A Winter to Remember

If you turned on the local Atlanta news over the past 5 days, you would have seen one of two stories: the investigation into the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the weather. Both stories have their own ongoing developments, and have captivated a national and regional audience, respectively.

For those who don’t know, the metro Atlanta area has been paralyzed nearly a week by an unusually severe winter storm. Sunday’s heavy snowfall quickly turned into perilous ice, leaving many roads impassable to most vehicles. Mail delivery and trash collection were suspended, while schools and businesses around the city shut their doors for days.

Yet despite the inconveniences the storm has caused, despite the traffic jams and so called “cabin fever” (which I personally find anachronistic, given the modern age’s infinite digital distractions) I find myself treasuring the silver lining of this white blanket.

First and foremost is its ability to bring people together. People these days rarely know many, if any, of their neighbors, but the lure of youthful fun in the snow brought us out of our houses and into the streets. Whether it meant joining together to help push cars on the highway or collaborating on sled ramps, igloos, and snowmen, people around the city bonded over their common circumstances.

The inability to drive drove people to walk, allowing them to observe their neighborhood from a more human perspective, with the lack of cars reducing noise (and air) pollution. Perhaps some will even maintain the habit of making trips to the grocery by foot, rather than climbing in their car.

Winter weather forces people to seek warmth and company, to light fires, play board games, have long conversations. And yes, despite the abundant posting of pictures and videos on Facebook and Twitter, it brings us back to simpler times. It’s not hard to imagine Atlantans 50 years ago trudging through the same streets we do, on their way to buy bread or beer.

As natural disasters go, snow and ice are certainly among the most preferable. Floods, fires and earthquakes all cause dreadful damage, and cities take years to recover. Snow and ice, on the other hand, provide plentiful opportunities for fun, and their effect is mostly gone in a matter of days. Most of the damage comes from cars that fishtail and struggle to make it up slick hills--and there’s even humor in watching that. Even if they crash, their speed is so slow that serious personal injury is unlikely.

There were, however, some opportunistic rascals who took advantage of the situation for material gain. But such activity was quite limited.

As a long-time Southerner, I appreciate the rarity of events like this, which, in the end, makes their arrival that much sweeter. Snowpocalypse 2011, I will miss you! Keep reading...

Out of Home Advertising FTW

During my recent visit back home in Atlanta, I stopped by Lenox Mall briefly to see what was up at Club Monaco, the only store I shop at these days. I found a nice cardigan there, but what really made my day was seeing some great out-of-home advertising for South Carolina tourism. Their "South Carolina Next Door" campaign has been running for a while on radio and billboards in Georgia, and I'd always thought it was a pretty good idea. These executions however, take a good strategic thought and make it memorable.


At first glance I actually thought it was a real person in the boat, and the people flying the kite also looked creepily realistic. There was also a big beach ball hanging from the ceiling. Altogether, these pieces leave quite an impression, and surely will get some people talking about South Carolina. Kudos to The Bounce Agency, Greenville, SC. Keep reading...

Georgia Shakespeare is SENSATIONAL!

Typically, the promotional materials sent out by theater companies all look about the same: Either a stapled brochure or an accordion fold-out, with a list of dates and performances. Yet a local Atlanta theater company at Oglethorpe University called Georgia Shakespeare decided to buck the status quo and do something different.

Their 2009 season announcement is written and designed like a cheesy tabloid, which certainly got my attention and made me read. I’m really impressed they pulled something like this off, especially in this economy. Cheers to GS. Keep reading...

Atlanta's Gumshoes Are Sylish Dudes

A couple weeks ago I was reading the paper and came across this story about a murder in Atlanta’s main park. The crime was shocking of course, but what really caught my eye was the picture of the two investigators in the case.

If the paper didn’t say 2009 at the top, I’d have thought I’d come across an article from the 1950s. Both detectives were wearing stylish straw fedoras, giving them an air of gravitas that is rarely seen these days.

Then I realized I’d heard about this hat fad before, in a story the AJC did last year:
Keep reading...

Atlanta's Newspaper Gets Freshified

On Tuesday, April 28, my hometown newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, unveiled its drastic redesign. The change began several months ago with a new, more modern logo, and culminated in a total overhaul of the look of the paper itself.

