ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor/Contributing Writer

Hey all you fabulous retro kiddies! Retro Atlanta is the Kat’s meow this ho-ho holiday season! We’ve got cult holiday flicks to Halloween in December to a whole ‘lotta of honky-tonk, blues and rock n roll! If you’re lookin’ for a thrill and the weather’s got you down, get off that couch, put on your dancin’ shoes and get Retro!

Monday, December 8

Rock on down to 529 and glam it up with Del Venicci, Muuy Biien, Friend Roulette and Tiny Hazard! Or for a night of spoken work punk rock and Lou Reed’esque goodness, make your way to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with Hamell on Trial and Alex & Todd! Get funky and groove on down to Café 290 every second and fourth Monday of the month for a taste ofBumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’ Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! Blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a side of Dry White Toast and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ! Bill Sheffield delivers the blues at Blind Willie’s! And don’t forget, The Plaza Theater is screening Frank Capra’s holiday classic, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946), running through Dec. 11, along with Chris Columbus’ ‘90s holiday classic, HOME ALONE (1990) through Dec. 10!

Tuesday, December 9

Splatter Cinema and Enjoy the Film (Kool Kat Ben Ruder) splatter you with a sleighing good time at Cinevision Screening Room with their 35mm screening of Joe Dante’s mischievous sequel, GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH (1990) at 8pm! And don’t forget to come early for some chilling lobby shenanigans! Or let Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and Syrens of the South seduce their way into your naughty (or nice?) little hearts at the Red Light Café at their Tease Tuesday: Naughty or Nice Edition, with performances by Tippy Tapage, Ada Manzhart, Mickie Sinn and more! For a night of vintage swagger, blues it up at Blind Willie’s with Atlanta Boogie! It’s a night of avant-jazz and funk at Atlanta Symphony Hall with Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood! Punk it up at 529 with Dinos Boys, Dirty Fences and the Moreland Wrecks! Sonny Landreth and Cindy Cashdollar deliver a night of traditional roots ‘n’ blues at Eddie’s Attic! You’ll shoot your eye out at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s “Home for the Holidays” screening of Bob Clark’s holiday classic, A CHRISTMAS STORY(1983) at 7:30! Or catch the film at CineBistro at Town Brookhaven during their “Cineclassics 2014” screening at 6:30! Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint gets down and dirty blues-style with Lola! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with Kool Kat Jeff Clark and Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm! Or boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and blues! And The Entertainment Crackers get bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, December 10

Get your ‘70s dive fix at The Earl with Barreracudas, Hecter’s Pets and JP5! It’s a hootenanny and a half at The Star Bar as they get smokin’ during their Slim Chicken Honky-tonk Extravaganza,featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes! Kool Kat Scott Glazer’s Mojo Dojo gets down and dirty with a whole lotta jazz, blues and southern soul at Blind Willie’s! Get funky at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack with TheGeorgia Flood! Get folksy with Doria Roberts at Eddie’s Attic! Stomp down to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with Freelance Ruckus, Blood on the Harp and Caleb Warren & the Perfect Gentlemen! Spend an evening of holiday prog-rock with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center! Get funky at the Elliott Street Pub with their Funk, Soul & R&B night! Beverly “Guitar” Watkins gets down at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! Get holiday-retro at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s “Home for the Holidays” screening of Bob Clark’s holiday classic, A CHRISTMAS STORY(1983) at 7:30! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, December 11

The Earl delivers a night of raucous rock ‘n’ roll with Manic, Rapturous Grief, Tiger! Tiger! and Brawful! Get jazzy at the Variety Playhouse with a Peter White Christmas, featuring Rick Braun and Mindi Abair! Get funky at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with Dyn-O-Mite! Smith’s Olde Bar gets rock ‘n’ rootsy with Enter the Haggis and Mitch Haney! The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra tells the iconic story of Christmas with 400 musicians during their “Christmas with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra” event, running through Dec. 13! Make your way to The Strand Theatre for Marietta’s New Pops Holiday Concert on the Square event at 7pm! Or let Kool Kat David Richardson, a.k.a. “Baby Doll Schultz”, et al decide if you’ve been naughty or nice at Legendary Children’s Unholy Night party at the Masquerade! Kool Kat Spike Fullerton with the Ghost Rider’s Car Club rocks out at the Clermont Lounge! Twinkle toe on down to the Fox Theatre as the Atlanta Ballet presents their holiday tradition of “The Nutcracker”, running through Dec. 28! It’s a night of bluegrass and Americana at the Red Light Café with Johnny Campbell & the Bluegrass Drifters and Wild Hands! Eddie’s Attic delivers an evening with Patterson Hood (Drive-by Truckers)! Hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night of cool island tunes and a couple Mai Tais! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Delifor their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, December 12

The Star Bar is the Kat’s meow tonight with their Benefit for Greg Germani event, featuring a rockin’ musical lineup with Kool Kat Julea Thomerson spinning old-time country western records, Deke Dickerson, Kool Kat Cletis & His City Cousins, Kool Kat Caroline & the Ramblers, The Deja Bluegrass Band, Jay Murphree & Rodeo Twister, Slim Chance & the Convicts, The Wheel Knockers and more (if you can’t rock out, you can always donate here)! Shimmy on down to the Red Light Café for DJ Doctor Q’s Speakeasy Electroswing Atlanta event with guest DJ Bouncyhouse and sultry performances by Jenna Luca, Kool Kat Talloolah Love, Sadie Hawkins and more!

Eddie’s Attic hosts Grocery on Home’s rockin’ folksy holiday party, featuring Jared & Amber, Kappy Arnold, Marshall Ruffin, Lonnie Holley and Julia Haltigan! Stomp on down to The Earl for a night with Radiolucent, The Higher Choir and Blake Rainey & His Demons! Get some soul and neo-tropical funk at Terminal West with The Shadowboxers, Adron and Weisshund! Three Quarter Ale delivers a night of folksy Celtic Christmas rock with Knightsong at The Shakespeare Tavern! For a night of rockin’ soul, make your way to the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center for Diane Durrett! The Plaza Theater screens Jamie Keach’s GLEN CAMPBELL: I’LL BE ME (2014), documenting the life of the legendary country star! Shimmy ‘n’ shake on down to The Jungle Club for their Red & White Burlesque Ball at 10pm! Folk it up at Steve’s Live Music with Rachel Baiman, Caroline Spence, Vickie Vaughn and The Pussy Willows! Vinyl delivers their “I Love the ‘90s Showcase”! Rock on down to the Red Clay Theatre for an evening with the Randall Bramblett Band! The Sundogs put on their Tom Petty Show at Smith’s Olde Bar with Sugarfoot! Get folksy with Family & Friends under the dinosaurs at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event while sippin’ a few cocktails! Blues it up with Larry Griffith at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Or make your way to Blind Willie’s for a night with Sandra Hall & the Shadows! It’s a night of classic rock with Hott With Harry Leggs at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! You won’t want to miss dueling pianos with Eddie Tigner and Lola at the Northside Tavern! And as always, Time-Warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW(1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, December 13

Rock out for a great cause at The Star Bar with their Toys for Tots show featuring Kool Kat Spike Fullerton with the Ghost Rider’s Car Club, Bully, Dusty Booze & the Baby Haters, Vito Romeo, Space Giants and more! Or rock on down to Hell and support WRAS Album 88.5 at the Masquerade with their counter-culture rock ‘n’ roll party, Pandemonium, featuring a rockin’ party with non-stop glam rock, circus performances with the Imperial OPA Circus and more! Catch a wave to Kavarna for their Southern Surf Stomp Christmas edition featuring Chad Shivers & the Silent Knights performing the Beach Boys and The Ventures’ Christmas albums with Kool Kat Caroline & the Ramblers! Shimmy on down to Jerry Farber’s Side Door for Kool Kat Kitty Love’s Cheeky Belles Burlesque, Jingle Belles Rock event, with performances by Kitty Love, Angelica Vice, JudyAnne Foxe, Valkyrie Jones and more! Smith’s Olde Bar delivers a night of furry faces and rockin’ tunes at their Battle of the Beards event, featuring Swank Sinatra and freak show performances!

It’s a retro cinema bonanza this week! The Muppets invade the Midtown Art Cinema with their free screening (with food donation) of Brian Henson’s holiday classic, THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL (1992) at 10am! Get mischievous holiday-style at The Plaza Theater with their screening of Joe Dante’s GREMLINS (1984) at 7:30pm! Spend an evening with Jack Skellington at the Center for Puppetry Arts with their screening of Henry Selick’s THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993) at 7pm! Or make your way to the Charles D. Switzer Library in Marietta for their screening of Jack Donohue’s classic, BABES IN TOYLAND (1961) at 3pm! The Powder Springs Public Library screens Ken Hughes’ CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG (1968) at 3pm! And explore Latino music through film at the Atlanta History Center with their “American Sabor Movie” screenings featuring Gregory Nava’s SELENA (1997) at 2pm!

For a night of retro rock, make your way to 529 for The Rock*A*Teens, Warehouse and Small Reactions! Experience a southern Christmas at Academy Theatre with their 15th annual “An Atlanta Christmas” running through Dec. 14! Rev down to the Dixie Tavern for a night with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-DeVilles! Get your smooth Christmas fix at the Variety Playhouse with Yacht Rock Revue! It’s a ‘70s reunion at Steve’s Live Music with Acropolis! Julia Haltigan delivers a night of antique Americana pop at Grocery on Home! Atlanta Rhythm Section delivers two rockin’ shows at Eddie’s Attic! Put on those dancin’ shoes and get ready for a night of retro rock, Motown, funk, Big Band and more at The Basement for Electric Western’s Keep on Movin’ Rock and Soul Dance Party! The Villain Family delivers a night of garage country at The Family Dog! Boogie on down to Hottie Hawgs BBQ for their Saturday Night Fever event! Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint gets down and dirty blues-style with Lola! Blues it up at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues with Tas Cru! The Northside Tavern delivers a night of rockin’ blues with Ike Stubblefield! Blues on down to Blind Willie’s for a night with Francine Reed & the Shadows! The Hollidays deliver some rhythm and soul at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, December 14

Brunch it up at Pallookaville with a holiday puppet show put on by David Stephens and All Hands Productions at 9:30am! Or bluegrass on down to Smith’s Olde Bar’s Bluegrass Brunch featuring Honeywood! It’s a night of folk jazz at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with Lilac Wine! Lola gets in the spirit of the holidays at the Northside Tavern with her Annual Toy Drive! Stomp down to the Crimson Moon Café for a night with Jonathan Byrd & the Pickup Cowboys! And get jazzy holiday-style at Atlanta Symphony Hall with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and Cecile Mclorin Salvant!

