peanuuuut peanut butter!

while in the ATL my family and i decided to pay a visit to the carter center, since jimmy carter (i think) remains my dad's favorite president. sure, stagflation, but who remembers such things nowadays? anyway, i took a few photos:

yes please!

peanuts, teeth - really don't need anything else. amazing how it actually resembles him, kind of like that munch muppet.

i wish they'd sold these posters in the gift shop. i sure would've bought one.

the infamous cardigan.

then we proceeded to the MLK jr. museum, which was about a mile away. unfortunately, the ebenezer baptist church was closed due to renovations and all of the tours of his birth home were full. i got a photo of the church, though.

canadian hall of fame

i briefly sojourned in the dirty dirty, away from the internets and legalese, where i managed to score some tix to see a great canadian band.

the crowd was an interesting mix of alienated goth kids, their parents who were giving them rides (hello streetcars!), fratties in bass pro fishing hats and disoriented indie rockers. to my surprise, when wim wenders sang the line "don't want to live in america no more," from "windowsill," the crowd roared. did exeter help foment such anti-establishment sentiments?

the evening began with "black mirror," the first song off their newest album. there were 10 musicians on stage, as if it were the WPA or something. is it the socialized medicine that enables the band to employ not one, but two accordionists?

oh wait, the evening really began when i pulled into the parking lot and the attendant asked me, "hey, are you from china?" but then again, a couple of kids sitting on a stoop in my neighborhood in the BK recently called me "gook," [ed note: to their credit, it was a pretty nuanced ethnic slur for a bunch of 12 year olds] so i guess you can't really fault the south on this one.

short story short, believe the hype. the concert was pretty awesome. they played virtually every song off their newest and a handful from their first. each song was met with thunderous hoots and applause (and high-fives from the fratties). the lead singer, despite his amish-esque suspender-short pants combo, was surprisingly charismatic. and i lucked out, as the wall of muscle in front of me remained seated through the entire concert.

these guys, to state the obvs, are blowing up. i'm sure they'll be playing basketball/hockey-size arenas the next time they tour. they undoubtedly will reach REM/radiohead/U2 status within no time, thereby comfortably placing them within the hallowed list of "wildly successful bands indie rockers can love unironically."

oh wow, she has an NYT editorial?! goodness. i haven't been this confused since the matthew fox editorial of early 2007.

and we ride on them things like everyday

tyler recently informed me that mayor shirley franklin of phatlanta proposed a $1 billion revitalization of peachtree street (not to be confused with peachtree avenue, circle, boulevard, post, etc.). the most intriguing part of this proposal to me, aside from the bike lanes, is that atlanta will be getting a streetcar line.

a streetcar! along one of the wealthiest and, let's face it, whitest neighborhoods in atlanta? racial integration on public transit isn't exactly atlanta's strongsuit. hello marta. as a pseudo-communist from canada, i was shocked to find that people disagreed on the necessity of public infrastructure, like, uh, sidewalks. i can't imagine that atlantans will be rushing to pay for this with their tax dollars, but that remains to be seen.

anyway, mayor franklin, i salute your efforts. traffic congestion in your city is ungodly and, not to mention, un-al gore. but please propose a superior slogan to "itsmarta."

on an unrelated note, i'm gonna don my flannel and go see sebadoh this weekend. long live the early to mid-90s!