dragon'con -- day one

i broke down and got a 4-day pass to dragon'con, wanting to see what's behind the parade that i have witnessed these last few years --- plus this is purty much my favorite weekend of the year: dragon'con, black gay pride, the decatur book fest, and a stupid football game all at once === a lot going on

harvey

once this thing clears out, semi-fall-like weather may follow --- in the meantime, it's purty sad what's going in texas and louisiana --- sad or not, it's given trump another opportunity to be a narcissistic dumass

choosing sides

there's a mayoral election in november, so people are starting to pay a little attention to the several who are running --- the early front runner is mary norwood with whom i have been acquainted over the years --- although the election is non-partisan, party affiliation can be an issue --- according to wikipedia, there hasn't been a republican mayor in atlanta since nedom l. angier in 1877-79

mary has long been pegged as a closet republican with her red dresses and elegant buckhead address, but she's got a decent reputation on lbgqt and historic preservation issues --- in addition she has tended toward blue dresses these days, and i have marveled at the number of events of whatever sort at which she manages to show up and get herself photographed for facebook ---

but she also seems to have emerged as the latest "great white hope" for many people, especially on the north side, who never got over maynard and the succession of african american mayors who followed --- she posted the image here on her facebook page yesterday, but removed it a short time later, which was not before many had noticed --- karen handel on the right and what's-her-name county commissioner from the nether reaches of north fulton on the left --- norwood is gonna be "mayor for all atlanta," she says, which one of the comments pointed out was sorta dogwhistley in and of itself

with the changes in city demographics this century, it will be interesting to see how the mayor's race plays out --- however it does, race will always be a subtext ---

construction update

spring street --- i still hate what they did to the crum & forster building, and i'll probably hate it even more when they're done

a sign there at the corner assures us that flex is still open, and so is bulldogs --- but neither can be long for this world --- 

i'm always showing the back side of this block, from juniper --- but here's what the p'tree side looks like between bulldogs and seventh street, part of which is one of the last surface parking lots in midtown

big weather

great weather, slightly cooler and slightly less humid under clouds and a steady easterly breeze from the hurricane that's making a mess of houston right now --- we might be getting rain by the end of the week, which the lake would like ---

transitioning

new art on the belt line, but i really hate to see this one go

???

excursion to the east side

i walked over to meet adh at candler park yesterday to watch pk's water ballet, which we did not see because we had the time wrong and got tired of waiting for it to start --- another time maybe

i also wanted to check out the tiny house show at ponce mkt --- the show was underwhelming --- just a different kind of mobile home --- even with large windows and skylights, i would find them very claustrophobic but there were long lines to go inside, even if you could see everything from the front door --- except a bathroom, which must have been up in there somewhere

dog didn't go with me, but at one point i stopped to take a picture and had a flash "omg! where's guinness?"

can't have nothing nice anymore

'coochee

transported myself via the fiat to sautee nacoochee this p.m. --- delivered the "deliverables," as the NPS contract management people might say --- a really great project, at least for me, and i think for them. too ---

now my history will have a life of its own, to be pulled apart and reinterpreted and criticized, which is all well and good and part of the process -- whatever, i'm purty sure that anybody who's interested in the history of those valleys will have a decent start with what i've done ---

addison richards visited and sketched nacoochee in 1842 --- along with the magnificent tallulah gorge --- published in charleston 1843, in the orion, a short-lived literary magazine

it really is a beautiful part of the world

boston at last!

i saw a lot, and hit most of the high points, including the damn freedom trail, but there really is too much to take in --- still, i have a sense of the city that i didn't have before, and i will always look forward to a return visit

other graveyards

boston's memorial to the great hunger in ireland (1845-1852), that killed a million people and drove another million to emigrate, mostly to america

four blocks away is the new england holocaust memorial --- a series of very tall glass panels engraved with numbers representing the millions who died in the nazi concentration camps in the 1930s and 1940s --- the last night i was in town, some asshole broke one of the panels, the second time the memorial has been vandalized this summer --- 17 yr old quickly apprehended