Ongoing

Ann Jackson Gallery in Roswell exhibits “The Art of Dr. Seuss” through Dec. 12! (LAST CHANCE!)

Callanwolde Fine Arts Center’s exhibit, Vintage Coca-Cola Santas, featuring 14 original oil paintings by Haddon Sundblom in 1931 for The Coca-Cola Company, sleighs through Dec. 16!

The Strand Theatre’s Lumiere Piano Bar & Lounge, featuring classic silent films quietly flickering in the background, accompanied by a live pianist and tasty cocktails, runs through Dec. 20!

Serenbe Playhouse presents their adaptation of “Snow Queen” through Dec. 21!

The Strand Theatre’s “A Christmas Tradition” song and dance revue runs through Dec. 21!

The Gwinnett Ballet Theatre presents “The Nutcracker” at the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center through Dec. 21!

Shakespeare Tavern’s Atlanta Shakespeare Company presents Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, running through Dec. 23!

The Alliance Theatre gets retro Dickens-style with their “A Christmas Carol”, getting Scrooge-y through Dec. 24!

Center for Puppetry Arts adapts Larry Roemer’s classic, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER (1964) through Dec. 28!

The Fox Theatre and the Atlanta Ballet present their holiday tradition of “The Nutcracker”, running through Dec. 28!

Museum of Design Atlanta(MODA) exhibits 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair through Jan. 4!

The Marietta Museum of History gets Victorian as they present their “Peeling Back the Layers: Victorian Wedding Ensembles” exhibit through May 2, 2015!

William Bremen Jewish Heritage Museum’s, “Where the Wild Things Are: Maurice Sendek in His Own Words and Pictures” getting wild through July 5!

HepCat’s Hop gets swingin’ every first Wednesday of the month at the 57th Fighter Group Restaurant!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Fueling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night rocks out at the Famous Pub every Friday night with a different 80’s theme!

The Star Bar delivers Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night at 10pm, every Tuesday!

Steve’s Live Music’s Gypsy Jazz Brunch offers up a plate of Hot Club jamming and Parisian Swing with Kool Kat Amy Pike and the Bonaventure Quartet from 12:30 to 3:30 pm every 2^nd & 4^th Sunday!

Boogie on down into Disco Hell at The Family Dog as DJ Quasi Mandisco delivers a night of classic funk, soul and disco the last Friday of every month.

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW(1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.

Splatter Cinema presents GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH (1990); Dir. Joe Dante; Starring Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates and Christopher Lee; Tuesday, Dec. 9 @ 8:00 p.m.; Cinevision Screening Room; Tickets $10 (cash only); Trailer here.

By Aleck Bennett
Contributing Writer

Splatter Cinema is back! After a brief spell hosting films at the Chambers of Horror Halloween haunt, Splatter has teamed up with ATLRetro Kool Kat Ben Ruder’s Enjoy the Film and the Cinevision Screening Room to bring us the brilliantly bloody and the sublimely sickening. And while this month’s feature probably isn’t the first flick to spring to mind when you think “splatter,” its wildly imaginative and horrific effects work, combined with its completely uninhibited attitude, all add up to a perfect way to kick off a new era of Splatterdom this holiday season. Because after a seven-year search for a 35mm print, they have returned to bring you…GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH.

There are people who sincerely believe that a sequel is automatically inferior to its predecessor. They’ll tell you, for instance, that STAR WARS is a de facto better movie than THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK because it laid the necessary groundwork for the latter film’s existence. These people are what I like to call “wrong.”

Case in point: GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH. Now, don’t misjudge my feelings: I unabashedly love the original GREMLINS. It’s one of my favorite Christmas movies and I’ve gone on about it at length here before. But I have a special place in my heart for its sequel. And that place is front row center. While GREMLINS paints a raucous picture of monster-fueled anarchy breaking out in idyllic Small Town, USA, GREMLINS 2 is pure madness in the Big Apple from start to finish.

As opposed to the more direct plotting of the first film, the storyline in GREMLINS 2 is more a series of hooks from which director Joe Dante can hang gags; and as such, it’s pretty all over the place. After the death of Gizmo’s owner Mr. Wing, the mogwai falls into the hands of the science division of Clamp Enterprises (headed by the always-welcome Christopher Lee). He is rescued by old friends and coincidental Clamp employees Billy Peltzer and his fiancée Kate Beringer (Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates, reprising their roles from the first film). However, a series of accidents cause more mogwai to be created, and havoc erupts in the locked-down Clamp Center as the gremlins plan to escape into New York City. There are constant sub-plots about disgruntled cable-show hosts, Billy’s job prospects and his flirtatious boss, out-of-town visitors, etc. But as I said, they’re mainly there to provide launching pads for parodies and jokes.

While the first movie evoked the feeling of Chuck Jones’ Looney Tunes shorts with its self-referential send-ups of Spielbergian cinematic suburbia, it still played within the confines of a Spielberg movie or a late-period Jones cartoon. It was dark and violent, but still warm in the way that producer Steven Spielberg’s family films and so many of Chuck Jones’ later cartoons frequently are. Jones’ HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS, for instance, lets us relish the Grinch’s delicious villainy by softening the blow with redemption and acceptance. Lessons are learned, people get better, and he—he himself, the Grinch—carved the roast beast.

GREMLINS 2, on the other hand, channels pure bizarro Jones. I’m talking DUCK AMUCK. THE DOVER BOYS AT PIMENTO UNIVERSITY. DUCK DODGERS IN THE 24 ½TH CENTURY. It’s almost nothing but wall-to-wall psychosis and fourth-wall breaking. It knowingly and overtly parodies GREMLINS. (At one point Leonard Maltin shows up to pan the first film, and is attacked and devoured by mogwai.) It features Christopher Lee as…well, Christopher Lee playing a villain. Sure, the character is nominally Dr. Catheter, but the point of his presence is for Christopher Lee to be identifiably playing Christopher Lee playing a villain—much like how he shows up in THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN to play Christopher Lee playing Dracula. There are countless in-jokes hidden away in background details, like some Will Elder story in a 1950s issue of MAD. There are parodies of other films, like RAMBO, THE WIZARD OF OZ, KING KONG, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and many more. Daniel Clamp, the head of Clamp Enterprises with a burgeoning cable television empire, is a parody of both Donald Trump and Ted Turner. Even Al Lewis’ late-1980s stint for Turner as “Grandpa” hosting horror flicks on TBS’ SUPER SCARY SATURDAY is parodied. Hulk Hogan shows up for no good reason whatsoever. A plot turn that sees the mogwai become genetically mutated not only allows a Wile E. Coyote-esque “super genius” gremlin to exist, but also creates a hotsy-totsy female mogwai in order to bring us some “Bugs Bunny in drag” sequences. And to drive the point home completely, Bugs and Daffy Duck bookend the movie. If the first movie let the insanity of a Warner Brothers cartoon invade our mundane reality, this movie rejects your reality and substitutes its own.

All this to say that there is nothing in this movie I do not love wholeheartedly. Far from being sleek and streamlined, this movie is maximalism in action: gag piled on top of gag, with everyone involved in the movie completely game. Joe Dante is at his peak here, with impeccable timing and incredibly nuanced detail all in the service of pure wackiness. Christopher Lee gets to show off his rarely utilized comic chops. Tony Randall—Tony Randall, people!—is absolutely perfect as the super-intelligent Brain Gremlin. Dick Miller has a sizeable role, and that’s practically reason enough to see it right there. The screenplay by Charlie Haas (OVER THE EDGE, MATINEE) captures just the right balance of meta-humor and cleverly constructed plot dynamics so that we are never just bogged down in jokes; there’s a solid through-line that propels us along. Throw in the typically top-notch (and at times both monstrous and disgusting) effects work of Rick Baker and his crew, along with the gift of a bigger budget, and you’ve got a sequel that is every bit the equal of its predecessor, if not surpassing it.

Aleck Bennett is a writer, blogger, pug warden, pop culture enthusiast, raconteur and bon vivant from the greater Atlanta area. Visit his blog at doctorsardonicus.wordpress.com

by Alexis Owens & High Pulp Heart
Art-Loving Atlanta Mavens
Contributing Writers

This year ATLRetro is giving you a heads up on some amazing holiday eye candy provided by our Kool Kat of the Week, Jessica Soler!  Jessica, owner of Salon Red,  and Dr. Courtney Hammonds , Visual Merchandising instructor at the Art Institute of Atlanta – Decatur, put their heads together and envisioned a co-op project that can be enjoyed the entire holiday season in downtown Decatur. The indie-inspired town is already decked to the halls, but now with even more edge and retro flare thanks to these two amazing artists!

Local businesswoman, hair stylist, artist and Jill-of-all-trades, Jessica Soler, is the creative mastermind behind the insanely inspiring wigs and dresses featured in this year’s holiday window display at the Art Institute of Atlanta’s downtown Decatur branch. In addition to being the owner of Salon Red, a local chain of retro-esque, upscale hair salons with locations in Decatur, Candler Park and Brookhaven, Jessica is also an artist, a nature lover, a dancer, a mother of four and heavily involved in the local community.

It’s her love of arts and community that led to her involvement with the Art Institute. When she started making dresses out of unconventional materials like foam rollers and hair color boxes, she thought she was simply creating something interesting for a salon photo shoot. But her ties within Atlanta transformed that creative urge into something that the larger community now has the opportunity to enjoy.

Jessica is dripping of modern-meets-retro in every facet. ATLRetro was thrilled to get the chance to see her in action. Along with Art Institute students, she created a display that is reminiscent of the early Macy’s Christmas window displays that awed so many of us as we grew up. While witnessing the magic in action, we took the opportunity to not only snap some fun photos but also ask this nifty lady a few questions.

ATLRetro: How long have you been doing hair?

Jessica Soler: In total 18 years, but I have owned my own salon for 16 of those years.

