October 2015
Features
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Lessons and wisdom from Atlanta’s most powerful
19 of Atlanta’s 55 Most Powerful share words of wisdom and lessons they’ve learned about how to acquire and apply power
A look inside Atlanta’s halls of power
We take a look behind the scenes were the strings are pulled and the wheels are turned
Keith Parker puts us back on track
MARTA CEO Keith Parker’s biggest project yet is the construction of three new rail lines expected to cost upwards of $8 billion. In MARTA’s history, the ambition of Parker’s expansion plan is rivaled only by the ambition behind the agency’s creation five decades ago.
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The Connector
What’s new at this year’s Flux Night
Flux Night, the annual interactive art night, took last year off. “The event was growing faster than the organization,” says executive director Anne Dennington. “We needed time to plan [the next stage] thoughtfully.”
The battle for LGBT rights in Georgia is far from over
Georgia remains one of 29 states without laws that specifically protect LGBT citizens against discrimination in the places where they live, the offices where they work, and the restaurants where they eat, says Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality.
How Spring Street became Ted Turner Drive
This summer, a stretch of Spring Street was renamed in honor of Ted Turner. Maybe you heard. Keeping up with our constant street name changes is a challenge, and not a new one: In 1903 the Atlanta Constitution reported that more than 225 city streets had changed names at least once—some as many as seven times.
The Walking Dead Deathwatch—Who won’t survive season 6?
When it comes to relentless character killing, only Game of Thrones is more bloodthirsty than Georgia’s own The Walking Dead. Of the original cast members, just six have survived. Here’s our guess as to who’ll buy Hershel’s farm this season.
When is a knockoff a rip-off? An Atlanta artist finds the answer with a lawsuit
From the rigid and amateurish brushstrokes, the piano that caught Zheng Li’s eye in Z Gallerie definitely was not his work. But the angle and shape of the instrument—and even the color palette—were almost identical to his 2004 Piano No. 9.
For Paralympian Curtis Lovejoy, ’86 car accident was “one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.”
Curtis Lovejoy is one of the most accomplished Paralympians in U.S. history. He’s visited with Nelson Mandela and Queen Elizabeth, who, he says, offered him a job after they met at the closing ceremony of the 1995 World Championships.
Fall reading: 5 new releases from Atlanta authors
Curl up with one of these recently released reads, including titles from Lynn Cullen and Matthew Guinn.
The Bite
Fresh on the Scene: Revival, Little Trouble, Pea Ridge Kitchen & Bar, and Little Sheep Hot Pot
A look at four newcomers to Atlanta’s dining scene: Revival, Little Trouble, Pea Ridge Kitchen & Bar, and Little Sheep Hot Pot, plus an update on Holeman and Finch Public House.
Technique: Little Bacch’s Joe Schafer on roasting the perfect chicken
A roast chicken prepared with precision can be a Michelin star–worthy feast. Here, Little Bacch executive chef Joe Schafer breaks down the basics.
MF Sushi Atlanta
You’ll do just fine at MF Sushi Atlanta if you like showmanship, an attractive clientele (often in tight dresses), proficient sushi, and eggplant whose pale white flesh is forged over super-hot charcoal to surpassing creaminess. And if you know to ask which fish came in that day, no matter what specials the server announces.
Buried cow horn? The mysteries of organic and biodynamic wine
I wondered, could the organic and biodynamic movement simply be a marketing ploy, piggybacking on the popularity of free-range chickens and organic kale salads? If anybody could convince me otherwise, it was Eric Brown, the owner of Le Caveau Fine Wines in Chamblee, who has championed these styles since opening his store in 2011.
The Christiane Chronicles: Atlanta needs more Eastern European restaurants; and where to find rich butter
As hard as it is to believe, there was a time when naysayers thought that Atlantans weren’t willing to pay top dollar for corned beef, pastrami, and pickles. Then along came the General Muir; deli crisis averted. Now let’s continue rounding out our patchy dining scene, starting with Eastern European restaurants.
The Goods
The Love List: Fall, y’all
There’s a little thrill the first time you pull on a cozy sweater or a great pair of boots at the beginning of fall.
Destination: Hilton Head, South Carolina
At Hilton Head, beautiful drives usually mean golf balls soaring over manicured fairways. But for one weekend every fall, motoring becomes the island’s preeminent pastime as hundreds of haute wheels and pristine vintage restorations roll onto South Carolina’s southernmost point.
Editor’s Pick: Royal Tour Bicycles
While living in Spain, Paul Atkins became enamored with the picturesque pedaling culture in Europe. He was so inspired that when he returned to the U.S., he decided to hand-build his own cruisers.
My style: Felicia Ruiz of Factory Girls
A fashion trade show veteran (most recently as a showroom manager at AmericasMart), Ruiz hated watching designers leave the South for New York or L.A. So in April, she became a full-time partner at Factory Girls, a fashion incubator that helps emerging and established local brands by providing classes, marketing, materials sourcing, and even manufacturing out of a Chamblee factory.
Room Envy: This Candler Park tree house is a Zen meditation room
When Katharine and Howard Connell bought their circa-1895 Candler Park Victorian last year, they inherited a 265-square-foot, Craftsman-style tree house. The avid yogis have since transformed the arboreal retreat into a Zen meditation room with bohemian accents befitting Howard’s “reformed hippie” past.
Miscellaneous
October 2015: Smooth rides
Two years ago in this space, I made an embarrassing confession: that even though I live barely 200 yards from a MARTA station, and my office is a hundred steps from another one, I was still driving to work every day.
To Dance with the White Dog, 25 years later
For no reason other than Terry Kay is a writer of novels, I sometimes imagine there is a small corner of heaven reserved for my dearest friend of 60 years. To banish him to everlasting hell would represent a clear case of literary redundancy. How else would I describe his state of mind in 1989 when he typed the words, “He understood what they were thinking and saying: Old man that he is, what’s to become of him?”
One Square Mile: Dixie Speedway
In the pits, 73-year-old Nancy Roland, poker visor down and a Marlboro Light dangling from her lips, pushes an ice scraper across the hood of the race car, sweeping off chunks of orange clay. Thirteen-year-old Will Roland steps out from behind the trailer, zipping up his black-and-red fire suit.
