Author: Robert Kimberly

“My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought, cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.”

– Hedley Lamarr, “Blazing Saddles” – 1974

I love that quote. It seems often that I can’t turn off my head, music, ideas, etc. Always thinking. That line comes to mind when I can’t turn it off. It’s that constant thinking which is why I find myself researching and writing about bizarre/eclectic things. This post was written before Christmas, which I will be posting about in the near future.

Until then…

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Bamboo is beautiful, a material relatively easy to grow and environmentally sound. So, as a carpenter I’ve been looking at it as something to build with. Specifically, a baby stroller.

This…

… is not what I’m thinking of. Something more in the style of this vintage rattan chair…

Ambitious, I know. While researching the stroller idea, I’ve found that I’m not the only one looking at bamboo to use in transportation.

The American Bamboo Society (ABS) – Bamboo Bicycle

Brano Meres – Bamboo Bicycle

Calfee Design – Bamboo Bicycle

The Calfee Design bikes are far too expensive to even think about, $2,695 and up. The Brano Meres page talks about construction methods which is useful. And lastly…

Bamboo Trailer

So, the dream of a bamboo baby mover lives on. Now about baby making, gotta get on that.

Bizzarro Christmas tunes are a must for me, the only way I really get into the season. And Scenestars just gave me an early present in streaming Harlan T. Bobo’s “Merry Christmas Spaceman”.

Languid guitars slur their notes together, cheesy organs riff on seasonal songs, and exotica, alt-country, lounge and surf all live happily on this strange album.

The album can be heard on Scenestars, just click on contributing writer Racheal’s head for her radio station.

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Visit Harlan’s Myspace Page

Buy Merry Christmas Spaceman at Goner Records. 18 songs for only $9.99.

Wth Christmas coming, I find my internet activities disrupted. Favorite sites, like Pitchfork, are taking a break, but here I am still hitting the web looking for new stuff to read.

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Being an on-call worker means both making my own schedule and being at the whims of my employers. Christmas means the end of work until the new year.

But the last week has been crazy busy and the time off a welcome change. All of my waking time has been spent at the Ferst Center aiding in Tyler Perry’s production of “Why Did I get Married?” In addition to 5 shows in 3 days, they were all taped to be eventually edited and released as a DVD.

For those who don’t know Tyler Perry, he popped up on a lot of people’s radar with the success of his movie, “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.” It was an adaptation of his sucessful play, and one that helped him get on Details Magazine’s list of most powerful men under 39. Details states that he’s earned about 80 million off of his various productions, plays, CDs and DVDs. His core demographic, blacks looking for an alternative to bling-and-crime focused entertainment. The central topic of his plays, the strengths found in faith, family and fidelity. All the shows last week, sold out. There was a reason a Bentley was parked out back of the Ferst Center. He knows what his audience want.

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Why I love Shoplifting from Big Corporations A manifesto film about the evils of corporations and the joy of the 5-finger discount. Stars local girl Anessa Ramsey who was in Geek Love.

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Kudzu Covered Houses in North Georgia

Kudzu in Atlanta, Georgia and surrounding areas

By Jack Anthony

This is all cool with it’s huge tires and plane on the back, but where’s the bling?

I would pimp this out with Chip Foose Rims, a Bang & Olufsen home stereo and a Bombardier Learjet 60XR on the back!

All of that will be after I get my Trilobis 65 Floating Home/aqua-crib!

I get like this every Christmas. Once I get socks and a magazine subscription for presents I settle down.

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I’m busting my butt at work, but the 14 hours days are going to be paying for Christmas gifts and the credit card bills. More on the job when I get some sleep in me.

“Scatological, but a comic genius.”

Former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson (1973-1981 and 1989-1993) after seeing Richard Pryor in concert.

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I’ve assigned myself a crash course in Atlanta history, using the kinda sweet/kinda annoying Atlanta-Fulton Public Library Online System’s to get me my reading material.

The above quote comes from Frederick Allen’s 1996 book, “Atlanta Rising.’ It’s a good read, and tackles the city’s history by looking at the people that made up the power elite. I like my history books full of charactors to keep the events from getting too abstract. In that regard, it’s much like “The Power and the Money, The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America 1947-2000″ by Sally Denton and Roger Morris.

