Jesus Raves

I recently ventured around Athens to photograph a few boarded up houses from a list of 200 or so abandoned properties. The pictures ran with a story about the Athens-Clarke Commission voting to create a land bank, which is an authority with the power to buy up broken down properties that are put up for auction to pay back taxes or demolition costs by flipping them to affordable-housing nonprofits. Read the story here. At one property I saw what seemed to be the crash pad of a homeless person. There was a mattress and a few articles of clothing tucked into a corner of the porch hidden from street view. I couldn't help but wonder where the person will stay once this property is auctioned off and flipped.  I imagine several of these eyesores around Athens, the third poorest city its size, are secret shelters. 

"Jesus Raves" is spray-painted on the boarded up windows of a building on Hancock Avenue near downtown Athens. Athens-Clarke County is starting a land bank, an authority that will buy up properties that are sold at auction to pay back taxes or demolition costs, then flip them to non-profits that build affordable housing for redevelopment.

 

Athens' Strongest Man

In the phone conversation I had with Orlando Green before my photo session with him I asked him what he typically wears to his strongman competitions. He said he wanted to wear one of his company's shirts for the photos. I said that I wanted to make sure his muscles could be seen. He laughed and said it shouldn't be a problem. When I arrived and first caught sight of the 6-foot tall, 220 lb strongman I had to laugh too, because no t-shirt could conceal this guy's He-Man build. The guy was HUGE! He also has a huge heart and huge goals. Read his story here.

Athens strongman Orlando Green poses next to a 700-pound tire used in the tire flop event.
Green, a Clarke Central graduate, created the Classic City Strongman Club and plans to open a training facility in Oconee County.

Flashback: This week last year

A crane used for the Tate 2 Center Construction is silouhetted as the sun sets Tuesday, July 22, 2008, in downtown Athens.


Teacher Christopher Sugiuchi plays with his band Ham 1 Tuesday, July 22, 2008, at the 40 Watt Club in downtown Athens.

Makeup artist Denise Tunnell, right, does the makeup of Kaira Whitehead who plays "Diva" before a scene is shot for BET's first scripted series "Somebodies" at a house on Athens Avenue Wednesday, July 23, 2008, in Athens.


C.L. Morehead stands in front of one of his hundreds of paintings by Lamar Dodd, the founder of the University of Georgia art school, Thursday July 24,2008, at his home in Athens. Morehead became the world’s largest collector of art by Lamar Dodd after selling his successful business Flowers, Inc.


Jason Hubbard pulls weeds after helping to plant small perennials along the old spring around which Athens was built as a part of a restoration project by University of Georgia workers Friday July 25, 2008, in downtown Athens.


Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader speaks at a rally held Friday July 25, 2008, in Masters Hall at the Georgia Center on campus.


Daniel Moore of Soul Water, a Christian hip-hop group from Gainesville, raps as children from the audience take the stage to dance Friday July 25, 2008, at the 2nd Annual Back 2 School Holy Hip-Hop event held in the Mell Auditorium at Clarke Central High School.


Eliza McCall, 10, hugs her aunt after winning a cake in a cake walk held after the 125th Anniversary service at Mount Hermon Presbyterian Church Sunday, July 27, 2008, in Ila.