Come Fly With Me

How much do you know about the city where you live? If you've been to Savannah, Chicago, Charleston, or New York, you've probably taken guided tours and visited attractions. But how often have you done those same things at home? I've often found it strange that we know more about the history of other cities than we do about our own.

This has been on my mind lately because Phoenix Flies starts March 5.  Organized by the Atlanta Preservation Center, Phoenix Flies is a two-week event of free tours of Atlanta neighborhoods, parks, churches, historic homes and sites.  That's right. I said free.

• Have you read about the Beltline project and in theory you support it, but you don't exactly know where the Beltline is? There's a tour for you.

• Have you driven past Rhodes Hall on Peachtree or the Castle House on 15th St. across from the Woodruff Arts Center, and wondered about the architecture and how they came to be there? There are tours for you.

• Did you know that Atlanta has a replica of Scottish poet Robert Burns' birth home and it serves as the club house for The Atlanta Burns Club? I didn't, but there's a tour for that!

• Did you go to the Georgia Capitol on a field trip as a kid, and now all you can remember about it is that there was the head of a two-headed calf in a glass jar on the third floor? Well, now you can go as an adult and learn about architecture and civil rights, because there are tours for that. (Someone please let me know if the two-headed calf is still there.)

• Do you want to see the historic home where Gerard and I had our wedding reception? There's a tour for that, too. I'm not kidding. The Wimbish House is on the list.

 My favorite tours that I've done in the past are: Fox Theatre, Oakland Cemetery, Ansley Park, and Inman Park tours. This year I'm going to try to do the Druid Hills and Beltline tours. Some of the tours do require reservations, so it's best to check the schedule in advance. If you feel strange going to one of these events by yourself, take someone with you who has lived in Atlanta five years or less and pretend like that person asked you to show them around. Just nod your head and say "that's right" like you are agreeing when the tour guide mentions an interesting fact.

The Dana Mania award goes to the comment with the most interesting/weirdest bit of Atlanta trivia. Two-headed calf in state capitol building doesn't count since it has already been mentioned.

Forget Best Actor, What About Best Slow Clapping?

As the Academy Awards show approaches (Feb. 27), I would like to recognize one of my favorite movie genres, Underdog Sports Movies with Slow Clapping.  The Academy does not recognize this category, but it's my favorite for several reasons: sentimentality (the old lump-in-the-throat), poignant father-son issues, and lots of slow motion action scenes and fans cheering in slow motion. I give you now the Dana Award list of best underdog sports movies (with and without slow clapping).

1. Rudy -- the father of all underdog sports movies with slow clapping. When I first saw this movie, I cried so hard Gerard thought there was something wrong with me. I've seen it at least 10 times and it gets me every time. That scrappy Rudy. All he's got is a dream and guts and he has to fight class bias, poverty, and his size. There are father-son issues all over this movie. Rudy's got heart, dammit. Lumps in the Throat: 5 out of 5.
2. The Natural -- okay so technically no slow clapping in this one but there are several slow motion scenes of Robert Redford running the bases against a star-filled background and teammates jumping in the air in slow motion. Great actors and beautifully shot. A movie about having integrity and doing your best.  And Robert Redford.  Lumps in the Throat: 3 out of 5.
3. The Rookie -- who wouldn't tear up a little when a middle-aged Dennis Quaid calls home to tell his young son that dad has been called up to the Big Leagues? Baseball?  Check. Underdog? Check. Father-son sentimentality? Check. And slow clapping.  Lumps in the Throat: 3 out of 5.
4. Friday Night Lights -- sentimental father-son issues all over this one. Despite my aversion to Billy Bob Thornton, this one makes the list for great underdog moments, good acting, and realistic Southern accents. Cross reference with high school coming of age movies.  Lumps in the Throat: 4 out of 5.
5. Hoosiers -- they're poor, one of the coaches hits the bottle, and several of the players have father-son issues. A classic. Lumps in the Throat: 2 out of 5.
6. Remember the Titans -- a sports team overcoming racism, Denzel Washington, and a horrible car crash almost destroys the team. What more could you ask for? Lumps in the Throat: 4 out of 5.
7. National Velvet -- definitely an underdog sports movie although no slow clapping in this one. Little Liz Taylor just rides her guts out and I tear up every time during the part when the Pie gets sick. Cross reference with girl power/female athlete stories. Lumps in the Throat: 3 out of 5.
8. Any Given Sunday -- not exactly an underdog team, but maybe an underdog coach story? Al Pacino looks so hangdog in this. There are some great macho slow motion scenes with bone-crushing hits and you can actually get a feel for what choreographed football plays are like. Lumps in the Throat: 1 out of 5.
9. Varsity Blues -- this one is a cross between an underdog sports movie and a high school coming of age tale. There's a mean coach, a pig, and lot of guy bonding. And slow clapping. Lumps in the Throat: 1 out of 5.