Anyways, Allen’s book is my first good primer on the city, the first bad book, Archival Atlanta. I was hoping for a collection of unique tales told well, but this just felt like I was listening to a rambling relative with questionable memory.

Now on to the random crap…

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I went to Hartwick College with this guy, The Lizardman. He didn’t look like that back then.

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Baby Bush Toys | Simple Products for Simple Minds

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It’s not just a crazy conspiracy, it’s a fashion statement.

“Black Helicopters (BH) are not just helicopters with a black paint-job as you may have been told. They are, in fact, autonomous agents — lifeforms — created by New World Order (NWO) agencies via nanobiotechnology. Their primary purpose is to spy on the activities of average citizens in order to gather tactical information and discover “subversives” who are not bowing to the will of the Liberati’s UN-backed Federal Government. Furthermore, when the NWO Invasion takes place in the not-too-distant future, they will round up citizens for internment in concentration camps or carry out the elimination of the more vocally anti-Liberati.”

The NYT is throwing some love our way with an article about the Castleberry Arts District.

In Atlanta, a New Arts District Catches On – New York Times

“… hanging in the door, were my keys. Yup. Not only did I leave the keys to my semi-new car outside merely steps from the actual vehicle, but I left the token of entry to our home in a place where it would have required no effort to break in and kill us, rob us, etc.”

Last night, Chez Kimberly (a.k.a. our apartment) was host to a small party. Included on the guest were online local folk Duane, Amber and her GDBF. The above quote about misplaced car-keys got me wondering if the night’s event was to blame for him leaving his keys out in the cold. If so, sorry.

It was interesting to tell my wife’s co-workers that I had never met two of the people invited. While not said aloud, sometimes I can hear the question, “Why would you want to meet someone you only know by reading about?” My thinking is that they wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet John Keats (dead) or Oscar Wilde (ditto) solely based on their writings. So, Duane and Amber were asked because I liked what they thought and how they said it. Plus they brought good stuff to the party, just like I thought they might.

It was nice finally meeting the people behind the blogs, seeing how they matched up with their words. I didn’t talk to them as much as I wanted, but I was trying to appear smart in front of Caroline’s G-Tech colleagues so as not to embarass her. I think I held my own.

The food went over well, the people seemed to enjoy the party, and it was 2:20 am when the last ones made it out the door. All-in-all, a great night.

Another gift on my list from Mom and Dad…

The Korla Pandit DVD

Korla Pandit played the piano and organ on a nationally-syndicated show in early 1950’s, always gazing into the camera. Now he plays in our living room. So dreamy…

Work:

Friday night, got to work the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Christmas show at the Ferst Center as a spotlight operator. Which meant a great view of the show. While I love me my vintage clothes, I wasn’t huge into the swing thing when it had a revival in the 90’s and I didn’t know how much the band would be coasting on costumes and schtick. But the show was a great one with just the right amount of showmanship from the lead singer/guitar and stellar playing from the band.

Being the Christmas show, they did some seasonal tunes like “Mr Heat Miser” from The Year Without a Santa Claus. The best of the five Christmas songs was also the most interesting. It was a mambo version of Elvis’s “Blue Christmas,” with a Perez Prado tempo and horn treatment. Brought the house down.

Weather & Weekend:

Sunday was my birthday and the rain prevented my wife’s plans from working out. We were going to roadtrip to Chattanooga to see Rock City’s Garden of Lights. Years ago, Caroline and I went to Rock City and loved the retro-tacky/natural-beauty wonder of the it all. Don’t know much about the place?… here’s a good primer on one of my favorite places.

While I loved the idea of going for my birthday, I vetoed going in the rain. After an afternoon of watching the Atlanta Radar Map I’m glad we skipped it, nonstop rain from here to Chattanooga all day. Instead we went to the Antique Factory in Chamble, went to Atlantic Station just in time for all the stores to close and ran around Ikea for a little while. All in all a nice night.

And this morning I woke up early and got to open a package from FedEx. Thanks, Mom and Dad, it now lives on top of my iMac…

Click the picture to see the sign in its blinky, light-up glory.