HOWARD FINSTER'S PARADISE GARDENS

GONE WITH THE WIND AND MY TIME

Yesterday I visited what is billed as "The Margaret Mitchell House", but what in reality is the "Margaret Mitchell Tiny Apartment". It was here where she wrote the majority of "Gone With the Wind", which we were told on the tour is only outsold by the Bible. Because I have never read the book, I thought I would kick back today and watch the highly acclaimed film version. The thing is four hours long, and for the life of me, I can't seem to find the message, less Mitchell was an existentialist. The beautiful Scarlett O'Hara in the movie has a thing for Ashley that she just can't seem to get past, though the character of Ashley is played by a very feminine Leslie Howard (ironically both his character and real names are girl names). I just don't buy the lifelong attraction, especially after Rhett enters the scene. I also didn't buy Scarlett's riches to rags to riches personality transformation. After the war, she is forced to work the land with her own hands, and instead of building empathy, the experience creates a greedy monster. Hopefully the book was better. One interesting item for sale in the gift shop is shown in the middle photo: the drunken rape scene commemorative music box. Very strange.

HIGH MUSEUM OF ART ATLANTA

I grew up most of my life in the Atlanta metro area, but had never visited the High Museum of Art. So today my mom and I went. For a town I considered fairly uncultured, I have to admit the museum was pretty good. The most impressive aspect was that the High featured a large section dedicated to naive artists from Georgia like Howard Finster and Carlton Garrett. I can't think of another museum that I've visited that was willing to take a chance and exhibit local untrained artists. The top statue is one of the witches from Macbeth, the middle piece is a installation by Carlton Garrett, and I just like the girl's fro in the bottom painting.

KYLE FARNSWORTH WAS A JERK

I found this old baseball team photo the other day. I used to love playing baseball at Wills Park, until this particular year. The coaches were lousy, and one of my teammates (who happened to go on to have a career as a relief pitcher for the Cubs, Braves, and Yankees), was a jerk. His name is Kyle Farnsworth and he is pictured in the top right row behind me. At this stage in youth baseball, throwing an 80 MPH fastball was all you needed to be the best pitcher in the league. Kyle threw it, and nobody could hit it. In fact, most people were scared of it. He didn't evolve much as a pitcher as he went on to high school and then off to the Cubs. He threw fast, but was no match mentally for MLB batters or even for news reporters for that matter.

FUNNY PICTURES OF ME

There are many things I like about the bottom photo: my silly outfit, how creepy Santa Claus looks, my expression, Santa's Secret Code, etc. It's really no wonder I would start crying when my parents handed me over to this dirty looking pedophiliac. The top photo is one of my favorites. It was taken in Molokai, Hawaii. My parents are standing in front of a famous rock there called "Phallus Rock". As a naive ten year old, I of course didn't understand the meaning of the name. All I knew was that the rock looked fun to climb on. That's my head peaking out from the tip.

CAN YOU FIND MY MOM IN THIS PHOTO?

MY GRANDPARENTS

Visiting my parent's house is like going on a giant treasure hunt. This time I'm looking through old photos. There is definitely something technology misses as we zoom from innovation to innovation. For instance, take photography. With all the "progress" in this field, I still say old printed photos are higher in quality than the ones we get today. These pictures above are of my Dad's parents. His mom passed away from cancer a month before I was born, so I never got to know her. My grandfather passed away a few years ago. He sure was a lanky fellow in his youth.