In Defense Of Lenox Mall
There's a tourist guide to Atlanta on The Economist's website that says something along the lines of "Atlantans love to talk endlessly about alternate travel routes & weather, so be prepared."
Don't worry, I won't go into the "alternate travel routes", but believe me they were in full force today.
Some people think Atlanta's big problem is that it gets really hot. This may be true. However it does get hotter elsewhere in the country. So people usually counter that what makes Atlanta so bad is the combination of heat and humidity. This may also be true. But I'm starting to wonder about that. Tokyo, a very humid city on a similar latitude to Atlanta, has a summer described by my beloved as "our bathroom the moment that we finish our shower, provided its also 100 degrees in the room at the same time" yet I survived pretty well. And Houston, a city we visited on Memorial Day weekend for reasons that made my workmates finally proclaim my insanity ("you're going to Houston at the beginning of summer? To visit museums?? And you're not renting a car???"), a city described by a friend as "feeling like you're in someone's mouth", was also tolerable despite 95-degree days the whole weekend and even stronger humidity.
So what is it that makes Atlanta such a wretched hellhole? I think its the fact that we get no wind. The whole city is stagnant. And while that makes our winters much more bearable than other places on the globe, it makes our summer days about as awful as it gets. Case in point: today.
After some morning activities in Fayetteville, we decided to head into Atlanta for a few things. One of the big draws was the ICE (Indie Craft Experience) Festival taking place at Centennial Olympic Park. We got to the Park around 2:15, just in time to scout around a little before poodleface's band Blanca Noche were to play. Everybody wins, right? S gets her arts & crafts thing going, I get to see not only bands but bands made up of people I actually know, and our kids love the public. So I drop S off as I try to find parking. Only to get a call about 5 minutes later from her saying "This looks really good, but seriously there is no way on earth I can stay here any longer. Don't bother about parking, just come pick me up. I'm near death." Disappointing, but one could hardly argue with the logic, especially hauling around 2 kids in tow.
So we assessed the situation and went to Lenox Mall instead. If you don't know Atlanta, Lenox is probably the most popular mall inside the perimeter. That said, its stores are both more higher-end and youth-conscious than most malls. I say all this as if I can hold any interest in a collection of stores that carry no music nor books. But we didn't go to Lenox because we wanted to shop.
In my college days (and several people on lj can attest), I was not the kind of guy who you'd see hanging out at Lenox. In fact I couldn't really stand the place back then. I saw it as a bathhouse of corporations fixed on making America completely homogenous. My stance was economic and artistic. I don't really disavow those feelings now, but on the other hand I now see it as a gigantic air-conditioned UV-restricted respite, clearly a public resource worth utilizing. My stance is survivalist.
Yes, I know that's environmentally unsound. But to use the above example, an organization that would hold a festival in June at a "park" that contains almost no trees is demonstrating some pretty unsound logic too. Or maybe I've just been too hypnotized by my new Gods Of Commerce And Their Healing Methods.
Note I call it "Lenox Mall." I will never defend it by its official name, "Lenox Square", as I can't find anything about it that is even square-like. Even the building isn't square! When I become dictator of America, my first action will be to convert everyone to the religion of architectural fundamentalism, wherewith all inaccurately named "squares", "boulevards", "circles", etc will immediately be disappeared. But that would be revealing too much of my strategy.
Don't worry, I won't go into the "alternate travel routes", but believe me they were in full force today.
Some people think Atlanta's big problem is that it gets really hot. This may be true. However it does get hotter elsewhere in the country. So people usually counter that what makes Atlanta so bad is the combination of heat and humidity. This may also be true. But I'm starting to wonder about that. Tokyo, a very humid city on a similar latitude to Atlanta, has a summer described by my beloved as "our bathroom the moment that we finish our shower, provided its also 100 degrees in the room at the same time" yet I survived pretty well. And Houston, a city we visited on Memorial Day weekend for reasons that made my workmates finally proclaim my insanity ("you're going to Houston at the beginning of summer? To visit museums?? And you're not renting a car???"), a city described by a friend as "feeling like you're in someone's mouth", was also tolerable despite 95-degree days the whole weekend and even stronger humidity.
So what is it that makes Atlanta such a wretched hellhole? I think its the fact that we get no wind. The whole city is stagnant. And while that makes our winters much more bearable than other places on the globe, it makes our summer days about as awful as it gets. Case in point: today.
After some morning activities in Fayetteville, we decided to head into Atlanta for a few things. One of the big draws was the ICE (Indie Craft Experience) Festival taking place at Centennial Olympic Park. We got to the Park around 2:15, just in time to scout around a little before poodleface's band Blanca Noche were to play. Everybody wins, right? S gets her arts & crafts thing going, I get to see not only bands but bands made up of people I actually know, and our kids love the public. So I drop S off as I try to find parking. Only to get a call about 5 minutes later from her saying "This looks really good, but seriously there is no way on earth I can stay here any longer. Don't bother about parking, just come pick me up. I'm near death." Disappointing, but one could hardly argue with the logic, especially hauling around 2 kids in tow.
So we assessed the situation and went to Lenox Mall instead. If you don't know Atlanta, Lenox is probably the most popular mall inside the perimeter. That said, its stores are both more higher-end and youth-conscious than most malls. I say all this as if I can hold any interest in a collection of stores that carry no music nor books. But we didn't go to Lenox because we wanted to shop.
In my college days (and several people on lj can attest), I was not the kind of guy who you'd see hanging out at Lenox. In fact I couldn't really stand the place back then. I saw it as a bathhouse of corporations fixed on making America completely homogenous. My stance was economic and artistic. I don't really disavow those feelings now, but on the other hand I now see it as a gigantic air-conditioned UV-restricted respite, clearly a public resource worth utilizing. My stance is survivalist.
Yes, I know that's environmentally unsound. But to use the above example, an organization that would hold a festival in June at a "park" that contains almost no trees is demonstrating some pretty unsound logic too. Or maybe I've just been too hypnotized by my new Gods Of Commerce And Their Healing Methods.
Note I call it "Lenox Mall." I will never defend it by its official name, "Lenox Square", as I can't find anything about it that is even square-like. Even the building isn't square! When I become dictator of America, my first action will be to convert everyone to the religion of architectural fundamentalism, wherewith all inaccurately named "squares", "boulevards", "circles", etc will immediately be disappeared. But that would be revealing too much of my strategy.