Rail Removal for Atlanta’s Beltline Project

January 1, 2010

Happy New Year!  2010 is an exciting year for Atlantans because it’s when the Beltline path will finally become a reality.  In the past month, Norfolk Southern crews have been removing old railroad lines along the Northeast corridor of the Beltline.  The rail removal will continue in the Southwest corridor in the coming months and then a temporary mulch path will established.  In another year or two, a permanent concrete path will be installed, connecting the forty-five neighborhoods along the Beltline.  In five or ten years, a two-way light rail line will complement the path.

In this segment, Beltline volunteer Angel Poventud discusses the rail removal, the Beltline vision, and why it matters so much to intown Atlantans.  If you’d like, the video can be viewed in a larger size here.

Posted in Beltline, Railroad | 1 Comment »

Still + Sound 1: Blind Willie McTell at the Robert Fulton Hotel

December 10, 2009

I’d like to begin a series where I pair a single photograph with an archival sound recording.  For this first one, I focus on a photograph of bluesman Blind Willie McTell that was taken by Ruby Lomax on November 5, 1940 in a room of the Robert Fulton Hotel (which was located at the corner of Luckie and Cone Streets in downtown Atlanta).  Ruby was the wife of John Lomax, who at the time was the Curator of the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress.   The Lomaxes travelled extensively throughout the South in the late 30s and early 40s, collecting extensive field recordings of vernacular music.  In this recording excerpt, John introduces McTell and then the musician delivers a monologue about the various forms of blues.  I particularly like how McTell describes the blues of the 1920s as developing an “alley lope.”  Michael Gray recently released an excellent book about McTell, and several pages of this book focus on the Lomaxes’ recording of McTell at the Robert Fulton Hotel in 1940.

Posted in Music, Photography | 2 Comments »

A Short History of Atlanta’s Video Music Channel

December 5, 2009

The Video Music Channel was added to Atlanta’s cable system on July 4, 1982.  The VMC studio was located in the basement of the Center Stage Theater, which was exclusively a venue for plays back then.    The VMC operated on a shoestring budget and its production value was often raw, but its producers and VJ’s were clever music lovers who seized the opportunity and created some really amazing television.  The channel developed a loyal following—including me and my two brothers—but its weak ad revenue could hardly keep the station in the black.  When the VMC was offered the chance to shift to broadcast channel 69 in 1984, they happily agreed.  Despite gaining a broader potential audience and a more high-tech studio, the ratings for the VMC at channel 69 weren’t great and management began to phase out music video programming in 1985.

Tom Roche arrived at the VMC in 1983 and served as its Production Manager until 1985.  In this segment he shares some of his memories of working at the channel.  Big thanks to Tom for providing some great archival footage for this segment.

Posted in Music, Television | 8 Comments »

The World of Sid and Marty Krofft Oral History #1

November 24, 2009

Sid and Marty Krofft produced a number of popular kids television shows in the 60s and 70s, including H.R. Pufnstuf and Land of the Lost.  In 1976 they had the brilliant idea to build the world’s first entirely indoor amusement park and selected the Omni complex in Atlanta as the location.

The World of Sid and Marty Krofft was a total flop and closed in less than six months.  Part of the reason was that Atlanta’s population was shifting towards the suburbs and away from the decaying downtown, and, even though the World of Krofft was an impressive spectacle, many families didn’t want to make the trek into town to experience it.  Eleven years later Ted Turner bought the Omni complex and transformed it into the CNN Center.  Rumor has it that, even as late as a few years ago, CNN employees found Krofft costumes and drawings in the nooks and crannies of the building.

Not that many people currently living in Atlanta can boast that they actually visited The World of Sid and Marty Krofft, so I’ve decided to launch a completely unwieldy project:  I want to do oral histories with every single person who actually went.  I figure I’ll complete this project in 2042.

My first World of Sid and Marty Krofft oral history subject is Jamey Propst.  Jamey was a close friend of my dad and he’s also a fine actor.  He took his family to The World of Sid and Marty Krofft and, in this segment, shares his memories of this bizarre and shortlived place.

