Fresh Loaf

Angie Fuller, a forensic technician assistant supervisor, has worked at the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office for nine years. She and her team are responsible for collecting and preserving evidence from the body. She receives an average of four to five bodies a day.

How did you get to be involved with the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office?

I went to school at Gupton-Jones College of Mortuary Science in Decatur. But I was not a good embalmer. I could never find the vessels! So I came to the Medical Examiner’s Office and asked them if I could volunteer, so I could see the anatomy from the inside the body. I was such a good cleaner that they decided to hire me six months later. That’s how I got started. I was a good cleaner!

What is the biggest misconception people have about what you do?

That we have cold hands, and that everyone who is dead is cold. While that may be true in some cases, sometimes we’ll get people who die right on the scene and we get the body four hours later. So it’s still kind of warm. But that’s a basic misconception — that any anyone who works in the morgue or autopsy room has cold hands. One thing for sure: [Our work] is not what you see on “CSI.”

It would take more than a day for us to get the lab results back to solve one case. And we don’t do autopsies in the dark!

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Helene Frisch is a fourth-generation psychic. Her great- grandmother was the personal psychic of the Russian Royal family, and they both share similar attributes. Like her great-grandmother, she specializes in personal and intricate feelings. She now receives 15-20 phone calls and e-mails a week and gives three to four readings a day, some lasting as long as two hours. She also gives what she calls “mini-readings” at corporate events, fundraisers and other festivals.

Could you elaborate on the feeling you got when you first became aware of your abilities?

Well, it was when I was four. It was very simplistic. That’s just how it is, but it’s the truth. I was sitting in the back of my dad’s station wagon and we were coming back from my grandmother’s house and I don’t know what hit me, but this feeling just came over me. It sounds corny, but from that moment on, I knew that I was protected and I knew that I was okay. I just stated to know things, and from there, it just became second nature.

So could you start predicting different things about people at that point?

Yes. I knew things, but even though you’re four, you have a sense of what you should tell people and what you should not. Even though I was getting this information, a lot of it I kept quiet. Of course, I did let it rip occasionally!

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Houston sells — you guessed it — socks. Lots and lots of them. But why socks? And how did he get started in this business?

Tell me a about how you began selling socks.

One day, I saw a guy selling socks out of the trunk of his car and I thought to myself, “That might work on a massive scale.” So I started selling socks out of the trunk of my car. I started going from neighborhood to neighborhood, from barbershops to beauty salons to grocery stores to plazas. And I had this little beat-up car, and I put a sign on the side of it that said “Socks” and my phone number. People called me, and one thing led to another. I graduated and I got myself a van. A buddy of mine painted a sign on the side of the van. It said “Sock Man.”

Before I go on and tell you the rest of the story, let me tell you a little bit about where I came from and how difficult it was. I was strung out on drugs. I was homeless for years, and I lived in a cardboard box. My store that I have on Glenwood Road in Decatur that’s open today, I used to sleep behind that building in a cardboard box. I grew up right in this neighborhood. I came out of high school with a football scholarship to Florida State University. To get out of college and stumble into an addiction that took me to the gates of hell was really a traumatic experience.

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If you’ve ever ridden MARTA Route 115, chances are Oliver Hook has been your driver. For more than two decades, he’s shuttled riders to and fro, helping them deal with such issues as divorce, depression and — no joke — childbirth.

What is a typical day like for you?

A typical day for me is to be prepared for whatever you may meet. Being a bus operator, you have to be a doctor, a psychiatrist and a counselor. You have to be everything being a bus operator. You have to be prepared for everything physically and mentally.

There have been a lot of times where people will get on with different things. You may have a male or female talking about their divorce. Sometimes, they may be talking about killing themselves. As bus operators, we’re all trained to be able to talk to them and they get off the bus feeling much better.

We like to be called bus operators. Anybody can drive, but it takes a special type of person to operate the vehicle that we operate and keep up with the constant demand.

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Tom Thomas is a partner with the HTW&W, one of the largest criminal defense firms in Georgia. He specializes in DUI law and says that drivers pulled over for suspicion of DUI rarely know their rights.

What is a common misconception people have about your clients?

