Today’s example (seen during my morning commute): Commercial Refrigeration Gasket Replacement Company Inspector Gasket versus DIC’s animated syndicated superhero Inspector Gadget.
Inspector Gasket:
Inspector Gadget:
Have an example of local appropriation of a licensed character, trademark or copyright? Suggest a story or leave a comment.
Tired of driving around to every AT&T store in the metro area or waiting in line at the Apple Store for your new iPhone 3g?
Sure. We all are.
At least you can rest easy knowing that your Atlanta-area Starbucks aren’t going anywhere any time soon, at least not according to this map, despite the company’s recent store closings.
[Via Lori]
So, good news, if you’re into that sorta “stuff”, coffee and Apple products alike.
Here’s hoping you’re sipping a latte, reading this on your new iPhone now.
Like Orange County and New York before us, Atlanta is now set to have it’s own Real Housewives cable show, via Bravo:
Staying true to previous installments, The Real Housewives of Atlanta will follow the lives of five women from Atlanta’s elite who truly live the glamorous life. The southern socialites include a charitable NBA wife, a single-and-looking mom and an outspoken entrepreneur. Between juggling their busy social calendars, home life and budding careers, these gals will give viewers an up close and personal look at their affluent — and often ridiculously dramatic — lives.
For those of you who can’t wait until the new season kicks off, Bravo will air a preview special Wednesday, July 30 at 12 am/ET.
I’m not a big fan of either of the first two series, but I may tune in now that the Real Housewives are in-town (one hopes). We’ll see if it ends up being the Real Housewives of Buckhead or the Real Housewives of OTP Country Club.
UPDATE: Mingaling’s comment reminds me that I should read my own links before posting. The Real Housewives of Metro Atlanta is more correct.
Start your McMansion & gentrification counters to stun.
YouTube flotsam that’s making the local rounds. YMMV.
ATL Hoodrat aka SOULJA GIRL goes crazy on the Marta!
[Via james]
Sturgess Fillmore Presents… ATLANTA!
[Via CL’s Fresh Loaf]
Which one of these videos is more indicative of the Atlanta you know and love?
I’m surprised they still let me post here at Metblogs. See, I spent the last month-plus living about two hours outside of Atlanta (that will have to be a whole ‘nother post) while we moved out of our East Atlanta home and waited to close on our new house in the burbs. I had no internet access at home. It was truly harrowing.
There. I said it. I can no longer say I live intown. I live in the burbs. OTP. Outside the fence.
I have written numerous times about my love for our old neighborhood. When it came down to it, though, I love my kids more. I just wasn’t ready to send my kid to a school with abysmal test scores and where he would be a less than one percent minority at that school. I know. Many parents send their kids to schools where their child is in that small a minority, but I wonder how many of them send them to a school where their child is in that small a minority and test scores are bottom of the barrel. My guess? Not many. I am thinking that parents might overlook the lack of diversity at a school if it meant a child would be surrounded by kids who are more successful. We weighed the options and the issues, and it came down to the realization that sending my child to that school would simply serve the purpose of proving a point, rather than striving to give my child the best educational opportunities I can manage to give him.
When we made the decision not to send our children to the public elementary school in our neighborhood, we started looking at other options. Charter schools? Not an option for us in our area of unincorporated Dekalb. Private schools? Yikes. Even at the more affordable end they were going to cost us five to seven thousand dollars a year (and some of them cost much more than a year of public university tuitions!) Sure, we could swing $7000/year if I went back to work. Oh, wait - Our daughter will start school in four years. Then we’d be paying almost 15,000 dollars/year tuition. Not to mention the cost of after school childcare and for the summers, when they aren’t in school.
We searched for homes inside the perimeter in better school districts. (I dare anyone to start researching schools and not start going gray - It is as if someone didn’t want me to compare test scores and other information for schools in different areas and different school districts, much less for different states. Try to compare public and private schools and your head will explode.) We’d either be downsizing (and we already lived in a three BR), or paying so much for a house that, again, I would have to go back to work and then the daycare costs until both kids started elementary (and again, for summers) would barely make the back-to-work option worth it.
We slowly started discussing the possibility of moving outside the perimeter, at first laughingly, then in whispers, as it became a more real possibility, and finally we resigned ourselves to it. We started looking at homes in the school districts we had identified that had what we were looking for: Decent test scores, diversity, in a neighborhood we could afford, and not so far from town that the commute would suck my husband of any semblance of a meaningful life. We finally found an area we liked (ish), where houses are in our price range, the kids would have other kids to play with, and that we didn’t find too lacking in character. We bought a house here a few weeks ago.
When it came down to it, I cried when I left East Atlanta. I hated leaving the place where I met my husband, where I met friends and wonderful neighbors, and to which I brought two kids home from the hospital. I had been there long enough that I couldn’t go anywhere without at least seeing one person I knew from the neighborhood.
