athens georgia music&arts

athensview:

(Funny) Faces of Athens. “Monkey Face.” 2009.

So I’ve had my two Egg McMuffins (but no hash browns, so please cut me some slack) and I’m on autopilot wondering where my right brain wants to take me and my Nikon this overcast fall Friday morning in the Classic City. It turns out we’re headed downtown. Yes! Downtown is like a box of chocolates. You never know what photo ops will present themselves.

Well, I haven’t even parked yet — I’m still rolling slowly west along Broad Street — when I spot a fellow photographer at work at the corner near Mr. Haircut #1 (Is it still called that? I can’t remember when I had my first haircut there, but I’m pretty sure it was during the Johnson Administration.)

Anyway, both the photographer and her subject are young women, and as I’m watching, the subject sticks out her tongue. Okay. That’s not so unusual. They’re probably friends, maybe from out of town, just fooling around.

But then the subject walks away, and the photographer moves down the street toward Five Guys corner. Hmmm. She stops somewhere along the street in front of a guy sitting at one of the outdoor tables. You know what’s coming next, right? He makes a face, too. And then she moves on.

At this moment, what I need more than anything else is a parking space. So we roll, Code 3, around the block, and I park across the street from what was Cookies and Co. (I have only one coin — a dime — for the meter, so I have 12 minutes to find my quarry, get the story, and get back to the van.) I know she strikes quickly, then moves on. So I hurry to the area of her projected location. Nada. Not around Starbucks. Not around Five Guys.

So I walk down Broad toward Lumpkin, make the right at Lumpkin and the next right at the Globe. I’m walking along Clayton back toward College when I spot her. She’s at the corner near OK Coffee. Time to motor.

By the time I’m halfway along the block, she’s crossed the street and is headed toward Five Guys. I close rapidly and catch up to her. We introduce ourselves.

She’s Lauren. Lauren Hook. She’s an art student at Lamar Dodd, and she’s gathering images for a class project. She wants a bunch of funny faces. And most of the folks she asks have been willing to take part. (The possibility of art — especially photographic art — often depends on this generosity of spirit from subjects. Thank you, world!)

Is Athens a special place. Yes. And I have the evidence.

(via papertissue)

I hope in the case of the last of these, either nostalgia or a need for a source of  reliable information will see newspapers through. If nothing else, newspapers are a matter of historical record, the place where you find your birth annoucements and obituaries, learn about the school board meeting and the commission hearings, and learn about the other people in your community who you’d never know about via blogs. I’m not so confident that in 40 years you’ll be able to find what I’m writing right here on my tumblelog.

Newspapers (and journalism) are a flailing industry to be sure, but it’s fixable. And just because there are alternatives doesn’t mean newspapers should go away. Paintings survived photographs, land lines have survived cell phones, cursive handwriting has survived block lettering and analog clocks have survived digital. Most in danger here is really the VCR. And I think I’m OK with that.

On Halloween night in Athens, there’ll be a freakshow parade! It’s headed up by none other than Timi Conley (Abbey Road Live! and costumer extraordinaire).

I just spoke with him and he said that he and friends had been discussing the Wild Rumpus, as it’s called, long before they ever knew the movie (“Where the Wild Things Are” of course) was coming out. A little sweet serendipity there, that.

At any rate, downtown Athens is all about the crazy costumes on Halloween night; how cool that now there’s a parade so gawkers don’t have to bar hop to check them all out. And everyone costumed is invited to join in*

* there are rules, courtesy being top o’ the list.

An artist’s rendering of the new Georgia Theatre and the parking deck the renowned venue will be incorporated into.

Added: The preliminary deck design calls for 520 spaces, retail and office space and a rooftop garden in the six-story building.

mapsandtransit:

theslowlearner:

malloreigh:sara—:Click through.

 so cool

allisonweiss:

Hey check it out! I’m a featured Tumblr musician!

Also, you might notice (and many of you have) that my song “I’m Ready” is the sample audio in the Tumblr customize page. This happened after I emailed Marco and said, “Hey, I noticed you guys don’t have a sample audio post. Would you like to use my song?” So awesome!

Everyone thinks they know how much I love Tumblr, but seriously you have no idea. It’s through Tumblr that I have gotten to know some of my favorite people on the planet, many who I’ve come to consider as some of my best friends. I could gush for hours about how this website has changed my life and opened so many doors over the past couple years, or I could just post this screencap of me and John Vanderslice giving our testimonials:

Thank you Tumblr for being so incredibly supportive of me and my musical endeavors. I love you guys!

Pylon’s re-issue of 1983’s “Chomp” out today! This is the first time it’s available on CD and it contains four bonus tracks.
There’s obviously some bittersweetness here; you can’t think about Pylon anymore without being saddened by the fact that we’ll never hear them again live. R.I.P. Randy Bewley, you are missed in many ways.