That they are strictly alcoholics and degenerates. They are actually very run-of-the-mill people. They come from different backgrounds — lawyers, doctors, accountants and people from all over the place. They are not your stereotypical criminals.

What’s one thing people should know about their rights during a traffic stop?

You don’t have to discuss where you’ve been or what you’ve done, or give any other information other than your name and license number and other identification. You don’t have to explain anything else, but people always launch into an explanation of why they were speeding or why they were swerving. If they want to check your license to make sure you’re not wanted anywhere, that’s fine, but you certainly don’t need to give any other information. You can respectfully decline.

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After tattooing for eight years in New York and Atlanta, Danielle Distefano recently opened her own tattoo shop, Only You Tattoo, in Grant Park.

How long have you been a tattoo artist?
Eight years, professionally. I was an apprentice for a year and a half before.

What was the first tattoo you gave?
It was a little anchor with a shield that I never finished, because my machine stopped working and I didn’t know how to fix it. That was before I was an apprentice. I got a machine from a friend and was playing around with it.

What’s the strangest tattoo you’ve ever drawn before?
[laughs]. That’s a tough question. I guess a unicorn puking up a rainbow, jumping out of someone’s skin. With lightning bolts coming out of its horns.

How would you describe your style?
It’s based in American traditional classic “tough guy” with Japanese influence. Kind of like sailor tattoos mixed with a Japanese style.

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An usher for the Braves since 1966, Banks is a well-known personality at Turner Field. He’s legendary among fellow attendants for his extensive knowledge of numbers and baseball, as well as for his humble personality.

What is a typical day like for you?

I try to give the fans a real Braves experience — making them feel welcome, talking to them, and just making them feel at home. [Depending on] the way they’re treated, there’s a chance they’ll bring somebody back with them, and then that person will bring somebody back. A real Braves experience is just rolling the red carpet out and making them feel at home.

Can you describe what happened when Hank Aaron set the record?

Of all the big events I’ve witnessed, that was one of the biggest. That was a centerpiece of the Braves franchise. On every aisle seat, there’s a logo of Hank Aaron.

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Since 2002, 78-year-old Schmitt — the former president of Agnes Scott College — has been part of a group of war protesters that congregated weekly at the Colony Square office building in Midtown (formerly the headquarters of then-Sen. Zell Miller). On Feb. 13, the group, held its last protest.

How long have you been coming to the protest here at Colony Square?

Well, I was at the first one, which was six and a half years ago. We came because Zell Miller’s offices were up in the Colony Square [building], so that’s where it started. And I remember one member standing next to me, she said, “We need to do this every week.”

So I’ve been coming except when I was out of town, or I guess maybe I missed once because it really was too cold. But mostly we’re out here —whether it’s, whether it’s cold.

How many times in the last six and a half years have you been here?

Well, I’m sure it’s over 200 times.

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If you’ve attended or watched an Atlanta City Council committee meeting, you’ve witnessed the blunt opinions and insight of Dave Walker, a 63-year-old Vietnam veteran and street vendor who says he’s attended nearly every meeting since 1984.

How did you end up in Atlanta?

I was hitchhiking around the country back in the ’70s and I went to Los Angeles. And then I went from LA to New York. And I was standing in my sister’s front yard in New York, and I asked the almighty God “Where do I go now?” And clearly he said to me, “Atlanta.” And that’s how I got here. I came hitchhiking with two pennies.

How does God manifest himself to you?

He can talk. God talks to man’s conscience.

Do you still hitchhike?

No, I am afraid now. And a little too old. (laughs).

Do you like Atlanta?

The thing that I used to like about Atlanta is that Atlanta was a wholesome town. But it’s no longer wholesome. If I left Atlanta, I would starve to death. So I stay here. No other city could I have gone to and become famous. I am famous now, so I like it.

When you say that you are famous, what do you think you are famous for?

I am famous for my quick wit. I am famous for my knowledge of world events, etc. I don’t think there is no council member, no government official, in this state or in this country, who is as qualified to talk about government as I am.

Why do you wear hospital scrubs? [Ed. Walker often wears scrubs to meetings.]