In the end, I know that it is for the best. The kids love the new house and neighborhood already, and my husband and I are laughingly giving in to a quieter way of life, and at the same time cracking up at what we have become. I do think, though, that we are not alone. I have already met four sets of neighbors with kids close in age to ours. They always ask where we moved from and then nod knowingly at our answer. Turns out they moved from Ormewood, Kirkwood, and East Atlanta themselves. As one girl told me, “We are city folk.”
I wonder how many people all over Atlanta have struggled with the same thing, forced by poverty, job location, housing prices or failing schools to make the same difficult decision that we made. Our decision is made, though, and we do not regret it. I just see it as an adventure, a challenge to find what is interesting and colorful, and special about the new area we live in. I’ve already been thinking a lot about it, and exploring this new frontier, and you can bet that you will see some Metblogs posts about it. I think that intown readers might be surprised at a few of my observations. I know I have already found a few things that surprised me.
One of my trusted friends lives north of me near Cartersville, GA. He owns a large track of farm land in the vicinity.
Just after one of the major storms that rolled through the North West Metro area last week, he went outside to grab a quick look at any damage to his property. While outside - for just a moment - he looked up at the sky and thought he saw a bird. The bird seemed to be getting larger and larger. When “it” hit the ground, it turned out to be a 2×4 piece of lumber. Then he saw something else and it was a mattress in the air and it hit the ground not too far from him. Very quickly, a ton of stuff began to fall from the sky on to his property. Needless to say, he took cover.
No joke, he is for real and this was serious. A few moments later, other more “personal belongings” fell from the air. It turned out that the remnants of other people’s destroyed homes started raining down on his property - all sucked up by a tornado. Just amazing!
I thought his story was really out there and then I saw this story online: Tornado Blows Photo 130 Miles
It’s just all so amazing to me. I’m really hoping the Spring and Summer weather season is not going to an image of this incident. If so, we all need to dig bunkers NOW.
I am writing this from my blackberry since I have no power. My girlfriend saw it coming from the dining room. We ran and hid downstairs and it looks like I just missed it.
About 20 minutes ago we ventured out to check her place. It does not look good. Memorial Drive between Boulevard and the new Triumph lofts has trees and building and power poles down. Cabbagetown is ruined. There are trees down everywhere, roofs off of houses, cars with windows out.
We could only see the Cotton mill lofts from across the tracks on dekalb ave but it looks like part of the top floor may have fallen in.
Dekalb ave itself is pretty bad. Fences are down, street signs bent over, billboards have been ripped down.
If you have loved ones on cabbagetown, edgewood, east atlanta, inman park or grant park you should probably call them.
I am not trying to be alarmist but I swear I saw all of this with my own eyes. Several streets were unpassable due to knocked down trees and buildings.
Everyone is in my prayers.
i am going to go ahead and warn you, iwill be talking about race in this post. i am going to be honest and clear in what i think. this may even include what some people might call ‘playing the race card.’ i want to get that out there up front so that if you are offended by that you can go ahead, scroll down to the comments and tell me what a communist i am without considering what i have to write.
just kidding.
the genesis for this post is the discussion that came about in annie’s post just a few down from it titled “i thought i was fearless.” it’s perhaps the most commented on post since i have been writing for the atlanta metblog which at least tells me that somebody is interested in the topic. if you haven’t read it and the ensuing comments i would encourage you to do so as it may make this post a little more understandable.
assuming that you didn’t follow my instructions here is just a tiny bit of background - annie posted about being afraid to take marta home from the dome/phillips arena station one night; frequent commenter bti questioned her about whether her fear might be racially motivated and the whole thing took off from there.
keep with me, this background is really important to the meatier discussion that is going to follow.
ok, final piece of background is on where this author comes from. first, i am a white male. second, i am a daily user of marta. several months ago i made a decision to ditch my car and take marta for my commute from north ormewood (near the zoo) to alpharetta (you can read about the decision here) and have been riding it ever since (for a running commentary of my marta adventures check out here).
okay, that’s the background, now for the meaty racial stuff after the jump -
(more…)
Hope everyone has a wonderful, safe, and happy holiday. Merry Christmas!
okay, granted i stole the idea from metroblogging los angeles, but it sounded like fun so why the hell not.
basically i am looking for your help to choose atlanta’s grinch of the year.
the idea is to pick any individual or group who has impacted a cross section of atlanta, or the city as a whole, in any negative way. they define “grinch” or “scrooge.”
some suggestions to get the ball rolling could include mike ‘the dog fighter’ vick, the army corps of ‘protect the oysters’ engineers, bobby ‘defectin’ to arkansas’ petrino, sonny ‘pray for rain’ perdue, the atlanta narcotics squad, etc.
anyway, you get the idea. leave your nominations in the comments between now and new year’s eve. the metblog writers will pick the five finalists and in the first week of the year we’ll ballot by comments.
okay, nominations are now open.
