Flux
Mr. Lion posted a message on facebook about the Flux night event. He wanted to attend, but didn’t have anyone to go with. PG saw this, and realized that he needed to get out of Brookhaven. Messages were sent, phone calls made, and an agreement reached to meet at a midtown parking lot at 9:00 pm. In a bit of murphy’s law denial, a vehicle left Piedmont Avenue, heading south, at 9:15.
PG is a nervous suburbanite, and had no clue where to park. Turning past the dome, the barricades and crowds were evident, as were the lines of cars going nowhere. An illegal one eighty turn later, PG gave up, and parked at the dome.
The two men were soon in another world. Castleberry Hill is a downtown neighborhood, reclaimed by the trendy and prosperous. The old brick buildings were swarming with culture vultures of all persuasions. PG wondered more than once where these mobs of bug eyed youth came from.
The first stop was an elderly brick building. For this night, it was crawling with murals, music, and machines that shot out cannonballs of smoke. People were posing in front of the well lit murals, which made it easy for PG to cop a leftover image or two. Mr. Lion got into a chat with a director of the collective, while PG dealt with the heat by photographing unsuspecting young ladies.
Mr. Lion is an elitist, but not a snob. PG is an anti semanticist, with an aversion to labelism. It was noted that calling yourself an non labelist was an act of labelism. But, as they say in Alabama, hypocrisy is usually the cheapest argument. Despite this existential eggshell walking, the Mr. Lion managed to keep up with PG, who was up to his usual mischief. With few dogs to photograph, the focus was on humans. There was lots of barking and tail wagging.
“Can I have a picture of your makeup” ” Sure” ” Can I have some attitude” ” What” “You call that attitude” “How can I have attitude if I am having a good time”
The streets were often crowded. In best Atlanta tradition, it was tough to know if you were going north, south, to heaven, or to hell. In an effort to not miss anything, several streets were covered twice. Finally, enough was enough. Mr. Lion managed to remember the side street that led back to the dome. It is part of elitism to always know where to go. A rat should always have a hole to crawl into.
Duluth Fall Festival
PG and Uzi have been to a slew of neighborhood festivals. Dickhater, Candler Park, Sandy Springs, even south of I20 to Grant Park. It was starting to get a bit predictable. Then Uzi suggested a ride up Buford Hiway to the Duluth Fall Festival.
The first steps were uncertain. PG turned into a parking lot, and almost did not get out. Finally, a trip down a side road yielded a parking spot, with a manageable hike to the festival. The walk to the first tent was short, compared to the walks up and down aisles. The DFF is as big as Candler Park and Sandy Springs combined, with a yard of carnival rides as a bonus.
It was a people watchers delight. Uzi noticed that, for all the much touted diversity intown, that Duluth had a much wider selection of human kind. There were people of color in abundance, speaking a variety of languages. There were people without color, in all their waistline busting glory. Walmart hit the sidewalks, with funnel cakes for dessert.
Finally, after the last aisle of tents had been navigated, PG piloted the vehicle to the swallow and suffer cafeteria. After all that walking, dinner was a welcome sight. Soon it was off into the world for another week of reality.
Sandy Springs Festival 2013
It was the third weekend of September, which is time for the Sandy Springs Festival. PG threw fiscal caution to the wind and indulged in the five dollar admission fee. Uzi pointed out that, present company excepted, this fee keeps the riff raff out. PG was a good sport about it all, especially after a convenient parking spot appeared.
At first it was thought that dogs were not admitted to the festival. It turns out they were, and PG was in full puppyrazzi mode. The freebies were not as plentiful as in years past. Perhaps this was because the police had a new squad car. But this new vehicle was seized from a local drug dealer. PG thought this was rather distasteful. It probably is not connected to the lack of freebies.
One booth was occupied by a mayoral candidate named Rusty Paul. He is not related to Ron or Rand. Nor has he given permission to anyone altering his signs to say Ru Paul. When asked if he would accept support from Ru Paul, the candidate noted that the entertainer does not live in Sandy Springs.
Earlier that afternoon, something remarkable happened to PG. A friend posted a story about the effects of depleted uranium shells in Afghanistan. The story (the link here is to a similar story) had horrifying pictures of deformed children. PG noted the nastiness of depleted uranium, but questioned the authenticity of the pictures. The friend took down the post, and promised to be more careful in the future. PG did not get defriended, as usually is the case when calling BS on facebook.