Every great man has to have their notch in history, their notch in the community; the scrubs are part of my notch, part of my identity. Most doctors, nurses, they have on scrubs and I view myself as somewhat of a doctor. And scrubs secondarily are very comfortable. They are versatile and you can wear them anywhere, anytime. And the reason I don’t have them on now is it’s too damn cold. But I tell you, I miss them. (laughs)

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Curtis Clark is the bassist of Atlanta’s heavy metal karaoke band, Metalsome. The group, whose motto is “Everyone’s a rock star … no apologies,” performs behind brave-hearted karaoke enthusiasts every Monday, Friday and Saturday at the 10 High in Virginia-Highland.

Tell me about how and when Metalsome came about.

Metalsome started in 2003. A friend of the woman who used to book the club had gone to New York, and on a Monday night went through a club called Arlene’s Grocery. They were doing a thing called Punk Rock Karaoke. She approached me with the idea and said, “Well, what do you think about this?” I said, “Well, I think it’s cool.”

We started doing it in May of 2003, on Monday nights only. I think the first night we did it, there were roughly 30 people and we had about 20-something songs. It wasn’t long after that that we made contact with the people in New York, and talked to them and realized we were so much like them. It was really pretty strange. Now, every major city in the United States has a live band karaoke thing going.

How did you start in music in general?

You start like everybody else starts. It’s a hobby, and it’s a passion. It’s just a bad habit that you don’t fall out of. I had a friend who in ‘76 got his first guitar, and I started playing it because he didn’t play it. I sort of inherited it. Playing music is something that for some bizarre reason I’ve never quit doing. I’m into my forties now and still making a living, playing bass guitar. You see KISS and it inspires you. That’s what happened to me, and most of the guys in my band are the same way.

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Nyemb, 45, was born in Cameroon, on the west coast of central Africa. He’s been driving a cab in Atlanta since the mid-’90s — and has had his fair share of experiences both in his native land and behind the wheel.

When did you come to Atlanta?

I came here in 1991. I came to go to school.

Did you finish your degree?

No. I had to call it off. Because of some family obligations and financial constraints, I had to look for a job.

What kinds of jobs were available to you?

At that time, the only job I could get was driving. I was delivering newspapers for a while and then I started driving a taxi.

Job opportunities are better here. Unemployment is up to 40 percent in Cameroon. An education will not guarantee you a job. And here, although I could not do exactly what I wanted, I got a job to pay the bills. That is the big difference.

What are some of the cultural differences?

In Cameroon, people live in a family-oriented society. People help each other and you can stay at home until you decide to leave, even if you have a wife and children. People try to help one another.  Here, you are on your own. If you don’t make it, you get evicted. And the food was also a new experience for me.

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James Joyce, underground record keeper

A self-described librarian of rock, 33-year-old Joyce posts long-lost songs, photos, fliers and anecdotes from Atlanta’s underground music scene on his blog, Beyond Failure. He also has played with a bunch of Atlanta bands over the years — most recently with psych-funk collective Noot d’ Noot.

CL: How did you come up with the idea for Beyond Failure?

JJ: I’ve probably been in 20 bands or so. And I’m kind of by nature an archival person. I’m kind of a librarian.

That’s a rare combination for people in bands.

I think it’s because I’m a drummer. I’m just more systematic in the way I think and the way I organize myself. I’m more organized than a lot of my bandmates. Everyone has moved 100 times, and nobody has their old records, their old tapes, old flyers, old pictures. They started contacting me and asked if I had any of the old recordings, because theirs were all gone.

So I started digitizing all these old demo tapes, old records and seven-inches and stuff. And I started posting them up on this blog, rather than just emailing them to everybody.

Then I started posting stuff by bands I was friends with at that time, in the ’90s. I really like their music, and it’s really hard to find a lot of their stuff. Everything local is out of print. It’s good to just collect a lot of that stuff and make it available, for historical purposes. Because otherwise, you won’t be able to find it.

(Lots of links to long-lost recordings, after the jump.)

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Though he’s known to many as one of Atlanta’s first male strippers, 41-year-old Ryder also can be found taking tickets and cleaning up after customers at Inserection’s video booths on Cheshire Bridge Road.

What kind of clientele do you see?

“All walks — young, old, from Nelly to butch to twink to you name it. Even supposedly ’straight’ men who walk in and forget to take their wedding bands off.”

