Tuesday, September 1, 2009
News 5 things to do: Tuesday
Posted by Amber Robinson on Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 4:15 AM
1) Depeche Mode performs at Aaron's Amphitheatre at Lakewood.
2) The Plaza Theatre screens Fight Club for Art & a Movie.
3) Storybook Look opens at the Art Institute of Atlanta.
4) The Melvins and Down play the Loft.
5) The Shed at Glenwood holds a Steele Wine Dinner.
(Photo courtesy Depeche Mode)
Monday, August 31, 2009
Uncategorized Speakeasy with David Fulmer
Posted by Curt Holman on Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 10:39 PM
Any doubts that David Fulmer writes staid drawing-room mystery novels will be dispelled by the title of his Decatur Book Festival workshop “Sex & Violence: Writing About Them Without Sounding Like a Virgin Pacifist” (Fri., Sept. 4, 4 p.m.). While most of Fulmer’s work to date has been mysteries set in the South, he’s made a couple of changes of pace. His newest novel, The Blue Door, recently nominated for a Shamus Award, takes place in Philadelphia in 1962. He'll also try his hand at theatrical drama when the DBF presents a staged reading of his play Storyville, directed by Joe Gfaller, at the Old Courthouse Stage (Sat., Sept. 5, 5:30 p.m.).
The Blue Door has been nominated for a Shamus Award, and you already won one for an earlier book, Chasing the Devil’s Tail. How does the Private Eye Writers of America define “private eye”?
As I understand it, a private eye is not a cop, and it’s not a tea-cozy kind of mystery about an amateur sleuth. It goes back to the old gumshoe of movies and dime novels. The guy — or girl — is out there solving the crime, working outside the confines of the criminal justice system. I wouldn’t really know how to do a police procedural. People come to my books not for the whodunit but for the sense of place. My guys don’t deal with the scientific part of detection, but motivation, the psychological aspects. My guys tend to understand human foibles.
Continue reading "Speakeasy with David Fulmer"
(Photo by Bryanna Brown)
News Rev. Jesse Jackson to pray banks will stop being banks
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 9:47 PM
We giggled when Gov. Sonny Perdue prayed for rain because, well, the whole affair was just silly. Everyone knows God is too busy fighting health care reform and strip clubs to care about a drought.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, always one for a challenge, is gonna try and one-up Perdue. Tonight outside the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta in Midtown, the founder of the RainbowPUSH Coalition will hold a 6 p.m. prayer vigil. His wish to the heavens? Lord, convince banks to "restructure loans, not foreclose on homes."
Jackson will be joined by Americans for Democratic Action and the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda. An event organizer told CL that Jackson's prepared, if need be, to practice some of that good ole fashioned civil disobedience to help raise awareness.
It's a noble idea, especially here in hard-hit Georgia, home to some of the harshest foreclosure laws for homeowners. But good luck. You might find it's a helluva lot easier convincing God to make it rain than it is bankers to restructure deals.
Uncategorized CL Video: Red Bull Soapbox Derby Atlanta 2009
Posted by Web Editor on Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 9:40 PM
Thousands of people gathered along 10th street and Piedmont Park for the Red Bull Soapbox Derby on Saturday, August 29. Over 40 teams competed in an awesome display of creativity, engineering, and stunt devilry. And of course, the spectacular crashes.
Video shot, edited and produced by the agile George Goodman, who was strategically situated along the banks of the course.
News Last week's top posts: CL gets a new owner, the mayoral 'machine' malfunctions, and more!
Posted by Mara Shalhoup on Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 8:36 PM
1. In the auction for Creative Loafing, the winning bidder is ... (... these guys. Hey, they seem pretty OK!)
2. The mayoral 'machine' goes haywire, Reed fires back (Memo urges Atlanta's black leaders to rally behind a single black mayoral candidate — to keep a white candidate out of office.)
3. Wendy Whitaker, symbol of flawed sex offender law, rearrested (When she was 17, Whitaker gave one of the most regrettable blow jobs ever.)
4. Sen. Jeff Chapman's views on water conservation, water wars (Chapman’s one of the Gold Dome’s greatest enigmas — one of the few Republicans who doesn’t march in lockstep with his fellow pachyderms.)
