no car, no problem

Wow, it sure has been a while since I've updated this blog. A lot has happened since the last post: I spent a week with my best friends on an island in South Carolina, graduated from college, traveled to Turkey for a couple weeks, spent some much needed time with family in Pittsburgh, and decided to pursue a masters degree in City and Regional Planning at Georgia Tech. A lot of writing possibilities for a blog that hardly ever gets updated anymore! But for now I want to talk about some observations from my ongoing experiment: two years without a car in Atlanta.

Y'all might remember my original post from last year about my first 12 months going carless in Atlanta, and how I was all excited about signing up for Zipcar and getting a scooter. Well, here's how Year 2 has been.

• Owning a scooter and having friends with cars almost completely negates the need for a car sharing service like Zipcar. I'd say that I can run about 95% of my errands either by bike, foot, or scooter, and for that extra 5%, my excellent friends are more than willing to let me borrow their car.
• I ride my bicycle a LOT. Atlanta has bicycle friendly weather about 10 months a year, depending on how hard core you are about riding in really hot/humid conditions. For a student who lives close to an urban campus, the bicycle is a great way to get around.
• I have saved thousands of dollars in transportation costs. That's right, thousands.
• I would do the math and give you an exact number, but maybe I'm saving that for another post...
• Not having a car makes you a lot more conscious about the weather. You better believe I'm looking at that weather.com radar map on my phone right before I go somewhere on my scooter or bike.
• Rain sucks, and being caught in a torrential downpour/thunderstorm of epic proportions really sucks. I learned my lesson from that time (or three).
• You pay a lot more attention to topography and traffic patterns when you don't have a car. So drivers just think about the quickest route to their destination, but cyclists have to think about how hilly that route is, and generally how 'bike friendly' it is. No one wants to ride up a huge hill on a busy road in the dead of summer.
• Planning is everything when you want to go somewhere using transit. Google Transit has been a godsend to me, especially when connecting walking to bus rides to train rides.
• MARTA buses are really punctual and clean. In the past 12 months, I have been using buses a lot more often and I can say that they have never been more than 5 minutes late, and I have met some interesting people on MARTA buses.
• Also, buses are not just for poor people. I have seen plenty middle class people on the MARTA bus.
• My wardrobe has changed! I hardly ever buy gray or black clothing anymore, especially when it comes to shirts. Whether you are riding a bike, scooter, or pedestrian-ing (yeah, I made that word up), it's all about being as visible as possible to motorists. After all, the person enclosed in a multi-thousand-pound metal box on wheels isn't really going to feel a collision as much as someone on a thirty pound bicycle. With that being said, it's all about wearing bright-ish colors for me nowadays; I'd rather not be on the receiving end of that collision, thank you very much.
• Whether I am in better shape or not as a result of being carless is arguable--I still would have gone on plenty of recreational bike rides and runs if I still owned a car. BUT: what does make a huge difference for people in terms of weight control is the walkability of their neighborhood. Can you walk to your grocery store, favorite bar, or to the park? If you can, there's a good chance that you are not overweight.

If I think of some more observations on carlessness in Atlanta, I'll be sure to post them. Thanks for reading.

this is how we bottle it

Our homebrew finished its fermentation process earlier this week! It was really close to being ready to drink--all we had to do was bottle it. Bottling is actually a lot more difficult of a process than it seems. Everything that may touch the beer at one point has to be cleaned and sanitized: the tubes used for syphoning the beer from the fermentation vessel, the bottles, and even the caps.

The beer also needed a little bit of priming sugar. The yeast in the beer eats the extra sugar and farts out CO2 in the bottles, and that's what gives the beer its carbonation. After priming, we filled the bottles one by one and used a capper to cap (duh) the bottles. They have to sit for another couple weeks, then the beer will be nice and full of yeast farts, so it'll be ready to drink.

Nell and Molly helped us with the bottling process. The capper is the red thing on the left, and our fermentation vessel is a big plastic bucket.

stay away from this road

My street in Atlanta must be one of the only unpaved streets in the city, and all the rain in the past six months have carved a canyon right through the middle of the road. That might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but it's finally gotten to the point where one of my roommates who drives a lowered Mercedes has no way of getting past that part of the road. Lately we've been hanging out on the porch and watching drivers slam on the brakes when they see the canyon, and some of them actually put it in reverse and find a different way to get to where they want to go.

