4/21/09 - Beach & AFF

	MOVIE - AFF cont. ART - Inman Park Arts Festival LOCAL - Mom vs. The State -ajc-
	U.S. - Blagojevich's reality UNIVERSE - Earth-sized planet found -nyt- WEB - Last chance goof-off -kenken-

MOVIE NEWS - AFF cont. So far, I've met the writer/star of "Deadland", Q&A-ed with the director of the animated short "Chroma Chameleon", cheered on the underdog director of way-better-than-expected "Killer Movie", and was astonished by the video-taped exploits of 12-year old female impersonator. More on Friday and Saturday!

ART NEWS - Inman Park Arts Festival Just go; it's one of the first and best of all the Atlanta Neighborhood Festivals. The parade is at 2:00 on Saturday and is one step closer to my NYE resolution to "Be In More Parades".

LOCAL NEWS - Mom vs. The State -ajc- Dekalb County homeowners are limited to 25 minutes of outdoor watering 3 times per week, but no car washing. Ma and Pa K. don't water their lawn (it's drought-acclimated, long-rooted fescue), so they want to wash their car. Why should some people get to water lawns for 75 minutes per week, but they can't wash their sedan for 10 minutes? What if it's parked on the lawn? Isn't that just watering my lawn...from my car? It's Guv'ner Sunshine vs. my mom. Stay tuned.

SAVE BLONDIE - Gene Kansas is helping sell "The Clairmont Hotel" for $6.5 million. Don't worry; the 180 residential rooms are for sale, the Lounge is not.

U.S. NEWS - Blagojevich's reality - The court turned down disgraced Illinois ex-guv Blagojevich's request to violate the conditions of his bond to travel to Costa Rica to participate in a reality show. Apparently, filming reality TV pays better than making license plates.

BREAST FEEDING - A study shows that women who breast feed their child for at least one month showed lower risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol. The study tried to imply that breast feeding makes women healthier, but it could just as well be that naturally healthier women are more likely to breast feed in the first place.

UNIVERSE NEWS - Earth-sized planet found -nyt- Astronomers discovered an Earth-sized planet orbiting a red star 20 light years from Earth. At that distance, it's like looking for the reflection of a needle next to a burning haystack. In other news, I couldn't find my glasses this morning.

WEB NEWS - Last chance goof-off -kenken-

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4/14/09 - ATL Film Fest

	MOVIE - Atlanta Film Fest ART - Tongo Hiti -T Vic's- LOCAL - Piedmont Parking
	U.S. - Bo, Bluebeard, Billie Jean FRANCE - U.S. deports -lemonde- WEB - Habachy

MOVIE NEWS - Give me a buzz if any of these Atlanta Film Festival offerings at Landmark sound interesting! (As if the AFF isn't enough, the High is showing French Films this Friday and Saturday -high-)

Sun, 4/19, 12:30 PM - Gone With The Wind (TCM at the Fox)
8:30 PM - Animation Extravaganza

Mon, 4/20, 1:30 PM - Deadland
5:00 PM - Animation Extravaganza 1

Tues, 4/21, 4:30 PM - Killer Movie
9:35 PM - Pink Peach Shorts

Fri, 4/24, 7:15 PM - The Girl from Monaco
9:45 PM - Comedy Shorts

Sat, 4/25, 7:30 PM - Rudo and Cursi

ART NEWS -

Tongo Hiti -T Vic's- Just go...it's the most fun ever...4 hours of lounge, hula, and crooning, all drowning in the High Seas of $5 Mai Tais... ...and hardly any pirates!

Dogwood Festival - Don't forget to celebrate Atlanta's first big festival of the year as it returns to Piedmont Park this Friday through Sunday -dogwood-. Last year's festival was bumped to the Lenox Square parking deck because of the drought; this year, it's back in the Park...and it brought the deck with it!

LOCAL NEWS -

PIEDMONT PARKING - I see the Atlanta Botanical Garden got their parking pass payment scheme from MARTA's Breeze Card; you must first to buy a $5 parking card before being allowed to then purchase fares to load onto the card. The opening of the new parking deck May 2nd coincides with the closing of the old, free, Park Drive surface lot; can't wait to see how the loss of 100+ free parking spots will affect neighborhood street parking!

I like the sound of these announcement from the Midtown SPI-16 Development Review Committee. It looks like Midtown is in for more outdoor dining opportunities:

"Façade and roofing alterations and patio enclosure for new 24-hour diner (former Jocks & Jills space)"

"Ra Sushi – NE corner of Crescent Avenue at 11th Street: Supplemental Zone patio enclosure for outdoor dining and façade alterations for onstreet bar and ventilation"

Water Lilies - Monet from MoMa at the Museum (coming to the High June 6th) -nyt-

U.S. NEWS -

Bo - Seems there's a new dog living in the White House. That beats a (misbehaving, former) President living in the doghouse.

Bluebeard - What to do about the current round of pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia? With 20,000 ocean going vessels afloat at any given time, we can't very well arm every boat. If they don't get a bit part in the next Disney feature with Johnny Depp, I'm all for more archaic methods; flogging, keel-hauling, or AA.

Billy Jean - It seems the planned auction of Michael Jackson memorabilia was called off at the last moment -nyt- -julien's auction- Flipping through the catalog, I didn't see anything REALLY memorable...like a framed copy of an acquittal...or extradition papers from Dubai.

FRANCE NEWS - I didn't find this story on NYT; according to a Human Rights Watch report, a U.S. law allowing deportation of immigrants guilty of a violent crime has had the effect of deporting immigrants guilty of as little as a traffic violation. HRW proposes that the Obama administration "revisit" the law. I already called about this; they are a little busy helping "law-abiding" citizens...like bank CEO's. -lemonde-

French marines captured 11 pirates off the coast of Kenya. Is it okay...pretty please...to deport them? -lemonde-

WEB NEWS - Michael Habachy has revamped his site; check it out!

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