1) Raphael Saadiq plays Variety Playhouse.
2) Turn off the lights from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. for Earth Hour.
3) Eva Kennedy, Joi and Julie Dexter play at Sugarhill’s Rough Language poetry slam.
4) The Center for Puppetry Arts screens Monster Road, with a post-film Q&A featuring director Brett Ingram.
5) The Atlanta Rollergirls play at Yaarab Shrine Center.
(Photo © Sony Records)
WOLVERINE: The Phantom Limb
Violence runs in veins of three new plays (Curt Holman takes a closer look at three plays that all share a common thread.)
The 1950s creature features that spawned Monster vs. Aliens (The Creature From the Black Lagoon, The Blob and The Fly … oh my!)
The Televangelist ‘Lost’ episode 10 (It’s “Lost” people, how am I expected to describe it in one dinky sentence?)
Atlanta Rollergirls bring the Blood, Sweat and Fishnet Saturday (Bangin’ babes get down and dirty this weekend.)
Weekend arts agenda (Head to Whitespace this weekend, you won’t be disappointed.)
Dude, Where The Wild Things Are trailer is hella sweet (I think the title says it all. Plus Arcade Fire? Swoon.)
(Photo by Stephanie Richardson)
CL’s Chanté LaGon and Chad Radford chat about upcoming shows around Atlanta, including Zoroaster’s CD release party at the Drunken Unicorn (Friday, March 27), Eva Kennedy at Sugarhill (Saturday, March 28), and the Preakness at the Earl (Saturday, March 28).
Check out this week’s Sound Menu for a more comprehensive list of upcoming shows.
Air Loaf is broadcast weekdays on 1690 WMLB-AM at approximately 8:10 a.m., 12:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.
Subscribe to the Air Loaf RSS feed to download each new episode automatically
Four weeks ago, Borders told us she was “reconsidering” a run for mayor. Well, sometime between then and now, she quit reconsidering and decided to jump back in. Maria Saporta reports on Borders’ turnabout in today’s Atlanta Business Chronicle and our own sources confirm that the Council president is indeed back in. A formal announcement is expected sometime next week.
Borders’ re-entry could up-end the mayor’s race – or maybe not. Before she pulled out last August for family reasons, Borders was routinely described as a front-runner, yet she’d raised a mere $300,000 during more than a year as a declared candidate. She’s now a good six months behind the current front-runners, Councilwoman Mary Norwood and state Sen. Kasim Reed, in terms of fund-raising and campaign events. Still, I’m told that a certain former top executive (of a company whose initials are GP) canceled a Norwood fund-raiser last week when he heard Borders was getting back in.
But the news will certainly affect the down-ticket city races. I’m waiting to hear back, but I understand Councilman Ceasar Mitchell has already dropped his bid for mayor and is shooting instead for the president’s seat. (He’s taken down his campaign website for retooling.) [UPDATE – Mitchell called back to say he isn't ready to reveal his plans just yet, but will make an announcement soon.] Councilwoman Clair Muller, who was aiming to retire from her Buckhead post after 20 years, has also expressed interest in the job. And we’ve heard that state Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, is likewise eyeing the position.
March 21, 2009, 11:12 p.m., on Arizona Avenue N.E.
This week’s Time and Place photo was shot at the Lake Claire Community Land Trust drum circle which takes place the first and third Saturday of each month. The drum circle is one of Atlanta’s most unique events with people gathering around a bonfire dancing, chanting, drumming, freaking, humming, clapping and singing from sunset until midnight. The sight of silhouettes shaking it around a cascading fire to the endless throbbing beats that shift and stutter and peter out and start again is quite wonderful. This combined with the spirit of a musical potluck, as people bring their own instruments and novices beat drums with total strangers, makes it a truly communal experience. This photo was taken of a person dancing crazily with a light with which they were spinning around and around and around.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
The totchos at the Nook
Feature: School gardens take root (All over Atlanta, schools are beginning to bring food into their schoolyards and classrooms in the form of edible gardens.)
2009 James Beard nominees announced (The nominees are being announced as they happen on Twitter including Atlanta’s very own Linton Hopkins.)
Tart up them tator tots (Cliff gushes over the Nook’s totchos, a new phenomenon of tater tots impersonating nachos.)
