Pic(k) of the Week: Your Aureate Majesty

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Regal autumnal color. Need I say more?

Freedom Park Trail: City of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 19 November 2025.

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Freedom Park

Freedom Park is a 200-acre greenspace with trails that hold vast amounts of history and act as a connector for many of Atlanta's oldest intown neighborhoods. Legend has it that Gemeral Sherman watch Atlanta burn in 1864 from [what is today] Freedom Park. Today, visitors to the park can take in stunning views of the Atlanta skyline and public art along the paved multiuse trail. The park pays homage to the legacy of Atlanta's civil rights legends Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis and is also home to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum.

— Hiking Atlanta's Hidden Forests
Jonah McDonald, Zana Pouncey (Milestone Press, 2024).

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Cannonball Adderley: Autumn Leaves.
Album: Somethin' Else
Label: Blue Note (1958).

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Pic(k) of the Week: Autumn morning on Arabia Lake

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As I was setting up my tripod, a passing hiker greeted me.
"It's a beautiful day."
"Yes, indeed," I replied.

Arabia Lake: a man-made reservoir on Arabia Mountain, a granite monadnock near the town of Stonecrest in DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 6 November 2025.

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Arabia Lake & Davidson-Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area

The former Davidson Quarry, which owned Arabia Mountain in the mid 20th-century, created the lake by damming small Stephenson Creek. In 1972, the Davidson family closed the quarry and donated the land to the county. Concrete and metal remains of a quarry bridge can still be seen on both banks of the lake (visible, in the photo, in the background)

The land is now part of the Davidson-Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area...

...that encompasses natural, cultural, and historical elements to form a cohesive, nationally significant landscape. The area is due east of Atlanta and spans 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) reaching from the historic commercial center of Lithonia to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, including several sites in between, including Arabia Mountain, Panola Mountain, and the historic Flat Rock Community. The National Heritage Area was established in 2006 and is coordinated by the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area Alliance, which includes board members, representatives from the community and local organizations, and staff.

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Miles Davis: Boplicity.
Album: Birth of the Cool
Label: Capitol Records (recorded 1949; released 1957).

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Pic(k) of the Week: Catch a beat

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Catch a beat! Drummer in action during a performance by Atlanta-area musician Mandi Strachota and the Major 7s.

Oakhurst Porchfest: Decatur, Georgia, USA, 11 October 2025.

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Porchfest

Porchfests are annual music events held across the United States and in Canada on front porches. Started in Ithaca, New York, in 2007, porchfest events bring local musicians and neighborhoods together to celebrate and create a sense of community.

Since 2015, Oakhurst Porchfest [in the eponymous neighborhood of the city of Decatur] has been a grassroots community music festival where front porches become stages, yards become venues, and radical generosity and goodwill rule the day.

— Wikipedia.
— Oakhurst Porchfest.

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Mandi Strachota

Born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in the wilds of Wisconsin, Mandi Strachota is the product of southern roots and Midwest know-how, a potent mix of practicality and soulful dreaming. Mandi has become a fixture on the Atlanta scene, taking her music nationwide in 2019. She is known for her soulful vocals, but is a multi-instrumentalist who is quickly becoming known for her songwriting [...] embracing R&B, gospel, and soul, [...and] dabbling in jazz and blues, with a touch of grit and country sway.

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Mandi Strachota: Daredevil.
Album: Pictures
Label: CD Baby, 2020.

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Pic(k) of the Week: It's Time for a General Strike

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"Defend democracy. It's time for a general strike!"

No Kings protests took place nationwide in the U.S. on October 18, 2025, as part of a series of demonstrations against Donald Trump's policies and actions during his second presidency. The demonstrations, which followed the June 2025 No Kings protests, took place in some 2,700 locations across the country, including the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Chicago, New York City, [and in Atlanta]. Approximately two hundred organizations collaborated to coordinate the October protests, which drew nearly 7 million participants nationwide, marking it as one of the largest single-day demonstrations in American history.

— Wikipedia (accessed 28 October 2025).

In Atlanta, an estimated 10,000 gathered to listen to speakers near the Atlanta Civic Center in the historic Old Fourth Ward. Following the speeches, they marched, en masse, 1½ miles to Liberty Plaza, situated downtown in front of the State Capitol building.

More photos from the rally: here.

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Frederic Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated
Album: The People United Will Never Be Defeated!
Label: Vanguard, 1978.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Stone Mountain summit at sunrise

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It was 'blowing a hoolie,' at sunrise on the summit of Stone Mountain, that is, cold and windy!

A minimalist 'blue hour' silhouette in DeKalb County, Georgia, USA, on 10 October 2025 at 7:20 a.m. EDT.

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Thelonius Monk: Crepuscule with Nellie
Album: Monk's Music (Label: Riverside, 1957)

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