That is pretty early on in your career to own your own salon. Why own your own salon?

Do you want the lie or the truth?

Both if you don’t mind?

Well the lie is I thought it would be fun, but that is what any young entrepreneur believes.  In all honesty, though, the truth is I couldn’t work anywhere else. I have an immensely strong work ethic, and I always want to upgrade systems from the front end of business to the back end. Creative problem solving is what I am best at and what I prefer to work around, and that isn’t just found in any business. But I knew I could incorporate it into mine. Truly though, once diving into having my own business, I learned there is no other way.

The project with Art Institute’s holiday windows is dripping with community relations and art.  Would you say that that encompasses you as an individual, your business and various locations?

I thrive off of any and all creative avenues. Every single member of my staff is creative in so many different ways and that is one of the many reasons why we continue to thrive as a business, a family and a community. Art is our core, and community is everything wrapped around it. Working with the various Atlanta communities is something we pride ourselves on. Not to mention, it is just such fun to involve community and family in all that you do. Community and art fuel the salons and are a huge part of why I own my own business. It brings out the best in all aspects. We all love to be inspired and want to inspire others. Art and community provide that in ample supply.

You also do a lot of education with your staff, correct?

Education has always been an initiative of mine from the get-go, be it with staff or community.

So tell us about these window displays you created and put together with the Art Institute students? What was your inspiration?

Christmas, Pinterest, The Grinch and Laurent Philippon of Bumble and bumble and his book HAIR: FASHION AND FANTASY, which not so oddly is an inspiration for me and the fabulous Art Institute instructor Dr. Courtney Hammonds, who was gracious enough to host this co-op.

Laurent is rather avant-garde as is these beautiful window pieces you have created. Has that always been a part of your vision?

Being avant-garde isn’t my main focus point all of the time, but it sure is fun and adds an extra flare to a lot of my projects.

What kind of products do you use to make such amazing avant-garde pieces?

So much hairspray! I have to stay true to the best products that I know, though. I used a ton of Bumble & bumble as well as Oribe products.

The windows truly are a beautiful reflection of art meets community meets retro roots; is there anything coming up after this that we can keep an eye out for?

Spring. We have a show coming up in the spring that I can’t talk a whole lot about, but this is just a taste of that and I am very excited about it.

Be sure to check out the retro whimsical window display for yourself. It’s just a hop, skip and a jump from some of Decatur’s GREAT local shops to help fill those stockings this year. The Art Institute’s gallery windows can be found on downtown Decatur’s main drag, Ponce de Leon Avenue.

Photo’s provided courtesy of Farmer Dude & High Pulp Heart

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor/Contributing Writer

Baby, it’s cold outside and the holidays are in full swing! Retro Atlanta is shakin’ with all the rockin’ shindigs your jilted jolly little hearts could ever want! So, baby, get off that couch and live la vida Retro!

Monday, December 1

Get jolly and festive retro-style at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center during their Vintage Coca-Cola Santa exhibit, featuring 14 original oil paintings by Haddon Sundblom in 1931 for The Coca-Cola Company, sleighing through Dec. 16! Get Hollywood historical with Dr. Matthew Bernstein of Emory’s Department of Film and Media Studies, as he holds a lecture detailing the GONE WITH THE WIND premiere in Atlanta at 7:30pm at Emory’s White Hall. Or spend the holidays with Chevy Chase at the Charles D. Switzer Library in Marietta with their screening of Jeremiah S. Chechik’s holiday classic, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989) at 6pm! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! And boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam!

Tuesday, December 2

It’s a night of bluegrass and gypsy jazz at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with Smokey’s Farmland Band! Or stomp over to Eddie’s Attic for a night with the Judge Talford Band! Chevy Chase-style holiday shenanigans go down at CineBistro at Town Brookhaven during their “Cineclassics 2014” screening of Jeremiah S. Checkik’s holiday classic, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989) at 6:30pm! Or get into a little holiday mischief during Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s “Home for the Holidays” screening of Chris Columbus’ HOME ALONE (1990) at 7:30! Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint gets the blues with Bob Page! Get jazzy with Kelley O’Neal at Gladys Knight’s Chicken & Waffles! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with KoolKat Jeff Clark and Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm! Or boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and blues! And The Entertainment Crackers get bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, December 3

Rock out at The Earl with The Blind Shake, Wymyns Prysyn and Glen Iris! It’s a night of flamenco and bossa nova at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with Cristian Puig! Emory Arts’ delivers their “Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema” series with their screening of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s BLIND CHANCE (1981) at 7:30pm in White Hall! It’s a hootenanny and a half at The Star Bar as they get smokin’ during their Slim Chicken Honky-tonk Extravaganza,featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes! Get jazzy with Dave Koz & Friends during his Christmas Tour 2014 at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center! Take a trip to the ‘40s with Ralphie and his coveted Red Ryder B.B. gun during Studio Movie Grill’s (Alpharetta/Duluth) screening of Bob Clark’s holiday classic, A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983) at 7:30pm! Or make your way to the Wesley Chapel-William C. Brown Library in Decatur for their screening of Robert Iscove’s ROGER & HAMMERSTEIN’S CINDERELLA (1997) at 6pm! Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint gets down and dirty blues-style with Lola! Boogie on down to East Atlanta’s Graveyard Tavern for their Graveyard Swing Night, held the first Wednesday of every month, promising an evening of swingin’ jazz and jive with the Savoy Kings! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! Get holiday-retro, ‘90s style at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s “Home for the Holidays” screening of Chris Columbus’ HOME ALONE (1990) at 7:30! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, December 4

It’s a night of rockin’ punk harkening back to the old-school at The Star Bar with Air Wolves, Cadillac Junkies, The Aggravated and The Sideburners! Or get your rock fix with a twist at Terminal West with the Adrian Belew Power Trio! Blues it up at Smith’s Olde Bar with TabBenoit and the AJ Ghent Band! It’s Santa vs. Satan with RiffTrax Live: K. Gordon Murray’s SANTA CLAUS (1959) screenings at Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta), Perimeter Pointe 10 and Hollywood Stadium 24 at 8pm! Spend the evening with Tiny Tim at the Shakespeare Tavern as the Atlanta Shakespeare Company presents Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, running through Dec. 23! Or experience the classic tale of loyalty, redemption and love at the Serenbe Playhouse with their world premiere production and Rachel Teagle’s adaptation of “Snow Queen” running through Dec. 21! Get jazzy with Chuck Loeb (Fourplay) at the SuiteFood Lounge! Join in on the hi-jinks at The Plaza Theateras their Cineprov group riff’s Richard Donner’saction classic, LETHAL WEAPON (1987) at 7:30! Tom Hill & the Midnight Suns rock out at the Clermont Lounge! Eddie’s Attic delivers an evening with Patterson Hood (Drive-by Truckers)! Hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night of cool island tunes and a couple Mai Tais! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Delifor their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, December 5

Get rocked and shake it up at The Star Bar with the Legendary Shackshakers, Whiskey Shivers and Kool Kat Rod Hamdallah! Get revved up holiday-style with the one and only Brian Setzer Orchestra at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center with special guests, The RecordCompany! And then make your way to the Diesel Filling Station for Kool Kat Rev. Andy’s Unofficial Brian Setzer After Party with a rock ‘n’ roll throwdown! It’s a night of mischief and magical mayhem at the Masquerade with Markster Con’s Atlanta Wizard’s Ball, featuring rockin’ tunes by Radio Cult, aerialists and a whole lotta wicked shenanigans! Get nostalgic at The Plaza Theater with their screening of Frank Capra’s holiday classic, IT’SA WONDERFUL LIFE (1946), running through Dec. 11! Emory Arts’ delivers their “Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema” series with their screening of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING(1987) at 7:30pm in White Hall! David Benoit pays tribute to Charlie Brown with his jazzy renditions of Vince Guaraldi’s Christmas classics at the Ferst Center at 8pm! Or shake a holiday tail feather at The Strand Theatre during their “A Christmas Tradition” song and dance revue every weekend through Dec. 21! Make your way to the Ann Jackson Gallery in Roswell for their “The Art of Dr. Seuss” exhibit, featuring Ted Geisel’s unknown paintings and sculptures, with live appearances by the Cat in the Hat and The Grinch, through Dec. 12! For a night of dirty rock ‘n’ roll, make your way to The Earl for Nashville Pussy, Valiant Thorr and the Night Terrors! Get your southern-fried soul and funk fix and groove on down to The Family Dog for Secondhand Swagger! Shimmy on down to Center Stage for the Clubesque: A Modern Cabaretevent! Steve’s Live Music delivers a night of Americana and blues with Heather Luttrell! Get gritty at the Crimson Moon Café with Blue Roads! Blues it up at Smith’s Olde Bar with night two of TabBenoit and the AJ Ghent Band! Blues it up with Victor Wainwright at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Beverly “Guitar” Watkins gets down and dirty at the Northside Tavern! And as always, Time-Warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW(1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, December 6

Get ‘80s retro at Vinyl with Pop-Up X-Mix 2014 featuring Electric Avenue, The Love Willows, Goldwing, Aerobics Cube and James Hall! It’s a night of rockin’ electro-industrial nostalgia at the Buckhead Theatre with founding alumni Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly (FLA), Haujobb and Youth Code! Or get your early ‘80s thrash metal and shock rock fix at the Masquerade with GWAR, Corrosion of Conformity and American Sharks! For a night of ‘60s garage rock and punk, make your way to Smith’s Olde Bar for The White Animals and Lions & Liars! Stomp on down to the Variety Playhouse for the 6th Annual Y’All Tide Celebration with The Whiskey Gentry, The Dappled Grays and Seven Handle Circus! Skate on by the DooGallery for their 10th Annual Deck the Walls event at 9pm featuring skate deck art with proceeds going to The A-Skate Foundationfor Autism, and a rockin’ musical line-up with the Moreland Wrecks, The Salts, 30 Year Old Women from Mars and more! Rock out at The Star Bar with the El Caminos, M.O.T.Oand Pretty Vacant! For a night of Dixie jazz and old-time country western swing, honky-tonk on down to the Red Light Café for The VaudeVillain’s Ugly Christmas Sweater Party and CD Release show with Lindsay Petsch and 9 String Theory! Frankly my dears, we do give a damn, so make your way to Emory for the Department of Film Studies’ screening of Fleming, Cukor and Woods’ classic, GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) at 1pm! Or head over to the Charles D. Switzer Library in Marietta for their screening of Emile Ardolino’s THE NUTCRACKER (1993) at 3pm! The Powder Springs Public Library screens Alexander Hall’s Shirley Temple classic, LITTLE MISS MARKER (1934) at 3pm! It’s a night of rockin’ blues with Michelle Malone at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs. Get jazzy roots-style with The Blind Boys of Alabama and special guest, FrancineReed at Atlanta Symphony Hall! It’s a night of Cramps-inspired punk at Kavarna with Air Wolves! Get your ‘90s alt-rock fix at the Tabernacle with Weezer! The Gwinnett Ballet Theatre presents “The Nutcracker” at the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center through Dec. 21! It’s a night of mountain folk rock and Americana at The Family Dog with Pioneer Chicken Stand! Groove on down to Hottie Hawgs BBQ ‘cause it’s Disco Night! Get your Australian blues and roots fix at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues with Harper &Midwest Kind! Blues it up with Albert White at the Northside Tavern! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, December 7

