Category — The Realest

It has been awhile, so without further ado.

[It’s The End of the World]

1. Downtown - Get your comic operetta on at the Rialto with Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. The opera will be performed on Friday, April 25 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 27 at 3:00 p.m. The official site with the full details.
2. East Atlanta - My Big Amazing Renovation on HGTV is looking for East ATLiens working on big projects. Specifically, they are - looking for enthusiastic homeowners who are just starting a major home renovation that will double the size of their original home and transform the major living spaces. They are also looking for homeowners who have a set budget and time frame in which they hope to have their renovation completed.  Contact Sara Adams (SAdams AT highnoonentertainment DOT com) if you are interested.
3. Druid Hills - The Druid Hills tour of homes is April 18-20.  If you want to see some Atlanta homes so nice you’ll be sayin’  “Cot damn” we suggest attendance.  The straight dope.  Artist market included, woo hoo.
4. Kirkwood - The people demand to see the grass on the other side to determine whether, in fact, its relative greenness is greater.  Sorry, we couldn’t think of how to introduce two tours of homes back to back.  Kirkwood Spring Fling & Tour of Homes May 17th and 18th.  The deal.
5. Virginia Highlands / Midtown / Morningside - A gentleman driving a silver Miata (bad enough in itself) has been following female joggers and masturbating while parking on the street near public parks.  Maybe, that Miata joke was inappropriate, but we couldn’t resist.

[Just gorge yourself.]

1. Braves and Birds talks state of the Thrashers nation. Some of the facts are quite damning.
2. Yesterday we discovered (only in the same sense as Columbus discovered America) a great Gwinnett blog called Exurban Adventures. With nearly 800,000 residents we question Gwinnett’s exurbanity. Here is their take on the “gang fight” at Mill Creek High School. The battle for control of the Mall of Georgia is getting intense, huh?
3. Rusty from RGM has a great piece of Georgia Legislatature history. Did that elicit yawns? It involves booze. See, we knew you drunkards would be into it.
4. FEMA teat, as predicted, available for suckling.
5. Peach Pundit has an interesting local perspective on the Obama race thing. We will not call it a “controversy,” unless, of course, we can say it the British way.
6. Former SEC basketball official going to prison for running a Ponzi scheme. The SEC official was initially investigated by the, uh, well, SEC. Who is investigating yesterday’s crew for the Georgi-Xavier game?
7. AJC gets around to discussing Moreland Avenue development. So, they are only about 2-3 months behind on the story. If this related to Buckhead we guess the response time might have been quicker.
8. CL has a review of the Glenwood, a restaurant in East Atlanta. The EAV was hit hard by the tornado. Make you way over and support the neighborhood with your patronage.
9. GT Sports Blog has the world’s quickest”Where are they now?” Info on Taylor Bennett.
10. Mixed-use development in Henry County. We are guessing that there is no public transportation element. Don’t be fooled by terminology into thinking something is green, or smart development, or whateve.
11. GrifDrift talks about Shirley Franklin defending her daughter’s light sentence via internet pseudonym. If we had caught the same charge as Kai Frankin we would be servicing our prison boyfriend at this very moment.
12. Tondee’s says an elected official was caught whilst being serviced by a staffer. No names yet.
13. Magic City, the Atlanta strip club known throughout the hip hop world, has been repurchased by its original owner.  We once heard Dennis Scott say the club was a favorite spot to take GT basketball recruits.
14. UGA VI was named top mascot in the NCAA tournament.  Yeah, not much consolation.
15. Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield is upset that she was called out for missing so many votes.  Decatur Metro with her excuses.
16. Terrell Pryor to Ohio State.  You are officially the last college football fan to know.
17. South Atlanta High School basketball wunderkind Derrick Favors is the Georgia Player of the Year, according the official beverage of jortsporters.  How can Georgia get this kid?
18. Kudos to Creative Loafing for putting a reference to the Wire in this headline.
19. The Tour de Georgia starts in 31 days.  Why can’t they call it the Tour of Georgia.  The “de” seems silly outside of French speaking countries.  Euro teams Saunier-Duval, CSC, and Gerolsteiner are among the competitors.
20. Tondee’s has an excellent summary of the 2008 Georgia US Senate race.

The AJC reports that approval of a “mixed-use” (a despicably inaccurate term) project has been delayed 3 months. The reasons are the typical. Including:

This project, however, would still put some 7,000 additional cars a day on Glenridge, which already has 21,000 cars a day.

Maybe the development community should start coalescing around public transportation. We are aware that there is a MARTA station at the Perimeter, but its usefulness is limited without connectivity to population centers. Without public transportation (read:train) access in Cobb, Gwinnett, and all parts of Dekalb this complaint will continue.

[What we will continue to be known for.]

If the developers push public transportation, they will have eliminated, at least, one popular tactic used by neighborhood groups. It’s either that or sit around and wait until gas hits six dollars a gallon. Yeah, it will probably be the latter.

[Boom]

We are avowed fans of the NPR show All Things Considered. This excerpt seems to skew the issues surrounding Atlanta’s demolition of housing projects. Atlanta Housing Authority Executive Director Renee Glover makes some excellent points, but NPR contends that the city is falling short of it promise to move people to better homes.

