TODAY'S ISSUE
Lawrenceville Aurora Theatre unveils design for Fall 2006
By Bob Foreman and Jeff Seeley
Foreman Seeley Fountain - Architecture, Norcross
Special to GwinnettForum.com

EDITOR'S NOTE: Recently the Aurora Theatre unveiled the architectural plans for their new downtown Lawrenceville theater building. Foreman Seeley Fountain Architecture explained the new theater design to the press and media gathered at the Little River Grille. Selected to design the new Aurora by the City of Lawrenceville, Foreman Seeley Fountain - Architecture is in its 20th year in business in Gwinnett County. We asked two of the principals to give their views on this work. --eeb

DEC. 1, 2005 -- After years of having to just "get by" in facilities, the Aurora Theatre is now on its way to providing a unique theater experience worthy of Gwinnett County. The Aurora will open its 2006 fall season in a distinctive, new performing arts facility just off the square in downtown Lawrenceville. Both the Aurora and the City will benefit from this joint effort of the two groups. The Aurora will gain a 20 year lease on a new, modern theater space and the city will see an infusion into the night life of the square area.

The new Aurora Theater will include both something old and something new. The site is the location of the former First Methodist Church in downtown Lawrenceville. It will accommodate a grand lobby and a "black box" theater in the nave of the historic old church. The major addition will include the new theater and stage, as well as a basement for storage. The theater's main seating area will have a capacity similar to the existing Aurora. However, a balcony will include 48 "box seats," for a total capacity of 250 people. Raised, stadium style seating will allow an unobstructed view of the stage from every seat.

The new theater will provide many features the old Aurora simply did not have previously, including a more versatile stage with larger wing space to each side. There will be a mezzanine above and to the rear of the stage for an orchestra, providing a true live music experience. The main lobby may be entered from the street or directly from the new downtown parking garage, which will be immediately behind the theater. Regular patrons of the Aurora will be happy to hear that the new theater will have a large lobby and restroom space.

Architecturally, the new Aurora will be a reminder of the days when many towns had at least one vaudeville theater. The addition will blend in with the style of the old church with its castle-like towers. The original church will be restored to a semblance of its former appearance and style, both on the exterior as well as the interior. The Aurora will encompass both traditional elements and modern features, including state of the art sound and lighting. The Aurora will provide a unique arts venue available to the entire community.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Hurrah for NBA for bringing sensibility to athlete's dress
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

DEC. 2, 2005 -- Well, it's about time!

Finally, some one has the courage to step forward, and essentially say, "The emperor doesn't have on any clothes."

Well, no one is exactly naked, but at least National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern recognizes that many of his players are dressing in an atrocious manner. He also understands that their dress is sending the wrong message… and probably keeping paying basketball fans away from arenas.

Going into effect November 1 was the NBA's "business casual" dress code for players to wear to all team functions, including games, and while traveling to games.

What the commissioner is seeking is to distant the dress from fad and funky fashion, into more normal, accepted dress with no "gangsta" overtones.

Hurrah for the commissioner! Now the other sports leagues need to pick up on this move, and ensure that their players accept more normal clothing as everyday wear, instead of trying either to overdress or virtually go without dressing, with lots of skin showing.

Interestingly, this new policy is akin to what you see at many business establishments: "No shirt, no shoes, no service."

Prohibited from being worn for NBA players will be headgear, T-shirts, team jerseys, chains, pendants or medallions. While indoors, sunglasses will not be tolerated. The commissioner has gone as far as outlawing headphones, except when on a team bus, airplane or in the locker room. Too, if a player is not dressed for a game, but sits on the team bench, he is to wear a sports coat.

Hurrah for David Stern!

You might be interested in what the commissioner sees as acceptable dress. That would include the requirements at all team or league functions to have collared dress shirts or turtlenecks; dress slacks, khaki pants or dress jeans; dress shoes or boots or "presentable shoes" with socks. No sneakers, sandals, flip-flops or work boots are permitted.

Did you note the bit about socks? The commissioner is going all out! Another cheer for him!

In setting a minimum standard of dress, the commissioner backed this ruling up with teeth. Both a player, and his team (note that part) will be fined for violating the rules. Even more, the repeat offenders can be suspended.

Now if the commissioner would go one step further and limit tattoos, that would be fine with many people. Especially in basketball, where the uniform allows showing a lot of arm and leg skin, tattoos are especially distasteful. Those players yelling "privacy rights" about tattoos need to understand that for some people, tatoos amount to visual pollution, and disrespect for the human body.