Hey all you miscreants and mischievous souls! Rock out at the Masquerade with the Misfits, Kool Kats, TheCasket Creatures, The Attack, Burns Like Fireand Dasher! Get your flamenco fix at the Red Light Café with Antonio Granjero, Francisco Orozco, Cristian Puigand Julie Galle Baggenstoss! Ben Watt delivers a night of folk jazz at Eddie’s Attic! Nothing says it’s the holidays like cookies and homes on wheels! So make your way to the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club (EAYC) for their 9th Annual Gingerbread Trailer Park competition at 6pm! Stomp on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for their Bluegrass Brunch with Rye Baby! And rock on down to the Crimson Moon Café for their Boomers Gone Wild event, delivering a night of ‘60s and ‘70s covers!

Ongoing

Ann Jackson Gallery in Roswell exhibits “The Art of Dr. Seuss” through Dec. 12!

Callanwolde Fine Arts Center’s exhibit, Vintage Coca-Cola Santas, featuring 14 original oil paintings by Haddon Sundblom in 1931 for The Coca-Cola Company, sleighs through Dec. 16!

The Strand Theatre’s Lumiere Piano Bar & Lounge, featuring classic silent films quietly flickering in the background, accompanied by a live pianist and tasty cocktails, runs through Dec. 20!

Serenbe Playhouse presents their adaptation of “Snow Queen” through Dec. 21!

The Strand Theatre’s “A Christmas Tradition” song and dance revue runs through Dec. 21!

The Gwinnett Ballet Theatre presents “The Nutcracker” at the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center through Dec. 21!

Shakespeare Tavern’s Atlanta Shakespeare Company presents Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, running through Dec. 23!

The Alliance Theatre gets retro Dickens-style with their “A Christmas Carol”, getting Scrooge-y through Dec. 24!

Center for Puppetry Arts adapts Larry Roemer’s classic, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER (1964) through Dec. 28!

Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) exhibits 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair through Jan. 4!

The MariettaMuseum of History gets Victorian as they present their “Peeling Back the Layers: Victorian Wedding Ensembles” exhibit through May 2, 2015!

William Bremen Jewish Heritage Museum’s, “Where the Wild Things Are: Maurice Sendek in His Own Words and Pictures” getting wild through July 5!

HepCat’s Hop gets swingin’ every first Wednesday of the month at the 57th Fighter Group Restaurant!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at theDiesel Fueling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night rocks out at the Famous Pub every Friday night with a different 80’s theme!

The Star Bar delivers Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Nightat 10pm, every Tuesday!

Steve’s Live Music’s Gypsy Jazz Brunch offers up a plate of Hot Club jamming and Parisian Swing with Kool Kat Amy Pike and the Bonaventure Quartet from 12:30 to 3:30 pm every 2^nd & 4^th Sunday!

Boogie on down into Disco Hell at The Family Dog as DJ Quasi Mandisco delivers a night of classic funk, soul and disco the last Friday of every month.

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW(1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor/Contributing Writer

Hey all you Retro Atlanta kiddies! Start some new holiday traditions this year and let Retro Atlanta guide the way! Whether you’re lookin’ to escape or just needing to get out and breathe, we’ve got a cornucopia of holiday rockin’ fun lined up that will fill you to the brim with giddy! So, come on out and get Retro rockin’ holiday-style!

Monday, November 24

Don’t let the Monday blues keep you down! 529 gets rockin’ with The Gotobeds, Onchi and The Marrows! Rock out with Freddy Mercury at Regal Hollywood Stadium 24 as they deliver QUEEN ROCK MONTREAL 1981 CONCERT (1981) at 7pm! Or spend the day with John Wayne and Kirk Douglas at the Charles D. Switzer Library in Marietta at their screening of Burt Kennedy’s THE WAR WAGON (1967)! Get funky and groove on down to Café 290 every second and fourth Monday of the month for a taste of Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’ Blues it up at Blind Willie’s with Barrelhouse Bob Page! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a taste of the Pork Belly’s and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, November 25

Spend an evening with Eric Johnson (rockin’ since ’69) and Mike Stern during their Eclectic Guitar show, bringing together rock and jazz guitar at the Variety Playhouse! The Alliance Theatre gets retro Dickens-style while celebrating 25 years of their “A Christmas Carol” performances, Scrooge-ing through Dec. 24! Or swing those hips on down to the Fox Theatre for “Dirty Dancing”, cha-cha’ing through Nov. 30! Rock out at Eddie’s Attic with Ed Roland & the Sweet Tea Project! The Hollidays deliver some rhythm and soul at Blind Willie’s! Get adventurous with Harrison Ford at CineBistro at Town Brookhaven during their “Cineclassics 2014” screening of Steven Spielberg’s, INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK(1981) at 6:30pm! Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with Kool Kat Jeff Clark and Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm! Or boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and blues! And The Entertainment Crackers get bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, November 26

It’s a night of Turkey-Eve ‘70s soft rock shenanigans with Yacht Rock Revue at the Fox Theatre! The Family Dog delivers a night of groovy psychedelic rock with Gimme Hendrix! Get jazzy with Frank Barham at the Elliott Street Pub! Get funky with Zack Deputy at Eddie’s Attic! It’s a hootenanny and a half at The Star Bar as they get smokin’ during their Slim Chicken Honky-tonk Extravaganza, featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes! Slip on into some ‘90s rockin’ blues at Atlanta Symphony Hall with Melissa Etheridge! The Electromatics deliver a night of Chicago and West Coast blues at Blind Willie’s! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack gets the blues with Frankie’s Blues Mission! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, November 27

If the family’s too much, rock out retro Turkey-Day style! Bring your appetite and make your way to The Earl for BoogadaBoogadaBoogada’s rockin’ Screeching Weasel tribute and Salts! And get a second helping of turkey with our pals at Pallookaville during their 2nd Annual Orphan’s Feast at 6pm! Hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night of cool island tunes and a couple Mai Tais! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, November 28

Escape Black Friday at The Star Bar as they rock out ‘70s and ‘80s style with Rumours (Fleetwood Mac tribute), Departure (Journey tribute) and Ziggy Stardust (Bowie tribute)! Get Sci-Fi retro with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and their POPS: Sci-Fi Spectacular, featuring their renditions of scores from STAR WARS, E.T. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and more, led by Conductor Jack Everly and narrated by the one and only, George Takei, running through Nov. 29! Have a haughty laugh at the Alliance Theatre during the world premiere of Dad’s Garage Theatre Company’s “It’s a Wonderful Laugh”, parodying the classic with a little raunchy humor and adult shenanigans, through Dec. 20! Denim Arcade with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Rock Vault deliver a night of rockin’ covers from the ‘70s through the ‘90s at Craze Tavern in Duluth! Punk down to 529 for a night with GHB, NOTS and Zoners! Swing on by Rays on the River for an evening with Joe Gransden! It’s a hard rock life at The Plaza Theater as they screen Bob Nalbandian’s INSIDE METAL: THE PIONEERS OF LOS ANGELES HARD ROCK & METAL (2014), a documentary about the founding fathers of the genre! It’s a night of retro rock at the Red Light Café with their annual Glenn Phillips Day-After Thanksgiving Show, joined by Cindy Wilson of the B-52s! Folk it up at Eddie’s Attic with Ellis Paul’s CD release show, with special guest Chris Trapper! Stomp on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for a rowdy night with the Darnell Boys, Caitlin Andrews and Lily Rose Williamson! The Crimson Moon Café delivers a cello/guitar eclectic orchestra with Montana Skies! Boogie on down into Disco Hell at The Family Dog as DJ Quasi Mandisco delivers a night of classic funk, soul and disco the last Friday of every month! Get ready for the holidays at the Gwinnett Center during the Northeast Atlanta Ballet’s presentation of “The Nutcracker” through Nov. 30! Get folksy with Family & Friends and Faye Webster at Vinyl! Get funky with Biscuit Miller & the Mix at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack delivers a night of rockin’ soul and blues with Rumblefish! Make your way to the Toco Hill-Avis G. Williams Library and catch Carroll Ballard’s classic, THE BLACK STALLION(1979) at 1:30pm! Blues it up at Northside Tavern with Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck and the Atlanta Horns! Blind Willie’s gets bluesy with House Rocker Johnson & the Shadows! And as always, Time-Warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW(1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, November 29

The Earl delivers a night of ‘90s alt rock and ‘70s power pop infused rock with Cracker and The Head! Get your garage rock fix at the Masquerade with Rad-isaurus Rex, The Mumzees and Femignome! It’s a hard-knock life at the Charles D. Switzer Library in Marietta, so come on by for their screening of John Huston’s classic, ANNIE(1982) at 3pm! Or make your way to the Powder Springs Public Library in Powder Springs for their screening of Vincente Minnelli’s MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944) at 3pm! Get funky with Count M’Butu and The Mar-Tans at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Rock out at the Tabernacle with The 1975, CRUISR and Young Rising Sons! Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs pays tribute to Fleetwood Mac with White Winged Dove! Folk it up at the Variety Playhouse with Shawn Mullins! Get your second helping of Ellis Paul and Chris Trapper at Eddie’s Attic! Honky-tonk on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with Convoy, Owner of the Sun and WWAYLON& the Real Americans! Get folksy at the Crimson Moon Café with Emerald Rose! Coverboy delivers a night of rockin’ covers at Front Page News in Midtown! Get the blues at Blind Willie’s with Big Bill Morganfield! Swagger on over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a night of Kansas City and West Coast blues with Atlanta Boogie! Blues it up at Northside Tavern with Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck and the Atlanta Horns! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, November 30

Get your hellish holiday shopping done early while supporting neighborhood artists at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club (EAYC) during their “Lovecrafts: Treasures from the Deep” event from 2 to 7pm! The hills are alive with Robert Wise’s THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) during their matinee screening at 2pm! Get your second helping of Cracker at The Earl! The Kris Youmans Band bluegrasses it up at Smith’s Olde Bar during their Bluegrass Brunch! Eliot Bronson delivers a little garage, polka and folk at the Crimson Moon Café! And blues it up at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack with Tony Bryant!

