Saturday, October 20, 2007 | Quick, Radar
SP Radar for the week of October 21, 2007

ECO TRIP

It’s anyone’s guess how much the inaugural Echo Project actually benefited the environment. But as an event, the green-minded music festival, held Oct. 12-14 on a sprawling farm some 40 minutes south of downtown Atlanta, was a definite success. Sure, the seemingly infinite roster of local and national acts (including Cat Power, Umphrey’s McGee, Spoon, Cypress Hill, the Roots and the Flaming Lips) provided some great moments. But we were more impressed with how efficiently everything ran. All shows started and ended on time, and there were beverage tents and portable toilets everywhere. And while the turnout didn’t quite match expectations, that only added to the oddly intimate feel of the whole thing (and a few less cars no doubt helped out Mother Nature, as well).

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
How do you concoct a savory outdoor festival like Taste of Atlanta? Simple. Start with a spacious setting like Atlantic Station, preferably on a comfortable October weekend. Pepper with mouthwatering selections from more than 70 of the city’s best restaurants. Add cooking demonstrations, silent auctions, a harvest market, a top-flight wine event and live entertainment. Season with celebrities like “Queer Eye” food guru Ted Allen, Rocco DiSpirito and former Waffle House cook Julia Williams (of “Hell’s Kitchen” fame). Stir in hungry foodies—and, for best results, a handful of colorful Dragon*Con refugees. Because nothing works up an appetite like a pajama parade.

TIME TO SHINE
Atlanta’s hip-hop community basked in the spotlight at the second annual B.E.T. Hip Hop Awards at the Atlanta Civic Center on Oct. 13. Rap and R&B royalty from near and far strutted their stuff on the red carpet, including (above, from left) Ciara, Chingy, funk legend Bootsy Collins and flavor of the moment Soulja Boy, as well as (below, clockwise from top left) Polow Da Don, Jermaine Dupri, Big Boi, Cee-Lo and LL Cool J. News of rapper T.I.’s arrest, which hadn’t yet fully spread, would soon overshadow the event. But for a few hours, the music—and the talented folks (many of them Atlantans) who make it—were all that mattered.