In one glorious west-side block,
Atlanta shows how to throw it big city cultural and gastronomical weight
around. Smaller, 'it' cities like Austin may be more compact and uniformly hip,
but they can't keep up with the pearl of the South.
The West Side Provisions District (one corner of one intersection in Atlanta ) boasts Bacchanalia, one of the world's premier restaurants, its southern sister
Quinones, the romantic Float Away cafe, and Star Provisions, a foodie general store slash
deli which makes the best roast beef sandwich I have ever had, and the best
looking sausage biscuit I have ever seen and am going to eat next week. Or
maybe tomorrow.
Abattoir, which is as comprehensive and detailed a
meat-lover’s shrine as any in this county, sits just across a small footbridge.
On the other end of the building JCT Kitchen has taken over One Midtown’s claim as the perfect mid-price
date restaurant. And if you are thinking, ‘Yeah but in my city you can
get great food for far cheaper”, this same city corner in Atlanta gives you
‘Yeah! Burger”, a burger bar whose only equal in Austin is Frank, a
hotdog bar. Hidden underneath it all is Ormsbys’ a fun-pub extravaganza with indoor bocce
ball, shuffleboard, billiards and a top notch bar-menu that, were it opened in
Austin, would be heralded as evidence of that city’s vibrant youthful culture.
The corner also has wine
and clothes boutiques, and the James-Beard nominated Taqueria
del sol, which has had a queue out front for 12 years straight minus Sundays.
I've never loved this taco stand, and while I ultimately give the Mexican food
nod to Austin, Taqueria del Sol is better than Austin's much loved equivalent,
Taco Deli. Yeah, I said it. (Sushi nod goes to Austin too, thanks to Uchi, and
Soto's betrayal of Atlanta. Yes, I’m still bitter).
A small block south
lies the West Egg, which in another city would be the standout breakfast
star. It runs rings around Austin
favorite Kerby Lane, but in Atlanta, it’s throwing elbows with a slew of restaurants
that compete for breakfast dominance (Flying Biscuit, NH Bakery, Murphy's,
Rita's Blue Bird). The Northside Lounge has been offering
live blues every night in its charmingly uncondemned hotbox just across the street, . They
may fight to keep Austin Weird, but the Northside Lounge is effortlessly
unaffected as can be, and unlike all of Austin, has never felt it
needed a 'weirdness' movement to protect its unmolested existence.
A mile north gets you to
Richard Blaise’s famed burger-bar Flip. Turn left and make the mile long trek
to the interior-Mexican favorite Nuevo Laredo Cantina. NLC's mole rivals
any I had in Austin, but sits in a roadhouse, that would be
heralded as a shining example of austin-roots-chic were it there. Here,
is quietly serves hard hats and truckers mid-day and overflows with swarms of
professionals each night.
All of this is mere Minutes away are miles
of picturesque neighborhoods hidden behind rolling hills and under white oak
canopies and intertwined with beautiful golf courses and three of the top private
schools in the state. Thanks to the Atlanta Real estate Market’s
crash, prices in these neighborhoods, which to blanket the northern half if the
inside-the-perimeter area, are an unbelievable value. They are not all
cheap, but Atlanta's hard-hit real-estate market allows for prices that beat
rival suburban townhouse prices years ago. But these houses are mere minutes
away the West Side Provisions district, and more importantly, Midtown Proper,
proudly and unabashedly the heart of the South’s greatest city.
Midtown’s Fabulous Fox theater
and the sprawling Piedmont Park are triumphant centerpieces of big-city
Southern Living. Though not offering the variety of activities of
Austin’s Zilker park, like spring fed pools and disc-golf, Piedmont is better
located, more picturesque, offers on-site dining, open air theater, and
botanical gardens. The Fox is a world class theater that wows you on movie
night and blows you away during a Broadway show. Get dressed up and
eat at Master Chef Kevin Smith's Empire State South then walk to
the Fox to see a play, then finish with a drink and Ecco and you will have
experiences as elegant of a night as this country offers. A
dozen other magnificent nights in a dozen other distinctive neighborhoods spring to mind.
If the Fox isn't
‘weird’ enough, or 'real' enough, or edgy enough, try underground dance at MJQ,
urban speakeasy at the Sound Table, award world class new rock at the Earle,
drive-in theater at the Star-light, Drink-in-movies and independent-films
at midtown arts cinema, or the myriad of quirky parks dotting the east side.
