The 4oth Inman Park Festival is in full swing this weekend ( April 30 and May 1).  And isn’t the artwork that my friend and web design client, Jon Arge, did for the poster and tee-shirts this year absolutely fabulous?.

I’ll never forget my very first Inman Park Festival. We lived in Druid Hills( nearby beautiful but stuffy neighborhood) and came over to walk around the festival when I was a week overdue with my  first child, Amanda  (turning 25 next week) to be born. It was really hot that day and I hoped that walking around in the heat would send into labor, but the only thing I got was swollen ankles and she  took her sweet time to come another whole week later. I can’t believe that was 25 years ago.

When my children were young we would also come to Inman Park to Trick or Treat since it was easier to get from house to house and up the shorter driveways. We always loved the friendly community. In 1998, when I needed a building for the software company I ran at the time,  I was thrilled to find the perfect warehouse in Inman Park. It was ideal since we found our place in the industrial corridor that edged a neighborhood  of diverse styles and sizes of homes from the Victorian Gingerbread mansions, cozy, welcoming bungalows and restored shotgun shacks. Our warehouse loft area added another layer of interest to this amazing neighborhood.

This is my twelfth festival as a resident. We finished the unit we now live in back in 2000 and that year during festival we were on the Inman Park Tour of Homes with our freshly planted  garden. 2,500 people came through that day! What an experience. Our loft looks pretty much the same since then, but the garden sure looks a lot different now. Here are a few before and after examples and you can see more on my Flickr site.

We have had a blast this weekend The Festival kicks things off with the Butterfly Ball on Friday night, an event under the tent that is invitation only for the neighbors to get together for a big shindig. Kingsized played and we always love dancing to their first set of swing and old standards and then the Marching Abominables comes though the tent and gets everyone on their feet. After they go on their way, Kingsized keeps the tempo jumping with lively oldies and everyone is up and dancing with abandon.

Artist booths line the blocked off neighborhood streets and it is fun to stroll around and do some shopping. The best Parade ever, comes through on Saturday afternoon at 2:00. This year we had a full house at the Urban Oasis, as per usual for festival, but our guests coming from London said to expect them at 2:00! Oh No. We left a note for them on the mailbox to come join the festivities,  if they did actually arrive on time. It was a good thing we did not wait here for them because they got delayed and did not arrive until 6:00 PM !

For 21 years,  Inman Park neighbors have been holding an event called Theatre Night on the Saturday night of Festival. We sell tickets and sponsorships to the event which features acts from four of our local neighborhood Theatres. People bring picnic dinners and sit under the tent and enjoy a great evening of fun and entertainment. We raised 23,000 this year, which is splint between the four theatres and with grants for the Arts being harder to get with the downturn in the economy, it is very welcomed. I am on the committee and do their website and graphics and Duane helps to clean the tent from the days festivities before the event begins.

What a weekend! Be sure to get your reservations in for the Urban Oasis in plenty of time to get a spot for next year’s party! It is also the prettiest time of year for the garden.

Take a deep breath and smell the star jasmine and the roses as you walk up to the front door to the Urban Oasis!

Location, location, location. We are in such a great neighborhood. In addition to lots of shopping and theaters and trails and history, we are smack in the middle of food and drink heaven. I hate to even begin to write this since I don’t have time to cover all of the good  places in this post. But, I wanted to give you a few of my favorites hangouts.

We are right next door to one of the best steak houses in the country, Kevin Rathbun Steak. It is a delight, dark with lots of atmosphere built out of an old warehouse right on the Atlanta Beltline. Their bar is a treat if you want to pop in for some apps and a nice glass of wine, and their covered patio, with its upholstered furniture is one of my favorite spots to get away and have a drink and some quiet conversation. When you go, you should really try the dry aged steak for two. I can’t tell you what else to try because Kevin changes the menu with the seasons and provides a lot of local specialties too. The heirloom tomato salad this past summer was just scrumptious.  Reservations are recommended ( 404-524-5600), but you can usually slip over to the bar and still have a meal.

Address 154 Krog Street Suite 200 Atlanta, Georgia 30307
Hours Dinner, Monday-Thursday 5:30pm-10:00pm
Dinner, Friday & Saturday 5:30pm-11:00

Rathbun also has two other restaurants on the next block of Krog Street. One is the flagship “Rathbun’s” and the other is the Krog Bar.

