Tuesday, December 31, 2013

2013...A Photo Review of the Year

It's not until I look back through the wanderlust ATLANTA blog that I realize just how much I did in a year, and 2013 was quite a busy year. I'd like to share some of my favorite photos from the year, which do not necessarily cover all of my favorite places, but 25 photos that I really like...I hope you enjoy.

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
Since today is New Year's Eve, why not start with a glass of bubbly. This shot was made at the Blooms & Bubbly event at the Atlanta Botanical Garden back in the spring.

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
"Go Braves" took on a whole new meaning this year, with their announcement that they've moving to Cobb County. But I've been a loyal fan since 1990, so I'm sure I'll still go to see the occasional Atlanta Braves game.

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
I just love this photo! This was made in one of the permanent galleries at Fernbank Museum of Natural History.

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
I love this photo, too! This was made at the currently being renovated Delta Flight Museum, which I believe is slated to reopen in mid-2014.

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
Getting to tour Fire Station #19 was so much fun! "Thank you" to our first responders for everything you do all year long!

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
Anyone who knows me knows how much I love going to DragonCon, and the great admiration I have for the conventioneers who create their own costumes. This was a 2013 favorite!

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
What a wonderful find! Only an hour north of Atlanta, Gibbs Gardens is one of the most remarkable gardens I've visited. So much so that I bought a Four Season Pass, so you'll see more from here.

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
The World of Shells at Fernbank is an exhibit that I wish got more attention...the collection is truly quite remarkable.

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
Having lived in Greece for more than two years, attending the annual Greek Festival on Clairmont Road is a treat in culture, tastes, music, and nostalgia.

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
I have loved Rhodes Hall since the very first time I saw it. That it's garnered the name The Castle on Peachtree I think is very befitting. 

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
Scarecrows in the Garden at the Atlanta Botanical Garden is such a fun and festive exhibition. This year's bought in a record number of scarecrows, many of which were quite impressive!

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
The Museum of Design Atlanta is one of my favorite museums, in large part because of the "community" they've created. One of the ways they do that is through Field Trip. This chandelier was at DEX Industries when we visited earlier this year.

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
It's not very often one gets to pose with creatures of this sort, so I love it when such opportunities present themselves. If you couldn't guess, this is at Fernbank Museum of Natural History.

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
One of the great pleasures of being a tourism blogger is the opportunity to discover exhibitions an destinations that most would not...and then sharing said discoveries with one's readers. This painting of Joan Crawford I discovered in an exhibition at Arts Clayton.

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
So, I visited Gibbs Gardens twice in 2013, once in the summer and once for their Japanese Maple Festival. I'll be going back in the spring to see their 20 million daffodils!

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
I can hardly wait to go back to Medieval Times...what a fun experience! You get a "medieval" dinner--that you get to eat with your hands!--and a professional horse show, sword fighting, jousting...there's a lot going on here!

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
I visited a lot of churches this year during Phoenix Flies, a program early in the year that facilitates hundreds of free tours around Atlanta. 

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
I'm learning more and more about the Atlanta Beltline and look forward to further tours. This work of art on the Beltline spoke to my love of columns, which perhaps stems from living in Greece?

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
As a photographer, I'm always on the lookout for beauty, and you can find it in the most unexpected places. These poppies were in a flower bed on the property of the Atlanta History Center...love them!

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
Piedmont Park was the very first destination I blogged about more than three years ago and I still enjoy my visits there, which are fairly regular.

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
The High Museum of Art is renowned for its spectacular exhibitions. The currently running Paris on Peachtree delights on numerous levels.

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
Fernbank Museum of Natural History is a wondrous place, a place where you not only have the opportunity to increase one's knowledge of the world, but that also a place that inspires the imagination.

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
The new 20-story SkyView Atlanta Ferris Wheel has caught the attention of thrill-seeking Atlantans and visitors, alike. And it offers views of Atlanta that no other attraction can!

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
Atlanta tourist destinations also offer some brilliant holiday photography, such as this dinosaur at Fernbank which I edited to be somewhat ghostly for a Halloween announcement. Great fun!

