Scene & Herd - Andisheh’s on vacation
And it took four of us to do his job
Hair-raising experience: Women who work at fast food restaurants always seem to sport the most extravagant hairstyles. Check any Burger King or Mickey D’s, and you’ll witness a multitude of dramatic rhinestone-laden beehives, micro-braided French rolls or gel-spackled wraps. The bizarrely coiffed ladies of the food industry, however, seemed sedate compared to the wild manes I witnessed Sunday at the Atlanta Hair, Fashion and Beauty Expo 2004.
Held in the Fox Theatre’s ornate Egyptian Ballroom, the expo featured a runway full of models sporting locks designed by some of Atlanta’s most notable hair technicians. The dramatic styles were presented according to a number of themes: 1980s-era ‘dos, tresses of famous divas (sans Whitney), and hip-hop hair, among others. The most memorable stylist used The Lion King as her muse and featured body-painted models prancing about like a zebra and some unknown variety of exotic bird. I’m just hoping the crew from Taco Bell didn’t buy tickets — or I may find feathers in my next Fiesta Taco Salad.-- Carlton HargroShock your body: If there is one thing this free market society needs more of, it’s energy drinks. There is Red Bull, Rockstar, Monster and of course, the ATL’s personal favorite, Crunk!!! (OK!!!). So, why ever would we need another of these concoctions?
According to Lloyd Ward II, vice president of distribution and sales for BodyBlocks Nutrition Systems, it’s because his company has managed to make a caffeine-free version, along with a caffeinated version that contains only 35 percent of the caffeine found in the average energy drink. After nine months of testing and three months of production, BodyBlocks is ready to hit the already saturated market with not only their drink — N-Motion — but a full-on marketing blitz featuring a performance team referred to as the N-Motion Shock Crew. In cooperation with Hot 107.9 FM, who helped them get the word out, Shock Crew hopefuls traveled from as far away as Jacksonville, Fla., to Perimeter Mall on Saturday to showcase a range of mostly gymnastic talents and audition for a paid position as an ambassador for N-Motion.
Like a run-of-the-mill reality show, contestants competed in head-to-head events and solo showcases, while two annoying hosts repeated catch phrases like, “Ordinary people doing extraordinary things” or, “You can get a water bottle if you [dot dot dot] audition.” Among individual tumbling routines was a performance by a 25-year-old woman named Nikki. She did a series of flips, one-arm push-ups, one-arm/one-leg push-ups, hinge push-ups — basically the sort of feats of strength that even through the viewfinder of my camera totally emasculated me.
While Nikki and Co. were busy doing handstands and the like, I put the product to the test. Not known for being up before 3 p.m. on weekends, I guzzled down a caffeine-free N-Motion on my way home from the tryouts. Twenty minutes later, I was in bed where I took a one-hour nap. (Disclaimer: When I read the back of the drink after I awoke, I found out it’s for “people on the go,” so I may be a lost cause.)-- Nikhil Swaminathan
The Shins vs. the Glands:
Biologically speaking, the shins are no match for the glands. The shins work in conjunction with the knees and femurs to give us motion. But the glands produce hormones and regulate the body’s metabolism.
Musically speaking, the Shins are no match for the Glands, either. Sunday night, the two bands played back-to-back at a sold-out show at Variety Playhouse. It was clear that the older, sleepier, less hyped Glands just might be, as one fellow Scene & Herd contributor put it, “the best band in Georgia.” Drawing from two records released in the band’s eight-year existence, the Glands re-birthed much of their material, making the old-but-timeless sound young again. Toward the end of the set, the Glands’ oft-reticent frontman Ross Shapiro even showed some signs of personal reinvention, politely inviting the crowd to “come by the house” before an upcoming show in his Athens hometown.
The crowd, unfortunately, was not there to see the Glands, but to see headliners the Shins. The Shins played a giddier, sloppier set than the Glands. Not that the audience seemed to care, but the band did an underwhelming job playing their trademark indie pop; it was singer/guitarist James Mercer’s quieter acoustic melodies, most notably “Young Pilgrim,” that sent out the shivers.
Old pilgrims the Glands were never so ... happy. But give the Shins a few years. With a little jading and polishing, they might be the next Glands.-- Mara Shalhoup
Despite all his rage, they’re still just two Scotts doing Cage: OK, try this: Go to Google and do a search on “Andisheh” (lest we forget). Take the first word or name from the titles of each of the top 10 results, and write them down as a sentence. (If you get a repeat, go to the second word.) Here’s what I got: “Learnin’ Andisheh Presents andy2000: Asra Mahdavi, Kar Avini, I-20 Society.”
Mean something? Maybe. Poet Mark Leibert used a more elaborate version of that process (searching “John + Cage” on Emory’s online library catalog) to create one of his signature polyphones, “the bars of the cage.” He and three other poets read simultaneously from the results. Surprising rhythms and recurrences emerged from the randomized din.
I caught their reading at the Atlanta Poets Group’s Word and Praxis: John Cage, a multidisciplinary happening at Eyedrum on Wednesday night.
Event curator John Lowther gave an impromptu mini-lecture on Cage, who liked making art of what others called mundane, and introducing elements of chance into his work. The evening’s artists did the same.
For his installation “Martian Moons,” Mario Schambon attached motors to a tethered rubber ball and a cluster of pencil stubs, then set them loose to draw a work of auto-art on paper taped to the floor. (I think I saw the head of Ganesh in the result.)
