Fresh Loaf

Despite his indelible association with the punk movement, rock filmmaker Julien Temple didn’t become friends with Joe Strummer until the final years of the Clash co-founder, who died in 2002 at age 50. Temple’s documentary, Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, deftly chronicles Strummer’s life, giving equal weight to the wilderness years that followed the Clash’s breakup in the 1980s. They shared a love of the Glastonbury festival, chronicled in Temple’s recent documentary.

Film critic Curt Holman has written insightful reviews of both The Future Is Unwritten (opening today, Nov. 9, at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema) and Glastonbury. I recently got a chance to interview Temple (The Filth and the Fury) and discuss his latest work and the challenge of making a compelling rock biography.

Also, feel free to check out my review of Pat Gilbert’s excellent Clash bio, Passion Is a Fashion: The Real Story of the Clash, while I was at Gambit Weekly in New Orleans.

Note: This really is just a snippet of a 25-minute interview. Send your comments if you’d like to hear more. Be glad to edit up another, extended version for you Clash fans. Also, just for the record, for a man who’s pretty much a legend unto himself, Temple’s incredibly accessible and engaging and didn’t seem to snicker too loudly when I confessed to being a Clash fan. (Talk about your Chris Farley moments.)

David Lee Simmons interviews Julien Temple - Download

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(photo © 1995 Universal Pictures)

Remember that creepy scene in Casino where Sharon Stone is slithering all over Joe Pesci when she can’t get what she wants from Robert De Niro?

“I need a new sponsor, Nicky,” she coos through her tears. “I do. I need a new sponsor.”

Well, not only are we welcoming back one of last year’s sponsors, the Chattahoochee Review, which is helping pick up the tab, but also Café Intermezzo. Welcome back and aboard, respectively!

This is also a chance to remind all creative writers throughout the state of Georgia that the deadline for this year’s Fiction Contest is 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 21. (No, not next Wednesday; the one after that.)

This year’s theme is “Scratch,” no matter how you see it. Chicken scratch. Old Scratch. Scratch as money. Scratch that itch. Speaking of which, scratch that itch, get pen to paper and send it on in.

Here are the details.

Also, feel free to check out last year’s winning entries.

Write on.

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Forgive us for dragging our heels a bit around here at CL, but at last we’re ready to announce our annual Fiction Contest. This year’s theme, “Scratch,” follows in our now-seven-year tradition of allowing Georgia writers a chance to take one simple word and really run with it — all the way to a 3,000-word short story that will have our readers green with envy.

The rules (posted below) are pretty simple, with the main requirement being a Georgia resident’s ability to weave the word “scratch” (or certainly the idea of the word) into a compelling, original narrative. It could be scratch as money, as the dreaded play in a game of pool, as getting eliminated, taking care of that itch. A metaphor. A vivid image. As the writing coaches demand: Never bore.

Deadline is 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 21 (firm!). Winners will be chosen in December by a panel of celebrity judges from the literary community, and their selections will be published in the Jan. 10, 2008, issue of Creative Loafing and celebrated at a party that week at Eyedrum.

To submit your story, simply visit atlanta.creativeloafing.com/fiction, fill out the form and include all your relevant information (name, address, phone number).

Good luck, and don’t forget to scratch that itch.

Also don’t forget to check out last year’s winning entries!

Fiction contest rules:
1) Stories must reference the “Scratch” theme in some fashion, even tangentially. Originality counts.

2) Writers must be Georgia residents.

3) Stories must be no more than 3,000 words.

4) Three winners will appear in the Jan. 10 issue of Creative Loafing.

5) If entry is being submitted via snail mail, send one copy of a typed, double-spaced, unpublished manuscript. List your name, address, phone number, e-mail address and title of the story on the cover page only. Please staple all pages together. Be prepared to submit the story electronically if chosen for publication.

6) One story per entrant.

7) Judges will make their decision based on originality, style and literary quality.

8) Manuscripts must be the original work of the entrant, unpublished and not currently under consideration for publication. No excerpts from longer works will be considered, nor will stories previously entered in a CL Fiction Contest.

9) Do not send originals. Entries will not be returned.

10) Staff members of Creative Loafing Inc. and current freelancers are not eligible to enter.

11) The author retains copyright, but Creative Loafing reserves the right to publish entries in both its print and online editions.

12) All entries must be received by 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 21. No exceptions, so don’t ask.

13) Finalists will be contacted by e-mail or phone on or around Dec. 23.

14) No phone calls, please.

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Almost lost in my shuffling through all the two-year-anniversary coverage of Hurricane Katrina was this interesting feature in New Orleans’ Times-Picayune about Glenn Allen, an evacuee minister who decided to stay in Atlanta and start up his own church in the area.

Of course there’s the usual examples of homesickness and the contrasting lifestyles in the two cities. Here’s one of my favorites:

To heighten the contrast, as New Orleans struggles to repopulate, Atlanta recently has passed the 5 million mark with its metro-area population. Much of the increase owes to the constant influx of transplants.

