PlanetEye

The 6th Annual Grant Park Summer Shade Festival is coming this weekend August 30 & 31 (Saturday & Sunday).
Thought late notice I thought I would mention that the  Festival commences Saturday morning Adams Realtors 5K RUN for the PARK (walkers are welcome).
The Festival Artist Market opens at 11:00 and runts until 7:00 p.m. on Saturday. There will be live music all day, ending at around 9PM. A unique portion of the festival is called Corks & Forks -" A Fine Food and Wine Event" and will be serving up food on Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Chefs from around Atlanta will serve specialty items to taste some of the wines and brews.

http://www.gpconservancy.org/node/18

 I've attached the music guide in case you see your favorite band.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

1. Festival Stage
11:30 - 12:00 Phenix for Saints
12:00 - 12:45 East Ponce Soul Faction
1:00 - 1:45 Get Small
2:00 - 2:45 Jeremy Thornton
3:00 - 3:45 Antic Clay and the Long Slow Train
4:00 - 4:45 Mary O Harrison
5:00 - 5:45 The Preakness
6:00 - 6:45 Evan McHugh
7:00 - 9:00 House of Fools

Stage 125
11:30 - 12:15 Fisheye
12:30 - 1:15 Brent Lawson
1:30 - 2:15 Gene Owens
2:30 - 3:15 John McNicholas
3:30 - 4:15 Julia Carroll
4:30 - 5:15 Batata Doce
5:30 - 6:15 Matt Howard
6:30 - 7:15 Anderson & The Would Be Thieves

Stage in the Shade
11:30 - 12:15 The Radio Ramblers
12:30 - 1:15 Jimmy Galloway
1:30 - 2:15 Stephanie Scarlet
2:30 - 3:15 Lindsay Appel
3:30 - 4:15 The Mudflapjacks
4:30 - 5:15 Ian Schumacher
5:30- 6:15 Liz Brown and the Big River Riders
6:30 - 7:15 Thomas Oliver and the Usual Suspects
7:30 - 8:15 John Kelly Jam
8:15 - 9:00 Brian Luckett

Sunday, August 31, 2008
Festival Stage
11:30 - 12:00 The Good Graces
12:00 - 12:45 The Summer Dare
1:00 - 1:45 What the...?
2:00 - 2:45 Caroline Monroe
3:00 - 3:45 Chickens and Pigs
4:00 - 4:45 It's Elephant's
5:00 - 5:45 Warm in the Wake
6:00 - 7:30 Anna Kramer and the Lost Cause

Stage 125
11:00 - 11:45 Grace Buford
12:00 - 12:45 Kerry Wentworth
1:00 - 1:45 Roxie Watson
2:00 - 2:45 Octave
3:00 - 3:45 Sean Kagalis
4:00 - 4:45 Warren Gray
5:00 - 5:45 Bouldercrest Singing Group

Stage in the Shade
11:00 - 11-45 Calo' Gitano
12:00 - 12:45 SLABB
1:00 - 1:45 Brian Luckett
2:00 - 2:45 John Kelly Jam
3:00 - 3:45 Amy Lashley
4:00 - 4:45 Liz Brown Band and the Big River Riders
5:00 - 5:45 Geoff Achison

When I travel, I often got to a museum. It's a nice excuse to absorb a bit of culture when your free from your normal day to day routines. The Carlos Museum on the tree-lined campus of Emory is just about at good as it gets. No crowds, not expensive, well done, educating, clean, and enjoyable.

Growing from humble roots in the late 18th century the Carlos Museum has a sizable collection of major collections including Classical, Ancient Egyptian, Near Eastern, Ancient American, African, and Asian art, and a collection of works on paper from the Renaissance to the present.

International exhibitions frequent the museum as well. In November the Carlos is presenting the famed Tutankhamun exhibit entitled "Golden King and the Great Pharaohs." The exhibit will feature over 130 objects, including those from the reign of Tutankhamun,  and other significant pharaohs who ruled the Nile river banks. 

A $7.00 dollar suggested donation will get you in (we paid less). The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10AM to 5PM, and Sunday from Noon to 5PM. Directions can be found on the website.

http://www.carlos.emory.edu/

You won't find me writing about downtown Atlanta very much...if it's for no other reason than, there isn't much to do downtown. You visit, downtown, see a basketball game, maybe go to a meeting, than any long time Atlantatan would most likely advise you do get out of dodge and leave. In past postings, I wrote about Phillips Arena and a spot I like a great deal named Thrive.

But here I am, encouraging you and I to give downtown Atlanta another shot. The perfect time to do say may be Downtown Atlanta's 2008 Restaurant Week, beginning on July 21st and ending on July 27th.

The promotion, encouraging diners to think about downtown as a dining option is a heck of deal. For a paltry $25.00 dollars per person, there will be a choice of a three course meal at participating restaurants. Pretty good when you consider than many on the list have entrees in that range on a nightly basis. Recommendations are recommended, especially if you're thinking of going out Thursday through Sunday.

