Pic(k) of the Week: Joe Alterman

  Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

Atlanta-based pianist Joe Alterman and his trio delivered a rollicking performance at the Inman Park Festival.

Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
26 April 2026.

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Joe Alterman

Joe Alterman is an Atlanta-based jazz pianist, composer, and storyteller known for blending joyful swing, deep groove, and heartfelt narrative into every performance. A bandleader with an international touring career, Alterman has performed across the U.S. and Europe and released numerous acclaimed albums spanning solo piano, trio, and soul-inflected jazz. Deeply influenced by mentors such as Les McCann, Ramsey Lewis, and Ahmad Jamal, his music emphasizes melody, feel, and emotional connection over flash. In addition to performing, Alterman is a radio host on Atlanta’s NPR affiliate WABE and a sought-after cultural curator, weaving history, humor, and humanity into his concerts. Whether on stage or over the airwaves, his mission is simple: to remind listeners that jazz is joyful, accessible, and very much alive.

📷 More photos of Alterman and his trio: here.

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Inman Park Festival

The Inman Park Festival & Tour of Homes takes place in Inman Park, one of Atlanta’s oldest and most scenic neighborhoods. First developed in the late 1800s, Inman Park features an abundance of historic homes and several scenic parks.

The Festival began in the early 1970s as a means to attract attention for revitalization efforts in the community. Now, it is a full weekend jam-packed with events: music, kids' activities, a Tour of Homes, a marvelous street parade, an artists’ market, not to mention some of the city’s best people-watching. It is organized annually by the Inman Park Neighborhood Association on the last full weekend in April.

📷 More festival photos: here.

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Joe Alterman: Blue Moon

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Pic(k) of the Week: The Marksman

Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

The Marksman: Annchen (2009)

• constructed of PVC, Lycra, and Swarovski crystals.
• Artists: Viktor Horsting, Rolf Snoeren (Netherlands).

Viktor&Rolf: Fashion Statements, at...
The High Museum of Art
Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
7 February 2026.

Dutch fashion artists Viktor&Rolf originally created these costumes in 2009, for Robert Wilson's performance of a 19th-century opera, The Marksman (Der Freischütz). Wilson was a renowned American experimental-theater playwright and director.

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About Viktor&Rolf

For more than three decades, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren have explored the connections between the worlds of haute couture and art. The self-confessed fashion world outsiders call themselves fashion artists, blurring the boundaries between clothing and art through their unconventional work. Viktor&Rolf are acclaimed for their masterful technical skill; their surprising, thought-provoking approach to design; and their deep knowledge of fashion and history.

This is the first dedicated exhibition of their work in the United States, as well as the first project sponsored by the Lauren Amos Fashion Project at the High Museum of Art. It features more than one hundred of Viktor&Rolf’s most daring and avant-garde works, alongside videos, sketches, dolls, and photographs that bring their process to life.

Their collections often begin with an abstract idea, and from there, each step of conceptual and technical development considers the final presentation—the fashion show. Rather than straightforward catwalk presentations, their shows tend to be true performances in which they act as storytellers, directors, and often participants. Thinking outside of the box, combining unrelated elements, and pushing the boundaries of the imaginable—together, this is what makes Viktor&Rolf’s designs so unique.

— High Museum website

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About Robert Wilson and "The Marksman"

Robert Wilson (1941 – 2025) was an American director and playwright of experimental theater. He also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video artist, and sound and lighting designer. He is best known for his collaboration with Philip Glass and Lucinda Childs on Einstein on the Beach, and his frequent collaborations with Tom Waits.

— Wikipedia.

In May 2009, Robert Wilson collaborated with dramaturge Wolfgang Wiens, for his production of Carl Maria von Weber's opera, "Der Freischütz," at the Pentecost Festival in Baden-Baden, Germany. The "Freeshooter" was Robert Wilson's second collaboration with the fashion design duo Viktor & Rolf from Amsterdam. They first worked together on the dance piece 2Lips and Dancers and Space (Luxembourg, 2004). The opening in Baden-Baden was conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock.

— Robert Wilson.

Der Freischütz (the "Freeshooter" or "Marksman") is a 1821 German romantic opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), with a libretto by Friedrich Kind, based on an old German folk tale in which a hapless huntsman enters a pact with the devil and, in exchange for bullets that never miss, pays a gruesome price.

— Wikipedia.