“No one is really from here,” Allen says.

The benefit that derives from that is the stimulation of diversity.

“You have all these different cultures — Latinos, Jamaicans, Nigerians,” he says.

But there is a downside as well: a diluted sense of place. At Thanksgiving last year, Allen and his wife, Carla, entertained 40 of their parishioners in their home — all people who were spending the holidays away from their families. At Christmas, there were even more.

And while he has plenty of genial new friends, he says it’s not the same.

“We’re surrounded by good people, but they’re all new people. I’m used to knowing someone for 20 or 30 years,” he says.

“It’s strange to be brand new. You don’t know who to trust; you don’t know what people’s true intentions are. It’s harder to read people when you’re out of your culture.”

Amen, brother.

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(Photo by David Lee Simmons)

A year ago this time, CL presented coverage of the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, in which I contributed an essay about my move to Atlanta after spending six months in New Orleans after the storm. I also supplied some names of other folks who had moved here, mainly evacuees who stayed, including some friends of mine.

The status of my friends might be microcosmic of New Orleanians as a whole. Three of us have decided to stay in Atlanta, impressed by professional opportunities here. Three decided to return home, while another capitalized on a professional opportunity here to move onward to New York City. And yet another one is still torn between both New Orleans and Atlanta.

In some ways, we all have been, over the past two years, torn between remaining in the city to stay and fight the good fight, others knowing they need to move on with their lives or that living in New Orleans is just too tough an existence. I remember a phone conversation the other night with an old friend in New Orleans, one of those die-hard types who, like me, was gung-ho in coming back from the evacuation, ready to rebuild. His voice on the phone was shaky now. “I just don’t know if I can take it much longer,” he sighed. “The crime, the lack of progress … it’s just so frustrating.” And this from a guy who really was making a difference.

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One of the many Rodney Dangerfields of literature has to be erotica. Maybe it’s because most Americans probably like their sex scenes folded into “regular” literature so that it kind of blindsides them. The stuffier crowd might not like their sex telegraphed by the genre’s name — in your face, so to speak.

(Photo by Erik Kragh)

So be it. If there’s one author of erotica who could use some respect around here, it might just be Polly Frost.

The author e-mailed me awhile back to pitch a review of her latest work, the brazenly titled Deep Inside, with its foreboding subtitle, Ten tantalizing tales of supernatural erotica. By most accounts, the book has been well-received in the erotica world, drawing praise from the website Bookgasm as well as that astute reader of all things pervy, Ron Jeremy.

When I asked her if she was doing any Atlanta appearances to present her work, she said she couldn’t, for the sexy life of her, get a date in this town. And apparently she had a story to tell, which she did in a (solicited) e-mail response to me.

Here’s Polly, in her own, not-so-erotic words…

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One of our veteran music freelancers — whose heart is roughly the same size as his record collection — is trying to help out a friend in need: himself a former CL writer.

Here’s the pitch, from James Kelly:

All-around good guy and former CL music writer Doug Deloach had a recent liver transplant, and while he is recovering nicely he has a slew of bills and financial issues that need to be addressed. In order to help alleviate some of this stress, a big-ass yard sale will be held on Friday, Aug. 10 (9 a.m.-3 p.m.), and Saturday, Aug. 11 (8 a.m.-2 p.m.). The location is 2191 Hosea L. Williams Drive, which is on the corner of Hosea Williams and Rocky Ford in East Atlanta. You can’t miss it.

I’m posting this because I’m sure some of you may know Doug or be familiar with his writing, and also because we have a ton of brand-new, donated cool books and CDs to sell for really low prices. A lot of it is stuff I have never heard of, but folks that are into the indie scene will likely be more familiar with it. Quantity discounts!

There will be a lot of other stuff for sale as well, priced to go! Household goods, odds and ends, some furniture, collectibles, and who knows what else we’ll dig out. So swing by and help out a good fellow, and stock up on the music of the most obscure next big things in the biz.

Thanks.

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To say that I’m more than a little geeked about tonight’s Rebirth Brass Band show at Smith’s Olde Bar is an understatement. It’s not just a chance to get a much needed breath of New Orleans air and put a little boogie in my bones; it’s a chance to revisit a totally different kind of nostalgia.
You see, it was almost exactly nine months ago that, emboldened by a little box in my pocket and a few beers in my gut, I hopped up onstage and proposed to my girlfriend. Having only lived in Atlanta for about seven months, I couldn’t think of anything remotely or familiarly Atlanta-ly romantic to pop the question. I needed a setting. I needed a mood. I needed familiarity. I needed a little bit of New Orleans.
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The name rang a bell and then some. And yet I was stunned that, after living in New Orleans for eight years, I’d never officially met Brandt Blocker, an award-winning musical-theater director in a city that loves the genre. Until now. Turns out Blocker’s been living in Atlanta the past three months, taking over as the artistic and general manager for Atlanta Lyric Theatre.

