Georgia Travel: Pendergrass Flea Market

Photo by Nicole Brooke Blackburn

What: Pendergrass Flea Market

Where: 5641 US Hwy 129N, Pendergrass, Georgia 30567

Hours of Operation: Saturdays and Sundays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Website: http://www.pendflea.com/
Cost: Free Parking & Admission


This weekend was fairly uneventful for the Spousal Unit and me. I mostly spent it doing schoolwork and finishing a The Walking Dead season two marathon. We did watch a couple movies from Redbox that we'd been wanting to check off our list, so that was a plus. The highlight of the weekend, however, was when Brooke and I, on a random whim, decided to head a few exists north on I-85 to Jackson County and walk around the Pendergrass Flea Market Saturday afternoon.

Photo by Nicole Brooke Blackburn

Located in Pendergrass, a town about an hour northeast of Atlanta on I-85 with a population pushing 425 people ^[1], the site is about a quarter of a mile west of the interstate as soon as you get off at Exit 137. The flea market claims to be the largest one in Georgia, boasting on its website to have "more than 700 booths and 250,000 square feet of air conditioned space centered around a turn of the century-style 'Old Town Main Street'" (see picture below). It also hosts a petting zoo, carnival style games, pony rides, a paintball field, and much more. There is even live music featuring many local artists [click here for schedule]. 

A panoramic view of Old Town Main Street when you first step inside

The Next Doctor is...

PETER CAPALDI!!!!!

[Image Source: IMDB]

Wow! What a great live show! Can you believe how wrong I was? I can! If you read my last post I out right declared Capaldi as a red herring:

The first thing that must be pointed out is that showrunner Stephen Moffat is an evil genius at leaking false clues and misinformation. So when he says that he's lied about something so could pretty much bet that one of those lies is that very statement. So, if there is a sudden surge in betting for Peter Capaldi or if the BBC lists him as top favorite, I have no doubts that Capaldi is a red herring. I could be wrong.

Sure enough the choice that was made to seem too obvious was indeed our man! I guess I'm glad I didn't actually bet any money.

Honestly, I'm pretty excited. A long time Whovian himself, Capaldi revealed on the BBC Doctor Who Live Special that he use to play Doctor Who as a child and is now realizing a childhood dream. I look forward to how he will portray our favorite Time Lord. Only time will tell if Capaldi will live up to the hype. Although I wonder if I will be able to suspend my disbelief enough to overcome his other roles in Torchwood and Doctor Who, I have faith that Capaldi will be a great Doctor.

Ultimately, I think this will be up to the writers more than it would be to Capaldi who has already proved himself as a talented actor. Take Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor for example. Baker had a darker Doctor in mind for his performance. As he said during his clips on the Live Special, he had intended his Doctor to be more like that of Eccleston's Ninth but the show-runners had a different plan in mind at the time. He was an underrate Doctor during his television run and his performances in the Audio Series prove this point.

I'll probably be crucified for pointing this out, but the last season of the show was definitely the weaker of the Matt Smith run so hopeful Capaldi won't suffer the same fate as Colin Baker, who was blamed for ruining the classic series even though he came in when the show had been slipping in ratings and the producers were already making questionable decisions. With that said, unlike the classic series, the currently Doctor Who series is still running strong and has great writing, so I wouldn't dwell on that too much further.

As others have commented, Capaldi's post 50th Anniversary tenure will be the shows (and show-runner Stephan Moffat's) chance to make bold decisions and forge new paths for Doctor Who. Like I said, time will tell if this is the beginning of an end or just the a new great beginning...and I am overcome by the excitement.

Who Will Be The Next Doctor?, Part 2

[Image Source: DoctorWhoTV.co.uk]

In a few minutes, the BBC Doctor Who Live Special will reveal who will take on the role of the 12th Doctor. My excitement is pulling Zero-G maneuvers in my stomach, occasionally sending tingles to my taint. (Too much information, I know, but find me a Whovian who doesn't feel the same way right now.) Soon all the speculations and betting and theories will end. Some will be disappointed (and possibly destitute) but most, regardless of who might will play the Doctor, will be have their excitement amplified and redirected towards the #awesomeness that will be Doctor Who Series 8!

But, until the reveal finally ends said speculations and betting and theories, why not contribute to the fun? Back in June, I wrote about which actors I thought would make excellent choices to play our favorite Time Lord. In that post, I tried to present fun but unfounded theories and I still stand by my views when I wrote:

Honestly, looking back to when Matt Smith was announced as the next Doctor, everyone wondered who he was. He came almost out of nowhere as the youngest Doctor yet and with a relatively short résumé. The same could be said of David Tennant to a certain degree. I would not be surprised if, just like last time, the speculations run rampant and then we are blindside by the selection of a relative nobody.

But as promised, I want to take this time to challenge some of the fan favorites currently in the running.

Life, GNerks, and More Promises.

I hate these update posts, mostly because I feel like I do too many off them instead of writing something actually worth your time reading. This isn't supposed to be a blog about my personal life. Although many of my post are informed and prefaced by what happens to me personally, this isn't a diary. I try to be informative: entertainment reviews, news and pop culture commentary, yada yada yada.  Sure! I might have gone to Savannah over the weekend, but you're going to read a post that reviews something I did, not one on how great it was I got to spend time with my family.

Second, I feel that I make a lot of promises I don't keep when I write these posts. (Sorry.) I promised to focus more on social media related stuff but I don't. I promised I'd tone do the politics, but then the government does (or in most cases, doesn't do) something that I can't help but comment on.

So here we are again. The beginning of new month and the year is half over. I haven't changed. (Sorry.)

Anyways! On to other matters at hand.

GNerks' current FB profile picture.

I'm now doing some managing editor duties at GNerks.com, an entertainment blog written by geeks, nerds, and dorks for other geeks, nerds and dorks about things geeks, nerds, and dorks enjoy. (Think Nerdist.com and other geek sites you might come across on the interweb.) Gnerks was started by my friend Ben Fuller and me back in January but we didn't really do much with it until middle of last month when we started to recruit some of our friends and the site came to life. We are going into our third week already receiving over three thousand page views and our first 75 like on our Facebook page. My duties as managing editor consist mostly of copy-editing and publication management, but it's taken a lot of my time, especially from this blog. Another side effect of this opportunity is that I now have to create content for both sites.

What does this mean? Well, it means that some of my reviews, especially for comic books and graphic novels, movies, and sci-fi and fantasy books; geek related commentary; and event coverage; will probably appear either exclusively or concurrently at Gnerks. I will finish part two of my 12th Doctor speculations in the coming days, after which expect to find similar post at GNerks in all but a few cases.    

As far as Wibbly-wobbly, Timey-Wimey Stuff goes, I really hope to follow through with my plans to turn this site into something more like a general interest blog meets Atlanta Magazine meets LifeHacker with a dash of National Geographic and Popular Science  and a hint of CNN and Mashable. Very tall order, I know. Especially if all I seem to write nowadays are these damn updates.