Thursday, September 30, 2010
Politics / Shenanigans / LGBT Sen. Saxby Chambliss fires slur slinging staffer
Posted by Gwynedd Stuart on Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 6:11 PM
- Joeff Davis/CL File
The brainiac Saxby Chambliss staffer who posted "All faggots must die" on the LGBT blog Joe.My.God — and who was subsequently tracked down by said blog's Web-saavy readers — has been shit-canned.
Chambliss' office released the following statement:
"The office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms has concluded its investigation, and I responded to that report immediately with the removal of a member of my staff. I commend the Sergeant at Arms, Terrance Gainer, and his staff for their very thorough and professional work."I have called Mr. Jervis, the blog's author, and apologized to him personally, and I am sorry for the hurt this incident has caused. Regardless of ones position on issues and policies, such comments are simply unacceptable, are not befitting those who work in the U.S. Senate, and I will not tolerate them from my staff."
Notice Chambliss didn't reveal the identity of the sacked staffer, nor the position he or she held in his office.
Visual Arts Atlanta Celebrates Photography roulette
Posted by Debbie Michaud on Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 6:01 PM
Let's play ACP roulette. I'll flip through the exhaustive, 90-something page festival guide and pick a few events at random to help give you an overview.
- Karen Brummund
Every year ACP commissions an artist for a public work. This year, as Art on the Beltline closes, interdisciplinary Karen Brummund's installation is a meditation on Atlanta's past and present as a railroad hub, and the effects of industrialization on the community over the last 150 or so years. Opens Sat., Oct. 2, 6-8 p.m. Continues through Sat., Oct. 30.
2. ACP Film Series
Film Love returns for ACP with a selection of films by the late experimental filmmaker Warren Sonbert. The films (available only in 16mm prints) shown will span the artist's career, including "his early trilogy of short films, set to exuberant rock and roll and documenting the seedy glamour of the 60s New York art world." Tues., Oct. 26, 7-9 p.m. at Eyedrum
Politics Roy Barnes' TV station stimulus program continues with new jobs plan ad
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 2:37 PM
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Roy Barnes — who's spent months merely raising questions about GOP challenger Nathan Deal's lackluster ethics — has started talking again about what he'd do if elected governor.
The campaign released this new ad today touting Barnes' jobs plan. No word on what media markets will air the 30-second spot.
You can read the 18-page proposal, which has a strong focus on local and Georgia businesses and includes nods to energy-efficiency and agriculture, here.
Listen to this Sidewalk Radio walks the walk, talks the talk
Posted by Debbie Michaud on Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 2:31 PM
- Courtesy Gene Kansas
- THIS COULD BE YOU TONIGHT: Gene Kanas (left) with Blondie
Local radio station WMLB AM1690 is getting ready to roll out another new art series (BurnAway recently started a new weekly series called ArtSpeak) called Sidewalk Radio. The monthly series will comprise 12, 20-minute spots focused "on art, architecture, design, development, city planning and preservation" says host Gene Kansas. Kansas, who runs a local real estate firm and sits on the board of the Contemporary and acts as Chair for the Facilities Committee, says he's "particularly interested in the way people live in and enjoy Atlanta."
First up (airing Oct. 4, 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.) is that holiest of beer-crushing temples, the Clermont Lounge and Hotel. Yes, yes, Kansas will be chatting with Blondie, whom he calls "illuminating and quite the poet," but he's also got Boyd Coons, executive director of the Atlanta Preservation Center, and Michael Gamble, tenured Professor of Architecture at Georgia Tech and Grand Prize Winner of the Clermont Hotel Design Competition, on tap to discuss the legacy and future of the Ponce landmark. Fun fact: Atlanta-based producer Ben Allen (the Constellations Deerhunter, Gringo Star, Cee-Lo, Animal Collective) wrote the show's theme song.
Tonight Kanasas and Blondie baptize the new series with a launch party at Octane with complimentary libations from 6-8 p.m.
Fiction Contest Reminder! CL's 10th Annual Fiction Contest
Posted by Melysa Martinez on Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 2:00 PM
- Submissions must incorporate “X” as a theme, a metaphor—whatever.
With another month and a half to go, entries for our fiction contest have already started to trickle in. Winners will be published in Creative Loafing, honored at an awards ceremony and get up to $1,000.
Submissions should run no more than 3,000 words and must incorporate "X" as a theme, metaphor—whatever. Fiction Contest deadline is Fri., Nov. 19 at 5 p.m. Details at clatl.com/fiction.
LGBT APD appoints second GLBT liaison ... but what about Dani Lee Harris?
