Sharpen your pencils, dust off your notebooks, grab the thesaurus and ready yourself for Creative Loafing’s ninth annual Fiction Contest. Our theme this year is Slip — do what you will with it, just be creative and by all means, be original. Deadline for entries is FRIDAY NOV. 20, 5 P.M. All the details and an online submission form are available at our Fiction Contest website. Now, go forth and scribe!
Ever since its debut in 1999, “SpongeBob SquarePants” has enjoyed an apparently endless summer. Like “The Simpsons,” another smart cartoon series with yellow-schemed heroes, “SpongeBob” has gone from cult show to crossover marketing juggernaut to venerable fixture on the pop landscape. They’re both shows you can ignore for years, realize that new episodes are still in production and rejoin like old pals past their prime.
To mark the show’s 10th anniversary, Nickelodeon has releasing SpongeBob SquarePants: The First 100 Episodes, a tsunami-sized 14 disc set. With two stories per episode (give or take), that’s nearly 200 Bikini Bottom adventures, yet still only goes as far as the end of the show’s fifth season. Even if you take a dip in the shallow end of the DVD set, you’ll find a renewed appreciation for the series.
Continue reading “‘SpongeBob’ celebrates 10th anniversary with tsunami-sized DVD” »
LINE DANCING: Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish, from left) and John Keats (Ben Whishaw)
Most films about famous poets tend to play like old TV commercials for pop music anthologies. If Jane Campion had directed Bright Star in that mode, it’d play more like John Keats’ Greatest Hits. Voice-overs would recite the 19th-century romantic poet’s signature couplets over pretty landscapes and literal images — “Ode on Grecian Urn” with shots of gleaming crockery, perhaps — culminating with lush soundtrack music and a weeping, cheering crowd.
Bright Star breaks the biopic mold and doesn’t even include “Grecian Urn,” probably Keats’ most-studied work from English lit 101. Campion, who directed the Oscar-winning The Piano, includes plenty of verse, but places most of the lines in the context of the film’s central relationship. Keats’ star-crossed love for neighbor Fanny Brawne informed some of the young poet’s greatest work, including the title sonnet.
Continue reading “Passionate Bright Star delivers more than Keats’ greatest hits”
(Image courtesy Apparition)
1) A Hawk and a Hacksaw play the Earl.
2) The Latin American Film Festival opens at the High Museum of Art with Insignificant Things.
3) Kevin Pollak performs at the Punchline.
4) HBCU students compete against one another at the Step Showdown.
5) This Is Us vs. the Soup Line opens at Studioplex.
(Photo by Tamir Kalifa)
Local arts nonprofit Eyedrum continues to face a dire financial situation. After an announcement last July explaining that the arts org could be forced to close its doors, Eyedrum rallied and held an art auction to raise some much-needed cash. The auction grossed roughly $15,000, but much of that was quickly swallowed up by past-due rent and other debts.
Eyedrum’s biggest challenge may be it’s high rent costs. As CL’s Wyatt Williams reported last month, “The group readily admits it can’t afford the cost of rent for its massive converted industrial space in Grant Park. There’s been some talk about moving, but the Board of Directors is divided on the issue. Regardless of some of the board’s desire to change locations, its lease on the Grant Park property runs through December of 2010. Negotiations with the landlord, Braden Fellman, have deteriorated. ‘They’re a landlord, they want their money. They don’t say anything, really, though. They don’t return phone calls, e-mails.’”
Enter the 24-hour Dance-a-Thon — Eyedrum fundraising Part Deux this Sat.-Sun., Sept. 26-27. The event’s organized by the Harold Group and Atlanta’s independent arts community, according to a press release, and involves dancing, an art sale, and a bicycle scavenger hunt. Complete details follow after the jump.
"Untitled" by John Mercer Moore
SkaterAid was initiated after the 2005 death of 15-year-old Ian Wochatz from brain cancer. Since the inaugural event in 2006, the benefit has raised more than $44,000 for families dealing with pediatric cancer. (Previous years’ funds have been donated to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the RET Foundation, and the Brain Tumor Foundation For Children, Inc.)