One of may favorite places to go out to eat is literally right over the tracks and around the corner in the Old Fourth Ward called  Serpas. Serpas was built out of an old cotton loading dock at what is now Studioplex. They did a great job with the build out,  keeping the character and the vibe.  One whole side of the building is glass and it faces west across the street from the water tower. When the sunsets the light in Serpas is divine. But let’s not just talk about the atmosphere, the food is amazing. I love the Flash Fried Oysters which are a regular item on the menu as well as the Tuna Tartar. Scott Serpas calls his food “True Food” and I it really is. classic comfort cuisine with handcrafted ingredients with a definite Louisiana flair. I always suggest that our guests go there while they are staying with us. You can’t go wrong. Duane and I go often and sit at the Chefs bar where we can watch what’s going on up close and personal. If you’re looking for more romance, a table by the window at sunset is the place to be. Yum. Make your reservations at 404-688-0040.

Address 659 Auburn Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia  30312
Hours Dinner,  Tuesday – Thursday 5:30 – 10:30
Dinner, Friday  – Saturday 5:30 – 11:00
Brunch Sunday 11AM -2PM
Sunday Dinner 5:30 – 10:00

If you are looking for something out of the ordinary and are a fan of Mad Men and 60′s cocktails,  Sauced is for you. It is an intimate little building with rounded banquette upholstered seating around the tables in the front room. There is a great little patio for when it is not too hot or cold. And a cool bar that you can chill your heels and have a martini that is just right. Their food it wonderful and the menu changes frequently. It is old food updated using fresh ingredients and lovingly prepared. I couldn’t begin to do their menu justice. Go to their website and check it out.  Make your reservations at 404-688-6554.

Address 753 Edgewood Avenue, Atlanta Georgia 30307
Hours: 5:30 PM – 1:00 AM with the kitchen open late!
They are closed on Monday.

by Marcy Lamberson

Do you ever want to go on a mini vacation, but don’t have a lot of time for traveling? My husband and I opted for a “stay-cation” this year, right inside Atlanta. We had 2 nights available for a little adventure.

We live in the suburbs, but there’s so much to do and explore just half an hour away from our house in the city. So I started hunting for a B & B online. I’m a glass artist who looks for the unique and interesting places and we’re both the laid back types. I wanted to find a place that was fun, and casual to match our style.

The Urban Oasis Bed and Breakfast was perfect. I loved the colorful and funky mid century modern furnishings in a wonderful rehabbed building. The three Basset Hounds and two cats were the right touch too. So cute! Their varied art throughout the property gave me a lot to look at too.

We arrived and the owners, Judi and Duane were so welcoming and well versed on what to do in their Old Fourth Ward neighborhood and surrounding areas. From fabulous restaurants to running trails, we found out what we needed for the next day. Judi showed us our comfy room, with the great ensuite shower and extra comforter for the December night.

Would I return to Urban Oasis? You bet! We were invited to make ourselves at home with access to the kitchen, and open living room, dining room, tv, area.

That was our first mini in-town vacation, but definitely not our last. We still have a lot left to see, explore (and taste) in our own city. Getting away for a little bit worked perfectly for our budget and available time. We’ll be back.

Marcy Lamberson
Studio Marcy
January 7, 2011

Convergent Frequencies highlights urban geography this weekend
By Susannah Darrow

Artist Matt Haffner and his assistant prepare shipping crates for this weekend’s opening of Convergent Frequencies at the intersection of Krog and Irwin streets.

i45 will once again challenge our understanding of the role of traditional galleries with their new public art installation, Convergent Frequencies, opening this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, September 17-19, from 6PM-12Midnight. The three-day event combines the talents of Matt Haffner, Nat Slaughter, and Matt Gilbert. The Skies Over Atlanta project, which graced a small church in the midst of the Inman Park Festival, gave us our first taste of what happens when creative minds move outside of the confines of white walls and into their neighborhood’s surroundings. i45 is a collective of art spaces including Whitespace, Barbara Archer Gallery, Henley Studios, and Wm Turner Gallery.

The project’s title, Convergent Frequencies, serves a dual purpose. The geographical location at the corner of Krog Street and Irwin Street converges at the borderline between the Inman Park and Old Fourth Ward neighborhoods. The event is also a convergence of differing artistic media that the three artists combine in a harmonious coalescence. Haffner’s visually striking portraits and architectural silhouettes compliment audio field recordings by Slaughter, which will be played inside the 40-foot shipping crates that also serve as “canvases” for Haffner’s designs. A video installation and instrumental performance by Gilbert will be a bonding force for the three components.

