The New Quest?: Arts and Culture in Atlanta

When I/we first moved to Vegas, it was without a job or apartment, and no real idea of what Vegas had to offer. In my 4+ years here, the art scene has slowly grown enough to where the the hipsters complain about the newly boring nature of the art and the bars. My old site, Las Vegas Arts and Culture, was a means to keep discovering what the city had and was sorely lacking, and it lacks so much. But unlike so many American cities, it was never a center for shipping or manufacturing. Its modern start as a stronghold for criminal interests and business meant it never had a collection of culturally minded founders. It now is home to a large population of transient service workers. Casino valets can earn $60,000 parking cars, so getting an education often is not the answer for some.

Getting to know the city worked to my advantage in ways not expected, like being asked to proof Jarret Keene's The Underground Guide to Las Vegas and writing the music section for 2005 Time Out Las Vegas. Vegas' art scene was in a pretty formative state when I first got here and thus it was easy to see new things firsthand. Atlanta's too big and established to allow for that same opportunity. So, I'm curious to see what I get instead.

When I read Erik Schneider's site critiquing the High Museum of Art, it had me wondering what made Atlanta the city that would have a museum like that. The city also has the Woodruff Arts Center, but their website starts blaring Carmina Burana when you open it and Donny Osmond was playing there. So there you go.

Random conversational shrapnel... heard at a screening of "Sin City",

"How did Ashton Kutcher get so famous?"
"Maybe he's bi."