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Ever wonder why downtown isn’t teaming with clubs despite the hotel presence?  Ever wonder why no club survives very long in town?

The lack of places to play have been a big discussion among Jazz musicians in the Atlanta Jazz Forum and now a theory has been proposed.

Dan Turner is a local developer, builder, and piano man.  When presented with the scene of a woman who came downtown to hear Jazz and had a terrible experience, he began to delve into what went wrong: (These are editted excerpts from his post, which, in it’s original form is a little bit spicier)

“My time playing Atlanta started in  the very early 60’s when I was 9….playing in a few of the nightclubs that my father owned. I got into the circuit and hit his clubs as well as some of the joints that were within walking distance of each other. Sure…they were strip clubs; however for the 3 years that I played each weekend …jazzers were passed around from the Zebra, Domino, Club Peachtree and a host of others within a block or two of  each other. Going from one club to another, I saw a lot of familiar faces that were simply walking back and forth.

“In my opinion…and it extends back to those years playing with  really good players (and GREAT LOOKING EXOTIC DANCERS!!); now coupled with my role as a land planner…there are a few folks to blame for the fiasco in Atlanta:  Sam Massell, John Portman, & Tom Cousins.

“Massell picked up from his predecessor to “clean up Atlanta” by  closing down clubs by raising the dispensing fees. The Chamber of  Commerce gathered together with the powers to be and decided on John  Portman to devise a way to circumvent the sidewalks with the tunnels and tubes that deliver you away from the clubs on the street and right into the propietary clubs of the hotels. Ditto with Tom Cousins who was just the most fortunate guy to have MARTA wind up at his major complexes, and everyone else that went into the same mode of “cleaning up Atlanta” took something away from the night clubs that kept them alive …making a buck selling liquor.

“There was a lot to be said for a bar with a great band that all of a sudden had to be able to cook food. That ordinance wiped out the little hole in the wall joints….the same set up that thrives in New Orleans. There were ordinances enacted against Neon lighting. The distance between the bar stools and the stage. The decibel rating. Smoking/non-smoking designated square footage. Restrooms that had to meet a minimum square footage and then the ADA (Americans with Disability Act) that although a great thing…was not allowed to be grandfathered in for established businesses.

“It got to be too expensive to be in a business that the City wanted to see leave in order to make the place hospitable to Conventions.  The city [departments] were shaking down club owners and the Bud Turners, Chic Hendrix’s and Sam Jensen’s just closed shoppe.

“It’s still not a hospitable city… with the panhandlling and the blocks of no-mans land at night. The clubs and bars are found inside the complexes or within a $30 taxi ride from the center of the action…it’s just spread out and too thin.

“What little bit of fire that was there went away with a purpose. The jazz clubs have no competition…and sometimes human nature takes over with regards to how they would treat a customer since they were the only show in town…or walking distance to another Atlanta attraction. Or they’re not making enough to pay the help, talent, and nightly nut…so you’re getting anyone barely breathing to wait your table for minimums. Without the competition, there’s not much reason to improve…or if they’re already into the failure mode (which happens much too often), they’ve just given up.

“Atlanta had a great little complex at one time….Underground Atlanta…before Rouse. There were a half dozen player joints within sound of each other….I can remember many a tawdry Saturday AFTERNOON at the Apothecary watching Paul Mitchell and Neal Starkey, et all wailing away to a pretty full house. Tired of that? Walk across the street to Dante’s and then on over to Reds and a few other joints that the names don’t come apparent right now…and then start that circuit over again.

“Underground wasn’t a threat to Atlanta during the 60s and 70s..but they (whoever THEY were) decided to “fix it” anyway.  It’s a brave step every time someone opens a club to sponsor jazz players…but, foremost in mind, in order to keep that door open, they have to sell enough liquor. The players are almost always way down the food chain as to priorities, but it’s a huge investment to open a joint to meet all the codes and ordinances; pay the fees; get the final permit and then try to market with the leftover cash. Some places are doomed on opening night and everything that you described doesn’t make it that appealing for a return visit.

