HoML@nd SECR:ITY WANtz ME!!!!<>>

I got a bunch of spam at my hotmail account, telling me that my "IP was logged." The various addresses included...

Department@fbi.gov
Mail@fbi.gov
Admin@fbi.gov
Office@fbi.gov

This is the email sent to me...

"Dear Sir/Madam,

we have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites.

Important:
Please answer our questions!
The list of questions are attached.


Yours faithfully,
Steven Allison



*** Federal Bureau of Investigation -FBI-
*** 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 3220
*** Washington, DC 20535
*** phone: (202) 324-3000"

...and the email had a small .zip file included. Which I didn't open, but even if I did I have an Apple, nothing could have happened. I knew it was real when Steve signed it "yours faithfully." *Sigh*... stupid spammers.

Blogging Boredom: 3 Pictures of Customized Stroller, Dork with Creepy Robot

Waiting for something good after Aquateens...









George looks as happy with the robot as the kid does in the picture.

Weekend Update: High Museum and a Motorcycle Powered By Fruit

With my wife out of the apartment and with the car, I woke up with no one but the cat as company and no way to travel but by foot. So I decided to make a field-trip to the High Museum and see what all the fuss was about. It had been getting good write-ups since its reopening and this would make my first visit ever. I made the decent walk from my place to the musuem, paid my $15 and promptly got misplaced. The strange segregational use of the elevators, one for the Andrew Wyeth show and the other for all other floors, got me confused. Eventually I go to the 3rd floor, where the modern art was. I'm getting more and more sceptical about "modernism" and art that needs concepts and explainations to be fully understood. There should be some inherently appealing aspects to a piece of art that compell a desire for further examination. But so much is just an a proof-of-concept exercise that often doesn't leave a final product worth much thought. I had more fun looking at the light-infused ceiling then some of the art. That being said, I did enjoy looking at the various and varied collections and the building in general. I should have taken along with my iPod the microphone, as I had loads of opinions I would have liked to taken home with me. But my short-term memory loss meant that all my deep thoughts were left behind when I left. I have marked in iCal when the museum has its free-admission days, so I hope to visit again soon.

Before heading home. I stopped by the Atlanta College of Art's gallery at the Wooduff. An interesting show that revolved much around Atlanta and processing the city on foot. Reflected on that since I seldom walk around the city, mainly drive from place to place.

While walking home I passed this and thought to myself...



"That motorcycle never crashes!"

Bloggers Meetup Missed: Play Attended

I proved myself a dumbass last night by going to the "Atlanta People With Blogs Who Get Together To Drink" meetup a night early. And since I had been bitching about not having fun with my wife, I couldn't say no to her suggestion that we go to Push Push Theater to see "The Robbers." It is a movie-play that has significant parts of the performance on video. It's big risk and it pays out. Afterwards, we talked about how it was nice to go out to see some live theater (partially live in this case) and feel like it was money well spent.

Its a almost impossible show to recap, especially at this late hour. I find that it went well with my love of the harsh and profane wordplay in HBO's "Deadwood" series and thematically reminded me of "Fightclub" and "The Usual Suspects." Not being a regular attendee of theater, these are my best comparisons.

And that's what I did tonight.

Admitting You Have A Problem is the First Step in Helping People Make Fun of You

So, I was sitting at Limerick Junction Wednesday night wondering where all the bloggers were...

My parents say they get their alzheimers from me.

See you Thursday.

Learn Shame the Old Fashion Way: Sex Education from the 1950's

If there was one thing that the 1950's did right, it was educating people about healthy attitudes on sex...



...the kids over at Basic Hip Digital Oddio have been posting complete albums online for ages. The free mp3s are there for a limited time, and this album is available until the 21st at their site.

So, when your kids start asking about "it" just press play on this beauty and scar them emotionally the way they used to do it back in the day.

I just grabbed all the files today but haven't had a chance to give them a listen.

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Also See:

Free B/W Burlesque Videos Courtesy of the Internet Archive:

Georgia Sothern
Sheree Tiger Dance
Red-headed Riot in black and white.
Indian Love Burlesque

These and many of the other Internet Archive's great videos are now my screensaver for my Mac. OS X users can grab SaveHollywood which shows movies as your screensaver. Easy to use and free.