Posted in Amusement parks, Downtown | 9 Comments »

Cooper Sanchez art show at Oakland Cemetery

November 13, 2009

Cooper Sanchez held an art show in Oakland Cemetery on the evening of October 9th.  Cooper worked as a gardener at Oakland after the March ’08  tornado and planted new flowers and vines within the ruins of the cemetery’s old greenhouse.  He got permission to exhibit his paintings for one night within the greenhouse ruins.

Posted in Art, Cemeteries | 1 Comment »

Vintage Atlanta tv commercials #2: Video Music Channel

November 5, 2009

If you lived in Atlanta between 1982 and 1986 and were of a certain age, you undoubtedly remember the Video Music Channel.  The weird videos and wacky VJ’s on the VMC warped my impressionable adolescent mind.  Unlike the placelessness of MTV, the VMC was firmly rooted in Atlanta and all its musical happenings.

I recently interviewed Tom Roche, who was the Production Manager for the VMC, and I’ll share some of his comments in a subsequent post.  For now I’ll pass along a VMC commercial which promoted four of their special shows.

Posted in Commercials, Music, Television | 3 Comments »

Atlanta’s Bygone Music Venues #2: Freddie Terrell talks about the Soul Expedition Club at Underground

September 15, 2009

As far as I know, The Soul Expedition Club, located at Underground from 1971 until 1974, has the distinction of being the only major music club in the city to be owned and developed by a prominent Baptist preacher.

Freddie Terrell’s band played every Sunday at Dr. W.J. Stafford’s Free for All Baptist Church on Lynhurst in Southwest Atlanta and also backed Stafford’s 1971 LP Drop Drugs…Get Hooked on Jesus.   Terrell suggested to Stafford that the band have their own club so that the various members wouldn’t have to go on the road constantly to make a living and thus miss their weekly church gig.  Stafford obliged by buying a space in Underground, transforming it into a music club, and naming it after Terrell’s band, a funky rhythm and horns ensemble.  The club was immensely popular for several years, especially with locals.

Several years ago, my friend Matt Miller interviewed Freddie Terrell about his musical career, especially the years he fronted the Soul Expedition band.  I operated the camera during this interview.  Matt’s full interview with Terrell can be found in the April/May 2007 issue of Wax Poetics.

Posted in Atlanta's Bygone Music Venues, Downtown, Music, Underground | Leave a Comment »

Movie Made Atlanta #2: Escape from New York at the old Omni MARTA station

September 3, 2009

In the novel The Moviegoer, the character Binx Bolling describes a phenomenon he calls “certification”:

Nowadays, when a person lives somewhere, in a neighborhood, the place is not certified for him to live. More than likely he will live there sadly and the emptiness which is inside him will expand until it evacuates the entire neighborhood. But if he sees a movie which shows his very neighborhood, it becomes possible for him to live, for a time at least, as a person who is Somewhere and not Anywhere.

What if a place in one’s hometown is depicted in a scene that is ultimately deleted from the final cut of a movie?  Is the place still certified?

Posted in Downtown, MARTA, Movie Made Atlanta | 2 Comments »

Driving with the Doctor #1

August 28, 2009

The esteemed Dr. Bethune Workman takes us on a driving tour from Midtown to Downtown.

Posted in Car Culture, Downtown, Dr. Bethune Workman, Midtown | 5 Comments »

Vintage Atlanta tv commercials #1: Plaza Drugs

August 25, 2009

There are a ton of old tv commercials on YouTube, but they’re generally not locally specific.  I’d like to start assembling vintage Atlanta tv commercials in a series for this blog.  Vintage is an arbitrary term, but let’s just say anything produced before 1990.  I certainly need help locating these commercials.  If there’s an old Atlanta tv spot on YouTube (or some other video sharing site), please post the URL in the comments section and I’ll embed it on the site.  If you have a copy of a commercial on disc, tape, or film and need some help digitizing and uploading it to the web, I’d be willing to assist.

The first video in this series is a commercial for the old Plaza Drugs on Ponce de Leon Avenue (in the first post of this blog, George Mitchell discussed Plaza Drugs).  From the clothing and the look of the film stock, I’m guessing this commercial was produced in the late 60s or early 70s.

Posted in Commercials, Ponce de Leon Avenue, Television | 2 Comments »

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