We are PopSmart
November 15, 2007 at 1:28 pm by David Lee Simmons in News, Randomly Noted
The idea of blogging about popular culture and arts and entertainment with a slightly brainier approach might at first seem like a daunting proposition. You could be called pretentious, or you could fall short of your goal. But after watching our staff dip its collective feet in the blogging waters with Fresh Loaf, Crib Notes and Omnivore — covering news, music and food — and doing it very well, we figured this was the next logical step.
Hence, PopSmart, which we hope will be both: loads of pop culture, delivered with a smart, but still fun, tone that offers our readers a savvy, broad view of arts and entertainment in Atlanta and beyond. You’ll find news, observations, rants, essays, and humor along with all the whistles and bells of a fun, entertaining blog. There will be plenty of celebrity gawking as well, but we want to offer something with a little more meat on the bones. We’ve spent the past couple weeks getting up and running, but today marks our “official” launch. The word is out.
We believe we have the perfect staffers for this project; both Felicia Feaster and Curt Holman are alternative-newsweekly veterans and critics but also hip and smart to search out the next big thing and ready to write about it. It’s an award-winning group, as you’ll see from their profiles below. I’ll also be contributing, but I think you’ll find this car is driven by Curt and Felicia.
We also hope you’ll join in the fun, and the conversation. After all, this blog’s for you.
POPSMART CONTRIBUTORS …
FELICIA FEASTER
Felicia Feaster has been a film critic for Creative Loafing for the past 15 years and the paper’s visual arts critic since 1996. She has won three Green Eyeshade Awards for her criticism and feature reporting, and curated exhibitions at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, VSA Gallery and TEW Galleries. Her writing on art and film has appeared in Elle, Art in America, Paper magazine, Atlanta magazine, Art Papers magazine, New York Press, Sculpture, Playboy.com and Film Quarterly. She is the co-author of the 1999 book Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Film. She holds a B.A. in Film Studies from the University of Florida and an M.A. in Film Studies from Emory University. Over the years she has had the opportunity to interview Oprah Winfrey, Billy Bob Thornton, Robert Duvall, Spike Lee, Woody Allen, David Cronenberg and the director of one of her favorite movies of all time, Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski. Before coming to Creative Loafing, Felicia was a syndicated television writer with United Features Syndicate in New York.
CURT HOLMAN
Curt Holman reviews movies, theater and pop culture as a staff writer for the alt-weekly newspaper Creative Loafing in Atlanta. Twice a winner of the Green Eyeshade Award for critical writing, he was a 1988 student judge for the Peabody Broadcasting Awards and a 2005 National Endowment of the Arts Fellow. He has also written for New York Press, Salon, Playboy.com, American Theatre, Nashville Scene‚ The Nashville Banner and Atlanta magazine. He has a B.A. in Creative Writing from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Georgia at Athens. He also blogs at http://curt-holman.livejournal.com.
DAVID LEE SIMMONS
David Lee Simmons has been the Arts & Entertainment editor for Creative Loafing since May 2006. Previously he was A&E editor for Gambit Weekly in New Orleans, where he won local and national awards for his film writing including a 2005 Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Award for his feature on the Elia Kazan film Panic in the Streets. A former sportswriter for the Tallahassee Democrat, Simmons also helped co-found break magazine for the paper. He also serves as a contributor to the WABE-FM (90.1) feature “Preview.†He has profiled and interviewed Steven Soderbergh, Godfrey Reggio, Patricia Clarkson, Ira Glass and Terence Blanchard. He holds a B.A. in American Studies from Florida State University. His book, The Kindness of Strangers: Hollywood Goes to New Orleans, remains somewhere in the back of his head.
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May 15th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Felicia Feaster posted an article about Sheila Pree Bright and her photo exhibit called “Young Americans”
Ms. Feaster should check out the book “Flag, An American Story” (2001) and other flag series work done by Lauri Lyons. Then compare it to Sheila Pree Bright’s “Young Americans” series. That would be an interesting follow-up article.