Sick in the kitchen (Besha dives into a part of kitchen culture that’s not normally discussed.)
(Photo by Cliff Bostock)
For one hour on Saturday, more than 400 buildings in metro Atlanta — along with 1,500 cities in more than 80 countries — will shut off their lights to participate in Earth Hour, a worldwide event to raise awareness about the impact our energy usage has on global warming.
Many trademark buildings, including the Fox Theater and Midtown’s Bank of America building, will participate in the event. Organized by the World Wildlife Fund in cooperation with the City of Atlanta, tomorrow’s event marks the second year the city’s participated in Earth Hour. The lights will go dark from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.
For the best view of the darkened city skyline during Earth Hour, I recommend the Jackson Street bridge that stretches over Freedom Parkway. If you have some good suggestions, leave ‘em in the comments.
(Homepage photo courtesy Flickr user highsmith)
Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel makes it official:
Handel announced she’d filed the paperwork to begin raising money for the race. Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, two other Republicans, started raising money for the 2010 governor?s race last year.
“Our next governor will face many difficult challenges,” Handel said. “I look forward to meeting those challenges with exciting new ideas and a vision that will put us on the path to growth and prosperity.”
1) Zoroaster plays a CD release show at Drunken Unicorn.
2) Georgia State University Opera Theatre presents Dialogues of the Carmelites.
3) Wale and B.o.B. perform at the Loft.
4) And Her Hair Went with Her opens at Horizon Theatre.
5) The 2009 Invitational opens at Anne Irwin Fine Art.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
After tattooing for eight years in New York and Atlanta, Danielle Distefano recently opened her own tattoo shop, Only You Tattoo, in Grant Park.
How long have you been a tattoo artist?
Eight years, professionally. I was an apprentice for a year and a half before.
What was the first tattoo you gave?
It was a little anchor with a shield that I never finished, because my machine stopped working and I didn’t know how to fix it. That was before I was an apprentice. I got a machine from a friend and was playing around with it.
What’s the strangest tattoo you’ve ever drawn before?
[laughs]. That’s a tough question. I guess a unicorn puking up a rainbow, jumping out of someone’s skin. With lightning bolts coming out of its horns.
How would you describe your style?
It’s based in American traditional classic “tough guy” with Japanese influence. Kind of like sailor tattoos mixed with a Japanese style.
So, you’ve been punishing yourself with NIT basketball for the past four days. You’re hungry. You’re ready for meaningful matchups. Well, here you go. We’re down to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
If you’re like me, your bracket has gone to sh*t because you decided to pick upsets. And your office pool is being led by Katie in marketing who decided to pick the favorites and “cutest head coach” in every game. And wouldn’t you know, the favorites have won almost every game. That and Villanova’s Jay Wright is the Don Draper of NCAA skippers.
We have no chance to win our pool, unless the Lord our God steps down from his mighty cloud and heals Ty Lawson’s toe. Needless to say, we’re rooting for the Tar Heels.
(more…)
Our colleague Wayne Garcia at our sister paper in Tampa has another dispatch from the (seemingly never-ending) bankruptcy case that will determine Creative Loafing Inc.’s fate:
Both sides have filed their closing arguments in writing, concluding the hearing process for an attempt by lender Atalaya Capital Management to take control of the Creative Loafing newspaper chain from CEO Ben Eason. Now, federal bankruptcy District Judge Caryl Delano will rule, expected to come via telephone conference call in the next few days, possibly by Tuesday of next week.
There’s nothing new in either closing argument, just a recitation of each side’s opinion about whether the value of CL has dropped since filing for bankruptcy court protection on Sept. 29, 2008, and whether the current management is harming the company’s value and therefore diminishing the collateral used to secure $31 million in loans from Atalaya. That money was used to retire debt and purchase the Washington City Paper and Chicago Reader.
Continue reading “Closing arguments filed in CL bankruptcy case” …
The study is needed to tap federal funding for a high-speed rail line connecting Atlanta and New Orleans.
From the Birmingham News:
In a turnaround, Alabama has agreed to pay its dues in the Southern High-Speed Rail Commission.
The state owes $120,000 in commission dues for 2008 and 2009.
Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs Director Bill Johnson said the state stopped paying because his agency was not in the transportation business.
As the News reported last week, Georgia is not a member of the commission conducting the study. Can the state jump on board?
(Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Veteran Gold Dome reporter Tom Crawford hits the nail on the head:
When the billion-dollar tax break for corporations was being debated in the Senate in 2005, Casey Cagle, then a senator from Gainesville, averred, “It’s pro-jobs legislation. It will ensure we have jobs for the future.”
“It’s about jobs, jobs and jobs,” said Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah.
Funny thing. All the new jobs that were supposedly going to be created from this gusher of business tax breaks don’t seem to have materialized.
We have continued to suffer higher than average unemployment since 2005, culminating last month when the jobless rate hit the highest level ever in Georgia at 9.3 percent. How could that be happening if all of those business tax cuts were creating so many jobs?
…
Don’t get me wrong. For the entities who get them, tax cuts are a wonderful thing. I’d love to get a business tax break myself, but I can’t afford to hire lobbyists to demand one from the legislature.
Let’s be honest, however, about what these tax cuts are: a financial gift to whoever happens to receive them. Business tax breaks are not going to create jobs and it’s time that legislators quit using that as an excuse for passing them.
(H/T to Andre at Peach Pundit)
Think of the Urban Explorer’s Handbook as the ultimate guide for vacationing in your own city. Can’t afford the South of France? (Um, who can?) Bummed about missing out on skiing the Rockies, sunning in SoCal, vineyard-hopping in Napa? Screw it. You can spend a sunny afternoon in Decatur for a gazillionth of the cost! Venturing along Buford Highway is almost as good as traipsing through Vietnam (or Thailand or Peru or Mexico)! Cabbagetown is Atlanta’s own little slice of Bohemia!
Crack open this year’s issue to find six-hour itineraries for each of your favorite neighborhoods highlighting brand new hot spots, quirky, off-the-beaten-track treasures, and “Don’t Miss” destinations and events. Since there’s only so much we can squeeze into print, the Urban Explorer website features even more neighborhoods jam-packed with a plethora of listings to help you plan a mini vacation in your own back yard. The best restaurants? Check. Eclectic shopping destinations? You got it. Galleries to get your art fix? Of course!
Grab your travel buddy, fill your canteens and dust off that vintage Polaroid. It’s time to explore Atlanta.
A tipster who’s at the Central Atlanta Progress annual meeting sends word that the winning design for the Center for Civil and Human Rights is…
Freelon Group of Durham, N.C. and HOK of Atlanta.
According to this design summary, the museum’s two interlocking buildings serve as a metaphor for Civil Rights marchers. The Rev. Martin Luther King’s collection will be housed in the musem and face the downtown skyline. More details to come. To view a few more sketches of the design and read comments, check out CCHR’s site.
UPDATE: More details about the announcement and museum timeline after the jump.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
1) Mark Street in Person explores the urban film landscape at Eyedrum.
2) The Agnes Scott College Writers’ Festival continues with a joint reading by Anita Desai and Junot Diaz.
3) Kraak & Smaak play Drunken Unicorn.
4) Black Voices: The Hidden Bruises opens at Clark Atlanta University.
5) Charis Circle hosts a free screening and discussion of PBS’ Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?
(Photo courtesy Mark Street)
“Repent! Repent!” Shouting these words Prophet Love seemingly rose from the
dead this afternoon at Last Chance Church on Love Street in southwest Atlanta. Staging what he called a “casket demonstration,” Prophet Love presented his own funeral in hopes of saving people from the depths of hell.
“If we continue with our wrongdoing, heaven will not be our home,” he preached while sitting up in a coffin in which he had laid still for over an hour. The idea came to him to do the half funeral, half performance art after his wife and son refused his request to be cremated upon his death. “So I said I will just do my funeral myself,” Love explained.
“Its strange,” said Missionary Forte, one of five other people sitting in the church during the mock open-casket viewing.
“Its unique,” added Barbara Phillips, who says Prophet Love saved her years ago. “It demonstrates that we are all going to go through this and we better get our lives right.”
Prophet Love described lying in the coffin as “not feeling much different then laying in bed.”
