Chamblee54

It has turned into a summertime tradition. The Living Walls conference invades Atlanta the third week in August. The heat helps the paint dry faster. On the third Sunday, PG and Uzi venture downtown to look at the murals. This happened in 2010, 2011, 2011, 2012, and 2013.
Each year, PG prints a map to guide him. Previously, the information has been on the LW website. In 2014, the list of walls was available only in the print edition of Creative Loafing. PG posted his list on the LW twitter feed, and facebook page. Both times it was taken down.
Whatever. This sunday drive starts at the Goat Farm. This collection of old industrial buildings houses an art collective, and at least two goats. It turns out the GF hosted a party for LW, but did not have any major murals. The goats ignored the visitors.
The next stop was “ACROSS FROM THE W MIDTOWN.” This is probably the hotel in Colony Square. It has gone by many names over the years. This facility is not adjacent to any of the older buildings that typically host a mural. A drive down 14th street did not reveal any art walls, living or dead.
This weekend featured an arts festival in Piedmont Park. This means lots of traffic on the one way streets around the park. Monroe Drive, in the best of times, is a slow crawl. It was a time to be patient.
You drive down Monroe until it become Boulevard. A right turn on Ralph McGill leads to the next wall. It is on a building under renovation, with a fence preventing a clear view of the mural. A small version is on a nearby building.
Stop J is Randolph & Irwin, near the beltline. PG thinks it will be one of the buildings nearby, and drives by a house with the painting. The next stop is a building at the corner of Edgewood and Boulevard. This building has hosted a Living Wall before, and featured Wall K.
PG pulled into the parking lot. As he got out of the vehicle, a young man came up. “I’m here to park your car” “Is this a valet parking lot?” “Yes, it is fifteen dollars to park here.”
Going around the block to DeKalb Avenue, PG came out on Hillard Street. There was supposed to be a wall near Edgewood. There was, but PG could not find a convenient spot to leave the vehicle, while he took the picture. Wall M was at 262 Edgewood, on the other side of I-85. It was not found. Neither was Wall F at 145 Auburn Avenue.
PG went down Auburn, over the streetcar tracks, with a APD cruiser behind him. He turned right on Boulevard, got a free picture of Wall K. The pastel splendor of the Boulevard tunnel picked up the spirits. A right onto Memorial revealed Oakland Cemetery to be untouched by developers.
Wall D was at 495 Whitehall. This is getting into the part of Atlanta that many people are not familiar with. This is where the bicycle tour of the Walls was heading. PG invented a parking spot by the railroad crossing, and got his pictures. The next stop, Wall G, did not allow itself to be found.
By now, it was getting close to dinner time. There were two walls remaining in the Central Business District. Wall B, at 135 Walton Street, was in a mess of one way streets, and aggressively staffed pay to park zones. Wall A, at 156 Forsyth, had a benign parking spot in front. The services of a bail bondsman across the street were not necessary.
Now, on to dinner. PG and Uzi had meant to go to the Golden Corral on Lawrenceville Hiway for some time, but it was too crowded to contemplate. Tucker’s dependable Piccadilly cafeteria offered freshly heated chicken tenders for the hungry art lover.
After sitting down to eat, an asian man walked up to the table. He started pointing to his hair, and asking if it looks real. PG politely said he couldn’t tell, while Uzi said that it did, indeed. look real. The man, satisfied with the quality of his rug, sat back down at another table.