i couldn’t resist this sweet arrested development t-shirt i found at target!

– ryan & gub

chairlift, who put out one of my favorite albums last year, have posted the demos from something on their website! click here to download the songs or you can listen to them below.

– ryan

here’s a list of my favorite concerts from last year. i have grand notions of putting up a list of my favorite albums as well, but i’ve had those goals before! as with recent years, there was a heavy mix of reunion concerts on the list. i guess that’s just what happens when you get older.

afghan whigs – sat, oct 20th – the masquerade
david byrne & st vincent – wed, oct 3rd – cobb energy center
chairlift – thu, apr 19th – the earl
frankie rose – tue, apr 10th – 529
grimes – mon, mar 5th – drunken unicorn
jeff mangum – wed, feb 1st – variety playhouse
the jesus & mary chain – thu, sep 6th – variety playhouse
neon indian & purity ring – mon, mar 19th – the masquerade
perfume genius – thu, mar 29th – the earl
radiohead – thu, mar 1st – phillips arena
tame impala – thu, mar 8th – drunken unicorn
youth lagoon – thu, mar 22nd – drunken unicorn

-ryan

– be sure to check out my favorite shows from 2011 and 2010 as well!

grey looked sweet while sleeping the other evening!

– ryan

our tulip tree did surprisingly well this year. a few early warm days combined with late freezes caused some worry, however it powered through. i would say general beauregard lee made the right prediction with how cold it’s been.

the blooms were still quite beautiful even with the frigid temperatures. they always stand out against the dormant late winter landscape. be sure to check out more photos from previous blog posts: spring 2012, late winter 2012, spring 2011, late winter 2011 & spring 2010.

– ryan

there’s a new dancing goats in town with a huge porch and a small, but appetizing, lunch menu! it’s also the first business to open at ponce city market, atlanta’s exciting new city project from the creators of the chelsea market in nyc.

ponce city market is the largest adaptive reuse project in atlanta’s history! the massive project involves restoring the historic sears, roebuck & co building in the old forth ward with lots of new restaurants, businesses, residences and surrounding parks. as of now the plan is to open spring 2014.

take the virtual tour!

– ryan

dancing goats ponce city market

675 north avenue
atlanta, ga 30308
404-874-0370

starbucks recently started selling their blonde roasts in whole bean bags at both grocery stores and starbucks outlets. they sold whole bean bags of their christmas blonde last winter, so i’m glad to see year-round options available.

i’ve also discovered if you order the blonde roast at a starbucks, you actually get a hand-brewed pour-over style cup of coffee! they don’t even charge extra for the hand-brewing, like other coffee shops do.

be sure to check out our previous posts on light roasted coffees as well as pour-over brewing!

– ryan

time for some father-son-look-alike contests!!!

– ryan

our friends rob & ellen recently sent us a gift box from intelligentsia with a bag of fresh roasted coffee and two mugs! we had never tried intelligentsia before, at least that we are aware of, so we were excited. it was a very tasty, smooth cup of coffee, especially brewed with our chemex. we were quite impressed!

on a related note, we’ve upgraded our coffee brewing setup over the last few months. our electric tea kettle was on the fritz, so we got the new variable temperature kettle from bonavita. it’s the perfect companion for pour-over coffee brewers and tea lovers alike. it has a gooseneck spout for easy pouring and the kettle offers complete temperature control for ideal brewing settings. there is also a hold feature to keep your water hot throughout the brewing process, or if you plan on having another cup of tea. basically, it’s pretty awesome!

for christmas we also upgraded our grinder, which was on its last legs as well. we went with a conical burr style from capresso. it actually grinds the beans instead of chopping them, preserving aroma and flavor. the grinder is also extremely quite and super easy! you just set the fineness (from coarse to turkish fine), turn the knob to the amount of cups you want and it does the rest. for our chemex setup, we stick with a coarse grind, which you can see in the below photo.

– ryan

i got the fuji instax 210 camera for christmas and it’s a blast from the past! for those who you who loved your polaroid camera, then you’ll be all over this. it shoots on wide format film that is very similar to the old polaroid 600 film size. plus you can buy new film on amazon for $16.99 for 20 photos. that’s less then polaroid film used to be.

the impossible project is also making and selling new film for various polaroid models, check out their webstore for more details. they also sell these sweet jackets!

– ryan