#WeAreArity Wednesday: Grant Lamberson

What fictional family would you most like to join?

My first instinct was “The Swiss Family Robinson,” living out on an island and trying to survive. It’s a book, but I grew up watching the Disney movie. It’s this family that gets marooned out on an island, kind of like Gilligan’s Island, and they have to build their own fortress, eat plants, and survive.

I’m sure it’s horrible in real life, but it seemed really awesome as a small child growing up in Colorado. They have little adventures around the island, and no one’s dying of dehydration or anything.

What is your favorite movie genre to watch?

My favorite movie genre is probably cheesy sci-fi movies. As it sits right now, my favorite is probably “Logan’s Run” from the seventies.

I like how dated it is, but also how they trying to be futuristic. A lot of it was filmed in a mall in Dallas, and it is very apparent that it was filmed in a mall once. They have a really elaborate – but unconvincing – miniatures where they show the overarching shot of the city or the community that they live in, and the soundtrack is super cheesy.

It’s not a movie you get lost in. It’s very much a product of its time, and it’s one of the few movies I actually have on DVD as well.

What is your #1 recommendation of something to do in the city you live in?

This is purely my own interests and enjoyment. We have a funny but underwhelming downtown area here in Atlanta. We have an area called the Peachtree Center, and it was designed by a local architect named John Portman. It’s a sequence of hotel conference centers, and they’re connected by what they call habit trails – the little bridges that connect all the buildings downtown.

It’s a network of hotels. The Hyatt Regency is the oldest of the bunch, and it has this rotating restaurant on top called Polaris. It has a turquoise dome, and it looks like a Jetson’s house. And when it was built, it was the tallest building in downtown Atlanta. The rest of Atlanta built up around it since then, and now it’s not even the tallest spinning hotel restaurant anymore – but it was at one time.

So, you can go there, and then you can connect to the Marriott Marquis, which is I think probably his newest of the bunch down there. It’s actually from the eighties, and a lot of the sci-fi movies that get filmed in Atlanta take place in that. It looks very H.R. Giger-like with a concrete rib cage on the inside. It’s very disorienting. It’s where Dragon Con or other big sci-fi fests are held.

Then there’s also a Hilton, which was not by John Portman, but it has a tiki bar in the basement and Trader Vic’s.

I take people from out of town on this little run of those three hotels. When you’re in some of them, it makes your jaw drop looking at how big this interior space is. It’s not a “normal” tourist destination, but it’s something very, very unique to Atlanta in its own weird way.

What is your favorite recipe to make?

I’m not a good cook, but I know how to work a grill top – like cooking on a cast iron or a charcoal grill. I started making what’s essentially pork chili that uses the New Mexico smoked hatch chilies in it. We grew up calling it green pork chili, and we would always eat it with tortillas. But in the West, mainly northern New Mexico where the hatch chilies come from and Colorado, they’ll smother anything they can with it.

Most cooking I do is something I can kind of whip together in 15 to 20 minutes. That is the one thing I’ll wake up early for. I make it maybe once a year.

It was my birthday meal growing up, even though it was a very easy thing to get locally. Now, I’ll order the hatch chilies and have it shipped in. I’m still trying to find the right balance of fresh and something that you can ship. It’s pretty much the only dish I’ve put any effort into in the last ten years, refining and getting better at.

What was your first job?

My father used to work every Saturday, and my sister and I would go out to work with him as a way to give my mom a break for a little bit. This started when I was five or six years old, and his policy was to pay in coins. It was mainly running around with other employee’s kids and a little bit of cleaning. Then once we were older, like in middle school, it was a little bit of painting. Then by high school, I was working 30 hours a week over the summer, painting steel and running forklifts – and I started getting actual paychecks instead of coins.

What was the first way you made money?

Outside of that job with my dad, I used to play in a band starting in middle school. Our first public gig – that wasn’t a neighbor or a family member — was at a Starbucks on Mother’s Day in eighth grade.

Not saying the music was great, but I want to say like 60 to 70 people showed up to it. We absolutely overwhelmed the Starbucks. They were very upset, and we were an electric band too, so it wasn’t like we were playing acoustic folk covers.

I think we worked maybe a total of three gigs shortly thereafter. I want to say we probably made about $150 for a few hours of playing, and we saved up for a PA system.

What is an easy way to do something nice for someone?

I think small gestures go a long way – anything from holding doors open, properly addressing someone, making eye contact, or being a little extra patient and not honking your horn at someone who drives poorly. I think those little gestures really add up – and it’s easy to do.

What advice would you give to someone balancing work and home life?

The advice I give to people is to prioritize activities like relaxation or hobbies – or even finding new hobbies if you’ve kind of lost touch with your interests. But I have a lot of just highly successful, highly motivated friends who don’t give the same weight of importance to, for instance, playing guitar or video games.

It may seem mindless, but it’s important to do the things that help you recharge. For me, it’s playing drums. I kind have a rule that if it’s after work, but I feel like playing drums, I’m always allowed to put off chores to play because it’s my favorite thing to do and it’s something that keeps me from getting cranky. So, put equal priority into those things that may not seem productive but are giving you pleasure, relaxation, or recharge.