May 2017
Features
-
The South’s coolest new hotels
Marked by top-notch service and designed to the hilt, these hotels aren’t just a place to stay; they’re stylish destinations in their own right. Our top five picks—all opened within the last year—are within 330 miles of Atlanta for a chic weekend escape.
How a Syrian refugee family changed my life
Khaled is choking. Khaled, who is alive because he hid under his desk when the men came with their guns, whose family is alive because he convinced them to walk out the front door of their Damascus home while it still stood (and keep walking until they found a way to Jordan).
Here’s why reality TV shows keep flocking to Atlanta
Chalk it up to primo locations, local crews, Southern hospitality, and high ratings.
Jermaine Dupri made his name developing young hip-hop stars. With The Rap Game, he’s at it again.
Above all, Dupri says artists need an experienced industry hand that can steer their development, shape their image, offer advice on beats and lyrics. “That’s what The Rap Game is about,” he says, “that grind, that hard work.”
The AJC’s Rodney Ho watches every reality TV show so you don’t have to
Ho has watched every episode of the Real Housewives of Atlanta and written more than 136,000 words of weekly recaps. And he knows what his audience wants.
Want to be on a home improvement reality show? Read this first.
If you fancy becoming one of those hammer-swinging, do-it-yourself home renovators on television, you’re in luck. The metro Atlanta area is coveted by producers for its rich variety of housing styles and neighborhoods.
That time I almost became a reality TV star
I was 29 and struggling to make it as a freelance writer. MTV’s Jersey Shore was the hottest thing on TV. Those idiots are getting paid, I thought. Why not me and my old buddies?
Atlanta reality TV stars: Where are they now?
Tribble Reese got a master’s degree, Fred Pangle is a firearms instructor, Traci Steele is writing an autobiography, and Lisa Wu has moved on to rom coms
On screen, Little Women: Atlanta is all drama all the time. Off camera? Not so much.
Little Women: Atlanta launched in January 2016, and now 1.3 million viewers tune in per episode. Is the drama provoked or organic? “The story is the story,” coexecutive producer Mark Scheibal says. “Obviously, we have to produce it, put them in situations that allow it to happen or amplify it.”
-
The Connector
Murray Lynn survived the Holocaust. His story might never be more essential to hear than now.
There is no telling how many more times Murray Lynn can do this—stand before a few hundred people and speak of it again. His father’s murder. His mother’s rape. The train to Auschwitz. His three brothers, all killed, along with his widowed mother. And Murray himself, at 14 years old, the lone survivor.
What inspired Payne Lindsey to create the Up and Vanished podcast
With several more episodes to go in his scheduled series, Payne Lindsey looks forward to following new evidence—and even hopes to persuade Ryan Duke to do a jail house interview. “My audience has learned, as I have, not to jump to conclusions,” he says. “We just want to find the truth—wherever it leads.”
Ryan Gravel and Tim Keane are sketching a smarter city plan for Atlanta
“Atlanta has an opportunity over the next 25 years to completely shift [its] way of developing,” says Tim Keane. “But we will not be successful if we don’t have a design.”
A new development in Cascade Heights aims to boost walkability
About six miles southwest of downtown, at the core of Cascade Heights’ commercial district, an adaptive reuse project hopes to have a big community impact.
The Agenda
Atlanta Botanical Garden exhibits a whimsical side with new Curious Garden installation
The exhibition’s most prominent installation is a forest of salvaged, bare trees spray-painted in colors usually reserved for ice cream: vivid orange and pastel yellows, pinks, blues.
Daniel Arsham’s art shows how looks can be deceiving
Inside this purple cave, the walls are lined not with rocks but sports equipment: basketballs, tennis balls, footballs, soccer balls. Look closer, and you’ll see something else: Instead of rubber or leather, the balls are made of calcified amethyst crystal, pockmarked with sparkly pitted edges.
The CDC celebrates its longtime photographer, Jim Gathany
Since 1986 photographer Jim Gathany has documented the inner workings of the Centers for Disease Control, snapping images of visiting presidents, lab scientists at work, even mosquitoes as they feast on his own blood.
Albert Schweitzer Organ vs. Mighty Mo: How does the new size up with the old?