2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
2013 Year in Review, wanderlust ATLANTA
Atlanta's public art is quite phenomenal, in large part significantly increased in profile by winning the 1996 Olympic Games. This sculpture, The Flair, stands proudly outside Georgia Dome.

Well, there are approximately a bazillion more photos I'd love to share with you, but go enjoy your New Year's Even and Day. Have a wonderful time exploring Atlanta, exploring your own backyard, and showing friends and family around our beautiful city.

Happy New Year!

Travis

Friday, December 27, 2013

Paul Rand at MODA

One of the things I love most about the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) is that every MODA exhibition expands my design horizons well beyond anything I could have dreamed. My knowledge on the subject matter of the exhibit-at-the-time, whether Italian motorcycles or the St. Louis Arch architect or a mind-blowing design challenge, grows exponentially.


Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
That I've met fellow enthusiasts and made a few friends along the way has been more than a wonderful bonus!

This unexpected trend continues with the current exhibition, Paul Rand: Defining Design. Had I considered who designed the IBM logo? No. Had I considered how much deliberate design went into creating the logo for UPS? No. Had I ever wondered about the history of the logo for ABC? No. Well, now I have, on all three counts!


Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
Rand was rather prolific in his logo designs in the 1950s and 1960s...in fact, if you're reading this, you've seen his work. On this planet, you'd have to live inexplicably remotely from civilization to have not seen his work. 


Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
A purposeful artist, Rand was also quite the accomplished writer, having published four books (now all out of print) and countless articles on the connection between design and art. His first book was published the year my mother was born, 1947, so he'd been on the design scene for quite some time.

Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
When you see Rand's work, you'll definitely see the artists who inspired him, some of which included Picasso, Miro, Klee, and Calder.

So, I find it a pleasant coincidence that while Paul Rand: Defining Design is installed at MODA the announcement that Three Up, Three Down, the massive mobile by Alexander Calder across the street on the lawn at the High Museum of Art for decades, will be uninstalled next month.

Of course the two aren't linked, I just found it an interesting coincidence.

Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
The more I explore Defining Design, the more I find myself fascinated with Rand's work. His ideas of the necessity for design and art to be connected are so spot on! Rand also understood the role of humor in the world of design, and it comes through in his work.

I just like things that are playful;
I like things that are happy;
I like things that will make the client smile...


Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
I absolutely adore what MODA does with their main corridor...with every exhibition. This one being no exception. On one side is a heavily populated and wonderfully interesting timeline, relative to the exhibition, and the other side is basically Rand discussing quite famous works of art and their connection to design.

Some museums might not take on the challenge of utilizing what could prove to be a bothersome space, but not MODA. They consistently use this space in a manner that showcases their brilliance and positively contributes to the exhibition at the time.


Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
There's lots of programming going on with this exhibition—no surprise there, this is MODA, after all. 

In keeping with Rand's ideas on the role of humor in design, the closing party on Saturday, January 25, 2014, is to be a "come-as-your-favorite-font" party! How much fun is that?! What's your favorite font?


Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
Paul Rand, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
Paul Rand: Defining Design closes on Sunday, January 26, so you have only a month to see this brilliant exhibition. I know a month sounds like a long time, but it's really not, and you know what happens to people who procrastinate...they miss out! 

So, if you're making "Expand my cultural horizon" one of your New Year's Resolutions, I recommend the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) as an excellent choice and a great way to do so.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Garden Lights, Holiday Nights 2013

I recently went to Garden Lights, Holiday Nights at the Atlanta Botanical Garden with MaryJo and the boys and a coworker of MJ's. We had a magical time.

We lucked out. There was zero rain and it was a relatively balmy night.


Garden Lights, Holiday Nights | December 2013
Garden Lights, Holiday Nights | December 2013
You may recall that MJ and I took the boys to the Garden this past summer to see Imaginary Worlds. We had then talked about visiting Garden Lights. I'm so glad we did...it was great to see the guys enjoy this new, awe-inspiring Atlanta tradition.

