Culture Surfing

Casting calls are out for extras for Stomp The Yard 2: Homecoming.  While 10-12 hour days are expected, curiously no pay is offered.  Although lunch is being served and prizes will be raffled off, for what it’s worth.

Attire: NO RED, NO WHITE, NO LOGOS. Clothing with purple and yellow in it are highly encouraged on this day. Also come camera ready (ladies, hair and make-up ready, fellows looking your best) as you will be on camera.

No children under the ages of 10 years old will be allowed on set.

The shoot is at Center Stage on Sunday, followed by shoots at Morris Brown and the nightclub Opera on various days over the next couple of weeks.

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Who is Etienne Abobi? Well, he’s from the small French/German border town Saint-Avold; he’s been a deputy consul at the French Consulate in Atlanta for the past two years; and he’s the man behind the AKA Photo Project — a small collective of “accidental artists” currently exhibiting its debut show, Face à Face, at Little Five Points’ Opal Gallery through Nov. 13.

I don’t think many people are aware that there’s a French Consulate in Atlanta, let alone a tight-knit French community here. Could you talk about the French presence in Atlanta?
We have had the consulate since 1989 and our last Bastille day was at the [International] school and the theme was the 20th anniversary of the French consulate in Atlanta. So far we don’t have a French school, we have the International School with the French section, but we have some different kinds of schools. You have International Community School, which specializes in refugees who are native French speakers. In the greater Atlanta area, almost 3,000 people are registered but we think we are really two times this number.

Continue reading “Speakeasy with Etienne Abobi” »

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Ted Danson takes a dive in the boxing ring as magazine editor George Christopher in the Bored to Death season finale. Photo: Esquire

It’s rumble time between two magazines on Bored to Death tonight.

GQ editor Richard, book critic Lewis, and a lowly cartoonist are taking on the Edition team. George, Jonathan, and Ames are working out at a downtown boxing gym with a surly trainer named Sal. Between beating on tires with sledgehammers, hitting the heavy bag, and tossing the medicine ball, they’re getting in pretty good shape. They just might kick GQ’s ass, but women keep getting in the way.

Jonathan is falling for Stella, the co-op worker he met last week while tracking down the lesbian black market sperm thieves. They’re getting together to smoke pot but he hasn’t made any moves on her yet. “What are you, in the fifth grade?” Ray asks.

“Yeah, I lost my virginity in the fifth grade,” Sal says.

“What was his name?” Ray asks.

“Father Francis,” Sal says.

Continue reading “Bored to Death episode 8 recap – season finale” »

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Folks, you read it here first. It helps to have sources inside the entertainment industry.

(Well, actually, to be married to a source inside the entertainment industry.)

UPDATE: Some news stories have now appeared. Here’s a link to one such.

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John Lithgow as "Trinity" (second from right): Killer knows best

A side effect of the Trinity plot on this season of “Dexter” is that it makes the new remake of The Stepfather, starring Dylan Walsh, seem even more superfluous than it already was. The original Stepfather offered a dark satire of suburbia and the 1980s cult of family values, with a terrific performance by Terry O’Quinn (these days zipping between life and death on “Lost”) as a Ward Cleaver-wannabe who butchers his families whenever they, inevitably, reveal human flaws.

The PG-13 remake of The Stepfather seems to be vanishing with barely a trace, while John Lithgow’s Trinity killer, a.k.a. Arthur Mitchell, offers a vivid, fresh portrayal of an upstanding, all-American middle-aged male who happens to be a homicidal monster. This week’s episode, “If I Had a Hammer,” fills in the outline of Trinity’s life (I’ll call him “Trinity” for convenience sake) as husband, father of two, high school teacher, deacon at “Sacred Fellowship” church and organizer of the community home-building project called “Four Walls, One Heart.” “If I Had a Hammer” opens not with the Pete Seeger/Lee Hays protest song of the same name but the hymn “Are You Washed in the Blood?” The blood symbolism isn’t exactly subtle, but the song gives Lithgow a chance to zestfully sing an old-school church song.

Continue reading “‘Dexter’: Season 4, Episode 6″ »

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CL’s Chate LaGon and Curt Holman discuss Theatre in the Square’s production of The Woman in Black, a play that taps into the mood-creating powers of oral-tradition storytelling and the chilling power of live stage effects.

Air Loaf is broadcast weekdays on 1690 WMLB-AM at approximately 8:10 a.m., 12:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.

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Come closer, children of the night and let me tell of two, TWO dark and spoooky events taking place this weekend that will be certain to please your inner undead child.

Friday night brings you The Vampire’s Ball from 10 p.m.-3 a.m. at The Spot, 502 Amsterdam Ave. Admission is $10, but only 21 and up. The evening promises “themed drink specials all night long. Halloween decor and fun giveaways.” That doesn’t sound very creepy. What about human sacrifices and a blood-guzzling contest?

Next up, on Saturday is the Secretroom Halloween Fetish Party at The Jungle (aka the old Chamber), 2115 Faulkner Road. There’ll be haunted DJs, go-go dancers, performances by fetish queen Rubber Doll and a Sexiest Halloween Costume Contest with a grand prize of $500. Admission is $15 for guys and for girls 18-21, and $10 for girls over 21.

All this kink and it isn’t even Halloween yet!

