PopSmart

1) Meghan Coffee performs at Smith’s Olde Bar.

2) Healthcare NOW rallies against for-profit health insurance companies outside the Buckhead office of Blue Cross Blue Shield.

3) Dr. Lemoine D. Pierce discusses and signs copies of her book, George Washington Carver: Scientist, Artist and Musician, at Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History.

4) Documentary photographer Erin Ashford showcases her new mixed-media work in Manipulations at P’Cheen.

5) Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta’s Jewtopia opens at 14th Street Playhouse.

(Photo by Zack Arias)

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But her long legs live on in dance.Charisse, called “beautiful dynamite” by occasional dancing partner Fred Astaire, was best known as the slinky love interest in the “Broadway Melody Ballet” sequence in Singin’ in the Rain, but she cut many more rugs than that. Here she is dancing in silk stockings in Silk Stockings.

If I could, I’d post the whole movie as a tribute, if only to see her in the upbeat Commie number “The Red Blues,” or to hear her say, “Where is the little comrades’ room?” when she has to powder her nose. She was a beautiful and incredible dancer, and she has no contemporary equal. She will be missed. UPDATE:Turner Classic Movies will honor Charisse with a screening of three of her films on Friday, June 27: 1952’s Singin’ in the Rain (8 p.m.); 1953’s The Band Wagon (10 p.m.), directed by Vincente Minnelli and co-starring Fred Astaire; and 1957’s Silk Stockings, the popular musical remake of Ninotchka that also features Astaire. “Cyd Charisse was one of the few who managed to have it all: a great career, a place in movie history, respect from her peers and a husband who adored her,” TCM host Robert Osborne said in a press release. “My last time seeing her just a few months ago in New York said it all, with photographers snapping pictures of the movie star while she smiled brightly on the arm of her husband of 60 years, Tony Martin.”

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The Fox Theatre is planning a new initiative intended to assist other Georgia theaters in the preservation of their spaces. This initiative, the Fox Theatre Institute, will be presented on July 18 at their conference, “Thinking Outside the Fox,” with the League of Historic American Theaters.

According to the Fox Theatre Institute, there are an estimated 260 historic theaters operating in Georgia today (114 have been demolished in the past 58 years). For the past year, the Fox Theatre Institute has been working with 25 of these theaters, in various cities — from Dahlonega to Brunswick — all across the state.

“The Fox Theatre’s story of survival and success is the catalyst for this movement,” Adina Alford, Fox Theatre’s general manager, said in a press release. “We want to share the knowledge that successful restorations of cultural attractions have the potential to inspire communities and positively effect their cultural landscape. It’s our goal to create thriving communities in cities throughout Georgia and the Southeast.”

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While digging around for my recent post on the True Colors Tour, which concludes tonight at Chastain Park, I learned that wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper explained what happened when he (accidentally?) kicked True Colors headliner Cyndi Lauper back in 1985 when she was into the whole Wrestlemania scene. The cool thing is that Piper is seen telling the story at another Atlanta event: the annual International GI Joe Collectors Convention.

It takes awhile for Piper to get to the Lauper incident, but everything’s hilarious …

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As tactless and morbid as it might sound, I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who in just a couple days grew weary (and a bit wary) of the media, ahem, overkill coverage of Tim Russert’s death. But here comes Slate’s Jack Shafer, doing the dirty work and calling out the media (print and electronic) for its incessant coverage of Russert’s untimely passing last Friday due to a heart attack. Here’s Shafer’s most astute observation …

I wonder whether the media grievers gave a moment of thought to how this Russert torrent they produced played with viewers and readers. Did the grievers really think Russert was so important, so vital to the nation’s course, and such an elevated human being that he deserved hour upon hour of tribute?

There’s also nice pulled quotes from the New York Times‘ Mike Liebovich’s remembrance, which fairly and objectively points out some of Russert’s possible flaws, including my favorite: “Mr. Russert liked to seem sheepishly above-it-all, but was also as acutely status-conscious, befitting the local water.”

What irked me most about Russert was what felt like more than a newsman’s obsession with politics as gamesmanship (a flaw he shared with another former political operative, George Stephanopoulos). His Red State/Blue State carping during the 2002 mid-term elections practically helped make the terms mainstream, which is a shame considering how that kind of jargon has dumbed us all down.

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You’ll have to forgive me if I wax a little nostalgic after watching the True Colors Tour’s opener of a two-night stand last night at Chastain Park. We all have our B-52’s stories to tell around here, so I’m sure hearing one from someone who didn’t live in Atlanta until that last two years probably won’t dazzle anyone. But they’re fun to tell anyway. But first, about last night … well, before that, here’s the True Colors credo, as pulled from its site …

The goal of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) equality is at the heart of True Colors. From day one, the tour has sought to raise awareness about the discrimination the GLBT community still faces and raise significant funds for the organizations that work everyday on their behalf. This year, the True Colors Fund of Stonewall Community Foundation has been created to enable increased and efficient fundraising for the tour’s national non-profit partners through various revenue sources.

