Saturday At Inman Park

The evening ended with a bike ride back home which was only briefly interrupted by a visit at KROG whine bar (http://www.krogbar.com/). Krogbar is close to home, always fun, they have a good whine selection and you can sit outside and watch the street. The only thing which is slightly disturbing to me is the big pig leg on the bar counter.

After the festival we went for a quick dinner in Mi Barrio on Memorial. The owners are very friendly and they even remembered that I am vegan without me having mentioned it again. It is definitely the right address for everyone who is looking for authentic Mexican food in an equally authentic atmosphere.

It was very hot this Inman Park Festival weekend. The Festival is a neighbourhood festival right around the corner from my appartment. We went to see the parade and then Cadillac Jones who were playing in a backyard summer party. Although the photo looks like there was almost nobody around, there were many people there enjoying a relaxed afternoon in the sun and there was also some dance action going on.

Cycling To Work

After having talked about it since a while I actually cycled to work on two days last week. I had to keep up with John and Jen who have been cycling to work all last week. It worked surprisingly well, it was quicker than taking MARTA and much more fun. Downtown is not very crowded and it feels slightly adventurous cycling through skyscraper canyons. On the parking deck I asked a nice gentleman with a big SUV to take a photo of me. Speaking of SUVs - they are the only thing which bothers me here while cycling. They are so broad that they use all space on the street and it is not possible and mostly not advisable to overtake them because their drivers seem very unaware of anything else that is on the street unless it is on their sight level. Probably it will still take a while until cyclists are recognized as equal traffic participants but the good thing is that every new cyclist can contribute to this process.

Dekalb Farmers Market

On Sunday John and I went to the Dekalb Farmers Market

Inman Park Parade

A wagon on the Inman Park Parade at the Inman Park Fest. It reminded me a bit of Karneval (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival#Rhineland) at home in the Rhineland. I missed this very important festive time at home this year because of my travel to Atlanta.

Gone With The Wind

On Sunday night we went to the screening of Gone with the Wind (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_with_the_Wind_(film) at the Fox Theater(http://www.foxtheatre.org/history.htm). It is over twenty years ago since I watched the movie at my grandparents house during the summer holidays but I found out that I still remembered a great deal about the film. It was the first time I ever heared of Atlanta so I was very glad to be able to watch it again while I am here.





Before sitting through a four hour film we had to have some food. The restaurant Top Flr (http://www.topflr.com/) will definitely get into my Best of ATL - restaurants - list.

Zone6Pedallers Second Night Out

Friday night was another Zone6Pedallers night out. We all met at Midway in East Atlanta and after a little rest cycled over to Cabbage Town in a large convoy. Compared to our first night out we tripled the number of participants which was a better than hoped for outcome. Still it has to be stressed that not everyone can claim membership to the club. Any application can only be processed succesfully after a formal, lengthy and highly challenging application process which includes but is not limited to theoretic and practical testing procedures.






At some point everyone had run out of money so John lured us into a questionable Irish Pub by promising us to spend an equally questionable voucher in order to get us some Pabst Blue Ribbon pitchers. Everyone was happy soon after, especially Bree as it was her birthday on Friday. I hope you enjoyed your birthday night out, Bree!

After Work Drink At 6 Feet Under

On Thursday I had one of my first London style after work drinks here in ATL. As the weather was lovely we headed directly to the pub from work and sat on the terrace from Six Feet Under right opposite of Oakland Cemetary (http://www.oaklandcemetery.com/index.html). It is one of Atlanta's historic cemeteries and very close to downtown. Oakland is a garden cemetery, founded in 1850. Many welknown Atlanta citizens are buried there among them Margaret Mitchell and Maynard Jackson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynard_Jackson), Atlanta's first African American mayor. From a hilltop in Oakland Cemetery, General John B. Hood allegedly watched the Battle of Atlanta, and many sodiers from the Civil War are buried on Oakland cemetery.

Atlanta Rollergirls

On Saturday we went to attended an Authentic Flat Track Roller Derby in the Yaarab Shrine Center on Ponce. The Atlanta Rollergirls (www. atlantarollergirls.com) are founding members of the Woman's Flat Track Derby Association ( http://www.wftda.com/) which is active all around the US. Woman skaters are primary owners, managers and operators of the member leagues and the association.We just missed the Dirty South Derby Girls vs. Memphis Hustlin Rollers but were able to watch a derby of two local league teams competing against each other. The concept of Roller Derby was completely new to me. I still do not understand the rules but got more of an idea when Jen and I tried to roll along and she violently pushed me aside and gave me a good kick in the backside before rolling off to the hotdog stand. It is a truly glamorous sport!

Happy Easter!

Where is the Easter Bunny?



Whether the German Easter Bunny had problems with obtaining a working visa for the US or if it was just too busy, fact is that I received my Easter present through the post. I have never had an Easter without Easter Egg hunt before and because the local Easter Bunny could not get into John's and Jen's yard due to some serious building work going on, I collaborated with it in order to make sure that at least someone else had a serious egg hunt even if it was in front of my door.

Georgia Innocence Project

On Tuesday John and I attended a charity event of the Georgia Innocence Project (http://ga-innocenceproject.org/). The Georgia Innocence Project has the goal to free innocent people from prison through DNA testing, educating the public that wrongful convictions are not rare or isolated events and helping the exonerated rebuild their lives. Speaking on the event were Calvin C. Johnson Jr., who was the first person from Georgia exonerated through an innocence project after serving 16 years in prison and John Grisham, Bestseller author and former attorney, who has written his latest book about the case of Ronald Keith Williamson who was exonerated from death row only to drink himself to death a couple of years later. Being drawn into the subject of wrongful convictions while writing this book, John Grisham has started campaigning and supporting the innocence projects which exist in several federal states (http://www.innocenceproject.org/).