Bowen Housing Project ain’t exactly Shangri-La. We would guess that almost anywhere is better, except maybe Clayton County.

The 4 minute clip.

[Spring Training Phenom]

1. The AJC with a great article on Terrapin’s new digs. Looks like they have jumped on the brewery tour bandwagon. Wethinks they will be able to find an audience in the Classic City.
2. Stuff White People Like has made its way around the internet faster than the pictures of “Kristen.” Now comes Stuff Educated Black People Like. On their list - Moving to Atlanta. (h/t Metroblogging)
3. A reader noticed that the Metro Brokers sign on I-85 South has ceased listing the number of homes for sale in Atlanta. Guess it was getting a little depressing.
4. Georgia Sports Blog summarizes all the media entities and personalities rallying to give Coach Felton another year.
5. Braves cuts. Definitely guys you haven’t heard of.

[Not republicany enough?]

1. The AJC takes a pessimistic view on the Beltline’s future, despite whatever nonsense is flowing from the Mayor’s office.
2. Everyone is gunning to take down newly elected Athens area U.S. Representative Paul Broun. Peach Pundit with the details.
3. Sad architectural news from CL. Don’t worry the Buckhead Library is still standing.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution lead with a straight hit job on Ameriquest. We have no love for the Ameriquest or the zealots of the mortgage industry, but this story brings nothing new to the increasingly boring mortgage fiasco conversation.

The story goes where so many have gone before — a homeowner facing foreclosure. The piece hints at the possibility of fraud, but falls short of providing any truly damning evidence. The narrative text, like so many others, highlights the woes of the homeowner but does not ask difficult questions about fiscal responsibility.

Now, some content to contrast the libertine opinions expressed above. The true crime of the mortgage situation is that lenders convinced people to trade in their unsecured debt (credit card) for secured debt (mortgage). At the same time the industry, along with their credit industry brethren, bought more harsh bankruptcy laws in DC. These actions have taken away the bankruptcy option for many people who could have used it.

Truly awful stuff.

[A very Wes Andersoney looking interior of the Buckhead Library.]

1. Hurrah, hurrah, we are not total whores to development; we’re more like a high class escort.  The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library board has rebuked mega-developer Ben Carter’s $24 million bid to raze the Buckhead Library.   AJC with the filthy details.
2. Peach Pundit is putting up Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears as a future US Supreme Court candidate.  We would like to remind you how much we love pure speculation.
3. Thomas Wheatley takes an opitimistic view of the Beltline slash TAD situation.  They quote someone supporting the elimination of the project’s public transportation aspect.  If this happens we are against the Beltline project.  Also, the city claims it can fund the project via private development rights.  If so, why hasn’t the city been using this option from the start?

[We want more train stations like Madrid’s in Atlanta.]

1. A bill that would allow MARTA rail service to operate more easily in suburban counties has passed the Senate. Kudos to Senator Curt Thompson of Norcross for working on legislation aimed at real problems. Atlanta Business Chronicle has more info.
2. CL talks about some beer dinners at Brick Store and Twain’s. It looks pricey, yet well worth it.
3. AroundMidtown has some interesting pictures from the W Hotel.
4. If you have a cool $2 million you can pick up this piece of Atlanta’s architectural history. No, it’s not the Buckhead Library.
5. Decatur Metro has found an interesting piece from the Atlantic about the future of our sprawling areas. IF YOU ONLY CLICK ONE LINK IT SHOULD BE THIS ONE.

[College Football Schadenfreude is the best type of schadenfreude.]

1. The AJC asks rich people what they would buy if they won the lottery. How did nobody see the unintentional irony and kill this thing. For strong stomachs only.
2. Nice find here by CL about who will be moving in to the Cabbagetown space formerly occupied by Village Pizza Co. One of the first times we ever visited Cabbagetown a dude got shot. True story, yet we still love Cabbagetown.
3. California pizza restaurant zpizza has opened at Spire. AroundMidtown, a solid intown blog, has more details.
4. An excellent neighborhood and an excellent way to get drunk are coming together. Tomorrow is the Oakhurst Wine Crawl. Decatur Metro drops the knowledge.
5. Spoon hits town on April 14th. You should probably think about being there. Cable & Tweed.
6. This Buckhead Library issue is picking up steam. Hopefully the good guys will win on this one. GT hosted a forum on the issue last night.
7. Lenox Mall is asking to have huge trees cut down because people can’t see their sign. They are also hosting a festival named after a tree. So, yeah.
8. Georgia Sports Blog talks about Felton’s future. We are feeling ambivalent, and that is a helluva lot worse than being mad. UGA needs to win some basketball games. Or sign Derrick Favors.
9. Behind this EDSBS curtain you will see Barack Obama doing the Heisman pose whilst holding an actual Heisman trophy.
10. There was a 7 Wonders of the World theme park, convention center, and resort planned. Huh?!?! Oh, and a indoor water park, just what we need. The AJC comes full circle with an interesting story.