What’s provided to customers?

“We sell condoms to [customers],$2 a piece. If they want larger, they’re $2.50. The napkins, paper towels, hot water and soap is provided.”

When business is slow, how do you pass the time?

“I do my artwork. I draw comic book heroes, like Spiderman, Captain America, Punisher … people like that.”

Do you have a favorite dirty movie?

“I’m the kind of the person who just puts the webcam on. Fuck the movies. I’d rather see a live webcam than watch a movie.”

Do customers hit on you?

“Yeah, of course, that’s going to happen. [Ryder's boyfriend of 15 years] knows it, but he knows I know where home is.”

After the jump, some more of Ryder’s answers. Warning: Some of them are are explicit in nature.

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Neigeborn, 35, loves his work, which he’s been doing for more than a decade. But it’s stressful right now, because clients are more worried about their investments.

What is your background? How did you get into financial advising?

I am originally from Long Island, New York. I went to school at the University of Albany. Originally I was going to be studying psychology, which became my minor. I fell in love with American history; I studied it at the undergraduate and graduate level. I went on until I was about to complete my master’s thesis and my grandmother talked me out of it. She sat me down and said, ‘Honey, teaching on a college level – you’re going to be broke and you’re going to be unemployed a lot and this is not for you.’ And I said “…OK.” I was about 23. So my background was in academics, and I had not taken an economics class in college. It is interesting to find that many of us have not; we have lots of varied backgrounds. I traveled for a little bit after school, not really sure what I would do, came back. I came back to the states when I was 24. I had spent a little time overseas. I got a job in the telecommunications industry, which at the time was booming. I did that for about a year and this was at the height of the technology boom in the late 90’s. I came down to visit some friends in Atlanta, fell in love with the city, packed my bags and came. This was 1997. At the time, Prudential was hiring financial advisers. I had enough of a push to want to take on a very challenging job at 24, 25. I didn’t quite know what I was going to be getting myself into. It turned out to be a lot more challenging than I fully expected. (more…)

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If you see a non-human meat eater loping about Zoo Atlanta, chances are Rebecca Snyder knows the animal personally. Snyder, 39, hails from Iowa but relocated to Atlanta to pursue a doctorate in psychology. She’s journeyed as far as China to study maternal behavior in pandas, researching everything from the way the gender of the cub affects parental care to how the amount of time with its mother affects a cub. With Lun Lun’s recent delivery, Snyder is seeing 11 years of research come full circle.

“I have gotten to study Yang Yang and Lun Lun since they were born [in China]. I have known them their whole lives. I knew their mothers really well and now I am able to watch Lun Lun as a mother herself.”

Pandas weren’t the only animals to get busy recently. “The lioness just gave birth. It was great to see her as a mother. It is fun to watch [the lions] interact as a family.”

What does she find weird? When exposed to an object with a unique scent, a panda will pick the object up and rub it all over itself, “It’s fun. We expose them to lots of scents. Yang Yang loves Tobasco and mouthwash.”

“I have never been in danger. We work with captive animals so I’ve not felt like I wasn’t safe — though I do have nightmares about tigers escaping.”

A zoo PR rep didn’t want Snyder to talk about last year’s tiger escape at the San Francisco Zoo, which resulted in a visitor’s death. But Snyder did say a tiger couldn’t escape in Atlanta: “Our fencing is taller than San Francisco. We have measured since then and decided to [raise it] higher than what is regulation.”

- Mary Moore

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During the last 10 years, people have given Cara Brown a lot of crap for not using her Georgia Tech industrial engineering degree. Literally, that is — she works as a poop scooper for Dirty Work, driving to her clients’ yards and picking up where their dogs left off.

Her post-graduation desk job bored her. “I was tired of the solitude and being indoors. It’s all about doing what you enjoy, and I really love being outside and with animals.”

Although the majority of her business is residential, she also scoops for condos, kennels and events such as Turner Field’s Bark at the Park.

She cleans some litter boxes and rabbit cages, but also takes care of “any kind of wildlife poop” in the yard. “We try to pick up anything we find, or the dog could eat it.”