PG and Uzi were through touring the festival at four twenty. It was too early to go to dinner. They went to the amphitheater, and listened to the band. Uzi insisted on finding a shady spot to sit down, and commented about how much he appreciated the shade. A few seconds after Uzi said this, the singer for the band said “I see all of you sitting in the shade. I guess you don’t want to get a suntan.” It is true that PG is concerned about his neck getting any redder.
A few more dogs went before the camera. PG noticed that the battery was running down. The last two Sunday afternoons, this has happened. Today, PG brought a backup battery.
After the band finished playing, PG and Uzi went to dinner, accompanied by a third party who showed up during the band performance. When PG got to Uzi’s vehicle after dinner, there was a flyer in the passenger door, asking “am I going to heaven”. When PG got to his car two blocks away, there was a similar message, this time in the driver’s door.
Leo Frank And George Zimmerman
About this time one hundred years ago, Leo Frank was convicted of murdering Mary Phagan. Within two years, with the sentence commuted to life imprisonment, some people kidnapped him from a state prison. Leo Frank was taken to Marietta, and hung from an oak tree.
George Zimmerman is the object of the mob’s fury today. The two cases are different. There is little doubt that Mr. Zimmerman fired the weapon, that killed Trayvon Martin. There is considerable doubt about the guilt of Leo Frank. Much of the venom directed at Mr. Frank was because he was Jewish. Trayvon Martin was the unpopular minority in the current case.
The common thread in the two cases is media fueled demands for vengeance. The Supreme Court took note of this in the Frank case. “Mob law does not become due process of law by securing the assent of a terrorized jury.”
Tom Watson was one of the leading rabble rousers in Mr. Frank’s case. A politician and newspaper owner, Mr. Watson led the anti semitic charge. Today, a large bronze statue of Tom Watson is in front of the west side of the State Capitol. This side is the preferred site for rallies. Tom Watson is seen shaking a finger behind the speakers stand.
So far, the mob has not executed George Zimmerman. It is not out of the question. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
Road Rage Again
A slack blogger was driving down Button Gwinnett Drive, minding his own business. When he got to the light at Best Friend Road, an SUV pulled up in the neighboring lane. “You need to drive faster. The speed limit is forty, not thirty. Yea, go ahead and smile, I’ll kick your fucking teeth in.”
Button Gwinnett was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Less than a year later, he was in a dispute with Lachlan McIntosh. The gentlemen decided to settle the matter with dueling pistols, with fatal consequences for Mr. Gwinnett. PG was wondering if modern life was going to imitate history. The light turned green, and the SUV went forward, at an undetermined rate of speed.
A listener to this tale made the comment “no G-d no peace, know G-d know peace.” This is the spoken word, so the spelling is a guess. PG had the same reaction to this comment that he did to the angry young SUV speed racer. Say nothing, and avoid complicating discussion. Religion has been a source of misery for PG. Is this because of G-d, or the golden calf religions that man has instituted? Sometimes the best answer is to turn left when the light is green.
Living Walls 2013
For the last three years, PG, accompanied by selectively deaf Uzi, has gone out to see the Living Walls. The grafitti festival is a part of the Atlanta summer now. This year it even came to Summerhill.
LW is a volunteer thing. Getting the list of walls can be tricky. This year was even more so. It seems as though the map on the website had four years of walls, with a menu to turn off the different layers. PG is not geek enough to recognize a layer icon, and got confused.
When PG asked about a list on facebook, he was advised “Use your mouse and your mind in conjunction and it is a beautiful thing”. Rumor has it that the 2014 affair will be renamed Living Attitude. Finally, PG got a list of the walls, and made a low tech map.
With several of the walls next to Turner Field, it was advisable to go when the Braves were out of town. Getting caught in ballgame traffic is a strike. Fighting with the Living Walls peep was a strike. In baseball, three strikes and you are out. In bowling, three strikes is a turkey.
The LW tour went smoothly. The first stop was on the north-of-I20 stub of Flat Shoals Road. It was near the spot where Angel Poventud was robbed, while assisting with a previous Living Walls. The first wall was a house, with boarded up windows cleverly hidden. The next stop was a loft building on Memorial Drive. It had three murals, with the best two hidden from the street.
The next stop was East Atlanta. It was festooned in fabulicity, even if the walls were disappointing. By this time the battery on PG’s camera was wearing down. When the four walls on Georgia Avenue were found, there was just enough juice to record the paint. One of those locations was the site of Leo Frank’s house. PG did not hang around.