Ongoing

The Strand Theatre’s Lumiere Piano Bar & Lounge, featuring classic silent films quietly flickering in the background, accompanied by a live pianist and tasty cocktails, runs through Dec. 20!

TheAlliance Theatre gets retro Dickens-style with their “A Christmas Carol”, getting Scrooge-y through Dec. 24!

Center for Puppetry Arts adapts Larry Roemer’s classic, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER (1964) through Dec. 28!

Museum of Design Atlanta(MODA) exhibits 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair through Jan. 4!

The Marietta Museum of History gets Victorian as they present their “Peeling Back the Layers: Victorian Wedding Ensembles” exhibit through May 2, 2015!

William Bremen Jewish Heritage Museum’s, “Where the Wild Things Are: Maurice Sendek in His Own Words and Pictures” getting wild through July 5!

HepCat’s Hopgets swingin’ every first Wednesday of the month at the 57th Fighter Group Restaurant!

Nerd Film Mafiascreenings at theDiesel Fueling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night rocks out at the Famous Pub every Friday night with a different 80’s theme!

The Star Bar delivers Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Nightat 10pm, every Tuesday!

Steve’s Live Music’s Gypsy Jazz Brunch offers up a plate of Hot Club jamming and Parisian Swing with Kool Kat Amy Pike and the Bonaventure Quartet from 12:30 to 3:30 pm every 2^nd & 4^th Sunday!

Boogie on down into Disco Hell at The Family Dog as DJ Quasi Mandisco delivers a night of classic funk, soul and disco the last Friday of every month.

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW(1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast ofLips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.

The Ninth Annual Buried Alive Film Festival; Saturday, Nov. 22, 3:00 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.; Sunday, Nov. 23, 1:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.; Fabrefaction Theatre; Tickets $50 (all access, both days), $10 per programming block, available here. Opening night party Friday, Nov. 21, 8:00 p.m. – 11:59 p.m. @ Joystick Game Bar.

By Aleck Bennett
Contributing Writer

Need a reason to be bloody thankful this month? Well, here’s something to make your twisted Thanksgiving complete: the notorious Buried Alive Film Festival (BAFF) is back for its ninth reincarnation! Atlanta’s favorite, longest-running horror film festival will be at Fabrefaction Theatre on November 22 and 23. This year, Festival Director (and ATLRetro Kool Kat of the Week) Blake Myers and the Buried Alive team have exhumed three features and 50 short films—almost 20 hours of programming including nine American premieres and three world premieres! With a host of filmmakers in attendance, this year promises to be a glorious celebration of horror, further sealing Atlanta’s place as the horror capitol of the nation!

The weekend kicks off in style with an opening night party at Joystick Game Bar on Friday, Nov. 21, from 8 p.m. to midnight. Come on out and meet the filmmakers behind this year’s fearsome feast of fright! But pace yourself, because Saturday’s programming starts off at 3 p.m. with Shorts Program 1: Tentacles, Kidney Stones and Cannibalism. This exploration of the darkly comic and disturbingly surreal spans the globe, from here to Turkey and back again. Highlights include the post-apocalyptic doom of THE LAST HALLOWEEN, a disorienting trip with four Turkish policemen into the gaping maw of Hell in the highly acclaimed (by no less than Eli Roth and Richard Stanley) BASKIN, the hilariously gory DEAD ALIVE-meets-“Love Potion Number 9” French splatstick of SPEED FUCKING and the world premiere of local director Jay Halloway’s subterranean terror UNDERLOCK.

BAFF reconvenes at 5 p.m. for Shorts Program 2: Some Real, Some Fake, All Fucked Up. Taking a more realistic turn than the previous program, these shorts focus on the horrors of the here-and-now, ranging from the twisted psychosis of EXTREME PINOCCHIO, also French, to the provocative documentary GLASS EYES OF LOCUST BAYOU. The standouts in this category—along with those previously mentioned—include the American premieres of the funerary revenge short PARA NOCHES DE INSOMNIO and the expertly executed murder of RELLIK.

After a short break, we’re back at 7 p.m. to ponder love, desire and the meaning of “togetherness” in Shorts Program 3: Healthy Relationships. Whether living or dead, functional or dysfunctional, human or inhuman, all of the permutations of companionship are on display in this variety of shorts. Two noteworthy local entries make debuts during this program—Brandon Delaney’s first-person dialogue MY BOYFRIEND’S BAG in its world premiere, and local filmmaker James Sizemore’s Satanic opus GOAT WITCH which hits Georgia screens for the first time. Also getting American premieres are two UK shorts: SKIN, which turns the hostage/captor relationship on its head, and the unsettling physical manifestation of a deteriorating relationship of SPLIT. Add in the Norwegian sadistic ANGST, PISS AND SHIT and the fetish-laden morgue visit of I AM MONSTER, and you’ve got an evening full of romance. Well, in a manner of speaking anyway.

Night falls with the festival’s first feature program at 9 p.m. This kicks off with two shorts: the tortured texts of M IS FOR MOBILE and the Georgia premiere of Patrick Longstreth’s Tybee Island-lensed giant monster rampage HELLYFISH. That’s followed by the world premiere of ATLRetro Kool Kat Eddie Ray’s long-awaited second entry in his epically comic tale of devil worship, rock ‘n’ roll warfare and government conspiracies, SATANIC PANIC 2: BATTLE OF THE BANDS!

As the festival heads into the wee hours at 11 p.m., the second feature program of the night is Andres Torres’ horrifying journey through the seedy underbelly of the New York art world and into the twisted mind of a lonely hot dog vendor, BAG BOY LOVER BOY. Driven by killer performances and an escalating sense of discomfort, this film—which meets us at the cross-section of William Lustig’s MANIAC and Roger Corman’s A BUCKET OF BLOOD—is well worth staying up for. The evening closes with a French short film that explores the unease lurking under the comforts of HOME.

Feeling rested? Slept well after the horrors of the night before? Already got your brunch on and ready to go? Good! Because Buried Alive rises again Sunday at 1 p.m. with Shorts Program 4: Scary Animal Monsters from Outer Space at Your Service. As the program’s title suggests, the selection here is widely varied. The subjects range from the whimsical DEAD HEARTS to the vengeful water spirits of SHUI GUI, from a killer’s paranoia in SEMBLANCE to the wild Australian pathogenic zombie-kangaroo horror of WATERBORNE. Receiving its American premiere is the hilarious BUDGET CUTS, an instructional short on how to maintain your serial killer lifestyle when time and money are tight. Also making its American debut is THE BEAR FAMILY SECRET, a stark and powerful tale of homebound human horror set during the Brazilian dictatorship of 1970. And on the local front, Dayna Noffke unveils her latest work, RECOMPENSE, in its world premiere! It’s a twisty little gem in the EC Comics tradition, in which a prisoner finds out just how much his freedom will cost.

The first feature program of the day follows at 3 p.m. The supporting short, DONE IN, follows a man’s reminiscences as he pens his farewell to this world. In the featured slot is the American premiere of veteran Japanese director Hisayasu Satô’s HANA-DAMA: THE ORIGINS. A visually explosive exploration of the torment a young girl faces at school and at home, the film takes a novel path in its tale of revenge: a bullied student becomes possessed by a flower, the Hana-Dama, which makes manifest the secret desires of all those who have caused her pain.

At 5 p.m., we leave the realm of the photorealistic behind and enter Drawn and Quartered: The Animation Program. This series of shorts is bookended by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, in adaptations from Moonbot Studios: visually stunning old-school animation adaptations of THE RAVEN and THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO. In between, the festival is serving up two tales of teddy bear terror in MEAN TEDDIES and UNICORN BLOOD, the final evolution of life rising from a wasteland in Germany’s OMEGA, a wacky SHINING-inspired tale of wacky sibling rivalry and murder in the witty THE LAST RESORT and a knowing tale about the importance of choosing the right doctor in EYE IN TUNA CARE. On the local front, Amanda Smith presents a disturbing stop-motion account of a romantic dinner gone horribly awry in TRUE LOVE, and Wally Chung presents a cautionary warning about conformity and discrimination in TALL EVIL. One entry that stands out, however, is Finnish director Tomi Malkki’s FIST OF FIRE (aka TULIKOURA), the surprisingly touching story of a dying death metal drummer, his faithful dog and his post-mortem journey. Maybe my love of Finnish metal is showing through, but the short is moving and ghoulishly funny in addition to being totally and brutally metal. Malkki also will be in attendance, all the way from Finland, to talk about his film.

The second feature program of the day starts at 7 p.m. with another local offering: the Georgia premiere of Robert Bryce Milburn’s AMERICAN HELL, a short glimpse of the nightmare of isolation a family confronts when they are subject to a home invasion. That provides a perfect lead-in to the feature attraction, Adam Petke and Sean Blau’s THE SUNDERLAND EXPERIMENT, quite simply one of the most gob-smackingly original films this festival has to offer. This quietly building piece of cosmic horror is set in the isolated, fenced-off desert town of Sunderland. Something identifying itself as an “angel” has converted the town into a strange simulacrum of everyday society, and the adults into its surrogates. The children can either accept the angel’s “blessing” and become like their parents, or become the “fallen” and are left to fend for themselves in the wasteland surrounding the town’s border. One of the young men, David, is destined to learn the truth about his family, the town, and the true nature of the angel that controls their lives. It’s a stunning piece of work.

