Tag: My Flickr Pictures

First Friday in the Vegas Arts District

Every month there’s a big arts throwdown the first Friday of every month. For a short while, we walked Main St. taking in the few new galleries and murals that have appeared since we left Vegas. There’s some talk about the street carnival/low-brow nature of First Friday, with a concern that high culture isn’t enough of the night’s focus. But I love seeing all the people that wouldn’t be braving the summer heat otherwise. The diversity of people walking around means that there is broad appeal for the event, and its less likely to be affected by the fickle tastes of trendsetters and hipsters that seem to doom clubs and events in Vegas that are no longer in favor.

I didn’t expect to buy anything that night, but while walking by the new Avant Arts gallery, I bought this t-shirt…

And right before we left for the night, we ran in to local artist Shan Michael. We love his work and we bought 5 pieces a few years ago. Since then, he generously gave us 3 more, and I got a t-shirt that night from him…

All in all a good night that went by too quickly.

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Pictures from First Friday, June ’06

The Artwork of Amy Sol at the Arts Factory.

Burning Man near the Funkhouse.

Mike Bigg’s “Freak Baby” at the Avant Arts Gallery.

Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center: Pictures of the New Exhibition

The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (map) will be having its public opening of “Courting Disaster” on Friday, April 21st, 7pm – 9pm.

For those that like the visual arts, this opening is a welcome excuse to some good art in the ACAC’s great exhibition space. For those who think contemporary art is talentless crap, come to the show and I’ll try to explain why that’s not true in this case.

Hilary Wilder: Painting installation with a complete take-over of the exhibition space.

Katherine Taylor: Large and small painting detailing the aftermath of hurricane damage.

Donna Mintz: Intimate installation of submerged houses, suspended from apothecary jars.

Art A Go-Go: New Shows in Atl

Good intentions about writing this article days ago were ruined by a busy work schedule.

I try to be a cheerleader for the people who employ me, so let me tell you about some new gallery/museum shows that won’t cost you a dime. They aren’t that hard to get to, so think about these shows when wondering what to in town on the cheap.

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The Museum of Design Atlanta (located in the Lobby and Garden Levels of the Marquis II Office Tower) had openings Thursday, with “The Home House Project: The Future of Affordable Housing,” “Affordable Housing: Designing an American Asset,” and “A City of Neighborhoods: Visions of the Beltline.”

Show one, “House/Home” is a collection of proposed projects where architects tackle the three problems of affordable housing, aesthetic design and environmental concerns.

The second MODA show, “Affordable Housing: Designing an American Asset,” comes from the National Building museum and talks about the start of the affordable housing movement in the late 1900’s until the present. A collection of completed housing solutions around the country are used to illustrate principles of affordability with an eye on integrating these new projects into existing communities.

The third MODA show is also the most locally relevant. The museums education department has been going to local schools and talking to kids about the new Beltline Project. The kids in turn have been crafting models of how they see the future Beltline sites, mainly transit stations.

These exhibits are located in all of the museums three galleries, on two separate floors.

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The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (Google Map) opened three paper-related art shows Friday evening…

Mail Room – Mail art from the collections of Benjamin Jones, Ruth Laxson, and Kathy Yancey
Exquisite Corpse – Collaborative drawings by Melissa Herrington, Benjamin Jones, Alex Kvares, D.E. Johnson, Ruth Laxson, and Kathy Yancey
Paper Garden – an installation comprised of recycled junk mail by Marilee Keys

Also, in conjunction with the fine arts displays, The Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking at Georgia Tech is presenting “World of Watermarks” in the CAC’s gallery. I posted about the paper museum on January 14, and the CAC show is an even better opportunity to see a collection of good shows including theirs. Finally, it was with Auburn, GA artist Marilee Keys that I got to work with, aiding in her installation.

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Bridge to Nowhere, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Deadend Bridge at the end of Bankhead Highway near the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center.

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So, go see some art.

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Inside The Perimeter (Flickr) said about the bridge…

“This is one of my favorite things in Atlanta. Every time I try to get a good picture of it I get thrown off the property by the security guard.”

I was determined not to get pissed, but I had the same thing happen to me. When asked why I was taking the picture, I just told her I worked at the arts center and she was a polite as can be. But it bugged me that I was made to feel like a criminal just for taking pictures.