She’s retrieved paper money and a diamond ring that dogs had eaten, and once came across the plastic eyes a dog ate off a toy. “The pile of poop was looking up at me.”

“People are always very careful what they call it. You know they want to use the ’s’ word, but they’ll say something like ‘feces’ or ‘No. 2.’ ‘Poop’ is the biggest.”

Photo by Joeff Davis

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David Booker-Earley is a 13-year-old jazz percussionist at Jean Childs Young Middle School. The school’s band won this year’s Youth Jazz Competition at the Atlanta Jazz Festival.

Why did you start playing percussion instruments?

It started a long time ago when my older brother came home one day, twirling his sticks, playing a lot of stuff I didn’t know what was. So it just looked pretty cool to me and I thought I’d try it out.

Do you bang on the table when you’re eating dinner?

Oh, yes. Anything I can use to beat on is my instrument. I even played on the concrete with my hands one time. It hurt, but I made a cool song there.

How does your family feel about you banging on things all the time?

My brothers, they bang along with me. My sister, she sings with us. All of us are really percussionists inside. But sometimes they might tell me to stop because they’re trying to watch TV.

Are there any obsessed girl fans at school?

Kind of, sometimes.

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Jamie Karns is a bouncer at Lenny’s Bar and Grill. At six-feet two-inches tall and 415 pounds, 37-year-old Karns is also known as Fat Guy.

What kind of training do you need to be a bouncer?

Patience is the biggest factor. There’s not really a special class on how to throw someone out, but you need to be able to control your temper when somebody is obviously drunk and not get mad at him for being rude.

How can you recognize a fake ID?

Most of them are pretty bad. Things like, the girl’s eyes are blue but the girl your talking to’s eyes are green. The manufactured fake ID, things like the watermarks are wrong, the color of ink they use is wrong.

Just how bad do they get?

I’ve gotten several IDs from people I know. A total stranger walks up and gives me an ID of someone I actually know. And I’m like, “This isn’t you.” And they’re like, “Oh, yes it is.” But I’m like, “This is the guy I went to high school with, it’s not you.”

What would you do if someone brought in a McLovin ID (from the movie Superbad)?

That would definitely not fly. First off, no one has just one name, you know? But odd states like Hawaii and whatnot, don’t work. Give me the one of the state you’re in.

Do girls try to flirt with you to get in?

Mm-hmm.

Does it work?

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Bernie Tekippe has been repairing clocks in Atlanta since the ’60s. He says he can fix any mechanical clock made in the last 300 years.

“One of the difficulties is trying to diagnose what’s wrong with it, especially if it almost works. You can spend a lot of time fixing the wrong thing.”

He builds clocks, too, usually a dozen at a time. He’s built about 200 in his life and occasionally gives clock-making workshops.

He doesn’t wear a watch, saying it would get in the way and isn’t necessary. “When I’m in here I have clocks all around me.”

He says he’s not punctual, but is aware of the irony.

On digital clocks: “They’re wonderful. They’re what we’ve been trying to make for 300 years. I think we should put them in nicer cases, though. We think they’re cheap, so we put them in cheap cases.”

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Beth O’Connor teaches people about nutrition, health, fitness, meditation, and spirit — the elements of what she says comprise wellness.

“You don’t have to be a size 2 but you can eat nutritiously. Stay away from saturated fats. Stay away from all the processed foods, packaged foods.”

O’Connor teaches groups at wellness parties: “We talk about nutrition and fitness. I teach them meditation and give them some yoga stretches to do. I massage and they learn how to massage — very basic things.”

On Southern food: “I love [Paula Deen].  But everything she makes, it’s just butter, pounds and pounds of butter. I eat butter, but very in moderation.”

“[A]bout five years ago, I realized I can’t eat this southern fried food anymore. I gained so much weight during my marriage and I’m still battling it. I believe a lot is genetics, but we’re still in control.

O’Connor says diet is the primary cause of unwellness. “What you put in your body is gonna affect you, five years from now, 10 years from now.”

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Jay Yeomans, 51, is head referee at Paintball Atlanta. An aficionado of paintball for 15 years, he also maintains the company’s equipment and the facilities.

