PopSmart

James Taylor

(Dan Borris)

1) James Taylor closes up shop with a third and final show at Chastain Park Amphitheatre.

2) Atlanta Braves battle the Arizona Diamondbacks at Turner Field.

3) Kick it old-school with Steve Miller Band and Joe Cocker at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre.

4) New York City performer Darlinda Just Darlinda appears at the MondoFab Speakeasy Brunch at Ria’s Bluebird as part of MondoHomo 2008.

5) The Sword plays at Lenny’s Bar with Torche and Stinking Lizaveta.

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Atlanta Jazz Fest

(Robb Cohen)

1) Atlanta Jazz Festival invades Woodruff Park.

2) Decatur Arts Festival continues in Decatur Square with music, a juried artists market, fine arts exhibition and more.

3) Comedian Ben Lerman performs his Ukelear Meltdown Tour at Eyedrum Music & Art Gallery, as part of the MondoHomo Dirty South Festival.

4) The 14th Street Playhouse stages two showings of The Coloring Book: Introducing the Hemphill Kids.

5) Atlanta Cyclorama Civil War Museum commemorates our servicemen and -women in a special Memorial Day weekend tribute in Grant Park.

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Sure, Creative Loafing’s got desks of award-winning designers, but we also know that Atlanta’s got talent.

So, we’re asking Georgia students to submit their cover designs for CL’s 2008 College Guide: The Student Body Handbook.

We’re taking the phrase “student body” literally and figuratively this year, and providing a guide for students’ heads (academics), hearts (activism), stomachs (food and drink), arms and legs (partying), and feet (moving about Atlanta and on from college).

The first-place winner receives $200 cash and prizes.

Start sketching; the deadline is midnight, Tues., July 1.

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FLEE TO THE CLEVE: Clevelander Bigg Nugg performs at Lenny’s Bar Saturday night.

(Courtesy MondoHomo)

1) MondoHomo Dirty South festivities continue at various metro locations.

2) Comedy troupe Kids in the Hall return from a six-year hiatus to perform at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.

3) Star Bar’s annual Bubbapalooza rages on for its final night.

4) “Democracy Now!” host and creator Amy Goodman speaks at the Birdblast, a 40-year anniversary party for the Great Speckled Bird, at B-Complex Saturday afternoon.

5) Asleep at the Wheel performs at Variety Playhouse Saturday night.

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Earlier this week I saw Flight of the Red Balloon, Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien’s serene new art-house film that opens at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema on May 30. Partly the film pays homage to Albert Lamorisse’s “The Red Balloon,”a classic French film that’s about 34 dialogue-free minutes and is (or at least used to be) a perennial film for elementary, middle and high schoolers. Earlier this month, Slate’s David Haglund wrote an appreciation of both films that posed the question “Do boys today still have time for red balloons?”

I saw Flight of the Red Balloon on Wednesday, then checked “The Red Balloon” out of the library and watched it with my daughter on Thursday. (As far as she’s concerned, it still holds up.) I must confess that I had trouble watching both films without being reminded of “Billy’s Balloon,” a cartoon by the brilliantly twisted Don Hertzfeldt. I suppose that this is technically work safe, but be warned that it’s one of the absolutely darkest pieces of dark comedy that I’ve ever seen:

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The Kids in the Hall’s Mark McKinney has a second claim to fame, in addition to co-founding the hilarious sketch comedy troupe (which plays at the Cobb Energy Centre on Saturday, May 24). McKinney also co-created and co-starred in “Slings and Arrows,” a Canadian comedy series set at the fictional New Burbage Shakespeare Festival.

“Slings & Arrows” stars Paul Gross of “Due South” as a passionate but mentally unbalanced theater director who takes over as New Burbage’s artistic director following the untimely death of his mentor (Stephen Ouimette). The first of the show’s three six-episode seasons surrounds a New Burbage production of Hamlet, and the Shakespearean play provides a parallel to the backstage goings on (which include the director being haunted by his mentor’s ghost). McKinney plays the frantic, money-scrounging general manager, and the cast also includes Martha Burns and recurring appearances from Colm Feore, Don McKellar, Rachel McAdams and Sarah Polley. The dark humor echoes “Six Feet Under,” while the live-theater adrenalin and slapstick suggest what Aaron Sorkin may have been going for with “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.”

It’s hard to understate just how much theater people love “Slings and Arrows.” Given that Atlanta has two Shakespeare-based playhouses, Georgia Shakespeare and The New American Shakespeare Tavern, “Slings & Arrows” probably hits even closer to home here than in other communities. A few weeks ago, I emailed some friends and acquaintances whom I suspected could loan me a copy of the show, and heard back from Lee Nowell, an actress/playwright/director married to Phillip DePoy. Her unsolicited remarks about the show are worth quoting in full:

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Artist Charles Freeman, better known as Brother Boko, rescues fluorescent paint and black light from the dustbin of nostalgia in Southwest Arts Center’s presentation of THE MYSTERY & MAGIC OF THE CIRCLE MAKERS, opening Fri., MAY 23. Boko is a Left Coast transplant best known for several murals throughout the L.A. area. He uses the bright fluorescent hues to render the mysterious geometric forms that have appeared in crop formations around the world on 3- and 4-foot circular canvases. As if the black light weren’t enough to encourage mass tweakage, 3-D glasses will also be available to up the psychedelic ante. Through June 20. Free. Opening reception, 7 p.m.; Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-6 p.m. 915 New Hope Road. 404-505-3220. www.fultonarts.org.

— By Cinque Hicks

(Photo “Milk Hill,” 2001/Photo Steve Alexander)

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“Tamara,” 2007

1) Body/Text Project: Photos by Darren Saravis continues at Composition Gallery.

2) She Wants Revenge, Be Your Own Pet and the Virgin Switches perform at Variety Playhouse.

3) Cineprov! presents Sex in the City at Relapse Theatre.

4) Tim’m West hosts MondoHomo Hip-Hop at Lenny’s Bar.

5) The Roots and Erykah Badu perform at the Fox Theatre.

(Photo by Darren Saravis)

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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is an affectionate throwback to the thrill-a-minute cliffhangers of the “early period” Steven Spielberg. It offers more charm and heart than we usually get in our summer movies, but I confess that I now prefer “late period” Spielberg instead.

At 62 years old, Spielberg may not be old enough to have a “late” period, but you can definitely divide his body of work into three distinct phases. The early, “wunderkind” period featured his masterpieces of pop entertainment that defined the movie blockbuster as we now know it: Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, etc. Someone (I forget who) aptly compared him to a perfect amalgam of Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney, and this year’s Screen on the Green pays tribute to early Spielberg by showing Jaws on May 29 and E.T. on June 19.

After Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Spielberg conspicuously shifted gears, and seemed bent on making “grown-up,” prestige movies — frequently historical epics with literary credentials, which just happen to be the kind of movies that usually win Oscars. His middle period includes The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, Schindler’s List and Amistad, along with early-period flashbacks like the first two Jurassic Park movies. After winning his second Best Director Oscar with Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg finally earned critical acclaim and film industry validation for so-called serious films to match his commercial success with entertainments. What do you do when you have nothing left to prove?

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Today’s Air Loaf features CL’s own Chanté LaGon and Curt Holman chatting about Out of Hand Theater’s Schreibstück.

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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