Blake Guthrie

1. Athens Is A City, Clarke Is A County And They're One And The Same
Nobody says "Athens-Clarke County," even though, officially speaking, that's what it's called. Everyone calls Athens "Athens," though it's a consolidated city-county form of government with one governing body.
2. Trees Can Own Themselves Here
There's a lot of quirkiness in Athens, but the Tree That Owns Itself might just take the cake. Locals love to mention it when they host out-of-town visitors, even if they can't tell you...

The first time I heard Todd Snider, I hated him. It wasn't because I thought his music sucked — in fact, it was quite good. He sounded kind of like, well, me. My hatred was fueled by pure jealousy. Snider was all over the Gen-X airwaves with an unlikely hit — 1994's "Talking Seattle Grunge-Rock Blues," which hilariously skewered the grunge scene — and I wasn't.

When it comes to golf in Augusta, most people think of the Masters, a tournament steeped in tradition and one of the PGA’s four major championship events. For four days during the first full week of April, the tournament takes place at the venerable Augusta National Golf Club. Although it was founded in 1932, Augusta National is not the oldest course in the area. Not by a long shot. Nearby Aiken, South Carolina, 20 miles away via back roads, is where golf was born in th...

Situated on a sweeping horseshoe bend in the Alabama River, downtown Montgomery was once a major center of the domestic slave trade in the antebellum South. Enslaved people were transported on the river, unloaded at the dock, marched up Commerce Street and sold-off at the market on Court Square.
Today, there’s a beautiful circa-1885 fountain in the middle of Court Square adorned with frolicking figures from Greek mythology. Standing by the fountain and its soothing sounds of falling water, wi...

A recent study by the charity group Help Musicians UK surveyed the health and well-being of working musicians at all levels of the business. According to the results of the survey, mental health issues are a major concern among professional musicians. Over 60 percent of respondents reported dealing with serious psychological issues at some point in their career. And it's worse among musicians who tour on a regular basis. Touring is especially hard on independent acts.
It's not talked about of...

10 Atlantan Stereotypes That Are Completely Accurat...

Atlanta screenwriting professor writes book on acti...

From affordable to upscale, stay and play at these happening hotels in Atlanta where the locals hang out too.

Whether you’re looking for time alone with your significant other or the bonding experience of shared high-action thrills, here are 10 destinations for spring getaways that are ideal for couples.

I’m sitting in the living room at the Fontanel Estate, country superstar Barbara Mandrell’s former home turned music destination (think Nashville’s own Graceland) with a boutique inn attached. I notice one of the world’s most famous guitars hanging on the wall—Buck Owen’s red, white and blue custom-made Mosrite, seen and heard around the globe on hit recordings and TV shows like “Hee Haw.”

After gushing at the guitar, Mandrell’s daughter, Jaime, asks if I would like to play it. Well, duh. It ...

The first thing that stands out about Americus is its remoteness. Not remote in terms of hours driven to get there — it’s only a 2.5-hour drive south of Atlanta — but how it stands like an oasis of a city surrounded by so much farmland, rolling plains and pecan groves miles away from any interstate. The other thing that stands out one spring Friday is how lively this hisoric hamlet is after normal business hours, a rare thing for a rural Deep South city of fewer than 17,000 people.
Turns out ...

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My father, normally a very gregarious man, was staying quiet and attentive. He’s always been an attentive person, too, but this was a more vigilant type of silent awareness. I suspect it was because he was trying to take in as much as possible, paying close attention to everything he saw and listening intently to everything said.
We were at Augusta National Golf Club for the Masters. So there’s that. You’re supposed to be quiet when golf is being played. But even when we were away from th...

Those were the impassioned words of Cynthia Watkins in her introductory speech to visitors at the Seacrest Wolf Preserve, located in rural Washington County, 40 miles north of Panama City Beach, in the Florida Panhandle. Watkins is co-founder of the preserve, a non-profit organization that celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. For the past two decades, she’s been a woman on a mission to protect wolves, preserve their habitats and dispel the myths about these magnificent creatures.
Watkin...

BLUE RIDGE —
Cloud Nine. It’s the type of name one would expect for a mountain vacation rental home. It’s one of those places that if you try and follow GPS directions you’ll get lost. The rental agency sent a confirmation that stressed the importance of following the turn-by-turn directions provided in the email, including detail you wouldn’t get from a GPS such as “go right when you see a bunch of mailboxes.”
What it didn’t mention was the very steep and winding one-lane road. After putting...

When Hurricane Michael made landfall last October, it wreaked havoc throughout the Florida Panhandle. Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration upgraded the storm to a category 5 at landfall, not a category 4 as previously believed. This new information didn’t come as a surprise to anyone living in the affected areas.
As summer vacation season beginsto get underway, the AJC checks in with those communities hardest hit to see what visitors can expect this year.
Panama Cit...