The innocence projects are not funded by public money and have to rely on volunteer work and donations. Until today 235 people have been exonerated by one of the innocence projects, some of them from death row. Taking into consideration the limited resources of the innocence projects this leads to the uncomfortable thought of how many more cases exist and for how many people any help might have come too late. In this context I note that in my current home state Georgia in the year 2008 107 prisoners were on death row (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-row-inmates-state-and-size-death-row-year).

Saturday Coffee

Coffeehouses are something I will definitely miss when I am back in the UK. In London even in the most remote areas you cannot escape the usual chain coffee shops which are boring, tastelessly standardised and rediculously overpriced. Here in ATL there are many enjoyable coffeehouses which are more like a livingroom than a coffee-fastfood-restaurant and Aurora on Moreland is one of them. On Saturday James and I spend a nice time in the sun before going over to the Earl where Hutch and Gary were playing in a Tarantino - Coppola music night. It was the first time I cycled over to East Atlanta and it was actually a very nice route to take over Memorial and Glenwood Av.

Cafe Sonnenblume

After attending the Georgia Innocence Project event we went for a short dinner to the vegetarian Cafe Sunflower in Buckhead. John and I both picked the vegan sesame chicken which turned out to be a bit heavy. Still I was determined to take a desert and James and I decided to share a piece of chocolate cake. John declared that he was very full but then after James and I had taken a couple of bites wolfed down the whole piece. In the meantime James made this photo of me with my elbow on the table, however I have learned that this is what you do here in the US while eating and and as always I do my best to adapt to local custom.

Schaefchenwolken Over Grant Park

Returning from shopping, we went cycling in Grant Park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Park_(Atlanta). Grant Park is Atlanta's oldest park and was designed by the Olmsteads, the sons of Frederick Law Olmstead, who has designed the New York Central Park. It was perfect cycling weather and also perfect mosquito weather. They even managed to bite me through my jeans so I have my first bites this year. Hopefully this is the sign that the summer is approaching at last.

Shopping In Dawsonville

The weekend has been eventful. After the Cadillac Jones concert at the Highland Inn on Friday night, my lovely colleague Tamera and I went to the Outlets on Saturday morning (actually it was not really morning any more). The Outlet Center is outside of Atlanta and looks like a little pink holiday village. We went through many stores, Tamera managed to find some nice things and my own glamerous shopping spree resulted in a fork, two spoons and vegetable peelers for the office.

Life Imitates Kunst

Copyright (c) 2009. Herr T. All rights reserved.

The gallery visit left us all feeling very arty and this picture is one more example of that. While I was in deep reflection, Hutch and Clay were fiercely debating the exhibits. The picture was uploaded on the blog by courtesy of James, who made very clear to me that its display was subject to including a correct copyright notice. I hope the above notice is sufficient to meet your requirements, James.

Kunst Imitating Life

After a delicious meal at Mi Barrio, a Mexican family run restaurant at the border of Cabbage Town we cycled over to a backyard gallery near my house. I am not sure what the title of the exhibition was, it had something to do with horror films and Hutch managed to take this suspenseful picture of me, studying one of the artworks.

Thunder and Lightning

This is the view from my office today. It has been raining almost all day but around lunchtime we had suddenly also thunder and lightning and it turned dark. If you scroll down to my previous office posting you can see the difference. Somehow the rain is following me around - the last two summers in London were exceptionally rainy and now it is exceptionally rainy in spring here. However the rain is good for the draught and the plants so I won't complain too much.

Saturday Night In The Earl

The Preakness (http://www.myspace.com/thepreakness) performing on the night of their cd release at the Earl.




Tamms (a very diligent commentator on this blog) and I at the Earl on Saturday. Apart from the preakness also Jupiter Watts and the Selmanaires played at the Earl on that night. I had planned to cycle but the rain put a spoke in my wheel. Very nice from certain members of Jupiter Watts to offer me a lift home after the concert. Unfortunately that was not the whole story because instead of being delivered to my posh appartment I soon found myself in their practise space and had to help to unload the car and drag their equipment around. For all my hard labour I was at least given a band t-shirt in the end but only released after I had agreed to make them big in Europe when I am back in London.

Driving Through Downtown

Since last weekend the weather has been pretty bad (short exception Sunday afternoon). After two month in ATL I needed a little European feeling therefore I went to Atlantic Station with Robbie in order to visit the local Ikea. Robbie told me that when it opened people came not only from Georgia but also from all surrounding states because it is the only Ikea in the area. As always there was no disappointment: it looked the same as all Ikeas I have ever been in.

Thereafter we drove back home through downtown and the high buildings were all hidden in the clouds.

Special Notice

My new camera needs to be recharged - but the plug is German so I need an adapter and am still working out where to find one. Hopefully this problem will be fixed soon and I can update the blog!

Also Tamms - I know you are waiting to be featured as promissed - give me some more time please!

In the meantime, if you are bored, want to be even more bored, are looking for a German read and want to spend 69 Euros please buy:

http://www.amazon.de/chancengleiche-Zugang-digitalen-Kabelfernsehnetz-Telekommunikationsordnung/dp/3832945016/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238547804&sr=8-2