Richards
A comment at a recent post mentioned “Jenning’s Rose Room, a classic poor white juke and dance hall … where Trader Joes now sits.” PG had been in that building when it was called Richards, and knew stories. Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
There is no telling what the original use of the building at 931 Monroe Drive was. It was across the street from Grady Stadium, and adjacent to Piedmont Park. The railroad tracks that became the beltline ran behind it. The parking lot was primitive, with a marquee sign built at some point. (PG drove by that sign several nights and saw that Lynyrd Skynyrd was playing. Somehow, he did not make it inside.)
There was another nightclub building on the hill behind JRR. One night, PG went to see a jazz band there, accompanied by someone who lived in a nearby house. After seeing the band, PG was led to a horse stable behind the bar. The horses were not well maintained … you could see the ribs sticking out. There is a story of a goat getting loose from the stable, and being chased out of the jazz bar during happy hour.
Jennings Rose Room was before PG’s time. There is a story that some men had lunch there, and made a bet. The idea was to hit a golf ball from the JRR parking lot, and putt it into a hole at Piedmont Park. A biscuit was used as a tee. The first shot went across the street, onto the field at the stadium. Eventually, the ball was hit across Tenth Street, onto a green, and into the cup.
At some point, Jennings Rose Room closed. A gay club called Chuck’s Rathskeller was opened in that location. A rock and roll club or two did business there. Then Richards opened.
The first time PG was in the house was after a Johnny Winter concert at the Fox. There were rumors of visiting musicians dropping by Richards to play after their shows. Mr. Winter was only onstage for a couple of minutes after PG got there.
The most memorable trip to Richards was during the summer of 1973. The headliner was Rory Gallagher, who was ok but not spectacular. The opening act was Sopwith Camel, one of the forgotten bands of the seventies. They performed a novelty hit, “Hello Hello”. Someone in the audience liked it, and paid them to do it again. The band wound up doing “Hello Hello” five times, and said that was the most money they made on a show in a long time.
Average White Band was making the rounds that fall, and had a show at Richards. A lot of the audience was black, and they hit the dance floor in unison when “Pick up the Pieces” was played. Fellow Scotsman Alex Harvey was in town, and joined AWB to sing “I heard it through the grapevine”.
Muddy Waters played at Richards one night. The band did most of the playing, with Mr. Waters tossing in a few licks on bottleneck guitar. He might have sang a couple of times.
About this time, Iggy Pop played a few shows at Richards. One night, someone snuck up on him, and gave him a hug. It was Elton John, wearing a gorilla suit.
PG saw three more shows (that he can remember) at Richards. Richie Havens was worth the two dollar admission. Soft Machine played in the winter of 1974. Larry Coryell played a show that summer, with the Mike Greene Band opening. PG got to talk to Mike Greene that night. The National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (who do the Grammy Awards) had a President named C. Michael Greene at one time. PG thinks this is the person he talked to that night.
Two friends of PG went, as their first date, to see Spirit at Richards. They were married a few years later. Towards the end of 1974, Richards was running out of steam. They advertised a New Years Eve show starring B.B. King, and sold high priced tickets. When the crowd showed up for the show, they found the doors locked. Richards had closed.
The next tenant for 931 Monroe Drive was going to be Cabaret After Dark, a gay club. There was a fire the night before the grand opening. The building was never used again. Eventually, a shopping center was built on the site.
UPDATE: Here is an article, from the Great Speckled Bird, about Richards. This is a repost.
Spring Fever
When PG was a kid, his North Carolina neighbors always brought back Cheerwine with them. In those days, the top forty station in Atlanta was WQXI, 790 on the dial, Quixie in Dixie. The word dysfunctional had not been invented, even if the concept was everywhere.
Forty seven years later, 790 am is a sports talk station. The house with Cheerwine has been replaced by a McMansion. In a book by Mary Kay Andrews, Spring Fever, Cheerwine is called Quixie. It is made by in Pascoe NC. The company is owned by a dysfunctional family.
Spring Fever is another entertaining use of time from Mary Kay Andrews. The plot is catchy, and the characters are people you care about, even if you want to see them dead. Some of the plot turns are a bit tough to believe. When Annajane tells her fiancee that she cheated on him, it turns into a line in a country song. When Mason is about to get married to a horrible woman, his “daughter” saves the day twice. If you can stifle your cynicism, you will have a good time.
Most of the familiar details of a Kathy Trocheck book are here. The gay couple waits until page 254 to renovate the town’s only hotel. Annajane stays there for a while, and sees a few things she could have done without. The florist convention went on without anyone the wiser.