The festival closes on a holly jolly note at 9 p.m. with Shorts Program 5: A Very Special Zombie Christmas. MR. DENTONN opens the proceedings with the fairy tale-esque story of a sinister visitor that enters homes through mirrors and steals children’s souls. Afterward, we take a peek into the Troma-esque comedy of CHRISTMAS EVE PET MASSACRE, where the world’s worst family finds that their pets are more than glad to bite the hands that feed them. Then it’s off to Latin America for ZUGAR ZOMBIE—a potent cocktail of political corruption, the undead and grand irony. Finally, we wrap things up at the festival much like we started: with a delicious look at Halloween. This time, it’s Jonathan Rej and Shane Morton’s ATLANTA ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. A group of rowdy youths (the best kind) find themselves trapped in a cheesy haunted house when the zombie uprising breaks out. Is it all part of Professor Morté’s spook show? Or is it all too real? A labor of love from pretty much everyone involved with the dearly-departed Halloween haunt of the same name and the Atlanta horror film scene, it’s a gut-busting and gut-munching RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD-styled throwback to the heyday of ‘80s zombie horror. Stick around afterwards to find out the Festival winners (Disclosure: ATLRetro Publisher/Editor Anya Martin is a judge). It’s also the perfect way to close yet another fantastic run of the Buried Alive Film Festival.

Aleck Bennett is a writer, blogger, pug warden, pop culture enthusiast, raconteur and bon vivant from the greater Atlanta area. Visit his blog at doctorsardonicus.wordpress.com

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor/Contributing Writer

Forget the daily grind, get off the couch and take a peek at what we have in store for all you Kool Kats and Kittens! Let Retro Atlanta fill you with a week’s worth of swingin’ good times! From vintage, fuzzed out rock ‘n’ roll to steamy burlesque to classic cinema galore! It’ll be a bloody good time, so get out and get retro!

Monday, November 17

Get funky and boogie down with Jeff Sipe Trio, The Flying Oatsmen and The Mar-Tans at Smith’s Olde Bar! Make your way to the Lefont Theatre for their 30th Anniversary restoration screening of Daniel Schmid’s TOSCA’S KISS (1985) at 7pm! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! It’s a night of red hot blues at Blind Willie’s with Funky Bluester! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a taste of the Pork Belly’s and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, November 18

Rock out with a night of new-wave and synth pop at the Masquerade with The Birthday Massacre and New Years Day in Heaven! Or get your dirty rock ‘n’ roll fix in Purgatory with Thelma & The Sleaze, The Lamentations, Weary Heads and Dendera Bloodbath! Get holiday ready, retro-style at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern with their screening of Michael Curtiz’ WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954), during their “Home for the Holidays” series at 7:30! Get filled with three decades of R.E.M. at Midtown Art Cinema with their screening of Alexander Young’s documentary, R.E.M. BY MTV (2014)! Get artsy folk-style at The Goat Farm Arts Center with their screening of Ava Leigh Stewart’s PARADISE GARDENS: HOWARD FINSTER’S LEGACY (2014) at 7pm! The Earl delivers a night of post-punk industrial with Death In June, rockin’ out since the early ‘80s! Get the blues with a hint of folk at Eddie’s Attic with Marshall Ruffin, Kappy Arnold and The Sweeplings! Get criminal at CineBistro at Town Brookhaven with their “Cineclassics 2014” screening of Frank Darabont’s, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994) at 6:30pm! Bluegrass it up at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with Curtis Jones & Primal Roots! Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint gets the blues with the Bob Page Trio! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with Kool Kat Jeff Clark and Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm! Or boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and blues! The Entertainment Crackers get bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern! And blues it up at Blind Willie’s with JP Blues!

Wednesday, November 19

Surf down to the Drunken Unicorn and get down and dirty with the Allah-Las and Tashaki Miyaki! It’s a night of giddy Gotham hi-jinks at the Highland Inn Ballroom as SCENE MISSING presents their Batlanta Forever event at 9pm, featuring comedy, skits and writing based on Batman films! Get jazzy with Sal Gentile at the Elliott Street Pub! Bluegrass it up at the Red Light Café with the Sweetwater Creek Bluegrass Band! Or take a trip to the jungle at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) for their screening of Joe Johnston’s JUMANJI (1995) at 7pm! Escape Vehicle rocks out at Smith’s Olde Bar! Get some soul and funk it up at The Earl with Abby Wren & What It Is, Norman Frank & the Ghost Dance and Lindsay Appel! Emory Arts’ delivers their “Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema” series with their screening of Wojciech Has’ THE HOURGLASS SANATORIUM (1973) at White Hall! It’s a gothic winter wonderland at AMC Phipps Plaza 14 with their AMC Classics screening of Tim Burton’s EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990) at 2pm and 7pm! Get Grinchy at the Woodruff Arts Center as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra presents “A Very Merry Holiday Pops” featuring holiday classics, jingling through Nov. 22! It’s a hootenanny and a half at The Star Bar as they get smokin’ during their Slim Chicken Honky-tonk Extravaganza, featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes! It’s your last chance to catch Michael Curtiz’ WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954) at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their “Home for the Holidays” series at 7:30! Get glammed out and catch Hamish Hamilton’s documentary, DAVID BOWIE IS (2014) at Midtown Art Cinema! Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! The Cazanovas get the blues at Blind Willie’s! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack gets the blues with Frankie’s Blues Mission! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, November 20

The Star Bar gets down to the nitty gritty with two nights of Southern Culture on the Skids‘ voodoo beach party hillbilly hootenanny! Rock out at Terminal West with Blonde Redhead and People Get Ready! It’s Bluegrass Thursday at Red Light Café, so get to stompin’ with David & Valerie Mayfield! Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs jams it up with the Donna Hopkins Band! It’s a night of rockin’ blues at the Red Clay Theatre with Michelle Malone, Kevn Kinney and Levi Lowrey! Get adventurous in the Colombian jungle at The Plaza Theater with their screening of Robert Zemeckis’ ROMANCING THE STONE (1984) at 7:30pm! Get funky with a night of old-school soul and jazz at Smith’s Olde Bar with Back on the Freakout, Sam Burchfieldand Lilac Wine in the Atlanta Room! Or get down and dirty in the Music Room with Avenue of the Giants, Ledfoot Messiah and the Johnny Rebs! Get gypsy-jazzy Americana-style at Eddie’s Attic with Jared & Amber! Hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night of cool island tunes and a couple Mai Tais! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! It’s a night of rockin’ blues with Beverly “Guitar” Watkins at Blind Willie’s! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! Take a trip down memory lane at the Aurora Theatre with their nostalgic holiday musical revue, “Christmas Canteen” jingling through Dec. 20! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, November 21

Hobnob with the hellacious horrorific filmmakers of the 9th Annual Buried Alive Film Festival at their opening night party at Joystick Gamebar at 8pm, which will be followed by two thrilling days (Saturday/Sunday) of short and feature-length blood splattering cinema! Shimmy down to the Academy Theatre in Hapeville for two nights of magical mischief and bawdy burly-Q as The Hysteria Machines presents their Sexpelliarmus: A Whimsical Burlesque Wizarding Revue! Or pay homage to silent films and spend a glamorous evening at The Strand Theatre’s Lumiere Piano Bar & Lounge, featuring classic silent films quietly flickering in the background, accompanied by a live pianist and tasty cocktails, running through Dec. 20! Honky-tonk it up at Smith’s Olde Bar with Gangstagrass, Megan Jean & the KFB and Grim Rooster, featuring Kool Kat Phil Stair! Get jazzy at the High Museum during their Friday Night Music Remix with the Laura Coyle Quintet! Boogie on down for Mary’s Sweet 16 party filled with music videos from the last two decades! Get folksy ‘60s-style at Eddie’s Attic with the Farewell Drifters and 10 String Symphony! Boogie on down for a free afternoon show with Southern Culture on the Skids and Atomic Boogie at The Burnt Hickory Brewery in Kennesaw followed by your second helping of Southern Culture on the Skids at The Star Bar! It’s a rock ‘n’ roll revival at Vinyl with The Howling Tongues, Modoc and Young Edison! Get your funk and disco fix at Elliott Street Pub with The 200s! Hottie Hawgs BBQ delivers a night of hill country blues with John Sosebee! Rock on down to The Earl for a night with The Great Peacock, Cute Boots and Johnny Delaware! It’s a night of rockin’ Americana at the Variety Playhouse with Justin Townes Earle and Cory Branan! Get folksy a la ‘90s at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with The Good Graces and their new vinyl release show! It’s Salsa Dance Night at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event, so cha-cha under the dinosaurs with the Salsambo Dance Studio while sippin’ a few cocktails! Blues it up at Northside Tavern with Stoney Brooks! Tommy Somerville & Friends get jazzy and blues it up at the Red Light Café! Blind Willie’s gets bluesy with House Rocker Johnson & the Shadows! And as always, Time-Warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW(1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, November 22

