About Town

I've received several fun, colorful fliers in my e-mail inbox this week. Thought I'd share a few:  

1. Vickery's Crescent Crawl. This Saturday, $5 gets you a commemorative pint glass plus food and drink specials at the below roster of bars. I'd go, but I joined some fellow NU grads in the Big Ten pub crawl this past weekend on the same strip, and I'm still sweating alcohol. And smarting from repeated jeers of "Here come the accountants!"

2. A Shop and Spa Affair at Castleberry Hill's No Mas! Cantina. This Saturday from 3 to 8 p.m., receive complimentary hand and back massages, cocktails, and goody bags and shop for apparel, jewelry, bath/beauty, and other products from Snobbshop.com vendors. Tickets are $10 in advance (click here) or $12 at the door, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Georgia chapter of the Arthritis Foundation.

3. Grand opening of Studio 658 and Artists' Summer Sale. This Saturday from 12 to 5 p.m., find steep discounts on Ann Roth shoes (up to 75 percent off!) and jewelry by Jacqueline Sanchez along with goods from a host of other local lines: Fringe by Tracey Tirrell, Handmade Studio, Karen Meyers Handbags, Meg & Cait, Ruby Slippers, Sage Saks, Tania Julian Ceramics, Tasha Hussey, and The Little Rose. (If you like Beehive Co-op, this is right up your alley.) Studio 658—located in the Old Fourth Ward at 658 Angler Avenue, unit C—is home to lines Felted Heart and Mama, both of which will sell their wares at the market. For more information contact 678-559-4977.

Just a little weekend inspiration . . .

I do wonder, sometimes, how much the booming market for all things "green" helps the earth. Consumption is consumption, and stocking up on tote bags only does so much. That said, I have definitely grown more conscious of buying organic and earth-friendly products where I can. As long as it's something I'd be purchasing anyway, I may as well do it thoughtfully.

To that end, one very handy website is greenzer.com, a shopping portal that highlights products meeting a minimum "green" requirement. The site scores items based on their environmental friendliness, and it allows you to sort by price, so you don't have to worry about spending $25 on dish soap. Categories include apparel and accessories, beauty, babies and kids, electronics, home and garden, and travel. Though some of the products seem a bit over the top (green lingerie?), others are practical (tons of baby products) and even pretty (check out these recycled-glass candle holders). Also cool is the section featuring "face-offs" between conventional products and their green alternatives.

Just something to keep in mind when it comes time for holiday shopping! 

If you were stuck in the congestion at Peachtree and North Avenue last night around 7 p.m., at least you had plenty to look at. Dolled-up women flooded the crosswalks, headed toward one of two big events going on at the Fox: the Coca-Cola Summer Film Festival’s showing of Sex and the City: The Movie, and Urban Chic, the annual fashion show/fundraiser for Aid Atlanta.

As my sister and I pushed through the box office line and located the red carpet leading into the latter event, I felt a flutter of excitement. Last year I was lucky enough to attend many a glittering party for this blog; after a quiet summer, Urban Chic marks the kickoff of a new social season. Inside the grand old eery Egyptian Ballroom (where my sister and I spent a collective four proms), some 500 guests traded air kisses, strolled past silent auction tables, lent their signatures to an AIDS memorial quilt, stole glances at a male and female model wearing nothing but G-strings and body paint (the female, in particular, painted a perky picture), and enjoyed a gloriously cheese-filled hors d'oeuvres spread.

The main event was a fashion show featuring fall styles from some of the city’s preeminent boutiques: Addiction, Bill Hallman, Festivity, Kaleidoscope, Lui-B, Luxe-Atlanta, Okonali.com, Sage, Thread House, Tootsie’s, Vanessa Vinci Designs, and Jewelry by Goldwasser. Attendees consisted mostly of boutique owners and friends—I spotted the lovely Cindy Hallman (wife of Bill), who recently modeled for our “Real People” fashion shoot (September), and chatted with Nikki Salk, owner of smashing new boutique Addiction—as well as friends of Aid Atlanta and chairs Richie Arpino, Ken Goldwasser, Karyn Greer, Randi Layne, and John Stupka. Prior to the show we heard words from hosts Tom Sullivan and Greer (both of 11Alive), Arpino, and Hot 107.9’s Maria More. Then came the most memorable moment of the evening: a spoken word performance by a woman who has lived with AIDS for twenty-five years. She briefly thanked the boutique (Kaleidoscope, I believe) that dressed her for the evening, saying she felt "fabulous," then launched into a recitation that referred to, among other things, being raped as a thirteen-year-old girl and being a "poor, drug-addicted black woman living with AIDS in the South.” It occurred to me that baring your soul in front of such an imposing crowd would take far more courage than baring your body-painted breasts.