Honorable mention goes to A League of their Own (cross reference with girl power/female athlete stories). "Are you crying? There's no crying in baseball."  Gerard would also like me to mention that the movie Not Another Teen Movie makes fun of slow clapping and a couple of the movies on my list. Sure, underdog sports films with slow clapping may be easy prey for parodies, but where would we be without them?

Comment and add your own movies to my list if you dare.

I wish I may . . .

I think New Year's resolutions are silly and stopped making them years ago. However, like a good Southerner, I did eat my black-eyed peas this year for good luck. So instead of a New Year's resolution, I have a New Year's Wish list for Atlanta. I am aiming high, so this is where the prosperity of the black-eyed peas comes in handy.

1) I wish for alcohol sales on Sunday. This issue drives me crazy. There are only three states that prohibit retail alcohol sales on Sunday. Can Georgia please be removed from this list? I'm not suggesting we all go out and booze it up on Sundays, but can we at least be given the chance to vote on it? It looks like this issue might get to a vote in the Georgia legislature, so maybe I'll get my wish.

2) I wish for different radio programming for our local public broadcasting channel, 90.1 WABE. Classical music is great, but do we really need a 6-hour block of it every day? How about mixing in some news or talk programs.

3) I wish for a world-class Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site. Parts of the historic site are in a shameful condition and this hurts my Atlanta pride. Atlanta was the birthplace and home of one of the most important figures of the 20th century and the area is less well-cared for and not as educational as the exhibits at the Georgia Aquarium. I know the beluga whales are paid for through corporate donations and ticket sales, and that the MLK Jr. Center is privately owned within land owned by the National Park Service, but the legal wrangling among the King family members really needs to end so that improvements can be made.

I'd like to see better signage overall, and improvements to the plaza area surrounding the grave site and crypt. The National Park Service visitor center building is cramped and outdated with inadequate facilities for visitors. This area should be top on my list to take visitors and right now it's not and that's a shame.

4) I wish for a lower unemployment rate. Obvious. Remember when it was 2 or 3%?

5) And last but not least, I wish for another World Series title for the Atlanta Braves!  Considering our performance as the Wild Card in last season's NLCS, I think it's entirely possible this year. We need a good center fielder (Nate McLouth, don't let us down) and fewer injuries overall.  More Braves posts to come as we get closer to baseball season.

What about you? What's on your Atlanta wish list for 2011?

Inaugural Post

Now that it's the start of a new year and a new decade, I decided to begin something new in my own life. Something to get my creative juices flowing. Something to remind me of who I was before law school, before lawyering, before motherhood, and of who I am now of course.

I hope to use this blog to write about the non-human loves of my life. Things like books, movies, art, baseball (Go Braves!), Atlanta, and ice cream. Because if there is a food love of my life, ice cream is it.

So someone smash a proverbial bottle of champagne on the side of this ocean liner -- I am setting sail.