Lil' hobby

City Dope's got the haps on a new farmers' market in Athens.

Pete's got some really interesting stuff about controversy in Forest Heights, the Athens Land Trust, affordable housing, and contemporary architecture, all in one issue! My guess is that there's middle ground here. Not all neighborhoods have design standards--it's pretty much just creepy new subdivisions and historic districts--but they're not necessarily a bad thing. On the other hand, people are major wusses when it comes to contemporary architecture. On the third hand, would you want something that looked like the Mitchell Bridge Road Harry Bissett's building next door to you? And I like contemporary stuff. Anyway, as I said, interesting stuff. The ABH is covering it, too, with some serious quotes. Really? Sharecropping? You wanted to go there and you thought it was a good idea?

Predetermined career based on her name, clearly.

Publication

Yurp, it's time for the year-end wrap-up in Athens food.

Read

I don't have much to say about Ian McEwan's short story "The Use of Poetry," from the Dec. 7 New Yorker, but you should read it. I am an idiot for not yet reading one of McEwan's novels, despite owning several, and I'm going to attempt to remedy that situation soon.

I have been reading an actual book, though, not just the New Yorker and thesis stuff. Jared read The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson, and then he made me read it, and it was worth the doing. If you've ever thought, while reading the New Yorker, "man, this magazine/article is great, but it could be about 450 pages longer," then boom, this is your book. Even if you are already a creepy serial-killer-interested person like myself and know quite a bit about H. H. Holmes, there's a lot to learn here about the World's Columbian Exhibition, which has plenty of tragedy and interest of its own.

Lil' hobby

Um, this story is missing quite a bit of information that could be useful in making up one's mind. I'm sure the Broad River Watershed Association doesn't just oppose it because it's the first in Georgia. Presumably it increases pollutants? Either just into the air or specifically with regard to the watershed? Can I get a little Emanuel weighing in?

Something to aspire to.

I'm sure it averages out that way. Not so much in Athens, though. Which means the comments section is guaranteed to increase its quotient of crazy by the end of the day. e.g.,

Murder and Manslaughter have fallen because a much greater portion of the law abiding population have armed themselves. As more and more states allow individuals to exercse their Second Amendment rights, the criminal element becomes less and less able to take advantage of the "unprotected".

Now, there was clearly an uptick in gun and ammo sales earlier this year, due to loons who equate our president with fascism, but I'd be willing to bet a lot of those people already owned guns. Nor does that equate to a rise over time in general gun ownership. Haven't been able to find the figures, though.

Listy time!

This is close enough to the end of the year, right? I'm not doing any decade lists yet, nor may I, but this is a big list of singles. I managed to get it up to 40 just now by including a couple I'd forgotten.

1. "Loba," Shakira
2. "Sweat It Out," The-Dream
3. "Embers," Just Jack
4. "LOL," Trey Songz
5. "White Flag," Madeline Adams
6. "1901," Phoenix
7. "Fire Burning," Sean Kingston
8. "You Belong with Me," Taylor Swift
9. "Fairytale," Alexander Rybak
10. "Battlefield," Jordin Sparks
11. "Boom We Won That Wang Jam," Lil' Flip Scoldjah
12. "My Love," The-Dream feat. Mariah Carey
13. "Knock You Down," Keri Hilson etc.
14. "Please Don't Leave Me," Pink
15. "White Leather Days," Mark Mallman
16. "Kiss Me Through the Phone," Soulja Boy
17. "Help I'm Alive," Metric
18. "Not Fair," Lily Allen
19. "Lizstomania," Phoenix
20. "French Navy," Camera Obscura
21. "Wild Horses," Susan Boyle
22. "Raindrops," Basement Jaxx
23. "Good Morning," Chamillionaire
24. "Number 1," R. Kelly/Keri Hilson
25. "Party in the USA," Miley Cyrus
26. "It Ain't Gonna Save Me," Jay Reatard
27. "Changed Man," Chris Brown
28. "Rockin That Thang," The-Dream
29. "Right Round," Flo Rida
30. "So Human," Lady Sovereign
31. "Zero," Yeah Yeah Yeahs
32. "I Do Not Hook Up," Kelly Clarkson
33. "I'm on a Boat," The Lonely Island feat. T-Pain
34. "I Saw You Last Night," Jesse Mangum
35. "Walking on Air," Kerli
36. "Throw It in the Bag," Fabolous feat. The-Dream
37. "Mustache," Heartland
38. "Last Dance," The Raveonettes
39. "Meet Me Halfway," Black Eyed Peas
40. "Daniel," Bat for Lashes