“Until a chosen few decided to “Clean Up Atlanta” and when they got rid of the clubs….they got rid of the talent and the incentives for future clubs.”
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It should be pointed out that to some degree, Massell did this same thing again a few years ago in Buckhead.  He wanted to chase the club owners out to make the area more attractive for the big condo towers that now dominate what was one of America’s best known party spots.  With the help of the City Council, he again succeeded in killing off lots of Atlanta nightlife.  Maybe, Massell likes money better than fun… Or at least he thinks if everyone has money they can afford to go have fun somewhere else.

Did you like 99x?  WNNX has changed formats again.   Cumulus, the company that now owns the station, saw the writing on the wall and decided that though Gen Y was not yet as wealthy as Gen X, their superior numbers and younger minds would be more attractive to advertisers.

So your old friends are almost gone.  99x, in it’s current version, is still on the web and is the HD2 channel of 99.7 FM.  Of Course, the classic 99x staff left long ago.  Sean Demery is long gone.  Leslie Fram is long gone.  Steve Craig is left with only the Thrashers and didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.

There really is no place for the audience that listened to 99x.  Some of the most hip will go to WRAS.  Others will find their way Project 96.1 ( another casualty..  96 Rock too died)  the remainder will likely end up at Dave FM.

There are two questions remaining;  one small, one large.  The small question is what will Cumulus do with the 100.5 FM frequency?  The answer of course is what ever makes the most money.

The bigger question is what is going to happen longer term?  Will radio continue to consolidate and will those pressures continue to push the broadcasters toward the lowest common denominator?  How will HD, Satellite, and wi fi radio effect the broadcasters?  Eventually, one would hope that the competition would force the broadcasters to create a smarter more progressive product, but don’t count on it.  Look forward to more basic boomer radio instead.

With the closing of Walden Books (deep discounts while they last) in Lenox Square, neither of the city’s two premiere shopping plazas will have a book store in them. Lenox barely has a music store (FYE) and Phipps has none. That’s fascinating. Lenox once had two bookstores and had an HMV. They even had the Met Shop. Now, virtually nothing.

Perhaps this says something about our culture. Yes, one of the larger Borders is near by, but one would think that Atlanta’s wealthier shoppers would want more than home furnishings and clothes. One would think they’d want something to read to go with one of the coffee stands around the mall.

Perhaps there is a division between the culture of literature and serious music and the pop scene in our town. Atlanta has not had a serious literary hangout since Oxford Books closed all but the comics store. Tower was one meeting place for serious musicians, but now that it’s gone, now it really does revolve around clubs such as Churchill Grounds and Apache Cafe. Unlike other cities, Atlanta likely could not support a Gibson shop in Lenox.

It is surprising however, that there is not a serious hip hop industry shop in Lenox. On any given Saturday, the ultra-bling set can be seen shopping there and the lack of a store that sells cutting edge electronics, beat samplers, tracks, and recorders is surprising. Perhaps Simon is trying to discourage it.

Ah well, at least Atlanix is there, but with the loss of the music stores, book stores, and museum stores, a serious commitment from the Management at Simon would be a friendly gesture.

Dave-FM is running a promotion encouraging people to choose the “Top 30 Albums” of the past 30 years. Good luck with that. Here’s the problem. The chances that they will create a list that means anything are almost nil. First, they have to define what is meant by “The Top”. If they mean purely by sales, be prepared to hear a lot of Michael Jackson and Celine Dion.

If they mean by cultural influence, their going to hit ‘The Velvet Underground’ problem. (For those of you unfamiliar… The initial run of the Velvet’s first record sold about 6,000 copies, but allegedly, “everyone who bought the record started a band”.) It’s unlikely that a choice left up to people will be able to properly address the albums that are heard mostly by other musicians. This is why I guarantee there will be an Indigo Girls album on the list, but I promise that there will not be a Roches record. Even if you asked just the musicians in town, they’re all going to disagree. The albums Ludacris thinks are the most influential won’t be the same as those on the list of Aaron Shust.
The Guardian tried this several years ago. They included the Spice Girls record.

It would be better if Dave-FM had said “Hey! We’re compiling a list of what our listeners think are the most important records”. Instead they are claiming that theirs will be the “quintessential list that defines the 30 Biggest Albums of the Last 30 years.”
There are, perhaps, half a dozen folks in town who could properly answer this question with any authority. I bet Dave-FM has not asked them.

