What is the mission of Church on the Street?

What we believe is that no one is left out of God’s love. We don’t have the luxury of being able to just sit up in our nice condos or our houses in suburbs and forget about these people. We believe homelessness is a relationship problem. The first thing we want to do is to let people know that even though the world has pushed them aside or counted them invisible, the Church and God doesn’t. We go to them, and we love them. We’re not there to provide a meal for them or cottle them as some would say.

If you see a non-human meat eater loping about Zoo Atlanta, chances are Rebecca Snyder knows the animal personally. Snyder, 39, hails from Iowa but relocated to Atlanta to pursue a doctorate in psychology. She’s journeyed as far as China to study maternal behavior in pandas, researching everything from the way the gender of the cub affects parental care to how the amount of time with its mother affects a cub. With Lun Lun’s recent delivery, Snyder is seeing 11 years of research come full circle.

“I have gotten to study Yang Yang and Lun Lun since they were born [in China]. I have known them their whole lives. I knew their mothers really well and now I am able to watch Lun Lun as a mother herself.”

Pandas weren’t the only animals to get busy recently. “The lioness just gave birth. It was great to see her as a mother. It is fun to watch [the lions] interact as a family.”

What does she find weird? When exposed to an object with a unique scent, a panda will pick the object up and rub it all over itself, “It’s fun. We expose them to lots of scents. Yang Yang loves Tobasco and mouthwash.”

“I have never been in danger. We work with captive animals so I’ve not felt like I wasn’t safe — though I do have nightmares about tigers escaping.”

A zoo PR rep didn’t want Snyder to talk about last year’s tiger escape at the San Francisco Zoo, which resulted in a visitor’s death. But Snyder did say a tiger couldn’t escape in Atlanta: “Our fencing is taller than San Francisco. We have measured since then and decided to [raise it] higher than what is regulation.”

- Mary Moore

During the last 10 years, people have given Cara Brown a lot of crap for not using her Georgia Tech industrial engineering degree. Literally, that is -- she works as a poop scooper for Dirty Work, driving to her clients' yards and picking up where their dogs left off.

Her post-graduation desk job bored her. "I was tired of the solitude and being indoors. It's all about doing what you enjoy, and I really love being outside and with animals."

Although the majority of her business is residential, she also scoops for condos, kennels and events such as Turner Field's Bark at the Park.

She cleans some litter boxes and rabbit cages, but also takes care of "any kind of wildlife poop" in the yard. "We try to pick up anything we find, or the dog could eat it."

She's retrieved paper money and a diamond ring that dogs had eaten, and once came across the plastic eyes a dog ate off a toy. "The pile of poop was looking up at me."

"People are always very careful what they call it. You know they want to use the 's' word, but they'll say something like 'feces' or 'No. 2.' 'Poop' is the biggest."

Photo by Joeff Davis

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David Booker-Earley is a 13-year-old jazz percussionist at Jean Childs Young Middle School. The school's band won this year's Youth Jazz Competition at the Atlanta Jazz Festival.

Why did you start playing percussion instruments?

It started a long time ago when my older brother came home one day, twirling his sticks, playing a lot of stuff I didn’t know what was. So it just looked pretty cool to me and I thought I’d try it out.

Do you bang on the table when you’re eating dinner?

Oh, yes. Anything I can use to beat on is my instrument. I even played on the concrete with my hands one time. It hurt, but I made a cool song there.

How does your family feel about you banging on things all the time?

My brothers, they bang along with me. My sister, she sings with us. All of us are really percussionists inside. But sometimes they might tell me to stop because they’re trying to watch TV.

Are there any obsessed girl fans at school?

Kind of, sometimes.

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Jamie Karns is a bouncer at Lenny’s Bar and Grill. At six-feet two-inches tall and 415 pounds, 37-year-old Karns is also known as Fat Guy.

What kind of training do you need to be a bouncer?

Patience is the biggest factor. There’s not really a special class on how to throw someone out, but you need to be able to control your temper when somebody is obviously drunk and not get mad at him for being rude.

How can you recognize a fake ID?