I really thought there was no way anyone was beating out The-Dream for anything this year, but "Loba" keeps sticking with me. On my birthday this year, I went to Cali n Tito's with a few people, and it was part of a loop of songs that kept playing, haunting me from just within the range of my eardrums. That probably cemented its slot, although I didn't realize it at the time. What I keep saying about it is that it's nothing so much as a Shakira song melded with a Residents song, and I find that not only catchy but impressive. I should maybe have found room for some Muse on the list, and I haven't purchased the R. Kelly record yet. I'm sure there's plenty missing that'll make it onto other people's lists, but those people are not me. I am as surprised as you are by some of this stuff.

Lil' hobby

I feel awful for these people, who seem to attract bad luck like a magnet, but if they weren't prepared for flooding in an area that's not particularly prone to it, it makes sense that the local government was equally unprepared for it. I'm also not aware if it's common value to pay replacement value versus market value for damaged items. My understanding is that, if someone steals your 15-year-old TV, your homeowner's insurance isn't going to give you $1000 for a snazzy new plasma, right? Anyway, I'm sure they'll get some charitable response due to the article.

SPLOST-nominated projects are up, linked in this editorial that urges the citizens' committee to be careful. Presumably they get a little more information on what projected operating costs consist of, rather than just what they cost (e.g., why does the bus-stop improvement program bring $10K a year of extra operating costs?), in order to make the most informed decisions possible.

Movie Diary

Avatar: Look, I think that if you're prepared to spend $15 (and, believe me, it's not easy for me to spend $15) on a movie, you better be damn well ready for it to suck, especially if you've seen the trailers for Avatar, which looks like some sort of live-action Ferngully. It's also not like Jim Cameron has never made a sucky movie. Titanic was unbearable (except during scenes of mass death). True Lies contains a multitude of un-PC sins. Even a lot of the ones I like have pretty major flaws. Sarah Connor could shut up sometimes in T2, for example. He's probably only made one perfect movie, and that was The Terminator. So, yeah, I braced myself after the trek to the Mall of Georgia, while waiting in line to get into the IMAX theater. But you know what? It didn't cause me to have amazing lucid dreams or crouch in the fetal position due to visual shock, but it was pretty darn cool. I forget, since it's been years without him doing anything, but Cameron has a brain in there. Large hunks of it are obsessed with technology and, apparently, with continually trying (and succeeding!) to make the most expensive movie of all time, and it's not all that smart when it comes to philosophy or psychology, but the dude's an artist, and it shows. I am not a sentimental person, and I did not cry at the movie. My abstract-thinking, logical brain frequently scoffed at what was happening onscreen, but my easily distracted little reptile brain was wowed. What I was saying afterwards was that it'll really make you want to start running or lifting weights or something of the sort because it conveys, more than anything, the joy of having a body, of being a physical, sensory being in this world. Jumping is awesome, right? So is touching things. Nature is pretty incredible. And so on. So if you like experiencing things sensorily, it might be worth your $15. It's a bit head shop, but all the phosphorescence is lovely (hippily). The villain is, of course, over the top, but a) everyone appears to know that, and b) plenty of the acting is relatively subtle and pretty good, especially Sam Worthington's, even if his American accent slips a few times. And the effects live up to the hype (to most of it, anyway). I'm mostly not sure what was a model and what was CG and all of that. It's good enough not to think about that but instead to go, "Cool robot!" You should probably go see it.

Lil' hobby

Well, something should be done with the building. Its poor state makes it ideal for SPLOST money, and its location ideal for community revitalization.

We do seem to be doing a decent job with functional public art. Between the bus shelters, the cigarette disposal units, and these bike racks, I'm kind of impressed.

My, my. This sounds like exactly the kind of anti-business sentiment Athens is known for, gentlemen. Of course, it's also a sensible point, as anyone who's taken 78 through, say, downtown Loganville can tell you. The periphery of the Athens area has some bad development, and there are those damn gameday condos downtown, but most of it's been thankfully thwarted.

