Stephanie Reavis' questions and my answers about what makes Athens Athens.

Stephanie,

You’ve put together a rather comprehensive set of questions to stimulate thinking about what makes Athens special. Some of the questions are relevant to my experiences and some aren’t; so, I’ve answered the ones about which I have something to say.

What are the characteristics about Athens everyday life that make it unique, different from any other city in the US? What, in your opinion, is the shared philosophy, or outlook on life, of Athenians?

The short answer I will give is the culture of Athens cultivates benevolent, creative eccentrics. There is no one or a few types of Athenians. Rather, anything goes as long as it’s interesting and not blatantly negative. People I know who come to mind are Jeremy Ayres, Ort, all of the B-52s (two of whom are transplants from New Jersey), Conner Tribble, Paul Thomas, Jim Herbert (a Yankee), and relative newcomers like Kevin Brady (also a naturalized Athenian). There are lots of good and creative people in Athens who are more restrained, let’s say, than most of the ones I mentioned but my examples are people further from the center. Of course, I don’t by a long shot know everyone in Athens, having been away for so long, but I believe my view has merit. So how did it get this way?

I have ideas about that as well based on personal experience. My family moved here just before my birth in 1952 when my Dad took a position as a professor at UGA. I lived here until I was 24 years old except for a 2-year period (my third and fourth grade years) when we lived in Rockville, MD. So, I understand Athens from the perspective of being a kid during the Fifties and a teenager during the Sixties. Athens had a number of separate social classes before the Sixties: Some general segments would include old genteel business and professional people; academics, blue collar white folks with heavy southern accents, college students and African-Americans. These could of course be broken down further but the class lines were pretty clearly drawn.

Being a naïve smart kid I found these things confusing as I began to become aware of them in middle school. Looking for direction and inspired by the Beatles, I took up the guitar and started playing in bands. Local musicians played the ‘soul music’ popular with college students at the time so, like it or not, that’s what you played. I preferred British invasion and one hit wonder garage bands. Then, c. 1965, psychedelic, folk rock and hard rock began to emerge and I was right on top of it. But it was hard to find other musicians on the same page. My older friend, Jeremy Ayers (he was Jerry back then), was an Art major at UGA and he introduced me to his artist friends as well as Jim Herbert. (Jeremy was the first person I knew who disclosed being gay to me). I was fortunate to be mentored in pop art and all the latest music by Jerry’s boyfriend, Crist Kocher. My high school pals included Ricky and Cindy Wilson and Keith Strickland who were a few years younger. They were also influenced by the older people I mentioned.

Having come to the conclusion society was completely wacko, which was confirmed by Bob Dylan, I hoped to make guitar playing into a successful career- I couldn’t think of anything else I could stand to do. Time went by, I graduated high school, and without giving it much thought, I enrolled at UGA, the thing to do in my family. I played with Keith and Ricky at that time but nothing came of it. Other bands recruited me but despite having some very talented associates, major success proved elusive. The Zambo Flirts were my last band and after things didn’t fall into place, I decided music wasn’t working out. I left Fall 1976 to start graduate school and have not lived in Athens since then. Just as I was leaving, the B-52s came together at my house, the one I just sold to Roy Bell, after a famous outing to Hunan, the local Chinese restaurant. I had already decided to go in a different direction and I wouldn’t have fit into the B-52s’ creative persona. It happened the way it needed to.

Things unfolded from there: My parents remained here and I visited several times a year, keeping up with my closest friends. The B-52s became stars. Athens became the magnetic pole of the music world.

With the emergence of the Internet, the aging of my parents, and increasing flexibility of my work commitments, I began to visit more often and keep up more closely. In essence, I reengaged with Athens to the extent that my involvement is part of my daily life. I mention all of this to put my thoughts into a substantive context.

From your personal experience, what best describes the music culture of Athens? Is there a specific sound that is heard only within the Athens scene, as opposed to other music towns? 

No. Athens music is extremely diverse. 

In your opinion, what are the factors that attract so much diverse musical talent to this particular city?

From my narrative, you may get the picture of Athens being a somewhat sophisticated university town in the Fifties that was rocked and transformed by the cultural waves of the Sixties. Athens natives older than me tended to remain rooted in the old culture or to catch on late. Open-minded/alienated people my age and younger caught the wave and became part of the creative fabric that led to the success of the B-52s and REM. Their success gave Athens the reputation as cosmic music Mecca that began to draw people who hoped to get in on the party. If I had to name one person who had the greatest influence on the creative transformation of Athens, it would be Jim Herbert. Jim's house on Dearing Street was our countercultural safe haven, Grand Central Station, a continuous soirée of cutting edge thought and expression. He took in and empowered numerous and varied young men and women, like a rescue shelter for artists and eccentrics.

If you met someone from another country visiting Athens for the very first time, and without any prior knowledge of this town, describe the tour you would take them on. What restaurant, what nightclub, what music venue, what local color attraction, etc?

Athens is physically beautiful, especially in the Fall. I would just randomly do the following: walk around downtown with them, drive through older neighborhoods along Milledge Avenue, pass through the campus, eat at the Grit, and/or Clocked and/or the National or Cali and Tito’s or any of a number of eating places, drink Irish coffee at Hendershot’s and go hear Conner Tribble at the Office or wherever he’s playing, go to whomever is playing a show at the Foundry or the Georgia Theatre, some combination of those things. (Some friends and I did this recently with an Australian poet who could easily be an Athenian and would make a great person to interview about how Athens looks to an outsider. Her Facebook name is Roxy Contin (legal name Karyn Treadyea). Did you happen to meet her?)

In what ways are you proud to call Athens your home? 

See above.

Thinking globally, what in your opinion, would you consider to be Athens's best contributions to world culture as a whole? What life lessons could benefit the world from the Athens experience? In other words, what does Athens have to teach?

Be cool, have fun, don’t judge? Athens is just a really cool place where it’s OK to be creatively different.

That’s pretty much what I’ve got without writing a book. I hope this is helpful.

Yours truly,

Owen