There was one MKA touch missing here. Most of her books have recipes at the end. In Spring Fever, the reader is left wondering how to cook Quixie marinated ham. As one lady said to another, “Tacky is in the eye of the beholder. It’s a word some people use for something they think is in poor taste.” Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
White Student Union
Some kids, with too much free time, have started a White Student Union at Georgia Straight State University. They sent a press release to Creative Loafing and the fishwrapper. Both responded, to the slow news day crisis, by reporting on the group. CL was in high octane liberal umbrage mode. “WSUs, on the other hand, are a reactionary movement born out of the festering sentiment that minorities have gained too much of an edge due to affirmative action, campus diversity, and … immigration reform.”
CL tosses a curious quote into the mix. It is from a discussion of the movie Fruitvale Station. “We don’t yet live in the world the Supreme Court thought we did when it struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act and weakened the case for affirmative action. More than ever, we live in a time of racism without racists, just racist laws, racist policies, and racist ideas.”
That same feature has a dandy quote from our half white POTUS. “Am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can? Am I judging people as much as I can based on not the color of their skin but the content of their character? That would be, I think, an appropriate exercise in the wake of this tragedy.”
At first glance, it seems like WUSS WSU does not have much of a chance. GSU is mostly a school of people who work their way through college, and don’t have time for flakey organizations. Most white people don’t spend much time contemplating their caucasianality. This may, or may not, be a function of white privilege. Others say that WSUs are bastions of white privilege. When you live in a time of racism without racists, it is easy to get confused. Pictures today are from Gwinnett County.
Babe, Hank, Barry, And Joe
It is summertime. The Braves, and the Dodgers, are leading divisions. Players are getting in trouble over using steroids. The living is easy. It is time for a summer baseball repost.
Barry Bonds was about to break the lifetime record for home runs. Folks said the record was tainted because of steroid use, and because Mr. Bonds was not a nice man. There were calls for an asterisk in the record book. This was odd to PG, who was in Georgia when Hank Aaron broke the home run record in 1974. Back then, the line was that Babe Ruth had fewer at bats than Mr. Aaron. A lot of hateful things were said about Mr. Aaron before home run 714.
PG decided to take a look at the metrics, and see what he saw. This post is the result. As a bonus to the reader(s), Joe Torre and Hank Aaron gets a summer rerun. It is based on a column by Furman Bisher, who went to the press box in the sky March 18, 2012. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. .
There is a certain controversy these days about the eminent breaking of the lifetime home run record. Currently held by Hank Aaron, the record is threatened by Barry Bonds. Before Mr. Aaron held the title, Babe Ruth was the owner.
Controversy about the lifetime home run record is nothing new. In 1974, when Hank Aaron was about to break the record, the admirers of Babe Ruth said that Mr. Ruth had fewer at bats than Mr. Aaron did. Many attributed this criticism to racism, with a black man besting a white man’s record. The current controversy is two fold. There are allegations that Mr. Bonds took steroids to make him stronger, and that he “cheated”. There are also some concerns about the overall personality of Mr. Bonds.
PG does not think steroid use is a big deal. Ballplayers are abusing their bodies to perform, and if they take the risk of using steroids, that is their business. Many people disagree.
A good question to ask is, would Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron have used steroids if they had the chance? Mr. Ruth was a wildman, who drank during prohibition, and was known for undisciplined behavior. Mr. Aaron played in an era where steroid use was not as common as it is today. The answer to the first question is (Mr. Ruth) probably and (Mr. Aaron) who knows.
While you are keeping hypocrisy statistics, Mr. Aaron and Mr. Bonds played on television, where beer commercials were constant. While alcohol is legal, it is a very damaging drug. Any ballplayer who plays on television promotes its use. This is both steroid users, and non users.
As for personalities, there is the widely circulated story about the college team that Mr. Bonds played on voting 22-3 to kick him off the team. At the very least, he does not charm sportswriters.
In 1917, Babe Ruth was suspended for hitting an umpire. He was known for his outlandish behavior throughout his career. It should also be noted that he played in an era when the press did not scrutinize the behavior of players as much as they do today. How would today’s media treat Babe Ruth?
PG once heard a radio show caller say that Hank Aaron was a mean racist, who would just as soon cut your throat as look at you. He had never heard this said out loud before, but had heard hints about Mr. Aaron’s personality over the years. People, in any field, who achieve great things are not always friendly.