Most of them are pretty bad. Things like, the girl’s eyes are blue but the girl your talking to’s eyes are green. The manufactured fake ID, things like the watermarks are wrong, the color of ink they use is wrong.

Just how bad do they get?

I’ve gotten several IDs from people I know. A total stranger walks up and gives me an ID of someone I actually know. And I’m like, “This isn’t you.” And they’re like, “Oh, yes it is.” But I’m like, “This is the guy I went to high school with, it’s not you.”

What would you do if someone brought in a McLovin ID (from the movie Superbad)?

That would definitely not fly. First off, no one has just one name, you know? But odd states like Hawaii and whatnot, don’t work. Give me the one of the state you’re in.

Do girls try to flirt with you to get in?

Mm-hmm.

Does it work?

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Bernie Tekippe has been repairing clocks in Atlanta since the ’60s. He says he can fix any mechanical clock made in the last 300 years.

“One of the difficulties is trying to diagnose what’s wrong with it, especially if it almost works. You can spend a lot of time fixing the wrong thing.”

He builds clocks, too, usually a dozen at a time. He’s built about 200 in his life and occasionally gives clock-making workshops.

He doesn’t wear a watch, saying it would get in the way and isn’t necessary. “When I’m in here I have clocks all around me.”

He says he’s not punctual, but is aware of the irony.

On digital clocks: “They’re wonderful. They’re what we’ve been trying to make for 300 years. I think we should put them in nicer cases, though. We think they’re cheap, so we put them in cheap cases.”

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Beth O’Connor teaches people about nutrition, health, fitness, meditation, and spirit — the elements of what she says comprise wellness.

“You don’t have to be a size 2 but you can eat nutritiously. Stay away from saturated fats. Stay away from all the processed foods, packaged foods.”

O’Connor teaches groups at wellness parties: “We talk about nutrition and fitness. I teach them meditation and give them some yoga stretches to do. I massage and they learn how to massage — very basic things.”

On Southern food: “I love [Paula Deen].  But everything she makes, it’s just butter, pounds and pounds of butter. I eat butter, but very in moderation.”

“[A]bout five years ago, I realized I can’t eat this southern fried food anymore. I gained so much weight during my marriage and I’m still battling it. I believe a lot is genetics, but we’re still in control.

O’Connor says diet is the primary cause of unwellness. “What you put in your body is gonna affect you, five years from now, 10 years from now.”

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Jay Yeomans, 51, is head referee at Paintball Atlanta. An aficionado of paintball for 15 years, he also maintains the company’s equipment and the facilities.

"You get bruises, maybe a couple little stitches, a turned ankle, something like that – something you can do playing in the backyard. But no one has had a serious injury [at Paintball Atlanta], especially eye-related."

"Everybody [at Paintball Atlanta] has got to deal with me sooner or later. I'm not known for my wonderful attitude."

"When a paintball hits you in the mask and it's in your mouth, usually you gag, hack and spit. And cussing usually is in there somewhere. It's got that 4-week-old, uncooked meat smell. It's nasty."

On his daughter: "She just turned 18, she's been playing for four years. She's very brutal. She put Father's Day scars on both sides of my neck. It’s alright. I got her later."

Is paintball a sport? "What is your definition of a sport? Okay, like football where you’re playing against another team in front of an audience – spectators – at the big tournaments? You get just as many people as you would on a decent football game. There is money at stake, trophies at stake, sponsorships from manufacturers."

On real guns: "Most of my guns, I have sold. One of them was grandfather’s shotgun – sentimental. I kept that. One’s a pistol – protection. I kept that."

"Paintball is nothing like the military. It’s a very sore spot. There are a lot of people out there, churches and other organizations that consider paintball as teaching our children paramilitary training, how to kill somebody else. I’ve called it a paintball gun – we call it a paintball marker. . We don’t kill in paintball, we eliminate. Usually until the next game starts up, which is usually in about 10, 15 minutes."

"Because the word “gun” is just not a good thing to be thrown around. You can’t talk about paintball in schools because it involves a gun, if you will. Because my daughter tried to set up a team, to start playing a team at school. And the word “gun” came out, and they said, 'That’s it. Forget it.'"

“The pay’s good and it’s a job I love doing. You can’t beat that."