Having admittedly not spent enough time in the downtown Atlanta restaurant scene to make a trustworthy recommendation, I've attached the website, with downloadable menus. I can tell you that I am thinking of trying Spoon, and or City Grill-both I've heard are good from friends living in the area. Last time I looked on the website, I saw they added the Thrive as well-which I can honestly say is a great experience and very hip if that's your type of thing.

I'm looking forward to it, and hope to see you in the dog days of summer downtown.

http://www.atlantadowntown.com/darw/menus.html

I must admit that the name Across the Street spurred negative images in my mind. I pictured over used restaurant ploys...in the vein of a menu so complex it needs deciphering by our sixteen year old waiter, or the "inventive" executive chef's discovering of an ingredient that they thought would be authentic like, cactus then placing in each dish hoping that diners commented with things like, "oh-exciting. Cactus how esoteric!"

I could no longer fight the feeling. Last Saturday I crossed the street with my girlfriend and younger sister to have dinner. I proposed another restaurant-I got vetoed. Close to nine P.M, the inside portion had only a sole good looking couple laughing/drinking icy margaritas. Turning our attention away, a pleasant host directed us towards the back of the restaurant towards and outdoor patio sensing that were not interested in mingling with the love birds inside.

Outside, the patio was only speckled with diners. Set with iron tables and a wooden bar with strung lights that give the patio a tropical feel. We were seated along a rusty iron fest that borders a bike path through the neighborhood. Though getting dark out the path was a good time to watch people as they exercised, which made us thirsty so we perused the drink menu.  I ordered a mojito the girls, different kinds of margaritas both were tasty and made with good ingredients.

When it came to time to order, our waiter steered us away from certain dishes we were interested in, and towards more simplified items, like the sweet plantains, and fish tacos. Deviating from his advice I ordered the special, of grilled salmon served with a corn salsa on baby greens.

Our dishes were filling, plated nicely, and very well made. Each of us left at least a quarter of our meal-full from the chips and plantains we ordered as an appetizer. Despite my aversion to the name, Across the Street we enjoyed our experience, vowing to return to the patio to have drinks and watch the exercisers jog and pedal there way past us on the bike path.

I've noticed after years spent living in New York that there's plenty of people who go on vacation to shop. That being said, I could tell you about Atlanta's expensive malls-we have plenty, or about the areas of town where all the preppy labels have their shops-we have loads of those too. Or I could tell you where you could get a snow globe with the state of Georgia placed among the flakes.

I could tell you about all of those-but I'm not going to. Instead I thought I'd mention a shop I found the other day on North Highland Ave.(Next to the Highland Inn-see my earlier posts) Young Blood Gallery & Boutique.

Once located across town on Glennwood Ave. Young Blood has now moved to the centrally located area of Virginia Highland's. The shop is bright and friendly-filled to the brim with either local or regional artists. Kids T-shirts with the shop's namesake appear to be some of the best sellers, a shop like this has so much from bags, jewelry, screen prints, to cards. I think most would have a difficult time not finding something they took some interest in. The shop is affordable too-I mean where else in Atlanta can you go that you have a t-shirt, 3 customized cards, and a magnet for under $30.00.

Skip the mall and come here-

636 N. Highland Atlanta, GA. 30306

If you find yourself in town in the summer months in Atlanta, you'll find yourself outdoors. Atlanta is a city that thrives on the months where the temperature hovers at a balmy 90 plus degrees. With the summer heat comes an influx of summer concerts. A vast majority of them can be found at Lakewood Amphitheater-just south of Atlanta.

Last Thursday night, Radiohead came to Atlanta. A group of friends and I attended, the show was fantastic, the crowd was enthusiastically into the show (over 19,000 people total attended) plus the sound was great.

At Lakewood there's two types of seats, uncovered and covered. A grass lawn that's sloped so you can see the stage. The other section is entirely reserved seats under a covered roof-if you can spend the extra money and you'd like to actually see the band and not just listen-this may be the best bet for you.

I thought I could highlight a few things to make your experience a little smoother. Tickets like most large venues these days can be found only through Ticketmaster. Look in the weekly free paper The Creative Loafing for a listing in the back of all the upcoming shows. If your looking to save a bit of money, the local Publix grocery stores have ticketmaster sales centers in each store. It's a good way to get in to popular shows as well as some cost savings from servicing fee.

Since Lakewood is in a off the beaten path part of town, I recommend doing one of two things. The first, car-pooling. Parking can be troublesome, and pricey. Last Thursday the cheapest parking we found was a steep $20.00 per vehicle-and that was in a very non-official grass lot. The second suggestion I would make is to try your hand at MARTA. Take the train southbound to the Lakewood station; just outside on the night of concerts there are buses or shuttles that will drive you to the front gates of the amphitheater. For a $1.75 it's a great deal.