Not athletic enough? Try biking the epic length, family safe, silver comet
trail, or try your hand at the world class in-town mountain biking
trails. Not expensive enough? Try the high-end amenities of Lenox
and bottomless dining and shopping in Bulkhead. Austin tried to emulate
the luxury of the Lenox/Phipps corridor with “the Domain”, and succeeded in
imbuing this desolate project with all charm and convenience of an outlet
mall. Austin's beautiful South congress
district boasts the San Jose Hotel , The
Mighty Cone, and Continental club, out-doing Atlanta's Little Five points, with
its Star Bar , Variety Playhouse, and Vortex,. But the difference is only
a flock of food cars, currently heard rumbling south. Plus, clothing
shopping is at least twice as fun in Atlanta, a city that has four magnificent seasons.
On the opposite side of Atlanta the neighborhood of Decatur has a dynamic walking
district, complete with amazing restaurants, record stores, coffee shops, a world
class singer-songwriter music venue, and a world class farmers market.And all of this is on the public transportation
line that gets you to the most effective airport in the country in 30 minutes
for around 2 dollars. Contrast that with Austin's airport, where half the flights are to Dallas.
Austin in great. I love
it. It is perhaps the best city in the county for a large segment of the population:
The young, music-philes, and those without family roots elsewhere, might pick
Austin. If you want the best BBQ brisket in the world, or to be surrounded by world class musicians, or to be compelled by peer pressure to
live a 'more fit' lifestyle then Austin is for you. Or you
could just drive to the much prettier Athens for the weekend. Atlanta is
better for all of the most important reasons: It is closer to your friends and
family, it has better weather, the cost of living is better, it’s prettier, there is greater diversity, and it is easier to travel to and from. The beaches
in Florida are closer, the river and mountain playgrounds of the Blue-ridge
mountains are closer, the golfing is better, the restaurants are
better, the pizza is better, the schools are better, the seasons are
better. Zoos, Museums, Aquariums, SEC football, pulled pork, sec
football, SEC FOOTBALL....
The difference is that Austin is almost as good as they think it is, and
Atlanta is so much better than we think it is. We should open our eyes,
before blindly migrating.
*off the top of my head
Abbaattoir-Northside (blues)-Orsbys (late night bite) - Shower (West
Side)
Bookhouse- MJQ(Late Night Dancing) - Majestic (Poncy)
One Midtown-Midtown arts (Art house cinema)- gelato in hightlands
(Highland-Midtown)
Cakes and Ale-Eddies Attic (music listening room)-Leon's Full Service (Decatur)
Holman- Fork and Screen- Craft (Buckhead)
Woodfire-Gold Room (night club)- Insurrection- Home (Cheshire Bridge)
Parish - Dad's Garage (improv) - P'cheen/Alberts (late night bar/ ping
pong)
Rita's - Baseball game - One Eared Stag (Inman/Southside)
Flying Biscuit - Kickball at piedmont- Pizza Antica (Requires
short intermediate car ride but is BYOB!)
picnic - Silver Comet Trail - Canoe (Vinings)
Stats - Football Game - Glen Hotel rooftop bar (Downtown)
not even the pain kicks in, tell me when the pain kicks in
How great was Bill Mahar's timing when he asked "weren't we such a better country in the 60's when the rich has a smaller percentage of the wealth", and then ended the show before anyone could collect themselves long enough to respond. I have some questions:
How many seconds after a conservative had asked that question would Bill manage to call him a racist, misogynist reactionary?
I'd have love to played the role of name caller, "So Bill, you think there are now too many women in the workforce taking men's jobs?", but if I had to take the high road I would argue that his statistic is simply irrelevant: There is no pile of wealth that can be distributed, or even considered in such terms.
For instance, Google is relatively new 100 billion dollar company, from which poor was that money taken? Did Google cause all this pverty, or perhaps, is it possible that wealth doesn't conform to Bill's covetous zero-sum world view?
Secondly, the world is a completely different place: For instance, how did the poor in Bill's asinine little pie game stack up to today's poor?
Amenities in the Median Poor Household. We then examined
poor households, meaning households with a reported income below the
official government poverty income thresholds in 2005. Analysis revealed
that poor households had a median household amenity score of 14. This
means that half of all poor households had a score at or below 14 and
half of households had score at or above 14.
Having determined that the amenity score of the median poor
household was 14, we then examined all poor households with that score
to determine which amenities appeared most frequently within the median
poor group.
The analysis showed that median poor households most
frequently had the following 14 items: air conditioning, a clothes
washer, a clothes dryer, ceiling fans, and a cordless phone.
For entertainment, these households had two color televisions, cable or satellite TV, a DVD player, and a VCR.
In the kitchen, these poor households had a refrigerator, an oven and stove, a microwave, and a coffee maker.