I should also have linked to this article in Flagpole yesterday, which talks about Buffalo's opening up its extra space to small catering businesses. I assume that another benefit of some of them using the space is that they're less likely to get busted for health code violations, which are pretty specific about where you can and can't prepare food, FYI.

Movie Diary

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: I was always a big fan of the book, but this was my first experience with the TV movie made out of it. It's pretty good, too, although there's not a ton to it. It's a pretty straightforward adaptation (although I seem to remember Imogene as Mary having a black eye in the book), and the book's narrative isn't complicated. I was thinking, though, that its message of charity (not only in the more common sense of giving things and money to others, but also in its sense of granting others ground and respect) probably helped influence my worldview from an early age. Yes, the Herdmans are on welfare, but it's presented straightforwardly. Yes, they're victims of a single-parent household where the mom works two jobs, but she's not even blamed for their awful behavior. It's a very kind story that presents the downtrodden as ultimately victorious--all of which is to say that it's a rather Christian tale, but in a good way. It's also got a nice, if unrealistic, aesthetic that mixes 1940s street urchin with 1980s hair and fonts.

Lil' hobby

Um... "Scholar" may be a little strong.

I'm also guessing the huge amount of rain has eased tensions a little.

How does "weathered the worst of its job losses" equate to the possibility of unemployment rising to 11 percent?

Urrrrg

This importing comments thing is not turning out to be easy. Seriously. Tips? Should I just let them die?

Read

I wish I had more to say about Ariel Levy's profile of Caster Semenya, the runner who's probably intersex but raises a lot of questions about how we define sex (genetics? external characteristics? internal examination? Luckily, you can read the whole thing for yourself and probably come up with your own. There's a little much Ariel Levy-ness at the end (it both thrills and disappoints me to see the word "sucks" used freely in the New Yorker), but it's a pretty involved and involving piece.

Hey, Poetry Nerds

Explain to me why Philip Schultz's "The Big Sleep" spells Joel McCrea's last name wrong. The narrator is sleepy?

Lil' hobby

Yeah, stop trying to make up for the commission's failures, Jerry NeSmith! Why you gotta try to make life better for all of us? No, seriously, I do understand where Lynn is coming from. If it's not actually in the regulations and you push it, you probably open the door to lawsuits. I am not a fan of this last sentence though: "A majority of commissioners said they were worried about crime or thought the issue was a waste of time." How about something that says why it might not be?

Or, if they're not moving toward ethics reform and keep fighting with each other over power, that could be a plus, too, depending on which way your politics lean.

Further Thoughts

I kind of meant to go here when I was writing about Blood Diamond yesterday, but I forgot. Not enough coffee. Anyway, what's kind of funny is the mild statement with which the movie ends. Something like, "Please make an effort not to buy conflict diamonds when you're buying diamonds." It seems to me the easy solution is not to buy diamonds, and to water it down significantly when your entire movie has made the point that the entire trade of diamonds is corrupt unless, maybe, you find one in your backyard, reinforces the power of the diamond industry and makes you seem like a gigantic wuss. Now, I'm not in the habit of buying diamonds. I've never even purchased a record player. I've owned a few styluses and I have one pair of earrings, but that's as far as it goes, and it wouldn't kill me to give those up either. What I'm saying is that it costs me very little to take a stance here, but seriously, people are still that into buying diamonds? I suppose Parks and Recreation was right when Aziz Ansari said, "Even the liberal chicks are all like 'Yeah, bitch, gimme some of them blood diamonds! Make 'em extra bloody!'"

Tennis

Oh yeah. We also went to this Rock n' Racquets thing on Saturday at the Coliseum (UGA-affiliated folks could get in for $10). Anyway, no serious tennis being played, and they felt the need to give you your damn money's worth and then some (we left at 6:30 and they had yet to get to the men's singles and the serving contest, plus who knows how many more ads on the Jumbotron), but it was fun.

Lil' hobby

Little time to comment this morning, but you really need to read this story. Please note that Regina Quick is also a former candidate for public office in ACC, which may explain why her statements and decision to take this case may seem politicized. Anyway, I don't doubt that the Board of Assessors screws up sometimes, but you can also easily contest individual cases. I have done so successfully, based on actual evidence, not on "the economy as a whole sucks, therefore my land is worth less" as an argument. We'll see what arguments get presented.

