After Philadelphia we drove south to Charlotte, North Carolina. Basically Charlotte was a stop between Philadelphia and Athens Georgia, a chance to procure a thing that would allow a microphone to be plugged into a laptop for podcasts (which proved impossible to procure in New York and New Jersey) and to regroup because we'd been at it a week and were, frankly, tired. My friend Will was expecting us that night, so off we went.
We drove like demons through PA, Delaware, Maryland, past DC, through Virginia, and eventually landed in North Carolina. We had vague directions and got lost twice. Then my phone died. We finally found Will's place, but I hadn't written down his unit number and the complex was huge. So I thought, hmm, maybe there's an open wireless connection in suburban Charlotte and opened the laptop. Ping! "Would you like to join wireless network LOVENEST?" Why yes, yes I would.
Got the unit number out of my email and off we went. Will gave us a couch and a floor and asked if we wanted to go out with him. (It's weird - I started to notice a pattern of driving for 8-16 hours, arriving and people asking if we wanted to go out drinking.) Sure. We ended up at a club called The Breakfast Club in downtown Charlotte, and if you're ever in that town I absolutely recommend it, it's like the 80s crawled into that building and died. Cases of Tab stuck to the ceiling, neon everywhere, nothing past 1987 on the sound system.
Will introduced us around and I got to talking to a number of people about this project. It always amazes me how many people say "I'm making [insert large sum of money] a year and I hate my job. What I really want to do is [insert hobby/interest/passion here]." I can't think of anyone I've ever spoken to who said "I'm working a job that I adore and my life is incredibly satisfying." It's all yearning, wondering what else is out there, feeling trapped. Weird.
The next day we managed to find that damn iMic which let me plug a microphone into the laptop and I made a podcast on Will's bathroom floor. It was also a good chance to see some of the city - I had no idea that Charlotte was that money-soaked, it's the #2 banking capital of the US after New York City. Will drove us around the huge old houses with the huge old trees and told me that the trees were kept there decades past when they should have died because it made the area so beautiful, but the downside was that the root systems have made a perfect breeding ground for palmetto bugs - don't google it, just trust me when I say GIANT COCKROACH HOLY SHIT. We ate lunch at a place that had fried pickles and talked a lot about art and a palmetto bug came crawling down the wall towards me. I nearly killed Jeff catapulting myself out of the booth and going BUG FUCK BUG AUGHHH.
We left the next day much refreshed, and made the 8-hour trek to Athens, Georgia - it's a university town that also has a thriving music scene, thanks to REM and other Athens bands like the B-52s - to stay with my friend Rebecca. We got to Athens in the afternoon, and after another four hours of coordination and driving hither and thither we finally arrived.
Athens is fantastic. It's small but it has the University of Georgia so it has a giant student population. The downtown and campus are beautiful. The entire downtown has an open wireless connection, thanks to the UGA School of New Media. Everyone is big on REM and is in a band. There are a lot of Waffle Houses. I felt immediately at home.
Rebecca's a journalism student at UGA so it was interesting getting another take on money and what it means - it's one thing to be working as an accountant for $70k a year but quite another to be trying to start up your future and working at some part-time job for minimum wage and hoping it covers the bills. One thing I did find out, however, was that education in Georgia is FREE if you are a resident and maintain a B average. I nearly fell over in shock.
We were there for a few days, in which I had an interview with the Athens Banner-Herald which you can see on the press page, an interview with Creative Loafing that's also in that section, dropped off a tape to Michael Stipe's house and made a podcast from a Waffle House:
About Michael Stipe. I really admire his movies, and I can admit to being a really huge REM fan, but he's produced several of the movies that made me experiment with this medium, so I figured I'd tell him what I was doing. The reporter for the Banner-Herald was thrilled when I told him that I wanted to see where he lived and gave me directions, so I grabbed a tape and hauled ass to his place. I don't know if he ever got my letter, he never responded. Boo hoo.
On our last day in Athens I had to meet a photographer at the Banner-Herald to be stuffed into a trunk for a picture, and right before I DROPPED MY CELL PHONE (in the parking lot of a Waffle House, no less!) and it smashed into several pieces. I can't express the extent to which that sucked. I had to hoof it to a phone store and get a new one, which was more money than I had spent on gas thus far. I forced myself not to think about it.
Met with the photographer, had a picture snapped, and off we went to New Orleans.