We've called the city of Atlanta and they have been really unresponsive. One day someone's car is actually going to fall into the canyon, then the city will have to do something about it. Here are some pictures

Yep. Dan is ankle deep in the canyon.

our newest park

Atlanta is a city that has always been lacking in greenspace..it's consistently ranked as one of the worst cities in the country in terms of greenspace per person. But all of that is changing now, thanks to the Atlanta Beltline! Everyone in the city nowadays is talking about the Beltline, which started as a GT city planning student's thesis in 1999. It's finally turning into a kind of space that the city has never seen before--a ring of trails and open space around the city that can be accessed by anyone.

One thing most people don't realize about the Beltline is that the plan also calls for parks to be built near the trail. Historic Fourth Ward park is the newest beltline park to be created, and it just opened to the public at the end of February! I biked over there the first week that it opened to check it out. The most striking part is the pond that is the centerpiece of the park. Atlanta has a combined stormwater/sewage system, and it was having problems with overflow in that area during large storms. Now that the park has been created, water will drain into the pond instead of overflowing the sewers and covering the streets of Atlanta with poop.

this is how we brew it

Earlier this week we realized that we were running out of our previous supply of homebrews, so Thursday became the designated brewing day for us. It ended up being a pretty long process because Grey and I couldn't decide what type of beer we wanted to make. After brewing IPAs, pale ales, and red ales in the past, we wanted something a little different to go along with the warm weather we've been having in Atlanta lately.

We went over to Hop City and picked up a few different Belgian strong ales to try, then the guys there found us a recipe and sold us all the supplies we needed. We got dry malt, bittering and flavoring hops, malt extract, candy sugar, yeast, and irish moss, which is basically dried up seaweed that binds to the proteins in the beer to help clarify it.

It should end up tasting pretty similar to a Chimay Red. Here's the description from Chimay's website:

"Topped with a creamy head, it gives off a light, fruity apricot aroma produced by the fermentation. The taste perceived in the mouth is a balance confirming the fruity nuances noticed in the fragrance.

Its taste, which imparts a silky sensation to the tongue, is made refreshing by a light touch of bitterness. To the palate, the taster perceives a pleasant astringency which complements the flavour qualities of this beer very harmoniously."

So in normal person speak, the beer is going to be kind of sweet without a whole lot of bitterness, and should have a pretty high alcohol content (over 7%).

The sampler beers: Rochefort 8, Westmalle Dubbel, and Ommegang Abbey Ale - I'm convinced that Rochefort is the greatest beer in the world. TRY IT!

All of the supplies except for the dry malt

Grey and his brew pot - it's not small.

Here are some of my favorites from the new roll of film. I've been taking the film to Esix Labs, which apparently is the only place in the city of Atlanta that still processes black and white film. It is pretty expensive to get film processed there, but so far I've been really impressed at the quality of the prints. Here are some of my favorites.

This was taken at the mosque on 14th street.

Just a few of Prem's guitars: bass, electric, and acoustic.

Courtney and Helen playing in Piedmont Park

I like this because Neerav was wearing his Monster Jam clothes and just looks like a farmer in this picture

Prem and I used a tripod for this one. I set the aperture to a fairly small setting (f/19) and set a really slow shutter speed (30 seconds) to get the streaks of lights going down the highway. This shot was taken from the top of the Management parking deck in Tech Square.

On-campus photography

I got in touch with Prem yesterday to take advantage of the beautiful weather (70 degrees in February!) and take some pictures outside. I finished up my second roll of film, which was ISO 125 and black & white. By the time we got outside at about 5:30, it was a little too dark to just freehand shoot, so I was lucky that Prem brought his tripod.

We ended up finding some really great places to shoot on campus. Two of my favorites were up on top of the Van Leer building and the top of the parking deck in Tech Square. We ended up spending two hours walking around and looking for good locations, and I got a total 7 pictures. It seems like a pretty crappy return on such a long time investment, but I like how using a film camera makes you really think about your compositions before you shoot. Also it was nice that Prem has basically the same camera except digital, so he could test out the settings beforehand to make sure the pictures would come out alright!

The film is getting processed right now, and pictures should be up sometime this week.

Photo by Prem Midha

Bluegrass and Comedy Fiesta!

Yesterday we got a chance to play at one of the great bluegrass venues in Atlanta: Red Light Cafe. The event was called "The very first semi-centennial bluegrass and comedy fiesta," and I must admit, it was quite a fiesta. It started off with The Rusty Boys (my band) playing an hour long set, then two stand-up comedians performed for a while, and it finished off with an energetic performance by Seven Handle Circus.

