Ponce de Leon Ave., Atlanta, Georgia, on a Saturday afternoon. A typical summer day. The weather: hot and sunny. The traffic: slow as usual. Boarded-up homes tagged with graffiti reflect the faded glory of a once-proud neighborhood. But what's that on the front steps of the Druid Hills Baptist Church? What are those swaying, soothing Brazilian sounds that I hear?

Why, it's our old friend Adron, performing as part of the ARTlantis arts and music festival.

There's rarely a day that can't be made better by Adron's music, and her music sounded even sunnier than usual by virtue of being played out in the sun.

Atlanta's Lyonnais were up next, playing a mind-bending set of blistering psych-rock, Black Angels meets Syd Barrett.

This is the kind of music that's usually only played late at night. According to their Facebook profile, Lyonnais started in 2008 as a musical outlet for two former Music Directors for radio station WRAS. Immediately after witnessing a Rhys Chatham performance, the duo realized that they needed to fill a void in Atlanta's otherwise vibrant music scene. Using each member's personal taste as a launch pad, they set out to develop their ideas and enlisted a drummer and bass. I have no idea who the girl was and she didn't do much other than provide some eerie backup vocals on the first song, but that alone justified her presence.

Local hip-hop/black metal outfit Social Studies were up next. They list Howard Zinn as the artist they most sound like, and speaking of politics, I could have sworn that I saw Congressman John Lewis walk past at one point (the festival was in his District after all), but when I went to look for him, he was no where to be seen.

There were artists set up on the grounds around the church displaying their works, and a smoky grill was preparing hamburgers and barbeque chicken and making everybody salivate. I broke with my rice-and-fruit diet and had a turkey burger. In all, it was a very nice enhancement to a typical Saturday afternoon on Ponce.

In unrelated news, a very small bird has taken up residence in my mailbox. I didn't notice the nest until today, but already there are some tiny hatchlings in there.

I hope that the mailman doesn't disturb them.