The mere sound of air shrilling through metal organ pipes summons images of cavernous churches and movie houses and long-dead virtuosos. In that context, Spivey Hall’s 25-year-old Albert Schweitzer Memorial Organ is just a babe. So how does this newcomer size up against metro Atlanta’s ranking piper, the Fox Theatre’s “Mighty Mo?”
Atlanta Dream: Who will step up while Angel McCoughtry is out?
Top scorer Angel McCoughtry is out this season, but these Atlanta Dream teammates are ready to step up.
The Bite
Fresh on the Scene: Bon Ton, Mediterranea, 9292 Korean BBQ, Sankalp
New to Atlanta: Fried seafood in Midtown, vegetarian Italian food in Grant Park, south Indian eats in Decatur, and impressive Korean barbecue in Duluth
The best metro Atlanta restaurants with free parking
Parking in Atlanta can be a nightmare, especially when all you want is a bite to eat. So we’ve rounded up where you can park for free. No, not complementary valet and no, not in the occasional open space found on a side street after rounding the block three times. These are free lots next to the restaurant itself.
In his most ambitious book yet, John T. Edge explores the question, “What is Southern food?”
The Potlikker Papers is a food history of the modern South, “the South that awakes from slumber in 1955 when the cooks and maids in Montgomery step off the buses and begin walking to work, rejecting Jim Crow,” says Edge.
Review: At Poor Hendrix, pastry chef Aaron Russell goes savory, with success
Poor Hendrix, which Aaron and Jamie Russell opened in East Lake’s Hosea and 2nd development last November, feels like two small restaurants packed close together.
The Christiane Chronicles: Meal delivery services turn haste into waste
I shiver every time I hear an ad for Blue Apron. The New York–based company ships ready-to-cook meals all over the country, with recipes and premeasured ingredients packed in tiny plastic pouches and containers, all tightly surrounded by ice packs. Think of the waste!
First it was “slow food.” Now restaurants are embracing “slow flowers.”
If your table’s “fresh-picked” centerpiece was actually picked two weeks ago in, say, South America, then flown or driven thousands of miles to its final destination, it subtracts from the flowers’ lifespan. Local flowers often last longer, which ultimately cuts down on cost.
Want to impress at your next cookout? Throw these local franks on the grill.
If it weren’t for the Spotted Trotter, Ian Nathanson might never have started selling the hot dogs that have become such sought-after late-night eats in East Atlanta Village.
The Goods
4 free fitness classes in Atlanta
The free King of Pops yoga class held weekly at Historic Fourth Ward Skate Park (7 p.m., Tuesdays) draws hundreds, but you can try plenty of other outdoor classes that won’t cost you anything but sweat.
My Style: Christina Swilley, owner of Collect on Sunday
A preacher’s daughter with a wild streak, Swilley recently opened Poncey-Highland’s coolest new shop, Collect on Sunday, inspired by her favorite day of the week to dress up. The native Atlantan, blogger, stylist, photographer, model, and collector stocks both fine and funky vintage clothes for him and her, along with jewelry, art, books, and music.
Room Envy: This lakeside kitchen is a Belgian beauty
This kitchen may be new, but interior designer Buffy Ferguson gave it the patina of an old Belgian farmhouse, with softly glazed cabinets, open shelves, and ceiling beams in a light finish. The peaceful setting on Lake Roquemore in Newnan inspired a bluish-gray palette resembling the reflection of water.
This app promises to help you find jeans that actually fit
Raise your hand if you’ve ever been inside a store dressing room on the verge of tears because you can’t find jeans that fit.
Your guide to Atlanta’s extreme beauty treatments
The latest treatments use heat, cold, light, and even blood—but stop just short of the knife.
Miscellaneous
Editor’s Note: Reality TV is only so real
When there wasn’t obvious conflict, the producers of Fix This Kitchen would gin some up. Continuity was key, as I came to understand later. Clothes you wore one day might need to be worn again on another. The shot of my pregnant wife unloading those boxes from the delivery truck? They were empty.
An 11-year-old’s mission to save Butts County police K-9s, one vest at a time
In March 2016, after 11-year-old Cameron Tuggle learned that police dogs in his home county were unprotected while on duty, he launched a GoFundMe page to buy four K-9 vests, which can cost more than $1,000 each. He promoted the fundraiser online, and eventually the donations poured in from around the world.
