July 12 of 12

Last month's 12 of 12 was kind of a "leaving for work" montage. So this month I just continued the journey and took pics of what it looks like between home and "the office."

I would much rather my commute take place on mass transit. One of the reasons I BOUGHT this new condo was due to it's proximity to a MARTA station, but my hours (even my new hours) are not conducive to taking the train... I think though that in a couple weeks I'll be able to start getting to and from work without my vehicle. In the meantime though... join me won't you for my commute:





Hanging from my rearview is a souvenir from my first professional broadcasting job. I keep it to remind me how far I have come. It's a short black wire with an alligator clip at one end which is "biting" the male component of some obsolete kind of connector. That short bit of wire at one point was once used to solve a long forgotten problem at my first "real" job. It was at a TINY Top 40 radio station literally run by the proverbial Mom and Pop. Built and held together with duct tape and wishes. I'm not sure when I picked it up, but it's been with me for my whole career... 4 radio stations, 2 TV stations, one national cable network and 3 cars.





On the Radio I'm usually listening to 680 The Fan. Not what you expected. I know, right. Sportstalk? I like talk radio, but I'm sick of political talk and if I want All Things Considered I'll just download that and listen on my iPod. So even though I usually have no idea what they are talking about, I enjoy the banter of the guys on in the afternoon AND should someone at work start talking sports with me, I can usually just regurgitate something I heard on my drive in and sound like I have a clue.





I've mentioned that I'm a slob, so you shouldn't be surprised at what the floor on my passenger side looks like.





Above us is an elevated portion of the tracks the MARTA train I would LIKE to be taking to work rides on.





About halfway there now, going through an area that is PRIMED for a big resurgence... a very large public housing project has been torn down and is about to be developed into a mixed use area that will have AMAZING views of downtown. This shot is through my driver's side window of a building right across the street from that area.





This building adjacent to the aforementioned former public housing area. Just across the tracks. It's being torn down. I think it's so interesting that they left the old water tank up there while knocking out the bricks below... why not take the water tank down FIRST and THEN knock the rest of the building down?





Having crossed over the I75/I85 connector that runs through downtown we are now passing the Georgia State Capitol building. The golden shine of the dome is due to the fact that it is in fact gilded with real gold. On top is a statue called Miss Liberty. Only in the south would a statue on top of the Capitol building sound like a beauty pageant contestant.





UNDERGROUND Atlanta is a shopping mall in downtown... UNDER downtown is really more like it. We'll talk more about Atlanta's elevated nature in a minute. Underground SHOULD be a really cool thing, but as long as I have been here it's been kind of a second or third tier destination. It has a large food court which I'm sure does a great business with all the downtown workers at lunch, but for shopping or as a destination of any sort, it's sorely lacking. Some shootings years ago kind of took the shine off UNDERGROUND and it has struggled ever since. The city actually runs and owns the property and they kind of pissed people off a little when they exempted the bars in Underground Atlanta from the same laws that have forced some of their competitors to close earlier or not open at all on some days.





Atlanta is known (and sometimes made fun of) for the number of streets named "Peachtree" that run through it. This particular Peachtree Street is the mother of them all. It runs through downtown all the way up to the northern most edge of the city limits. At this point here though a HUGE construction project is underway that has caused this historic street to be closed for months and months. Atlanta is built about 3 stories above ground level in most places. So most of the "street level" streets downtown are really bridges that just run between the buildings. This particular stretch of the bridge that is Peachtree Street right in the HEART of downtown had to be completely torn out and replaced, and it's taking FOREVER!





That there is the Georgia Dome, the largest cable-supported domed stadium in the world. Home to the Atlanta Falcons NFL franchise, host to Super Bowl XXVII and XXXIV and host of the gymnastics and basketball events for the 1996 Olympic Games. On the right side of the pic you can also see part of the facade for Philips Arena. You can take tours of the Dome on days when it's not in use... I highly recommend the tour. It's cool. You even get to go into the locker rooms and onto the field.





This pic LOOKS like a picture of that big rectangular building with the inverted triangle on top (Centennial Tower), but it's REALLY a picture of the circular building behind it and to the right. That's the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel and at one time, it was the tallest hotel in the world! This perspective kind of throws that perception off but at 73 stories it is now merely the tallest hotel in the Western Hemisphere... but that's still nothing to sneeze at! You may also remember it from the movie Sharky's Machine in which some say Burt Reynolds did his finest work.





The final part of my commute is on foot under this blue canopy that leads to my office.


Hope you enjoyed my commute! I sure don't.

What's 12 of 12? Chad explains it all here.