Our set went over pretty well for the most part with a nice mix of covers and originals. We just finished writing a new original a few days ago, so that makes it a grand total of three! The covers included songs by Mumford & Sons, the Avett Brothers, Ne-Yo, Katy Perry (don't judge), Cee-lo Green, and Zack Brown Band.

Hopefully we'll be playing with Seven Handle Circus again in the future. They're all great musicians and really know how to entertain a crowd!

Well, I said in my last post way back in November that I would post some pictures that I took with my new film SLR camera. I asked a friend of mine if he could give me some tips about photography, and he taught me a lot, especially about framing and things that make a black and white photograph really stand out.

This roll of film had 36 exposures, and I used ISO 100 film. Just about all of the pictures were taken on the aperture mode, which means I was in control of the aperture of the camera while it adjusted the shutter speed in accordance with its light meter. Next, I plan on getting a red filter, which increases contrast (especially between the sky and clouds), and playing with some different effects like taking multiple exposures on the same film. Enjoy!

More Hobbies

I spent Thanksgiving break in Phoenix/Tempe, Arizona with my cousin Aykut and his family. While over there, Aykut gave me his old Canon SLR camera. And it's a film camera! That's right, the kind that you can't see the pictures immediately after taking them..you have to get them DEVELOPED! And this thing isn't just any old 35mm film camera..it's got enough features and gadgetry to keep me entertained for quite a while.

So be on the lookout, maybe I'll eventually put some photography up on this blog. I will be sticking to black & white for now, and will probably be focusing on daytime urban shots.

Why Pittsburgh is Awesome: Part 1

If you have ever talked to me for more than 5 minutes, you know how much I love Pittsburgh and Southwestern PA. I'm going to start a mini-series on this blog called Why Pittsburgh is Awesome so all of you, my loyal readers, can get a feel for how great Pittsburgh truly is.

Creativity

Pittsburgh creates creative, progressive-minded people, just by the very nature of the city. Pittsburghers knew that after the steel industry collapsed, they would have to get resourceful and be able to adapt to ever-changing conditions. They have embraced the arts, technology, sustainability, and education like no other city in the country, and now other people in other cities wonder about how they can make theirs like Pittsburgh. People look at the out-migration of young Pittsburghers as a bad thing, but so many people in my generation will gain valuable experience in other parts of the country and world, then bring all of that back with them to Western PA in the future.

Example of creative Pittsburghers doing what they do best: I just heard about a restaurant in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh called Conflict Kitchen.

This take-out only restaurant only serves food from countries that the US is in conflict with. Each country is represented for four months at a time, and right now they are serving Iranian food and going by the name "Kubideh Kitchen". From the website:

"Kubideh Kitchen is an Iranian take-out restaurant that serves kubideh in freshly baked barbari bread with onion, mint, and basil. Developed in collaboration with members of the Pittsburgh Iranian community, the sandwich is packaged in a custom-designed wrapper that includes interviews with Iranians both in Pittsburgh and Iran on subjects ranging from Iranian food and poetry to the current political turmoil."

Vans Vault

I recently found out about Vans Vault, which is a limited edition seasonal run of shoes by Vans. The Spectator LX are some of my favorites, but they're incredibly hard to find. They're classy but still casual enough to wear every day as sneakers. Definitely a winner.

Zombie Infestation

AMC just came out with a new show called "The Walking Dead" that's based on zombies taking over the city of Atlanta. I've watched the first couple episodes, and it's pretty neat being able to pick out different streets and landmarks all over the city and imagine them being full of rotting, disgusting zombies. The plotline is actually pretty captivating so far, and in true zombie movie fashion, the series is somehow walking the line between disgustingly frightening and hilarious.

Rap City, USA

This song called Atlanta, GA has been stuck in my head all day, and I got to thinking about all the rappers/producers/hip hop artists/whatever you want to call them from Atlanta. It really seems like a new one shows up on the map every day. No matter how great or terrible some of their music may be, it's pretty impressive that so many big time rappers come out of Atlanta. Here's all the ones I can think of, just off the top of my head

Shawty Lo
Gucci Mane
Young Jeezy
B.o.B
TI
Lil Scrappy
Ludacris
Andre 3000
Big Boi
Yung Joc
Cee Lo Green
Jermaine Dupri
Youngbloodz
Ying Yang Twins
Usher
Goodie Mob
Soulja Boy

Baseball in October?

