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Scott Hines's avatar

I will note that perhaps the most jarring "things have changed" part about going to NYC was flying through the new Terminal B at LaGuardia. I used to comment that I'd been through bus stations nicer than LGA, quite seriously, so I was shocked to find that instead of a dank, crowded hole with tarps hung from a grid ceiling to catch the leaks from above, I was flying through a legitimately beautiful airport terminal. Wonders never cease.

Also, i brought back three pounds of Zabar's coffee beans and it earned me an extra 20 minutes in security, a full pat-down from the TSA, and an inspection from the explosives expert. It was worth it; it's damned good coffee.

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Nate Ranson's avatar

I've lived in Atlanta my whole life. When I was a teenager and pretty much through my early 30s, I was a hellraiser. I grew up sneaking into the city to go to punk shows, telling my parents I was doing a variety of other things.

I would drive into the city and get off at Freedom Parkway and hoof it down Boulevard to a sketchy strip mall venue that had "sound proof" carpet nailed to the walls and was stealing power from the convenience store next door (via an extension cord running through the ceiling panels). At the time, it was called the Neutron Bomb. Now it's a very well-lit self-storage space right near the Beltline (for fellow Atlanta folks, it's at the corner of Boulevard and Dekalb Ave).

I would meander around the gravel parking lot of the Masquerade carefully avoiding the broken bottles and dirty needles waiting for the gigs to start so I could promptly walk into the band entrance past security like I was part of the band. Sometimes fights would spill outside and I'd hustle out there to spectate. One time I was involved in a brawl that spilled out from the "Hell" part of the venue into the street where a couple of cops were waiting as security. Some dude got hit with a baton and I took off (lol). The Masquerade lives on as a part of a "revitalized" Underground Atlanta, but that building with the historical pedigree is now a mixed-use apartment complex.

The MJQ was a dance club where my shitty hardcore punk band played our first show with all of our degenerate friends. The whole block was recently bought by a developer and is set to be flipped next year, sometime.

Eats was our pre-gig staple. Used to be filled with legit weirdos, homeless people, and punks (I would wager at one point there were more face tattoos per capita in Eats than in anywhere else in the world). Now it's filled with yuppie tech bros who work at Ponce City Market ironically wearing their Reagan/Bush 1984 shirts.

Sorry to be long-winded, but Atlanta has always been home and while I realize that objectively it's probably better today than it was then for 90% of the residents and visitors -- myself included -- I'm still very nostalgic for the old days when it wasn't for everyone. Not everything should be commoditized to be appreciated. But I still love Atlanta and always will.

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