At the tail end of a lengthy chat to catch up on things New Orleans post-Katrina and Atlanta post-relocation, Blocker invited me to come check out the group’s “Summer Spotlight Cabaret at the Lyric” — a weekly series produced by Susan Atkinson of free (with suggested donations) performances Thursdays at 8 p.m. at the Byers Studio Theatre (see map) to provide a break for the summer heat and keep interest alive until the upcoming fall season.

Considering it offered a chance to kill two birds with one stone — meet someone I should’ve met eight years ago, and take a dip in the waters of Atlanta musical theater — I accepted.
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In some ways, Oliver Morgan was like many of the other evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. Floodwaters from the levee breach in the Industrial Canal engulfed his Lower Ninth Ward home, and so he and his wife, Sylvia, went to stay in Atlanta where two of his five children lived. To Atlantans, he may have been just another evacuee who decided to make the city his new home. They even bought a house.

To New Orleans, he was better-known for his lone but huge 1964 R&B hit, “Who Shot the La La,” a curious take on the then-recent death of another New Orleans R&B star, Lawrence “Prince La La” Nelson. (Nelson actually died of a drug overdose, not a gunshot wound, but the song turns the death into a mystery.) Morgan himself passed away July 31 at the age of 74.

Morgan never matched the success of “Who Shot the La La,” a jaunty, syncopated tune filled with loads of local references but with a melody so catchy it became a favorite during Mardi Gras. He also became a fixture at Jazz Fest, often parading around in the New Orleans “second line” style, waving an umbrella and leading the crowd in a line.

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Swear ta God, I could just spend my entire day surfing around Rotten Tomatoes (wait, don’t I do that already), but a recent link really has me transfixed. It’s a simple item, really, and indicative of the site’s latest trend toward All Things List.

But considering we’re past the midway point of 2007, it’s a gas to check out the film review site’s “Mid-Year Report,” counting down the 25 best reviewed movies, as well as the 10 worst.

Some interesting tidbits:

• 14 out of the 25 are American-made films
• All but two (The Italian, Starter for 10) have screened in Atlanta. Starter for 10 just came out on DVD last week.
• The worst-reviewed film, Because I Said So, clocked in at a lowly 5 percent on the Tomatometer.
• The No. 1 pick, Ratatouille, rocks so hard it’s ridiculous.

Well done, critics — including our own film critics, Felicia Feaster and Curt Holman. Click on these movie titles to see their reviews.

What’s your favorite movie this year?

25) Paris Je T’aime
24) Live Free or Die Hard
23) Into Great Silence
22) Starter for 10
21) God Grew Tired of Us
20) An Unreasonable Man
19) Grindhouse
18) After the Wedding
17) The Namesake
16) Bridge to Terabithia
15) Breach
14) Red Road
13) The Hoax
12) The Italian
11) The Wind That Shakes the Barley
10) The Lookout
9) Waitress
8) Zodiac
7) The Host
6) Sicko
5) Hot Fuzz
4) Knocked Up
3) Once
2) Away From Her
1) Ratatouille

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In what amounts to a serious shakeup in its programming, WABE-FM (90.1)’s insertion of the first-rate news show “The World” caused quite the ripple effect starting today. The one-hour news show from Public Radio International, a co-op effort by the BBC and Boston’s WGBH-FM, slid into the 3-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday slot— thereby bumping talk show “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross later to 7 p.m. weekdays.

That’s where the real ripples occurred, because WABE previously had a different show for each weekday’s 7 p.m. time slot. That forced the following changes:

• “Between the Lines,” the locally produced literary show hosted by Valerie Jackson, moved to 7 p.m. Friday.
• “The Infinite Mind,” the syndicated human-behavior program, moves to 7-8 a.m. Saturday as a lead-in to “Saturday Weekend Edition.”
• “Speaking of Faith,” Krista Tippett’s syndicated program on faith, religion and spirituality, moves to 7-8 a.m. Sunday as a lead-in to “Sunday Weekend Edition.”
• “City Arts and Lectures,” the syndicated arts program hosted by actress Linda Hunt, moves to WABE’s HD Radio News & Information Channel (90.1-3) at 3 p.m. Sunday. It will be the only show bumped entirely off the regular radio-dial WABE programming.

With all due respect to Hunt, “City Arts and Lectures” is no great loss. The big trade-off, obviously, is quantity for quality. What evening listeners lose in the variety of so many different quality shows is the more logical placement of the popular and critically acclaimed “Fresh Air” in such a powerful evening slot where it can gain better ratings momentum.

Plus, the addition of “The World” helps deliver high-quality international news programming for WABE at a time when everyone seems to be screaming about keeping everything local. It’s a nice addition.

Check out podcast interviews with Terry Gross and Krista Tippett previously in Creative Loafing, as well as a print interview I did with Gross awhile back.

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Well, it was only a matter of time before Julia Roberts, the pride of Smyrna, would get the Big Nod from American Cinematheque, which recognizes achievement in filmmaking long before Hollywood types are too old to appreciate them. Last year Roberts handed off the award to George Clooney at the 21st annual ceremony; fellow box-office/cri