SkaterAid ’09 hits East Decatur Station (109 New St.) Sun., Sept. 27 from 3-8 p.m. and centers around a silent auction of skateboard art. The original decks have been on view at the Brick Store Pub since August, and will remain up until Sunday’s auction. The event also includes live music from Governor General (Decatur High), PhoneyBones (Decatur High), and Highway (Lakeside High), grilled goodies, brews, a photobooth and daylong skating. Artist R. Land designed this year’s merch. Event costs $5 for students, $10 for adults. Admission includes access to skating, but you have to register and get a wristband. Safety first!
(Photo courtesy SkaterAid’s Facebook)
The nonprofit Metropolitan Public Art Coalition (MPAC), whose board members include Cathy Byrd, Gregor Turk, and Lisa Tuttle among others, is trying to rally support for the funding of public art along the Beltline through an online petition. The petition references the city of Atlanta’s Public Art Ordinance (ref.: 08-O-1884), “which requires that the Atlanta Beltline, Inc. set aside the required 1.5% of the total amount of each bond issuance for public art.” Basically, MPAC wants to ensure that a portion of the funds generated by the Beltline’s bonds would be secured for public art projects along the 22-mile loop.
Check out the full petition here, and bring your questions, comments and concerns to the Oct. 12 mayoral candidate’s Forum on the Arts at the Woodruff Arts Center’s Rich Auditorium (the event is sponsored by the Metro Atlanta Arts & Culture Coaltion and the MPAC).
WHO'S THAT GIRL? Nina Hoss as Anonyma
Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds suggests that, during World War II, all German soldiers or patriots deserved, at best, to have swastikas carved into their foreheads. A Woman in Berlin, by German director Max Färberböck, explores the wartime atrocities and national responsibility that prove wrenchingly complex.
A Woman in Berlin is based on a memoir published in 1959 by an author identified only as “Anonyma.” The nameless narrator (Jerichow’s Nina Hoss) describes her experiences as a German woman surviving the Russian occupation of Berlin in the final throes of World War II. The wife of a German soldier and a starry-eyed nationalist before and during the war, Anonyma finds her home in enemy territory when the Russian army takes over her Berlin neighborhood in 1945.
Continue reading “A Woman in Berlin goes behind enemy lines”
(Image courtesy Strand Releasing)
1) Gary Pomerantz discusses The Devil’s Tickets: A Night of Bridge, a Fatal Hand, and a New American Age at the Carter Center.
2) The International Soul Music Summit starts.
3) On the Flip Side opens at Spruill Gallery.
4) Gojira, Burst, Scale the Summit and Zoroaster play Heaven at the Masquerade while MONO and Maserati hold it down in Hell.
5) Boom continues at Aurora Theatre.
(Photo © Crowne Publishing Group)
Halo 3: ODST
Rated M for Mature
Released Sept. 22
Xbox 360
Published by Microsoft
WHAT IT IS: Master Chief returns yet again with… oh wait, that’s right, he doesn’t. Like this spring’s Halo Wars, the newest Halo first-person shooter is entirely without the series’ iconic lead character. It’s like those Queen reunion shows without Freddie Mercury, although ODST’s Nathan Filion isn’t nearly as acceptable a stand-in as Paul Rodgers. Originally announced as a value-priced expansion of Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST arrives with two discs of content and the standard price tag for a new release. The second disc is entirely recycled, consisting of Halo 3’s multi-player mode and all the various map packs that have been subsequently released through Xbox Live. So ODST rests on the first disc, which offers up an original Master Chief-less solo campaign that should take you less than eight hours to play through and the new Firefight multi-player survival mode. There’s a lot happening with Halo 3: ODST, then, but is it enough to justify the price?
