Fresh Loaf

You might have heard about the Daily Beast’s ranking of 56 cities in terms of “smartness.” Atlanta earned a spot as the 23rd smartest city. Not great, but still twice as smart as Houston!

Unfortunately, we’re almost dead last when it comes to appearances — at least judging from the Beast’s photo slideshow of the nation’s smart and not-so-smart cities.

Minneapolis-St. Paul is depicted as a mysteriously sleek urban landscape. Denver is characterized, appropriately enough, by an outdoor sports enthusiast. D.C. gets cherry blossoms, joggers and the Washington Monument. Baltimore looks glittery and exciting. Milwaukee is oddly elegant. Charlotte is leafy, with tall buildings. Kansas City seems kind of awesome. Even Pittsburgh has a pleasantly urban cachet.

And what iconic image was used to represent Atlanta? The lovely view of the skyline as glimpsed across Piedmont Park’s Lake Clara Meer? Nope. The final resting place of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.? Unfortunately, no. The gritty graffiti gracing the Krog Street tunnel? We wish. The overwrought imagery of a Coke logo? Nada. The slightly awkward architecture of the Georgia Aquarium? Not even that.

Actually, we’re represented by the lamest, most provincial, lowest common denominator bushel of cliches ever. Jeez. This ain’t Fort Valley, folks.

But hey, at least we’re not as generic as Fresno.

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Yesterday was the eighth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. A group of Atlanta activists, who are part of a state wide “counter recruitment” effort, gathered on Ponce de Leon Avenue after a day of protesting recruitment tactics at various military recruitment centers around the city, as well as at Grady High School. At the recruitment stations they delivered an ACLU drafted resolution that called on recruiters to comply with International Protocol on the Rights of the Child which forbids any contact between military recruiters and children younger than 17.

According to American Friends Service Committee organizer Tim Franzen, this is a common practice by recruiters in high schools around the country. At Grady, Franzen said, they passed out counter recruitment literature with a couple of current Grady students which he says exposes some of the negative truths about recruitment practices and veterans lives after serving their country — including that 40 percent of homeless men in the United States are veterans. Another of their goals, according to Franzen, is to promote non-military options for low-income youth. The “counter recruitment” effort was  sponsored by the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition and the American Friends Service Committee.

Their campaign comes against the backdrop of last weekend’s ambush of American marines that caused eight American military deaths — the biggest loss of American military lives in Afghanistan in over a year. Last week in another military combat death, Staff Sgt. Alex French IV from Milledgeville, Ga., was killed in Afghanistan. It is expected that President Obama will soon announce his decision on his strategy for the Afghanistan war.

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This image is from the Sweet Auburn Heritage Festival that took place Oct. 3-4. I thought it was funny how this guy’s face fit perfectly in a gap in the line of cotton candy hanging from his booth, especially because of his serious expression contrasted with something fun and light-hearted like cotton candy. Even while talking to people that walked by the booth, he never moved from that position.

Check out more photos from the street festival.
(Photos and text by Alan Friedman)

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(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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A young vendor guards his wares at the Sweet Auburn Heritage Festival on Oct. 3.

Check out more photos from the street festival.

(Photos by Alan Friedman)

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Rakim and Killer Mike played a show at the East Atlanta Icehouse on Oct. 3 as part of this year’s A3C Festival.

See more shots from the Rakim and Killer Mike performance.

(Photo by Dustin Chambers)

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Le Flash opened to an excited Atlanta for its second year of light-based installation works, gallery showings and street performance art. The event kicked off Atlanta Celebrates Photography’s month of showings, lectures, and art events.

Le Flash’s biggest crowd-pleaser was an intricate street performance work. Bright balloons carried by black-clad improvising dancers melded with dancers from Lauri Stallings’ new company gloATL as they traversed the streets through a massive following crowd.

See more photos from Le Flash.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Chair lifting on Marietta Street — all in a day’s work for this dude.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Criminal Records brought the band in for another one of the record store’s popular in-store performances on Sept. 30.

Check out more photos from the Phoenix show.

(Photo by Perry Julien)

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This car was parked on Alta Ave. NE when a tree fell on it at 5:45 p.m. on Sept. 26. The car was Billy Eiselstein’s. All week Billy had purposely parked his car in the front of his house because two big pecan trees in the back of his house had been staining his car with falling pecans. “I been parking in the front of my house all week to avoid pecan stains,” he said. “I didn’t know how bad it was ’til they removed the tree.”

(Photos by Joeff Davis)

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Laura Veirs opened for the Decemberists  as the band rocked and rolled the Classic Theatre of Athens on Sept. 26.

Check out more photos from the Athens Decemberists concert.