Let the weirdly wild and bone-chilling adventure begin with day one of the 9th Annual Buried Alive Film Festival, Atlanta’s premiere horror film festival getting grotesquely gory at Fabrefaction Theatre Company! ($10/screening; $50/all-access) Or get your early ‘90s horror punk fix at the Highlander with the Spectremen’s 2014 comeback special with the Moreland Wrecks! The Earl rocks out with Kool Kat Jeff Clark and Stomp & Stammer’s 18th Birthday Blowout, featuring a killer musical lineup with The Muffs, Beach Day and Dasher! Hey dudes! Rock out at Kavarna with their Southern Surf Stomp featuring a whole lotta surf rock with The AmpFibians, Ivan Pongracie (The Space Cossacks) and Kool Kat Jeffrey Butzer & the Bicycle Eaters! Rock out with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-DeVilles at Dixie Tavern in Marietta! Kool Kat Ruby Velle & the Soulphonics deliver a whole lotta ‘50s/’60s Georgia soul at The Music Room! Get classically retro at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center at Morehouse College with The Ritz Chamber Players at 8pm! Mannheim Steamroller invades the Fox Theatre with a night of rockin’ Christmas tunes! Get the ultimate Michael Jackson tribute experience at the Variety Playhouse with Who’s Bad! Steve’s Live Music dishes out an Americana dinner showcase with Emily Kate Boyd (Billie in the Woods)! Get psychedelic and funk out with Flow Tribe and the Glen Pridgen Band in the Music Room at Smith’s Olde Bar! Or for a night of blues rock and funk, make your way to the Atlanta Room for a night with David T. & Friends! Get jazzy at The Strand Theatre with the Georgia Symphony Orchestra’s Big Band, led by Sam Skelton! Get rowdy at the Red Light Café with Heyday Revival, Fuzz Face, Brandon Gunter and Indie Killed the Pop Star! Put on those dancin’ shoes and get ready for a night of retro rock, Motown, funk, Big Band and more at The Basement for Electric Western’s Keep on Movin’ Rock and Soul Dance Party! Get old-school and rock out with the soul-sensation that is Stevie Wonder at Phillips Arena! Stomp down to the Red Clay Theatre for a night with the Smokin’ Novas, Bill Mallonee and Muriah Rose! It’s a night of rockin’ thrashin’ ‘80s metal at the Tabernacle with Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies and Exodus! ATL Collective delivers a night of “Layla” and other assorted love songs by Derek & the Dominoes at Elliott Street Pub! Get down and dirty at The Family Dog with a Doors tribute, The Dirty Doors! Blues it up at Blind Willie’s with The Nighthawks! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack rocks out with Fat Back Deluxe! The Northside Tavern gets funky with Zydefunk! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, November 23

It’s day two of Atlanta’s premiere horror film festival, the 9th Annual Buried Alive Film Festival featuring a grotesque line-up of bone-chilling feature-length and short horror films at Fabrefaction Theatre Company! Or get bawdy for a cause at 7 Stages with Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and Syrens of the South’s 8th Annual Tits for Toys for Tots Burlesque Show at 7:45pm! Take a trip to the jungle at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) for their matinee screening of Joe Johnston’s JUMANJI (1995) at 2pm! Get brassy at Steve’s Live Music with Three Beards! Smith’s Olde Bar dishes out a Bluegrass Brunch with David & Valerie Mayfield! Karla Bonoff’s been rockin’ out since the ‘70s and will be getting folksy at the Red Clay Theatre! Get the blues with Bill Sheffield at The Family Dog! Stomp on down to The Earl for the ruckus that is the Georgia Mountain String Band! And blues it up at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack with Tony Bryant!

Ongoing

The Strand Theatre’s Lumiere Piano Bar & Lounge, featuring classic silent films quietly flickering in the background, accompanied by a live pianist and tasty cocktails, runs through Dec. 20!

Aurora Theatre‘s nostalgic holiday musical revue, “Christmas Canteen” jingles through Dec. 20!

Center for Puppetry Arts adapts Larry Roemer’s classic, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER (1964) through Dec. 28!

Museum of Design Atlanta(MODA) exhibits 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair through Jan. 4!

The Marietta Museum of History gets Victorian as they present their “Peeling Back the Layers: Victorian Wedding Ensembles” exhibit through May 2, 2015!

William Bremen Jewish Heritage Museum’s, “Where the Wild Things Are: Maurice Sendek in His Own Words and Pictures” getting wild through July 5!

HepCat’s Hop gets swingin’ every first Wednesday of the month at the 57th Fighter Group Restaurant!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Fueling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night rocks out at the Famous Pub every Friday night with a different 80’s theme!

The Star Bar delivers Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night at 10pm, every Tuesday!

Steve’s Live Music’s Gypsy Jazz Brunch offers up a plate of Hot Club jamming and Parisian Swing with Kool Kool Kat Amy Pike and the Bonaventure Quartet from 12:30 to 3:30 pm every 2^nd & 4^th Sunday!

Boogie on down into Disco Hell at The Family Dog as DJ Quasi Mandisco delivers a night of classic funk, soul and disco the last Friday of every month.

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW(1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.

by Gretchen Jacobsen
Contributing Writer

Yoon Nam, Korean-American DJ and queen of vinyl, gets retro and internationally bizarre, supplying our hungry ears since 2006, with all things ’60s and ’70s international psych, prog and outsider folk rock, spinning us into the trippy, psychedelic vintage air-waves of Georgia State University’s WRAS Album 88.5’s Jet Lag! Tune in and catch a unique show filled to the brim with vinyl recordings of the weird, obscure and enticingly strange, on air every Sunday night from 8 to 10 pm! She also delivers an all-classic jazz show, The Blue Note, exclusively using vinyl recordings, every Sunday afternoon from noon till 2 pm!

There is a ritual most Sunday nights at my house. I sit on the floor in a corner of my kitchen and chat with my husband while he makes dinner. We also listen to the radio, always WRAS Album 88.5.  It took us a while to wrap our minds around the trippy, jazzy international sounds that comprise the vast Jet Lag” sonic-sphere, but once we finally “got it,” we were hooked. I wanted to learn more about Yoon, her tastes and her vinyl, so I thought I would just go ahead and ask her!

ATLRetro agreed that she’d make a perfect Kool Kat of the Week, so I caught up with Yoon Nam for a quick interview about her love of ‘60s and ‘70s psychedelic tunes and her adoration of the vintage-ly weird!

ATLRetro: What is “Jet Lag”?

Yoon Nam: The show features psychedelic music from around the world, focusing on the ‘60s and ‘70s and almost always played from vinyl. I especially enjoy featuring music that isn’t very common or heard on the radio much. When I started doing the show, I was taking over an earlier international music show on WRAS. I knew that I wanted to play a lot of prog, psych, strange folk and other music like that, so I eventually settled on the name Jet Lag. It is the name of an album from one of my favorite bands, PMF (Premiata Forneria Marconi). The name, of course, has to do with tripping, and the topos of travel since the show features music from all over the globe.

How did you become interested in this type of music?

I grew up in South Korea, and over there a lot of ‘70s prog and psych bands were actually famous. I was surprised when I came to the U.S. and found out that the general public often didn’t know about bands like PFM or Banco (Banco del Mutuo Soccorso). Italian prog is widely admired in Korea. Also, as I try to let people know through the show, there were a lot of amazing Korean psych and folk artists in the ‘70s, and they were still popular in the ‘80s when I was growing up.

There was a little record store called Wooden Horse Records near where I grew up in Seoul that I liked to hang out in, even when I was quite young. I heard a lot of European and American jazz and other stuff there. That’s where I spent my first allowance money from my parents. There were also clubs called “Dah Bang,” where DJs would play records while they served tea and coffee. They were just quiet tea and coffee rooms, but they had DJs playing records. While the DJs would play some of their own records, these “Dah Bang” would always have a large built-in collection of records, and so the customers could also pick and request the music from the library. The big collections of vinyl always impressed me a great deal. I would sneak in with my father sometimes and listen. My father was friends with a DJ, and he inherited a lot of records from that DJ when one of the clubs closed down. The whole retro-vintage culture movement in Seoul has brought “Dah Bang” back—all vinyl records, even—which is awesome.

Why does the Jet Lag sound appeal to you?

Although the show started in 2006 with me playing both CDs and records, three or four years ago I started playing almost all records. It’s about texture and sound. I love listening to records! I don’t play much, if any, newer stuff because it just doesn’t sound right or mix in well. There’s just something about the way they started recording music in the ‘80s. I’m also not particularly into information or sharing information; it’s mostly about sound – not necessarily about the rarity, though I do play a lot of obscure records on the show. When a person walks into the room and hears the music and wonders, “Where am I?” That’s what I like. Jet Lag is about travel and trips, both in terms of distance and culture.

How do you discover new sounds for Jet Lag?

Luckily, I did grow up with a lot of the music I play on the show. Sometimes it is simply a matter of something I’m really into showing up to be added to my collection (since I never, ever play computer files on the show). In truth, a lot of the records I buy these days come from overseas, but I often find cool stuff in Atlanta’s awesome used record stores, too. I also like a lot of ‘60s and ‘70s international movies. When I hear things I like, I track them down. Whenever my husband and I visit Korea, we always go to the underground arcades and record stores in Seoul and find fantastic records. I listen to stuff all the time, and I’m always on the lookout for records that I haven’t heard before or that might contain awesome music. The Internet is a really crazy resource, but it goes without saying that if I don’t like something enough to track down a real copy of it—a vinyl copy, that is—I don’t share it on the show. The show is personal. I have to really like something to play it on the air.

Are you a musician?

No, unfortunately. But I can hum and I love Karaoke!

Where do you go to see live music in Atlanta?

Atlanta is a great city for live music. I love 529, The Earl, Eyedrum and a lot more places. I try to catch jazz and classical music at Cobb Energy, Symphony Hall and Spivey Hall down at Clayton State, too.

What are you currently listening to that you’re not playing on the radio?

I’m really enjoying pre-1975 Vietnamese pop 7-inch records. It’s so wonderful; a collision of jazz and pop and traditional Vietnamese music. I listen to jazz constantly, but mostly stuff from the ‘70s and before. Again, something about the recordings sounds better to my ears.

How is the WRAS takeover affecting you and the staff at Album 88?

What happened was really unfortunate because it robbed Atlanta of something fantastic. It’s more than just losing music during the daytime hours on the radio to a duplicate of what already existed. It’s a symbolic loss. I still do The Blue Note—all classic jazz and vocals played exclusively from vinyl—every Sunday from noon till 2 pm on WRAS, but Jet Lag is no longer broadcast on FM after the takeover. We are still working hard at the station and really, really appreciate the outpouring of local support for us!

What are your plans after GSU?

Wow, plans? I’m writing my Ph.D. dissertation now (16th and 17th Century British Literature). I want to keep sharing music and making art after I graduate. Exactly how? Let me think about that after I am done with my dissertation!

Is there anything else we should know about Yoon?

I don’t actually know what to say about myself. I am a product of two different cultures—Korean and American—and music is something that connects them both for me. Even though I love music, I try not to be that person who shows up at a party and starts talking about nothing but music. Some people seem to be so competitive about what they know. I do DJ around Atlanta occasionally. Also, I enjoy making art about my female calico cat, Reginald.

*Due to the “daytime” takeover of WRAS airwaves, Album 88 programming, Jet Lag is still on air but The Blue Note can now only be heard via the WRAS HD2 stream or online through places like Tunein (Search for WRAS-HD2). There is also a free WRAS streaming app for Apple users that was created by a loyal WRAS listener.

