Fresh Loaf

1. Atlanta THUNDERSNOW!!!! (Yes, that was last week. Snow. Inches of it. Followed by 80-degree bliss. Georgia is rad.)

2. Man found dead in Capitol office building (State employee apparently took his own life.)

3. Gena Evans: ‘Best day’ at GDOT was day I was fired (What the former Department of Transportation commissioner meant to say was, “Take this job and shove it!”)

4. Speakeasy with Outkast’s Andre Benjamin (Rapper’s “Class of 3000″ cartoon transitions from TV to the stage.)

5. Animated superheroes burst from shadows of live-action films (In other animation news, comic-book protagonists transition from ink to celluloid.)

(Image from Regator’s “thundersnow” t-shirt page on Zazzle)

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WAITING ROOM: "Stella"

Kristen Ashburn doesn’t flinch. Training her lens on some of the hardest to look at sights in Iraq, Gaza and New Orleans, she’s become versed in the art of not looking away. The photographer’s most recent excursion found her in sub-Saharan Africa documenting AIDS-ravaged communities and families. The result, Bloodline: AIDS and Family, runs through runs through March 6 at the Atlanta Photography Group Gallery and March 15 at Composition Gallery.

What first drew you to this topic?
Millions of people are sick and dying because they lack medicine that we as Americans take for granted. As a journalist, this pandemic is something that I could not ignore.

What countries did you visit?
I documented the AIDS crisis throughout Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Malawi.

Which was the hardest to document?
As I began making visits to communities, hospitals, and homes, I quickly realized that Zimbabwe was in bad shape. Not only was the country going through political and economic turmoil, but the basic social fiber of society was being torn apart by this disease. I spent most of my time in Zimbabwe, but it became too dangerous for me to work there without the official press credentials. Journalists are not allowed to work in the country without government-issued press credentials, which are rarely given out. If caught working without these papers I faced up to a two-year jail sentence.

(more…)

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Unlike reality shows that revolve around big hair and elimination ceremonies, TLC’s “LA Ink” follows the life and art of tattooist Kat Von D. A stint in South Beach on the network’s “Miami Ink” garnered Von D enough of a following to return home for her own spin-off in 2007. From her shop’s bubble-gum pink walls to her facial tattoos and rock star boyfriend (Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx — OK maybe there is some big hair happening here), she’s made a name for herself as a tough-as-nails girly girl. Von D recently published High Voltage Tattoo, which details the former runaway’s tumultuous rise to fame and shares her unique view of the tattoo world. Von D appears at the Buckhead Barnes and Noble Mon., Feb. 23.

Now that your book is on the shelves, what other artistic projects do you have in the works?
Taking up oil painting. So I’ve been doing a lot of that, a lot of photography. I just invested a bunch of money into these fancy ass sewing machines, so I’ve wanted to start making some clothes and whatnot. And then been talking about coming out with a high-end shoe line, like a platform heel type stuff. There’s definitely another book in the projects. And, obviously, I tattoo almost every day, so it’s pretty busy.

(more…)

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Party like it's 2004

Everything old is new again, right? That’s the logic behind this post — the first in a weekly series where we dig into our archives and revisit what Atlantans were talking about in, say, 2004.

So … mid-February, 2004: The city was mere weeks into the horror that was earlier bar-closing hours. How did crafty Atlantans adapt at the time? By setting up speakeasies, of course.

Now, five years after our drinking hours were rudely curtailed, is there much of an after-hours scene left? Honestly, I don’t know. Perhaps that’s because I’m five years older. Ugh.

Without further ado, here’s staff writer Scott Henry’s 2004 take on late, late, late-night parties.

Speakeasy street
Where the beat don’t stop until the break of dawn … and then some

It’s 5 o’clock Sunday morning, and though the icy wind is unforgiving as it slices through alleyways, the insistent thump of house music echoing up the back stairwell of this smoky downtown bunker signals that the party inside is just warming up.

There’s no one minding the door, so you’re free to wander past the DJ table, the handful of dancers, the busy cash bar, and head up the stairs, where clusters of urbanites sit chatting or simply chilling out with a cigarette.

“We usually get going about 4 a.m. and try to wrap up around 6:30,” says the party’s host, a casually dressed thirtysomething who calls himself “Fulfeel.” He’s been throwing late-nights for in-the-know Atlantans for several months now; ever since City Hall imposed earlier closing times for bars and nightclubs, he’s found demand for his after-hours soirees soar.