“You get bruises, maybe a couple little stitches, a turned ankle, something like that – something you can do playing in the backyard. But no one has had a serious injury [at Paintball Atlanta], especially eye-related.”

“Everybody [at Paintball Atlanta] has got to deal with me sooner or later. I’m not known for my wonderful attitude.”

“When a paintball hits you in the mask and it’s in your mouth, usually you gag, hack and spit. And cussing usually is in there somewhere. It’s got that 4-week-old, uncooked meat smell. It’s nasty.”

On his daughter: “She just turned 18, she’s been playing for four years. She’s very brutal. She put Father’s Day scars on both sides of my neck. It’s alright. I got her later.”

Is paintball a sport? “What is your definition of a sport? Okay, like football where you’re playing against another team in front of an audience – spectators – at the big tournaments? You get just as many people as you would on a decent football game. There is money at stake, trophies at stake, sponsorships from manufacturers.”

On real guns: “Most of my guns, I have sold. One of them was grandfather’s shotgun – sentimental. I kept that. One’s a pistol – protection. I kept that.”

“Paintball is nothing like the military. It’s a very sore spot. There are a lot of people out there, churches and other organizations that consider paintball as teaching our children paramilitary training, how to kill somebody else. I’ve called it a paintball gun – we call it a paintball marker. . We don’t kill in paintball, we eliminate. Usually until the next game starts up, which is usually in about 10, 15 minutes.”

“Because the word “gun” is just not a good thing to be thrown around. You can’t talk about paintball in schools because it involves a gun, if you will. Because my daughter tried to set up a team, to start playing a team at school. And the word “gun” came out, and they said, ‘That’s it. Forget it.’”

“The pay’s good and it’s a job I love doing. You can’t beat that.”

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Michael Ellis is the founder and director of Atlanta Wild Animal Rescue Effort. AWARE helps injured and distressed urban wildlife at its facility in Lithonia.

Ellis got involved with wildlife through his work as a builder. “I built some gibbon ape habitats at Yerkes.”

In Belize with a Yerkes primatologist, Ellis met a couple from Washington state who rescued wildlife at their home: “I moved to Washington to volunteer [for them]. I had $700 and my Chevy S-10.”

On the animals he rescues now: “At any wildlife center, birds are 70% of the intake. But it’s everything – hummingbirds, eagles, mice, eagles, deer, possums, squirrels.”

“Roaming cats are one of the biggest devastators of wildlife in this country. Every free roaming domestic cat kills 200 to 400 wild animals a year.”

The biggest mistake people make with wild animals: “People identify animals [that are by themselves] as orphans. They interrupt the most critical training [for these animals.]

To which animals is Ellis most attached? “The ones least likely to survive, because I’m forced to spend more time with them than any other animal.”

“If I had to pick a favorite animal native to North America, it’d probably be a wolf because they represent all the good and all the bad that’s ever happened in this country.”

On releasing a rehabilitated animal into the wild: “Every time I release an animal, it almost makes me cry. Almost, every time.”

Do the animals he rescues socialize? “Birds put up with each other. The young ones interact. If you put an orphaned red-tailed hawk with an adult, there’s good chance the adult will feed the baby.

Yeah, but do hawks play basketball: “No, they don’t play basketball.”

On his father, George Ellis: “ He had the first spoof late night horror satire show in Atlanta on WAGA-TV in the 60s called Big Movie Shocker. He and I sang, acted and had [movie] theatres called the Film Forum. We introduced Atlanta to the art flick world.”

(Photo by Dustin Chambers)

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Charles Knox has been writing orchestral and choir music for half a century, and spent three decades teaching music theory and composition at Georgia State University.

He prefers writing to performing. “I’ve played the piano and the trombone, but I don’t play anything in public.”

Classical is also classic, he says. “Music that has an immediate appeal often doesn’t last very long.”

He got into music while at the University of Georgia, playing in jazz and dance bands, but says he quickly committed himself to writing.

“Yes, there are times when performers add their own interpretations [to his compositions]. They’re not computers; they don’t just read what’s on the page. They add their own emotions. Only on rare occasions have I been disappointed in a performer’s take, and then it was usually just a kid, so you cut them some slack.”

On his least favorite kind of music: “I can’t say. Within any style there are the truly talented ones and there are the ones who are just going through the motions.”

