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CL’s Chanté LaGon chats with humor writer and Moodswing columnist Hollis Gillespie on today’s Air Loaf in part one of a two-part series that highlights Hollis’ advice and words of wisdom for the writers of the world.
Air Loaf is broadcast weekdays on 1690 WMLB-AM at approximately 8:10 a.m., 12:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.
1) Atlanta rock band Morning State (right) plays the Earl.
2) Virginia-Highland hosts its first annual Cinco de Mayo Celebration and Block Party.
3) Fulton County Public Library opens its Great Speckled Bird historical exhibit, which includes covers, articles, cartoons and graphics from Atlanta’s underground paper.
4) Local and national bands rock out for 500 Songs For Kids at Smith’s Olde Bar.
5) American Kidney Fund hosts a margarita tasting at No Mas! Cantina.
(Courtesy of Indie Outlaw)
Calling all starving artists: Idea Capital wants to help you. Due to the lack of funding from government and private organizations, Idea Capital (a work-in-progress movement started by several local art patrons) will grant an Atlanta artist a $500 grant to “encourage an experimental and investigative art project.” All genres are invited to apply: literary, visual, dance, performance, music, critical writing, film, video and new media.
This isn’t the only such grass-roots grant for artists. A similar organization, Cadre Art, was started by photographer Carla Williams in California. Artists all over the country can donate to and apply for various grants at Cadre to help foster art projects.
But back to Idea Capital. Its purpose is simple, according to its press release:
We seek to foster a new tone of experimentation and support in the Atlanta art world, as well as encourage a larger framework of support … The grant is to encourage experimentation and investigation with funds designed to give artists permission to pursue new ideas. We want to foster our community and support innovative work…We are interested in new ideas, new artists and supporting emerging and established artists.
Any artists 18 and older in the metropolitan Atlanta area are encouraged to apply. Submissions must be postmarked Fri., May 9, 2008 and the winner will be notified June 2.
Continue to the next page for submission guidelines.
One of our new sister papers, Chicago Reader, today announced what most folks in the alt-weekly world already knew: Longtime film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum is officially retiring from the paper after 20 years. Rosenbaum is a certified giant in the world of film criticism even if mainstream readers are more familiar with his (overrated) Chicago counterpart, Roger Ebert. (Why Ebert won a Pulitzer Prize remains a mystery to me.) It should be noted that the alt-weekly world has sent its share of kick-ass film critics to the daily-newspaper world (the New York Times‘ excellent Manohla Dargis worked at the Village Voice and LA Weekly before jumping to the Los Angeles Times).
Rosenbaum, like J. Hoberman, has remained in the alt-weekly world, and has written several critically acclaimed books on film including 2000’s Movie Wars: How Hollywood and the Media Limit What Movies We Can See. He won the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ award for arts criticism in 1997 and 2000.
According to the Reader, Rosenbaum will continue to write for the paper and its On Film blog, while the two will develop his own website. Check out this link, which includes Rosenbaum discussing his retirement.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
We’re about as pleased as everyone else about the recent news that Art Papers Executive Director/Editor Sylvie Fortin was recently named a Lexus Leader of the Arts by PBA 30. Under Fortin’s stewardship, the magazine has enjoyed an amazing year, including winning a bunch of awards and a ton of grants, including $100,000 from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
CL was ahead of the curve, natch, picking Art Papers‘ auction as the Best Art Event of 2007 and the $100,000 Andy Warhol Foundation grant as the Best National Recognition for the Visual Arts in our recent Best Of Atlanta issue. Check out Felicia Feaster’s quickie interview with Fortin back in the spring.
As a negligent reader of the Atlantic magazine, I’ve finally gotten around to cracking the November issue, nobly celebrating the magazine’s 150th anniversary. (Maybe too noble; that whole “The Future of the American Idea” theme really produced some snoozer essays. Looking at you, Nancy Pelosi, Joyce Carol Oates, Janet Napolitano and T.D. Jakes!)
But Michael Hirschorn’s essay “Can celebrities survive the age of too much information?” is worth the newsstand price alone. In not too haughty terms, Hirschorn argues that everyone — stars and gawkers alike — are being desensitized by the overabundance, overexposure and over-consumption of all that is celebrity. But maybe the public has caught on to all this self-promotion, Hirschorn points out:
The public now is too sophisticated, too cynical, to take a face at face value. Madonna had thrown herself about publicly with great abandon, secure in the conviction that her every move — attending Kabbalah classes, adopting a Malawian child — would be accepted by her multigenerational fan base. But the digital era demands 100 percent authenticity, since inconsistencies between brand and reality can be easily parsed and exploited by legions of paparazzi and bloggers thrilled to take down someone who places herself upon a pedestal, who takes herself too seriously. Madonna is no more a hypocrite than the rest of us, but she is guilty of misreading the new culture — perhaps, in her book, a greater sin.
I fear it might be too late to find the issue on the newsstands — the December issue, featuring Andrew Sullivan on Barack Obama, is already out — but you can purchase stories on the Atlantic’s website.