Let me start with a tip: To help ensure you have lasting memories of your visit, perhaps visit a photography site or two that offers nighttime photography tips. Just be sure that the tips they're talking about are relative to your particular camera.


Garden Lights, Holiday Nights | Ice Goddess
Garden Lights, Holiday Nights | December 2013
This year's show has some new features! Perhaps you saw in the news the announcement that the Garden got to keep Earth Goddess for Garden Lights, who has been transformed into Ice Goddess. Her hair twinkles brightly with 16,000 blue, white, and teal lights. And the majestic cobras are now Candy Cane Cobras!


Garden Lights, Holiday Nights | Ice Goddess
Garden Lights, Holiday Nights | December 2013
You'll notice that Ice Goddess' face and hands are still living plants and before this photo was made we'd already had several back-to-back below freezing nights. The brilliant folks at the Garden installed heaters "inside" Ice Goddess' head and hand—to keep the plants' roots warm and to prevent freezing. It looks like it's working quite well!


Garden Lights, Holiday Nights | Orchestral Orbs
Garden Lights, Holiday Nights | December 2013
The Orchestral Orbs on the Great Lawn in front of the Fuqua Conservatory are singing some new songs this year! Did you know that the Orbs can produce up to 16,000,000 different colors? Fascinating!


Garden Lights, Holiday Nights | 2013 | Atlanta Botanical Garden
Garden Lights, Holiday Nights | December 2013
The guys (that's them with MaryJo) had a great time. In addition to the 11,000 strands of lights, we enjoyed the model trains, 70-plus stars in the Glittering Galaxy, 150 trees, shrubs, and tree-wraps throughout the Garden, as wells as the deliciousness of s'mores—that we made ourselves in fire pits near the Cafe!

There's LOTS more to see and experience...I've only covered a few things here.


Garden Lights, Holiday Nights | December 2013 | Levy Parterre
Garden Lights, Holiday Nights | December 2013
There were thousands of people there that night, this past Thursday! And I'm sure the nights leading up to Christmas and New Year's will be equally as well attended—as long as the weather cooperates. Remember that Garden Lights is open EVERY NIGHT through January 4.

There are two items that I'd like to point out to help you ensure that you have a pleasant experience. Buy your tickets online. Certain days are selling out (like Monday, December 23) and you don't want to fight holiday traffic and wait in line only to discover that there are no more tickets for the evening you're there.

The other point is to ARRIVE EARLY! The parking deck has a finite number of spaces and it could easily fill up. As many spaces as the lot has, it's frustrating to have to go find parking somewhere else (even though some of us remember that not too long ago there were only a few dozen spaces—the new parking lot has made things so much better for the visitor experience!). The good news about parking is that it's only a $5 flat fee.


Garden Lights, Holiday Nights | 2013 | Candy Cane Cobra
Garden Lights, Holiday Nights | December 2013
The cobras are just as fascinating now as they were this past summer. With 62,000 lights, it'd be a challenge to not be fascinating! The smaller cobra has 22,000 lights and the larger cobra has 40,000 tightly packed lights. The Garden Lights team and Garden volunteers put in a LOT of hours to bring us such a wonderful show!

Whether you've never been to the Atlanta Botanical Garden or saw Imaginary Worlds a dozen times, I highly recommend seeing Garden Lights, Holiday Nights—there's nothing else quite like it in Atlanta!

Monday, December 16, 2013

Reflections on "The Flair"

I've given further thought on my favorite sculpture in Atlanta and have to say that it's actually The Flair.

The Flair, Richard MacDonald
The Flair, Richard MacDonald
I've loved this sculpture since the first time I saw it, which was when I moved back to Atlanta in 2010, even though it was gifted for the 1996 Olympics when I lived here before.

The Flair, Richard MacDonald
The Flair, Richard MacDonald
Not only is this sculpture stunningly beautiful, it's set on the Atlanta skyline just in front of Georgia Dome, home of the Atlanta Falcons.

