PopSmart

When he’s not spoofing the headlines and tweaking the noses of presidential aspirants, “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart hits the stage to … well, spoof the headlines and tweak the noses of presidential candidates live and in person. AN EVENING WITH JON STEWART should remind fans that before he changed the face of media and political satire, Stewart was one stand-up guy (as in comedian). The co-author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling 2005 America (The Book), which won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album for its audio version, has won 10 Emmys for his work on the show. Stewart will perform two shows Sat., MAY 10. $47-$77. 7:30 and 10 p.m. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway. 770-916-2800. www.cobbenergycentre.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

(Photo by Frank Ockenfels)

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1) Robert Spano (pictured) conducts the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park Saturday.

2) Grammy Award-winning Indian classical musician Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt performs on mohan veena (modified guitar) with Shubhen Chatterjee on tabla Saturday at Georgia Tech’s Le Craw Auditorium.

3) Choose from a slew of Mother’s Day brunch events at local restaurants Sunday, including Shaun’s, the Food Studio and Ritz-Carlton Buckhead.

4) Sweet Auburn Springfest brings music and more to Sweet Auburn Historic District Saturday and Sunday.

5) Young Blood Gallery celebrates its reopening in Virginia-Highland Saturday with a reception for In Between the Rain by Valerie Taylor and Jessica Gonacha.

(Photo Andrew Eccles)

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Reviewed here, the new Speed Racer film is so frenetic, freakily colored and aggressively fake, you’ll watch the first seven minutes convinced that someone has laced your popcorn with a powerful hallucinogen. There’s a silver lining to Speed Racer’s psychedelic vomit, however: the film has inspired our nation’s film critics to some of their most creative turns of phrase in years. Who will win the race to write the best, nastiest quip?

Stephen Colbert of “The Colbert Report” got the week off to an impressive start:

“Put 80 pounds of fireworks into an industrial dryer, crawl right in there with them, turn it on and then light the fuse. It’ll give you a good idea of the visual onslaught you’ll be enduring.”

The New York Times’ A.O. Scott concedes:

Yes, the colors are hot, the set design is cool, and the sidekick chimpanzee is cute, but the action sequences — the hyperreal video-game kineticism on which the Wachowskis’ reputation for virtuosity has rested — are chaotic and nonsensical. The sleek computer-animated racecars flip, jump and slide from side to side, but few of their feats elicit anything like the amazement or surprise of, say, watching moderately skilled teenage skateboarders in a parking lot.

MSNBC’s Alonso Duralde suggests:

“Imagine someone pouring hot, melted Starburst candies into your corneas, and you just begin to approximate the experience of Speed Racer…”

Read the rest of this entry »

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Well, sort of. We culled through our dusty promo closet and dug up some leftover, shrink-wrapped copies of American Pie Presents Beta House DVD released last December. And in an effort to continue our spring-cleaning around here, we’d like to share the last three copies with you, our pervy readers!

Suffice to say that no one on staff reviewed this (final) installment of the American Pie franchise. Critics were less than kind to this one, with one accusing it of being “completely and utterly devoid of anything even resembling competence,” although one kind soul wrote, “In the great tradition of college booze, carefree sex, and gross behavior, Beta House pushes right up against the limits of the genre.” (And yes, this is the “unrated” version. Do with that what you will.)

To win your copy, we offer this challenge: Read Curt Holman’s review of 2003’s American Wedding and name at least TWO actors who did not return from the original cast, and we’ll give a free DVD to the first three people who answer. We’ll even throw in a free copy of Sex and Sensibility: Ten Women Examine the Lunacy of Modern Love … in 200 Cartoons. (Email me at “davidlee.simmons@creativeloafing.com” with your answer.)

We plan to offer up more fun free stuff this summer for our readers, including next week’s 2008 Summer Guide, which among other things will offer tickets to cool events this summer. Stay tuned.

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1) Barbara Archer Gallery hosts an opening reception for A Common Space by Charlotte Foust and Melissa Stern.

2) Writer/director Buddhadev Dasgupta’s Bengalese film The Voyeurs screens as part of the Film Festival of India at the High Museum.

3) Philip Bobbitt discusses his new book on American foreign policy, Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-First Century, at Decatur Library Auditorium.

4) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead opens at the New American Shakespeare Tavern.

5) Grammy-nominated musician Darrell Scott performs at Eddie’s Attic.

(Image Charlotte Foust and Melissa Stern)

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Al Stilo, director of sales & marketing for Lawrenceville’s Aurora Theatre (and a reliably entertaining actor in his own right) sent me an e-mail about Aurora’s season finale, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, which the theater has extended through June 1. Al acknowledged that I tend to favor edgy theatrical fare, but said:

“Edginess is relative however, and I hope that I can tempt you to attend Noises Off by letting you know you will be attending the first production in Aurora Theatre history to feature the f-word. Doesn’t that seem worth the drive?”

Aurora is billing Noises Off as “the greatest farce ever written,” and while that’s a bold statement that encompasses centuries of theater history, I have trouble thinking of a farce that’s better constructed or more ingenious. Famed critic Frank Rich called and said that it “is, was, and probably always will be the funniest play written in my lifetime.” Aurora’s cast includes Megan Hayes (pictured), Robert Egizio and Jeff McKerley, and the combination certainly sounds worth the drive.

Although Frayn is probably best known for Noises Off, two of my favorite Frayn works are a little more scholarly. His cerebral historical drama Copenhagen dramatizes a 1941 meeting with Danish physicist Niels Bohr and his German protege, Werner Heisenberg, and concerns Nazis, atom-smashing and the morality of science in war-time. One of my favorite recent novels is Headlong, Frayn’s hilarious account of a blocked writer who grows obsessed with the possibility that his neighbor unwittingly owns an undiscovered Brueghel painting worth a fortune. It’s the kind of thoughtful and funny book I feel confident recommending to practically anyone.

(Photo courtesy of Aurora Theatre)

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Do you ever think of yourself as actually dead, lying in a box with a lid on it? … Even taking into account the fact that you’re dead, it isn’t a pleasant thought. Especially if you’re dead, really … ask yourself, if I asked you straight off – I’m going to stuff you in this box now, would you rather be alive or dead? Naturally, you’d prefer to be alive. Life in a box is better than no life at all. I expect. You’d have a chance at least. You could lie there thinking – well, at least I’m not dead!

– From Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, playing May 9-June 1 at the Shakespeare Tavern and starring Nicholas Faircloth, Paul McClain and Paul Hester

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R. Land is joining seven other artists for Art Created for Pirates by Pirates, an exhibit that opened at the Plaza Theatre May 6.

Eyeball Skeleton: “As preteen rockers from Baltimore, these little kids’ first record, No. 1, is one of my favorite rock albums of this century.”

Shut Up Little Man!, Raymond and Peter: “Although they’ve been dead for years, recordings of their profane, drunken rants re-emerge every month or so from my CD pile and my heart is filled with the old sweet sounds of the family I never had.”

Continue reading Culture Surfing.

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Despite the popularity of “The Daily Show” and his 2004 book, America (The Book), as well as the excitement of the presidential campaign, Jon Stewart still likes to take his act on the road from time to time to sharpen his stand-up chops. Stewart will perform two shows (7:30 and 10 p.m.) Saturday, May 10, at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.

Continue reading Speakeasy.

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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s own Chanté Lagon and David Lee Simmons chatting about Chapter 27 starring Jared Leto and Then She Found Me starring Helen Hunt.

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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