Before I sign off, some words about the fashion show: Men's ensembles relied heavily on graphic tees and fedoras, plus a few extravagantly patterned suits. The women’s lineup showcased pieces that were simultaneously tailored and elegantly draped; bold-colored tunics with tall boots; and my favorite accessory of all, scoopy “backlaces" (necklaces that drape down your back; see above). I'm seriously considering pursuing ownership of one. With the right dress, how heads would turn when you do!

The first time I watched my two-minute television debut, I put it on mute. The second time, I listened with the screen minimized. I felt like a terrified little kid peeking at the Wicked Witch of the West through parted fingers. But hey, I guess it's not that bad.

Prior to this summer, Perimeter already had plenty going for it—Apple, Anthropologie, a fabulous Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s. Recent or soon-to-open additions have punched up the directory even more: Stuart Weitzman, Betsey Johnson, Italian shoemaker GEOX (with the legendary breathable sole), British soap company LUSH, XXI Forever (basically a larger, flagship Forever 21), and Spanish mega-chain Zara. Zara, in particular, will be a huge draw. It’s set to open in late fall, in time for shoppers to stock up on some of their sub-$100 coats and jackets. Recently I almost walked away with a sweet bomber jacket from the Lenox store, but it was ninety degrees out and I’m all about instant gratification, so I bought a purse instead:

Lenox, of course, is a wonderful mall. It’s also an effing circus, best to be avoided unless you're in the area during workday hours. Such was my good fortune last week, so I dropped in to get a peak at two new stores, conveniently located next to each other on the main floor: the revamped Pottery Barn (the largest in the U.S.!), which my fellow editor Betsy Riley describes here, and Madewell, the new concept from J.Crew.

My heart always beats a little faster when I encounter a new store that’s within my price range. And though I wish the prairie-pretty scarves were a little cheaper (H&M has spoiled me), the tees and tunics are affordable, and jeans from the “denim bar” are priced right around $100. As for the look of the clothes, I’ve heard it described as J.Crew meets American Apparel, though I’d throw in a little western/cowboy influence to boot (ha!). And they do sell boots—suede and leather, black and brown, knee-high and ankle. When that cold weather finally hits, I might have to find myself in the area during workday hours yet again.

In other Lenox news: 7 For All Mankind and Ed Hardy will be opening fall 2008, and Betsey Johnson will expand.

Image courtesy of Madewell

It was, I discovered, a joy to take in art solo—the pieces just resonate a bit more, and there’s no pressure to “get” everything, or anything. (There’s a little pressure when you know you’re blogging about it later, but oh well.) The exhibition’s central image is of a black woman dressed in a white kimono, pondering the past as represented by two glowing windows, a clock, and a cherry tree. Surrounding photographs feature staged vignettes of pivotal moments in modern history. As a visiting professor at SCAD-Atlanta, Weems worked with students to recreate such scenes as the Hiroshima bombing; the assassinations of Kennedy, King, and Bhutto; the point-blank execution of a Viet Cong prisoner. She shot many of the scenes inside a studio, capturing them at such a distance that you can see the fringes of the set, including the lights and camera track. You are not meant to be taken there, it seems, only to consider the moment from inside and out.

Carrie Mae Weems

Whether you view it first, last, or in between is up to you, but the exhibition includes a twenty-four-minute film interspersing real civil rights footage with the Weems-envisioned vignettes. Sometimes the subjects in her vignettes move; other times they hold still, as if posed for a photograph, while the camera moves around them to reveal their dimensions. The multiracial, multigenerational depictions have a universal quality and unifying purpose; maybe it was the effect of Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11,” but even the image of James Earl Ray with a smoking gun seemed more tragic than vile.

When the video finished and I went outside, I could barely see to take a step, the sun was so bright. It felt a bit like coming out of a dream. For those of you who work in the city and have access to the resources, I’ll share something I learned today: the workday lunch hour is the perfect time to get a little food for the soul.

Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment, July 1 to August 31, SCAD ACA Gallery, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree Street, 404-815-2931