(Image courtesy Meshakai Wolf)

Which is unfortunate, because Wolf had kindly taken the time to explain the gallery’s decision to discontinue the visual-arts component, which concludes with Saturday’s fourth annual Vinyl Show of artistically rendered records.

When I offered Wolf the opportunity to help me clarify the comment, he offered this:

Atlanta is in a challenging arts situation right now. There is little public or private funding that is being distributed to local artists. The recent Idea Capital grant, which awarded one artist grant of $500, is a move in the right direction. Anyone who has been following the situation with the Percent for Arts knows that the City of Atlanta and the mayor have been failing the arts community, so to make up for this, the private community needs to step up and fill the holes.

For the record, the gallery will continue to run its record label, with some live-music events, as well as its film series “Cinemama!”

(Image courtesy Meshakai Wolf)

Here’s the full press release, courtesy the Atlanta-based cable network’s media-relations department:

Golden Globe winner Scott Bakula (”Quantum Leap”) has signed to join Ray Romano and Andre Braugher in TNT’s new character-driven drama pilot “Men of a Certain Age” a wry look at what it means to be a guy approaching mid-life while also exploring the unique bonds of male friendship. The show follows three guys who have been best friends since college. Now in their 40s, they’re finding that life is indeed, as John Lennon once said, “what happens when you’re making other plans.”

Bakula will play Terry, a handsome, intelligent but struggling-to-make-it actor. His character rounds out the trio that also includes Joe (Romano), a slightly neurotic divorced father of two who had dreams of being a professional golfer but instead owns and runs a party store, and Owen (Braugher), an overstressed African-American husband and father who is a car salesman at his dad’s dealership.

Bakula’s long list of credits includes the acclaimed sci-fi series “Quantum Leap,” for which he won a Golden Globe, and “Enterprise,” the latest entry in the Star Trek universe. He has also played recurring characters on “Murphy Brown” and “The New Adventures of Old Christine.” Bakula’s films include American Beauty, Life as a House and Major League: Back to the Minors. An accomplished musical performer, he has starred in productions of Shenandoah, Three Men Naked from the Waist Down, Romance/Romance, earning a Tony nomination for the latter.

In addition, two-time Emmy winner Scott Winant has signed on to direct the pilot. Winant’s extensive credits include such series as “Huff,” “Canivale,” “Californication” and “thirtysomething.”

“Men of a Certain Age” comes to TNT from Emmy winners Romano and Mike Royce. Romano wrote the pilot script with Royce, who also serves as show runner. The pair are executive-producing the project with Rory Rosegarten and Cary Hoffman.

(Image courtesy Amazon.com)

Here’s a favorite “online-only” back-and-forth that didn’t make it in the print version:

According to Wikipedia, and Wikipedia is never wrong: “The Westminster Schools is a private secondary school in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1951, Westminster has the largest endowment of any non-boarding secondary school in the United States.[1] The school’s expressed mission is ‘to develop the whole person for college and for life through excellent education.’” You now work for “The Daily Show.” Would you call yourself a ‘riches-to-rags’ story, then?
I’d say yes. All I can hope is that my story will inspire millions of would-be immigrants to give up and just stay in their country of origin.

And for those who are curious about Kutner’s work with the Shushan Channel, here’s a pee-in-pants promo for Jewno, their hilarious satire of Juno. Kudos for them to con J.K. Simmons (one of my fave character actors) into reprising his role as the dad.

(Photo courtesy Rob Kutner)

Atlanta has a pretty impressive punk-rock heritage that was nurtured in the Little Five Points scene of the 1980s and beyond, so it will be interesting to see what happens when children of parent punk-rockers (should they attend) come together over the next week and show their stuff on Saturday, July 19.

Local founder and director Stacey Singer should know; the former bassist for My Siamese Self and publicist for Indigo Girl Amy Ray’s Daemon Records, Singer volunteered at Girls Rock! camps in Portland, Ore., and Murfreesboro, Tenn. She also wrote her master’s thesis on the subject. “You’d be surprised what girls can accomplish with a little encouragement. When you show them that they can, they believe it and go for it,” Singer said in a press release. “It’s an amazing experience to see little girls on stage playing instruments as big as they are. And they don’t suck. … Adult musicians could learn a thing or two from girls’ rock camp campers.”

Girls’ Rock Camp (ATL) hopes to build on next week’s finale, having applied for nonprofit status with future programs in development, including Ladies’ Rock weekend workshops and after-school rehearsal spaces and band mentoring.

(Photo by Nicole Weingart)

(Photo by Michael Wilson)

Two film fans in Argentina uncovered the fragile footage in a small museum, earlier this year — over eight decades after Fritz Lang’s dystopian classic first began to shed scenes.
With its cold, monumental vision of mechanized society, Metropolis forged a template for generations of science fiction cinema, and its enduring influence has been cited on films from Blade Runner to Fahrenheit 451 and Star Wars.
“We were overjoyed when we heard about the find,” Helmut Possmann, head of the foundation which owns the rights to the film, the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, told Reuters.
“We no longer believed we’d see this. Time and again we had had calls about supposed footage but were disappointed.”

Unfortunately, the Reuters report says, there still might be about five minutes missing, but still, we’re talking as complete a version as we can hope for — eight decades after its release.

Here’s the opening, just to get us all excited. Paging Kino!

This chilling nonfiction piece offers some additional facts that writer-director Kimberly Peirce wasn’t able to work into Boys Don’t Cry. Perhaps most shockingly, we learn that a third person was murdered alongside Brandon and his friend Lisa Lambert: Philip Devine, a 22-year-old black male who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

(Photo courtesy Docurama Films)

Also, check out Cliff Bostock’s excellent tribute to Hunter S. Thompson on the occasion of the journalist’s passing back in 2005, in his “Headcase” column. And here’s the official trailer …

(Photo courtesy Magnolia Pictures)