Now, despite the fact that in general our poor are better off than pretty much any poor ever, anywhere, I'm not disagreeing with Bill. In fact the reason I jumped all over Bill is because I used to ask a similar question in mixed company: "If you were going to be born a black child tomorrow morning, what decade would you want to be born in". Everyone wanted to tell me that the answer was a no-brainer "Today". Fine, I am not a student of history or civil rights, but I reserve the right, guaranteed by Bill Mahar now standing to my right, to be skeptical without being called a racist.
I will go out of my way to say that the oft repeated republican talking
point that 50% of Americans pay no taxes in most likely incorrect: That only refers to Federal Income tax. It doesn't factor in the more regressive Sales tax, or State taxes, or Payrol deductions, which by any fair standard, is just another tax. (If I am wrong, I suspect Ed can tell me how). It seems to me that more defensible point is just how much of this nation's tax revenue is paid by those rich folk (top 1% pay around 40%) . And then ask, how much higher it needs to be, before it's 'fair'.
Now, have I bought enough
credibility throwing conservative pundits under the bus, to say
that Obama pushing the meme that the S&P downgrade is the fault of the tea-party is is
perhaps the biggest whopper ever told in politics? I've always admired how he sticks to his guns, but that's some serious bunk. The only plan he ever put forward was to increase the debt ceiling and to increase spending by 10 trillion. Exactly opposite of what the S&P wanted, and eighty-some of his own democrats voted against it. After that he hid far and well behind a nebulous and undocumented 'balanced approach" suggestion, and now groans that he only got to increase spending by 7 trillion.
I was thinking about his use of the term 'Balance'. I hate that word. People used to say 'a balanced diet' as a way to save space on their plate from things that are entirely unhelpful: A scoop of ice-cream and two slices of bread , per meal. At somepoint, when you are laid up in the hospital on a ventilator, you have to accept that despite what is written on the box, Cocoa-Crispies are not part of a balanced diet. I am not prepared to say Taxes are the Cocoa- Crispies of solution, they are, more likely, more like candied yams.
Craig Finn is learning from Townes. This is not remarkable, since , Separation Sunday is pretty much Mr Mudd and Mr Gold, just subbing Sex and Drugs and Religion, for aces and spades.
You'll be tied to the back of a cow But the bones in the ground Well they never make a sound
Huddleston and I saw this kid beat a panamanian tank one handed. Check out what he did to this unbeated mexican this weekend.
Did I mention that "Lovely Bones" is the worst movie I have ever seen? Lovely Bones is the worst movie I have ever seen. And frankly, I didn't think the LOR Trilogy was THAT good either. I mean, we're talking about a set of books that made girls like fantasy, the movies wern't gonna suck. But don't let me stray from the point: Jackson found that mythical dimension where he could continue towards perfect failure without edging any closer to 'so bad its good'. Time definitely slowed down on this end.Ugh.
Once, while I was teaching bootcamp, my colleague whispered to me that the Recruit presenting looked like he had a bunch of Gadgets in his pockets. I whispered back, 'those aren't gadgets', and my Colleague had to leave the room twice before he could keep a straight face.
Reminded me of the time Alex and I got into a pen-cap flipping contest in accounting. He won 62 to 1, and that didn't seem as humorous to the teacher as it did to us.
Now I have Gadget Fever. I want the new iPad, I want the BlackBerry Playbook. The former for the easy home-automation apps, the latter for the possibility of using if instead of my laptop, on the road. My new job allows me to make day-trips, and I am enamored with with the idea of skipping through the airport holding nothing other than my man-purse.
The Blackberry Playbook may also run Android apps, so it should have most of the app bases covered too. But realistically, I expect I will get the iPad first, for home use, and then see if I can get someone with gadget-pants to confirm the the Playbook will run lotus apps. That is perhaps the most horrible ending to a sentence ever, on so, so many levels, but it is none-the-less true.
Is "please put your smaller carry-on under the seat in front of you" the most ignored statement in the world?
No one offers any 'free if you eat the whole thing' promotions on starchy food" because we are designed to get fat when we eat Carbs, and one way our body accomplishes that is by depressing the hormone that makes us feel satiated.
I'm pretty sure Tallest Man on Earth put out the album of the year. And the Coens put out the best movie.
Did any of you get Rolled by me this week? I know I'm lame for doing it, but it was the perfect trap.
How is that Florence + The Machine album? I was going to buy it, and then started hearing it everywhere... I even heard Dog Days on Glee.
Yeah yeah, I watch glee.
I am engaged.. To Karen.
Saw the Skinny President pics a month ago .... remember what i said about him golfing so much? I hear he gave a good speech at the Safeway service. I feel the whole post-shooting brouhaha was pretty manipulative. Not by him, per se, but definately for him and for that speech.