Posted by Gwynedd Stuart on Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 1:43 PM
- Joeff Davis
- Former GLBT liaison Dani Lee Harris
“I expect Officer Sharp to expand on the great work and tireless efforts Officer Powell began in May to help us continue to build bridges of cooperation and understanding within the GLBT community,” Turner said in the release. “There is plenty for him to do. Our work truly has just begun.”
Conspicuously absent from the cheery announcement, however, was any mention of former GLBT liaison, Officer Dani Lee Harris. According to the APD, Harris has been on leave for medical reasons since early this year (although Harris insists she's been cleared to return to work). She's never been officially removed from her post as GLBT liaison, and the department has refused to comment on whether or not she'd be welcomed back in that capacity — or whether she'll be welcomed back at all.
When CL contacted Harris earlier today, she was unaware that a second liaison had been hired in her absence. "That's news to me," Harris said. "I Still haven’t heard anything from them, but it’s good to know they officially hired another [liaison]. At least my attorney will believe me when I say that they weren’t trying to put me back [in the position] to begin with."
Linkage Culture Grab: This week's links to local and national A&E matters
Posted by Melysa Martinez on Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 1:34 PM
- Photo Credit: www.mankerart.blogspot.com
- "Sweet 16" from "Softcore War" by Anne-Marie Manker, at Whitespace Gallery through October 9.
Emory University's Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts will host a unique concert, called "Testaments of the Heart," in which all the music was composed in concentration camps. Collected over the last 20 years by Italian conductor Francesco Lotoro, the music will be performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Georgia State University Orchestra, Emory's Department of Music and Lotoro himself. [Access Atlanta]
Do the arts need government funding to keep afloat, or are private sources the best route? The Guardian UK's Charlotte Higgins discusses the struggle within Britain's use of a "mixed economy" to run cultural organizations. [Guardian UK]
Dance Flux to showcase new dance work from Zoetic, Project Seven
Posted by Andrew Alexander on Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 12:02 PM
- Project Seven's "Midnight in the Garden" will incorporate the company's musings on the environment.
Project Seven Dance Company will premiere their newest work, “The Movement Gallery: Midnight in the Garden,” a nature scene come to life. The work involves dancers representing ethereally glowing plants and animals inside a black-lit plexiglass greenhouse. “There are a lot of transitions from stillness to movement,” says choreographer Cherrise Wakeham of the new piece, which will run throughout the evening with a group of five dancers taking turns representing various plants and animals inside the terrarium. “We're a very green company, and the piece incorporates a lot of our thoughts about preservation and conservation, our awareness of the environment and the magical qualities the earth and nature inspire.”
Zoetic Dance Ensemble will present “Click,” a multi-media performance piece about women's experiences in love, work and family. The piece will be performed in an unfinished restaurant at 101 Centennial Park, where various forms of fabric will be draped over the windows, allowing audiences to see projections from both inside and outside the venue. “It's a work that emerged from the personal stories of the dancers,” says Melanie Lynch-Blanchard, choreographer and director of the all female company. “It's about our work as women, as a community of women.”
Zoetic Dance Ensemble will perform “Click” at 8, 9, and 10 p.m. at 101 Centennial Park Drive.
Project Seven Dance Company's “The Movement Gallery: Midnight in the Garden” will be ongoing throughout the evening on Walker Street.
Shenanigans / Guv'ment Gov. Sonny Perdue, presented without context
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 10:20 AM
When surrounded by lawmakers and lobbyists all the time, it's best to speak in terms they understand.
Said the state's chief executive yesterday:
"It's like dating a couple of girls. One has attributes one way, and one has attributes the other. You go to one and say, 'you're not as this as she is,' and you go to the other and tell her, 'you're not as that as she is.'"
Transit Good news: Bike commuting in Atlanta rose 111 percent
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 9:45 AM
- Joeff Davis
In Atlanta, the share of bicycle commuters to the total city population rose from .51% to 1.08% from ’08 to ’09, an 111% increase. This was in line with the key takeaway from the League’s analysis that cities with the fewest bike amenities saw the largest year-to-year growth this past year.Still, Atlanta’s numbers are impressive. That 111% increase propelled the city from a rank of 39th in % of bike commuters in 2008 to 22nd in 2009.
Lain, who also forwarded the study, notes that it’s sort of shocking that Atlanta’s % of bike commuters was almost the same as the city of Chicago, where 1.15% of commuters bike to work.
Of course, it had everything to do with our recent issue about cycling in Atlanta. Yep. (OK, so the data covers a time period before our cycling issue came out, but humor me here.)
You can download the full stats PDF here or check 'em out in browser-friendly form at Bike Emory.
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