“Death is inevitable,” Love said. “Be ready to meet God, repent for your wrongdoing, you know when you are doing right and wrong. There is no water in hell — hell is real. The majority of people will end up in hell.”
View more photos of Prophet Love’s casket demonstration.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
My buddies and I have been considering (while drinking) the idea of becoming “airship pilots.” I put this in quotation marks because we cannot find any information on how this (possibly fictitious) profession could be pursued. We have looked into both purchasing an airship and gaining the credentials to pilot one. We cannot find any information beyond stuff about owning amateur hot air balloons. We are frustrated (and possibly drunk) and desperately need to know a few things only you can answer. First, how do you obtain pilot status for an airship? And second, how can we buy our own airship, zeppelin, or dirigible?
— THE THREE “AIRSHIP CAPTAINS”
Fictitious? What makes you think airship piloting is fictitious? You think those are monkeys flying the Goodyear blimp? In fact, an entire federal department, the Federal Aviation Administration, is charged with making sure airships and other airborne craft are operated by qualified personnel, as opposed to, no offense, a bunch of drunks. If you still want to do this once you sober up, here’s how.
Continue reading Straight Dope.
(Illustration by Slug Signorino)
This morning’s announcement that the AJC is offering a third round of buyouts came as something of a relief to many among the paper’s beleaguered editorial staff. There’s only so long you can show up for work not knowing if you’re going to be canned that day before you start feeling a little stressed.
Senior writers and editors who were already convinced there was a pink sheet with their name on it are, we’re told, generally pleased to find out they’ve got another chance to get out with a decent severance package. In fact, some employees have already handed in their completed buyout applications and are waiting to be told when is their last day on the job.
The deal on the table is the same as last time: two week’s pay for every year of employment. But the number of bodies to be cleared out is higher than past downsizings. The stated goal is to cut the editorial payroll – currently 323 positions – by about 90. But we’re told that’s an estimate based on the total salary dollars the honchos are looking to save. That figure hasn’t been released.
How do you brand endless war?
>> Obama held another lecture-intensive primetime news conference, attempting to inspire confidence in a nation of critics.
>> Home sellers are angry that buyers are “lowballing” them, also known as offering to pay the homes’ real worth. Not the real estate-bubble inducing fantasy price based on speculation and high hopes.
>> ATLANTA IS FULL STEAM AHEAD: Things to be happy about… um, this?
>> Things that don’t sound right — “stress-management classes surrounded by concrete blast walls.” And military officials are confused as to why suicide is a huge problem for American troops?
>> UPRISING: Down with parking meters!
>> Gay advocates think New England could be a “marriage equality zone” by 2012.
>> SPEECHWRITING SPECIFICS: The War on Terror is in death throes. Make way for the Overseas Contingency Operation.
(Photo by Andisheh Nouraee)
After weeks of rumors, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this morning announced that it plans to cut 30 percent of its full-time newsroom staff. It will be the third and largest round of job cuts since 2007 to hit metro Atlanta’s largest daily newspaper. Effective April 26, the AJC will also stop distribution to seven outlying counties, reducing its total distribution area to 20 counties in the metro region.
From a staff report:
The AJC’s news staff will drop to about 230 full-time positions, down from about 323 currently. Staff members with five or more years with the company will be offered voluntary buyouts, with layoffs to follow if fewer than about 90 apply, the company said.
Most of the news staff cuts “will be in production and management, allowing us to keep as many news reporters as possible,” AJC and ajc.com editor Julia Wallace said.
The cuts are expected to be completed in May.
The company laid off 48 part-time news staffers Tuesday and announced the full-time cuts Wednesday morning.
In 2006, full-time newsroom staff numbered about 500.
(UPDATE): Rumored counties dropped from distribution: Barrow, Bibb, Clarke, Houston, Monroe, Oconee, Putnam.
More to come.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
1) Rocksploitation plays the Star Bar.
2) 26 Miles opens at the Alliance Theatre.
3) Medications play 529.
4) Barry Strauss discusses The Spartacus War at the Atlanta History Center.
5) Emory’s Department of Film Studies hosts a free screening of Czech new wave film Lasky Jedne Plavovlasky.
(Photo by Jennifer Boxley)