Blargh

So after many years of putting up with the annoyances of Haloscan due to sheer laziness on my part, I find that they're eliminating their free option in a week or so. Any recommendations for a commenting service? Should I just go with Blogger's? With luck, I'll be able to export all 15,000+ comments, but who knows...

Viewing Diary

1) Blood Diamond: It's definitely got flaws (DiCaprio's accent, overdramatized scenes, a little much screaming, length), and yet this really does kind of work as a movie, something I was skeptical about. Despite the now-it's-there-now-it's-not white Zimbabwean accent, Leo's actually pretty good in his morally ambiguous role; ever since he put on a few pounds, he's much more fun to watch onscreen. It's classy enough not to include a sex scene, despite the minor presence of a love story. The action is good and thrilling. Sure, you could say, "Oh, there goes Ed Zwick again, making a white dude the focus of a story that really should be entirely about people of color," but that wouldn't really be fair, would it?

2) Pawn Stars: A.k.a., my new favorite show. How could I not love a mix of American Chopper and Antiques Roadshow? It's a little heavy on the formula (each week includes one doubtful restoration that turns out great and one expert brought in to appraise something the pawn dudes are unsure of, e.g., Revolutionary War maps, antique firearms, etc.), it could get grittier, and the interactions of the family that run it are occasionally stilted (hello, producers! we see you!), but it's rightfully placed on the History Channel, and it's pretty entertaining. Heck, I could watch appraisals packed with historical detail and information all day.

Evidence

Sometimes even I face challenges to my civic-minded spirit, like this parking job in the westside Publix lot.

Viewing Diary

1) Garth Marenghi's Darkplace: Ryan Lewis told us about this show literally two or three years ago. Maybe longer. Why did we take so long to track it down? Oh, because I wasn't good enough at the Internet yet. I think that had something to do with it. Anyway, it's a terrible shame it's only six episodes because they're marvelously done, filled to the brim with all the little details that make a TV show identifiable as low-budget and not very bright. The acting is a wonder, and so is the editing. I highly recommend you track this down on YouTube if you're a fan of television, or bad horror, or the 1980s, or any of innumerable other things.

2) Bright Young Things: Evelyn Waugh is weird. The tone of this period thing goes all over the place, never being too completely comedic (there's always a dark undertone), but always leavening its drama with a touch of self-consciousness. You think it's going to be more Oscar Wilde-ish, and some of it is, but it's rarely silly, or at least not very silly. It's a bit like Gossip Girl, only if more of those characters felt guilty about their lifestyle or had mental breakdowns that weren't just for sweeps week. Fry does a very nice job directing, and any flaws (a jumpy quality as the end nears) probably result from difficulty adapting a novel to the screen. Good acting and lovely parties. It never quite takes off into greatness, but it's a lot of goodness on display.

Okay, let's keep going

Jeff left a long response in the comments below, and I think it's worth looking at this "class war" thing at greater length.

When people use the "hey look what they have" argument to raise taxes on small businesses then the class war seems pretty damn real to me. It's hard enough to run a business and get your income in a way that does not have the safety net of the government or even a big business. It gets even harder when a business owner has to second guess hiring new people or expanding because of the utter maze of tax policy and the sheer piles of cash that must be sent off to the government. It may not seem real to people who don't run businesses. It's very real to me.

I don't believe I'm advocating specifically raising taxes on small businesses. When those businesses are defined as corporations in order to gain tax advantages, well, then maybe I do. I also a) have worked for many a small business, and as badly as the state treats its workers, small business owners often treat them worse. And some of that is understandable. If you promise me health insurance, though, and I take the job because of that, endless delay is not a cool tactic, and it's not honest. You know that I also support government-run healthcare, which would take that burden off the small business owner. b) I'm also a freelancer, which is sort of like being a small business owner in terms of the shittiness of the tax situation. I have maybe gotten a refund once in my life, from the state, not the federal government. So I do understand that it's not fun to pay taxes and that sometimes you get screwed. I'm not opposed to reforming the tax code. Part of the problem is that, right now, small businesses think they're on the same side as the rich. They should be on the same side as the poor in the class war.