(Photo by Dustin Chambers)

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Cabbagetown Market held its third annual pig roast on Sept. 26. There were local pigs, locally grown sides and locally brewed beer, plus local music. Rain forced this year’s event to sheltered space so it was held at the Cabbagetown Community Center, but a little rain didn’t stop everyone from getting their roast on.

Check out more photos from the Pig Roast.

(Photo by Alan Friedman)

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Kid Congo — formerly of The Gun Club and The Cramps — and his band The Pink Monkey Birds rocked the Star Bar Sept. 26.

(Photo by Perry Julien)

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The second Allstate HBCU Step Showdown returned to Atlanta to build upon the momentum of last year’s show. The best nine teams faced off at the Atlanta Civic Center on Sept. 25.

Check out more photos from the Step Showdown.

(Photo by Alan Friedman)

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Firefighter and paramedic Ronnie Garcia demonstrates to students at Grady High School what he goes through far too often in a typical drunk-driving scene.  Grady student Darius Williams, 17, volunteered to play the victim. Many students are killed or seriously and permanently injured by either carelessly not wearing a seat belt or driving while intoxicated.

(Photo and text by Jeff Slate)

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As of this morning the Krog Street tunnel was still closed due to rainwater.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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I saw this hole in the ground Monday morning. I had never seen a sink hole and was surprised by how intense it was that a whole world of water existed right under the road.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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I saw this car parked in a North Avenue parking lot late last week. When I approached the car the officer turned and told me to back up because there might be a bomb in the car.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Former Blues Brother and Ghost Buster Dan Ackroyd took a stroll through the Virginia Highlands Friday night. Ackroyd surprised the crowd at Blind Willie’s entering the club, jumping onstage and belting out a couple verses of “Mustang Sally” with the house band, the Shadows, before quickly leaving out the back door.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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This photo was taken at the Atlanta Arts Festival at Piedmont Park. I took plenty of pictures of people looking at artwork, but the “3-D” artwork at this booth made for some especially funny and interesting images. I liked this one in particular because these three people came together and made this perfect symmetry in the frame for just a couple of seconds, and they all brought the glasses up to their face at the exact same time. It was one of those photographs that just fell into place right in front of me, for just long enough for me to snap a few frames. I also thought the lack of context makes the image kind of confusing and funny.

(Photo and text by Alan Friedman)

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"Humble" Bob Shoudt

On Sept. 13, 12 people competed in the Krystal hamburger-eating contest at Lenox Square Mall. The person who could consume the most Krystal and Big Angus hamburgers in eight minutes won a seat at the final table of the Krystal Square Off VI World Hamburger Eating Championship Sept. 27 in Chattanooga, TN where the top eaters will compete for $50,000 in cash prizes.

The winner at Lenox Square was “Humble” Bob Shoudt, “Humble” Bob consumed 41 Krystal and 5 Big Angus hamburgers in the eight minutes in a stomach-turning display of eating ability.

After the competition “Humble” Bob admitted to feeling a little guilty that he was not out protesting for clean water for the poor. “The world heath organization estimates over 400 people die a day because of poorly treated water,” “Humble” Bob said after consuming 46 hamburgers, “I feel guilty I am not protesting the use of treated water on soccer and football fields when it could be used to help those who have no clean water.”

Check out more photos from the Krystal hamburger eating contest.

(Photo and text by Joeff Davis)

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The Pet Shop Boys brought their multi-media dance-inspired show to the dance-ready crowd at Chastain Park Amphitheater Sept. 12.

Check out more photos from the Pet Shop Boys concert.

(Photo by Perry Julien)

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The first annual Inner City Eco Festival at the Lake Clare Land Trust on Sept. 12 featured an eclectic line-up of live music, kicked off with a ceremonial drum song by members of the Cherokee Indian tribe. The theme for the event was “Roots, Rocks, Reggae” and in addition to the live music also featured a number of local merchants selling everything from arts and crafts to natural healing and organic products. Proceeds from the event supported the organization Menen, Artistic Expressions of the Diaspora.

(Photo by Jeff Riley)

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The first night of The Perez Hilton Presents Tour opened at The Variety Playhouse Sept. 10 featuring Perez himself, who watched the bands perform from the crowd.  Performing were Ida Marie and Ladyhawke, known in New Zealand as Pip Brown.

Check out more photos from the Ladyhawke concert.

(Photo by Perry Julien)

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The photograph was taken on Aug. 15 in the atrium of the High Museum. A group of Atlanta photographers got together for a Midtown photo stroll. What I liked most about this photograph is all the intimate moments caught in the frame. The kids holding hands, the mother and daughter moment, the woman catching me catching her. The lighting was perfect and the angle gives an uncommon perspective of the museum patrons.

(Photo by fotostalker/Flickr)

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