Georgia Theatre: The last marquee

One of my sisters was at The Theatre last night. She took a picture of the marquee because her boyfriend's roommate is in the band.


Image: Lara Fain.

Indications are that the theater will be rebuilt. It appears the marquee, and perhaps even the outer walls, can be saved.

But if you're ever sitting on a porch in Athens playing trivia, and they ask who played the last show before the famous Georgia Theatre fire of 2009, the answer is Rockinwood.

The Georgia Theatre is on fire

1340 in Athens reports the Georgia Theatre is on fire this morning, with "as many as 4 ladder trucks" on the scene.

Nothing online at The Banner Herald or The Red and Black.

UPDATE: The Athens-Clarke County Fire Department confirms it: The Georgia Theatre is burning.

UPDATE: As the commenter notes, The AJC is up with a story. They have a contributed picture on the home page showing a ton of smoke.

UPDATE: Athens Bureau Chief Brian Huff has arranged for pictures. The phrase "total loss" is being used a lot, and I think you can see why.


Image: Daniel Ussery.

Lucid Idiocy Athens Correspondent Jean O'Keefe reports at 8:59:

They have the fire under control but they are still hosing it down. You can see smoke from Milledge and the downtown area is fairly smoky. Lots of people hanging out on street corners and parking lots. Building is still standing. I will send pics out later today.

It looks like WSB TV in Atlanta sent their chopper to shoot the fire. They have several pictures. The Banner-Herald has a story up now. Apparently the fire knocked out power downtown, including at the paper.

Final update on this post: The Banner Herald spoke to the owner. He plans to rebuild, and there's some speculation as to the cause.

Fox 5 got an excellent view of the now-gone roof from their chopper, as seen in this video embedded at Fresh Loaf.

Iran: A wheel in spin

Rostam replied, "The way is long, how shall I go without soldiers to accompany me?" Zal said, "There are two ways there from this kingdom, and both are filled with difficulties and dangers. One is the way that Kavus took; the other lies through the mountains and will take two weeks. You will meet with lions and demons and darkness, and your eyes will be bewildered by what they see. If you take the shorter way, you will come on monstrous things, and may God come to your aid then. It is a hard way, but set Rakhsh along it and you will survive its perils. In the dark night, until daybreak, I shall pray to God that I shall see your shoulders and chest again, and your sword and mace in your hand, and if God wills that a demon turn your days to darkness, can any man avert this from you?

What comes to us must be endured. No one can stay in this world forever; and even if he remains here for a long time, he is finally summoned to another place. If a man leaves behind him a noble reputation, he should not despair when he has to depart."

- Shahnameh

I don't know whether we're witnessing a revolution or not in Iran at the moment. But I do believe that everyone who calls themselves an American, who says they love freedom, should be paying attention.

My guess is that we are not witnessing a revolution, but only a step. Perhaps many steps.

Whenever people take to the streets, peacefully, to say "We are not satisfied," the cause of humanity is advanced. And whenever the government in power responds with a tightening grip, it only hastens its own demise.

But these things all take time. Government has no special powers of its own. Nor do movements. They are merely means to an end, which hopefully we will call liberty.

\
When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right of the majority to command, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind.

Potpourri: Nicknames, like the Internet, are stupid

Did you know that, in Jeopardy, the category "potpourri" includes questions that were not revealed in previous Jeopardy episodes because time ran out?
----
I have a book called Great American Speeches. But did Lou Gehrig give the greatest speech ever?


July 4, 1939. Note the large G in the background.
----
"There are more kinds of fools than one can guard against."

"In the last instance, it is character alone that makes for one's safety."

- Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent.
----

Sir Charles Barkley, he ain't even got a ring.
----


Notre Dame has been trying to auction off a scoreboard since May 13, with very few bids. The jokes write themselves.

• They figured they wouldn't need it.
• Jimmy Clausen not included. Thank God.
• Home side almost like new!
• It's actually just for rent, because USC owns it.
• Weighs less than Charlie Weiss.
• Home of the 1981 Sugar Bowl runners up

----
I'm not quite sure I trust this. I saw it on my buddy's... blog, if that's what Tumblr is.