The brainchild of the Human Rights Campaign and the tour’s headliner, Cyndi Lauper, the True Colors is an entertaining mix of music, comedy and wee bit of get-out-the-boat speechifying. And what was most impressive about the proceedings was how little pontificating was done, even considering comedian Rosie O’Donnell’s sour-grapes rant on her tenure on “The View.” Actually, Rosie was quite funny and more than a little melancholic as she recalled her late mother, and how the more things change, the more they stay the same. Her point: Teach your children well. Point taken, Rosie, who’s got four kids and brought at least some of them along for the ride. But she was at her funniest when she grabbed a chunk of her own flab in a righteous display of healthy body self-image and yelled to an absent Donald Trump: “I’m gonna rub some of this on his orange, bald head. Here, ya prick!” And if the crowd still didn’t dig her plus-size sexiness, she recalled how, when in Mexico, she was all the rage with the menfolk, one of whom explained to her, “Bone is for the meek; meat is for the man!” Good stuff.

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So how did you spend your Creative Loafing Beer Fest? Did you pass by me on your way from the MARTA station, trying to figure out what the hell was up with the closed sidewalk for the last two blocks and why you had to cross the street twice just to get in? If I had a dollar for every person who gave me a screwy look as I played “Sidewalk Monitor,” I could have afforded a ticket to get in. The funny thing was, once I finished my shift and went inside Woodruff, I ran into several Fest-goers who seemed like it was totally worth the re-routing.

I’m not sure if anyone totally got into the “Beer’lympics” theme beyond our scrappy CL staff and volunteers, but it is nevertheless fun to watch our Copy Editor Russell McLendon wear a John McEnroe-like sweatband and a moustache that defies description (and gravity). All I know is we had a helluva turnout despite a persistent early-afternoon threat of rain. The range of brews, from domestic to important, major label to micro-brew, was jaw-dropping. And while most guys of a hetero persuasion must have loved all that tanned skin courtesy the ladies of Pink Pony and Cheetah, I couldn’t help but wonder if there is a chance to provide more beefcake for the other demographic next year. (Stay tuned; we love the cakes.) More than anything I was pleasantly stunned at how many people participated in the “cornhole” games. I mean, it was like watching shuffleboard in Boca Raton. Amazing!

But thanks for everyone who came out, all those who volunteered, and particularly Marketing Director Shana Langfur, who’s been in her new position for like, what time is it?!

For tons more photos from this year’s Beer Fest, visit www.SideshowAtlanta.com.

[Show as slideshow]

(Photos by David Lee Simmons)

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(EDITOR’S NOTE: LOTS MORE PICTURES AFTER THE JUMP!) 

The Gallery at East Atlanta Tattoo’s group art shows continue to draw fans of the lowbrow style, the Monster Mayhem opening on Friday night proved. This show struck a particular chord, not only with the huge crowd that jammed the narrow gallery hallway and back-side patio but also shop/gallery owner Dirk Hays. “I’ve loved monsters since I was a kid,” says Hays, who poured over copies of Creepy and Eerie magazines growing up in Opelika, Ala. This is the fourth show at the gallery, which opened last September. Ideally, Hays would like to have four big seasonal shows with four smaller ones dropped in between. But considering attendance at these events have gone from 300 to more than 500 (at April’s Damn Dirty Ape show), don’t be surprised if they do more. “More and more people are coming to check out these shows,” Hays says.
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CityDance’s Earthly Paradise production at 7 p.m. tonight (Saturday), June 14, represents a sweet doubleheader for Christen Edwards. The dancer, an instructor with Studio Dionne, School of Dance and Music, not only performs but also will premiere her very first choreographed piece, “Graduation Ball.” The production also features the jazz-influenced piece, “The Lady Sings.”

Tickets to the performance at Pace Academy Fine Arts Center (966 West Paces Ferry Road) are $20 in advance, $25 at the door; call 404-877-0005 or visit the website.

Edwards (pictured) took some time to discuss the upcoming production.

What makes you most excited about the upcoming production? Which numbers will you be dancing, and what will your role be?
I am very excited about this upcoming production because I’ve choreographed my first full-length ballet, “Graduation Ball.” Even though it’s considered at “short ballet” at under a half hour, I still feel like it’s a personal accomplishment for me as an emerging choreographer! Also, I will be dancing in Pamela Dionne’s “The Lady Sings.”

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Creative Loafing hosts its third annual Beer Fest Sat., JUNE 14, with a theme harkening back to that most prestigious and ancient of athletic competitions: BEER’LYMPICS. Don’t worry, though – everyone’s a winner in this Olympic-sized competition, with spectator-sport energy required for games such as cornhole, flip cup and beer pong. A sampling smorgasbord of more than 120 types of beer, including Petaluma, Calif.’s Lagunitas Brewing Company and local festival omnipresence Sweetwater Brewing Company, will entice festival-goers, along with music and food from local restaurants such as Mellow Mushroom. $15-$30. 21 and over. 2-7 p.m. Woodruff Park, 84 Peachtree St. atlanta.creativeloafing.com/beerfest.

(Photo by Paul Clark)

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