I just got back from Athens, Georgia where I once lived, and I have to admit, it is much more fun than where I live now. I went to a big Bob Dylan 70th birthday acoustic tribute concert, about ten acts over about four hours, on Tuesday, but I missed part two, which was electric and took place on Wednesday. A friend told me he was planning on yelling “Judas!” after the first song.
I can’t stop watching this Jimmy Fallon Bob Dylan video since I got back.
I know something is happening here…tell me about it in the comments.
BGinCHI
Doug, when did you live in Athens?
NamelessGenXer
Don’t know, Doug… what it is ain’t exactly clear.
I can tell you that I had the great pleasure of seeing Jerry Band do Tangled Up in Blue. Does that help?
Doug Harlan J
@BGinCHI:
Late 90s/early 2000s.
Warren Terra
BBC Radio has been producing loads of content in honor of Dylan’s 70th (all of it available on iPlayer for a week after broadcast) – a 6-hour biographical documentary narrated by Kris Kristoffersen, rebroadcasting a 4-hour documentary they produced few years ago, at least three other half-hour or hour-long documentaries that I’ve noticed (one narrated by Bill Nighy), special concerts, etcetera. I’ve always sort of vaguely admired Dylan but not known much about him, and it’s been quite a treat.
Radon Chong
That’s pretty good. I think his Neil Young is better, but he nails Dylan too.
beltane
Nothing’s happening here, that’s for sure. Oh, we have a tornado watch and the Single Payer bill was signed into law but otherwise a dull day.
Omnes Omnibus
What it is ain’t exactly clear.
ETA: Damn you, NamelessGenXer!
pragmatism
sweet tea?
waffle house?
both at the same time?
BGinCHI
@Doug Harlan J: Lived there from 89-92. It was a great town to live in for the start of grad school (did an MA there). The musical IQ and consciousness/enthusiasm generally for music there is amazing.
I need to get back for a visit.
I miss the Taco Stand, The Globe, Wuxtry.
Linda Featheringill
For all you treehuggers:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/26/979463/-Climate-Change:-More-Evidence-It-Is-Accelerating-%28and-no,-I-dont-mean-all-the-Tornadoes%29?via=spotlight
Diary on dkos. It’s actually quite interesting. And yes, we’re doomed.
Doug Harlan J
@BGinCHI:
There’s some great places to eat there now — Five and Ten, The National, White Tiger, not to mention my favorite bars in the world.
MattR
@BGinCHI: I think my sister used to live right by the Taco Stand. I can’t remember exactly when she was in Athens, maybe 2002-2006ish, and it was by the second of the apartments she lived in. Good stuff.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Linda Featheringill: I don’t understand all the excess carbon dioxide hype. Can’t we just freeze it and turn it into dry ice and cool down the planet?
Warren Terra
Since this is an open thread, the most mind-blowing (if admittedly not the most important) story I’ve seen today:
via
BGinCHI
@Doug Harlan J: It’s 45 degrees here today and I’m pining for the south. If I had a wormhole I’d step over there for dinner and drinks right now.
That’s always been a great eating, drinking, and music town.
Like Austin but without all those damn Texans.
BGinCHI
@MattR: That place has been going great guns for years. If there was a take-out Hall of Fame, they’d be in it.
qwerty42
Geeze, Doug, I was at the Manhattan Tuesday night too. For the entire show. Got there early enough to get a good seat.
Did kind of want to hear A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, but a very good evening all around.
Emerald
@BGinCHI: I was there from ’89 to ’94. A rockin’ town.
stuckinred
I’ve been here since 1984 and just got back from a week in Savannah. Word is the Dylan shows at the Manhattan were really good. We live right down from the Tiger and are very close friends with the owner. He’s going to have an eatery on top of the Georgia Theater when it re-opens. Ya’ll need to come back for Athfest. Guadlacanal Diary and the Chiccassaw Mudpuppies are playing.
jwb
@Doug Harlan J: So that’s who you are!
stuckinred
@qwerty42: Damn, we picked a great time to be on the road! This time of year is the best when the lemmings are gone. Do you go to the Tiger?
Cris (without an H)
But was it much more fun when you lived there?
I’ve long had this sort of yearning relationship with the nearest college town. Every time I visit there, I have such a great time! There are so many things to do, so much going on! I wish I lived there!
But then I step back and think, it also happens that I’m only there when I’m not working.
