Creative Loafing presents Ed Loves Bacon

By popular demand, Paramount Pictures announced screenings of their underground horror flick Paranormal Activity midnight tonight at Atlantic Station.

Over 230,000 people have requested the studio release the film through an innovative distribution promotional website, paranormalmovie.com. On the site, users “demand” the showing of the film selecting their city or by adding their city to the growing list. Los Angeles and New York topped the list, while Atlanta ranked 10th in total demand requests followed by Miami and Las Vegas.

In Paranormal Activity, a young couple tries to figure out what’s causing the strange occurrences in their home each night, especially while trying to sleep. Armed with a video camera and low-tech recording devices they soon capture evidence they’re not alone in the house when something forcibly make its presence known to them.

From viewing the trailer, its clear the film was shot as a mocumentary in the same vein as its low-budget predecessor, The Blair Witch Project. According to various reviews and viewer comments, the film is truly unnerving, and the website bloody-disgusting.com describes it as “one of the scariest movies of all time.”

While that remains to be seen, there are reports that director Steven Spielberg had his own account of paranormal activity while viewing the movie. In the Paranormal Activity Wikipedia entry, its noted that Spielberg witnessed a bedroom door inexplicably close and lock from the inside while he viewed the film. He returned the screener in a garbage bag stating that his copy was haunted.

Paranormal Activity, Screening October 2, 2009 12:01 am, Not Rated, Directed by Oren Peli, Stars Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat. Exclusive midnight showing at Regal Atlantic Station.

In an effort to inform and educate the public on issues surrounding gay marriage, Virginia Highland Church is running a six-part lecture series titled “Marriage Equality: A Free Conversational Series” starting this Sunday.

The Marriage Equality series offers views on the controversial subject of gay marriage through open discussions from church leaders and religious writers who advocate for the legality of same sex marriage. The series is scheduled to run each week at 9:30 a.m. week beginning Sunday, September 20, through October 25. The lectures in this series are free and open to the public.

Series Schedule:

September 20: “Straight Talk: Allies Declare Their Advocacy.” Presented by Rev. Dr. Rich & Marilyn Wall, Rev. Dr. Bill & Kathy Stayton.

September 25: Film screening, So The Bible Tells Me So. Documentary discussing homosexuality and the church.

September 27: “Deconstructing & Reconstructing Marriage.” Hosted by Rev. Chris Glaser Author, As My Own Soul: The Blessing of Same-Gender Marriage.

September 28: Book signing, Rev. Chris Glaser. 7:30 p.m. Outwrite Books, 10th & Piedmont

October 4: “A Catholic View of Sacrament & Grace.” A discussion led by Dr. Daniel Helminiak, Author What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality

October 11: “Coretta Scott King’s LGBT Advocacy.” Presented by Mr. Winston Johnson his lecture is a first-person tell-all on how Johnson led Coretta Scott King to become LGBT ally.

October 18: “A Transgender View.” An introspective discussion lead by Rev. Dr. Erin Swenson,  Therapist, activist, Presbyterian minister.

October 25: “An African-American View.” Presented by Rev. Dr. Kathi Martin,  UCC minister, The Victory Church.

On Friday, September 25, as a bonus to the series, Virginia Highland Church will show the documentary For the Bible Tells Me So, a film by Daniel Karslake exploring the conflicts between homosexuality and religion. For the Bible Tells Me So was an official Sundance selection in 2007 and won the Documentary Audience Award at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Virginia Highland Church is located at 743 Virginia Avenue. For more information about the series, visit their website at www.vhchurch.org.

It’s hard to peg down the message in director Doug Pray’s latest documentary Art & Copy. There’s no cause to champion, no historic precedence, not even a controversial notion. Instead, the audience is engaged in a brief, candid discussion on the ad industry’s evolution and the successes that the changes spawned through a series of anecdotal interviews.

Art & Copy is essentially a series of one-on-one interviews with some of the ad industry’s innovators and trendsetters. Pray masterfully stitches together an open forum on creativity, its genius, and its impact with past and present ad directors and copy writers who were responsible for some of the world’s most popular ad campaigns. While the faces, names and companies may draw a blank for the average viewer, one immediately connects with the dialogue about their various successes.

Continue reading Art & Copy misses its own point

(Photo courtesy of Seventh Art Films)

Geeks and jocks may argue about what’s the coolest event going on labor day weekend, but most ATL insiders know this weekend is all about Drive Invasion at the Starlight Drive-In.  Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the throwback-styled festival – an eclectic mix of indie music, b-movies and hot rods.

This year Drive Invasion features live performances from 11 bands  including Wanda Jackson, Los Straitjackets, Detroit Cobras, Deadbolt and local bands, The Woggles, Gargantua and Psycho Devilles.

If these bands don’t sound familiar, worry not, I got you covered. Here’s a couple of videos from some of the bands featured to whet your appetite for this weekend’s music line up.

Los StraitJackets performing “Casbah”

Wanda Jackson performing “Funnel of Love”

Detroit Cobras bang out “Cha Cha Twist”

Deadbolt, the self-proclaimed “scariest band in the world” perform “You Don’t Scare Me”

The Woggles, “Its Not About What I Want”

Psycho Devilles, “Psycho Cadillac”

After you’ve finished your own modern version of the “mosh pit peppermint twist”, cop a squat and check out the gourmet cheese fest of b-movies scheduled to screen at sundown including The Blues Brothers, Zardoz, Frogs, Shanty Tramp and a surprise “secret selection.”

10th Annual Drive Invasion, Sunday, September 6, 2009, Starlight Six Drive-In Theatre, 2000 Memorial Avenue, 11am until, $28 Adults, Children (9 and under) $5. tickets online at ticket alternative.

Marvel Comics released a trailer of their upcoming motion comic Astonishing X-Men: Gifted today. The story was written by Buffy series creator Joss Whedon and illustrated by John Cassaday (Captain America series).

The story according to Marvel:

Cyclops and Emma Frost re-form the X-Men with the express purpose of “astonishing” the world. But when breaking news regarding the mutant gene unexpectedly hits the airwaves, will it derail their new plans before they even get started? As demand for the “mutant cure” reaches near-riot levels, the X-Men go head-to-head with the enigmatic Ord, with an unexpected ally – and some unexpected adversaries – tipping the scales!

Gifted is Marvel Comic’s second motion comic release. Last month, Marvel launched its first series, Spider-Woman on August 19th.

Astonishing X-Men: Gifted is scheduled for release on October 26, 2009. Marvel motion comics are available for download exclusively on iTunes.