Atlantafi.com is bringing you the latest on the coronavirus pandemic, which has the state of Georgia and the city of Atlanta under a state of emergency.
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Atlanta has made another top 10 list, but this time it’s a dubious one. The city has the eighth-worst traffic in the world, according to a recent study.
The findings, published in February by Inrix Global Traffic Scorecard, show that that ATL commute is just as bad as you thought it was.
The rankings have some economic ramifications as well: Because of the congestion, the city lost $7.1 billion or an average of $2,212 per motorist.
If there’s any consolation, it’s that ATL is only the fourth worse in the United States. Gridlock in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco was rated worse.
So why is ATL traffic so bad? There are many reasons, but one of them is that some say the city is in a virtual no-man’s land with no natural way out.
Tom Weyandt, ex-Mayor Kasim Reed’s former transportation adviser, told WABE this:
“There’s no mountain chain; there’s no desert; there’s no water – we’re here because of the railroads. The railroads came together right in downtown. The zero mile post is in Underground Atlanta. And the city grew out along the railroads. That’s why we have these eccentric five-point intersections in many different places in the downtown area.”
Another reason is urban sprawl, which Atlanta has become a poster child case. And it has been called “a strip mall in a forest,” which means that it has long catered to parking rather than getting around.
Why do YOU think traffic is so bad in Atlanta? Let us know in the comments.
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If it’s one thing we’ve learned here in Atlanta, it’s that Adult Swim knows how to throw a party. That being said, it’s with particular delight that their newest bash is for metal heads.
“Adult Swim Presents: M r. Pickles Thrash-tacular Metal Tour” is heading our way. It features two of the best indie metal groups around, Exodus Attack and Municipal Waste.
Here are some of the deets, according to a Facebook post from Municipal Waste:
Adult Swim is moshing its way around the country with an immersive, fan-centric 13-city metal “thrash-tastic” tour featuring Exodus and Municipal Waste in support of the new season of its animated series Mr. Pickles. Along with enjoying face melting guitar riffs, fans attending the Thrash-tacular Metal Tour can take photos in the Mr. Pickles hellacious dog house, purchase exclusive Mr. Pickles merchandise and receive free Adult Swim swag. The new music tour continues Adult Swim’s commitment to bringing vibrant and impactful experiences directly to its fans. The onslaught of sound begins Thursday, February 22nd in Seattle, Washington.
Blabbermouth.net (Official) pre-sale tickets are now available for purchase from now until 10pm (local time) tonight, January 11th, using the code: Pickles666
General admission tickets will be available for purchase starting Friday, January 12th at 10am (local time). For more information on the tour, how to get tickets and schedule, please visit www.adultswimpresents.com.
Confirmed dates for Mr. Pickles Thrash-tacular featuring Exodus and Municipal Waste are:
2/22/2018 Neumos – Seattle, WA
Tickets: bit.ly/MrPicklesNeumos2/23/2018 Hawthorne Theatre – Portland, OR
Tickets: bit.ly/MrPicklesHawthorne2/25/2018 The Regency Ballroom – San Francisco, CA
Tickets: bit.ly/MrPicklesRegency2/26/2018 House of Blues Anaheim – Anaheim, CA
Tickets: bit.ly/MrPicklesHOBAnaheim2/27/2018 House of Blues San Diego – San Diego, CA
Tickets: bit.ly/MrPicklesHOBSanDiego3/01/2018 Metro Music Hall – Salt Lake City, UT
Tickets: bit.ly/MrPicklesMetroMH3/02/2018 The Summit Music Hall – Denver, CO
Tickets: bit.ly/MrPicklesSummitMH3/04/2018 Bottom Lounge – Chicago, IL
Tickets: bit.ly/MrPicklesBottomLounge3/06/2018 Rock & Roll Hotel DC – Washington, D.C.