The town I live in is really pretty fun, if you give it a chance. But I spend all my time here, working and running errands and doing daily life things. Could part of the appeal of the college town be that I see it on leisure time?
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: The only thing wrong with the Taco Stand is the food. Great message kiosk.
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: Plus Centro-Matic and Kevn Kinney!
Doug, swing west and pick me up on your way. We’ll get some house-cured ham just outside Louisville and I know a good restaurant in Chattanooga.
Church Lady
The Athens/Clarke County police departments have raised using the arrest of college kids as a funding mechanism to an art form, especially on game weekends. Whatever you do, do not ever pee in an alley in Athens. You will be arrested, you will go to jail, you will be put on probation for six months and it will cost you a whole lot of money. I told my son to piss his pants the next time.
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: Younger days, my friend.
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: Grogus is great jazz.
Doug Harlan J
@Church Lady:
They are nuts about jay-walking too.
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
I was gonna say that three.
Oh well. There’s a man with a gun over there…
Doug Harlan J
@Cris (without an H):
I think so but I was generally more of a stick in the mud in my younger days.
stuckinred
@Church Lady: Well damn, they put porta-cans all up and down Clayton. It ain’t that hard. We had a father walk right in front of an SUV in Normaltown on a Saturday morning 2 weeks ago. I was there right after and it was amazing that he and his two kids lived. They can’t crack down on speeding and jaywalking too much.
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: And that was before the proliferation of real Mexican eateries. My running route was the bad Mexican run Mean Bean to the Taco Stand and back!
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: Then to the head.
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: The quickstep.
BGinCHI
Will someone see that my grave is kept clean?
lamh34
Don’t know if ya’ll saw this pic from the G-20 summit in 2009, but it seems relevent considering what happened this month…
No Touching: Dominique Strauss-Kahn Meets Barack and Michelle Obama
It made me smile.
qwerty42
…They are nuts about jay-walking too.
Nah, they gave up on that again. I think there is concern one of the students downtown will run in front of a car and get hit (on one of the streets with heavy traffic, a student did just walk in without looking and get killed sometime in the 90’s as I recall). Gotta admit, though, I don’t jay walk anymore.
tesslibrarian
Also good places to eat in Athens:
– Big City Bread: breakfast is wonderful, lunch is pretty good (they’re so busy), dinner is divine–I’m probably going tonight for a truffle burger and glass of one of my favorite French wines.
– Trappeze Pub: Excellent beer selections & specials (and I’m not a big beer drinker), amazingly tasty sandwiches with the option for a half-pour beer at lunch, right across from the Historic Morton Theatre.
– Harry’s Pig Shop: excellent bbq and slaw, and hands-down the best sweet potato fries in the city.
Just my two cents.
(ETA: Mean Bean was where I ate when I only had about $1.50 in my pocket and didn’t want vending machine fare from Park Hall. Could get a cheese quesedilla w/jalapenos for about that amount in the early 90s.)
stuckinred
@qwerty42: Kid got run over by a UGA bus in the early 90’s.
Poopyman
Something is happening here. Today’s tornado warnings are in Southern PA, heading for Harrisburg, and … the Adirondacks ??? That one’s come down now, but there was at least one up less than an hour ago on the Burlington radar.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
In spite of President Obama fighting it tooth and nail, to his last breath, the bipartisan Congress is renewing the so-called Patriot Act without change or even debate, all the while pretending that President Obama is fully on board with their scurrilous and anti-democratic actions despite his strident and repeated denunciations.
Is there nothing this fine man won’t do to protect the Constitution of the United States of America and the Rule of Law?
.
.
Poopyman
Oh, and I should also mention there’s a nasty cell running up the south shore of Lake Erie, heading straight for Rochester. Via the State College radar.
ETA: Estimated arrival time looks like about 8:30–ish.
BGinCHI
@tesslibrarian: As a poor grad student I used to like that cheap Chinese place right across from the UGA gates. Cheap lunch buffet. Now I’d pass out if I ate that lunch….
Whatever happened to the Athens Coffee House?
MikeJ
@Poopyman: For people in Canada, hope that there’s no flooding. Calling out the military to help “would place the Canadian Forces in competition with the private sector at the local and provincial level.”
birthmarker
@lamh34: Too funny! Worth a click, everybody.
