It's tough to feed the spirit until you've taken care of the body first. When a network of 14 neighborhood congregations joined forces last year to tackle hunger and homelessness along the Ponce corridor, one of their first acts was finding new ways to feed people in need. So was born the Intown Food Pantry, where anyone can come for a week's worth of healthy food.  Each congregation in the Intown Collaborative Ministries – the pantry's parent group, a spiritual collective serving zip codes 30306 and 30307 – provides funding and volunteers. As the pantry grew ever more successful, serving …

Making photographs that stand the test of time requires equal parts magic and science, inspiration and technology. Self-described “photography nerds” Jeff Hielsberg and Carolina Clark created iPrint Studio in February so anyone – professional shooter or passionate amateur – could get museum-quality prints of their work. Their business fills the gap between what you’ll get at the local drugstore and large-scale firms that cater to pros. Running it out of their home offices – his in Virginia-Highland; hers in Buckhead – and coffee shops, they say they’re determined to produce the best prints in…

It’s one thing to see a finished piece of art. Being able to watch the way it comes to be is a different kind of thrill. Taking in last year’s inaugural Art on the Beltline project – 30-plus creations distributed in stretches along an 8 mile trail – sometimes felt like a cross between a scavenger hunt and a gallery with its walls blown out. The unpredictable thrill of seeing what came next pulled me ever forward, to see what lay around the next curve. It made me wish there was a way to rewind the clock and watch it unfold from the ground up. Earlier this summer, two of the artists selected …

“Tolstoy is mistaken: all happy families are not alike. In fact no two families are alike, happy or unhappy. Every family, like every fingerprint, has its own unique pattern. . . .” –Roxana Robinson One week ago, life changed for the Falcos. When the Druid Hills family learned their beloved dog Mikayla was terminally ill, they sat down together to weigh the options. If they opted for surgery and chemo, they might be able to buy her some time, but only a few months, tops. Putting the 13-year-old pet to sleep would bypass the pain, and allow them to say goodbye together. No matter how they went…

Maybe schools publish books all the time. Maybe some are even so good that a reader with no connection to the place can pick a 40th anniversary collection up cold, and still be moved by the content. Maybe it’s not that unusual, in these days of hyper-focus on test scores and GPAs, to keep coming across the word “love” in a book about a school. But I’m not so sure. After spending a few days with a new 240-page full-color hardback called School Stories: Paideia at 40 – which offers a window into the life and times of one of Atlanta’s coolest places – I think the book is pretty remarkable. Now, …

One reason noted photographer Chip Simone has lived in Virginia-Highland for the past 40 years, he says, is “it’s a real neighborhood” where you know your neighbors, look after their kids, share the keys to each other’s houses. In that way, it’s warm and predictable. But when he ventures forth into his adopted city to take the kinds of evocative pictures for which he’s become known  –  like a midway in the rain, a street character called the Birdman, an older runner sprawled across a city bench – whether he’s on foot or bicycle or tooling around in the car, the Worcester, Mass. native is …

If it wasn’t already 90 degrees by 9 a.m., it sure felt like it. But neither heat, humidity nor lack of breeze could dampen the spirits of the folks who gathered at the corner of 10th and Monroe on Sunday morning to walk the 1.5-mile stretch of the Beltline between Piedmont Park and the Montgomery Ferry bridge. Many of the 30 or so assembled were artists, scoping out possible locations for their contribution to this year’s Art on the Beltline. As fans of last year’s inaugural public exhibit – which became the largest temporary art exhibit in the city’s history – may remember, a big part of …

You’re walking down Ponce de Leon Place on a hot Sunday morning. You’ve just rewarded yourself for the bracing two-hour walk  along the Beltline and its arteries with something sweet  from Sugar-Coated Radical’s “Pastry Sunday,” chased with an iced coffee from Rattletrap Coffee, the café-to-go-mobile-shop parked out back. It’s one of those hot, fresh, of-the-moment Atlanta scenes that make you marvel at how quickly new things are born, and how much people want them to thrive. So you’re taking the few blocks home slowly, lingering over the views in each direction. You notice a hand-lettered …

Driving along the sharp curves of Ridgewood Drive in Druid Hills, you’re used to being charmed by the lovely houses – no two alike – well-tended yards and stately trees that shade the street from summer heat. But nothing quite prepares you for the garden of bright white crosses marching across the broad green lawn in front of 1803 Ridgewood. In the day, they seem to sparkle, whether it’s overcast or sunny; at night, they’re illuminated by vintage barn lights that bathe them in an old-fashioned glow. Dave Maddlone’s 1940s-era ranch is set far enough back from the street there was tons of room …

The well-orchestrated ballet of school mornings at the Markwell house would be familiar to parents anywhere: rushed bowls of cereal, last-minute hair-brushing, hurried kisses goodbye. After hugging their mother Michele one last time, the younger Markwells – Olivia, 9 and twins Isabel and Luke, 8 – head out the door with their father, Joel, for the short walk to the corner bus stop. Each morning, Bus 817 and its well-loved driver “Mr. Q” picks them up for another day of school at Springdale Park Elementary, and later that day drops them off in the same place. Watching the big yellow school bus…