Tickets: bit.ly/MrPicklesRockandRollHotel3/07/2018 Irving Plaza – New York, NY
Tickets: bit.ly/MrPicklesIrvingPlaza3/08/2018 Theatre of Living Arts – Philadelphia, PA
Tickets: bit.ly/MrPicklesTLA3/09/2018 The National – Richmond, VA
Tickets: bit.ly/MrPicklesTheNational3/10/2018 The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
Tickets: bit.ly/MrPicklesMasqueradeExodus’ Gary Holt states, “Super excited to hit the road again with our good bros in Municipal Waste for the Adult Swim’s Mr. Pickles Thrash-tacular tour! This will be a thrash extravaganza at its finest!!!! Can’t wait!”
The original architects of the thrash metal scene, Exodus has battled every kind of adversity over the past 30 years and used it all as fuel to stoke their ever-raging fire. With “Blood In Blood Out”, Exodus’ tenth full-length studio album of new material prove they still have the fortitude, chops, and talent to deliver top-notch, ballad-free tunes that stand out without straying from the band’s core aesthetic. Watch the music video for “Blood In Blood Out” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c69S3pD8qI
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(Editor’s note: This is a sponsored post. Read more about our sponsored content.)
In the 1980s, there was a popular hamburger commercial that appropriately asked “Where’s the beef?” In 2018, it’s in McDonald’s Quarter Pounder sandwich.
The hamburger giant announced this week that it is serving fresh beef, across the majority of its restaurants.
The cooked-to-order beef comes amid customers’ heightened expectations of food quality from U.S. restaurants and fast-food joints.
McDonald’s says that all of its burgers use 100 percent pure beef with no gunk like fillers, additives or preservatives.
“Over the past two years, we’ve made a series of bold, tangible changes for our customers,” said McDonald’s President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Easterbrook. “Serving All-Day Breakfast, moving to cage-free eggs and testing delivery are all proof of our commitment to build a better McDonald’s. And we are committed to transforming more aspects of our business, including offering a more modern and enjoyable dining experience, adding new levels of convenience and technology, and making more positive changes to the food we serve.”
The fresh beef initiative is just one of many changes McDonald’s has led in the last few years. In 2015, the company announced its All-Day Breakfast menu, with an aim to serve only cage-free eggs by 2025, and an effort to serve only chicken not treated with antibiotics.
Find your nearest McDonald’s restaurant here.
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The future is bright for Janelle Monae, the Kansas City-born part cyborg, part human siren of a woman.
After three studio albums and a handful of EPs, some big screen praise and newfound Hollywood clout at her command, the 31-year-old is on the cusp of being a megastar. It comes just in time too. Monae’s new musical project, Dirty Computer. Is about to change the game.
The album’s first two singles, “Django Jane” and “Make Me Feel,” have fans in a frenzy for the full project, which is set to be released on April 27, 2018. For those of us who’ve been checking for Monae for minute, her first EP, “Metropolis: A Suite (The Chase),” showed that she has long been married to afrofuturism.
But the record-buying public, especially her audience, was not ready. Even with 2010’s “The ArchAndroid,” there was the sense that the imagination of music lovers hadn’t quite evolved for what Monae was doing.
But with “Electric Lady” in 2015, her vision — along with the audience’s resistance — began to meld. So here we are in 2018, about to enjoy some legendary joints.
She recently hosted a fierce power brunch for her grassroots organization Fem the Future, which featured a who’s who from the entertainment industry. Stars like “Black Panther’s” Danai Gurira and Tessa Thompson served looks and drank mimosas.
https://twitter.com/tessthompsonorg/status/969716507973488640
For those not invited to the VIP soiree, Monae streamed part of it on Instagram Live, giving her fans a dose of hopeful wokeness in these troubling times.
Monae’s unique brand of afrofuturism, R&B and pop interwoven with social commentary puts her on the vanguard not only in music, but in entertainment as a whole.
Afrofuturism has come a long way since being popularized by author Octavia E. Butler. widely regarded as the fairy godmother of sci-fi literature. But in music, acts like Sun Ra and George Clinton infused funk and Africa’s tribal beats to pop culture.
Still, none of them had the technology to see their visions come to fruition — but Monae is living it.
