Fresh Loaf

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND STEVEN VAN ZANDT AT PHILIPS ARENA FRIDAY: The Boss and The Consigliere. (Photo by Perry Julien)

More than four decades into his music career, Bruce Springsteen is still playing concerts so lengthy that they test the endurance of even the most well-cushioned of fan ass cheeks. CL staff writer Thomas Wheatley, who describes his ass as boyish, won CL’s office ticket to Springsteen’s sold-out show at Philips Arena. Wheatley describes the concert as “awesome” and “fucking intense.”

At his seat, he says, he was surrounded by middle-aged dads who stood with their arms crossed mouthing every word Springsteen sang. Wheatley also reports that when Springsteen sang “Blinded By The Light,” a cut from his debut album famously covered by the Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, that the lyrics sounded more like “rolled up like a deuce” than “wrapped up like a douche.”

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RECORD STORE DAY AT CRIMINAL RECORDS IN L5P: Judi Chicago singer Ben Coleman cut short his Tae Kwon Do practice to support independent record stores. (Photo by Perry Julien)

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PROTEST IN L5P: Despite a chronic police shortage, Atlanta still managed to have three cops available to ticket a peaceful protestor on Tuesday. (Photo by Joeff Davis)

Last Tuesday in Little Five Points, Amnesty International held another of its public “Tuesdays for Troy” rallies – an effort to draw attention to and stop the pending execution of Troy Anthony Davis.

Davis was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of a Savannah police officer. Although seven of nine witnesses who identified Davis as the killer have changed their testimony and there is no physical evidence linking Davis to the murder, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled four-to-three in March not to grant him a new trial. The day before the rally, the state affirmed its decision. Because of Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision on Wednesday lifting a nationwide moratorium on lethal injections, Georgia can now set a date for Davis’s execution.

The demonstration was small, only about seven or eight people holding up signs and distributing flyers along Moreland Ave. The event ended abruptly after a protester was surrounded by police and ticketed for standing in the road while handing flyers to drivers in stopped cars.

(Additional text by Andisheh Nouraee)

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JAY-Z AT PHILIPS ARENA TUESDAY: “I’ll only retire three more times. I promise.”

(Photo by Perry Julien)

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FULTON COUNTY CHIEF JAILER EDWARD MCNEIL: Jail to the chief

(photo and additional text by Joeff Davis)

On Thursday, Fulton County Sheriff Myron Freeman invited us to a party at the Fulton County Courthouse to welcome the county’s new Chief Jailer, Edward McNeil. It was the strangest and saddest party we’ve ever been to.

After 10 minutes of God-themed speeches, we pulled McNeil aside to ask him hard-hitting questions about being a jailer. But before we could ask him if he thinks it’s just a coincidence that jail rhymes with bail, a guest at the party had a heart attack and died. Kidding around was obviously out of the question after that, so we just wished McNeil luck and departed.

He’ll be a busy man.

A recent Pew Center study put the U.S. prison population at more than 2.3 million people. We have more people in prison than China – a rampant human rights abuser with four-times as many people as the U.S.

Georgia spent nearly $1 billion imprisoning people in 2007 and the state employs the second highest percentage of employees in corrections in the country, behind Texas.

According to Pew, one-in-nine black men in the U.S. between the ages of 20 and 34 are behind bars.

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CABBAGETOWN RELIEF ART AUCTION: “shpg 4 trndo art. hm in 5 :-)”

(photo by Alex Gibbs)

Artists aren’t typically people with a lot of cash on hand, but when their friends and neighbors are in need, they always seem to step up.

Cabbagetown Relief, a benefit concert and silent art auction at Studio 900 in Inman Park, raised $5,500 dollars Saturday for victims of the March 14 tornado that pummeled several intown neighborhoods.

Cabbagetown was among the ‘hoods hardest hit by the storm, with several homes destroyed and the top floor of one the buildings at the iconic Fulton Cotton Mill lofts ripped off. Since Cabbagetown has long been an enclave for creative people, it wasn’t surprising that artful photos of tornado damage in Cabbagetown comprised the bulk of art being auctioned.

According to event co-organizer Michael Pisarri, Cabbagetown Relief will continue to raise money by auctioning art online.

Additionally, the Cabbagetown Neighborhood Improvement Association will try to raise money for tornado victims with the Dine-Out for Tornado Victims event on April 14.

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RISING APPALACHIA LIT UP EDDIE’S ATTIC WEDNESDAY: Sisters Leah and Chloe Smith are like the Jackson Five, only they’re white, there are two of them, they’re women, and they don’t play the same kind of music.