El Cid
Intrepid journalist Sean Hannity managed to get a hold of a small preview of the documentary of the heroic Sarah Palin fighting the entire establishment to save Alaska from the forces which would destroy it: people not giving her money.
Also, moron jackass Tom Coburn is feted by Neil Cavuto for exposin’ them god-dang money-wastin’ scientists for usin’ gubmit money to figure out how a buncha damn shrimp run! (Same link as above, story follows the Palin investigation.)
Ha ha!
What kind of librul money-wastin’ fagz types’d give a damn what some damn little bitty animal you eat does when it runs and how much ‘energy’ it uses and what that tells them about ‘ocean ecologies’.
We don’t need none of that shit.
We need to take that shit back and give it to something important, like maybe 50 or 100 more shows on guys who make customized motorsickles and a study on how you can stop the damn French from bein’ so damn French.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Uncle Clarence Thomas: UCT, you do realize they’re banning you fuckers now, right?
stuckinred
@tesslibrarian: We have walked to Big City for our coffee since the day they opened. Look up on the wall by the door, the picture of the black cocker is our late Raven. Come over to the White Tiger some time.
geg6
Weird weather here in Western PA. About 83F with lots of sun, but windy as hell and every now and again a fierce rainstorm hits for about fifteen minutes. Then the sun shines back down like nothing ever happened. Feels like Florida.
Fuck me, gotta change the channel. Pat Buchanan is calling Obama a failed president if he doesn’t cut Medicare and SS and increase the retirement age. I’ll bet Pat a twenty on that.
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: The Chinese joynt is now 5 Guys, Athens Coffee is long gone.
qwerty42
@stuckinred: …Do you go to the Tiger?… The White Tiger on Hiawassee?
burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus:
Ten days until I get to see Messrs. Stills, Young, and Furay perform that song live.
stuckinred
@qwerty42: Yup, we’re just across blvd.
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: 5 Guys is decent if you exercise right after.
We just got this place in the ‘hood:
http://www.theburgerphilosophy.com/menu
Just Some Fuckhead
@geg6:
We had the worst storm I’ve ever seen for about 30 minutes two days ago. (And I’ve been through a few hurricanes.) Hail came down like the wrath of God, the entire yard, sidewalk, etc. was covered with ice when it was past. Trees were sideways, full hundred pound trashcans were scattered all over the road.
When I watch MSNBC, I lean forward, and fart.
stuckinred
@burnspbesq: Gillian Welch and David Rawlings opening?
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: They need a return-to-form record.
tesslibrarian
@stuckinred (and BGinCHI): The Chinese place was good when I lived in the dorms. An order of fried rice lasted several meals, since I typically lived in dorms w/o air conditioning, and mostly just lived on ice water for Spring Quarter.
There are other good places to get coffee in Athens now: I love the 1000 Faces at 2 Story (also BCC), Jittery Joe’s in 5pts is essentially across the street from our house and not bad, and lots of places serve the local roasters.
We keep meaning to get over to White Tiger–we have to remember to start carrying cash again, though.
And it looks like pending storms will keep us off the patio tonight, but since I’m still not in the mood to cook after my afternoon, Husband is off picking up a pizza from DePalmas downtown. (my guilty pleasure)
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: Ah, further south than I thought you were. There used to be a place at Cal-Touhy named Paul’s Umbrella.Real chi-dawgs. Did you know Sander at Da Vinci’s? Old Rogers Park boy.
burnspbesq
@stuckinred:
Believe that’s correct.
I’m also seeing Bruce Cockburn live next week. Had to skip Lyle Lovett/John Hiatt.
cathyx
Dear everyone who lives east of Oregon,
We have rain and storms forecasted for the rest of this week and all next week, so that’s what you will get too. Probably in the form of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms.
Sincerely,
Oregon resident
stuckinred
@tesslibrarian: I was so sad when Jittery’s sold out to the yogurt place. We lived on Hope back when it opened and moved over here to the Indian Nation when they opened in the Unitarian Church.
eta Do you know about the plaque on Lumpkin in memory of the child killed by a speeding truck?
stuckinred
Raven at Jittery’s in 5
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: Didn’t know him I don’t think. Knew the short red-haired waitress pretty well (god, forgetting her name), who was also a friend of Barrie’s. The former was a good friend of David Lowery (ex. Camper Van, Cracker) with whom I got to hang out. Great guy.