The installation will combine audio and visual components. Photo by Sandy Hooper.
Much like Skies Over Atlanta, this is an installation that draws much of its appeal from its location. Each component specifically references elements of its immediate geography. Haffner has pulled from familiar buildings in the neighborhood that have taken on a more universal aesthetic in their abstraction. Slaughter’s field recordings were collected during walks he has taken around the neighborhood and provide a poetic context to Haffner’s visual elements. The field recordings comprise three binaural sound installations with supplemental materials to describe the mapping component of the project. Gilbert has created a video that describes the separation of color and music in the optical and hearing systems of the human brain. Although not the immediate intention, Gilbert’s work gives the audience a notion of the more specific elements of Haffner and Slaughter’s works and how they merge to form our understanding of these spaces.
Although Gilbert’s artist statement is intended to speak to his individual intent, his words also speak well to the spirit of Convergent Frequencies as a whole: “The city is filled with people, groups, and institutions working independently, sometimes together and sometimes at odds, yet the city seems to have a distinct identity. We talk about `Atlanta’ as if it exists in a consistent, discrete, and identifiable form. Selective Disturbance [Gilbert's video installation] splits images of the city and the performers into movement and color, investigates them as independent components, and recombines them.”

The opening for Convergent Frequencies will be held this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, September 17-19, from 6PM-12Midnight, with a dance and instrumental performance at 9PM each night. The event is free and open to the public. The Good Food Truck will be on site to feed the masses.

I met a delightful young woman who has a blog and a talk show called Talking with Tami, at a business event where I was speaking to people about my web design business, New Tricks. She told me she had a WordPress blog and we got to talking and the next thing I know she is coming to the Urban Oasis with  her hubby, Terrell and her two kids to spend the night in a bed and breakfast for the very first time.

Now we have great people stay with us. But with Tami it was a slumber party. We had a great time. She took fabulous photos and wrote a terrific post about her stay on her website.

I just saw this review of the Old Fourth Ward in Yelp. Old Fourth Ward is the neighborhood on the other side of the tracks from The Urban Oasis. It is where Martin Luther King Historic District, the Edgewood Corridor and Auburn Avenue, where I have done a lot of building. In fact the Yelp Article mentions, Lotta Fruita which is one of my buildings. Here is the article but you can go to Yelp and check out the reviews.

While neighborhoods like Inman Park and Midtown have been cool for years, Old Fourth Ward is finally getting its day in the sun. All along Boulevard, Edgewood and Auburn new hot spots are opening on the regular, offering up a diverse array of food and fun. Whether you’re a virgin to the scene or a local superstar (like our very own Martin Luther King, Jr.), check out this edition of the Weekly for Yelp-approved spots in the O4W.

Nestled amongst the beautiful homes on Auburn Avenue, you’ll find local treasures like MLK’s birthplace and LottaFrutta. According to Sara C, the latter is “lottagooda: it feels like you’re in another city, like somewhere in Latin America or Miami.” Pizzeria Vesuvius‘ only problem “is being delicious. Sometimes too delicious,” reports Justin H, as he often finds he has control issues during the Sunday night all you can eat fest. And if you want to finish your night off right, head to Miso Izakaya for the macha brulée. Jennifer E proclaims, “Even if the rest of the food was made from dog hair and banana peels, I would be back just for that.”

Morning or night, there’s always something goin’ down at local fixture Danneman’s. Barry G takes advantage of the happenings, be it coffee in the AM or “salsa, yoga or artwork in the evenings.” Next door, Josh H takes advantage of lunch and dinner at The Edgewood Corner Tavern, which is “the bomb, like tick-tick” at any hour of the day. Support those less fortunate at Café 458, where 100% of the proceeds benefit Samaritan House. Gerald S encourages you to “give it a try, fill your belly, and help the homeless.”

Nightlife is on lock in this little neighborhood, so start your eve off right at 4th & Swift, where “they’re firing on all cylinders.” Robert S has become a regular, and recommends you do the same – “food, service and atmosphere are all at their pinnacle.” If dancing is your thing, Noni’s is your place. Deli by day, “hands down the best late night dance party” by night: Tara J has never had a bad time! Or try out the newest kid on the block, The Sound Table. Vanessa T swears she could hardly stay in her chair with the music and ‘riddims’ playing while she dined; “I think I have finally found a dance space deserving of my devotion.” Old Fourth Ward certainly deserves the love!