After starturns in Oscar-winning films like “Moonlight” and “Hidden Figures,” the sky seems like the limit for Monae. She is, by every definition, winning.
As for the music, Monae is now more confident in her sonic space than ever before, in large part to her fallen mentor, Prince.
“It’s difficult for me to even speak about this because Prince was helping me with the album, before he passed on to another frequency,” she told The Guardian in February.
She said that the Purple One helped her to shed any inhibitions that crimped her creativity — and for that, she is forever grateful. “I wouldn’t be as comfortable with who I am if it had not been for Prince. I mean, my label Wondaland would not exist without Paisley Park coming before us.”
The city of Atlanta figures prominently in Monae’s life, especially in developing her into the woman she is.
“Atlanta is home to me,” she told Atlanta Magazine last year. “I’m originally from Kansas, and I like to say that Kansas raised me but Atlanta turned me into a young woman. This is where I started my career. This is where my roots are as an artist.”
And this is also where her future — an afrofuture — is as well.
Listen to #DjangoJane & #MakeMeFeel on @applemusic! #WondalandRecordshttps://JanelleMonae.lnk.to/dirtycomputer/applemusic
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(Editor’s note: This is a sponsored post. Read more about our sponsored content.)
Target is one of the more accessible stores in Atlanta, with more than eight stores in city limits. That means that some decent savings are a short distance away when you find out what’s in store.
All of the metro Atlanta locations are running deals right now on such items as Oyster blenders, crock-pots and other cookware.
Target is the second-largest discount brick-and-mortar retailer in the country, right behind Walmart. The store that would later come to be known Target was first called Goodfellow Dry Goods in Minnesota.
Today the Target brand is readily accessible and recognizable because of its red buildings and imagery.
Here are some of the items that are on sale now as part of Target’s Weekly Ad.
And here is a list of Target stores in Atlanta.
Target: MidtownTarget: Edgewood Retail DistrictAddress: 1275 Caroline St NE, Atlanta, GA 30307Hours: Opens 8 AM ⋅ Closes 11 PMTarget: Perimeter PlaceAddress: 100 Perimeter Center Pl, Atlanta, GA 30346 -
Art / Atlanta / Business / Concerts / Culture / Entertainment / Things To Do
March 5, 2018
1 Min ReadRapper/actor/singer/producer Donald Glover announced Monday that his music alias Childish Gambino is going on tour nationally — and the first stop is Atlanta.
Pre-sale tickets went on sale Tuesday and the general sale begins Friday.
Glover, who was reared in nearby Stone Mountain, has been immersed in film and TV project the past two years, putting music on the back burner. But now it looks like music is coming back to the forefront.
Childish Gambino’s album “Awaken, My Love” exploded onto the scene in 2016 and snatched souls along the way. Hits such as “Redbone” and “Baby Boy” caught on in the national consciousness, especially when the former was featured prominently in Oscar-awarded “Get Out.”
Here is the list of cities for Childish Gambino’s 2018 North American tour, which will feature special guest Rae Sremmurd.
Sept. 6 — Atlanta
Sept 8 — Chicago
Sept. 10 — Toronto
Sept. 12 — Boston
Sept. 14 — New York
Sept. 18 — Philly
Sept. 19 — Washington, D.C.
Sept. 22 — Houston
Sept. 23 — Dallas
Sept. 26 — Los Angeles
Sept. 27 — Oakland
Sept. 29 — Seattle
Sept. 30 — Vancouver
Here’s how to get tickets.
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If you’re a kid at heart, you’ll surely like the new eatery that just opened recently at Krog Street Market. It’s called Recess and that’s the greatest name ever.
The food stand comes to us from the great mind of by Chef Victoria Shore and is part of a vast family of great restaurants from the The Castellucci Restaurant Group.
You’ve eaten at a Castellucci joint before (Bar Mercado, Iberian Pig, Cooks and Soldiers, Double Zero) and they’ve done it again with Recess.
The 15-seat food stall has been operating as a pop-up as of late, offering free treats and healthy dishes for patrons to try.
