Archive for May, 2007
New Old Safe Deposit
According to the mail I received today from Bank of America, the Wren’s Nest has a safe deposit box.
That’s funny.
The Wren’s Nest doesn’t have a safe deposit box. Nor is it on Gordon Street. This is Gordon Street:
(Thanks to the superb Atlanta Time Machine)
I made a few phone calls after opening this letter. Turns out the Wren’s Nest opened the safe deposit box account in 1974 when Abernathy was indeed called Gordon. Bank of America didn’t get its own address right, either.
No one has looked in the box since 1993, but — amazingly – someone has paid the $35 each year to maintain it.
So what’s in the box? Locks of Joel Chandler Harris’ hair? The remains of a long deceased family pet? Losing tickets from the racetrack? More than $35?
According to BoA, I’ve got two options since the key is long-gone:
- Pay $35 to maintain the box and not find out what’s inside.
- Pay $185 to maintain the box and find out what’s inside.
Ridiculous!
How could I possibly choose anything but option #2? Any bets on what may be in the box?
Categories: Cruel Games, Hunting! |
the unveiling of posters, and other things
It’s Friday evening, the wedding party is having their way with our backyard, and I’m doing my official duty as WNIC by guarding the house and working up an appetite (that’s what Lain hired me for, obviously).
What a perfect opportunity to blog!
Last night I put on my Thursday best and attended a gathering of artists, writers and other impressive characters in Decatur for the annual Decatur Arts Festival Poster Unveiling.
Hey! Does that mean someone important stands at the front of a crowd and pulls a big sheet off of a poster, amid gasping and fainting?
That’s exactly what it means!
As I stood with my new friends from the Decatur Arts Alliance and Lampe-Farley Communications outside the soon-to-be Depeaux (French spin on “Depot”) restaurant in Decatur, I watched with baited breath as a blue velvet drape was pulled off of this fine piece of artwork:
St. Petersberg-born Sergey Cherep couldn’t have captured the historic Decatur train station better. But the art of unveiling, my friends, is what really got me.
First I gasped. And then I fainted!
And then, as I munched on crawfish tails served in a complimentary upside-down Depeaux frisbee, I had a great idea: why not have our own unveling?! Wren’s Nest team Lain, Jeri, Miss Nannie, Star and myself are currently knee-deep in preparations for our own very special event, and we could use some hype.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Wren’s Nest Fest 2007 Flyer Unveiling. Right here on this very blog!
Okay. You’re going to have to bear with me for a second. First, please close your eyes. Now scroll down.
Wait, you can’t scroll down if your eyes are closed! Just scroll very slowly, while picturing a blue velvet drape being removed from the screen…
Wait for it…
Here it is! The official flyer for Wren’s Nest Fest 2007!
I know, you’re clicking your heels like Brer Rabbit over the pony rides. And I haven’t even told you that we’re going to have bunnies, and cupcake decorating, and a moonwalk!
Now I’ve really got you gasping and fainting.
Stay tuned for more on this exciting event, and please, don’t hesitate to print out the above graphic and flyer your school, library, post office or neighborhood park.
WNF 2007, baby!
Categories: Brer Rabbit, Events, Fame and Fortune, Marketing Tricks, WNIC |
West End Connection
West End is a pretty diverse neighborhood. It comprises a mix of restored Victorian homes, bricked sidewalks, stately churches, grimey urban thoroughfares, a stand-alone Hank Aaron Krispy Kreme, some new condos, great restaurants like Chanterelle’s and Soul Veg, and then lots of road construction.
I see most of everything each day when I walk the five blocks between the train station and the Wren’s Nest. Above: one of those very blocks.
There are all sorts of people, too.
The ones that fascinate me most are the dudes with huge shorts for pants and straight-brimmed caps toting identical smaller-sized black trash bags filled with “CDs, DVDs…CDs, DVDs!”
These guys are everywhere! Do they all work for the same company? Who supplies all the identical smaller-sized black trash bags?
Yesterday, I passed one of these dudes, and of course he looked at me and said, “CDs, DVDs…CDs, DVDs.” I shrugged and kept on walking. He kept on repeating, “CDs, DVDs…CDS, DVDs” presumably to the next person, and I kept walking.
A few steps later, he shouted, “HEY! YOU! HEYHEYHEYHEY!” I turned around.
“What?” I asked.
He paused, looked at me, and got all quiet and shrugged: “I take donations too.”
Hmm.
Did I mention that the Wren’s Nest just got in a shipment of Brer Rabbit tote bags? Or that we sell CDs by our storytellers?
Did you know the Wren’s Nest takes donations, too?
Maybe the next time I walk to the train station and one of those dudes approaches me with his wares, I’ll stop and buy a CD. Maybe a DVD as well.
But whatever happens, I’ll be sure to suggest that these dudes band together and apply for incorporation as a 501(c)3 non-profit, you know, like the Wren’s Nest. Might not help, but it sure couldn’t hurt.
Categories: Fundraising, West End |
Thunder! And a few weddings
You know what’s terrifying?
Weddings.
On Monday I received one of those “save the date” postcards for a wedding, and then yesterday I received an invitation to an entirely different wedding. On Saturday the Wren’s Nest is hosting a wedding.
It’s making me nervous.
(see? nervous! …with our wedding grounds in the back.)
There are way too many details involved! Take the invitation for instance. Someone chose the paper, the font, the date, the location, and they probably even chose who they were getting married to. That’s a lot to worry about.
On the invitation I got yesterday, I didn’t even recognize who had sent it to me. John Clark Bolinger? Who is this person? I had to call my mom and ask, “Do I know who John Clark Bolinger is?”
The answer was, “Yes, dummy,” but this is exactly what I’m talking about! Details!
Who knew that my friend named Bo had these two other names before his real name, and his real name wasn’t even Bo? I’ve known Bo for 19 years, and this came as a genuine surprise.
And my guess is, surprises occur at weddings all the time. For example, my first Wren’s Nest wedding is Saturday. And guess what? Currently the forecast says 30% T-Showers, whatever that means. Gulp. Surprise!
The weather is perhaps one of the more predictable variables in this equation, too. What else can go wrong?! Everything, is my guess.
The good folks at Rhodes Hall (an excellent wedding venue, by the way, that employs folks who know what they’re doing) have provided us with some great advice, but I think experience will be the best teacher on this one.
Which is exactly why I’m skipping town this weekend and leaving the wedding to Marshall and Jeri and Star and Carson. One of them is already married, and the other three are chicks, making them instinctively better at wedding stuff than this guy.
Thanks y’all! …and have fun.
Categories: Shirking Responsibility, Weather Concerns, WNIC |