Lightning in Slow motion from பிரேம்ஜி on Vimeo.

----
ME: I wrote something down here a while back, and I'm wondering if you said it. Did you say "Urban Meyer. I hate him. He makes me hate Mormons. I don't even think he's Mormon."?
JOE: "..."

Satan's Bride LLC was taken

More reporting from the blog most likely to question your company name...

I'm reading one of Chrysler's bankruptcy filings. And I learned this:

Chrysler’s ultimate parent company is Chrysler Holding LLC (“Holding”). The owners of Holding are Cerberus Capital Management L.P. (“Cerberus”) and Daimler AG (“Daimler”). As of the Petition Date, Cerberus or its affiliates held 80.1% of the membership interests in Holding, and Daimler or its affiliates held 19.9 % of its membership interests.

You named your company after the three-headed dog whose job was to guard the gates of hell?

Then you bought Chrysler and hired Dan Quayle. Sign me up, I want on this gravy train.

From Wikipedia: "(Company founder Steve) Feinberg has stated to his employees that while the Cerberus name seemed like a good idea at the time, he later regretted naming the company after the mythological dog."

Sanford Stadium from the air, aboard the Georgia

While returning home from this story on a military flight, one of our photographers took this shot of Sanford Stadium:


Image: Jason Vorhees, The Telegraph.

The military plane Jason and reporter Joe Kovac flew on? An Army C-23 named Georgia, shown below at the Athens airport.


Image: Joe Kovac.

Tomorrow is 65 years since D-Day

What a thing to have to do.


Image: National Archives of the United States.

Friday evening update: From the Department of the Army through the Georgia National Guard:

The following is the official Department of the Army notification of the deaths of three Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 108th Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition (RSTA)Squadron currently supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of three Soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died June 4 near Kapisa, Afghanistan of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device and small arms fire. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 108th Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition Squadron, 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Georgia Army National Guard in Calhoun.

Killed were:

- Maj. Kevin M. Jenrette, 37, of Lula, Ga.,
- Staff Sgt. John C. Beale, 39, of Riverdale, Ga.
- Spc. Jeffrey W. Jordan, 21, of Rome, Ga.

The Gainesville Times has a story up about Maj. Jenrette. He was married with three children, according to his father, a colonel in the United States Army.

The Rome News has a piece about Spc. Jordan. He was married, with a 1-year-old son. He worked at the local prison, and had a "goofy smile."

The Gainesville story says a fourth soldier, nationality unreported by the Army, survived with injuries.

A Bn'E Trifecta: Gordo, Florida and a D-end

"Welcome to the bigs, Gordo, that was quick."

There's never enough of this play. A steel chair is involved.

Quentin Moses, 25 career sacks, wingspan.


Image: Special to georgiadogs.com.

Nike, those are the good ones

The Nike puppet commercials are really good. The virtual EA Sports basketball breakdown needs more puppets.

"You enjoy your bunion surgery."

Braves release Glavine, trade for a solid bat

I guess the Braves ain't messing around. They released 305 game winner Tom Glavine today and traded minor leaguers for Nate McLouth.

Braves GM Frank Wren is doing an interview right now during the game broadcast, and he says McLouth will be the club's new lead off man. He also says Tommy Hanson has been called up and will start Saturday, which The AJC has a piece on.

Said Wren: "We just needed, we needed something to kind of jump start us into the last four months of the season."

updated from the comments: "I sure will miss Glavine's dazzling personality and one pitch arsenal."

The "U" in UF stands for "under no circumstances will you ever beat us again"

When I heard on the radio this morning that the University of Florida softball team had been swept in the College World Series finals last night, it put a smile on my face. And this picture of the girls' faces, standing with their runner-up trophy, made me smile again.

So that's what it's come to. I'm 33 years old, and the fact that the University of Florida could only produce the second best women's softball team in the country is enough to kick in the schadenfreude.

