The Wren’s Nest is the historic home of Joel Chandler Harris, the Atlanta Journal editor who published the Uncle Remus stories near the end of the 19th century. It’s now the oldest house museum in the state, featuring tours and storytelling among other things. We recently interviewed Lain in a podcast about The Wren’s Nest if you’re interested in hearing more.
Lain Shakespeare, executive director, and other employees/interns/volunteers share blogging responsibilities so that no one spends too much time with it.
The great thing about how that blog is written is everyone clearly has a lot of enthusiasm for their work and what it means. They find ways to make it interesting and relevant to a modern audience. But it’s written like an actual human is talking, and not like a press release. They’re not afraid to make fun of themselves or to own up if something isn’t going as well as they’d like.
They also podcast readings and offer Google videos of some of their story tellers.
Sopo is a non-profit where a bunch of Atlanta bike enthusiasts share a space and tools to work on their bikes. Rachael, the executive director of Sopo, periodically will share interesting stories from some of the folks who come through the shop.
The site features a Google video on its homepage that gives people a sense of what the co-op is about.
Probably later today, I’ll post a podcast interview I did with Rachael last week. I’ll update this post later with a link. [Update: here's the link to that interview]
This blog just started a few days ago, but looks like it’s off to a good start.
The Center for Civil & Human Rights, if you haven’t heard of it yet, “will commemorate the groundbreaking contributions of Atlantans and Georgians to the historic struggle for African-American freedom and equality, and also serve as a space for ongoing dialogue, study, and contributions to the resolution of current and future freedom struggles of all people at the local, national and international level.” (that’s from the site’s about page). It’s supported by a wide variety of sources, including the Atlanta Development Authority and Central Atlanta Progress, among others. Coca Cola has offered a potential site for the center in Centennial Olympic Park.
The Partnership is responsible for organizing construction, the surrounding logistics, and everything else that will go into getting the project off the ground. Doug Shipman, the executive director, plans to blog about all of that, which I think could turn out to be fascinating.
If you want to learn more about it, Wilson interviewed Doug in October.
UPDATE Dec. 6, 2007 Slight clarification about the center’s location comes from Nicole, who does PR with Centennial Olympic Park, by email:
Just wanted to clarify that the proposed site for the Center for Civil & Human Rights is behind the new World of Coca Cola in Pemberton Place. Pemberton Place is located on the opposite side of Baker St. from Centennial Olympic Park.
Local outfit Insider Advantage (who, in the interest of full disclosure, I am NOT consulting for, unlike a couple of other bloggers I know of) conducted a poll after last night’s YouTube debate and said Mike Huckabee won. I didn’t watch the debate, as I was too busy playing Assassin’s Creed on the Xbox 360. Apparently there was some sort of altercation near Governor Huckabee? Is that why his margin was so big?
Michigan athletics officials asked for and received permission from LSU to meet with Les Miles about the Wolverines’ football coaching vacancy.
LSU athletic director Skip Bertman granted the request on condition that Michigan representatives wait until after Saturday’s SEC championship game in Atlanta before starting negotiations, LSU spokesman Herb Vincent said.
Vincent said Bertman and LSU chancellor Sean O’Keefe also plan to meet with Miles next week to discuss his contract.
“We’re trying to get the SEC championship game behind us that’s why we’re scheduling these things for next week,” Vincent said.
Considering Les Miles broke into tears about the idea of coaching at Michigan a few weeks ago, it’s hard for me to think he won’t be at least a little distracted this week. Then again, he might be extra motivated to put on a butt whuppin’ to earn the job after his questionable decisions against Arkansas the game before. I guess we’ll see!
By the way, a friend found out at the last minute that he can’t go to the game, so I have a fourth ticket I need to sell. Please contact me ASAP if you’re interested. You can email me at rusty@radicalgeorgiamoderate.org. I’ll sell it to you for what I paid for it.
I‘m sure by now many of you have read the scenarios that could allow Georgia — a two-loss team that didn’t even win its division, much less its conference — to play for a national title. It’s a long shot that at the least would require Pitt to beat West Virginia this weekend, among other unlikely things.
Twice already since the inception of the BCS, a similar scenario has played out where a team that didn’t win its conference got to play in the national title game (Nebraska in 2002 and Oklahoma in 2004, if I’m not mistaken, but somebody correct me if I’m wrong). Both of those teams were whipped handily, stirring controversy that someone else should have made it in (that undefeated Auburn didn’t play in 2004 was a particularly stinging indictment against the current system).
No system, even a playoff, is ever going to be totally fair. I think a legitimate case could be made for or against a rule banning teams that can’t win their conferences from making the title game.
Let me throw out a scenario: let’s say all the things that would need to happen for Georgia to make the national title game happen (West Virginia loses, etc.). Let’s say then that LSU beats Tennessee in the SEC title game by a close margin in a sloppy, mistake-filled game. That would leave LSU with one more win than Georgia has, but with a performance that wasn’t enough to convince pollsters to leapfrog LSU over Georgia in the human polls.