I’ve also got to mention my favorite restaurant, Serpas which is around the corner from us. Scott Serpas and his wife Dawn have done a great job on the decor in an old cotton warehouse as well as the food. They are from Louisiana and call their cuisine, “True Food”.  Get some of their flash fried oysters for a little bit of heaven.

Then we also have to say Danneman’s coffee shop is the heart and soul of the neighborhood. If you want to know what is going on just head over to Danneman’s at the corner of Edgewood and Boulevard from 8-10 AM and you will meet and greet everyone you need to know to be in the know. My friend, Joe Stewardson who owns the building that houses Dannemans, Corner Tavern and Cafe Circa, says he just sits their like a grouper with his mouth open and takes it all in. I say he needs to run for Mayor next time around.

While you are cruising around the hood, check out the Wigwam Building, one of the hundred most important buildings in Atlanta. I restored it in 2004, and got a couple of historic restoration awards for saving it.

We are so happy to have our new fountain. Terry Bradshaw of Ground Artistry installed the patio and the fountain which he just completed today, Mother’s Day. I am thrilled. It is just perfect. It was a fun co-collaboration as Terry and I went all over the place in terms of what the design should be to go with such an unusual and eclectic garden. It had to be modern, but not too sleek, it had to have plants but now be rustic. It had to be great but not cost a fortune. And most of all it had to be easy to take care of and not leak.  I think we ended up with just the right look.

[View with PicLens]

Last year glorious, this year we got drenched on Saturday. Vendors all zipped up and people walking around in raincoats and umbrellas. In  the tradition of the “Show Must Go On” , it did rain or not. The parade was drenched but well and Inman Park Theatre Night fared better as the forecasted, “large hail and 30 mile an hour winds“  never showed up. The segments from  our local neighborhood, Horizon Theater at the beginning and Dad’s Garage at the end of the evening stole the show.

Today, Sunday, is supposed to be 84 degrees and sunny. It is beautiful clear skies now. I hope that people turn out and make up for yesterday. The artists really look forward to this show, putting a lot of effort into building up their inventory. Let’s go out and support them!

I have been waiting for this rose to bloom. For weeks I saw it climbing through the branches of the surrounding trees in a way that made it look like the tree had leafed out when it hadn’t. I was a bit worried when the rose started blooming profusely down near the base of the plant, that it was going to spend all of its energy blooming the bottom 10 feet but not at the top. But then, this weekend,  it started blooming all the way up what must be 30 feet into the surrounding trees.

And right on the heels of this display the peonies are getting ready to bloom. With all of the water they got this year, the plants and buds are looking really good. I will report with a photo when they bloom!

A few weeks ago, a couple came up to stay here from Newnan, Georgia, only 30 miles away. They wanted a relaxing getaway from their normal routines of being an educator and a minister. They were planning on going to a movie on the evening of day two but changed their minds when we told them about JeJu,  the Korean Spa we all love, and they saw someone else who was staying here come floating back  from a visit there.

This weekend the first thing our guest, Judi from Tampa did on Friday night was go to JeJu. She took these pictures. The spa is actually about a 20 minute drive up 85 off of Pleasant Hill Road and is in the parking lot of Gwinnet Mall. Now, you have to understand when you live in Intown Atlanta, we hardly ever go OTP ( outside the perimeter of Interstate 275 which loops around Atlanta). So if we say something is worth the trip then it is really the cat’s pajamas. And JeJu is the cat’s pajama’s.

JeJu is open 24 hours. It cost $25.00 and you can stay as long as you want, even overnight. The spa is huge. It has wet areas with steam rooms saunas, various hot tubs, cold tubs and a massage/scrub room.

You can scrub yourself or for an additional $40.00 you can purchase a scrub alone or for a bit more, a scrub and massage. Now, I have tried both but to me you can’t beat the scrub and it is enough for me. They put you on a vinyl upholstered table and scrub you all over, at least three times till your skin is as smooth as a baby’s butt.

After you have had enough fun in the wet area, you put on your Korean pj’s that they give you and go to the coed are where there are heated mineral huts with heated marble floors covered in Tatami mats. You go lay in the various rooms and soak up the healing energy. Afterward, there is a Korean restaurant where you can get a bite to eat while sitting on floor mats at low tables. The whole experience is amazing. Five hours fly by and you are more relaxed than you have been since the last time you got out of Bikram Yoga. Definitely worth it!