At the same time, there are people that get government grants, not to actually create jobs but to talk about the need for jobs, create posters about jobs and have a wine and hummus event to talk about the need for jobs. Sure, you won't get rich doing this but you will get a job where you can make speeches, play graphic artist, throw parties and do anything except actual social work- all the while puffing your chest out like a social crusader.

Yes, there are, but focusing on small problems like poseurs instead of large problems like an economic system that keeps its giant thumb on the head of the underprivileged is not really the best way to go about things. I'm also not necessarily opposed to people having useless jobs. People need any kind of jobs, ones with hummus benefits included.

I know real social workers and I've seen the real poor in a way most people don't. I volunteer in the schools. I've given a lot of time and money to help people and not because someone paid me.

Yup. I know this. I appreciate your vegetable garden food-bank work, for example. In my ideal fantasy world, no one would have a BMW, but that's a socialist paradise I recognize as unattainable.

If we are serious about getting the poor decent jobs then let's speak up about this city's economic development strategy which, at current, they don't have. The poor are not all going to work at coffee shops or web design firms or recording studios. We need an actual strategy and the resources and accountability to carry it out.

I don't think we need more class warfare. I think we need to appreciate that the classes are far more linked than people realize. Instead of trying to turn people on each other, we need to make this into everyone's cause. It needs to be a new war on poverty. That's a war I think more people will support.

"Resources" is the most important word above. I agree. At the same time, you have to work with what you have, to some extent. And the poor does include hipsters, somewhat. Despite my big words, I don't like defining anything as a "war." I just happen to think that what we need is more class consciousness, like the kind that comes with unionizing. Does this lead to corruption and shittiness in some ways? Oh, heck yes. What doesn't? But it also leads to decent health benefits and some power on the part of the worker, which right now is nonexistent in this state. We should keep talking about this!

Read

Augh, Adam Gopnik's article on why we use cookbooks, "What's the Recipe?" which closes out the food issue of the New Yorker, is like as Adam Gopniky as Adam Gopnik gets: full of vague and unsupported pronouncements that purport to apply to everyone, plus a lot of empty theorizing that sounds good until you think about it. He seems to argue that learning from a book doesn't count. You have to learn some things from your mom. But what if your mom can't cook? What if your dad's the chef in the family? What if you're an orphan? Will you never learn to sweat onions properly? What he means to say, and what would have been correct, is that a lot of cooking is learned by doing. Follow the recipe, and you will figure it out, probably. And if you don't, so be it. You can probably make it taste good anyway. Many a recipe has been improved by my inattention to details like how much lemon zest goes in (Jared's mom's rule is to add twice as much of your favorite ingredient as the recipe calls for) or how long to leave the vegetables in the pan (accidental burning can sometimes do wonders). And then there's this:

Simplicity is the style, but salt the ornamental element—the idea of tasting flights of salt being a self-satirizing notion that Swift couldn’t have come up with. The insistence on the many kinds of salt—not merely sea salt and table salt but hand-harvested fleur de sel, Himalayan red salt, and Hawaiian pink salt—is everywhere, and touching, because, honestly, it all tastes like salt. And now everyone brines. Brining, the habit of dunking meat in salty water for a bath of a day or so, seems to have first reappeared out of the koshering past, in Cook’s Illustrated, sometime in the early nineties, as a way of dealing with the dry flesh of the modern turkey, and then spread like, well, ocean water in a tsunami, until now both Keller and Peel are happy to brine everything: pork roasts, chicken breasts, shrimp, duck.

Different salts don't taste different? My palate begs to fucking differ. Yes, they do all taste like salt, but only in the way that all apples taste like an apple. There are also differentiations, unless you suck at tasting things. We don't salt because it makes us more like the pros. We salt because salt is the easiest way to make food taste better without adding copious amounts of butter and it's one of the things that, yes, the home cook often neglects. Salt is a flavor intensifier, like MSG. Does Gopnik not want his flavor intensified? Anyway, read it if you want to be annoyed!

Recommendations

Okay, so just because I'm too old to go see Abbanna LeBon on a regular basis doesn't mean you are. Sure, two out of three of them can't play their instruments, most of the songs are screamed rather than sung, the tempo's way too slow, and most of the lyrics are about rape, but look! They're so adorable! Considering they all wore pigtails and their singer was decked out in Christmas footie pajamas and boots (she's family), I was very impressed with the screaming. They're rather punk rock.


