#dahlonega

When you have Jon Bernthal and Tessa Thompson as your top billings you will definitely turn some heads. His and Hers got me seated for the juicy murder mystery because of those two. That being said, two amazing actors themselves alone are not enough to make something valuable and worth watching. How does His and Hers manage the content, the writing and turn these two stars loose to ensure a quality mini series gets turned in for the general public.

Usually the first thing that works is the “Everyone could be a suspect” concept. It makes the audience begin to question every decision and every piece of dialogue. While it does become quickly noted here it is a trope, it still helps play up the tension in a big way for the first two episodes. 

The second thing a successful series needs to do is have secrets they can reveal as the show goes on. His and Hers also does this well. Holding onto the big secret about why this is happening now until the very end of episode 5. You can insert a lot of questions with murder mysteries about why suddenly this happens with a long standing secret and once you begin to put the pieces together here it makes sense.

Tessa Thompson is the key to this series. The why is centered around her character of Anna Andrews. All the past trauma happens in her orbit and has created a spiral of bad behavior among those around her. Bernthal plays Detective Jack Harper, her estranged husband with whom she has not had much contact with for the better part of a year. Now she is brought home by the strange death of one of her best friends from an all girls school she once attended. Thompson keeps the true motivations of Anna close to her chest throughout most of the series. Bernthal plays the more hot headed and truth seeking Jack who is harboring resentment of his own due to decisions of the past.

There is one unintentionally funny bit this series has and it is how many times they have to mention the name of the town. Dahlonega, Georgia for those playing along. Bernthal must say it about 10 times an episode and after a while it simply becomes a quick little chuckle every time he does from there. While it is not necessary to remind the audiences this much it is also a funny little experience among the gloomy set pieces and story structure.

Almost all happiness is zapped from these people and rightfully so when you see what has led to these events.  That is the nature of what a series like this needs to present. Broken people written as severely damaged individuals played by actors with the emotional range to bring the concepts to life. It is one thing to have an idea like this on paper and it is another entirely to bring it from the page to the screen in a way people enjoy. Books are more open to the imagination as we have to see it for ourselves and create the images of these people in our heads. When an actor embodies that role it can sometimes take away from the images we have created ourselves but Bernthal and Thompson are able to recreate those images of these characters and make these the definitive images.

The small issues this series has such as pacing and not creating viable enough red herrings is outweighed by the tremendous good it does. Bernthal and Thompson are mega stars who create a level of tension that makes you stay the course. Bernthal does a lot of acting through grief and facial expressions. When he expresses true grief this way he is undeniably one of the best in the industry. Thompson also does a great job as tough as nails Anna who is forced to relive the moments of her life that led to the exterior she has built for herself.

His and Hers is truly a good series. While it can feel emotionally heavy at times, progress at your own pace. If you find it hard to handle the baggage of it all, take breaks in between. It is heavy and purposefully designed to be so in order to convey the idea that life can sometimes take no prisoners and it is entirely on us how we handle the painful moments and progress through them.

i know it may seem hard with only my mom and myself having to do all the things in the camper. but I love the community of the R Ranch. It truly is Georgia's best kept secrets.

If I could set up a go fund me for it, I would.

As a part of a family trip, I went to Consolidated Gold Mine. Which I had actually been there before, but forgot until I saw the building again. Didn't get a picture of the building sadly ...

They were blasting for coal, I think? Or granite? Along with gold of course. It was pretty cold the whole time and I left my jacket in the car.

The whole thing was pretty well-lit (top left), like there were light switches & everything. One part of the tour involved turning them off for a bit and using a candle like how they would back then and. Lemme tell you. Mind blowing. You could not see a foot in front of yourself, much less the walls, and people were expected to handle dynamite🧨💥 like this? For a couple dollars a day at most? Just wow. The rails were still there (top and bottom right), and it reminded me of minecraft because I really am just a product of my generation 😁.

Bottom left picture is a still-functional gun. They blasted holes in the wall using water to make room for dynamite sticks (also like in Minecraft waow) and the tour guide. She was like "do you guys wanna hear it when it's on?😃" and I'm like 'well how loud can it be + there's no water going through it." And then she said "we've turned it down to a quarter of its original power" and I'm like 'well I guess it is loud but like how loud could 25% be?😃"

It was like a car driving right next to me while I'm walking on the highway my gosh. Luckily it was only on for 5 seconds. And mind you, that thing is 200 years old. So beautiful.

Idk what this is but it was at the entrance of the cave and it's not a blurry picture so it's going on the post.

After that, we went panning for gold! Out of everyone in my family, we got that small bit of gold on the left. Which came from 5 of those pans on the right. Definitely didn't make our money back on that one, lol.

They had a gift shop to exit from (kinda, the layout of the building was weird). And there was so much geology stuff in there + a bunch of rocks of course. My favorite was definitely the black magnets that come in funny polygonally prismic shapes (yk what I'm talking about). I really wanted one of the hats but they were like $35+ and I am not made of money, sooooooo ... accepting untimely birthday presents guys 🤠. And hey look, more minecraft in the bottom right!! 😀

All in all 9/10 experience just bring a jacket.

Afterwards we hit up some antique stores and regular stores. They had a dad joke book that I couldn't bring myself to buy and in the antique store ... oooooh yeo that's a confederate flag license plate. Not a good look but hey this is the South so you're gonna find these one way or another. Also while we were parking in front of the place we're gonna eat at, I spy a large-truck driver with a license plate exactly like the one in the bottom right of the bottom left photo and like cmonnn guys started 1 war and lost its been like 160 yearsssss just get over itttt. Also idk what that bottom right picture is.

the video shows like half of my face but i honestly don't care bc ive already shown my face on other places 🤷‍♀️

i also got this at the smith house 😋 (that place honestly sucks, the food is okay but it's considered a family diner so we all had to share the food and pass it around the table and i HATED that 😭)

im going somewhere else in a couple weeks so ill probably bring my butters plush there too

Made this photo of UNG in Dahlonega this evening from two miles away. The sunset was spectacular!

(Jack Anthony) * * * *

"I want to avoid preaching at you but I do want to convince you that the true and durable path into and through experience involves being true to the actual givens of your lives. True to your own solitude, true to your own secret knowledge. Because oddly enough, it is that intimate, deeply personal knowledge that links us most vitally and keeps us most reliably connected to one another.

And you will be sure to keep going in life on a far steadier keel and with far more radiant individuality if you navigate by that principle."

Stop The Time Photobooths, Amour 1978 Horse Trailer Photo Booth

Photos: Moonstone Photography