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More casting calls are rolling in for this star-studded movie based on a true story about a group of friends who have been playing a no-holds-barred version of the children’s game Tag for the last three decades is coming to the big screen.
The latest casting call is for scenes filming on Sunday, March 11 in Atlanta. If you’re not available that day, please do not apply.
The flick features Jeremy Renner, Hannibal Burress, Ed Helms and Tracy Morgan. To audition for a role in the new movie, check out the casting call breakdown below.
TAG Casting Call
1. Caucasian Male that is bald, with a full beard, age 30s.
Subject: BEER-D2. Caucasian Female, ages 50-60s with Grey/Blonde Hair
Subject: AGED TO PERFECTION3. Caucasian Male, ages 18-20s, slim/skinny body type and buzzcut hairstyle. Glasses a plus!
Subject: HIPSTER BAR4. African American Female, ages 20-30 with Short Natural Hair and full chest.
Subject: FINE WINEDate(s): Sunday, March 11
Rate: $75/8
Location: ATLANTA, GATo submit, please email 3 pictures, your name, age, height, weight, ALL OF YOUR SIZES, and cell phone number to mailto:Submissions@CatrettCasting.com
Don’t forget to use the correct Subject Line -
It’s been an especially cold winter for local eateries as another Atlanta-area restaurant says it is closing its doors. Cast Iron restaurant in Old Fourth Ward is closing in the coming weeks.
On the eatery’s Facebook page, management apologized for discontinuing its beloved cheeseburger then told patrons the bad news:
“I recognize that Cast Iron’s cheeseburger was a well loved menu item and that for it to be removed without any warning was inconsiderate. Our burger was listed in the top 100 dishes in Atlanta last year, about which I am both appreciative and humbled. At the end of 2017, we had to make some tough decisions, and when the dust settled our burger was no longer available. Many showed their support for this restaurant since day one by ordering that burger, and I’ll always appreciate that.
Great News! For the next several weeks, we’ll be serving bacon cheeseburgers!
Not so great news: at the end of those weeks, Cast Iron will be closing its doors for good.”
Cast Iron restaurant was opened by chef/owner Evan Cordes in November 2016. Since then the Highland Avenue spot drew and dedicated crowd who came to love the atmosphere and eats.
Two weeks ago, One Midtown Kitchen announced that it would close on March 4. The good thing though is that more restaurants are opening.
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Will Smith is currently in Georgia filming his latest film, “Gemini Man.” The producers are looking for some fresh faces for background roles as well.
Smith, fresh off the success of his first Netflix venture, “Bright,”recently took to social media to complain about the gnats in Savannah. Wearing a net mask, the actor said that he loved Georgia but “you gotta rock this,” he said, pointing to the mask.
As we previously reported the film will be directed by Ang Lee and has been around Hollywood for more than a decade in various versions. It is about an assassin who finally meets his match, actually a younger clone of himself.
“Previous drafts were penned by a revolving door of scribes that included Brian Helgeland, Andrew Niccol and David Benioff. Previously, Tony Scott considered directing as well as Curtis Hanson,” according to Deadline.com. “Skydance acquired the project in 2016 with Jerry Bruckheimer attached to produce with David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger and Don Murphy and Chad Oman executive producing.”
Ha!! Big Will Smith is filming a movie in Savannah and apparently even the bugs are excited to see him. 😂 When you get finished come see us in Atlanta! Let's get it!! pic.twitter.com/OiiGscFQCg
— Fred Blankenship (@FBlankenshipWSB) February 28, 2018
Casting directors are now casting actors, models, and talent to work on scenes filming on March 5th and/or March 9th in Savannah, Georgia.
Producers are seeking the following types:
Gemini Man
Government Suit types
Clean cut / clean shaven
All Ethnicities / Age 45 and overDates: 3/5 and/or 3/9
Rate: 64/8
Location: Savannah GAIf you are available all of the dates then please email GMan@RoseLockeCasting.com. Include 3 pics (head, body and profile) age, ht, wt and all contact info.