a Friday at 2pm?  We could molest all the starfish we could find.  Ditto for the sea anemones.

And who wants to be the guy who’s never touched a sea anemone?  Not this guy.

Hopefully, it won’t be the summer “take cover from the torrential rain and deadly lightning” festival, but regardless, the Grant Park Summer Shade Festival is usually a good time.  There’s food, music, and drinks for the grownups.  For the youngsters, there’s storytellers, jugglers, and signing.  Children are permitted to eat and drink, too, but it’s unlikely to be much of a draw for them.

Best I can tell, there are no clowns.  Some of us are not upset about a likely absence of clowns.

But what about dogs?  Can the dogs enjoy the festival?  Apparently not.  Unless you’re certain attendance will stay below 10,000, you’ll be violating a city ordinance if you bring your pet.  It’s like the “fewer than 15 items” line at the store, but with fur.  And fines.  Maybe it’s nothing like the “fewer than 15 items” line.

The 5k starts at 8am tomorrow; the rest of the festivities begin at 10am.  We’ll likely head that way after the runners are finished.

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.

okay, so maybe while my beloved atlanta hawks are embroiled in a heated series with the cavs isn’t the best time to be bringing to town a promotion featuring lebron james, but you can’t blame the nba for throwing it’s most marketable player out there.

anyway, if you are a fan of roundball and looking for something to do in between playoff games this weekend, i suggest you head over to the sweet auburn festival this weekend and check out the sprite nba amateur dunk contest, which is apparently, “lebron james certified,” (which must be an interesting certification program.)

should be a damn good time, and the folks at the nba assure me this is free to attend, and you can even participate by voting for your favorite amateur dunker via text message.

the winners are going to head to the all-start game in dallas next year to compete for a pretty big prize package, so your vote could be huge.

you can also submit your dunk by video if you can’t make it but you think you have a little josh smith in you, by visiting nba.com/dunk.

i plan on checking it out if i can on saturday and posting some pics.

should be a blast.

sprite slam dunk showdown
friday, may 8: 5PM – 10PM
saturday, may 9: 11AM – 9PM
sunday, may 10: 2PM – 8PM
sweet auburn festival
auburn ave

she will probably kill me for posting this picture here, but congrats to our own maigh who sold her first ever print at the atlanta photography exhibit friday night in castleberry hill.

as an aside, having toured the exhibit, there are some amazingly talented photographers in the atlanta area taking some pretty damn amazing photos. and, yes, i would include our own paulie in that bunch. he exhibited one print of the sun setting over the atlanta skyline that was just out of control good.

it was also my first time ever attending the castleberry hill art stroll and i really enjoyed it. some really great art and of course some really pretentious art as well that made for great comedy.

the best in the latter category was a man in overall standing in a giant bowl of salad, tossing it with two wooden stilt arms and hands.

unfortunately i didn’t snap a picture of this, but i am hoping James S. did and will post it here soon.

congrats again, maigh!!!

Really? You want to bring a massive stroller to a festival with tens of thousands of people and barely any room to move without thanks to your double-wide and THEN you want to walk 2mph? Really?

Bleh.

That is all.

the exhibit is being held during the april castleberry hill art stroll and will be showcasing from 6-10 tonight.

this is maigh’s first exhibit of her photos so ya’ll go on out and support her.

(you can support paulie too, although we are generally much less concerned about his well being)

prince vs. michael jackson

oh well.

i’ve never been in atlanta’s sutra lounge but when i came across the above poster in joe’s east atlanta coffee shop i thought, damn, now that is something i would consider actually going out for.

i’m not going to, i’m running the big peach 5k but i would.

i mean seriously, a night of dj’s mixing up nothing but prince and michael jackson? how badass is that?

if you go, enjoy and let me know so i can live vicariously through you.

it’s really easy to participate. you just ride marta. that’s it. nothing more.

seriously, just plan one trip on marta that you might have normally taken in a car. a strong turnout will show out “leaders” that we atlantans care about having a vital public transportation system.

this issue is of course deeply personal to me as someone who rides on marta every day and loves the system, the people that operate it and ride on it. so i am personally asking for you to support ride marta day.

and one other thought – try riding a bus if you never have. i know many people really dislike the idea of riding a bus, but give it a whirl. you might be surprised.

you can find more information on the ride marta day web site including a list of supporting organizations.

also the citizens for progressive transit’s a-train trip planner is a great resource for planning your marta trip tomorrow.

happy riding. if you see me on the #9, the north-south line, or the #140 say hello.