The new AJC is now narrower, with a more vertical layout and cleaner typography. It is gratifying and encouraging to see a local newspaper make such an investment in its future, considering the constant heralding of the end of the printed news industry.

As a bit of a news junkie and newspaper snob, I always considered the AJC nearly superfluous and irrelevant. I got my news online throughout the day, and read the New York Times on Sundays for more in-depth and unusual stories. Yet this redesign has me rethinking my anti-AJC bias.

Where the old paper was flat and staid, the new one feels dynamic and fun. And to me, an unabashed Europhile, the new font (Publico) feels fresh and hip. The hierarchy is denser yet simplified, allowing the reader’s eye to skip easily around the page. Colors are brighter, and are used deftly to create areas of focus and interest.

A recession redesign is a brave bet, but one I believe will pay off. The new AJC stands out among its peers, and looks more like a paper from a trendsetting international city, rather than just another so-so local paper.

Interestingly, the new design is extremely polarizing. I showed it to several design-minded people where I work, and two of them thought the new paper actually looked old/worse. Of course, good creative work always elicits strong reactions, both good and bad.

I applaud the AJC and its design team on this impressive accomplishment. If you’re interested in reading more, Charles Apple, a journalist/designer, wrote an extensive blog entry a couple months ago detailing the process that led to the new look. It’s quite informative, and interesting to see the other options that were considered. Keep reading...

Kooza....Wow

Today I was lucky enough to see Kooza, the Cirque du Soleil production that is in Atlanta through March 1.

My jaw stayed shut for about three minutes the whole night (the intermission notwithstanding).

Each piece was stunning in its spectacular choreography, daring, and imagination. From contortionists twisting themselves into human Möbius strips to a man doing vaulted flips while wearing eight-foot stilts, Kooza has tricks of all sorts. The constant characters throughout the show are The Innocent, a boyish pajama-wearing character, and The Trickster, his silent, Willy Wonka-esque guide through the world of Kooza. Together they experience the stunts and wonders of the other performers along with the audience.

I highly recommend this incredible show; the scale of the sets and skill of the cast members is just as stunning as anything in Vegas. You’ll leave the tent with open eyes, an open jaw, and a renewed sense of wonder in human ability. Keep reading...

A Super Store, Indeed

If Augusta National is golf heaven, then the PGA Superstore is heaven’s pro shop. Having grown up amidst a retail wasteland, it’s rare that . But when you enter a store dedicated to two sports (about 90% golf/10% tennis) and find yourself in a cavernous room whose size rivals stores with much broader inventories like Costco and Sports Authority, it’s hard to stay composed. As excited as it was for me, the casual duffer that I am, I can only imagine the childish glee a dedicated golfer feels as his eyes feast upon the treasure before him.

It’s literally mentally challenging to take in everything at once, to come to grips with the fact that this store’s putter department is the size of a typical sports store’s entire golf section. The staff , though knowledgeable, is not pushy. Buyers (or, rather, visitors) are free to roam and gawk without being coaxed into a purchase.

One whole wall of the store is lined with practice cages, half for private lessons and half for testing out equipment. Indeed, the PGA store takes all the guesswork out of buying a club; in front of the cages are hundreds of demo models of the latest drivers, all available to try out for free, and without the need to surrender a driver’s license or sign forms in advance.

The store carries not only every conceivable piece of golf equipment and attire, but also a full range of golf gifts for the true aficionado (golf art is a genre sui generis, with gaudy brushstrokes of various shades of green and yellow, often seen adorning the walls of dentists’ waiting areas).

While the store’s name may suggest otherwise, the other prime country club sport is nearly as well represented. A full-size indoor tennis court is located in the back of the store, replete with hundreds of demo rackets, as well as fresh white shoes to wear while serving.

The sports equipment business is a competitive one, with craigslist, eBay, and other online retailers only exacerbating the need for cutthroat pricing and regular discounts. The PGA Superstore, however, offers an experience unlike anything else in the city, no doubt earning the affection and loyalty of its customers, many of whom are likely some of the wealthiest citizens of Atlanta. It lives up to its name in every sense of the word. Keep reading...