ATL 8/27/07

ME NEWS - This is me and my little brother with our Grandma and Grandpa Lennon - my mom's parents - in southern California, circa 1972. At this point in our lives, we road trip down from Oregon each summer to visit.

I look at this photo and see me being all teeth and no eyes. The teeth will be addressed soon enough...and pictured in next week's photo. I don't know what's up with the helmet hair and chubby cheeks. We look like we are auditioning for a Life cereal commercial ("hey Mikey, he likes it!")?

MOVIE NEWS - "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" at the Fox, 7:30 PM tonight!

ART NEWS - Dragon*Con is this coming weekend. The parade - starting at Woodruff Park and marching up Peachtree St - is Saturday at 10:00AM.

PLANET NEWS - Paper or plastic? How about neither! Trader Joe's sells reusable, nylon shopping bags for just $0.99! And, when you shop with it, you are entered into a weekly $25 gift certificate sweepstakes.

FRENCH NEWS - Le Monde is reporting in a series of articles about the Iraq war that the suicide rate in the U.S. army is at its highest level in 26 years. Which makes me wonder what our troops were going through in 1981 to cause a high suicide rate back then.

NATIONAL NEWS - Michael Vick faces a judge today in his plea bargain. I don't think he has much to worry about; if he spends as much of his jail sentence actually behind bars as Nicole Ritchie did last week, his jail time could be reduced by 94.3% (roughly the same amount he shortened the lives of the dogs he executed.)

LOCAL NEWS - The Little League Team from Warner Robins won the Little League World Series yesterday. There's nothing 'little' about these champions - great job! This week, let's talk more about these athletes and less about a certain mean, ole EX-Falcons quarterback.

RETAIL NEWS - Chocolate Pink, located in 905 Juniper, is open until 11:00 PM on Fridays and Saturdays for a great post-dinner dessert. They don't have a liquor license, but they'll let you BYOB - chardonnay + chocolate = bliss.

METROPOLIS NEWS - (pssst...it was my birthday yesterday)

WEB NEWS - I don't have anything against Starbucks (but if you do...go here)

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ATL 8/20/07

ME NEWS - I can remember loving this playpen in 1967. The sides ratcheted up and down, - hinged on a central post like the leg rest of a cheap, aluminum-framed lawn chair - trapping my little brother between the netted sides.

Horrors! Child entrapment? Abandonment? Permanent Developmental Psychosis?

Maybe...

I used to crawl in there with books and stuffed animals to play with my brother for hours at a time...which led to building tents out of lawn furniture and pool towels in the backyard...which developed into a need to play "Gilligan's Island" on a blanket "raft" in the middle of the living room floor...which brought me to hiding under the stairs with a flashlight, a Jules Verne book, copy of the Millennium Falcon made out of Legos and Light Brite pegs, and a sandwich bag of finger Jello cubes.

All of this - I'm certain - can be blamed on...gasp...playpens.

(It's probably also why I live in a condo and always wear my seatbelt.)

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MOVIE NEWS - "Manufactured Landscapes" starts this Friday at Landmark Art Cinema. David forced me to like subject of the film - photographer Edward Burtynsky - so I'm going to force him to take me to this movie.

ART NEWS - The Atlanta Botanical Garden is open Thursday evenings for cocktails from 6:00 to 10:00 PM through September; August's theme is "Hostas and Hurricanes". No word on whether Hurricane Dean will be joining us.

PLANET NEWS - I've just read that many exfoliants contain tiny plastic particles to scrub away dead skin cells. That plastic then goes down the drain and out into the environment and directly into the tummies of helpless little barnacles! If you can't find a skin cleanser that promises to be all natural AND exfoliate, just pour the one you have into your hand and add some sugar before scrubbing away. Works for us! Leftovers can just go into your cereal.

FRENCH NEWS - Must be a slow news day; le Monde had 2 technology stories on the front page. 1) Canon announced the release of the 10.1 megapixel 40D for about 970 Euros (Canon captured 47% of the digital camera market last year, followed by Nikon with 37%.) 2) Nokia has pissed-off India by recalling 46 million cellphones with exploding batteries. Based on my careful budgeting for our Parisian vacation in July and the current U.S. export market figures, I estimate that 970 Euros costs about ... oh, I dunno ... $100,000.

NATIONAL NEWS -ABC News reports that pain medication use has doubled in the United States in the last 10 years. In the same period, so has marijuana use in Canada - commercialized vs. socialized medicine?

LOCAL NEWS - The AJC reports that after 2 years of "negotiations", the Atlanta city council is finally taking action to limit the size of McMansions on small, intown lots. New zoning will allow big houses on big lots, small houses on small lots. This little equation took 2 years to formulate? No word on where zoning will allow these corresponding big egos to exist.

RETAIL NEWS - Join us at McCray's Tuesday, August 21st, for a big throw-down! We hear it's closing to make way for the continuation of Viewpoint's retail down Sixth Street. Can Loca Luna be far behind?

Wednesdays in August are your chance to get some South in yer Mouth at Joe's on Juniper; $1 PBR (...in a can...in a brown paper bag), moon pies, tater tots, and more Daisy Duke shorts than you can shake a corn dog at.

MIDTOWN NEWS - Because of a judge's ruling last week, the Atlanta Botanical Garden plans to begin construction on their parking deck in Piedmont Park this October. (nearly 2 years after the city council's vote of approval.) Wait...that's funny...did I just dis on something I promoted?

WEB NEWS - I (heart) T-Shirts and I (HEART) Threadless.

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ATL 8/13/07

Movie news - The Fox Theatre is showing 2 movies this week. Thursday (8/16) at 7:30 is "Spiderman 3" and Sunday (8/19) at 7:00 PM is "Knocked Up". It's $7 at the door, or $60 for a pack of 12 tickets. ($5 each for the math impaired...well...for everyone...really.)