Something entirely new and unknown to me has happened in past week of my life. For as long as I've been following baseball, no team that I have even remotely cared about has made it to the post season. Growing up in Pittsburgh, I was used to baseball season ending in the middle of August, right around when the Pirates were getting ready to clinch their so-and-so consecutive losing season and the Godly Steelers were starting training camp.

But now, the Atlanta Braves are in the playoffs. There's baseball going on in October. Baseball is supposed to end in the summer. I'm going through a massive sporting paradigm shift, and I don't know if I can handle it. Go Bravos!

Asheville

What a great city for weird people like myself and my friends. The city is surrounded on all sides by the blue ridge mountains, and downtown is small, hilly, and really lively. I went last Thanksgiving and it was way too cold to really explore the city, but this time was perfect. Lots of funky little art galleries, bookstores, and restaurants. It is definitely a hippie city, but it's in the south!


We ate at a really great vegetarian restaurant called Rosetta's Kitchen (get the tempeh reuben, it's magical), and drank local beer at the Thirsty Monk. If you haven't been, then GO!

I think one of the southeast's greatest strengths is its small cities. There are so many really interesting and beautiful ones: Asheville, Greenville SC, Savannah, Chattanooga, Chapel Hill, etc. All of these towns take the things that I love about the big cities (namely ATL) that are too spread out to be really accessible, and smush them down into a more compact version.

More Travels

I went to one of my favorite cities in the south this weekend: Asheville, NC. I'll have an entry and some pictures pretty soon. For now, check out the website and new songs recorded by my bluegrass band, The Rusty Boys.

It's List Time

These are my favorite places in Atlanta. If you live here or visit, you should probably go to all of these.

1. Piedmont Park (see Tandemonium pictures below)

2. Virginia and Poncey Highlands - Walkable and lively with lots of shops and bars. Moes and Joes has $3.50 pitchers of PBR on Tuesdays and the best black bean quesadillas. 10High has live band karaoke.

3. Westside - So many unique places over here and tons of new development. 5 Seasons Brewing, Octane, Hop City, Ormsbys (a speakeasy-style bar with bocce ball courts), White Provision district, and Northside Tavern.

4. The Beltline - A ring of parks and greenspace that used to be railroad tracks all around Atlanta. The east side (between Dekalb Ave and Piedmont Park) has some amazing art installations and should have a paved walking/biking trail by December. Light rail eventually? I hope so.

5. Smith's Olde Bar - I'm kind of biased because my band's first gig was here, but this place is the best for live music and catching Steelers games. There's Steeler gear all over the place, and gamedays are full of fans waving terrible towels and wearing Polamalu jerseys. It's also really laid back and unpretentious, which is hard to find in midtown.

New Orleans, Round 2

I went to New Orleans a few weeks ago with some friends that studied abroad in France with me. This wasn't my first time going--I went in the spring of 2007 for a service trip to clean up after Katrina. Back then, I spent the vast majority the weekend there in the poorest parts of the city that had been hit the hardest by the hurricane. It was terrible seeing first hand all the damage that the hurricane had done and how bad it still was a year and a half later.

This time was a little different--we stayed at a friend's house in the city, went hiking through the swampland and marshes of a national park, and saw lots of great live music in the French Quarter.

It reminded me of Pittsburgh in some ways--people are so fiercely proud of their region, culture, and history that they could never even think about leaving, no matter what happens to their city. It's a place where families have lived for hundreds of years without ever thinking of moving. It's really a shame that terrible things keep happening in that part of the country because the people are so friendly, the culture is unique, and the city has so much charm that it almost forces you to fall in love with it.




A band called Sweet Street Symphony busking on Frenchmen Street


The Revivalists at Blue Nile music club. We caught a free concert after the red dress race.


The streetcar on St. Charles street

Tandemonium

I just realized that I never got around to posting pictures of the finalized tandem bike. It was a FRIGID day in December, 2009. The location was the gorgeous fields of Piedmont Park in my fair city of Atlanta, Georgia. Three excellent friends--Grey, Cassie, and Sinan took the newly built-from-scratch and barely functioning tandem bicycle out for a photoshoot. We thoroughly enjoyed one of those few short periods in which the bike was in working condition.

At the current moment I am sad to say that the tandem is in dire need of some love/fixing, but it will be back sometime soon.






ATL--We love this city