Posing the immortal question:  Will the antelope of sprawl swallow the swallow?

OK, now that I’m done amusing myself…

There’s lots of Atlanta buzz around Oryx & Crake and their debut self-titled album so this should be a pretty slammed event.  More deets on the event over on Decatur CD’s blog.  (Yes, King of Pops will be there.  Someone inform Gutenberg.  That is, if cubalibre has let him out of her basement yet.)

Park Drive and Dearborn Park Decatur, GA (pic submitted by Amanda)

Like this.

Click the pic to enlarge and zoom in (PDF)

You can read an update on construction progress over on the Clairmont Heights Civic Association blog and see the coming stages of construction over on the Alliance to Improve Emory Village website.

It’s pretty interesting how tightly we focus on the unemployment rate during a recession, but rarely hear anything about weird discrepancies like this.  From a recent David Brooks piece in the NY Times…

One of the perversities of this recession is that as the unemployment rate has risen, the job vacancy rate has risen, too. Manufacturing firms can’t find skilled machinists. Narayana Kocherlakota of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank calculates that if we had a normal match between the skills workers possess and the skills employers require, then the unemployment rate would be 6.5 percent, not 9.6 percent.

There are several factors contributing to this mismatch (people are finding it hard to sell their homes and move to new opportunities), but one problem is that we have too many mortgage brokers and not enough mechanics.

There’s an intriguing new off-shoot of the perhaps-too-simply-defined “sustainability movement” that’s reexamining the craftsman blue collar life – beyond farming – as an alternative to the celebrated, yet disconnected white collar alternative.  Working with your hands, performing complex problem-solving, having tangible results of your work, etc.  Matthew Crawford’s Shop Class as Soulcraft uses motorcycle repair as his real-life example of this.

Welp, if you buy into it, it sounds like there are plenty of job opportunities out there for you!

Decatur High School’s Career Academy can’t come soon enough.

Allison writes in…

The Decatur Garden Tour blooms again this fall, September 25 and 26, inviting visitors to step “behind the fence” to explore extraordinary private gardens and experience first-hand thriving community greenspaces. …In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of the original township of Oakhurst – annexed between 1914-1916 and now one of Decatur’s most popular neighborhoods – many of the featured gardens are located in that area.

Dates & Hours: Decatur Garden Tour hours are Saturday, September 25 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. and Sunday, September 26 from noon to 5 p.m.

Tickets: $20 in advance, online at www.decaturgardentour.com or at these Decatur retailers: Intown ACE Hardware, Smith ACE Hardware and The Seventeen Steps. Tickets are $25 the day of the tour and will be sold at the Oakhurst Community Garden Project at 435 Oakview Road, Decatur, GA 30030 and at Ryan Gainey’s garden, 129 Emerson Avenue, Decatur, GA, 30030

Group Tickets: For questions regarding group discounts ($15 for eight or more), call (404) 371-4444.

Location: While gardeners who purchased tickets in advance may begin the tour at any point along the route, the Oakhurst Community Garden Project at 435 Oakview Road, Decatur, GA 30030 is a suggested starting point for all others.

On the Web: For additional details, suggested Decatur dining destinations and online ticket sales, visit www.decaturgardentour.com.

Read the full descriptive list of this year’s featured gardens after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »