Saturday, December 31, 2011
Stupid Your ultimate 2011 Blingee
Posted by Gwynedd Stuart on Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 11:30 PM
HAPPY NEW YEAR, ATLANTA.
Inside CL Top stories of 2011 — Thomas' picks
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 5:20 PM
Ah, 2011. We had the long-awaited lifting of the ban on Sunday alcohol sales. The laborious process to determine which road and transit projects would receive funding from a 1-cent transportation tax metro Atlanta voters will decide in July. Georgia's new immigration law (which my dear colleague Gwynedd has already covered). And oh, sweet Jesus, we had the hilarious social and political experiment known as the "Herman Cain presidential campaign." And Snowpocalypse! People were skiing in Piedmont Park, ice skating down Peachtree, and actually walking to destinations! Madness!
All these were big, important stories, and they deserve their spot on any year-end list. But personally, they weren't the stories that resonated with me on a personal level.
What stuck out to me while reporting in Atlanta over the last year: Some parts of the city prosper and other areas crumble. Or, at best, they stay the same. It's part of the old "tale of two Atlantas." Granted, this isn't some new phenomenon. But this year, as I went into neighborhoods, covered events, and spoke with community members, it felt more pronounced. And in the years ahead, especially as the city tries to adapt to its post-Great Recession landscape, I think addressing blight will be a vital (if unsexy) issue to watch.
Let's start with the good neighborhood- and city-building news — much of which occurred along the Atlanta Beltline — and then touch on the bad.
Events 5 things today: NYE 2012 Edition
Posted by Wyatt Williams on Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 8:00 AM
Check out our guide to New Year's Eve events for a full rundown of things going on tonight.
5 things to do 5 things today: NYE 2012 Edition
Posted by Wyatt Williams on Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 8:00 AM
Check out our guide to New Year's Eve events for a full rundown of things going on tonight.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Booze Atlantans, buy booze on Sunday
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 4:16 PM
Start the new year the same way you ended 2011: by drinking!
Yes, at 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 1, Atlanta will join the growing list of Georgia cities and counties which allow gas stations, bottle shops, and grocery stores to sell alcohol on Sundays.
Once you've slept off all the boxed wine you guzzled while listening to Kansas at the Peach Drop (?!?), venture to the nearest store and pick up a bottle of... what the hell do y'all drink anyways?
Please celebrate this bold new chapter in Atlanta's history responsibly.
Visual Arts / public art FLUX 2011 gets the Proper treatment
Posted by Wyatt Williams on Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 1:22 PM
Flux Film 012 | FLUX 2011 from Proper Medium on Vimeo.
The folks over at Proper Medium have released their latest Flux Film, a rhythmic, glowing document of FLUX 2011. The above clip speaks for itself, just make sure you have your headphones on.
This is the latest of 12 short films documenting the work that Flux Projects has been supporting in Atlanta. When Debbie Michaud profiled the filmmakers at the beginning of this year, Louis Corrigan explained the role their filmmaking plays in working with ephemeral public art: "When you're doing temporary projects, they have to actually live in the real world, but ultimately not that many people can experience them. [The films] can build a record and a memory of what's happened." The whole archive is worth checking out.
Neighborhoods The view from Carver Hills
Posted by Gwynedd Stuart on Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 12:56 PM
Exploring is a thing Scott Henry, Thomas Wheatley and I enjoy doing. A lot. We even call ourselves The Explorers. We have a secret handshake and sometimes we wear pith helmets. Seriously, though. We love exploring.
On yesterday's excursion into the wilds of Atlanta, we found ourselves in Carver Hills, an appropriately hilly neighborhood nestled between Perry Boulevard and Hollywood Road in Northwest Atlanta.
Two things that stand out the most about Carver Hills: lots of abandoned, condemned bungalows and a really great view ...