Continue reading “Speakeasy street” …

(Photo by Scott Henry)

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In 2006, Theatrical Outfit staged one of Atlanta’s most impressive world premiere Southern plays of the decade, Keeping Watch by Thomas Ward. For Going with Jenny, opening Wed., Jan. 28 at Theatrical Outfit, the playwright shares writing duties with his wife, Sherry Jo. The play’s a semi-autobiographical, he said/she said account of dating and marriage starring Mandy Schmeider and Travis Smith. Married for 11 years, the Wards currently teach at Baylor University in Texas and discuss the perils of writing about their relationship while still being in their relationship.

How did you meet?
Thomas: We met in college doing theater together. It’s almost so romantic it makes me puke, but we played Tevye and Golda opposite each other in Fiddler on the Roof and started dating.
Sherry Jo: We had to fight not to have “Sunrise, Sunset” at our wedding.

Thomas, you were more experienced as a playwright before Going with Jenny. How did you decide to collaborate with Sherry Jo?
Thomas: Right when Keeping Watch opened, I guess I wanted to strike when the iron was hot. I told Tom Key (Theatrical Outfit’s artistic director) I had a one-man play in my drawer, and I wanted his feedback on it, for his expertise in the one-man show form. He came back and said he wanted to produce it. After Sherry and I left Atlanta and went to Baylor, I talked to Tom who said he was still interested but that it was too short for his 2008-2009 season. During that conversation, I said “What if Sherry wrote Act Two?” Tom jumped at that, and I told Sherry. She was familiar with what I’d written, and I said “Write a response to it.”
Sherry Jo: It’s been an interesting process because it felt like a commission for me. I felt close to the play because Thomas had always shown me his writing. Plus, it was about marriage and ex-girlfriends, so I was happy to get my two cents in and make him the punch line of some of the jokes. (more…)

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Nami Mun’s debut novel Miles from Nowhere follows Joon, a Korean American teenager growing up on the streets of New York during the ’80s. Mun, like the protagonist, came of age as a teenage runaway on the streets of the Bronx. These days, she’s the recipient of a coveted Pushcart Prize and teaches creative writing at the Columbia College in Chicago. She comes to A Cappella Books/Opal Gallery Mon., Jan. 19, 7 p.m.

How closely is Joon based on your own experiences growing up?
Joon and I are both Korean American and we were both runaways. But the similarities pretty much stop there. I mean, what happens to her, the decisions that she makes and the events that occur in the book, are completely fictional and in many ways are much more interesting than anything that ever happened to me in my own life. Fiction is always more interesting to me. (more…)

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Atlanta-based novelist Jack Riggs follows up his award-winning 2004 debut When the Finch Rises with The Fireman’s Wife, an introspective tale involving a firefighter’s strained marriage in small-town South Carolina in 1970. Writer-in-Residence at Georgia Perimeter College’s Writer’s Institute, Riggs will discuss the book Thurs., Jan. 15 at the Decatur Library’s Georgia Center for the Book.

Did you do much research on firefighting for the book?
I would like to say that I rode on a fire truck for a month, but I didn’t. I starting out reading Larry Brown’s On Fire. Larry’s a friend of mine, and the book started out as a tribute to him and the type of firefighting he did in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the equipment was very different than it is now. I talked to some firemen and read some true-account stories to get a sense of the language, but did most of my research online. Some of the scenes came from reconstructing my memories as a child, driving by terrible wrecks or things like that. (more…)

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Self-portrait, San Francisco, 1970

What was it like to work side-by-side with Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe? What did it take to earn Mick Jagger’s trust? What was John Lennon doing in the hours leading up to his murder in 1980? Photographer Annie Leibovitz answers such questions and more in her new book, Annie Leibovitz: At Work, which chronicles her singular experiences capturing some of contemporary culture’s most mythic personalities and moments. Leibovitz comes to the MJCCA’s Zaban Park location for a sold-out appearance Wednesday, Dec. 10, as an extension of the center’s book festival.

Would you talk about the writing process and how you developed the narrative to accompany your photos?
It’s been a process over the years to learn how to talk and to mean what [I] say. With Susan Sonntag, you know … she was the one who helped me have a voice. After Susan died, I sat down with Sharon [Delano] to work on the introduction for A Photographer’s Life and there were about five sessions where she literally put it together. She says I said everything on some level, but you know she put it together in a way where for the first time you could really hear my voice. You’re hearing me and it has emotional context to it.

I had always wanted to do a book on the making of the photographs, you know the making of a photograph. (more…)

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