Who goes?
My BCS math isn’t so hot, but I believe there’s still a pretty good chance Georgia would under those circumstances. Either way, somebody has good reason to gripe.
I probably support the idea of a rule that you can’t play in the national title game without winning your conference, but there are problems with such a rule.
Another scenario: say that rule was in place this year, and Tennessee mops the floor with LSU (unlikely, you say, and I agree, but we’re dealing in hypotheticals). That leaves a three-loss SEC champion in Tennessee, and a three-loss SEC runner-up in LSU. At that point it seems pretty unfair to deny two-loss Georgia a shot, as much as I hate them.
So, my rule would have a caveat: a team that can’t win its conference can’t play for the national title unless its overall record is better than the conference champion’s.
If that rule were in place this year, Georgia would be eliminated from contention with an LSU win, but not with a Tennessee win. There are problems with that rule as well, though: for starters, it might deny the SEC a chance at a national title at all. I think the pros probably outweigh the cons, though.
I guess independents like Notre Dame would just be exempt from having to worry about this rule. That’s probably unfair to teams that have to play a conference championship game, but then again, so is the current system.
What say you?
Update Nov. 29, 2007, 6:31 a.m. I’m rethinking this further based on Ben K’s comment. My rule would now be that not only would the team in question need a better record than its own conference champion to go, but a better record than all available BCS conference champions. That would pretty much mean the only scenario under which a team that didn’t win its conference could make the national title game would be if every team in America except the team in question (and maybe the number one team) had three losses.
Really, nobody can gripe about not making the game if they have three losses. I don’t think Georgia, with two losses, could gripe this year if they were passed over for LSU, no matter how bad LSU’s performance in the SEC championship game is, as long as LSU wins.
I‘m hoping to interview Lindsay Landrum, chairman of the UT Young Alumni Atlanta chapter, soon in a podcast. She has been central to the two-year effort to bring UT license plates to Georgia. If/when that interview happens, I’ll post a link here.
Auburn has long had Georgia license plates, and the hated Gators recently got them as well.
You can click through to the UT Alumni page to have most questions answered about UT plates, but the short of it is that:
The plates are NOT in production yet, and won’t be until there are 1,000 applicants for them
There are currently about 200 applicants who have turned in their forms and $25 checkos to the UT alumni association. The first set of applications will be submitted to the state when there are around 500-600 of them
There is talk that the laws will be changed in the upcoming legislative session to make it harder for out-of-state groups to have license plates made, so time is of the essence
That means if you want this to happen and you live in Georgia, you need to send in your form and check to the UT Alumni association ASAP. If you don’t live in Georgia, please pass this information on to a UT fan who does. You don’t even have to be alumni to get a UT plate, so send this to your parents, grandparents, etc. as well.
Tennessee is playing for the SEC championship next week! I already have four tickets that I bought before I knew whether the East representative would be Tennessee or Georgia. I figured it’d be fun to watch the Tigers whip up on the Puppies if nothing else.
Who’d have thought a month or two about that being a possibility? Not me, certainly. In fact, I have been one of UT coach Phil Fulmer’s harshest critics this season. Among other things:
I said the program had jumped the shark and lost the confidence of the fan base
I made a list of ten possible replacements for him.
I made what would have been an offensive Photoshop image of him if it had actually been remotely creative or funny.
Now that Tennessee’s football team has shown all the toughness and determination in the world to win five straight and cinch a berth in the title game, it’s possible I’ll be eating those words soon. Literally.
If Tennessee beats LSU next week and wins an SEC title, I will print out the following three blog posts and eat them on video, and post that video to YouTube:
You’ll need to give me two or three days after Tennessee wins (if Tennessee wins) to make the video, as I won’t likely have time or energy to do it the day of. I’ll be too busy celebrating!
Regardless of what happens next week, I’m just glad Georgia doesn’t get to play for the title.
“The Tennessee-Kentucky game will be part of our regular rotation [of score updates],” said Tech spokesman Dean Buchan. “We are not going to do anything beyond the ordinary.”
Translation: Tech is not going to rub it in with multiple announcements if Tennessee is blowing out Kentucky and it is not going to have updates every 30 minutes if Kentucky is winning.
This is exactly how I would handle this, because if Kentucky beats Tennessee and sends the Bulldogs to the SEC Championship game, then this gives them cover to not treat it specially. And if Tennessee wins, I would have the Tech band play the everliving shit out of Rocky Top. And maybe have the Tech cheerleaders lead a “thir-ty-five-four-teen” chant.
Of course, that would require Tennessee to beat Kentucky first, an event whose outcome I have no way to prognosticate. On one hand, Kentucky has been trending down as the year has wound out and Tennessee is playing for a spot in the conference championship. On the other, there is Tennessee’s 22-game win streak over UK, which has to irk the Kentucky players more than a little. And Tennessee’s 1-3 road record this year.
Both teams should (should, Tennessee) be motivated to win, so Tennessee can win if it protects the ball better than it has in other road games this year. The Vols have a 1.57 turnover margin at home compared to -1.25 on the road so far.