Near the end of the evening, Scott Burland doubled over and screamed into a mic for several minutes while Scott Bailey methodically tore up pieces of paper and dropped them into a bucket. Then they turned out the lights, turned on a strobe, played back a recording of the screams, and made a pretty snowstorm of the paper pieces.-- Thomas Bell
Held in the Fox Theatre’s ornate Egyptian Ballroom, the expo featured a runway full of models sporting locks designed by some of Atlanta’s most notable hair technicians. The dramatic styles were presented according to a number of themes: 1980s-era ‘dos, tresses of famous divas (sans Whitney), and hip-hop hair, among others. The most memorable stylist used The Lion King as her muse and featured body-painted models prancing about like a zebra and some unknown variety of exotic bird. I’m just hoping the crew from Taco Bell didn’t buy tickets — or I may find feathers in my next Fiesta Taco Salad.-- Carlton HargroShock your body: If there is one thing this free market society needs more of, it’s energy drinks. There is Red Bull, Rockstar, Monster and of course, the ATL’s personal favorite, Crunk!!! (OK!!!). So, why ever would we need another of these concoctions?
According to Lloyd Ward II, vice president of distribution and sales for BodyBlocks Nutrition Systems, it’s because his company has managed to make a caffeine-free version, along with a caffeinated version that contains only 35 percent of the caffeine found in the average energy drink. After nine months of testing and three months of production, BodyBlocks is ready to hit the already saturated market with not only their drink — N-Motion — but a full-on marketing blitz featuring a performance team referred to as the N-Motion Shock Crew. In cooperation with Hot 107.9 FM, who helped them get the word out, Shock Crew hopefuls traveled from as far away as Jacksonville, Fla., to Perimeter Mall on Saturday to showcase a range of mostly gymnastic talents and audition for a paid position as an ambassador for N-Motion.
Like a run-of-the-mill reality show, contestants competed in head-to-head events and solo showcases, while two annoying hosts repeated catch phrases like, “Ordinary people doing extraordinary things” or, “You can get a water bottle if you [dot dot dot] audition.” Among individual tumbling routines was a performance by a 25-year-old woman named Nikki. She did a series of flips, one-arm push-ups, one-arm/one-leg push-ups, hinge push-ups — basically the sort of feats of strength that even through the viewfinder of my camera totally emasculated me.
While Nikki and Co. were busy doing handstands and the like, I put the product to the test. Not known for being up before 3 p.m. on weekends, I guzzled down a caffeine-free N-Motion on my way home from the tryouts. Twenty minutes later, I was in bed where I took a one-hour nap. (Disclaimer: When I read the back of the drink after I awoke, I found out it’s for “people on the go,” so I may be a lost cause.)-- Nikhil Swaminathan
The Shins vs. the Glands:
Biologically speaking, the shins are no match for the glands. The shins work in conjunction with the knees and femurs to give us motion. But the glands produce hormones and regulate the body’s metabolism.
Musically speaking, the Shins are no match for the Glands, either. Sunday night, the two bands played back-to-back at a sold-out show at Variety Playhouse. It was clear that the older, sleepier, less hyped Glands just might be, as one fellow Scene & Herd contributor put it, “the best band in Georgia.” Drawing from two records released in the band’s eight-year existence, the Glands re-birthed much of their material, making the old-but-timeless sound young again. Toward the end of the set, the Glands’ oft-reticent frontman Ross Shapiro even showed some signs of personal reinvention, politely inviting the crowd to “come by the house” before an upcoming show in his Athens hometown.
The crowd, unfortunately, was not there to see the Glands, but to see headliners the Shins. The Shins played a giddier, sloppier set than the Glands. Not that the audience seemed to care, but the band did an underwhelming job playing their trademark indie pop; it was singer/guitarist James Mercer’s quieter acoustic melodies, most notably “Young Pilgrim,” that sent out the shivers.
Old pilgrims the Glands were never so ... happy. But give the Shins a few years. With a little jading and polishing, they might be the next Glands.-- Mara Shalhoup
Despite all his rage, they’re still just two Scotts doing Cage: OK, try this: Go to Google and do a search on “Andisheh” (lest we forget). Take the first word or name from the titles of each of the top 10 results, and write them down as a sentence. (If you get a repeat, go to the second word.) Here’s what I got: “Learnin’ Andisheh Presents andy2000: Asra Mahdavi, Kar Avini, I-20 Society.”
Mean something? Maybe. Poet Mark Leibert used a more elaborate version of that process (searching “John + Cage” on Emory’s online library catalog) to create one of his signature polyphones, “the bars of the cage.” He and three other poets read simultaneously from the results. Surprising rhythms and recurrences emerged from the randomized din.
I caught their reading at the Atlanta Poets Group’s Word and Praxis: John Cage, a multidisciplinary happening at Eyedrum on Wednesday night.
Event curator John Lowther gave an impromptu mini-lecture on Cage, who liked making art of what others called mundane, and introducing elements of chance into his work. The evening’s artists did the same.
For his installation “Martian Moons,” Mario Schambon attached motors to a tethered rubber ball and a cluster of pencil stubs, then set them loose to draw a work of auto-art on paper taped to the floor. (I think I saw the head of Ganesh in the result.)
Near the end of the evening, Scott Burland doubled over and screamed into a mic for several minutes while Scott Bailey methodically tore up pieces of paper and dropped them into a bucket. Then they turned out the lights, turned on a strobe, played back a recording of the screams, and made a pretty snowstorm of the paper pieces.-- Thomas Bell