The Museum is an interesting bright white building in the middle of Midtown. It is surrounded by futuristic buildings allegedly called Cell Phone building and (here we go again) Batman building, as I have learned from Hutch.
On Thursday after work Hutch and I went to the Atlanta High Museum of Art (www.high.org). Here I am pictured with a strange house which changes its perspective all the time but unfortunately this is kind of difficult to show on a photo. As it was late we did not have much time but I saw some interesting American Folk Art. Apparently the Atlanta High Musem of Art is the only one in the US to have a special department for folk and self-taught art. I hope my very tight schedule will allow another visit. Also the Chinese Terracotta Army is in the museum at the moment and by incident I had seen that in the British Museum already. The exhibition had been a little bit disappointing because I had expected the Terracotta Army to be there but there were only a couple of soldiers and it was more an exhibition about the Army and its history rather than the Army actually being there. Probably a misunderstanding on my side.
Hutch: I already miss you Achim!
Sharms: I have to admit that I have neglected the blog recently and I publicly apologise! In the meantime a lot has happend: John has told me off, taken over the blog, Achim has gone home all the way to Bonn, Germany (my beautiful hometown) and I have a new camera. Especially with my new camera ready to go (I have just installed the necessary software) I am ready to write about my ATL misadventures again!
I will fill in a bit here since Sharms has gotten lazy with her blogging duties: Wednesday after work, Sharms, Achim, Trigg, Ramon, Nina and I (Hutch) went to a basketball game at Philips Arena. It started off a bit slow in terms of pacing and also crowd energy, but as the game went on, it built up. By the last period the Atlanta Hawks were down a bit but driving hard, and ultimately caught up and won, breaking the Utah Jazz's 12 game winning streak. Also, I was very glad to meet Achim (from Bonn, Germany) who, not surprisingly, turns out to be a good dude to drink beer with.
Stella and I are enjoying a sunday afternoon in Piedmont Park where we took Hutch and James for a walk (you can see the skyline of Midtown in the background). Spring has arrived at last! To me it is quite bizarre that in Atlanta contrary to the summery temperatures the trees have no leaves yet and the grass is brown. Apparently it becomes green in summer - opposite to Europe where it it the other way round.
After our roof adventures we went to a building next door to attend a concert of the 4th ward afro-klezmer orchestra (http://www.afroklezmermusic.com/). The music was an interesting and enjoyable mixture of jazz and traditional klezmer music. As previously mentioned on this blog I have been to many concerts in the last four weeks and to me all of these bands were quite unique and had their own style. I am not yet sure if that is an Atlanta specific phenomenon or if I have just missed something while living in London and/or Germany. I will need to investigate further on this topic...
... at night. Jen, John and I went for another bycicle tour on Saturday night. We went to a birthday party and John took this photo from the roof of a massive loft building which overlooks the downtown area. If only those two annoying billboards weren't there!
No need for me to go to Memphis - Atlanta has everything including a large Elvis shrine in the Star Bar. After our exhausting bicycle patrol through the mean streets of Zone 6 we came to the Star Bar for refreshments and were able to listen to a couple of bands. During the last month in Atlanta I have seen more bands play live than in the entire last year!
Even Morrisey was playing live in Atlanta yesterday!! I only noted that while I cycled past the variety playhouse in Little Five Points yesterday and it was sold out! Too late - I was very upset.
This photo documents the founding conference of the Zone 6 Pedalers which took place in the Brewhouse yesterday. In the future we will patrol the streets of Atlanta on our bikes "to battle against evil". Last night our first patrol took us into Candler park and then over the bycicle path back onto Moreland Road where we finalised this important and successful evening in the Star Bar.
At the end of our MARTA/Decatur night part 1 (which means we were all going to Decatur WITHOUT A CAR but with MARTA) we played a little Bocce outside Leon's full service. The weather is getting warm so I felt very mediterranean.
Atlanta is a world town: it even has my favorite Koelsch (beer exclusively brewed in Cologne http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kölsch_(beer). So yesterday we spend some time in this very well sorted bar Brick House. Of course the odd one out is Hutch, who insisted to have a Weinstephan wheat beer after trying the first Reissdorf.
Hutch and I discussed this blogs perception yesterday. People have mentioned that it looks like I am enjoying myself far too much and do not work enough. So just to clarify: I am actually working in the office every day - however: if I would cover that in my blog on a daily basis probably everybody would loose interest quite soon ... so I will continue to mainly cover my out-of-office time in the interest of the best possible entertainment :)
Here we are at my second Thrashers (Atlanta Icehockey Team) game. It was great fun again, however it was not very warm in the stadium so I had to wear several bulky layers (I am not that fat yet although I am working on it). I am wearing my new Thrashers long sleeve which John and Jen have given me as a welcome present. I am indending to wear this when I am back in London playing softball again. GO THRASHERS!!!
This Monday morning there was still some snow around and it was freezing (glad that I brought my mittens over from London). Apparently all Atlanta schools had a day off today due to weather conditions. However different from a comparable day in London, public transport was just fine here. On the picture you can see a little part of Elizabeth Street which I walk up all the way to the Inman Park MARTA station every morning. Even the squirrels seemed to be cold today - usually they are all over the place but today I did not see a single one. I will "take a leaf out of their book" and will not set one foot out of the door anymore today!
Jen's and Hutch's lovely dog Stella is wearing her jumper on a snowy spring day in ATL. She is very photo shy but I catched her snoozing on the sofa.
I had to find out that the weather can change rapidly here in ATL. Yesterday it was somehow mild and today it started snowing heavily and everything was covered in white. We went to the Earl for my first American Dunch. Atlanta has been proved to be very vegan friendly so I was able to have a XL-portion of scrambled tofu. The snowy street outside together with the chilled music of Jupiter Watts (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=14229720) inside were bringing winter back.
We were all surprised at how good Sharms was at bowling for the first time in years! -Hutch
We are having a great night out at the Earl, a very nice pub, in East Atlanta. My favorite beer for the time being in Atlanta: 420. After the concert of Noot D Noot we moved on to the pub 529 and danced the night away to some great country music. As it was the Karneval weekend back home in Cologne/Bonn I had to make some party effort. My favorite country star for the time being: Willy Nelson. Robby (pictured above) gave me some great country cds. The next thing is to get some cowboy boots soon!
Having arrived on 07 February I am trying out my new bicycle on the street. It is actually possible to cycle in Atlanta! However it is very hilly so I exchanged this bike in the meantime against Hutch's mountain bike. He is still quicker than I am so I have to get up to speed.
Against all warnings (and with a little help of my friends giving me a lift) I have survived Atlanta without a car for the last three weeks. I am taking MARTA (the tube equivalent) to work and use the bike in my spare time. Next week I will try to cycle all the way into work.
