Fresh Loaf

LEAD STORY: Competitive Facial Hair: At the biennial World Beard and Moustache Championships in May in Anchorage, Alaska, four local heroes “defeated” the usually dominant German contingent in the 18-category pageant, including overall champ David Traver of Girdwood, Alaska, whose woven chin hair suggests a long potholder. Said Traver, of the Germans, “They were humble, and you have to respect that.” One defending champ, Jack Passion of Los Angeles, fell short with his navel-length red hair, despite having authored The Facial Hair Handbook after his 2007 victory. Traver acknowledged that no money was at stake (only trophies and “bragging rights”), but added that there are “a lot of ladies” who fawn over men’s facial hair. “Seriously, they exist.”

Continue reading News of the Weird

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On June 23, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admitted to an affair with an Argentinian woman, following in a long line of less-than-faithful Southern politicos.

“It’s gonna hurt, and we’ll let the chips fall where they may. … The bottom line is this: I’ve been unfaithful to my wife. … I spent the last five days of my life crying in Argentina.”

— Sanford during a June 23 press conference

“There were times when I was praying and when I felt I was doing things that were wrong. But I was still doing them. … I look back on those as periods of weakness and periods that I’m … not proud of.”"

— Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich admits his infidelity in a 2007 radio interview with “Focus on the Family“

“I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. … You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself.”

— Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, in a 2008 statement about his affair

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Annelise: My father reads the Declaration of Independence every Fourth of July out loud. We have it on our door. He pulls it down, reads it out loud to my mom, the dog and me. He’s a lawyer. It’s why our country was started, so we should remember it. I had a friend over last year and he read the Declaration of Independence. It was great. Then we went to the Waffle House afterward. Now that’s American. Then [for dinner] my mom makes a really big meal and we have an American flag ice cream cake. We’re very patriotic.

Bubba: I like to shoot guns on the Fourth of July to celebrate my freedom. Commie bastards come over to kill us. They’re continually slapping us in the face. I’ll shoot anything that moves — vermin, ’coons, squirrels, greys, beer bottles, armadillos, chickens. Then I eat a pig. I put an apple in his mouth. It’s traditional barbecue, man. And then maybe I’ll ride some motorcycles and watch some fireworks in the graveyard over there at Marietta Boulevard and hang out with the G.B.C. It’s a secret society, man.

Zeus: The independence of America is really the independence of so many other people and different cultures. So I try to spend time with as many friends from different cultures, because that’s what the United States is. If it wasn’t, it would be boring. It’s cool that you can walk through a neighborhood within a 10-block radius of Atlanta and see people from all over the world. Best day to do that is on the Fourth. Everybody barbecues, but every culture has their own dishes. They all bring a little bit of [it] home with them. It’s like, “Wow, I’ve been around the world today.”

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1) Farmer Jason performs at Red Light Café.

2) The Atlanta Braves play the Boston Red Sox at Turner Field.

3) Comedian Lisa Landry performs at the Punchline.

4) Corndogorama continues at East Atlanta Village.

5) Gil Robertson signs Family Affair: What It Means to Be African American Today at Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church.

See more Atlanta events.

(Photo © Lawson Little)

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Nothing is better than finding that great shady spot on a crazy hot summer day. Pair that with sudoku and you’ve got yourself a party!

(Photo by Jeff Riley)

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Rank of Atlanta rapper Soulja Boy Tell ’Em’s Twitter page on a list of “businesses” with the highest number of Twitter followers: 9

Rank of CNN: 1

Total number of Twitterers following Soulja Boy: 892,491

Total number of “tweets” the rapper — or his handlers — have posted on his Twitter site: 4,412

Estimated number of tweets worldwide that were related to the Iran protests, following the country’s June 12 election: 79,000

Estimated percentage of tweets that referenced Michael Jackson in the two hours following the king of pop’s death: 30

Total number of Twitter members worldwide: 37 million

Number of other major social-networking sites that have grown faster than Twitter over the past year: 0

Number of jobs that MySpace was forced to cut following stiff competition from Twitter and Facebook: 300

Sources: Twibs.com, twitter.com/souljaboytellem, WashingtonPost.com, ColumbusDispatch.com, Mashable.com, NYTimes.com

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In his book Collapse, Jared Diamond claims, “When NASA wanted to find some place on Earth resembling the surface of the Moon, so that our astronauts preparing for the first moon landing could practice in an environment similar to what they would encounter, NASA picked a formerly green area of Iceland that is now utterly barren.” This struck me as wrong. Growing up, I heard the slag fields around Sudbury, Ontario, helped get the lunar astronauts accustomed to the moon’s desolation. I’ve heard similar things about islands in the Canadian arctic and deserts in the American southwest. I can’t see NASA hauling astronauts around the world just to look at places without trees. I wonder if the real explanation is that the astronauts had to take geology lessons. True?
— CAMERON BARR, EDMONTON

You nailed it, friend. Most astronaut field trips were about geology, not getting used to a bleak hell unfit for life. For that they could have stayed in Houston.