I Didn't Know, I Didn't Go, LCD Soundsystem Show

Patience is a virtue and one that my wife has in spades when it comes to me complaining about not hitting the town's clubs and bars. My complaints have been general ones, since there have been few bands that I really wanted to see. So when LCD Soundsystem was coming to town this weekend I was psyched. The upsides was I liked the band and there was an after-party. The downside was a lack of money and a Sunday workday that started at 9am.

Kissatlanta.com put out a post saying that the first 5 commentss on their site would get free passes to the after-party. Cool, less money to spend. Went to the site to find 2 comments, me being number 3. Placed my post only to find that it would not show it. Came back later to find 3 newly published posts all made earlier in the day now showing ahead of my post, which made 5 before me and left me disqualified. Bummed.

Spent the rest of the day out with my wife running around town, having fun. Got call late that afternoon, my boss over at the Ferst Center... want to work? With no LCD Soundsysterm show to go to I'm game and tell him so. Come home to find an email, its Preston over at KissAtlanta tell me I got free aftershow passes. Grrr...

Long story short; Saturday night... went to work, didn't see the band, got some sleep, went to the Ferst Center on Sunday, had a 13 hour workday. I guess its best I didn't go.

Old Atlanta: Part Duex & Work Report

Continuing my last post's historical theme (and seemingly my compulsive weekend blogging), the Atlanta Time Machine has lots of now-and-then pictures of the city. Listed by location, the side-by-side comparisons use the same angles illustration well what has changed and remained the same. The shear volume of newly taken pictures show that the site is a labor of love. And the "Atlanta, My Home Town" mp3 shows that the city didn't need a new theme jingle to replace the first written in 1961. Maybe it should have just been rerecorded by Outcast.

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On a work related note, I got to work the Laurie Anderson show at the Ferst Center. She's a well regarded visual/performance artist and NASA's only resident artist, and it was that experience that she based last night's performance on. Really nice, gracious person. As the crew was breaking down the stage we started talking about identity theft, and she joked that she wished someone would steal her's. I told her she should either sell it on eBay or rent it out. I think she liked the idea of that. When I told her that the folks over at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center hoped she would stop by for tonight's opening (Saturday 12th) she sounded genuinely disappointed that she was leaving that night. I always had an appreciation for her performances, and now I have an even better impression of her as well. It's nice to get paid to work for good people.

International Time Capsule Society: And Other Groups that Like Old Crap

I like old things: cars, pictures, etc. So, I was pretty pleased that an eccentric entity like the Oglethorpe University's International Time Capsule Society resides in Atlanta. What to actually do with this newly acquired knowledge, um... I don't know.

But thinking about historical surroundings and preservation aren't new fascinations for some folks, myself included. In the 1870s, the Society for Photographing Relics of Old London started taking pictures of sites in the city that were old at that time. Places like The Oxford Arms, Warwick Lane were in peril when the picture was taken and destroyed soon after the picture was taken. That place and others can be seen here at The Eastern Window. That's why I've been digging the pix of some of the local blogger/flickr/urban explorer people. They have captured some things that have already been lost like Casa Destruido someplace in the city...



... and Brooke Novak's got some Urban Decay | Texture which includes this former Mr. Fangs mural which is no longer around.

Mr. Fangs, originally uploaded by brookenovak.

"My House, My Home, It Rolls with Me."

Brick Car, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Saw this car and thought to myself, "Best car ever." In hindsight, that's not true but it's pretty damn close. Making me think that I will need to be carrying around my camera all the time.

Title quote from a Southern Culture on the Skids song.

Atlanta UE: Going Where You're Not Supposed To

Urban Exploration, think of it as tourism with a touch of breaking & entering. But between being a coward and the scorn heaped upon me by my wife at the very mention of it, I have yet to do any UE. The closest I have come is buying all the issues of Infiltration Zine...



... a cool read about people willing to tell their tales. The zine and the Infiltration website were the brainchildren of Ninjalicious. But the future of the zine is up in the air since his passing of cancer this year.

Atlanta has its fare share of UE fans poking around the city's bits. The Urban Exploration Resource website has a Georgia section and an Atlanta subsection. Earler this year, the city was host to APEX '05, a "conference" for urban exploration enthusiast, which included an tour of the city's abandoned attractions.