The Great American Country Drifters were very enjoyable, too (and also contain a family member, explaining why Team Brown was out at Go Bar on a Tuesday night, drinking Sprite and feeling about seventy-five). If you make enough jokes, some of them will probably be funny, and kind of a lot of them were.

Publication

Off from blogging today, but here's Grub Notes's review of the Farm Cart. Think it's going to be contrarian? Well, that depends on what you think the opinion's going to be. Grub Notes is in favor of delicious food.

Lil' hobby

This project seems, from the few details available, to be an excellent candidate for SPLOST funding.

Holy heck. Not that I pay much attention to local high school football, but I entirely missed this.

Dude, you're not even going to throw in an "I want to spend more time with my family"?

Sending the letters isn't cynical. Sending a press release about them or sending them just so you can get some good press might be. Isn't it important to make the distinction?

Um, yeah. As the comments are already doing a good job pointing out to Jeff, those on the poorer end of the spectrum aren't exactly winning the war on their higher-incomed counterparts. Or doing much damage. If anything, what this country needs is an escalation in class warfare and a realization on the part of the infantry that their chances of becoming generals is slim to none and strongly rigged against them. Believe me, nonprofit social activists aren't in this for the money. There are plenty of better fields to go into if that were their goal.

I'm sure the homeless contribute somewhat to the major problem that is gameday trash, but they're not the ones pooping in trashcans.

Worldview

Frequently, as I walk over to the UGA Library from my office, I encounter small bits of wildlife: a squirrel, dragging something pulled from a trashcan, frozen on the edge of a ledge; a tiny bird, picking around in the dust. And it made me realize the other day how owning an animal has changed the way I perceive these smaller, wilder ones. Sure, I know that wary look in their eyes doesn't mean very much. If my darling genius cat has a brain the size of a peanut, a squirrel or a bird is that much farther from self-consciousness. But that doesn't mean they don't seem to have something going on back there, even if that something is mostly "Who are you?" and "Don't take my food." I suppose what I'm saying is that I'm not a big fan of squirrels and birds wig me out, but it's strange to me to see the similarities in animals that I thought had nothing in common. Primitive desires they do. It's probably the same reason I'm walking over to the library (to get a granola bar or a bagel) or that I'm occasionally startled by someone. We're none of us that sophisticated. I can only imagine how much having a baby around changes perceptions if one little jerk-face adorable kittycat does this much.

Lil' hobby

Cynicism aside, I kind of like this idea. It doesn't work as well as going to someone's house, but if you're the superintendent, it's a more efficient use of resources.

You know, I was thinking about taking classes at this driving school, but I bet it's made several people think twice. Not that that's fair, exactly.

I didn't know losing was a hospitalizable condition.

Indeed. Remember to read the paper in the new year.

High five, MacNair.

Publication

Whoops, it slipped my mind that I'd written a record review lately, and come to find out it has 61 comments on it, which is exactly what'll make you not want to write about local hip hop. God forbid a middling review get printed. People act like the sky is falling. Anyway. I like Son 1. I just think he can do better. Whatever happened to the soft bigotry of low expectations, bitches?

Parade!

Sure, the photos are blurry, but maybe they're blurry with joy and love for mankind?



It was a nice parade. I assume consensus on weirdest float was the elaborate manger scene punctuated by blasts of "Under the Sea" from a boombox. Many cute dogs in sweaters, and Spencer Frye licking a giant candycane were also to be seen. And for future reference, the courthouse deck on Washington/Hancock is free during the parade.

Lil' hobby

Man, it sure took a lot. Anyway, it lets Jim run his editorial.

Oh snap. Ralph Hudgens finds a loophole in the "no new taxes" thing.

Ugh. I know this is partially making the situation out to be as bad as it can be in order to let the state legislature know that UGA really can't absorb more cuts, but staff read the paper too. I'm sure today's staff listserv will be lots of fun, with half the people arguing that this is outrageous and the administration should go jump in a lake and the other half pulling the old "we should all be thankful to have our jobs," bend-over-and-take-it attitude. And it always pairs well with the announcement of new construction, even if I know it's not really coming from the same pot of funds.

Ken Justice continues to make good points.

Lil' hobby

Yay! I love these awesome little dudes, who could not be more aptly named.

