Monday, July 14, 2008
West End Fire Station #7 Set to Close Today
Posted by: lain // Category: Cruel Games, This is awkward, Ridiculous Demands, Whoops! // 8:58 am
As a result of a many million dollar budget shortfall and bickering between the mayor and city council, West End’s fire station #7 is set to close today …or later this week. That part isn’t terribly clear.
Folks around here are not happy.
(More pictures, along with the AJC article, here.)
You’d figure that with the city of Atlanta adding 20,000 citizens in the past year things like–oh I don’t know–fire stations would find their way in the budget. Ours is the longest-running fire station in the city, established in 1910. For continuity’s sake you figure they could’ve picked another station out of the hat.
#7 is easily the closest fire station to the Wren’s Nest. They served us just last month when they provided us a truck for Wren’s Nest Fest.
I think they actually hired that kid. Too bad he’s going to get laid off now.
There’s a protest planned for today at 11:30 am. I’d expect television cameras and reporters there, so if you ever wanted to be on tv, now’s your chance. You might could even help save our fire station, too.
If I’m not there it’s because I have a meeting until 12 and then another at 1. Hopefully I’ll be able to wriggle out of ‘em.
Comments: 3Our Bathroom Has Smelled Fresher
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Cruel Games, Really? // 7:58 am
A guest to the museum left us a present yesterday.
A present of vomit.
We didn’t realize we had received this gift until Lain was using the facilities and noticed an… odor. Gross for sure, but not anything beyond our means.
(Ready to go into battle, though a tad teary. We couldn’t find plastic gloves and had to settle for freezer bags.)
That is, until we noticed our vent had been infiltrated. Heavily. Thus, in order for air to come into the bathroom, it had to pass through a wall of upchuck. Sick.
(Hosing down the vomit-y air vent. Barf. As in, my reaction, not the description.)
And just when you thought we were getting glamorous.
Comments: 5Atlanta History Center Has Not Aquired the Wren’s Nest
Posted by: lain // Category: Cruel Games // 12:01 am
Turns out I was kidding. April fools, folks.
Remember–do not trust what you read on the internet on April 1st, or for that matter, in general.
For example, if everyone trusted the Wikipedia article on Joel Chandler Harris instead of the New Georgia Encyclopedia article, the Wren’s Nest would probably be farther up the creek than had we been moved to Buckhead!
To everyone that has called and emailed us voicing sincere concern, I am truly sorry. I mean, I’m not sorry that I did it, but I’m sorry you fell so hard.
You can take solace in knowing that you were not alone.
Comments: 1Atlanta History Center to Acquire the Wren’s Nest, Move it to Buckhead
Posted by: lain // Category: What Would JCH Do?, Cruel Games, Really? // 7:42 am
My board let me know this morning.
Unfortunately, in my capacity as executive director, there’s nothing I can do. The board is my governing body and they made their decision without my input. Apparently they’ve been in talks with the History Center people for months now.
Nobody is more shocked than me.
Recently, the Atlanta History Center has sought to update its street presence in Buckhead. The Wren’s Nest, it seems, is their answer.
The plan is to carefully dismantle the Wren’s Nest. The museum will be shipped to its new address, 130 West Paces Ferry Road, where it will be reassembled and restored. It will be the new face of the Atlanta History Center, settled right up on the street, near the corner of Andrews and West Paces Ferry.
Julie Bookman, current program director at the Literary Center at the Margaret Mitchell House, is set to take over at the helm the “new” Wren’s Nest.
I guess I’m not exactly devastated.
Sure, I’m out of a job and turns out there was plenty betrayal along the way, but there could be worse fates for the organization. At least funding won’t be as much of a concern, and the Atlanta History Center already does a fantastic job with the Swan House and the Tullie Smith House. The Wren’s Nest would certainly greet more visitors, and more people would know about Joel Chandler Harris and Brer Rabbit. That’s what it’s about, right?
That’s about all I know.
Expect a formal announcement later this week. I was supposed to keep mum, but at this point, what do I care?