Downtown Atlanta in Black & White

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Downtown Atlanta in Black & White 18, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Went downtown for a few hours. Had the camera in hand.

Holiday Wrap-Up Part 2: Washington D.C.

After returning from the Land of Big Cars (Florida), we left a day later to Washington D.C. It was all business for my wife and all pleasure for myself.

Day 1

The first full day started slow, with a late begining. First thing, catch the subway to get to the International Spy Museum. I love Metrorail’s stations with their cast-concrete retro-futurism.

Compared to NYC or London some might think them charmless but I love the flowing lines of the walkways and the modular caverns that the trains roll into.

Get to the museum to find that day’s tickets were sold out. Bought one for the next day and got directions to Chinatown for much needed cheap eats. Wandered around and followed a pack of students into one of the numerous chinese restaurants. The food was fine and not too expensive. Took metrorail back towards the hotel, exited one station early and walked the rest up Connecticut.

Day 2

Trips to London, Minneapolis and Dublin had all resulted in finding little treasures, be it The Sir John Soane’s Museum, The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices which is now located at The Science Museum of Minnesota, and the Grand Masonic Lodge in Dublin. I worried that D.C. wouldn’t have something like those other cities, but a visit to this website got me pointed in the right direction.

The George Washington Masonic National Memorial is dedicated to reminding people that our founding father wore an apron. I was worried that I wouldn’t know where to go once I got off the train, but at the station it was pretty clear what direction to go.

While large from the outside, the building has even more rooms inside then I expected. The grand hall has a huge bronze George greeting all, with murals on each side of him. Further wandering around finds exhibits about George Washington, the building of the memorial, the Shriners, etc.

One of the highlights, the Animatronic George Washington. He stands, he gestures, he talks. But he doesn’t seem to look like G.W.

I wish I had stayed for the guided tour, but my timed-ticket for the Spy Museum had me leave before I could join the tour. Had the spy museum been less packed I could have judged it on its merits, but the crush of people made it all but impossible to enjoy. Their website warned of fast ticket sales and the post-christmas crowds filled the place. The museum has no grand hall, mainly a collection of collected rooms with no flow or reason. The architecture is in the style of “Alias” mostly modern materials and flashy lighting. There were loads of cool spy artifacts, but the crowd killed my desire to linger.

I think all future travel have to include a bit of Masonic tourism. They do their places up right.

Day 3

Return flight to Atlanta. Seen in Dulles International Airport

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More Washington D.C. Pictures – Flickr

George Washington Masonic National Memorial – Google Map

Good food:

Petits Plats – French, slightly pricey, great chocolate mousse.

Furin’s of Georgetown – fresh made soups, salads. Super tastey, good price.

Parental Fun and Jon Stewart

Tonight ends a 3-day visit with the folks.

Tuesday night: Chinese food at Golden Buddha, yum.
Wednesday: the aquarium = excellent!
Thursday: their visit to the High Museum, they loved it. And our dinner at Dante’s, Dante (the owner) stopped by our table and is even more chatty then my dad.

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And now for something completely different…

“…I will not rest until every year families gather to spend December 25 together at Osama’s home-abortion commie/pot jizzporium.”

– Dec 7th, 2005. Jon Stewart responding to Bill O”Reilly’s featuring of a 2004 Daily Show clip as proof of the show’s anti-Christmas crusade. Jon returned the favor by offering up himself to Bill as his personal enemy, starting with the Osama quote.

Happy Holidays.

Wednesday Weirdness: Meditation, Movies and Mystery Sites

Meditation:

One of the benefits of being the spouse of a Georgia Tech professor is taking advantage of free offerings from the school. We had started a 4 week meditation class in an attempt to reduce stress and see if it would help me with some back pain that I was having. But the metaphysical nature of the teachings kept me from really being able to use the teachings. Lines like, “build a tunnel from your heart-center to the candle…” weren’t working for me. I know that there are tangable and observable benefits to meditation. Being a skeptical kind of guy, the spiritual side to the teachings keep me from really getting much out of the class and we stopped going after the second week.