The astronauts trained at lots of sites in the U.S. and around the world, at least a couple of which humans had turned into wildernesses. According to Diamond, “Since human settlement began, most of [Iceland's] original trees and vegetation have been destroyed, and about half of the original soils have eroded into the ocean. As a result … large areas … that were green at the time that Vikings landed are now lifeless brown desert.” Similarly, much of the area around Sudbury, Ontario, was a moonscape in the 1960s due to nickel smelting.

Continue reading Straight Dope

(Illustration by Slug Signorino)

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The U.S. House of Representatives today passed the Waxman-Markey bill, a piece of legislation aimed at curbing global warming through energy-efficiency standards, clean energy technologies and a cap-and-trade system.

And despite the bill’s good intentions, not everyone’s exactly thrilled with what it contains.

(more…)

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1) Dane Cook performs at Philips Arena.

2) Corndogorama returns to East Atlanta Village.

3) Richard Blais gives a cooking demonstration at Variety Playhouse.

4) Woodruff Arts Center hosts STIR (Sounds Through Ideas and Rhymes).

3) Dad’s Garage Theatre stages Beach Blanket Improv.

See more Atlanta events.

(Photo by Tony Duran)

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UPDATE: This article has been expanded with additional reporting.

Little has changed about the Clermont Hotel — or its time-capsule strip club — since Atlanta real estate mogul Jeff Notrica took over the Ponce de Leon Avenue landmark six years ago.

Just as he promised when he bought the 85-year-old building, Notrica resisted the typical developer’s temptation to chop it up into condos or turn it into modern apartments. Downstairs, the storied Clermont Lounge was left untouched and remains its gloriously seedy self.

But it may be that the hands-off approach Notrica, 44, has taken with the Clermont and many of his other properties — a land baron’s acquisitiveness tempered by a collector’s appreciation for each new bauble — has simultaneously helped bring his intown real estate empire crashing down.

Unless a deal is struck between Notrica’s Inman Park Properties and New York-based lender Fairway Capital — or unless a deep-pocketed buyer steps forward — the Clermont Hotel and its lounge will be auctioned off on the courthouse steps July 2.

If that happens, it will be only the latest, if largest, in a long series of foreclosures suffered by Inman Park Properties over the past three months. The company’s apparent meltdown has involved some of the most recognizable and beloved buildings in East Atlanta, Little Five Points, Poncey-Highland and Midtown — causing many residents of those same neighborhoods to cheer the company’s downfall.

(more…)

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WonderRoot’s hosting a good ol’ fashioned sign-makin’ party this Sunday at Eyedrum. What’s the occasion, you ask? Why the BeltLine of course. The proposed BeltLine will cross public rights-of-way at 108 different points throughout the city. To help raise awareness about the project, local artists (and anyone else who’s interested in participating) will gather at 1 p.m. this Sun., June 28 at Eyedrum (280 MLK Drive) to make art signs to place at each of the locations. “Later in the week, WonderRoot artists and volunteers will work throughout the night placing the art at each of the 108 locations,” says the e-mail from WonderRoot co-founder Chris Appleton.

More from Appleton:

“Artists, like most residents of Atlanta, are excited about the BeltLine,” said Chris Appelton, co-founder of WonderRoot. “Yet it seems that most people don’t know how transformative this project will be. It’s our hope that people will get up and go to work next week and see for themselves where the BeltLine will be. Additionally, the city will be full of original public art.”

Come one, come all!

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Last week’s Decatur Beach Party was a chaotic, noisy nirvana in the midst of Atlanta’s landlocked summer. This event has been going on for more than 20 years and it’s a bigger hit than ever. It’s pretty clear why Decaturites and Atlantans from all over love it though — you can get down and dirty with your kids in the sand in between beers and funnel cakes. Or you can grab a lawn chair and watch the merriment from afar with only your toes in the sand. Any way you take your faux beaches, you’ve got to admit they’re fun.