Comments: 24To Our Potential Visitors Who Tried to Visit the Wren’s Nest Between 2:05 and 2:30
Posted by: lain // Category: Shirking Responsibility, Cruel Games, Failed Attempts at Looking Reputable, Nonprofit Management // 5:25 pm
We’re sorry. We couldn’t stay open today.
Jeri lost power when a tree fell on her neighbor’s house, Amelia had to be at her other job, I was away at a meeting until about 4:00, and Nannie was busy picketing the new World of Coke because she likes Pepsi so much.
Comments: 0Beltline Funding Falls Through, Buckhead Library May Be Demolished
Posted by: lain // Category: Historic Preservation, Atlanta, Cruel Games, Good Questions, The Beltline, Trail Blazin' // 12:17 pm
So far it’s been a dark day for Atlanta preservation and development.
Literally. This is what it looked like on my way to work this morning.
Funding for the Beltline, Atlanta’s proposed loop of transit, trails, and parks, has fallen through.
One man legal show John Woodham contested the funding mechanism for the Beltline, and the Georgia Supreme Court was like, “Dude, he’s kinda right.”
Problem is, the funding mechanism–the TAD–has become an important revitalization tool for the city of Atlanta. Things like Atlantic Station wouldn’t exist without it.
Either way, it’s by no means clear how this will affect the stretch of the Beltline (supposedly) already under construction near the Wren’s Nest. Look to Fresh Loaf for answers throughout the day.
Next up–Ben Carter, the Streets of Buckhead developer, wants to demolish the Buckhead library.
The Streets of Buckhead is this huge mixed use project going up across town. The developers tore down a few city blocks to create Atlanta’s answer to Rodeo Drive.
The library in question is right in the middle of their development. According to a few folks who know more than I do, it also happens to be one of the most important buildings in Atlanta built during my lifetime.
I can’t say I’m surprised, but you’d figure that we’d have learned from our mistakes by now. I wonder how many more buildings we’ll lose before we realize that historic structures are important culturally and economically.
Update: Some save the library! people have created a blog. Go team!
Related: Place in Peril 2008, Beltline Cleanup, Atlanta Preservation Center, Atlanta Time Machine
Comments: 2Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Cruel Games, Failed Attempts at Looking Reputable, Big Money No Whammies // 4:39 pm
Above is a quote from Woody Allen, a guy we like here at the Wren’s Nest.
Not because we know him or anything, but because he’s a funny guy and we like the funny. Plus, for word nerds like ourselves, he’s a pretty great guy to quote.
Lain, for example, spent a most of a fancypants luncheon on Tuesday using Woody’s work to explain his own. You see, Lain is an awfully bashful and modest fella when it comes to the work he’s done at the Wren’s Nest. So when people commend him, his standard line is one of Woody’s: “Eighty percent of success is showing up”. Good work, right?
Well, it was.
On Tuesday afternoon a woman nonchalantly came in, handed us a check for $37,000, and told us she needed to continue with her errands. It is important to note that this occurred while Lain was at the aforementioned luncheon.
(Lain’s face when he found out, approximately 2 hours after every single other person we knew.)
Lain, as you may guess, was a little upset he missed this momentous occasion. However, we could not ignore the irony of it all, nor deny how easy it makes making fun of Lain.
Sample dialogue:
Lain: Oh my god, I can’t believe I wasn’t there. I feel so bad.
Amelia: Yeah, remember how you were telling everyone 80% of success is just showing up? When you were somewhere else? And how funny that is?
Lain: Good lord, yes. …I want to cry.
Amelia: Hilarious!
Comments: 5Tricksters and the just plain tricky
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Storytelling, Brer Rabbit, Cruel Games // 1:26 pm
One of the funniest and/or disturbing things about the Brer Rabbit and Uncle Remus tales is that Brer Rabbit almost always wins. Seems reasonable - he is the protagonist after all. What’s bizarre is that it’s often pretty questionable whether Brer Rabbit should win.
I mean, flat out, he’s not particularly likable. He’s cunning, clever, and manipulative, consistently tricking others into doing what he wants. He rarely lives up to the “hero” part - as we typically define it - of the literary trope he represents: the trickster hero.