Mr. Aaron is the only one of the three that PG met, however briefly. In July of 1965, the Milwaukee Braves came to Atlanta to play an exhibition game in Atlanta Stadium. After the game, PG was allowed to wait outside the clubhouse, to get autographs from the players as they left. Joe Torre saw the crowd, hid behind a truck, and made a quick getaway. Hank Aaron came out, patiently signing every autograph, while smoking a cigarette.
The fact is, all three men played in different eras. Babe Ruth never played at night, never flew to California, and only played against white players…many of the most talented players of his era were in the Negro League. Hank Aaron played before free agency, interleague play, the DH, and widespread use of steroids. The only way to determine who is the home run champion is to count how many homers are hit, and award the prize to the man who hits the most.
Which of the three made the most money? Barry Bonds, by a wide margin. He played in the free agent era. Babe Ruth had the best line about his salary. In 1930 Ruth was asked by a reporter what he thought of his yearly salary of $80,000 being more than President Hoover’s $75,000. He replied ” yea, but I had a better year than he did.”
Who played on the most teams to win a World Series? Babe Ruth 7, Hank Aaron 1, Barry Bonds 0.
The career of Babe Ruth was a long time ago. He made a greater impact on America that the other two combined. He was one of the first sports superstars, as America emerged from the carnage of World War One. Mr. Ruth broke the single season home run record, he hit 29 homers. The next year, he hit 54. There is a possibility of a livelier baseball.
Babe Ruth captured the imagination of America like few personalities ever have. Playing in New York (which dominated the press) did not hurt. He was a man of his times…it is unlikely than anyone could have that kind of impact on today’s superstar saturated America. While his record has been broken, his place in the history of baseball is the same.
Furman Bisher has a piece at the fishwrapper site about Joe Torre . The punch line is that Mr. Torre “grew up” when the Braves traded him to St. Louis. PG was a kid when this was going on, and did not hear a lot of what went on.
In 1965, the Braves played a lame duck year in Milwaukee before moving to Atlanta. One night, there was an exhibition game at Atlanta Stadium, the Braves against the Yankees. PG got his oh so patient dad to take him to the clubhouse after the game, to get autographs. In those days, you could go into the bowels of the stadium and wait outside the locker room. Hank Aaron came out and signed dozens of autographs while smoking a cigarette. Joe Torre came out, hid behind a truck, and took off running.
Mr. Torre was a raccoon eyed catcher for the Braves. In the first regular season game in 1966, he hit two home runs, in a thirteen inning loss. Soon, the novelty of big league baseball in a toilet shaped stadium wore off. Mr. Torre got at least one DUI, and a reputation as a barroom brawler. He was traded to St. Louis in 1968. Mr. Torre hit .373, and won the national league MVP in 1971.
The comments to the feature by Furman Bisher were interesting. Cecil 34 contributes “The reason that Torre was traded is because on the team’s charter flight back to Atlanta back in 68, a drunken Torre got into a fistfight with Aaron. Aaron popped off to Torre, and thus the fight was on, broken up by the other players. Since Aaron was the face of the franchise at the time, Torre was traded. There had been bad blood between them for years before this incident anyway. Reasons vary. But the final nail in the coffin was this fistfight. I was told Torre could pack a punch and Aaron came out on the worse end of it.”
There has been whispering for years about Hank Aaron and his attitude. Furman Bisher made hints once or twice, but there was never anything of substance. It seems that Mr. Aaron does not lack for self confidence. Mr. Aaron was the subject of much racially based abuse while chasing the home run record in 1973, and some anger is justified.
Hank Aaron was known to not get along with Rico Carty. Mr. Carty is a dark skinned man from the Dominican Republic, who was popular with fans. Mr. Carty was eventually traded. Rico Carty had a barbeque restaurant on Peachtree Road in Chamblee, next door to the Park and Shop.
Joe Torre was the manager of the Braves in the early eighties. The team won a divisional title in 1982, but lost the NLCS. This was after Ted Turner bought the team. Mr. Turner fired Mr. Torre in 1984.
Getting back to the comment thread, Misterwax contributes “Turner cut Joe Torre loose because Ted was in love with Henry Aaron and Aaron thought Joe Torre was a white supremacist….A hangover from the clubhouse days when they were teammates…still does today. And THAT is the only reason he was cut….beause Hank Aaron said so.”
Hank Aaron was recently quoted on Barry Bonds and Steroids. Joe Torre is managing the Los Angeles Dodgers, and is leading his division. Furman Bisher outlived Bear Bryant by 26 years, and finished his columns “selah”. Mr. Bisher passed away March 18, 2012.
1 comment