ATL 6/1/08 - Centennial Park

Screen on the Green - Friends...Centennial...Competing Soft Drinks
Atlanta Tornado Damage, 2 1/2 months later
Peachtree Jr - Short race...No drought here...Warming up
Midtown Reflections

MOVIE/ART/LOCAL/U.S./FRENCH/WEB NEWS

MOVIE NEWS - "You Don't Mess With The Zohan" is 2008's Summer Sandler flick. This time around, he is a kill-you-with-my-pinkie, Israeli special forces agent fighting his way through cultural misunderstandings in an unflattering wig. It looks like it has everything you'd want in an Adam Sandler movie - the phony cross-culturalism of "Spanglish", the forced tough-guy image of "Longest Yard", and the creepy homophobia of "Chuck and Larry". If only this were a flick about a taser-wielding celebutante fighting her way through a crowd of unflattering paparazzi - 'Don't Mess with the Lohan' is something I might pay to see.

June kicks off the Coca Cola Fox Film Series:

“Shine A Light” — 7:30 pm June 5
“Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!” — 2 pm June 8
“Atonement” — 7 pm June 8
“Casablanca” — 7:30 pm June 17
“No Country for Old Men” — 7:30 pm June 18
“Enchanted” — 2 pm July 13
“Ben-Hur” — 7 pm July 13

Look for more flicks in August - hopefully "Ironman"!

ART NEWS -Wednesday, June 4th, Chuck Palahniuk reads and signs at Perimeter College; part of his "Snuff" tour. The author of "Fight Club" observes life from a very odd angle...

LOCAL NEWS -Screen on the Green - I'm super sad it's not in Piedmont Park, but we still went. Two things stood out:

1) It took place across the street from the "World of Coke" attraction and within the shadow of the world headquarters of Coca-Cola. One of the sponsors was Pepsi (with the brilliant campaign of handing out beach balls with the Pepsi logo on them...at the outdoor showing of "Jaws"!)

2) A second sponsor was the Piedmont Park Conservancy, which meant that if you donated money to your local park, some of those funds were used to move this event OUT OF THAT PARK!

Tribute Lofts - S & I ride past these new condos on Freedom Parkway almost every weekend. Some of the units would seem to have a good view, and they have unarguably good access to both Freedom Park and downtown, but for me, none of those attributes overcame the Quonset Hut meets Hotel Six "architecture". It would seem that the impending auction of 40 units means I'm not alone. (Total Unit: 147. Sold to date: 68. Up for Auction: 40. In question: 39).

U.S. NEWS -Bricks and Mortar Real Estate prices are suffering, but "real estate" on the internet is selling well! Domain name "gasprices" just sold for $225,000. That's 56,000+ gallons of gas!

Food prices are going up; and as consumers look for ways to cutback on food costs, sales of "Spam" are up, too. Look for spikes in consumption of Raman Noodles, generic cheese puffs, and other college-consumed food!

I've watched with interest the effect that high oil prices is having on commodities other than automotive gasoline; surging prices of synthetic fertilizers is sparking a renewed interest in poultry litter and bird guano -nyt- Quite possibly the only time my reader will see a link from me to a story about Peruvian Boobies.

On a Nitrogen per pound basis, "commercial" comes in at about $0.35/lb; organic chicken poop is around $2.50. -Commercial vs. poultry-

FRENCH NEWS - French fashion mogul Yves St. Laurent has died (I'm certain there is no connection to the world-wide release of the "Sex in the City" movie). He helped empower women through fashion with their own feminine versions of the tuxedo and the pantsuit. He also designed the tux I wore to prom - yes, the "boy" version. He did NOT design my date's dress...

WEB NEWS -I've given up the pursuit of being trendy - I just try and make everyone do what I'm interested in! If you want to see what other folks find interesting, check-out trendwatching.