Big gamer geek, here. And when I say I’m a gamer, I don’t just mean Xbox blockbusters and flashy MMORPGs like Lord of the Rings Online, but genuine geek games like D&D. I write for and about games for a living. But hobby games — the term we use to describe board games, card games, roleplaying games, miniature games, and pretty much any other non-video game — aren’t exactly front-page news. Except for today.

Imagine my surprise when I saw a blurb about board games on the front page of the AJC this morning. Imagine my surprise exploding in slow motion when I discovered the article contained things that were actually news to me. I hadn’t heard of some of the places they mention. How the hell did that happen?

I’m glad to see Thinking Man’s Tavern get a newsprint shout-out for their ready-to-play game selection, and in that spirit I want to mention a few other places in town to find and play games. The Independent in Midtown is owned (whole or in part, I lose track) by gamers, and is thus stocked with well-worn board games and a Super NES from back in the day. Oxford Comics & Games has a nice slew of geek products of all sorts, including board games and card games you won’t find at, say, Target. Dr. No’s, way up in Marietta, had a knock-out selection the last time I was up there, plus play space. I’ve seen locals playing Scrabble everywhere from Starbucks to The Midway Pub.

I don’t know if what the AJC calls “the board game craze” is really anything new or not, but I can tell you that board games are great entertainment investments. Of course, I’m biased.

Driving in Atlanta is a harrowing ordeal, long commutes for some, bumper to bumper traffic and loads of accidents every day.  Yes all of that is bad but a more stealth danger has haunted me during my stay here.  That is the hit and run dent on your car while parked and flying rocks.

I’ve never been able to keep a car nice, new and dent free in this town.  That hasn’t been my fault. Once while parked at The Stacks visiting a friend, I walked to my car and noticed the hood of my Dodge Stratus was dented and scratched with white paint. It looked as if a white truck backed up and ran over the top of the hood. I asked around and no one saw anything.

The next incident happened right in front of my house. I sold the Stratus to Carmax and drive a Toyota now. I have a driveway at the house but one day I had to park in the street. I walked to my car to leave and couldn’t get the door to open. I looked down and saw that a car had backed into the door leaving a football sized dent. I yanked and got the door open. There was no note, nothing.

One day while driving the connector north, I was behind a cement truck. I was a safe distance from the truck. A small rock fell from out of the truck and cracked my windshield. I was unable to get the plates of the truck. The crack started small but eventually spread costing me $260 for a new windshield.

So I ask you readers, have you had similar experiences driving in Atlanta? Am I alone in meeting bad parkers and flying rocks? Is it possible to keep your car dent free in this city?

I was eating breakfast at Carroll Street Cafe in Cabbagetown with a friend Sunday morning, when in quick succession I notice the following:

• the table next to us had two nice middle aged couples
• a 30-something woman in a lime green fuzzy running/sweat suit came into the restaurant
• as we were leaving a couple comes in with two young children in tow
• a woman was walking her Sheltie as we walked to the car

Given the last two weeks, I wanted to write something about the shooting in East Atlanta Village this week, even though James already covered it once. Not long before the shots were fired, I was a few blocks away, standing in the street talking with police and neighbors about the crime in our neighborhood lately. And about how nervous and how angry we are.

People want things, so they’re coming into our homes and taking them. They’re smashing down our doors. They’re pulling guns. They’re killing and dying in the pursuit of money.

I sat down to write about that, but I keep thinking about something else. A friend of mine told me about a man who stood up on a MARTA train this morning, said he was homeless, and asked the passengers for money. This happens all the time, but tonight I kept picturing it.

“I’m homeless because of a fire at my house,” the man said. He sounded a little rehearsed. “I just need nine more dollars to get set up for the night. I’m trying to get back on my feet.”

People gave him five-dollar and ten-dollar bills. People nudged each other on the train, saying “Excuse me, I just want to get by you for a second so I can give that guy a dollar.” The man made more than his nine needed bucks for sure.

We can read a lot into this moment, if we want to.

We can see a train car full of passengers suckered out of money by a guy with a well aimed sob story. We can picture the train car passengers filing out and being replaced by another car full of Midtown professionals. We can picture the man telling his story again. We can picture him holding the cash out, pinched between two knuckles, and swapping it for a baggie of yellow rocks.

Or we can picture a man standing in a public bathroom, counting his last couple of bucks and coming up nine short of the fee for his motel room. We can picture him reciting his story to himself in the mirror, getting up the nerve to out himself as homeless in front of strangers. We can picture him standing in the strobing red glow of the fire trucks, soot on his face, wearing his pajamas, staring at the soggy ashes he used to live in.

I don’t know if that man’s story was true or not. It may be a mistake to look for too much meaning in these stories. What I know is that I’ve heard two stories about people trying to get money out of strangers this week, and they have different endings.

The granddaddy reality TV series is starting up again for season 17, this time in Brooklyn.  17 seasons, and all I really remember is San Fransisco, with Pedro and Puck.  Oh, and that all the cast members in Las Vegas were alcoholics.  Honestly, I stopped watching after San Fransisco (season 3), except for when I occasionally got sucked into some marathon viewing session.