It's not everyday that you see national figures take such forward and strong positions as the National Basketball Association and its commissioner have taken concerning a minimum standard of dress. We applaud his actions, and can only hope other sports groups adopt it.

Now if we could only do something about the dress of Hollywood! But we suspect that will never change!

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McLEMORE'S WORLD
12/2: One-armed shopping

Another great cartoon from Bill McLemore:

FEEDBACK
12/2: State retired workers concerned about new health system

Editor, the Forum;

Many State of Georgia employees are still uneasy about their future health care benefits and with a recent contract signed with United Healthcare.

The State wants to reduce health care spending for its active and retired employees by a reported $60 million or greater. The bid process for the management of State Health Benefit system programs specified cost reduction goals that the winner of the bid must reach. Blue Cross/Blue Shield did not win the bid, therefore the BCBS network of physicians and hospitals built over many years are no longer available leaving some to travel hundreds of miles to a covered provider for their health care.

The management contract worth $55 million was awarded to United Healthcare whose physician and hospital network is seriously deficient in coverage for large areas of Georgia. Under the contract, United must reduce state health expenditures by 44 percent the first year. If they achieve less than a 37 percent reduction, the payment by the state to United Healthcare will be reduced by 15 percent.

The State wants to save money. United Healthcare wants to make money. The 44 percent reduction in the first year will have to come from payments to doctors and hospitals and higher out of pocket expenses for the active and retired employees

In addition, earlier this year active and retired state employees received a letter from Tim Burgess, former commissioner for the Georgia Department of Community Health, detailing a financial shortfall of $446 million in the State Benefit Health Care Plan. The Plan shortfall was attributed to health care inflationary costs rising at near double-digit rates with pharmacy leading the way. The shortfall was also attributed, in his words, to "members not doing enough to control benefit utilization, therefore the employees would have to shoulder a significant portion of the financial responsibility to maintain the plan‚s solvency."

The Plan is funded by employee contributions and state fund contributions. Burgess wrote; "The Governor and the General Assembly are contributing at least $182 million in state appropriations towards this shortfall. The balance of $264 million must therefore come from increases in our monthly premiums and cost saving changes to our benefit design."

According to the Insurance Commissioner for the State of Georgia, United Healthcare currently faces charges that it failed to pay between 75,000 and
80,000 claims on time. United was fined for the same failure to pay claims in a timely manner in 2000 and 2002.

There are still many unanswered questions about the future of health care benefits for active and retired Georgia employees.

-- Pat and Ralph Greene, Snellville

12/2: Write congressman to get them not to cut cancer research

Editor, the Forum:

Basically, American Cancer Society needs your help. It is imperative that we lobby and make as much noise as possible to make sure that our voices are heard with respect to opposing the cutting of funds for cancer research.

The message is extremely personal for me, since I watched a loved one suffer, battle and die after fighting a vigorous battle with cancer.
I am an excited and vigilant member of American Cancer Society and support their efforts in ensuring that the great work it has done will go forth.

Congress needs to move. We all know what happens when cancer research is cut: it delays treatments, drugs, screenings, and in the long run, only means that people will die earlier than they would had Congress appropriated the funding. In the last decade, never have cuts like this been made by the federal government.

We can't let Congress get by with lesser funding. Call or write your Congressman and Senators today to protest. Please assist us in these efforts.

-- Deidra Willis, Stone Mountain

12/2: Cancer research studies give hope for our young people

Editor, the Forum:

Being a Cancer survivor, I know that cancer research is of great value to everyone, especially for our young people. Visit a Cancer Relay For Life fund raiser and see the young people who have or had Cancer. These young people have not had a chance to start their lives as you and I have. It hurts to see their pain. You will be touched to see the hope and strength they have. That's why we need to ensure that our Congress does not cut funds for cancer research, as is being threatened. Write your Congressman to make him aware of this.

-- Hugh Woods, Covington

UPCOMING
Philharmonic Presents offers "A Holiday Concert" on Dec. 13

Nothing warms the heart at Christmas like fine seasonal music. On December 13 at 8 p.m. in the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center, the Gwinnett Philharmonic Present's series will offer the public "A Holiday Concert," filled with the rich sounds of such classical composers as Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, and Tchaikovsky. This music will be performed by Emory Professor of Piano William Ransom, his wife Keiko Yamashita, violinist Jessica Shuang Wu, and cellist Guang Wang.