I heard the movie version of "The Nanny Diaries" is coming to theaters August 24th. (Sure, it was a fun book, and it was published a year before that other I-have-an-icky-boss tell-all tome, but how is this movie not just "Devil Wears Diapers?")

Art news - This Friday is Jazz night at the High Museum, 5 PM to midnight.

French news - American mortgage rates are a hot topic as Thierry Breton, a former French Economic Minister, speaking on the fall of international financial market indices, claims that the Central European Bank is a "prisoner" of the practice of increasing mortgage rates/payments and American debt. (Growing the French treasury isn't just as easy as selling us Louisiana again, is it?)

National news -Mitt Romney won the Iowa straw poll. (Patricia A. Morris of Winterset won first place overall in the C&H Preserves competition ... and was awarded 30 pounds of C&H sugar for her peach preserves.)

Local news -It's Downtown Atlanta Restaurant Week. (Most folks know I joke about not going south of the Fox Theater, but for a $25, 3-course dinner at French American Brasserie, I'll get in mom's car.)

Midtown news - The old Red Cross site on Monroe is becoming Gable apartments, with the largest unit (1,400 sq. ft.) renting for $1800.

999 Peachtree, our next door neighbor here at Metropolis, is going to be redeveloped with an additional 50,000 sq. ft. of retail. The architectural firm GreenbergFarrow designing the do-over is going to be a new neighbor, too; moving its headquarters from Cobb County to W. Peachtree.

Retail news -Beleza opens in 905 Juniper on August 14th - "The foodarati are lining up for the opening of BELEZA, Richard Ullio’s Brazilian juice bar and restaurant and CUERNO, his ode to Spanish cuisine." craigslist (UPDATE from a real, live, Beleza employee - setting up the kitchen this afternoon, but probably no opening until the weekend...)


Plus, H&M is coming (I'm going). Part of its new Atlantic Station location will include space currently in use by Metropolitan Deluxe, making MD the first Atlantic Station casualty I'm aware of.

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ATL 8/6/07

Dad has challenged me with scanning part of his photo slide collection to digital format, so the next few weeks will be on the subject of photos from my past. This is me and ma on the Washington Park carousel in Portland, Oregon, July 1967 ish. (My immediate, family-wide population has gone from 2 to 3 and not yet to 4, as Dad is home from his tour of duty in Alaska and my little brother doesn't show up for another 4 months.)

Movie news - This Saturday (8/11) at 8:00 PM, the Center for Puppetry Arts is showing an intriguing movie: "Written by award-winning fantasy writer Neil Gaiman, Mirror Mask is a phantasmagorical treat for the eyes and mind, a wondrous blend of live action and computer graphics animation, where strange, magical creatures dwell in a fantasy world of unbridled imagination and scope, as told through the spectacular, cutting-edge visuals of designer/director Dave McKean."

Art news - This Sunday (8/12), the Atlanta Symphony plays in Piedmont Park at 7:30 PM

Retail news - Alternative Apparel has some smokin' T-shirt designs and a cool new store in Va-Hi. Check it out.

French news -The EU has announced a total quarantine on importing any livestock or livestock products from England in an attempt to isolate an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. (Fortunately, there is no quarantine against foot-in-mouth disease, so I am still able to visit my french friends...)

National news - Waiting one week after the originally announced wedding date, Usher finally got married. (I'm still waiting to care.)

Local news - Tuesday night, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM, the Midtown Neighbor Association celebrates "Night Out" at the corner of 6th and Myrtle streets to take back the neighborhood from some of the shady characters that hang out there the other 364 days of the year. (We're roasting wienies! Take that, you mean old hookers!)

Traffic news - According to the Georgia Driver's Manual, it is LEGAL to make a left turn from the left lane of a one-way street onto another one-way street with traffic moving to the left. (It is not, however, ILLEGAL to be a f&*$ing idiot.)

Also (and this is a complete joke), when entering the expressway by way of an on ramp, the vehicles in the expressway have the right-of-way, "but courteous drivers will permit you to move into expressway traffic". HA!

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ATL 7/30/07

Movie news - "One Missed Call", partly filmed across 8th street from Metropolis and shamelessly promoted at this week's "Comic-Con" in San Diego, is scheduled for release January 4, 2008. (It's not too early to make plans for our own "Dragon*Con" in Atlanta, coming August 31 - September 3.)

French news - Today's headline in Le Monde is the United States' arming of its allies in the Middle East to the tune of $20 billion; they interpret this as an attempt to form an "anti-Iran front".

Art news - This Saturday is the 1st Saturday of the month; admission is free at the High Museum of Art for the first 600 Fulton County residents.

National news - Star Jones announced that since August 2003, she has lost 47% of her body weight through gastric bypass. I lost 100% of her by having a "pointless celebrity" bypass.

Local news - Cobb County has passed an ordinance limiting the number of adults living in a house to 1 per each 390 sq. ft. Some folks wrote to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to take exception to that.

Really, Really Local news - My photo books are online at blurb.com! Also, e*weber gallery will be selling my gift cards and Metropolis residents can join the DVD Club at the concierge desk (you can view the movie list here)

PLUS! Always, always, always, I keep an updated (as often as I see fit) link list for the Atlanta condo and development projects that I find interesting (in the right hand column of the blog page, under "Architecture and Condos"). It's by no means completely comprehensive, just a collection of links that is easy for me to reference. And, if I'm missing a project that you like, email me! If I agree with you, I'll add it. If I don't, go here -->

(french-english dictionary)

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Paris - Marche des Fiertés

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