Holy BBQ It's Hot!

Last Saturday myself and four other friends braved the unholy hotness of August to check out the "Stokin' the Fire BBQ and Music Festival" at Sloss Furnace.

Did I mention it was hot? But oh so fun:).
As much as Sloss creeps me out, it's a great place for events. They set up a music stage in the ginormous shed near the traintracks, and we hid out there later in the afternoon for the shade.

After walking around to check out where everything was and what all was going on, we headed to the two bbq vendors and grabbed lunch. Amy bought the chicken plate from Governor's BBQ and I chose the pork plate from Fat Boy's BBQ. As far as bbq goes, we thought the food was okay.


There were two super cute kids that sat down across from us with their parents to eat a shaved ice. When Hannah asked the little boy what flavor he had, he replied, "Red!" Ah, little kiddies. I would have taken a picture of these little goobers, but I was too busy wiping red syrup off of my legs after they knocked over their ice. Life lesson #35: Food should be eaten, not played with, especially when the table it's sitting on is slanted towards me.

After, we made a quick stop at the little gift shop, picked up our handy paper fans, and then headed over to a food demonstration. The owner of Chef U (why does that make me giggle?) was grilling up some pork loin with coriander and cumin. She topped it off with a really tasty peach salsa, and I have to say it was delicious. Her earrings were super cute too, and I just had to be that person and instead of asking her about her business, I asked where she got them.

Next on our agenda: making iron tiles. Huh? you say. For $7, you could carve whatever you wanted into a pressed sand block and hand it off to a group of ironworkers; they would then pour molten iron into your pressed sand block, where it would take the shape of your carving after cooling.


The most interesting part of all this was watching these men and women walk around (for obvious safety reasons) in thick jeans, welder's masks, and leather chaps, jackets and gloves, while they worked with the iron. They must build up a tolerance to the stifling heat as I'm sure a normal person would pass out after a few minutes.


Just about that time the People's Choice Tasting started, so we all headed down to the area where the bbq teams were passing out samples. To be short and sweet, there was some tasty bbq, and some not-so-much.

The thing I remember the most from the tasting is actually a sauce. It's called "Alabama Mud," and it's made by JCs Low and Slow. They sell on etsy, and I'm considering buying some. What does it taste like? Hard to say as I've never had anything like it. It's basically the child of a mustard sauce and bbq sauce. It's tangy and sweet like a tomato-based bbq sauce, but has more than a hint of what JC's calls South Carolina mustard. It's also yellow-ish, which threw me off at first.

Once we'd finished the tasting, it was after five o' clock and we were all ready to call it a day. So we picked up our cooled iron tiles and headed home.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Tuesday was a friend's birthday, and she was ever so clever and decided to have a theme party. She and Audrey Hepburn share a birthday, so she chose a "Breakfast at Tiffany's" theme.

Amy hosted the event at her apartment and rented the movie for us. She also requested that we all bring one breakfast item and dress up in either pajamas or Holly's famous black dress and pearl combo.

When I arrived, Amy was cooking up some turkey bacon and eggs. I'd made z

ucchini bread and set it out on one of the plates Amy's roommate had set up for the occasion. In honor of our theme, she decorated the table with black and pink cloth.

Our group has always produced some delicious potlucks, and I was again impressed by the food. Fresh fruit, cheesy grits, lemon-poppyseed pancakes with strawberries, french toast casserole with blueberries and cream cheese, eggs, hash browns and bacon rounded out our meal.

To drink, we had an assortment of juices, and one of the girls brought champagne to make mimosas.

Now, about "Breakfast at Tiffany's" -- I'd never seen the movie before, and it was nothing like I expected it would be! I thought it was alternately bizarre and hilarious. I do think my perspective was biased because I keep expecting older movies from that era of film to be much more reserved, and as a result, I found the movie to be much more shocking than I thought I would.

In all, I had a lot of fun, and I commend Amy for choosing such a good theme. I even had some zucchini bread left for breakfast the next morning.

Cavalia

Last weekend I treated myself with a ticket to the Cavalia show at Atlantic Station. It's a new Cirque-like show, but with horses. So, of course I had to go see it! I wasn't feeling too great that day, so it was nice to have something fun to do for a couple of hours.

My seats were in the middle section, which actually afforded a very good view of all parts of the stage. It was two and a half hours of different acts that combined general riding, dressage, trick riding, lunging and acrobatics.

My favorite acts were the trick riding and the "communication" act. In the latter, one woman commanded the full attention of eight geldings (I'm guessing they were all geldings) for quite a length of time. The horses worked in groups of four, moving in a circle around the woman or the stage, and sometimes one group would do a turn while the other continued on around.

It was amazing to see how well the horses and riders worked together, so I knew that they all had very close relationships. It was also difficult at times to follow everything that was going on because I was trying to catch everything the horses were doing, but also pay attention to the human performers and their acrobatics.

The show I attended was a full house, so I'm going to say it's safe to assume that the rest of the shows will also be sold out. People in Atlanta really love this type of show, and it was definitely worth my money and time.

When they get their names in lights

So the other week, I noticed a film crew at the corner of Baker and Peachtree Street. My first thought was "Cool! More stars and hit shows in Atlanta, and not just those darn Housewives!" I also hoped that the production company was paying the liquor store and restaurant next door for their time. Probably. Anyone know about things like that? And who would be coming into the liquor store at ten a.m. you ask? Believe me, people here do! I've seen plenty of folks leave with their brown paper bags as I head to my internship.

I found out that the crew was filming some footage for an in-the-works Fox show called "Past Life." It's based on the book "The Reincarnationist" by M.J. Rose, which I actually have, but for some reason or twelve, haven't gotten around to finishing. Maybe it was that weird jump in time after the main character realized he was having deja vu fo sho'. Really annoyed me, but I've decided that I will finish books before passing final judgement.

Film is big in Georgia -- like, millions big. According to the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD, who oversees film, music and tourism happenings in the state) companies invested $521 million dollars in the GA economy, which equals $929 million dollars in economic impact to the state.

There are two hot shows being filmed in Atlanta right now -- "The Vampire Diaries" and "Drop Dead Diva." Parts of "Zombieland" filmed here as well, and word is that Robert Redford is coming to Savannah to start filming. I checked imdb.com and after searching under film locations, I got back over a thousand TV and movie titles. Granted, individual TV episodes are listed, so the actual number is less. Some samples from the list include "In the Heat of the Night," to "Cape Fear" to "Driving Miss Daisy."

So why is Georgia such a great place to film? For starters, the state gives production companies up to thirty percent in tax incentives to "qualified" projects. Twenty percent is a tax credit on their investment, and the extra ten comes if the production agrees to slip in a Georgia logo in the credits. AND, productions can get immediate sales tax exemptions on certain purchases.

Georgia also has a strong network of production companies and workers. GDEcD's website writes that there are 4,000 entertainment pros and 800 production related companies in the Peach state.

But, as is often the case, I think that money is at the heart of this. In Georiga, the cheap cost of living is a draw for companies and indivduals. Land, food, gas, and other necessities are cheap relative to other large cities and states. The good weather, an extensive highway system, and the varied topography that make the state fun to explore probably create a great deal of flexibility for location scouts and film crews.

Links

-Fox Past Life page
-Georgia.org Entertainment page

UPDATE: According to AJC's Radio and TV Talk blog, Fox has stopped production on "Past Life." This seems to be the new favorite thing of networks (remember "Southland"?). Bummer for the crew, and I know I was hoping to see more bright lights in Hotlanta. It also seems like a crappy business model to order filming and then shelf the project. If anyone has any insight into these things, I'd love to hear it!