But wait! Your evening can start before you even set foot inside the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center. Proof of the Pudding and the Hudgens Center for the Arts welcome you for a dinner in the Children's Arts Museum located next door. The cost per person is $30 and reservations can be made by calling Amanda at 770-813-7554.

This musical concert is to be performed by four luminaries of Atlanta's classical music scene. William Ransom is currently the Mary L. Emerson Professor of Piano at Emory University in Atlanta. He is founder and artistic director of the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta. A native of Boston, he was a scholarship student at the Julliard School of Music and has appeared in recital and as soloist with major orchestras throughout the United States, in Eastern and Western Europe, Japan, South America, and Mexico.

Mr. Ransom met his wife, Keiko Yamashita, while they were both scholarship students at Julliard. Their four-hand and two-piano concerts have been broadcast over NPR's Performance Today series, and they were invited by the United States Ambassador to Japan to perform at the Embassy in Tokyo.

Both Ms. Wu and Mr. Wang are members of the internationally acclaimed Vega Quartet. Mr. Wang was a prizewinner of the First National Cello Competition in China. Both young Chinese-born musicians perform, teach, and record extensively.

Tickets for this concert are $28 and $21 for adults, $15 and $10 for children. Tickets for the concert can be obtained by calling TicketMaster at 404-249-6400 or by visiting the Gwinnett Center Box Office. For more information, visit the Gwinnett Philharmonic's Web site at www.gwinnettphilharmonic.org.

NOTABLE
Language Academy in Norcross now offering online Spanish

The Atlanta Academy of Language Learning is now offering on-line Spanish courses, to start in January, 2006.

Scott King, director of the Norcross-based Academy, says that by offering the courses on-line, participants can work in the comfort of their own home. An internet connection and a microphone is all that is needed.

He says: "Our students can come on-line any evening or even multiple evenings on Mondays through Thursdays. They can see, hear and speak with the instructor, and hear and speak in Spanish just as in a regular classroom. They can also write notes to the other students in the classroom, thanks to technology." He adds: "Why, they can even 'raise their hand,' so to speak, and be called upon. It's really the next best thing to being in person in the classroom."

King also said: "It's a new option we are offering which means that our Academy has even more flexibility for the potential student. We are pleased that technology allows us to make these programs possible for our students, even right in the home."

The Atlanta Academy of Language Learning has offices at 5855 Jimmy Carter Boulevard in Norcross. It offers language instruction to the public in six languages, and also works with local businesses that need instruction for their employers and managers. Day, evening, and weekend classes are offered. Course instruction can also be moved to an employer's site if required.

For more information, go to www.atlantalanguages.com or call 770 849 0180.

RECOMMENDATION

• An invitation: What Web sites, books or restaurants have you enjoyed? Send us your best recent visit to a restaurant or most recent book you have read along with a short paragraph as to why you liked it, plus what book you plan to read next. --eeb
  
  
  

GEORGIA TIDBIT
Excesses of Reconstruction pave way for Democrats

By 1877, when the final remnants of Reconstruction ended elsewhere in the South as a consequence of the disputed presidential election of 1876 and the removal of federal troops, much had changed in Georgia.

Brown

Joseph E. Brown, Democrat again and soon-to-be U.S. senator, was increasing the profits of his northwest Georgia coal mines by using the convict-lease system, one of the least humane innovations of Reconstruction. Brown's sometime ally and business partner, Rufus Bullock, had recently been tried and acquitted and had embarked on a new Atlanta career that would include the presidency of the Chamber of Commerce.

Charges against him and his administration, however, would lead the Democratic Redeemers to draft a new state constitution in 1877 that restricted legislative and gubernatorial power and instituted severe financial retrenchment. Democratic strength in Georgia would increase with time, making the state a reliable component of the Solid South. No Republican would again occupy the Georgia governor's chair until 2003, when Sonny Perdue took office.

• To access the Georgia Encyclopedia, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
  
  

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Suggestion for position to be with your friends

"Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend."

-- Nobel laureate and author Albert Camus (1913-1960), via Roy McCreary, Dacula.

• Another invitation: What's your favorite saying? Share with others through GwinnettForum. Send to elliott@gwinnettforum.com.
  

MORE: Contact Gwinnett Forum at: elliott@gwinnettforum.com

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