You may be saying to yourself, “WTF?  This is the Atlanta Metblog.  Atlanta Metblog. What does the Real World have to do with Atlanta?”  Well, I for one, want to know how out of 17 seasons, MTV never decided that Atlanta was a good location.  Atlanta is regularly listed as a top location for young people, singles, college grads – the same folks who grow up watching the Real World.  It is prime real estate for showcasing your city!  All the show does is follow a bunch of twenty somethings around as they go to bars and clubs, and maybe they’ll throw in some socially conscious “job”.  Well, we have great bars and clubs (just not downtown).

Seriously, look at some of the place the Real World has shot.  Obviously I’m not delusional, and I don’t think Atlanta is as neat as London, Paris, Sydney, or New York.  But San Diego, Austin, and Denver?  Aren’t we at least that interesting?  They’ve now done New York three times, and LA twice.  Some on-line sleuthing suggestst that a Midtown loft may have almost made the cut for Season 16, and was on the short list for Season 19.  What happened?  Give us some love!

One thing that Atlanta is missing that the Real World needs to work is a pedestrian environment.  IIRC, for the most part, the cast is denied cars and they spend their time walking to and from the many bars.  There are plenty of neighborhoods that would work, though.  Put our ardent potential alcoholics in a Castleberry loft with a view of downtown, or in a penthouse in a Midtown condo building like they planned to five years ago.  This shouldn’t be that hard.

I’ve lived in Atlanta for fourteen years, nearly ten of those have been in East Atlanta. When I moved to my neighborhood I never realized that I’d be able to relive my teens/early-twenties a mere handful of blocks from my house. The time machine into which I step is also know as The EARL.

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.

James’ last post about the variable multi-county metro Atlanta area reminded me about an exchange I overhead with old co-workers about a year ago:

“Well I’m looking for a new apartment, probably in the twelve-to-three area.”
“Twelve-to-three?”
“Yeah. Like if I-285 is a clock and the other highways are hands on a clock, the twelve-to-three area is like North Druid Hills and stuff.”
“Oh ok…I gotcha. Well, just don’t look anywhere in the three-to-nine area. Twelve-to-three is pretty good, Nine-to-twelve is kind of expensive though.”

Hands on a clock? Really? AtlantaGeorgia.com gives a similar explanation for explaning how to get around the ATL:

The thing you have to understand is that “inside the perimeter” can mean any direction depending on where you are at the time. Another trick is to imagine that the perimeter is the face of a clock and find out if you need to go to “six o’clock” to get to the airport or “eleven o’clock” to get to Smyrna.

Then there is the inner and there is the outer loop. What do I need to say about these? The inner loop is 285 going clockwise if you are looking at the city from the south with the city center as the middle of the clock and GA 400 as twelve o’clock–and the outer loop goes counterclockwise on the same clockface? Both loops go in all directions (but only one direction at a time) depending on whether you are at 6 o’clock or 12 etc.

I mean, I get the concept, however remedial it sounds, but have you heard it before? Where are you? (I’m in the 6:30 area.)

atlanta msa

i had the same question i always do? when am i back in atlanta? i know the actual atlanta metropolitan statistical area is the 28 counties in that map, so technically i am back in atlanta when i cross the border into bartow county?

but am i really?

i know plenty of itp’ers who would say no. i think most people that live in canton in cherokee would say yes. but what about cartersville? as i mentioned bartow county is in the altanta msa, but is cartersville really part of atlanta?

for me at least, when i am driving i consider myself “in atlanta” when i cross into cobb county on 75 and when i cross into gwinnett on 85. this certainly puts me at odds with the msa but that is how i see it.

what about you. what is the metro area? does it go all the way to south carolina these days? has it made its way all the way up to dalton?

and what about the southside? i don’t go down there much, but i know plenty of atlantans have made their way to newnan and peacthree city.

it seems to me that the metro area is growing, but the sense of identiity that goes with the city is too. i work with plenty of people that live in cherokee or forsyth, work in alpharetta and never venture south of holcomb bridge road.

food for thought anyway.

One of my favorite local blogs, Pecanne Log, wrote a post yesterday about a great Atlanta mystery: Why are Downtown and Midtown so damn dead after dark and on weekends? I think everyone who lives in Atlanta is confounded by its inexplicable car culture, and the lack of a thriving and bustling city core.

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?

For no particular reason other than to start a bunch of flame wars and stoke conversation, I thought I’d make a list of what I think are the more underrated and overrated spots in town.  Leave your comments or your own under/over rated list! 

Underrated spots

These are the places that may slide under your radar, or that you take for granted.  Give ‘em some love:

• Orme Park – this is a nice little neighborhood park that is shielded from most of the city because it is smack in the middle of a bunch of single family homes.  There are no busy streets that run by it, which means it is nice and tranquil.  There is a little creek that runs through the middle of the park, and one of the best things about it is the large tunnel out of which the creek originates.  Growing up, it was a great place to hide out and avoid the adults.  I haven’t been there in a while, but there used to be some decent graffiti in the tunnel. (more…)