(Photo by TL Pixley)

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BIG DAY WITH BJ: A man said he and his wife were kidnapped at gunpoint one morning — and they were forced to get in a blue van and held in Piedmont Park until almost 11 p.m., when the man escaped. He said the kidnappers still had his wife — and he was able to escape because the alleged kidnappers, BJ and another guy, slapped him and got distracted when a police car drove by.

An officer asked, “What did the kidnappers want?” The man said he didn’t know, but they made them sit on this blanket all day with ants crawling around.

The officer asked the man if he could describe the weapon. “[He] said there were so many guns around and so many people,” the officer wrote. “I asked [him] how many kidnappers there were and he said two.”

Continue reading The Blotter

(Illustration by Tray Butler)

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Former mayor of Gainesville Mark E. Musselwhite was arrested last weekend after Georgia Department of Natural Resources ranger Brandon Walls says he found Musselwaite sitting drunk and naked at a Rabun County campsite.

The incident report is, as one might expect, delightful. An excerpt:

I asked him what he was doing, he said he was just sitting here and asked if there was a problem. I did notice he was drinking and appeared very intoxicated. I asked him why he did not have any clothes on, and he said he was hot and had been in the creek . . . I advised him that we had gotten complaints about a man walking around nude in the area. Still nude, he told me that it was not him. I said the complaintant had specifically said his campsite, and the fact that he was still nude made me think it was him.

Read the whole thing at AccessNorthGa.com.

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Blue Genes, the clothing boutique in the Around Lenox shopping center that has been broken in to seven times in the past eight years, might be getting a run for its money as the most burgled outpost along Lenox Road.

This morning, police began investigating yet another such burglary, this time at the Macy’s in Lenox Square Mall, where approximately 80 pairs of blue jeans worth an estimated $10,000 were stolen. Burglars found their way in after smashing a plate glass window at the front of the store.

These two victims are, of course, far from alone. Atlanta recently ranked second in a survey of the nation’s most dangerous cities, with property crimes increasing by 7.6 percent in 2008 compared with the previous year. And as the AJC noted, these recent break-ins don’t even set these two stores apart on their own block:

(more…)

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Residents will return to the streets of Atlanta all this weekend to voice their support for Iranian democracy.

Locations for this weekend’s protests, which are supported by Amnesty International and the American Friends Service Committee:

Friday (today), June 26, 6:30 p.m.
Lenox Mall on Peachtree Street

Saturday, June 27, 6 p.m.
Roswell Rd. NE & Johnson Ferry Rd. NE, Sandy Springs

Sunday, June 28, 4 p.m.
CNN Center, Marietta Street at Centennial Park Drive

Last Saturday, nearly 200 residents gathered at the CNN Center in dowtown Atlanta to voice outrage over the violent crackdown on Iranians who contested the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. CL captured photos and video of the rally.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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The U.S. House of Representatives has begun debating one of the most monumental energy and environmental bills it’s ever considered.

The legislation, the so-called Waxman-Markey bill, is a measure to help curb global warming by pushing for more energy efficiency, renewable energy standards, and limiting carbon emissions from industries and utilities. Its most controversial provision includes placing a cap-and-trade policy in which carbon emissions could be bought and sold. The Associated Press has a concise rundown of the bill.

Environmentalists have heralded the bill as a necessity at a time when climate experts say action must be taken within years. The Sierra Club has its list of its advantages — as well as what could be improved — on its website. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy applauded lawmakers for its efforts, but said the cap-and-trade policy could essentially create a polluters’ market.

(more…)

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If you haven’t heard the news that the King of Pop has passed by now, you’re a zombie and should’ve been cast for the “Thriller” video. With fans all over expressing their grief, don’t bet against it, DJs will be spinning Michael Jackson records all weekend long.

Also, people are organizing tributes and vigils. Below are some of the updates we’ve seen, we’ll add more as they come across our screen. Know of any others? Send them our way, or post a comment below.

» Updates on the tributes going on this week are on Crib Notes, our music blog.

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In his weekly installment of “This Whole World’s Gone to Pot,” the AJC’s resident conservative columnist Jim Wooten — who plans to ease into retirement soon — proposes a ridiculous way to solve congestion on the Downtown Connector.