5. Oxendine: Build an interstate through East Atlanta? Let's talk! (Um, no.)
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Uncategorized Complex family drama grounds Grey Gardens
Posted by Curt Holman on Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 7:58 PM
In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde wrote, “All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy.” The stage musical Grey Gardens emphasizes the tragic transformation of “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale by casting the same actress as both Little Edie and her mother at high and low ebbs of their family fortunes. Both women share a love of music, but in Grey Gardens, the convention of breaking into song at times emphasizes their tenuous grasps on reality.
Big Edie and Little Edie are iconic women — in an eccentric, cautionary fashion — as the subjects of Albert and David Maysles’ documentary Grey Gardens, which has drawn an enormous cult following since its release in 1975. The Edies were the aunt and first cousin, respectively, of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy, but in the early 1970s, they lived in squalor and self-delusion at the once-proud family estate, Grey Gardens. They could’ve been characters from a Tennessee Williams play, and added scandal and a hint of madness to the Kennedy family mystique.
Continue reading "Complex family drama grounds Grey Gardens"
(Photo courtesy Chris Ozment Photography)
News Mayoral candidates to discuss 'green' transportation solutions
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 7:27 PM
Tuesday's looking to be one of those days just jam-packed with forums.
While Georgia STAND-UP hosts its City Council candidate forum in Southwest Atlanta, a coalition of transportation advocates will be grilling Mayoral candidates about their stances on transit, bicycles and pedestrian friendly streets — and how mobility options other than automobiles could improve Atlanta's quality of life and economic potential.
Citizens for Progressive Transit, the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition and PEDS are hosting the 6:30 p.m. forum at the Atlanta Regional Commission. Mayoral candidates Lisa Borders, Mary Norwood, Kasim Reed, Jesse Spikes and Glenn Thomas will give their take on the issues. Longtime business columnist and smart-growth advocate Maria Saporta will moderate the discussion.
For more information about the forum, visit the coalition's website. For directions, click here. You can also try CfPT's online transit trip planner. The ARC is convenient to three MARTA stations and Five Points bus transfer center. The coalition's advocacy team will provide free bicycle valet parking.
Uncategorized Ponyo's on a boat!
Posted by Curt Holman on Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 5:41 PM
I didn't see this one coming: it's a video mash-up of clips from the Hayao Miyazaki's delightful family fable Ponyo to the tune of The Lonely Island's "I'm On a Boat." It works hilariously well, but know that the hip-hop braggadocio is totally unsafe for kids.
News City Council candidate forum tomorrow in Southwest Atlanta
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 5:35 PM
Nonprofit think tank Georgia STAND-UP will hold the first of two candidate forums for Atlanta City Hall hopefuls tomorrow in Southwest Atlanta.
The organization's spent the better part of 2009 working with more than 160 neighborhood leaders to craft a "community issues platform" that address such issues as public safety, affordable housing, transportation and economic development in Atlanta. Last month, 17 candidates — including mayoral hopefuls Kasim Reed and Mary Norwood — signed on to the platform.
Tomorrow's forum, which is free and open to the public, focuses on all City Council At-Large posts and seats except Districts 2, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Another forum will be held on Oct. 1 for the mayoral and City Council president campaigns.
The forum begins at 5:30 p.m. at the IBEW Auditorium on Pulliam Street. Click here for directions to the event.
Uncategorized Poem-a-Day DBF countdown: Jeffrey McDaniel
Posted by Curt Holman on Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 5:03 PM
The Aug. 26 cover story "Monsters of Poetry" puts the spotlight on the poet's art to preview the fourth annual Decatur Book Festival, to be held Sep. 4-6. This blog will count down the days to the festival by posting a poem each day by a different writer, to let the verse speak for itself. For Aug. 31, “The Quiet World” by Jeffrey McDaniel (which offers some intriguing implications for the Twitter era).
"The Quiet World"
In an effort to get people to look
into each other's eyes more,
and also to appease the mutes,
the government has decided
to allot each person exactly a hundred
and sixty-seven words, per day.
When the phone rings, I put it to my ear
without saying hello. In the restaurant
I point at chicken noodle soup.
I am adjusting well to the new way.
Late at night, I call my long distance lover,
proudly say I only used fifty-nine today.
I saved the rest for you.
When she doesn't respond,
I know she's used up all her words,
so I slowly whisper I love you
thirty-two and a third times.
After that, we just sit on the line
and listen to each other breathe.
Jeffrey McDaniel is the author of four books, most recently The Endarkenment (University of Pittsburgh Press), and teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College in New York.