- Gwynedd Stuart's iPhone
Inside CL Fresh Loaf's most viewed damn posts o' THE YEAR
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 10:18 AM
In the last year we've endured an ice storm, protests, school scandals, and the usual assortment of deaths, weave burglaries, and park openings. Somehow, like we do every year, we survived. Pour a stiff drink, collapse on the fainting couch, and revisit 2011's most viewed posts on Fresh Loaf, which next year will co-sponsor legislation banning wild animals from suburban sports bars.
1. Just days before the doors opened to Dragon*Con, the annual sci-fi celebration that unleashes Klingons and superheros upon our quaint city, festival organizers said gawkers would have to buy a ticket if they wanted to party in hotel lobbies. The move was a break from previous years when people would waltz in off the street and pose for photos with Darth Vader. We still had fun.
2. CL's round-up of readers' Halloween costumes warmed your hearts. And, for some odd reason, landed on Fark's homepage three weeks later.
3. "Hi, Judge Amanda Williams? You're the judge who oversees the very successful drug court in Brunswick, Ga., right? I'm Ira Glass from This American Life."
4. Georgia's new license plate design looks very I-got-this-airbrushed-on-a-shirt-in-Helen-during-Octoberfest.
5. In February, without much fanfare, the fences surrounding Historic Fourth Ward Park near City Hall East were removed. Atlantans embraced the amenity located just a block from the Atlanta Beltline. The park's final phase, which stretches to North Avenue, is nearly complete.
6. Who knew CL readers were also Pippa Middleton obsessives?
7. The beloved King of Pops mural on the side of a laundromat near the popsicle wizard's Poncey-Highland corner is now buried under a layer of paint. R.I.P., pretty mural.
8. Want to start an interesting debate next time you sit around the drum circle? Ask if Occupy Atlanta's decision to not allow Congressman John Lewis to speak during the group's first meeting forever hurt the local movement's chances.
9. The state missed a golden opportunity by not selling commemorative copies of its special report about the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal. We could have funded transit. Or education, for that matter.
10. Bobby Franklin, the far-right Republican lawmaker who died earlier this year, didn't make many friends with his comment comparing gays to "unrepentant drug dealers."
Art-icles The year in Atlanta arts and culture
Posted by Debbie Michaud on Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 9:00 AM
- Illustration by Amanda Croy
- Tyler Perry says God says the world isn't ending in 2012, but just in case it is, read these stories.
In February, CL Food & Drink Editor Besha Rodell and I attended a collaborative event between pop-up restaurant Dinner Party and local arts co-op Dashboard in a vacant Westside warehouse. The event and its spirit felt immensely Atlanta, "a glimpse of how and what creative minds might accomplish when assumptions (of what a gallery or a restaurant is, for example) are put aside" we said in the article.
When I first read Wyatt Williams' profile on local author Blake Butler published last April, I printed out a copy, picked it up, walked over to another editor's desk and said something along the lines of, "Please read this. I'm worried because I don't want to change anything." Since then, Wyatt's also written memorable profiles of The Help author Kathryn Stockett and "CNN Newsroom" anchor Don Lemon. And done a pretty damn good Hunter S. Thompson impression.
- Joeff Davis
- Heeeeere's Don!
And then there was Curt Holman's expansive, compelling profile of Tyler Perry in April, in which he referred to the Atlanta entertainment mogul as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery — wearing a housedress and granny glasses." And the time he braved a Cobb County premiere of Sarah Palin's The Undefeated. Curt also produced a poignant piece this fall about the film industry not only abandoning 35mm, but destroying 35mm archives, and the effect on local movie theaters such as the Plaza.
Events 5 things today: Washed Out, Charlie Wilson
Posted by Wyatt Williams on Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 8:00 AM
1. Washed Out and Futurebirds play Buckhead Theatre
2. Charlie Wilson plays Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center
3. Hawks play the Nets at Phillips Arena
4. Cardio at the Sound Table
5. STS9 are seriously still jamming at the Tabernacle (Don't forget to take a minute in the cool out room or something, okay?)
