the parkway

it's hard to believe that there was a time when the country took pride in great public works --- and knew how to respond to economic depression --- blue ridge parkway is only a part of that great legacy to the nation

 mt. pisgah

 looking glass rock

more purty views

tuesday evening i drove twenty or twentyfive miles on the parkway south of asheville --- sleepy gap, beaverdam gap, the french broad river --- 

asheville

asheville is a wonderful little city --- far more urban than atlanner --- the kind of place you want to walk the streets --- i was told it is second only to miami in the number of art deco buildings ---

A destiny that leads the English to the Dutch is strange enough; but one that leads from Epsom into Pennsylvania, and thence into the hills that shut in Altamont over the proud coral cry of the cock, and the soft stone smile of an angel, is touched by that dark miracle of chance which makes new magic in a dusty world.

Each of us is all the sums he has not counted: subtract us into nakedness and night again, and you shall see begin in Crete four thousand years ago the love that ended yesterday in Texas.

The seed of our destruction will blossom in the desert, the alexin of our cure grows by a mountain rock, and our lives are haunted by a Georgia slattern, because a London cut-purse went unhung.  Each moment is the fruit of forty thousand years.  The minute-winning days, like flies, buzz home to death, and every moment is a window on all time.  

thomas wolfe, look homeward angel

for some reason, the ashevillians did not like his book --- thought it made them look bad or something ---

and the wierd view from my room at the indigo

lodging

the hotel indigo in asheville met our per diem, which i never expected --- i liked the design, but some of the finishes not so much --- the condos on top must have a spectacular view of the mountains and the city --- very dog friendly as well, which made the choice of mostly concrete and tile floors a wise choice --- a night there was ten dollars less than a fairly tired old  place in oak ridge --- there i had to keep a window propped open with the gideon bible --- 

the other georgia

it's way worse than ours --- clearly there are still brave people in the world

tourism

yesterday i drove from asheville down the blue ridge parkway, over newfound gap, with a sidebar to clingman's dome, then down through semi-quaint, tacky gatlinburg, and on to the northwest toward sevierville and i-40, aiming for oak ridge --- along the way, i experienced pigeon forge for the first time --- these images are but pale reflections of the awesomeness of that three or four miles of six-lane "parkway" --- the contrast with gatlinburg is a contrast between the mid-twentieth century and the early twenty-first century --- as have other towns across the country, both have thrived as "gateway" communities on the approach to a national park

and the newest addition is king kong showing his butt to cracker barrell --- he's oriented toward the front of the building here

and commemorating the centennial of the titanic ---

update on the viewshed

hotel (top, left) is topped out; skyhouse (bottom) is getting close; 12th/midtown apts (top, right) is just showing

well, now that you mention it . . . .

"When ‘Harry Leon Crawford’, hotel cleaner of Stanmore was arrested and charged with wife murder he was revealed to be in fact Eugeni Falleni, a woman and mother, who had been passing as a man since 1899. In 1914, as ‘Harry Crawford’, Falleni had married the widow Annie Birkett. Three years later, shortly after she announced to a relative that she had found out ‘something amazing about Harry’, Birkett disappeared."

i love midtown

noodle was almost excessively gay tonight --- out of over two dozen patrons, maybe five were of the female persuasion

maintaining the view

880 w. peachtree (1971), heery and heery's first offices ---- primed and repainted in a day

getting a jump on the weekend

the atl botanical garden is open until 10 on thursdays starting today --- the conservatory after dark, with all the frogs chirping, is pure magic

progress

yesterday north carolina disappointed us all by showing it could be just as retarded on gay marriage as every other southern state --- it brought back memories of all the bullshit here in georgia in 2004 when all my wishful thinking about my bio-family came to an end ---

but obama finally endorsed equal rights today --- i envy the young'uns who will be growing up whole, only not in north carolina, or georgia, anytime soon ----

building midtown, cont'd.

novare (the same developer that built my building) just announced ground-breaking for 100 sixth street, a 23-story apartment tower on the corner where the armory used to be --- that little block of sixth street is one of the last reminders of midtown in the last quarter of the twentieth century, for what that's worth

two 20-something story apartment buildings are not even topped out yet, and here comes a third --- counting on gen y to fill it all up

old people

happy birthday to g-grandpa hart, born this day in 1857 and died at the age of 100 when i was 8 --- he remembered the union armies around atlanta in 1864 but is most admirably remembered by myself for managing to get himself ejected from the baptist church for heretical teachings or something ---

a full flower moon

 8:26 pm saturday

 6:20 pm sunday

7:18 pm sunday

8:18 pm sunday

if jesus saves . . .

. . . he better save himself from the gory glory seekers who use his name in death

orchidaceae, cont'd.

the oncydium began opening today ----