Most of Furman Bisher’s work between two covers has been collections of columns or anecdotes with only three full-length books I have been able to find. One about the Masters, one about Arnold Palmer and Miracle in Atlanta (1966) which came out just as Atlanta became the first city to premier an NFL team the same year as an MLB team.

I knew bits and pieces of the machinations which brought the Braves here: from Ivan Allen Jr’s Notes from the Sixties I knew about Citizens & Southern Bank’s president Mills B. Lane fronting the money and that the stadium came before a team had committed. But I didn’t realize what a character Lane was (there should be a biography of him!) or just how many deals were close but fell apart. Must of been very stressful for a mayor who promised a new stadium and pro sports.

Lane’s cylindrical C and S Tower matches the giant circle of Atlanta Stadium
In one interesting tidbit, Bisher mentioned a slightly earlier attempt to snag an NFL franchise. A “kitchenware and dime-store novelties salesman” named Bill McCane built a stadium out in the sticks of DeKalb County. He purchased the land from a chicken farmer and dug an enormous hole, installed borrowed bleachers from a friend in Houston and called it America Field.

Two exhibition games were played before they pulled the plug on the sub-standard stadium: Cowboys vs Raiders on August 4, 1962 and Oilers vs Broncos one week later. Soon after, the company that loaned McCane the bleachers came to repossess them and NFL dreams shifted to Atlanta.

Anybody know where this America Field actually was?

Right now, the Atlanta History Center is the opposite of the High Museum.  Both the History Center and High brought a big name exhibit, but where as the High’s other collections were more interesting than the Louvre exhibit, the History Center’s exhibit of the King Papers is worth your time.

Now, I know what you’re thinking… “More Doctor King?  Come on, we get enough of it every year.  I have a dream in which we’re not beaten over the head with this stuff!”   This is different and better.  First, this exhibit does not hit you over the head.   Most selections are from his papers and library.  There is some A/V stuff, but it’s ancillary to the mainstay of the exhibit.  It’s really about seeing the evolution of his ideas through the process of writing his speeches.

The researchers have been meticulous.  They’ve found the books with notes scribbled in the margins which directly relate to the speeches that set our culture forward.  Dr. King was truly a scholar in addition to being a first rate rhetorician.  He drew knowledge and lessons from Descartes and Galbraith as well as the bible and Gandhi.  Those lessons went into crafting his ideas and there are several speeches in which you can read the first and second drafts before you listen to the final versions.

There are also a few telegrams of note.  How they are crafted reminds us that 40 years ago, we truly communicated differently.  Letters were more formal.  People created eloquent sentences to manifest elegant ideas.  Our current age sees stretching the language as superfluous.

However, what we lack in language, we more than make up for in visual symbolism, and the center, again like the High, addresses that through quilts.  Again, the History Center exhibit is better.  The quilt exhibit features both excellent abstract expressionist pieces and more literal works.  It shows how advances in sewing have lead to more precise designs and given artists more room to grow.  It also shows how more multimedia elements have been incorporated into the design.  The quilt entirely made from neckties was especially neat.

Allow enough time.  The King exhibit alone will take an hour to ninety minutes.  Add a tour of Swan House or Tullie Farm and the other exhibits, and you should really give yourself the afternoon; three hours minimum.

Visiting the Atlanta History Center serves as a reminder that although most are newcomers and many have tried to tear down the past, Atlanta has a history!   Understanding that history is important to seeing the underlying currents which still flow throughout decision making today.  The change is inevitable.  Understanding where the currents of change started lets us better direct its flow.

While he was in office, President Ford visited Atlanta. He spoke to a Republican gathering 20 years ago.

When Ford came here, one of this State’s sons was on his way to receiving the National blessing to run against him. Democrats held the Georgia House and Senate and Maynard Jackson was mayor.

President Ford pointed out somethings that today’s Republicans ought to remember as they again clothe themselves in the gowns of power under the Gold Dome and as Democrats take the helm in Washington.

Now, on his national day of mourning, we reprint his remarks:
———-
President Ford:
John, Matt, and all of you wonderful Republicans here in this meeting in the Atlanta area:

Let me first express my deep appreciation and gratitude for John Savage’s endorsement. I know it will be very meaningful, and I promise to you, John, as I promise to everybody here, I won’t let you down.

