More pictures -> August 2006 Roadtrip
Additional Georgia Guidestone pictures on Amber Rhea’s Gallery
Month: August 2006
LA's Got Nothing on ATL: Except for Hollywood…
This post has the added bonus of my sweet wife ghost-writing. In other words, I couldn’t remember all the things we did so she added what I forgot…
Last week, some of my wife’s friends from LA came to town and left impressed with Atlanta. Even though we don’t have the movie glamor of Hollywood, think about it. That would just mean Lindsay Lohan snorting coke at the Earl and running people off the road on Ponce.
We started with the “Maltese Falcon” at the Fox, following a tasty-as-always dinner at Chinese Buddha. A double-feature with “Key Largo,” we left after the first movie and headed to Cafe Intermezzo, fulfilling our guests’ desire for an excellent hot chocolate. Unfortunately I had to work during their second day in the city, but my wife showed them around Midtown and Decatur, introducing Dawn to the wonders of the Radial Cafe and Victory Vintage, and ending the day with true Southern hospitality (and blue hair) at The Colonnade.
Their last day was spent cruising the city: breakfast at the Silver Skillet, followed by Atlantic Station, Castleberry Hill, Little Five Points, East Atlanta, and Piedmont Park (and even a brief detour through Buckhead, just to show them why it’s so wrong). After a little break it was dinner at the always-unique Dante’s Down The Hatch. Boiling in oil your own dinner in a pirate-ship. They don’t have anything like that in Los Angeles. At least not that they knew of. They’d also never heard of feta-cheese-and-pine-nut ice cream, until a post-dinner dessert run to Muriel & Sebastian’s Ice Cream (Dan and the wife swear it’s much better than it sounds, but Dawn and I are chocolate purists and refuse to believe them).
While Dan wasn’t able to get the absinthe I was itching for, he did get me a related gift. Yet to try it, will report if I go crazy.
Sunday, me and the missus hit the Tabernacle to see Muse. Fantastic show, with a great sound mix that had everything sounding pretty much like the album. Since the album is pretty well produced, it was nice to see a performance that sounded as good as it looked. I wish I had a better view, but seeing that it was a packed show I’m not complaining. City Savvy Girl posted a review on Confessions of a Music Addict, complete with horrible pun in title.
And prior to all this, I had an interview at the High Museum of Art for on-call art installation work. It would be working with pieces from the Louvre as part of an exclusive loan agreement. I’m hoping that my work with the Guggenheim and its similar arrangement with the Hermitage will work to my advantage.
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Somewhat related links:
The “Fabulous Fox Theatre” in Atlanta, Georgia, a tribute web site
Kidnapping as Artform: "Good Cinema" and "The Garth Method"
Crime has always been fodder for films. But what happens when crime is part of the filmmaking process? I got to see “Good Cinema” as part of the 2005 Dam Short Fest in Boulder City, NV. This funny short film was based on the premise of two kidnap victims forced to act out a romantic dialogue for a couple of deranged movie makers. The complete strangers went on to make the scene tender, touching and good while being given direction by the two psychopaths. After the movie, the filmmakers had the actor over for dinner to celebrate. The best laugh comes with the meal, and the movie is available online (Quicktime – High Speed or Quicktime – Low Speed)
Now imagine that scenario, but you’re Australian and you really got kidnapped. That’s what happened to the victims of Garth Petridis. A desperate, out of work actor, he grabbed various people off the street, forced them to act the roles that he cast for them, and then let them go. Eventually caught and jailed, he served a year in prison for his rather strange crime spree. The Garth Method is a combination of the film footage shot by Petridis and recreations by Melbourne-based filmmaker Gregory Pakis. You can read an interview with both criminal actor and filmmaker on Film Threat.
Now I feel like a dumbass because in looking up this movie, I found that I really wanted to see it, and that I missed my chance when it played at the Atlanta Underground Film Fest in August. Oh, well. Check the trailer to see what you missed, and if you did see it tell me if it was worth seeing.
Oh, yeah, I know, it was done in Cecil B. DeMented also.
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Nation of Wimps, Part 2: "The Tyranny of Therapism"
The tyranny of Therapism: ” The authors of One Nation Under Therapy question the notion that uninhibited emotional openness is good for our mental health.”
Another treatise on how a child that struggles with normal emotional issues benefits mentally.
Neon Poisoning 