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Noon today is the kick-off of Anime Weekend Atlanta (actually, it’s in Smyrna, but who’s quibbling?). The three-day confab bills itself as “the Southeast’s premier Japanese animation convention,” with video rooms, dealers room, costume contest, panels, workshops, artist alley and a formal ball.

Apart from that, I can’t tell you much about it because I’m not up on my anime terminology. There are numerous workshops focused on different aspects of “cosplay,” which Wikipedia tells me is “costume roleplaying,” but I still don’t know what that entails.

Suffice it to say, the Renaissance Waverly Hotel and the Cobb Galleria Centre is likely to be filled this weekend with young women dressed like Japanese schoolgirls, which can hardly be considered a bad thing. In fact, the event offers this disclaimer for parents:

While AWA is known as a “Family Friendly” convention, our event is not geared towards very young children. Some of the animated titles presented at AWA contain mature content and may be considered too violent or offensive. Some late night video programming (after 12:00 am) will contain adult anime titles. Video rooms showing these titles will restrict minors from entering. Some retailers in the Dealers Room will also be selling adult titles.

Also, the Syrens of the South burlesque troupe is scheduled to perform, although I can’t figure out when.

A three-day ticket is $45 and registration is going on now.

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Local artists take note: Mark your calendars for Fri., Oct. 23, the deadline for submissions for Idea Capital’s fall 2009 grant. The Atlanta-based grassroots arts organization will announce the awards in early November. This is the local arts org’s third round of grants since its inception in 2008. Idea Capital was founded by Susan Todd-Raque, Stuart Keeler, Pam Rogers, Louise Shaw, and Cinqué Hicks “to encourage experimentation and investigation with funds designed to give artists permission to pursue new ideas.” Past recipients include Allison Rentz, Shana Robbins, Jason Kofke and Rory Golden.

Awards range from $500-$1,500. Download the call for entries at www.ideacapitalatlanta.org.

Full disclosure: Hicks is CL’s freelance visual arts critic.

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William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy during this morning's press conference at the opening of the Dragon*Con convention.

Not only did WMLB land a one-on-one with Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, they turned a nice double-play by having William Shatner stop by their studios for a sit down. Below is the audio, again thanks to WMLB 1690AM for letting us post it.

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(Photo by Tara-Lynne Pixley)

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The Toxic Shock battled The Denim Demons for this season’s Atlanta Rollergirls Champ and Grudge Match winner. Video produced, edited and directed by Dustin Chambers (who kicks some ass himself).

Music by the awesome Jeffrey Butzer, whose track was part of this year’s Mixt A: Vol. 1 mixtape.

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The losing entries

The You’ve heard of a wet T-shirt contest? Well, this seems to be a no-T-shirt contest.

Trapeze swingers club off Fulton Industrial Boulevard is hosting a “designer breast” contest on Wednesday night. Here’s the come-on:

Ladies, enter the Trapeze Breast parade at 11:15 to win a FREE weekend pass to Trapeze. Paint them, bead them, feather them, whatever it takes to win.

The website doesn’t say what judging criteria will be employed. How many points for originality? Does size matter? Is there any advantage in being, say, smokin’ hot? We’re guessing someone will be making up on the rules on the fly.

Otherwise, it sounds like a perfectly enchanting affair. But be warned, Trapeze is not a swingers-themed nightclub. Nor is it swinging-lite. It’s a full-on swingers lifestyle club. That said, you don’t have to engage in hanky-panky — they have a dance floor, an indoor pool and a BYOB lounge, so you could spend the evening people-watching.

On the other hand, as at all lifestyle clubs, admission is steep — $35 per couple on Wednesdays, plus a  membership fee — so you may feel cheated if you go home without having partaken in a few sins of the flesh.

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The new movie The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, starring Jeremy Piven as a fast-talking used-car dealer, will receive a proper opening night at Atlanta’s own Starlight Six Drive-In this Thursday, with an evening of burlesque and hot rod mayhem.

Entertainment will include performances by Syrens of the South Burlesque, a hot rod car show, live music, a junk yard car smash and a car wash, courtesy of scantily clad ladies. Oh, and of course, the aforementioned film. The events begin at 7:30 p.m., the movie at 9:30 p.m.

To gain entry to this special event, you must RSVP by 2 p.m. Wednesday by sending an email to this address. One car per RSVP, s’il vous plait.

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MGM is inviting Atlanta’s most talented to have a chance at fame. On Sat., Aug. 15, the studio will hold auditions for actors, singers, musicians and dancers to take part in its national talent content.

The Fame National Talent Search will be held at Six Flags Over Georgia on Saturday the 15th with the top ten semi-finals show on Sun., Aug. 16. Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins of TLC and CJ from 95.5 The Beat are two of the judges selecting the Atlanta finalists.

One grand-prize winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize, a photo spread in OK! magazine, a 5 day/4 night trip to Hollywood, a meet and greet with a top talent agent, a meet and greet with a studio executive and the winner’s final performance will live forever on the FAME DVD (release date tba).

Six Flags Over Georgia is one of the six Six Flags stops where MGM will be
holding auditions. Contestants can also upload a video entry via MySpace.com/fame.

Auditions will be held within the park so general park admission is required to participate.

For more registration and official rules, go to generationfame.com.

The contest is a promotion in conjunction with upcoming release of Fame, an updated, re-imagining of the Oscar winning film due in theaters Sept. 25, 2009.

Continue reading “Fame national talent search coming to Atlanta” »

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