On being called the dean of Atlanta composers: “Basically it just means I’m the oldest.”

He does get writer’s block, he says, but if he has a secret to beating it, he’s not giving it up. “I always manage to find something to get started, and once I get started I can usually write something. Then I just hope it’s good.”

He’s written a few palindromes. “Some people say it’s a lazy way to write music, since you just write half, but you’d be surprised. A lot of music doesn’t quite work backward.”

“Having a visual aspect is something we’ve come to expect with entertainment. Having a group of musicians essentially sitting still on stage, except for bows moving, you have to be very intent on listening.”

“I suspect that rock and hip-hop have become so popular partly because of visual displays. The guitar is one of the only instruments you can play and sing and dance at the same time. If you tried to do that with a flute or trombone you could rattle your teeth out.”

Knox titled a CD of his music Clouds Are Not Spheres. “It’s a quote from a mathematician describing how things are much more complicated than they seem. A sphere is simple; clouds are not. That’s what I was referring to.”

Listen to the three movements of Knox’s “Semordnilap No. 2,” recorded live in Hawaii in January 2006.

First movement

Second movement

Third movement

The first and third movements mirror each other (the third is the first in reverse), and the second movement is a palindrome in itself. Performers for this rendition are Amy Schwartz Moretti (violin), Steve Moretti (djembe), Dorothy Lewis (cello) and Cary Lewis (piano). (Live recordings courtesy Cary Lewis and Lux Nova Press)

He hasn’t written much music in recent years because his wife has been ill, but his latest piece, written to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Druid Hills Presbyterian Church, will be performed there June 22.

(Photo by John Nowak)

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Matthew Mansour is a jouster at the Georgia Renaissance Fair and similar events in Illinois and North Carolina. The 42-year old from LaGrange also makes leather costumes for horses.

How did you become interested in jousting?

I was, as a little kid, always interested in knights. And one day I met a fellow who actually jousted. He was an actor, and he jousted. I begged him and pleaded for years and years to go with him and he said no because I was 12.

When I turned 18, I went on the road and squired for him, and learned the performance trade from the ground up.

How historically accurate is the performance?

This [jousting performance at the Renaissance Fair] is quasi-historically accurate. We put a lot more theatrics into it. A full tournament could not be done in a half-hour show.

Do you have a performance name?

Sir Matthew, the Duke of Windsor. It used to be the Prince of Windsor but that was too hoity-toity so we changed it to Duke.

What are some differences and similarities between you and Sir Matthew?

Sir Matthew is much, much more impressive. Regular Matthew is just a kind of a laid-back guy. When I walk around here as Sir Matthew, there’s a lot of bravado and your chest is swelled, you’re swaggering around. You’re a knight, a fairly important person. And I’m not like that at all.

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Sada Jacobson is an Olympic saber fencer from Dunwoody. In 2004, she won a bronze medal in the Summer Olympics and hopes to win gold this year. She and her sister Emily, also a champion fencer, are members of the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

“It’s very difficult to be a professional fencer in the U.S. Most of the pros are from Europe. It’s a more popular sport there.”

“I started fencing when I was 15. 15 is old to start fencing. At our club [in Midtown] we start them when they’re big enough to hold the mask.”

“Originally, fencing was training for sword fighting. The target area is from the waist up. It comes from cavalry. [In cavalry sword fights] you had to attack your opponent without wounding the horse.”

“Fencing is safe. The sabers aren’t sharp. Punctures are rare. The most common injuries are the repetitive stress injuries you get in all sports.

“I’ve never been in an actual physical confrontation. I don’t think I would fare well.”

“You’re trying to symbolically kill the person in front of you. You have to be very centered and calm, but also aggressive. That’s hard to achieve.”

On Tetanus shots: “I actually need to get one.”

The most common response when she tells people she’s a fencer: “1. They do air-poking at me. 100% of the time they do that. 2. They say ‘Whoa, I wouldn’t want to mess with her. She’s dangerous.’ I’ve heard it a million times.”

“It’s a real sport. It’s not a desire to live out a fantasy.”

“I like to make drinks with the little swords in them. I’ve made kabobs once. “

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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