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Philip Glass (composer), Robert Wilson (librettist):
Einstein on the Beach
Album: Einstein on the Beach (Label: Tomato Records, 1978)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Your Aureate Majesty

Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

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: It's Time for a General Strike

Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

"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: Festival dancers

Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

Dance (drink!) to the music.

Inman Park Festival: City of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 26 April 2025.

Taking place on the last full weekend in April, the Inman Park Festival & Tour of Homes is Atlanta’s largest all-volunteer festival. Organized by the Inman Park Neighborhood Association since the 1970s, the festival has grown to become a full weekend jam-packed with events, including music, kids' activities, a Tour of Homes, a marvelous street parade, an artists’ market, and some of the city’s best people-watching.

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Sonny Rollins: Tune Up
Album: Newk's Time (Blue Note, 1959)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Pre-concert preparations

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Bassist Teja Veal prepares for Rhonda Thomas' Red Dragonfly concert.

Inman Park Festival: City of Atlanta (Inman Park), Georgia, USA. 26 April 2025.

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Rhonda Thomas at Inman Park Festival.

Soul/jazz vocalist Rhonda Thomas incorporates jazz, soul, gospel, house, and funk in her music. From 1997-2008, Ms. Thomas was a background singer and soloist for soul music legend, the late Isaac Hayes. She has also performed with Roy Ayers, Roberta Flack, Eric Roberson, Avery Sunshine, Frank McComb, Stephanie Mills, The String Cheese Incident, and others. She performs internationally, in her own right.

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Rhonda Thomas with Isaac Hayes: Do Your Thing.
Montreau Jazz Festival, 2005

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Pic(k) of the Week: 3-2-1 Sketch!

Pens down! In a 'sketch-off,' participants had only a short time to draw a portrait of the person sitting across from them.

Atlanta Dogwood Festival in Piedmont Park: Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 13 April 2025.

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Sheila Jordan: You Are My Sushine
Album (George Russell): The Outer View (Riverside, 1962)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Five Points ceiling

Ceiling over subterranean rail station.

Five Points MARTA: Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 13 April 2025.

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John Coltrane: Giant Steps
Album: Giant Steps (Atlantic Records, 1960)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Tree over hill

A tree comes into blossom

Over a dun hill.

A moment recursive

In Brigid's turn.

A municipal golf course, as seen from the Stone Mountain Trail in Candler Park of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 21 March 2025.

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Nina Simone: My Baby Just Cares for Me
Album: Little Girl Blue (Bethlehem Records, 1959)

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Pic(k) of the Week: High Alley

Mural and cityscape, up high.

As seen through the windows of the Skyway —connecting the Anne Cox Chambers Wing and Wieland Pavilion— of the High Museum of Art: Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 9 February 2025.

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Bill Evans: Some Other Time (Everybody Digs Bill Evans, 1959)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Studying "The Shelton with Sunspots"

“One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.”

— Georgia O'Keeffe

The Shelton with Sunspots, N.Y. (1926)
oil on canvas
— Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887-1986)
— on loan from The Art Institute of Chicago.

Displayed during Georgia O’Keeffe: “My New Yorks”, an art exhibition at the High Museum of Art: Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 9 February 2025.

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About the painting

This blazing canvas, which captures a fleeting juxtaposition of the natural and the human-built environments, was inspired by O’Keeffe’s perception of nature’s power even in an urban setting. She later recalled, 'I went out one morning to look at [the Shelton Hotel] and there was the optical illusion of a bite out of one side of the tower made by the sun, with sunspots against the building and against the sky.' The painting boldly exemplifies O’Keeffe’s response to the novel structure of the skyscraper, a subject almost exclusively represented by male artists.

— museum plaque

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About the exhibition
(October 25, 2024 – February 16, 2025)

“I had never lived up so high before and was so excited that I began talking about trying to paint New York,” recalled Georgia O’Keeffe late in life. In 1924 the artist and her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, moved into the Shelton Hotel, then the world’s tallest residential skyscraper. The hotel’s stunning views inspired O’Keeffe to explore midtown Manhattan’s soaring geometries: she experimented across media and scale and with various subjects, forms, and perspectives during an energetic five-year period beginning in 1925. Through these works, which she called 'my New Yorks,' she investigated the dynamic potential of the cityscape, often depicting it in dialogue with nature to represent her personal perceptions of the built environment.

This exhibition is the first to critically examine O’Keeffe’s paintings, drawings, and pastels of urban landscapes while situating them in the diverse context of her other compositions of the 1920s and early 1930s. The exhibition establishes these works not as outliers or as anomalous to her practice but rather as entirely integral to her modernist investigation in the 1920s—abstractions and still lifes made at Lake George in upstate New York and beyond and works made in the Southwest beginning in 1929. O’Keeffe’s 'New Yorks' are essential to understanding how she became the artist we know today.