Do deadlines also lead to an incorrect use of the word "literally"? Anyway, yes, the measure seems like it could work and actually get passed, but then again, there's that whole "taxation is inherently evil, even if people vote to tax themselves" philosophy that rules the dome.

Also, the ABH blogs homepage is having some issues (the last new entry it shows is David Ching's from 11/19), but the individual links on the lefthand side still seem to work.

Jay Reatard

Yaaay. Cats are punk rock. Fun show. Minimal talking between songs. Sometimes minimal pausing. Done in 45 minutes, which makes it great for old people who get up at 6:30, and no encore, which the tiny crowd didn't deserve and which also serves, in a way, as a substitute for playing "Always Wanting More," seeing that it kind of embodies it. Also, this dude made an acoustic guitar sound amazingly badass.

Police Blotter (peeing and drugs edition)

Complaint: On Nov. 18, a 58-year-old Bogart man told a deputy that a woman from the Power Ridge subdivision approached his son three days earlier and used profane language.

This is seriously lacking in details. How old is the son? What, exactly, could she have said?

Arrest: On Nov. 23, deputy David Burchett was dispatched about 1:30 a.m. to a domestic dispute on Pete Dickens Road, Bogart. A woman said she had been watching the American Music Awards on TV and fell asleep, but awoke to her husband hitting her. She didn't appear injured, so the deputy went into the bedroom to speak to the husband, who sat on the bedside with a bloody nose and blood-covered shirt. The man said he was using his laptop computer when his wife came to bed and demanded that he turn off both the computer and TV. She then demanded he move over in the bed to give her more room, then assaulted him with a shoe. [redacted], 60, was arrested for battery.

The deputy knew something was wrong when she said she fell asleep. How could anyone do so during such riveting performances?

Damage: On Nov. 21, a Paoli Road resident reported someone knocked down her mailbox and drug it down the road about 20 feet.

Sometimes it's the grammar. Mailboxes should just say no.

Arrest: On Nov. 21, deputies set up a safety checkpoint at U.S. Highway 29 and Old Danielsville Road, Hull, where Tony Farrah Allen, 32, of Stafford Drive, Athens, was stopped while driving a Mercedes-Benz. Allen's license had been suspended in 2008 for a child support violation, and he was arrested for the driving the car. At the same checkpoint, a 1993 Nissan Maxima was stopped by deputies and Georgia State Patrol troopers. Chief Deputy Shawn Burns said fellow deputy Josh Fowler reached into the car to get the keys from 25-year-old [redacted], but the man suddenly drove off, brushing Fowler's leg and injuring his hand. State troopers chased the car, and when Epps pulled over he got out and ran. Troopers chased down [redacted] and arrested him. "Josh got drug a little bit, but he's all right," Burns said of Fowler. [redacted], of Garnett Ward Road, Hull, was charged with aggravated assault, driving while his license was suspended and passing in a no-passing zone.

And again.

Escape: On Nov. 21, deputy Josh Fowler arrested 30-year-old [redacted] of Hull at a safety checkpoint on a probation violation warrant from Oconee County. After Fowler was injured while trying to stop a driver from leaving the checkpoint along U.S. Highway 29, Hull, Lt. Jeff Vaughn removed [redacted] from Fowler's unit and placed her in his patrol car. [redacted] was handcuffed with her hands behind her back. Once inside Vaughn's unit, however, she managed to slip her arms to the front and roll down the rear window. She was able to open a door and escape, still handcuffed. She also had urinated in the patrol car. Deputies have been unable to locate [redacted], but Vaughn secured warrants for her arrest.

No, her last name's not Houdini. I don't think peeing on things was part of his strategy.

Oconee. Madison.

Lil' hobby

If you missed this lovely, charitable comment to my last column, it's now a letter. Woo-hoo. Reactions like this are what make people hate townies, y'all.

Hey, just a question here: isn't the whole point of the myriad SPLOST regulations on what can and can't be built to avoid problems like this one, where we have buildings and facilities but no money to run them? On the other hand, what is the point of "saving" money by not building things that don't cost anything to run when, I'm guessing, some SPLOST money is still there? Anyway, I'd pay $6 a year for a diversion center.

Say what you will about everything else, but he was right on the box-cutter question. Zero-tolerance laws are idiotic, and it's important for people to stand up against them, especially people in positions of authority.

Yay!