Crowds headed to a Braves game and a soccer match between Mexico and Venezuela at the Georgia Dome clogged the always-trouble Downtown Connector for miles up I-75, I-85 and Ga. 400. Fix it. Find a private-sector company to double-deck the Downtown Connector. Make both toll roads.

Just be prepared for that private-sector company to stipulate in its contract that the city or state can’t compete — or in other words, improve transportation — near the double-decker road “product.” That means MARTA, intown roads, and even intercity rail. (One concept for a proposed high-speed rail line from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to Chattanooga, Tenn., had a train running along the I-75/85 median.)

Privatization — especially road privatization — could make sense in some cases. But it has its pitfalls.

(UPDATE: Griftdrift has his own analysis of Wooten’s Friday column.)

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• Or is it? Michael Jackson’s albums take seven of the top 10 spots in the iTunes albums sales charts.
• Speaking of which: U.S. consumer spending rose and incomes gained in May.
• Well I guess that settles it: Iran’s electoral watchdog insisted the country’s recent presidential election results were the “cleanest ever.” Like totally.
• Follow the logic: President Obama turns to immigration reform, hinting at a path to legalization for the millions of undocumented immigrants.
• Curious what Leviticus says about adulterers: S.C. Lt. Governor says Sanford should stay in office.
• The lone dissenter is a man: Supreme Court rules strip-searching of female student to be illegal.

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1) Bill Maher performs at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.

2) Museum of Design Atlanta hosts Peaceably to Assemble: Protest in Film and Video, 1961-2006.

3) Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performs the music of Led Zeppelin at Chastain Park Amphitheater.

4) Georgia Shakespeare’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opens at Conant Performing Arts Center.

5) Jennie C. Jones’ Red, Bird, Blue opens at Atlanta Contemporary Art Center.

See more Atlanta events.

(Photo by Janet Van Ham)

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The King is dead.

Holy merde! The onetime King of Pop, who had recently sold out 50 upcoming arena concerts in London for what was supposed to be his comeback, apparently suffered a cardiac arrest in a rented Bel-Air mansion shortly after noon today. Jackson was rushed to UCLA Medical Center, where he reportedly arrived in a deep coma from which he never revived. The L.A. Times reported Jackson’s death this afternoon.

From where I sat, TMZ seemed to be the first out of the gate with the news, with most mainstream media outlets taking longer to confirm the story.

No word yet on why Jackson, 50, collapsed, but I’m guessing CNN may devote a few minutes of coverage to the story at some point tonight.

This news flash illustrates one big difference between new and old media. Namely, if 50 million people watch the ABC Nightly News at the same time, it scores massive ratings; if 50 million people try to put something on Twitter at the same time — as is happening at this very moment — it crashes.

(Photo courtesy White House Photo Office)

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(Photo by Perry Julien)

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The Southern Voice raises an interesting question about why a former Wings bassist and ex-husband of model Heather Mills can be allowed to play in Piedmont Park, but the Atlanta Pride Festival had to reschedule the summer event until October.

…due to restrictions on city parks put in place during the drought, the official Pride festival has been postponed until late fall. Instead, a coalition of LGBT organizations are hosting Stonewall Week events through Sunday.

The Paul McCartney show — announced on June 24 and scheduled for Aug. 15 — is widely expected to draw a crowd as large or larger than the 50,000 who turned out to see the Dave Matthews Band in September 2007 for the Piedmont Park Conservancy’s Green Concert series.

But according to city officials, the concert is not a “Class A” festival.

“The Piedmont Park Green Concert Series is a Class B event. It is also a gated and ticketed event so it does not fall under the outdoor event policy,” said Sharon Davis, spokesperson for the city’s Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs department.

SoVo goes on to say the city’s dangerously close to contradicting itself should Mills’ former husband draw a crowd larger than 50,000 people. Now, we’ve never heard of this McCartney character, probably because we don’t listen to country music. But whoever he is, SoVo does raise a good point.

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We’ve got crime! We’ve got infrastructure! We’re not loved!

From the Atlanta Business Chronicle:

TripAdvisor conducted an American city survey of more than 3,400 U.S. travelers to get opinions on the best and worst of major U.S. cities.

Atlanta was the least-favorite city, behind only Detroit and Los Angeles. The most favorite cities were New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Boston.

But according to the highly unscientific poll, they like our accents. Yippee. Accents alone won’t bring the tourists’ $$$, folks. Get cracking!

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