ART SIGNED THE BELTLINE: Critics Pick for Best Public Art
Armed with maps, Sharpies and $400 worth of wood, a group of local artists organized by WonderRoot and local do-gooder/merry-maker Angel Poventud ART SIGNED THE BELTLINE in June. Artists and regular folk from around the city gathered to produce more than 100 works to install along 108 points where the Beltline crosses public rights-of-way. The group then tagged the city with its guerilla signage under the cover of night. The effort’s reach is undeniable: From an I-20 overpass in Grant Park to Edgewood Avenue to south Atlanta, the art signs are spunky reminders of Atlanta’s vast expanse and the link the Beltline could offer among its numerous communities. City of Atlanta take note: This is how you do public art.
Want more Best of Atlanta? Of course you do! Our expanded BOA site has it all.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
1) Theaters across town screen a high-def version of The Wizard of Oz to celebrate its 70th anniversary.
2) Peter Moruzzi discusses Havana Before Castro: When Cuba Was a Tropical Playground at Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse.
3) Come Fly With Me opens at Alliance Theatre with a red-carpet reception.
4) Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Amnesty International and the Campaign to End the Death Penalty present Teach In for Troy Davis at Georgia State University.
5) Shannon Wright and Lyonnais play the Earl.
(Photo © 2009 Turner Entertainment Co./Warner Bros.)
We at Creative Loafing were delighted to discover that the title A Matter of Loaf and Death does not involve this company’s financial situation. Even better,the 30-minute short film marks the return of Wallace and Gromit, one of the most charming and whimsical comedy teams of our time.
A Matter of Loaf and Death is Aardman Animation’s first stop-motion Wallace and Gromit venture since the English company’s feature-length Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. One gets an impression that Aardman found its collaboration with Dreamworks to be a mixed blessing. Compared to the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit short films (including the sublime The Wrong Trousers), Were-Rabbit seemed compromised and watered-down, despite having plenty of charming moments. Loaf and Death feels more authentically “Aardman,” but also seems informed by the studio’s hard feelings over its treatment in Hollywood.
Addle-minded inventor Wallace (voiced by Peter Sallis) and his commonsensical pooch Gromit have previously held such jobs as window cleaners and humane pest control officers. Loaf and Death finds the twosome working as bakers, having converted their home on West Wallaby Street to a bakery, complete with life-sized windmill. (The film originally had the oh-so-English title “Trouble at’ Mill.”) Wallace falls for Piella Bakewell (Sally Lindsey), decades ago the spokesmodel for a bread company, now a plus-sized former celebrity. But why does Piella’s poodle look so nervous? And why is a serial killer fatally battering the rest of the bakers in town?
Continue reading “Aardman Animation releases more Wallace, Gromit, Shaun” »
‘True Blood’ wrapped up two Sundays ago, sadly, but it did snag an Emmy at last Sunday’s awards for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series. So what moments from this season helped earn the cast its trophy? Here’s our countdown of the season’s top 10 best moments, as well as some of its most memorable quotes (PIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!).
NO. 10: Godric's pad is da bomb
10. GODRIC’S PAD IS DA BOMB (episode 9)
Luke blows Godric’s lair to kingdom come in the name of Rev. Newlin. Bill watches, stunned, from the driveway where he’s just escorted Lorena (”You may be immortal, Lorena, but you are dead to me”). From the front yard, it looks as though the white-hot blast eviscerated everything: men, vampires, and Barcaloungers alike.
Bill rushes inside and finds Sookie still alive and sprawled on the floor beneath Eric, who shielded her from the blast. The inside is littered with insides. On Eric’s command, Bill exits as quickly as he arrived to snag and punish Luke’s cohorts. Eric feigns dying, imploring Sookie to suck the silver shrapnel from his chest. Sookie, who thinks that’s like totally gross, refuses, until Eric exhales in a melodramatic whimper “(gasp) … dying … (gasp)” and lets a limp arm fall to the floor with a thud. Next thing we (and Bill) know, Sookie’s straddling Eric and literally licking his wounds. This kind of hanky panky has consequences, Bill tells Sookie. Since she’s now swallowed Eric’s blood, the two are forever connected. Like Bill, he’ll always be able to sense her emotions and Sookie will feel sexually attracted to Eric. “I could kill him,” Sookie says later on. “I concur,” says Bill.
Continue reading “Top 10 moments from ‘True Blood’ season 2″ »