Because it’s less work, I’ll just repost my Twitter tweets and cell phone photos (of varying quality) from tonight’s Of Montreal concert at the Variety Playhouse. Night Moves was the first opening band, followed by Grand Buffet, then Of Montreal.
rustytanton In the variety playhouse, going to try to save seats for herb and kim about 5 hours ago from web
rustytanton Opening band 1 sucks…the lost backstreet boy got a mac and made his 1st garageband loop! about 4 hours ago from web
rustytanton Amber just scolded me for guffawing between songs when it was quiet and everyone could hear…mean? maybe..but deserved about 4 hours ago from web
rustytanton Kim says they sound like the castrated beegees about 4 hours ago from web
rustytanton Grand buffet is on now..amber hates them, I think they’re sort of funny about 3 hours ago from web
rustytanton Grand buffet just plugged ron paul ‘probably the only candidate w/o snakes in his heart’ ..now I hate GB too about 3 hours ago from web
rustytanton Beatles playing through the speakers during intermission about 3 hours ago from web
rustytanton Of montreal on now..slick, loud, high energy about 2 hours ago from web
rustytanton sent photos to flickr, battery almost dead, g’night about 2 hours ago from web
I got nothing today, so now I will rip off Tony’s idea and post some search strings people have used to find my site in the past 30 days:
“big boy”,”construction kit”
adultry in georgia
all madden is bullshit
ass georgia peach
baby chicks in georgia
barkers red hots
beer drunk or liquor drunk?
beki buelow
bullshit talks, money walks
chicken viola
coming to quickly
companies that use you up and throw you out
compare and contrast basketball and football
cupping balls
dicks trix rabbit
did john madden die?
drunk blogging day
dryer “”three wire dryer”" “”four wire outlet”"
exhumed corpse photos
fading stars
fat fulmer as fat bastard pictures
first time poledancing
football gall bladder surgery
free hit how to win lotto
fuck with little friends suck
gall bladder mud
georgia bulldogs suck myspace comments
georgia laws on sexual promiscuity
grants for chicken houses in georgia
hamilton asshole
happy night fuck
headboard fucking
high school reunion invitation wording
hot dog wagons atlanta
how many times ut play rocky top in football game
how much to get rid of phillip fulmer
how to be beautiful head to toe
how would you use interject in a sentence
hunter thompson journalism wino masturbation
i need to know how to have sex with zelda on the legend of zelda the windwaker on gc
idiots in history
if it bleeds it leads
ikea tromso sex
i’m drunk
inanimate statue humping
interview process at waffle house
ivory soap mouth
jim whitehead and bomb
jort sec
kroger condom
larry blakeney accepts new position
likeable pussies
little known facts about me
loss cat speckles
make headband for baby
morons praying for rain
muchy muchy games
neyland stadium fuck you bama
overall combined score to georgia florida game
piss on the georgia bulldogs
prison points florida
promiscuity smoking
puppies week by week
rate my balls
restain leather couch
right wing tavern woodstock
‘roger rabbit”" “”alternate ending”" death
she said handsome not handless”"
site:www.radicalgeorgiamoderate.org tis me
someone said i looked like i gained weight
tenn fuckin
the avatar under couver
the wrong coolant
train was late”" “”made me late”"
ups driver helper
using a shoe to masturbate
vernon jones rape
weasels in georgia
what does it mean to be cheesy
what is the moderate portion of waffles
why can we not cure the common cold?
why do men love anal sex
why we should get rid of myspace and facebook
women with almost aborted children
I think these are pretty funny, but I get the feeling the people who find Tony’s site through search engines are still the weirdest and most desperate of everyone I know.
[Operation Hammer Time] began Friday, three days after county commissioners and their chief executive bickered over bar closing times.
Commissioners voted to roll back last call in unincorporated areas by more than an hour on most nights. When DeKalb County Chief Executive Vernon Jones vetoed the measure, some commissioners accused his administration of failing to enforce laws that keep watering holes in line.
DeKalb County police this weekend said Hammer Time was not a direct response to the accusations. But spokeswoman Mekka Parish said there had been “misinformation” that police there did not enforce the law.
Police initiated about 500 citations and arrests late Friday through early Sunday, in the first two nights of Hammer Time, officials said.
So Vernon Jones being insecure about his public image is a good enough reason to send 40 cops around, busting up clubs and presumably costing them a shit ton of money? I’d like to know what these supposed violations were, and how this isn’t harassment.
And what about the fawning fan boy lede on that AJC article?
Puffing on a cigarette, the nightclub promoter stared at police officers like they had just taken his lunch money.
Oleg Amirdzhanov was at the club Pure this weekend when some uninvited guests — a crew of DeKalb County police and code-enforcement officers and fire marshals — crashed the party.
God. I’m surprised the cops weren’t described as wearing capes and tights and being mildly homoerotic.
I wonder if maybe this is another case of the DeKalb AJC bureau bending over under pressure from Vernon. Not like it’d be the first time.