I'm pretty excited about this show tonight. Partially because this song alone is good enough to get me to go.



Oh, harmonies, loudness, fast tempo, and a 2-minute run time. It's like this song was created in a lab for my brain.

Lil' hobby

Um, I love this restaurant, but I'm not hugely surprised. Watch your butt-dialing, people.

Damn, this sort of sucks. Dr. Dunning is kind of an awesome VP, and he adds some necessary diversity to UGA's crop of white dudes, but if I remember correctly, he's an Alabama grad, so it's understandable. UGA also hasn't committed the kind of funds and efforts to public service and outreach that it should.

Read

Let's finish up the Nov. 16 issue of the New Yorker, shall we? I did probably a week ago. I've just been busy. Anyhoo, Elizabeth Kolbert's review of Super Freakonomics is required reading. So required I emailed it to my dad, which I don't usually do, but we'd happened to have a recent conversation in which he basically said he believed the correct approach to fixing global warming was genetically to engineer cows' stomachs so they stop producing so much methane. I mean, an improvement over prayer as a solution, but also, you know, how we end up with things like mad cow disease. I believe in science and innovation and economic analysis, but I've been wondering if these dudes have gone a little rogue, so to speak, and it seems like the answer is maybe. Anyway. Elizabeth Kolbert. Continuing awesomeness.

Also, this little sidebar ad:



I guess I get that the point is finding your way to recovery from addiction (to drugs or alcohol) through working on a farm or being around pigs, but it sure looks like a bbq addiction treatment center, yes?

Also, I am mid-way in the Food Issue (Nov. 23) and thankfully John Colapinto's inside look at the production of the Guide Michelin is available for all to read. Did you know the inspectors have to finish everything on their plate? Why that weird rule? In case the first bite is great and the last bite is terrible? Still, it seems misguided. If you do not already sort of hate Frank Bruni (I'm there in that territory ahead of you), this might make you, unless you are reflexively anti-anything that might potentially smack of "snobbery" in the food world, i.e., have never had a meal in a really lovely restaurant like The Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead used to be, where your every need is anticipated and obviated.

Boulud’s comments called to mind criticisms often levelled against Michelin: that its approach to restaurants and food is too wedded to an ideal of formal, technical accuracy that is not applicable to restaurants outside France. “When I lived abroad, in Rome, the Michelin guide was not, to be utterly candid, very helpful,” Frank Bruni, the former Times restaurant reviewer, told me recently. “The kinds of restaurant in Italy that Michelin smiles on are restaurants that feel sort of fussily French.” He added that the New York guide seemed to be trying to address this. “In New York—maybe because Michelin is trying to Americanize—you see the inspectors trying to move beyond that. Right from the get-go they gave a star to the Spotted Pig”—the chef April Bloomfield’s upscale pub-food restaurant. “In years since, they’ve given stars to places like Dressler, in Brooklyn”—a restaurant that serves contemporary American food with a French twist. “So you can see them trying. . . . But I wonder if a certain sort of chromosomal stodginess can ever really be completely leached out of the Michelin guide and the system.” He added, “The other thing that has always made me wonder about Michelin rankings is that they claim a lot of science to them, but is there a lot of soul to them? When Michelin describes its own system, I think, Where is the allowance for just a visceral, emotional response to a restaurant?” Bruni is also no fan of the couverts and other icons that Michelin uses: “Those crosses and spoons and all those symbols—it’s like hieroglyphics, it’s like cave etchings.”

Oh yes. Heaven freaking forbid reviews have some sort of quantifiable aspect to them? Did you not use stars when you were the Times reviewer? I understand the point he's making--sometimes it's hard to boil your review of a place down to something as simple as a few stars when so much depends on context, ambition, etc.--but he's going a bit far.

Ahem

This new R. Kelly is really my jam right now. Really. Hint hint. In case you're not on Facebook and would care about this news. (The news is not that I love R. Kelly.)

Movie Diary

Yup, I forgot one.

Calendar Girls: Not to be confused with the Jason Priestley film, which I believe I've also seen, this is instead the movie where Helen Mirren and a bunch of other old ladies pop their clothes off for charity. It's not bad. It gets a little plot-heavy toward the end, but Mirren is really pleasant to watch, and it's got that sort of zany English charm thing going on. Now if we can just get the Junior League to start doing this kind of thing...