Valeena! Whew…there’s my memory.
Church Lady
@stuckinred:
He was downtown, on a Friday night. Not a porta potty in sight and longs lines to get into every restaurant and bar. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Unfortunately, that resulted in meeting up with one of Athens’ finest in some alley, a overnight stay in a cell in the Clarke County jail, a fee to a bonding company (gotta love the name Bond, James Bond), a thousand dollar retainer to an attorney to represent him, a trip back to Athens to appear in Court and Probation Department fees. Oh, and twenty hours of community service. When he’s twenty-one, his attorney can get the arrest record expunged. Thankfully, that was included in the fee we already paid the attorney. Not to mention the embarrassment of the charge: Urinating/Defecating In Public.
He’s got a number of friends at UGA, but I’ve told him I’ll kill him if he ever steps foot back in Athens. If he wants to see his friends, he can see them at home on breaks or they can go to Knoxville to see him.
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: The “tree that owns itself” still standing?
BGinCHI
@Church Lady: Aaron Bonding? Where “it’s always springtime”?
beltane
You guys have to check out the Republicans’ new slogan: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/26/979635/-Late-afternoon-early-evening-open-thread?via=blog_1
I really hope this is a joke.
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: My boy the teabagger. I love John but he’s a fascist fo sho.
Wayne
@BGinCHI:
Ah yes, the “takee outee.”
stuckinred
@Church Lady: I feel badly for you and your son but football weekends are insane and you are right to tell him to stay away. It’s strictly a numbers game, most people skate but some get popped. Have him try a Panic show where the hotel calls the cops on people tokin up.
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: John from the Georgia Bar? Or da Vinci’s?
The cellar of my memory is a dusty place.
BGinCHI
@beltane: Nice. I’m surprised the fine print isn’t “And for Everyone Else: Go Fuck Yourselves.”
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: John owns Aaron. Sander owned DaVinci’s. Big John worked the door at the Ga Bar. He was really a prince of a guy. Do you remember Roosevelt? He got hassled by a cop one night and melted down and no one has ever seen him again.
Jewish Steel
Forwarding a text from my girlfriend:
Val’s party is cancelled. Not because of the weather. A raccoon fell out of the ceiling.
BGinCHI
@Jewish Steel: FTW.
Saw a big-ass raccoon yesterday when I was leaving campus. It was bigger than a beagle. I think I could have put a small saddle on it.
tesslibrarian
@stuckinred: Well, Joe’s is now in the old Hodgson space, sharing with the Hub. (Hodgson owns all 3 buildings: the one he’s in now, the old space, the old Joe’s).
When Jamie Calkin first moved to Athens, we bought a couple of small watercolors at Athefest: the Waffle House at our corner (Morton and Lumpkin) and the old gas station Jittery Joe’s. So the old Joe’s is always in my living room. :-)
ETA: that’s the plaque near 5 pts? I know about that one. Or is there another one? I need all the possible events I can for the This Day in Athens blog I write; our hits are way up since being a finalist for Best Local Library Blog.
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: OK, got it now. Didn’t know that guy.
I wish I could find my old friend Catherine Morgan. She moved away to Italy or some place and I’ve never been able to find her. Tall, lovely blond.
PeakVT
@beltane: NWS just issued a tornado warning for Roxbury and to the northeast towards Barre.
ETA: Burlington radar.
BGinCHI
@PeakVT: That tornado is gonna get mugged if it goes through Roxbury.
stuckinred
@tesslibrarian: Terry Rowlett had his motorcycle paintings in Jittery’s when they first opened. One of them was of my bike and the painting cost more than the bike did!
It’s strange to us how seldom we get over to 5 Pts. If we didn’t take LilBit to the Vet opthamologist we might never get over there!
Jewish Steel
@BGinCHI: I say it’s not a party until a raccoon falls out of the ceiling. But that’s just me.
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: Roosevelt was a developmentally disabled fellow that used to stand in front of the Ga Theater and bounce up and down to his walkman. Col Bruce and Widespread would set him up with a dead mic during their shows and he would have a ball. Very sweet fellow, sad they way he just vanished. The band Roosevelt was named after him.
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: Enjoy.
BGinCHI
@Jewish Steel: That could be your signature thing, party-wise.
PeakVT
@PeakVT: The storm is on the other side of the Greens so it actually doesn’t show on the Burlington radar. Here’s the Portland radar.
