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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2007 > October > 26
Friday, October 26, 2007
Kid Rock smothers, covers Waffle House fight details
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So, what is Kid Rock’s take on that take-down outside a DeKalb County Waffle House last weekend that landed the self-professed “hick-hopper” in jail?
“It started with me celebrating a great show that night,” Rock told Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show this week. “We were hungry. It was late at night.”
“I know the people work hard at Waffle House so I tipped people behind the counter and gave $300 to split up. Bought everyone breakfast in there,” he said. “This one kid just started talking. … And then one thing led to another, windows were breaking. …”
Kid Rock explained: “He said, ‘I hope you get mad, I’ll sue the hell out of you.’ I’m like, ‘Take a number.’”
The rapper and five members of his entourage were taken into custody on a misdemeanor charge of simple battery. He was released on bond Sunday afternoon.
NASCAR meets moonshine
At age 76, NASCAR legend Junior Johnson’s life has whipped around as circular as one of the racetracks he once blew down while racking up 50 career wins. Today he’ll idle up to the 40th annual Mountain Moonshine Festival in Dawsonville in a 1940 Ford, a vehicle very similar to the one in which he used to transport the family business in the backwoods of Wilkes County, N.C.
And sometimes just a fender in front of the boys in blue. Johnson will be at the festival to introduce folks to Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon Carolina Moonshine, an 80-proof, legal version of the family recipe now being produced by Piedmont Distillers in Madison, N.C.
“I could never have imagined seeing our family’s moonshine in a bottle shop with me out promoting it!” Johnson told Buzz on Friday laughing.
Johnson acquired many of his racing skills evading law enforcement through the rural stretches separating the family still operation and its many customers. (“I’ve still got my marks on a bunch of those trees all along the roads there.”) In 1956, just a year into his NASCAR career, he got popped by police at the family still and spent 11 months in an Ohio prison.
On Dec. 26, 1986, President Ronald Reagan pardoned the then-NASCAR team owner, restoring his right to vote and his passport.
“No maybe about it,” Johnson says solemnly. “Best Christmas gift I ever got.”
While the entrepreneur professionally left NASCAR behind in 1995 (he doesn’t plan to attend Sunday’s Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway), Johnson still keeps up with the sport.
“The drivers today are a different breed,” he explains. “Back then, we came up the hard and crude way. Now, the kids are sophisticated and educated.”
And like many of us, Johnson concedes that he too talks to the TV some Sundays when a race is on.
“I offer some advice to the television, sure!” he admits with a laugh. “I say, ‘I’d show you something, boy!’ from time to time.”
Johnson will be at today’s 40th annual Mountain Moonshine Festival in Dawsonville from 9-10 a.m. and the RK Package Store in Dawsonville from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Hitting the Goal
Playwright Eve Ensler delivered a bold keynote address at Friday’s “Going for the Goal” luncheon, held at the Westin Peachtree Plaza.
“Decide if you want to be liked or admired,” she said, reading from an essay. “Insist the world be theater and love the drama. It’s easier to be mean than smart, but that isn’t who you are.”
Goal works to promote self-esteem and leadership potential in girls and young women (goalonline.org). The group’s surging growth was represented by Friday’s venue; originally scheduled for a smaller space, it was relocated to the Westin because of demand.
At Goal, we believe girls are the experts in their own lives,” CEO Gail Rothman said. Ensler concluded her remarks with a piece inspired by a girl she once interviewed who told her, “I am an emotional creature.”
“I love — hear me — I love being a girl!” Ensler said.
Tastefully tacky
Sure, there was plenty of the ornate and gorgeous at Thursday night’s 10th anniversary of DIFFA’s Dining by Design AIDS benefit at Mason Murer Fine Art.
But Buzz naturally gravitated toward the tackier-themed table displays. But tacky doesn’t necessarily translate into cheap.
The folks at Edelman PR, for example, hired designer Sandy Thigpen to create an outdoorsy table, complete with plastic camping trays, mason jar vases and a mini fully functional silver Airstream trailer that guests happily traipsed through. Behind it, Concentrics Restaurants touted the arrival of Tap, its busy new Midtown gastro pub with a table treatment by Oetgen Design Inc. and Rowina Amick. The chief kitschy accessory stacked around the table? Empty beer kegs.
On the opposite end of the style scale? The colorful, artful first course served up by A Legendary Event. The eye-popping plate of micro greens, toy box tomatoes, goat cheese crotin, corn shoots and paper-thin slices of watermelon radishes had some attendees briefly contemplating framing the appetizer.
Sir Elton 1; BALTIC, 0
On Friday, British prosecutors confirmed what art collectors have known for years: American photographer Nan Goldin isn’t a pornographer. Officials determined that the photo in question, owned by Elton John, isn’t an indecent image,
The BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, northeastern England, alerted police Sept. 20 amid child pornography concerns. The photo shows two girls dancing; one of them is naked.
The gallery then closed “Thanksgiving,” an exhibition of 149 pictures by Goldin, at John’s request.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Today: Actress Ruby Dee (right) is 83. Actor-comedian John Cleese is 68. Singer Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran is 49. Singer Kelly Osbourne is 23.
Sunday: Actress Joan Plowright is 78. Actress Julia Roberts is 40. Country singer Brad Paisley is 35. Actor Joaquin Phoenix is 33. Singer Justin Guarini (“American Idol”) is 29.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s like porn for boys, isn’t it?” — Singer Sinead O’Connor to fellow mom Mara Davis, discussing the seemingly endless appeal of “Thomas the Tank Engine” for male small fry on Dave FM Friday. The performer was booked at the Tabernacle downtown.
Contributing: Jennifer Brett and news services.
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