I think it's time to admit that my soul is a wholly owned subsidiary of Florida Athletics Inc. I am presided over by Athletic Director Jeremy Foley and his evil enforcers, Tim Tebow, Urban Meyer and Billy Donovan.

Coach Richt, Coach Fox, Damon Evans, I'm begging you. I don't want to live like this.

Church sign wisdom

From a church near the Bibb-Twiggs county line.

John Knox heading to GMC

Hate to see it. I was looking forward to seeing what this guy could do.

Story from the Banner Herald.

Lady Dawgs, 2-1, play Washington at 1 p.m.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, they were eliminated.

The NCAA brackets.


Image: Kelly Wegel, GeorgiaDogs.com.

Dawgs on the ropes in Tallahassee

UPDATE: It did not go well.

From ESPN at the College World Series: Georgia (38-23) will play Ohio State in an elimination game Sunday.

A-Team episodes available on Hulu

In what may well be the greatest advancement on the Internet since someone said, "Hey, I bet we could put porn on this thing," episodes of "The A-Team" are now available from Hulu.

And I mean a lot of them. Maybe all of them. Starting with Season 1, Episode 1, when some guy I never heard of was playing Face and the first jeep flipped doing 50 miles an hour but nobody was hurt.


I love it when the Internet comes together.

Bob Dylan coming to Alpharetta

He's playing at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Alpharetta July 30. Tickets go on sale Saturday morning. The venue seats about 12,000, including the lawn area.

It looks like you can buy tickets through their site. Prices run from $37.50 to $84.50.

Tone Loc has collapsed in Florida

Luckily, he appears to be OK. No word on whether Funky Cold Medina was involved, but you have to assume it was.

The Pensacola News Journal has a story.

Be sure to check out the pictures of the young ladies that came to Mr. Loc's aid.

Words to live by

The post itself is nothing out of the ordinary, just a bunch of links and comments about them. But the wisdom. Oh, the wisdom...

Transparency and disclosure is a better policy in everything not involving national security and comments about your wife's butt size.

Prioritize fixing what's broken. Not what annoys you. It's a great rule of thumb.

Yellow is the color of... Larry Munson?

I was cleaning out some old boxes recently and came across one for a talking Larry Munson bobble head doll I bought a few years back.

You remember those; they are awesome and proceeds benefit a UGA scholarship fund named for the late Noah Harris, a UGA cheerleader and Army 1st Lt. killed in Iraq.

But on the bottom of the box was a curious string of words: Yellow, LLC Savannah, Georgia.

Wait a damn minute, I thought. How can a company named Yellow LLC be involved with something this important?

It turns out Yellow LLC is a company owned by Rob Ellis of Savannah, who came up with the idea for the bobble heads and has been marketing them for a couple of years now.

The Savannah Morning News wrote a nice article about Rob in 2008, identifying him as a Savannah insurance broker and 1980 UGA graduate.

So why would a National Championship year Georgia graduate name his company "Yellow?" As with all difficult questions, I got drunk and consulted my buddy Joe.

"Maybe he's got another company called 'is the color of piss,'" Joe said.


Sadly, this is not the case. Because of course I called Rob and pestered him about it.

He's a member of Leadership Georgia, which is one of those important people networking things. And they bring in this profiler who assesses everyone's personality and assigns it a color. Red is social, blue is logical, green is organized and yellow is creative.

ROB: And that's the origin of that. ... I am very, very yellow and creative. That's where Larry was birthed, this whole concept was birthed. ... You can buy them direct now: TalkingLarry.com.

ME: Talking Larrys - that's a better name for the company, don't you think?
ROB: Uh, if that was my only deal. And it's not. This is clearly not my (regular) business.

ME: So, according to Leadership Georgia, the Georgia Institute of Technology is creative.
ROB: I did not mention the evil empire on North Avenue.

ROB: At least it's not orange.
ME: It's not like either one's too good, man.
ROB: I'd rather be yellow than orange any day of the week. Orange is evil.

I don't quite know what to think about all this. But there are 365 talking Larry Munson bobble head dolls left, according to Rob's site. That's one for each day.