In Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Moving on up to ... Decatur?

By PAUL DONSKY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 07/17/07

Luxurious, million-dollar condominiums are nothing new in Buckhead and Midtown.

But Decatur?


Decatur's first $1 million condo will be on the top floor of the Artisan building (left) just off the old courthouse square.

Yep, the small city with a reputation for liberal politics and bohemian charm has its first seven-figure condo sale.

It's a penthouse unit at the Artisan condos in downtown Decatur, just off the old courthouse square. Officials at the Artisan aren't revealing who the buyer is, though they say it's not a celebrity.

The buyer struck the $1.1 million deal last year, before work on the building even began. The 3,645 square-foot, seventh-floor space is being completely customized — original plans called for two separate units.

The sale is expected to be finalized once construction is complete next March, said Bobbi Burd Cohen, the Artisan's sales manager.

So, what do you get for $1 million in Decatur? Try four bedrooms, five walk-in closets, three balconies, soaring 11-and-a-half foot high ceilings, a media room and picture-window views of the Atlanta skyline peeking above the treetops.

Overall, the Artisan complex has a rooftop swimming pool, fitness room, patio with outdoor fireplace and a kitchen to cater poolside parties.

The Artisan — and its soon-to-be million dollar tenant — reflect a transition ongoing in Decatur's funky, small-town atmosphere. The condo is a short walk from Java Monkey cafe, a hangout for students and artists; Eddie's Attic, a shoebox-sized music hall where patrons can hear singer-songwriters before they get famous; and Little Shop of Stories, an independent children's book store with comfy couches and a mini ice-cream parlor.

But much of downtown Decatur has gone upscale. Award-winning restaurant Watershed sells a $34 steak. A gourmet dessert shop, the Chocolate Bar, recently opened in a storefront beneath the Artisan. Sawicki's, a new high-end food market, offers Kobe beef steaks for $27 a pound.

Marc Reynolds, owner of Heliotrope, a gift and furniture store a block from the Artisan, said there's no doubt Decatur is changing. But he said the quirky community is in no danger of losing its soul and turning — gasp! — yuppie.

"It's not becoming Buckhead in any way," said Reynolds, who wears a bushy goatee and superlong sideburns. "The term 'yuppie' — it just doesn't fit here."

Indeed, Decatur's small-town feel is attracting condo buyers with deep pockets, the Artisan's Cohen said.

"People that are buying here are looking for that small community feel rather than the hustle-bustle of Midtown and Buckhead," she said.

The Artisan's first phase, containing 77 units, is already built and sold out. The $1.1 million penthouse sits atop the Artisan's second phase.

The condo craze was a bit late coming to Decatur. But two other condo buildings also recently have opened on Ponce de Leon, the city's main downtown drag.

Priscilla Werner, manager at Boogaloos clothing boutique, said she likes Decatur better now that the downtown area has developed a more urban, sophisticated feel. But she was shocked to learn of the million-dollar condo.

"I think it's crazy," she said with a chuckle. "Who would buy a condo for $1 million if it's not New York City?"

Somewhere in the late 80's, music took a marketable turn to hell. CD's were making the LP a thing of the past, sonics followed and we were force-fed a new medium; that was when the music died...

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I read an article yesterday about the music industry's woes and saw that the only format that was experiencing growth was vinyl, the 7" has caught on in the UK and kids are snappin' up the singles. A bit of a retro/redux of the little 45 that could, did and will do again.

I remember one of the first CD's that I bought where I had a definitive reference, after a thousand listens on vinyl, I purchased Pink Floyd's "The Wall" on CD. The songs were all there, a really "clean" sound, but something was missing, I couldn't really put my finger on it but I sensed some sterility, some magic lost. The thump wasn't there. I relegated it to senility and a loss of hearing, in my mid-twenties, and continued to follow the flock to the digital age.

I distinctly remember an interview with Anita Baker about this time, when all the big artists proudly displayed "DDD" on their CD's to show that the original masters were digital, the mix was digital and the final product was digital. Her CD's were "AAD" (analog, analog, digital) and when asked why, she replied, "My voice ain't digital." I got an early clue.

TMI for audiophiles betwen the asterisks:
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The key to this question is the difference between a digital and an analog recording. Natural sound is by definition analog. When a CD recording is created, this analog is sound is digitized. To do this, they take a lot of snapshots of the analog sound. For a CD recording they take 44,100 snapshots in a minute and the technology guesses or surmises at what was in-between. These snapshots are then converted to digital information with a certain precision. For a CD recording this precision is 16 bits which means that every one of the 44,100 snapshots needs to be converted into one of the 65,536 (2^16) possible values.

You can probably see where I am going: by definition a digital recording doesn't include all the sound information. You could visualize a CD recording as a really large chest with a lot of drawers. Because the number of snapshots that are taken are not infinite (the maximum is 44,100 per minute), the process of taking snapshots results in the loss of information. Information is further lost because each of these snapshots must be made to fit in one of the 65,536 drawers of the chest.

A record player which plays LP’s is strictly analog. A vinyl record has a groove carved into it that mirrors the original sound's waveform. The record player then transforms this groove to an analog sound signal which can be fed into an amplifier. In this process, no information can be lost. No snapshots need to be taken and the sound doesn't need be converted to one of the possible 65,536 values. There basically is an infinite number of 'snapshots' and 'possible values'.

It even gets worse, much worse, when you bring MP3, Ipod, streaming or other technological 'advances' into the picture.
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So, today, I bought the new White Stripes, 'Icky Thump' on vinyl and Mary, Mother of Jesus, what a ride!

By the way, it's a gatefold double-album that is just beggin' to help with a hog-leg...must go 'shopping' again soon
:!)

A review:
The White Stripes are back with the most bombastic album they've ever produced! While revealing the band's roots in American folk music, Icky Thump is an explosive, revolutionary assault that brings together garage rock, every blues style of the past 100 years, nouveau flamenco, Jack White's fastest guitar solo ever recorded, hard country, speed metal, a slide guitar epic, surf music, spoken word and even bagpipes to create a modern rock 'n' roll masterpiece.

I have a new toy on the way thanks to a bunch of AmEx points and those are thanks to Li'l Helio (it's his 8 month birthday today.)


The needle hits the vinyl, "icky thump," and I'm off once again.

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