Now, let me thank all of you. This is the biggest Georgia Republican gathering I have seen in the many, many times I have been in Georgia on behalf of the Republican Party, so I think it augers well that come May 4 we may surprise some of those people who think they are going to win. I think we have a darn good chance of winning.

I want to thank some of the people that I know personally, that I served with in the Congress, for the help and assistance and their support. First, I want to thank Fletcher Thompson, who I understand has gone the length and the breadth of Georgia speaking out on my behalf. And if Fletcher is here, I want you to know, Fletch, thank you very, very much.

I want to thank another great Georgian for the help and assistance, the invaluable aid that he gave me during some tough times in this campaign, a very dear friend of mine, a very outstanding American, Bo Callaway. I think it is very unfair the kind of treatment he is getting from a committee in the United States Senate. And, doggone it, they ought to do better in the handling of a matter of this kind to give Bo a fair shake.

Now, let me, if I might, give you some ideas and suggestions that might be helpful in the 11 days between now and May 4. I know many of you will be at the telephone phone banks, many of you will be talking to your friends, many of of you will be discussing who ought to be the Republican nominee in the fall of 1976.

Let me respectfully give you some suggestions that I know have been helpful in the areas of this country where we have been successful and in those areas of the country where we are going to be more successful.

First, when I became President in August of 1974 we were experiencing some very serious economic problems. The rate of inflation was 12 to 14 percent. We were on the brink–literally on the brink–of the worst economic recession in this country in 40 years.

Well, my firm, constructive, I think, steady policies that put the emphasis on trying to get the private sector to meet the challenge rather than loading up the Federal payroll, we have come out of this in good shape.

Where do we stand? Where do we stand? Well, instead of 12 to 14 percent inflation, the rate of inflation for the first 4 months of 1976 was 2.9 percent. That is great success, and we are going to keep working on it, and we will do even better.

Last May, the unemployment was at almost 9 percent, but since last May, at the depth of the recession, we have added 2,600,000 more people gainfully employed in this country. As of March, it was reported that we had 86,700,000 people gainfully employed in this country, the greatest number in the history of the United States. So, we have met the challenge in the area of employment, and we are going to do better and better, and we are going to continue to lower the unemployment rate as we will with the kind of policies that we have.

We’re on the road to the most sustained, best economic times that this country has had. And I think this administration can claim a great deal of credit for it.

And what do we want to achieve as we move ahead? We want to achieve a balanced budget. But you know how we’re going to get it? We’re going to cut the rate of growth of Federal spending from 11 percent to 5 1/2 or 5 percent. And, at the same time, in order to stimulate the private sector of the economy I hope the Congress will approve the additional $10 billion tax reduction that I recommended this year. And I hope and trust that they will follow on with the kind of a tax program that I will recommend the next year. And all of those programs of holding the rate of growth of Federal spending and stimulating the private sector will give us a balanced budget in 3 years and the healthiest, vigorous economy.

And you know, another thing that I think we can talk about–and I think it is dear to the hearts of the people here in Georgia–I firmly believe that we ought to get the Federal Government, to the extent that we possibly can, off the backs and out of the pockets of the people of this country. This administration believes in one very basic truth, and let me state it: A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

Now, let me add another feature of what I think is a good selling point in Georgia, a good selling point in all 50 States. We want an even balance in labor management so that without government interference we can have those labor management problems solved with labor and management doing it without government interference. That is why I vetoed the common situs picketing bill. And I might also say, talking about vetoes, since I have been President I have vetoed 48 measures. That is an all-time record. Thirty-nine of those vetoes have been sustained even by this Congress. [Laughter] The net result is we have saved $13 billion in Federal expenditures, and that is not a bad record. But let me add a postscript. If they send down any more of this terrible legislation, we will veto it and veto it and veto it again.

Now, let’s talk for a minute about how we stand in our efforts to make sure that we maintain the peace. You know, I am very proud that I am the first incumbent President who is seeking election who can stand before the American people and say that our country is at peace–the first one in 20 years. So, we must be doing something right in our relations with our allies and with our adversaries.