(photo by Joeff Davis)

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A3C HIP-HOP FESTIVAL EARLY SATURDAY: Biz Markie scans the audience for a girl who got what he need.

(photo by Alex Gibbs)

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IRAQ WAR PROTEST MARCH ON PONCE DE LEON AVE.: Crappy Anniversary

(all photos by Joeff Davis)

Hundreds of Atlantans marked the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War with a march down Ponce de Leon Avenue during afternoon rush hour Wednesday.

Accompanied by a marching drummer and a chorus of honking horns from passing cars, the marchers sang and chanted demands for peace. Their destination was the U.S. Army recruitment center at Midtown Plaza, where two days earlier, 10 local grandmothers were arrested for trespassing while trying to enlist. The grandmothers participated in Wednesday’s march, as well.

When the march reached the enlistment center, participants laid five mock coffins at its front door. Written on the coffins were the words “Truth”, “Justice,” Iraq” “Troops” “Economy” – all casualties of this war, according to organizers.

(more photos after the jump) (more…)

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ALICE LOVELACE READS POETRY AT COMPOSITION GALLERY FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY: “Here’s a little rhyme for the señoritas. Welcome to the gallery it’s nice to meet ya.”

(photo by Alex Gibbs)

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JOHN BAYNE AT P’CHEEN: With Fibonacci cope

A list of the things John Bayne does with his time would fill this page. The short list: He’s a mathematician by trade, a scholar of Southern literature, a collector of books (he gave the GSU library’s its Eudora Welty collection), a raconteur, and as of last night, a professional fashion designer.

Two years ago, he needed new curtains for his windows. Instead of buying some, he borrowed a neighbor’s sewing machine and taught himself to sew. Within days, his curtains were up, but he kept sewing, turning his attention to, of all things, Episcopal vestments called copes. Some of John’s copes feature traditional Episcopal iconography. Others feature visual depictions of mathematical concepts like the Pythagorean theorem and the Fibonacci sequence. An exhibition of John’s copes opened at P’cheen in Old Fourth Ward last night.

The artist was on hand, pouring champagne for visitors and explaining each piece’s meaning and inspiration. He expects the show to remain up for about one month, after which he will turn his attention to another project – the laying of an obelisk on the recently discovered grave of obscure Southern author George Washington Harris in Trenton, Ga. Harris died in 1869.

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IRANIAN SINGER ANDY MADADIAN AT THE FERST CENTER: He’s either saying ‘I love you’ in sign language or he’s flashing the Iranian Shocker.

(photo by Perry Julien)

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O’ BROTHER AT MASQUERADE SATURDAY: “Are you ready to locally and independently rock?”

(Photo by Alex Gibbs)

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GWINNETT COURTHOUSE VALENTINE’S DAY WEDDINGS: “You may now give a beso to your esposo.”

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

Courtroom 1C at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center isn’t typically decorated with balloons and scattered rose petals. It’s also not typically the site of 60 weddings by 2 p.m. like it was on Valentine’s Day, when Chief Magistrate George Hutchinson opened the court for free, no-appointment weddings. The seven couples we witnessed entering single and leaving married seemed overwhelmed by the day’s significance. Hutchinson and the judges helping him with the Spanish-language ceremonies, however, were beaming. Being a part of such a happy occasion is a pleasure, Hutchinson explained. “Sometimes judges don’t see life at its most pleasant.”

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ATLANTA PRESS CLUB PANEL: Everyone is excited about the Internet.

Last Thursday at the Atlanta Press Club, the Honeycomb Hideout of Atlanta journalism, four local masters of political webitude participated in a panel discussion on how electronic media are affecting political campaigns.

Former AJC-er and current Southern Political Report-er Tom Baxter noted how the Web allowed for a proliferation of political news outlets such as Politco and the Huffington Post. The entire panel — which included CNN.com’s John Helton, Shelby “Shelbinator.com” Highsmith and James “Griftdrift.blogspot.com” Williams — agreed the electronic media allow both facts and bullshit to go further and faster than ever, and for average people (be they bloggers, YouTubers or idiots who think Sen. Barack Obama is Muslim) to shape political debates in ways that were, until 10 years ago, limited to people with access to TV studios or printing presses.

So how are electronic media affecting campaigns? They are changing the tools, the tactics and speed without necessarily changing underlying principles.

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FIGHT NIGHT AT WILD BILL’S: “Enough fighting. Let’s hug this one out.”

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

More of Joeff’s fantastic photos from Friday’s Fight Night after the jump.

(more…)

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