— museum plaque

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David Grisman: Minor Swing

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Pic(k) of the Week: Turkeyfoot riffles

Riffles on Turkeyfoot Creek.

Serene, tranquil.

Urban cacophony, vanquished.

Cascade Springs Nature Preserve: City of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 9 August 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: The deejay & the muralist

Overhead, a vaping deejay spins as, below, a climbing muralist paints.

As seen during the East Atlanta Strut, a street festival in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 28 September 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Taking a break

During a busy street festival, a waiter takes a break from restaurant service, around back.

East Atlanta Strut: Atlanta (East Atlanta Village), Georgia, USA. 28 September 2024.

The East Atlanta Strut, always on the fourth Saturday in September, combines a parade, a street festival with live music, artists' markets, and a 'porchfest' to show off the entire neighborhood. East Atlanta also has a thriving business district, with restaurants, bars, and shops showing off more local music and art.

Since its inception in 1988, the East Atlanta Strut has been completely run by volunteers. That allows the Strut to return 100% of its profits to the community. More than $100,000 has been donated in just the last few years — for programs that assist the unhoused, groups that feed people, organizations that help keep our longtime neighbors in their homes, and to support our local fire station and library, pet rescue groups, child mentoring groups, local schools, arts organizations, and neighborhood beautification projects.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Welcome to East Atlanta

A macabre greeting.

Mural by Atlanta-area artist Emily Cadena at a suburbanesque crossroads between the city neighborhoods of East Atlanta and Gresham Park.

Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 18 July 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Jogging in the fog

When both the dew point and the temperature are 9 °C (48 °F), a jogger disappears into a fog bank.

Freedom Park, in the Candler Park neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 3 December 2017.

Freedom Park is is the largest public park in Atlanta, Georgia, comprising 210 acres of linear green space and six miles of hiker/biker trails. The park was created in 1992 from condemned land which originally was to be the Stone Mountain Freeway, a multi-lane divided-highway that would have bisected nine historic neighborhoods and destroyed a string of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

— Freedom Park and Parkway.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Thicket tunnel

Thicket tunnel or allée over the trail?

Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 8 February 2023.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Cold Moon rises

The Full Cold Moon —or the Full Long Nights Moon— is so named because, during December, the winter cold fastens its grip and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule.

— Farmer's Almanac.

That's an image of the 'Super' Full Cold Moon ^* in early December 2017. I'm posting it today —five years later, on Christmas Eve, 24 December 2022— because it's cold!

Even Atlanta, Georgia —deep in the American South— is not immune to the effects of the winter storm gripping much of the United States. The temperature this morning was (a 'balmy') -13 °C or, with the wind chill figured in, -22 °C. That's 8 °F and minus 8 °F, respectively, in degrees Fahrenheit. No blizzard, though, unlike other areas.

Be that as it may, here's a greeting of the season in the Lithuanian language of my forebears:

 

Linksmų Kalėdų!

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Pic(k) of the Week: Zen'd by jazz

Jazz was her zen. 

Or was it frozen lemonade? 

Something cool for a hot afternoon.

Listening to the Joe Gransden Big Band during the Inman Park Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, on 28 April 2019.

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Something Cool

Something Cool is a 'minor' jazz standard written mid 20th-century by composer/lyricist Billy Barnes and performed —and made famous— by the 'cool-jazz' vocalist, June Christy (1925-1990). It's an elaborate and sad fantasy concocted over the offer of a cool drink on a warm day.

Unlike the song's protagonist, the woman in the photo appears blissfully content.

Play on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xwftoLQxnVk

Well, it's true.

It's just a memory I have.

One I almost forgot

'Cause the weather's so hot,

And I'm feeling so bad,

About a date.

Oh, wait!

I'm such a fool!

He's just a guy,

Who stopped to buy me

Something cool!

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Pic(k) of the Week: Promenade on high from low at the High

Like a latter-day ziggurat, the Promenade skyscraper rises 40-stories —691 feet— above the High Museum, in midtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The building is clad in reflective glass, with a stepped, tapering spire and stainless steel fins that are lit at night. It is the 7th-tallest building in the city and, hence, Georgia.

Construction was completed in 1990. Twenty-nine years later, I took the photo, on 26 May 2019.

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