All I am saying is the United States of America is number one. We have unsurpassed military capability, we are the greatest industrial nation in the history of the world, our agriculture outproduces anybody, we are ahead scientifically and technologically, and, most importantly, this country has a deep moral and spiritual and religious belief that gives us the inspiration to challenge anybody and to keep ahead of everybody, and that is where America is.

And now let me thank Matt, John, and all of you. We have got great leadership here in Georgia and we have got great people like you to help in the job. I think we have good programs, both domestically and internationally, and if we are able to do, as I think we have done in the last 20 months, in the next 4 years, we can say at the end of the next 4 years even stronger and even better than we say it today–every one of us is proud to be an American and proud of America.
Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 5:38 p.m. in the Olympium II and III Rooms at the Radisson Inn. In his opening remarks, he referred to John Savage, former Georgia Congressman, and Matthew Patton, chairman of the Georgia President Ford Committee.

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Citation: John Woolley and Gerhard Peters,The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, CA: University of California (hosted), Gerhard Peters (database).

Sigh.  It seems everyday the music dies a little more.  Today’s death, however, was big.  J. Michael Cawthon died.  You might have known him better as Fuzzy.  Since 1983, he’s operated a public house on North Druid Hills road with some of the best Creole cooking you could imagine.  He also made sure that some of the best musicians played his club in front of tiny houses.  Want to see Francine Reed up close?  You can do it at Fuzzy’s.  You just can’t do it with Fuzzy anymore.

A bar owner sets the tone.  In the same way Brian Maloof made Manuel’s better when he took over, and how Tamra Erisman makes Cotton’s one of the friendliest places to get great food, Fuzzy wanted to make sure you relaxed.  His bar is everything a Jimmy Buffett song ever aspired to be.  The staff is sassy but caring, the food is great tasting but a little bad for you, and they have a fully stocked basic bar.  Fuzzy just wanted you to kick back and have some fun.

He meant it too.  Once, one of the best guitar players in town was on stage and had played a whole set, but hadn’t sung anything.  Fuzzy walked straight up to him and offered him $100 on the spot to sing one song!  The guitar player declined and Fuzzy just shook his head.  “C’mon man!  Sing one song!  The people will love you!  I will love you and give you a hundred dollars!  How much more complicated is life than that?”

If you want to celebrate, make a donation to the Georgia Alzheimers Foundation and then come Nov. 01 to Fuzzy’s Place (on North Druid Hills between 85 and Buford Highway) and celebrate the life of one cool guy.

It is another sad day indeed. International Records in Peachtree Center has closed. It was great eclectic little record shop in Peachtree Center that had a great selection. Howard Cohen, the owner, decided to retire and with him went the shop. A sad day indeed. That combined with the closure of giants such as Tower means it’s going to be harder to browse through music in Atlanta. It also means there is no longer a record store in all of downtown.

International Records will be missed and is to be thanked for providing so much good music to the community. Mourn.

No better eulogy exists than DNB’s Blog entry about it.

I was shocked that as bad as June was for the Braves they could actually still get 100 wins this season. I’m sure it won’t happen but if they win all 45 remaining games they could get there. I’d just like to see them get to .500, for that they’d need to win 58% or 26 of 45 which seems doable.

Speaking of baseball, a great stats book came out last year called The Numbers Game. In it Alan Schwartz describes the evolution of the various numbers that we take for granted as well as new Sabermetric convolutions. There’s also a long chapter about the history of the various baseball encyclopedias describing all the corrections that have been made to records. Amazingly there have been three totally separate movements to research each major league game in history from newspaper accounts. One of those, Retrosheet, puts all of their research on the web. They have play-by-play descriptions of every game since the 1960s and a bunch before then.

One of my favorite memories is in there. Look at the fifth inning of this 1995 game. I had awesome seats in the first row right on first base to watch a Greg Maddox gem. There was a popup to first so McGriff is positioning to handle it and Belliard comes in behind to back him up and I was cracking up. McGriff was 6′3″ and Belliard a little over 5′ and tiny and it looked hilarious.

If you still want to get excited about our team, their rookie Danville Braves are in first place in the Appalachian League Eastern division. Go Braves!