Walk,+Talk,+Eat,+Talk+Some+More+in+Atlanta

=A Walk in Cabbagetown, April 7th 2006=

[this entire text is posted with illustrations at the [|C.cred project blog] as of 4/06. A second walk the group undertook, to the new shopping development called Atlantic Yards, is posted with accompanying photographs at the e-zine [|Rat Salad Deluxe], Spring 2006 edition.]

An impromptu group* in Atlanta, Georgia undertook the international project “[|Walk, Talk, Eat, Talk Some More]” this Friday morning. Our group -- Alan, Nick and Julie -- met in front of the Krog Tunnel at Krog Street and Dekalb Avenue by the sign for the neighborhood called Cabbagetown. The stop sign was pleasingly pasted with a garden variety of stickers. Here we planted/placed the first flags, following the protocol of the Philadelphia group. Actually both Julie and Alan brought flags. Alan brought four, redwood planting stakes with pennants. These had mystical mountain and moon designs painted on them, found in the Value Village thrift store. Julie brought map pins which she put up with neon tape. Both flags were “Philadelphia blue” after the Basekamp protocol (although the Value Village hue was closer to midnight than to powder).

Julie wanted to photograph graffiti along the concrete abutment supporting the railroad tracks – the transit system lines for MARTA, commercial freight lines and a yard. (The Krog Tunnel runs under these.) A freight crane buzzed along lifting containers as we walked. Its forks were just visible above the top of the wall. We walked along Tennelle Street. A tree was growing directly out of a crack in the wall. Julie identified it as a princess tree (pauwlonia), a fast aggressive tree from China. We admired its leafy growth directly out of the concrete wall.

There’s a continuous war between graffiti and overpainting along the railroad wall. The overpainting looks homegrown, like paint out of the locals’ garage. At one point in the wall, someone painted a giant brown covering streak, but it has been turned into a whale. At another point, classic Chicano “chollo” writing – deftly scripted gothic letters – signal the arrival of a practitioner of southwestern wall-painting tradition to the Krog Tunnel area. Above it a volcano-shaped stain caught Julie’s eye (she’s working with volcano models now). We both flagged the place.

Further along the wall Julie pointed out two breast shapes that had been fixed to the wall. Other instances of the tit plaque she said were painted naturalistically (Caucasian) flesh tint with rosy nipples. This pair had been overpainted in battleship gray, with only the underside showing the pink tones. Julie flagged them.

Tennelle Street crossed Savannah Street, and we saw a forest of for sale signs. This was the first time we saw a sign for the street we were on (“Where’s the Captain?” asked Nick.) These tiny bungalow houses were extremely cute, old and personalized. Alan asked a passerby how much they were selling for. He told us $189K for a “one and one” (one bedroom, one bath), and $209K for a “one and one with a loft.” Cute, postage stamp land, but not all that cheap. “It’s the location,” he said.

We reached the Cotton Mill loft complex, an impressive group of factory buildings which have been almost entirely converted. The tiny houses of Cabbagetown were where the workers lived when the mill was running, Julie said. During the conversion, a huge fire broke out and all the wood inside one of the factory buildings burned. A helicopters had to airlift the crane operator to safety, trapped on top of his construction crane by the building burning out of control beneath him. Nick told us the dramatic rescue was on CNN news.

Now the conversion is almost completed. A huge rusting mill machine from the old factory sits out front of the refurbished complex as nostalgic industrial fossil décor. We were at the back entrance to the gated community. (Almost all of Atlanta’s loft developments are lock-gated.) Alan flagged the site, fixing the pole to the barbed-wire fence with Julie’s neon tape. It flew nicely in the breeze.

We ran into artist Baxter Crane and her boyfriend driving along near the North Springs MARTA station. (Her car has a slogan painted on it “Ride in Baxter's car for only $5.”)

Our walk ended at the Carroll Street Café where Alan planted his last flag in the windowbox. It seemed to mesh well with the café’s bohemian décor. This café is part of a first wave of boho-bizzes here. These include a charming “anything” store with hours posted that it’s open when the owner feels like it. As we sat outside and coffee’d up, Aaron Hillegus of Big Nerd Ranch computers passed by and chatted with us. He took our first and only threesome photo. Erin compared our walking project to the practice of “geo-caching” – finding and stuffing boxes in remote places using GPS devices -- which is apparently big in the more jock-inclined nerd community.

We ordered a baked brie with our coffees and talked and talked and then walked back to our cars.

We plan to meet again to walk the new Atlanic Station development, which is a “city-form” suburban project for which a working class neighborhood was obliterated.

To be sure, we did not discuss post-autonomy. The whole morning felt very Fluxus to me…

-Alan Moore with Julie Püttgen and Nick A. Demos

Alan Moore – http://artworldsofatlanta.wikispaces.com/ Julie Puttgen – [|www.turtlenosedsnake.com] and www.ratsaladeluxe.com Nick A. Demos – [|www.neosymbolism.com]
 * our group included: