Xanax For Sale

Our annual girls get-together will be taking place right in my very own city this year. I'm happy to play tour guide, as well, and I thought it would be fun to put together a little mix CD of songs that have to do with Atlanta. I'll be including the obvious players (OutKast, et al), and will be including some Atlanta-ish groups (B-52s, REM) as well. I did some googling to see if there were any obscure songs I might have missed, and came across this little gem called F.I.L.A. (Forever I love Atlanta):

Imma grady baby atl! and all my life da avis so crunk as hell you dont wanna step too close or go too far cuz weh im from shawty niggas beat you down with they car FILA brought up from my head to my feet niggas on da block wit da rock they dont sleep man South Dekalb mall be the crunkest shit uh you can roll to buckhead and gone fall on a bitch im a giant ass playa ill stomp on a hata imma pop this shit off in zone 3 to decatur

Hmmm... I think I'm going to go ahead and cross that one off the list.

One of my favorite summer activities in Atlanta is to see movies at The Fox. When I heard Brian had never been there (after living here for, oh, 17 years?) I told him we had to go. I had already seen some great ones there, including The Shining and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Luckily the lineup this year included a few good ones as well, a contrast to the surprisingly disappointing Screen on the Green lineup. We stopped at Baraonda first for pizzas and drinks. I, of course, couldn't resist the prosciutto de parma pizza with arugula. Who can resist a pizza covered entirely with ham? That would not be me... We decided to see Pan's Labyrinth last night. I had already seen it and loved it, and I knew he would, too, after he believed me when I told him there wasn't that much reading involved. It was fun to point out for him all the neat things about The Fox: the architecture, the "stars" and moving clouds in the ceiling, and the newsreels and Looney Tunes instead of your average previews. He even participated with me (instead of covering his ears) in the sing-a-long with the Mighty Mo Organ.

I was inspired by Neon Poisoning's photo of a well-known Atlanta institution on Northside Drive. Girls-R-Fun: Girls-Yarr-Fun:

Yes, it's the talk of the Atlanta blogging community. Andisheh Nouraee's cover story for this week's Creative Loafing featured five local bloggers who stand out from the crowd. And I applaud that, I really do, but I guess I couldn't seem to wrap my head around his disdain for personal blogs. It's such a huge part of the blogosphere to discount. I remember the first time I read a personal blog. I found it so comforting to read about someone who had similar life experiences as me, who found the same things funny as I did, who had the balls to write exactly what he or she felt and not give a damn. Of course there are the the petty blog fights or gossip-rag blogs that don't exactly achieve this, but I guess I kept thinking about it and finally responded today:

Andy, I think most of your “disappointment” (as profound as you profess it to be) with personal blogs is that they are just that - personal. The different genres of blogging are not all strictly intended to be an alternative to the “traditional news-media platform.” Blogging gained most its notoriety through the medium of personal diaries, going back to 1998 with Open Diary, followed by Live Journal and Blogger soon after. Personal blogs are what have spawned tools such as MySpace, Twitter, and other successful social networks. Atlanta has it’s fair share of diverse, personal blogs, reaching the gay community, the art and design community, a hugely successful podcasting community site, even mothers with “mommy blogs,” as well as local views with our own branch of the Metroblogging* network. While mundane details of one’s everyday life doesn’t inspire everyone, they reach an audience just as valid as those who read political, news, and technical blogs. There are so many bloggers in Atlanta, and to not address the different flavors (instead of condemning them) really does not legitimize the purpose of your article.

I'm not even sure what my point exactly is that I'm trying to get across, except that there is an undeniable "thing" that the blogging community would be missing if those blogs were discounted. For disclosure, I did sign it as a founding member of atlbloggers.net, as well as disclosed that I'm a (sucky) contributer to Metroblogging. Personal rambling over. * title lifted and slightly adjusted from a hilarious series found on ATL Malcontent.

(cross posted from flickr) I tried to change my address. They said my license was suspended. I fought with one lady about it (apparently they "notified me in April 2006, " which is crap). I've never been pulled over or given a ticket in Georgia, nor have I received one anywhere during the last 4 years.

I got transferred to another department to verify my social security number. This lady was nicer, explaining to me that the mix-up may have been due to my name change when I got divorced and filed for a new social security card.

Of course both the divorce and name change happened a whole year BEFORE I ever stepped foot in the state of Georgia, but what do I know...