The Flair, Richard MacDonald
The Flair, Richard MacDonald
Obviously, artist Richard MacDonald is accomplished. My friend Ashley was the one who rekindled my affection for The Flair. We'd attended an Expo at the Georgia World Congress Center together, thus the opportunity to revisit The Flair.

The Flair, Richard MacDonald
The Flair, Richard MacDonald
Having lived in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics, any monument to those Olympics is special to me. And as someone who wished he could move like this...well, what's not to love. 

The Flair, Richard MacDonald
The Flair, Richard MacDonald
Okay, okay..."back" to reality. 

I won't tell you how long I've had a gym membership and haven't gone. I'm relatively thin for my age, but I have to say that The Flair offers more than your standard inspiration to hit the gym, especially as we approach resolution season.

So....what are you planning to resolve for New Year's?

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Ice Goddess

Just when you thought only the plantings at the Atlanta Botanical Garden go through seasonal transitions, now so do the living sculptures. Enter...Ice Goddess.

Ice Goddess, Atlanta Botanical Garden
Ice Goddess, Atlanta Botanical Garden
If you saw Earth Goddess during Imaginary Worlds: Plants Larger than Life this past summer, you know how magnificent she was. She's since blossomed into Ice Goddess...I believe the most brilliant gem in Garden Lights, Holiday Nights exhibition.

So...you're wondering how a living sculpture is going to survive a frigid Atlanta winter? Not to worry. Garden engineers have introduced heating elements inside Ice Goddess's head and hand...it's quite remarkable, really. 

When you visit the Garden for Garden Lights, Holiday Nights, be sure to take a stroll along the Canopy Walk and stop to visit with Ice Goddess.

Monday, December 2, 2013

U.S.S. Atlanta

The USS Atlanta (CL-51), a light cruiser in the Untied States Navy, was the third ship to bear the name "Atlanta", named for Atlanta, Georgia. But she wasn't the last. Having served in the US Navy myself, I'm grateful to the Atlanta History Center for the USS Atlanta exhibit.


USS Atlanta, Atlanta History Center
USS Atlanta, Atlanta History Center
USS Atlanta was commissioned on December 24, 1941, by none other than one of the newest household names at the time—and still today—Margaret Mitchell, famed author of the global sensation Gone With the Wind.


USS Atlanta, Atlanta History Center
USS Atlanta, Atlanta History Center
This exhibition features a brief video showing the history of the USS Atlanta, including video footage of Margaret Mitchell's smashing a bottle of bubbly across the bow of the ship—I can't tell you how cool it is to see live footage of Margaret Mitchell! 

On a side note, just outside the USS Atlanta exhibit is a one-wall Gone With the Wind exhibit that features additional video footage of Margaret Mitchell, as well as the leading cast of Gone With the Wind, at the premier of the film at the Loew's Grand Theatre in 1939, which of course won an Oscar for "Best Picture" that year.


USS Atlanta, Atlanta History Center
USS Atlanta, Atlanta History Center
Unfortunately, the USS Atlanta (CL-51) was sunk in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on November 13, 1942. 

Margaret Mitchell and at-the-time Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield launched a campaign to rebuild the USS Atlanta. They were overwhelming successful, raising nearly enough money to build two ships!

Margaret also commissioned the new USS Atlanta (CL-104), which played a role in Pearl Harbor, and in October 1970 was sunk as a target. The champagne bottle Margaret used to commission the USS Atlanta (CL-104) is on display at Central Library in downtown Atlanta.


USS Atlanta, Atlanta History Center
USS Atlanta, Atlanta History Center
The model of the USS Atlanta (CL-51) was a gift to the City of Atlanta from the United States Steel Corporation, and it was dedicated to the ship and her heroic crew.


USS Atlanta, Atlanta History Center
USS Atlanta, Atlanta History Center
When visiting the Atlanta History Center, be sure to stop in to see the USS Atlanta in the Metropolitan Frontiers gallery, and please make time to view the brief video about the ship. And while you're there, Veterans Park, which is on the Center's complex, is a great place to honor the sailors who were lost on the USS Atlanta (CL-51).