One of the originals, Brer Rabbit exists in a gray area between good and evil, where wit trumps all. He’s in pretty great company, though: think Bugs Bunny, an easy association, but even the likes of Robin Hood and Bart Simpson fall into the mix.
Technically you need to be an animal to be a trickster hero, but we can make this leap together, right?
What keeps us coming back to Brer Rabbit is that, for some reason, we find him (and the other tricksters) redeemable. Outwitting a murderous persecutor is something we can all relate to, and humorously!
The difference between the trickster and the simply tricky is obvious in most good storytelling, and usually makes for pretty blatant good vs. bad storylines. Or, in the case of the totally awesome movie Lain, Matt and I saw last night, Billy vs. Steve storylines.
People don’t always think of documentaries when they think of good storytelling, but that’s because they’re being dumb. As friend-of-Joel-Chandler-Harris Mark Twain once said, “Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.”
The highly recommended documentary I speak of is King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (trailer) (official site) about the quest of two men to get the world’s highest Donkey Kong score. Yeah, that’s right.
In the left corner we have Billy Mitchell.
To sum up, he’s not really someone you would want talking to your children, for fear he would teach them a rather skewed history of… everything.
In the right corner we have Steve Wiebe (pronounced wee-bee, for his sake and yours).
Steve teaches children professionally and you would probably trust him to do approximately anything.
You should absolutely see this movie, not only because it is a great example of storytelling, but because it’s just the kind of pulled up by your bootstraps effort we at this pulled up by our bootstraps house museum like to support…. and because you will learn the word “chumpatize”. Victory!
Newsletter Rejection
Posted by: lain // Category: Cruel Games, Technological Advances, This is awkward // 11:42 am
We sent out our first e-newsletter over the weekend, exceptionally written by fellow blogger Amelia. If you’d like to receive it, shoot me an email at lain@wrensnestonline.com.
We use a company called Constant Contact. They provide an email database and the means to create good lookin’ emails.
There are a lot of rules you have to follow to ensure Constant Contact that you’re not a spammer, and the first time around, I think I broke every rule.
After uploading my entire address book, I was in the midst of weeding out the email addresses I didn’t want to include. All of a sudden my account was suspended. I had to call the company, answer questions for approximately fifteen minutes, and assure them that no, I’m not a spammer, I just don’t know what I’m doing.
I got away with a stern warning. Since I am terrified of the wrath of the Constant Contact people, I went back through again and made sure that the people I on the email list were only those that would want to read about the Wren’s Nest.
Luckily for me, and perhaps a little scarily for you, I can see exactly how successful this was. The program lets me see who opened my email, who didn’t, who thought I was a spammer, and who said, “No thanks, I don’t want to receive this in the future.”
Constant Contact assured me they’d have my head on a stick if anyone even thought about clicking the spam button.
Good thing nobody has so far; however, two people have opted for “No thanks!” The first person was someone who I totally meant to take off in the first place, who I’m sure has no idea what the Wren’s Nest is. My bad.
The second person though, was a little surprising. Any guesses as to who it was?
None other than Wren’s Nest board chair extraordinaire Marshall Thomas.
Um, excuse me?
To fully grasp the situation, read the above and replace “the Wren’s Nest” with your favorite Fortune 500 Company. In perhaps the entire world, I figured that if only three people would want to receive this email, one of them would be the chairman of our board.
I’m gonna give him the benefit of the doubt this time, but next time I may have to suspend his account indefinitely.
Comments: 4It’s Hot
Posted by: lain // Category: Weather Concerns, Cruel Games // 3:56 pm
Did you know the Wren’s Nest air conditioning works in, like, just about every room but this one?
Did you know that if it’s above 95 degrees I wear t-shirts and athletic shorts to work?
Did you know that if it’s below 95 degrees, I still wear whatever I want to work?
Anyway, it’s too hot for blogging, and this past weekend’s vacation has left me with a desk piled about five feet high. Regular blogging will return tomorrow.
Comments: 3