If life has brought you past the busy corner of Heaton Park Drive and Coventry Road on early weekday mornings or mid-afternoons, you might have seen a tall woman in a navy blue uniform leading school kids and their parents safely to and from Fernbank Elementary. For the past 10 years, crossing guard Jean Williams has so brightened the corner where she worked that the neighborhood was a little shocked last week to learn she was hanging up her blinking red stop sign and bright yellow-and-orange sash for good. “We just found out you’re retiring,” said Karen Kersting last Wednesday, stopping to …

It’s not the kind of artwork you’re likely to spy just driving through Poncey-Highland. But if you want to see the terrific wall-size painting of the blue owl, you have to veer a little off the beaten path. Specifically, that point where Somerset Terrace splits into three branches: one leads into the huge parking lot anchored by the Ralph McGill branch of the post office; one narrows before becoming the start of Bonaventure Avenue; one leads to the stretch of the Beltline that overlooks the new Old Fourth Ward park. This particular owl is shades of blue, lying on its side in great pain, with …

You might say Terry Kearns is a connoisseur of useless beauty. That’s not to say he’s opposed to the functional kind – only that the random grace notes he notices while driving around town seem to give him the deepest joy. As the engaging blogger Architecture Tourist, the former BellSouth computer programmer has been documenting the things that have caught his eye or imagination – the built environment, gallery openings, architecture lectures and tours on his blog since 2008. It’s not just his photographs of things you’ve probably driven past a million times without a second glance that make …

On Sunday, the sun was climbing as high as it could into the skies over the Little Five Points Community Center. We were hiding from it, taking refuge in whatever shade presented itself, as we walked along the tree-lined sidewalks of Edgewood Avenue. I was a little worried about embarking upon a Serious Walk so late – it was already after 10 a.m. – and wasn’t looking forward to the brightest rays of the day. Until, that is, I met Stephen W. Ramsden, who helped us see the giant orange ball of flame overhead in a whole new way. We chanced upon him – with his cool beard and sideburns; baggy …

The sign dangling over the tiny Ponce de Leon storefront says a lot with just two words. Atlanta curves along the top in a light taupe typeface that calls to mind the days when women wouldn’t think of venturing out without white gloves, hats and heels. Underneath, in chunky turquoise capital letters, it simply says FURS. If you drive past the place all the time, you may have noticed the sign’s vintage charm. But unless you peer through the plate-glass window, or stop in for an actual visit, you won’t have any idea how well that sign encapsulates the world within.  The Alexander furrier …

True confessions, right off the bat: Once upon a time, I was a St. Patrick’s Day snob. Having been raised on the stories of the way it used to be when our family farmed rocky acres in Sligo, weaned on the music of the emerald shore, all harps and pipes and mournful tenors who couldn’t ever get what they most wanted, I had certain ideas about the proper way to spend March 17. I heard all about how it used to be a somber occasion to celebrate Irish nationality, before it became a global excuse to tie one on. Once I had a place of my own and enough money to throw a serious party, I spent long …

They say writing about music is like dancing about architecture. The magic of sound – plinked out on piano keys, coaxed from guitar strings or tumbling forth in open voices – is hard to capture in words. Which is, of course, the heart of its power. Casey McCann believes everyone has a song to sing – instrumental, vocal or both – and all they need to find it is the willingness to try. It's not about being perfect, she says, but about being able to express the joy of being alive with sound. And she’s proven it with Eclectic Music, the community of students and teachers who have turned the curvy…

In one way or the other, Paul Burks’ life has been all about land. For years, he helped Georgia communities secure grants and loans to save and protect their greenspace. (Until he retired in 2006, that was as director of the state’s Environmental Facilities Authority.) Once he left the desk job behind, he set out to fulfill the nature junkie’s dream – to hike the entire Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine – and was chronicling the journey he and his son undertook last year on a delightful blog called Huffin’ and Puffin’ up the Appalachian Trail (Unfortunately, an ankle infection sidelined…

What these women know about Virginia-Highland could fill more than one book. But you have to start somewhere. So at the moment, amateur historians Karri Hobson-Pape and Lola Carlisle are putting finishing touches on their first volume – “Images of America: Virginia-Highland,” due to their publisher by the end of March and eager readers by this fall. Luckily, they’re not even trying to cover everything for this one, which they’ve been working on for a year and a half with research partner Judy Potter. As part of Arcadia Press’ popular pictorial series, their book is designed to be heavier on …

The note was written in fat orange marker on white computer paper, stuck between the ground-floor condo’s two front doors. “Please call us so we can walk your dogs. From Locklears.” A phone number was scrawled in black ink, on the bottom. It was no mystery to Robert Miller who’d left it: Lola Locklear, 7. The young neighbor loved dogs more than anything, and hoped desperately to one day have a pup of her own. In the meanwhile, would he mind if she walked his two? Miller had already heard about the plan from Lola’s parents, Kathy and Scott Locklear, and agreed it was a fine way to get a would-…