@BGinCHI: Mugged?
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: Not sure I remember him.
Bruce Hampton has nine lives for sure. That guy is still going??!!
BGinCHI
@PeakVT: Sorry. Was thinking Boston.
Church Lady
@BGinCHI:
No, really, the name of the bonding company we used was Bond James Bond. Very clever (and memeorable) name.
beltane
@PeakVT: I’m in Hardwick and the sky is very, very dark. I think the action is just to our south.
BGinCHI
@Church Lady: I would have thought only Elmore Leonard would have thought up something that funny. Those bonding company folks do have a grim sense of humor.
Maybe Balloon Juice needs to have a bonding company subsidiary.
MattR
@BGinCHI:
We definitely some supplemental income to cover John’s medical bills (and Tunch’s food bill)
PeakVT
@beltane: The storm that rolled over Burlington was the most electrically active that I’ve seen in years. I had about 5 strikes right on top of my house (less than 1 sec delay).
Evolved Deep Southerner
@BGinCHI: I know a lot of thread has rolled by since this comment, but I was there from ’88 until ’94. The Uptown Lounge, the 40 Watt in its second/third iteration, the Downstairs … If you want to know what the vibe there was like, I’d recommend Tony Gayton’s “Athens, Ga., Inside/Out” strongly.
I envy stuckinred for still living there. I work at a university, but the vibe in Clemson, SC, is VASTLY different than it was in Athens. I miss it most every day.
Evolved Deep Southerner
If this ends up duplicated, my apologies – FYWP – but does any of this crowd remember Deacon Lunchbox?
Evolved Deep Southerner
@stuckinred: And Herbie’s! Does anyone remember Herbie’s? Or Walter’s? Or Ed Tant? Or … shit, DougJ. Damn you for posting this thread.
BGinCHI
@Evolved Deep Southerner:
I lived there for almost 3 years, so I certainly got the vibe. I was a regular at all the places you mention. Study all day then dinner and out for drinks and music almost every night. I was at the Downstairs in the early days for Vic Chesnutt’s early shows (when it was him, guitar, and metronome). I also had an excellent affair with a certain bar/club owner (they were split up by then: 1993). I could go on.
Bona fides intact….
And agree on Clemson. Almost as bad as Auburn.
BGinCHI
@Evolved Deep Southerner: I do remember DL. Dashboard Saviors, too.
Hawes
Here’s my favorite Bob Dylan parody:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u5x9pdInTU
getsmartin
Speaking of Athens, I spent a little time there a couple of years ago and became quite fond of The Grit.
PTirebiter
gimme a string bean I’m a hungry man, a shotgun fired and away I ran… I’ll let you be my dream if I can be in yours, I said that.
Name That Dream
stuckinred
@Evolved Deep Southerner: Ed Rant is still on the case. Walter bagged it but I still see him from time to time. The block where Herbies was has Cine, the National, Little Kings and other hipster joints.
mattski
88.5 wxpn in philly played 70 dylan songs in row from 7 am to 2 pm. Plus a bunch of other dylan /dylan covers through out the rest of the day. woot woot.
qwerty42
@stuckinred: The block where Herbies was has Cine, the National, Little Kings and other hipster joints.
Ciné (think of WC Fields saying “Accent grave over the e”)
And Part 2 of the Dylan Birthday was at Little Kings. Had not realized there were so many current (and former) Athens folks here.
flukebucket
“Bang the hubcap slowly but swing the hammer hard,
the cataclysm is over, they’ve swept away the shards
shout a loud hosanna, burn a big brassiere
the cataclysm is over, that fast the tragic path is cleared
Keep a steady vigil, a church in your lunchbox
the cataclysm is over, they’ve reset the horror clocks”
Vic Chesnutt never, ever got the credit, attention and admiration he deserved. That man was a damn genius.
stuckinred
@qwerty42: It’s strange, no?
Surly Duff
I’ve got nothing to add except that I also miss Athens. Great music scene, good to great food, and excellent atmosphere. This thread really hit my nostalgia button. Thanks for that guys.
flukebucket
and how many of you old Athens folks remember the B&L Warehouse? Or sitting on the railroad tracks to watch a Bulldog football game at Sanford Stadium? Athens, GA is an oasis in the desert of dry tea-tardy nuttiness that is the state of Georgia.