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Michael Ellis is the founder and director of Atlanta Wild Animal Rescue Effort. AWARE helps injured and distressed urban wildlife at its facility in Lithonia.

Ellis got involved with wildlife through his work as a builder. “I built some gibbon ape habitats at Yerkes.”

In Belize with a Yerkes primatologist, Ellis met a couple from Washington state who rescued wildlife at their home: “I moved to Washington to volunteer [for them]. I had $700 and my Chevy S-10.”

On the animals he rescues now: “At any wildlife center, birds are 70% of the intake. But it’s everything – hummingbirds, eagles, mice, eagles, deer, possums, squirrels.”

"Roaming cats are one of the biggest devastators of wildlife in this country. Every free roaming domestic cat kills 200 to 400 wild animals a year."

The biggest mistake people make with wild animals: “People identify animals [that are by themselves] as orphans. They interrupt the most critical training [for these animals.]

To which animals is Ellis most attached? “The ones least likely to survive, because I'm forced to spend more time with them than any other animal."

"If I had to pick a favorite animal native to North America, it'd probably be a wolf because they represent all the good and all the bad that's ever happened in this country."

On releasing a rehabilitated animal into the wild: "Every time I release an animal, it almost makes me cry. Almost, every time."

Do the animals he rescues socialize? “Birds put up with each other. The young ones interact. If you put an orphaned red-tailed hawk with an adult, there’s good chance the adult will feed the baby.

Yeah, but do hawks play basketball: “No, they don’t play basketball.”

On his father, George Ellis: “ He had the first spoof late night horror satire show in Atlanta on WAGA-TV in the 60s called Big Movie Shocker. He and I sang, acted and had [movie] theatres called the Film Forum. We introduced Atlanta to the art flick world.”

(Photo by Dustin Chambers)

Charles Knox has been writing orchestral and choir music for half a century, and spent three decades teaching music theory and composition at Georgia State University.

He prefers writing to performing. “I’ve played the piano and the trombone, but I don’t play anything in public.”

Classical is also classic, he says. “Music that has an immediate appeal often doesn’t last very long.”

He got into music while at the University of Georgia, playing in jazz and dance bands, but says he quickly committed himself to writing.

"Yes, there are times when performers add their own interpretations [to his compositions]. They're not computers; they don't just read what's on the page. They add their own emotions. Only on rare occasions have I been disappointed in a performer's take, and then it was usually just a kid, so you cut them some slack."

On his least favorite kind of music: “I can’t say. Within any style there are the truly talented ones and there are the ones who are just going through the motions.”

On being called the dean of Atlanta composers: “Basically it just means I’m the oldest.”

He does get writer's block, he says, but if he has a secret to beating it, he's not giving it up. "I always manage to find something to get started, and once I get started I can usually write something. Then I just hope it's good."

He’s written a few palindromes. “Some people say it’s a lazy way to write music, since you just write half, but you’d be surprised. A lot of music doesn’t quite work backward.”

"Having a visual aspect is something we've come to expect with entertainment. Having a group of musicians essentially sitting still on stage, except for bows moving, you have to be very intent on listening."

"I suspect that rock and hip-hop have become so popular partly because of visual displays. The guitar is one of the only instruments you can play and sing and dance at the same time. If you tried to do that with a flute or trombone you could rattle your teeth out."

Knox titled a CD of his music Clouds Are Not Spheres. "It's a quote from a mathematician describing how things are much more complicated than they seem. A sphere is simple; clouds are not. That's what I was referring to."

Listen to the three movements of Knox's "Semordnilap No. 2," recorded live in Hawaii in January 2006.

First movement

Second movement

Third movement

The first and third movements mirror each other (the third is the first in reverse), and the second movement is a palindrome in itself. Performers for this rendition are Amy Schwartz Moretti (violin), Steve Moretti (djembe), Dorothy Lewis (cello) and Cary Lewis (piano). (Live recordings courtesy Cary Lewis and Lux Nova Press)

He hasn't written much music in recent years because his wife has been ill, but his latest piece, written to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Druid Hills Presbyterian Church, will be performed there June 22.

(Photo by John Nowak)