Scratch that.

The first time I paid attention to the name David Sedaris was when a girlfriend from work insisted I see him with her at Woodruff – I’d heard of him/heard him on NPR – telling me time and again in the days leading up to it what a talented writer he was, how hysterical he was and how much I’d love his snark. It was several years ago, after the dot.com bust but after all my gray hair arrived. 2003?

At the time I think Sedaris was pushing “Me Talk Pretty One Day” which is still my favorite of his works – bypassing Holidays on Ice, SantaLand Diaries (done regularly as a monologue production at Horizon Theaterr in L5P) , When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Barrel Fever and Dress Your Family in Corduroy in Denim by quite a stretch. Maybe it was my fantasies of living in Europe and horrifying people with stories that didn’t translate. Maybe it was the explicit stories about his brothers dogs and their unique bathroom habits. Either way, it’s still my favorite.

Rewinding though – back to 2003 or earlier – I went to the reading skeptical that I could be wow’ed but found myself chuckling. I was amazed by his wit and use of big words to tell funny, self deprecating stories, and enchanted by his tales spun with colors and character and brutal ruthless honesty charms and disarms. I was in love.

If you haven’t read his stuff, enjoy this link a friend left in my comments on facebook today when I twittered about going.

Go ahead. Read it. I’ll wait.

Done then? Did you LOL? For realz? Me too, and I’d read the story before.

Tonight at The Cobb (can I call it that? Makes it sound more fun than it is.) he had me squirming and chuckling and EWWWWWWWWWWWWing again. In fact, I think his goal tonight was to gross people out. I’ll give you a highlight: making butter from breast milk.

He read from his diary, breezed a few not-so-short shorts that aren’t in books (yet) and took a few questions from the audience. The first one he responded to was “why don’t you twitter” and I’m curious to know if that person was planted, and/or if it was someone I know.

All that to say it was good, that coming from me who is biased and really really likes him. Was it $30 good? Yup. Was it nearly $50 good after the pounding in the ass I got from Ticketmaster? Meh. For the experience and opportunity to have him sign a book, youbetcha. For having your seat kicked and being distracted (see also: ADD to begin with) extensively? Tough to say. Am I glad I went? Hells yes.

With regards to The Cobb, I have a few words of advice:
- Go to dinner before at Top Spice by Babies R Us (huge ups to one of my girls for suggesting)
- Walk from there to The Cobb and save yourself $5-10 for parking and the headache of getting out
- Don’t plan to check email, twitter or anything else once you’re in the theater, b/c it’s a dead zone. Especially a PITA if you’re planning to hookup with friends seated elsewhere
- If you’re a tall – or even “normal” sized man – please stay home. While there isn’t a bad seat in the house, there’s also no room for your legs, knees or feet. At one point last night I leaned over to one of the girls I was with and said “I have a Leatherman in my bag. Do you think it would be okay if I spiked his foot to the floor with my pliers? That was the 34th time he’s kicked my seat in 5 minutes.”

On a related note: I can only assume most of the people seated in our row and the rows in front of us grew up in a land without culture or common sense, since the event was only two hours and we had to stand a handful of times to let people in and out of the row. Really? REALLY? You didn’t go BEFORE the show? AYFKM? Then sit in the aisle and live with the repercussions of your inability to plan.

Who exactly would I work with to make it so these people and the people who arrived late are permanently banned from attending shows of any kind in Atlanta? One strike. We could gather their thumbprints or brand them. Whatcha think? Ticketmaster could probably handle that for us, right? I mean, as long as their already sodomizing us with golf clubs and stealin’ our lunch money…?