What got me thinking about such things was reading an article about the Dalai Lama working with scientist to document the changes on the brain and body when meditating. I would think that a tech school could develop a mediation program that was inclusive of scientific aspects that the students could relate to. I would certainly be more likely to go to that one.

Also see:

Wired News: Scientists Meditate on Happiness
Wild Divine Home Page “the Journey to Wild Divine is a unique program for mind & body that links biofeedback hardware with your computer…”
The Science Of Binaural Beat Brainwave Entrainment Technology frequency-based brain alteration

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Movies:

Finally finished some movie watching started over Thanksgiving weekend. It started with a post turkey-diner viewing of Reefer Madness! The Movie Musical. Based on the original propaganda film “Reefer Madness” (available here for free download) this one had Christian Campbell, Robert Torti, Kristen Bell, Alan Cumming, Neve Campbell, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Spanger and Steven Weber in it. Great scenes like Jesus Christ “lording” over a heavenly cocktail lounge, marijuana induced sex-madness and catchy songs made this a great way to wind down. Seriously good stuff.

Lat night, we finished Mad Hot Ballroom which followed a collection of NYC grade-school kids in their mandatory ball-room dance classes. Really charming, with the kids being both funny about boy-girl stuff and really coming alive as they preform in a city-wide competition.

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And finally, Mystery Sites: more weirdness in the good U.S of A.

More Scientology fun. Now everyone can see where the Scientologist keet their secret stash of records, alien bodies and rejected Tom Cruise movie scripts. The circles etched in the New Mexico desert are signs for future Scientologist to follow in order to unearth a repository of teachings and documents important to the group.

A Place in the Desert for New Mexico’s Most Exclusive Circles from the Washington Post
Scientology landing strip – Microsoft TerraServer Imagery
Scientology landing strip – Google Map

A Florida television station reports on a community outside of a state prison where the homes have no public records, the police won’t allow filming and the folks won’t talk about the place.

First Coast News | Local News – The Secret City

Admitting You Have A Problem is the First Step in Helping People Make Fun of You

So, I was sitting at Limerick Junction Wednesday night wondering where all the bloggers were…

My parents say they get their alzheimers from me.

See you Thursday.

"My House, My Home, It Rolls with Me."

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Brick Car, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Saw this car and thought to myself, “Best car ever.” In hindsight, that’s not true but it’s pretty damn close. Making me think that I will need to be carrying around my camera all the time.

Title quote from a Southern Culture on the Skids song.

Road Trip Saturday: Social Circle, Madison, Athens, GA

Since our arrival in Atlanta, we hadn’t been any further than Stone Mountain Village. With a lull in work, the wife and I planned a trip to Madison and Athens, GA. The main attraction in Madison was the tiny cars of the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum. While the website taunts with a collection of great pictures of tiny cars, Bruce doesn’t spend much time with his cars… Tuesdays, Thursdays, and on Saturdays by appointment only. So with no appointment made, we weren’t going to be seeing any small cars today. But we decided to head off anyways to Madison and Athens.

On our way, we passed a sign for “Historic Social Circle,” Social Circle being a small community north of the 20. When visiting a “Historic” district, one is betting that the ratio of cheesiness to genuine historic worth is balanced. Meaning that the place you are visiting, usually a Main St., has a nice collection of restored and nicely painted buildings and only a few of the tenants have names like “Karl’s Krap” and “Julie’s Jeweled Junk.” Social Circle has a perfectly fine historic district. Nuff said.

Back on the road, we go to Madison. Lots of cute houses, including this one…

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House 1 – Madison, GA, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

… love the windows on it. Madison also has a decent village square and a good candy store. 1/4 lb of maple fudge and 1/4 lb of chocolate walnut were bought at Antique Sweets. And on to Athens we went.

We had never been to Athens and their brochures we got at the Madison Chamber of Commerce were no help. So in looking for a restaurant, we hit one of the health food grocery stores and asked for advice on finding a place to eat. One of the suggestions was The Last Resort, which is where we ended up eating. And what a great choice! Seriously good food, mine was penne with beef tenderloin and carrots and green beans. It tasted so great and it felt nice and healthy. Highly recommended.

Lastly we went back to our car to find it blocked by a bus…

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Girls Gone Wild – Athens, GA, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

… until they tired of being wild in Athens. In the picture is my favorite wild girl, my wife.