So, thanks to the internet for keeping me out of cool, abandoned buildings and free from tetanus because I stepped on a nail in the dark.

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Related Links with loads of pictures:

See Pie Bar before it was over-priced - Georgia National Trust.

The amazing and huge 1903 Canfranc International Railway Station.

Massive Japanese Website with an abandoned amusement park amongst other places.

Abandoned city/island - Gunkanjima - Views of an Abandoned Island

London's Abandoned Tube Stations

Modern Ruins

Forgotten NY

Road Trip Saturday: Social Circle, Madison, Athens, GA

Since our arrival in Atlanta, we hadn't been any further than Stone Mountain Village. With a lull in work, the wife and I planned a trip to Madison and Athens, GA. The main attraction in Madison was the tiny cars of the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum. While the website taunts with a collection of great pictures of tiny cars, Bruce doesn't spend much time with his cars... Tuesdays, Thursdays, and on Saturdays by appointment only. So with no appointment made, we weren't going to be seeing any small cars today. But we decided to head off anyways to Madison and Athens.

On our way, we passed a sign for "Historic Social Circle," Social Circle being a small community north of the 20. When visiting a "Historic" district, one is betting that the ratio of cheesiness to genuine historic worth is balanced. Meaning that the place you are visiting, usually a Main St., has a nice collection of restored and nicely painted buildings and only a few of the tenants have names like "Karl's Krap" and "Julie's Jeweled Junk." Social Circle has a perfectly fine historic district. Nuff said.

Back on the road, we go to Madison. Lots of cute houses, including this one...

House 1 - Madison, GA, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

... love the windows on it. Madison also has a decent village square and a good candy store. 1/4 lb of maple fudge and 1/4 lb of chocolate walnut were bought at Antique Sweets. And on to Athens we went.

We had never been to Athens and their brochures we got at the Madison Chamber of Commerce were no help. So in looking for a restaurant, we hit one of the health food grocery stores and asked for advice on finding a place to eat. One of the suggestions was The Last Resort, which is where we ended up eating. And what a great choice! Seriously good food, mine was penne with beef tenderloin and carrots and green beans. It tasted so great and it felt nice and healthy. Highly recommended.

Lastly we went back to our car to find it blocked by a bus...

Girls Gone Wild - Athens, GA, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

... until they tired of being wild in Athens. In the picture is my favorite wild girl, my wife.

City Mayors: Mine and Yours

I don't think of Shirley Franklin as my mayor. I had looked towards taking in new, cool bars and music venues when moving to Atlanta, but it seems she has worked hard towards making it harder for places like that to thrive. Now, take a look at Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.



In the past he has said that if given the choice he would look towards leagalizing prostitution, was a celebrity photographer for Playboy, he is Sin City's biggest cheerleader, and most recently has suggested that the city should cut thumbs off graffiti 'punks'.

"Goodman said the city has a beautiful highway landscaping project and 'these punks come along and deface it... ...I'm saying maybe you put them on TV and cut off a thumb,' the mayor said. 'That may be the right thing to do.'"

Plus, once a month, he has a public meet-and-greet at a Vegas coffee house. You get ten minutes with hizzonner. He definately has his faults and detractors, but it hard to beat a former mob laywer who played himself in the movie "Casino" for attention grabbing stunts and city promotion.

So, in the upcoming election, what are the topics a new Atlantian should be paying attention to and what stance do the candidates have on them?

Shows Galore: First Up, Raymond Loewy at the MoD

You are invited to see the fruit of my labor...



... it's a gorgeous show, full of pretty, shiny radios, cars, and assorted consumer designs/goods from the 1920's - the 70's. Opens Thursday, the 3rd at 6pm. Plus the folks at the the museum are pretty cool and would love to see your smiling faces. Oh, the show may be covered on CNN. They stopped by and filmed the galleries earlier today.

Next week, it will be "Cindy Loehr and Rachel Lowther: Rough Magic and Dark Lullaby" & "Cecelia Kane: Hand-to-Hand, a Project for the Round Gallery" at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center.

And lastly it will be Laurie Anderson at the Ferst Center for the Arts. Work is good. Tiring, but good.