*The fight for the return of 24 hour student run radio to WRAS is not over. Visit the Save WRAS page on Facebook for updates or to lend your support.

All photos courtesy of Yoon Nam and used with permission.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor/Contributing Writer

Come see what’s shakin’ in Retro Atlanta this week! We’ve got it all, from burly-Q to nostalgic film to all the rockin’ shenanigans your little vintage hearts could desire!

Monday, November 10

Spend the night with Ol’ Blue Eyes and swing on by the Georgia Ensemble Theatre for a hoppin’ night with Joe Gransden and his 16-piece band as he presents “Songs of Sinatra”! Make your way to the Lefont Theatre for their second and last screening of Billy Wilder’s FEDORA (1978) at 7pm! Get funky and groove on down to Café 290 every second and fourth Monday of the month for a taste of Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’ Bill Sheffield delivers the blues at Blind Willie’s! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a taste of the Pork Belly’s and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, November 11

Shimmy on down for a night of tease and spice with Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and Syrens of the South as they warm up your naughty little hearts at the Red Light Café during their Tease Tuesday: Hot Winter’s Night edition! Gather all your misfit pals and make your way to the Center for Puppetry Arts for their faithful adaptation of Larry Roemer’s classic, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER (1964) running through Dec. 28! Or for something a bit more sinister and holiday-filled, spend the night with Bill Murray at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern for their screening of Richard Donner’s SCROOGED (1988), during their “Home for the Holidays” series at 7:30! It’s a rockin’ punk and bluegrass hillbilly smash-up at The Earl with O’Death, Lily & the Tigers and Joe Fletcher! Get jazzy with the Georgia Tech Jazz Ensemble during their performance of “The Great American Songbook”, delivering tunes by Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Jimmy Van Heusen at the Ferst Center! Get really retro with Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” presented by the Atlanta Opera at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, through Nov. 16! Make your way to CineBistro at Town Brookhaven for their ‘Cineclassics 2014’ screening of Amy Heckerling’s classic teen comedy, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (1982) at 6:30pm! Spend the night with Brigitte Bardot at the Midtown Art Cinema during their screening of Jean-Luc Godard’s CONTEMPT (1963) at 7pm! Controlled Burn delivers a night of rockin’ classics at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with Kool Kat Jeff Clark and Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm! Or boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and blues! And as always, The Entertainment Crackers get bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern! And stomp on down to Blind Willie’s for a night with the Boohoo Ramblers!

Wednesday, November 12

Honky-tonk on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with Cletis & His City Cousins with Kool Kat Cletis Reid and Peewee Moore & the Awful Dreaded Snakes in the Atlanta Room! Or get folksy in the Music Room with Mingo Fishtrap, The Tarlatans and Matthew Thomas! Get jazzy with a little psych rock and surf on the side at Terminal West with Marco Benevento and Steelism! Folk rock on down to The Music Room for a night with Cicada Rhythm, Charlie& the Foxtrots and Chase Lamondo (Radio Birds)! Get your old-school southern rock fix at the Fox Theatre with their One More for the Fans event, celebrating the songs and music of Lynard Skynard with performances by Alabama, Gregg Allman, Charlie Daniels, Peter Frampton, Blackberry Smoke, Cheap Trick and more! Kool Kat Scott Glazer & his Mojo Dojo deliver a night of blues, jazz and soul at Blind Willie’s! Emory Arts’ delivers their “Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema” series with their screening of Krzysztof Zanussi’s THE ILLUMINATION (1972) at White Hall! Or spend the night in Gotham City at AMC Phipps Plaza 14 during their AMC Classics screening of Tim Burton’s BATMAN (1989) at 2pm and 7pm! It’s a hootenanny and a half at The Star Bar as they get smokin’ during their Slim Chicken Honky-tonk Extravaganza, featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes! Last chance to catch Richard Donner’s SCROOGED (1988) at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their “Home for the Holidays” series at 7:30! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack gets the blues with Frankie’s Blues Mission! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, November 13

It’s a night of vintage rock ‘n’ roll at the Red Light Café with Secondhand Swagger and Major & the Monbacks! Get the Cajun blues at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with Hair of the Dog! Get your garage rock fix at The Star Bar with Think Never, Ricer, Twin Trances and Hip to Death! The Goat Farm Arts Center is bringin’ back the ‘90s with The Cricket Gallery’s Cartoon Art from the ‘90s exhibit, 6pm to 10pm, running through Nov. 16! Get funky at Smith’s Olde Bar with Play on Brother and Arc & Stones! It’s a night of saucy tease and seduction at the Masquerade as the Suicide Girls deliver their Blackheart Burlesque Fall Tour! Get some old-time blues and soul at the Crimson Moon Café with The Lauren Mitchell Band! Hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night of cool island tunes and a couple Mai Tais! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Sweet Betty & the Shadows get down and dirty at Blind Willie’s! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! And as always, get your boogie on at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, November 14

It’s a night of Steampunk and swingin’ shenanigans at the Red Light Café with the Artifice Club & Steampunk ATLMeet-Up from 8pm to 9pm, followed by the Speakeasy Electroswing Atlanta: Cabaret edition with DJ Doctor Q, a rockin’ performance by the gypsy cabaret duo, Frenchy & the Punk (see our feature on Frenchy & the Punk here) and burly-Q heat by Lucy Purr and Candi LeCoeur! Or get dressed to the monstrous nines and boogie on down to the Masquerade for their annual Atlanta Monster Prom with costume contests, Ghoul King and Queen crowning and an all out wicked party with a hellish performance by Kool Kats, The Casket Creatures! Rock on down to The Star Bar for Jabroni Fest 2 featuring Swank Sinatra, Ganges Phalanges, Kool Kats, The Joy Kills, Spray Tan, Wicked Pretty and more! And for a haunting experience, spook on down to the Decatur Cemetery for the And So We Wandered Still event at 5pm, running through Nov. 16, with performances by Erik Thurmond, Mary Grace Phillips, Chip Epsten and Nicolette Emanuelle!

Get your punk and surf fix at 529 with Twin Tigers, Sex BBQ and Hello Cobra! It’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Night at Diesel Filling Station with Kool Kat Rev. Andy getting’ you fired up with a whole lotta rockabilly, psychobilly, old-school punk and rock ‘n’ roll! Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-DeVilles get revved up at the Foundry Grillworks in Newnan! It’s a night of Australian roots rock and funk at the Tabernacle with The John Butler Trio and Monica Heldal! Get your psychedelic grunge fix at The Earl with T. Hardy & the Hardknocks, Jessica Lea Mayfield and Dylan LeBlanc! Get funky at Hottie Hawgs BBQ with the Swamp Funk Quartet! Hop on by the Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art for their Martinis & Music event featuring a night of big band and swing with Douglas Cameron! Get groovy with Summer Hymns and the dinosaurs at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event while sippin’ a few cocktails! Kool Kat Colonel Bruce Hampton rocks out to the absurd at the Northside Tavern! It’s a night of old-time blues and soul at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues with The Lauren Mitchell Band! EG Kight delivers a night of blues and Americana at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Blues on down to Blind Willie’s for a night with Sandra Hall & the Shadows! Rock out at Smith’s Olde Bar with the Grateful Dead tribute band, Terrapin Flyer and The Hard Pans! Toucan Dubh delivers a night of Celtic folk at Java Monkey! The Geeks rock you retro-style at the L5P Front Page News! Rock out with Kool Kat VJ Anthony as he presents his New Wave 80s: Music Video Night dance party at Famous Pub! And as always, Time-Warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW(1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, November 15

Ex-Cult delivers a night of retro rockin’ punk and psych noise at 529 with the Golden Pelicans and Wymyns Prysyn! Get your boogie shoes on and swing on down to the Kennesaw State University Museum of History for their 7th Annual 1940s Swing Dance, at 7pm with live big band tunes performed by the 18-piece Peachtree Jazz Edition! Alien plants and monstrous mayhem take over the Center for Puppetry Arts with their screening of Frank Oz’ cult classic, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1986) at 7pm! Make your way to the Lefont Theatre for their 30th Anniversary restoration screening of Daniel Schmid’s TOSCA’S KISS (1985) at 10:30am! Get funky with War as they invade the Variety Playhouse! Get the blues with Barry Richman at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Get folksy at The Earl with Tyler Ramsey (Band of Horses) and Ruby the Rabbitfoot! Roxie Watson delivers a night of old-time country string band shenanigans at Eddie’s Attic! Rock on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night of tributes with The Pinups rockin’ out to Bowie tunes and the Joan Jett tribute band, The Cherry Bomb! Get your gothic country and dirty bluegrass fix at the Masquerade with The Green Gallows, Meghann Wright, Lion & Company and Ye Flask! The New Agrarians deliver their traditional southern folk with Granville Automatic at the Red Clay Theatre! Blues it up with Mike Lowry at The Family Dog! Get absurd and rock out with Yann Tiersen at Terminal West! Or get jazzy with Steve Tyrell at Center Stage! Rock on down to The Mammal Gallery for a night with Uncle Vann & the Buzzards of Fuzz, Beauregard & the Downright and wWAYLon! Blues it up at Blind Willie’s with Jarekus Singleton! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues delivers a night of blues and Americana with EG Kight! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ for the second night this week with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, November 16

It’s a wild rumpus at the William Bremen Jewish Heritage Museum with their exhibit, “Where the Wild Things Are: Maurice Sendek in His Own Words and Pictures” through July 5! Take in a matinee at AMC Phipps Plaza 14 as they screen Tim Burton’s EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990) during their AMC Classics series at 2pm! Folk on down to the Red Light Café for a night with Patty Larkin! Bebel Gilberto delivers a night of bossa nova and samba at the Variety Playhouse! Rock on down to The Plaza Theater for the premier screening of Phillipe Vieira’s GHOSTALKIN (2014), a documentary telling the story of local artist, musician and “neo-renaissance” man, Swami, featuring cameos by Bill Sheffield and Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck, at 7pm! And blues it up at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack with Tony Bryant!

Ongoing

Georgia Ensemble Theatre presents “The Elephant Man” through Nov. 16! (LAST CHANCE!)

Center for Puppetry Arts adapts Larry Roemer’s classic, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER (1964) through Dec. 28!

Museum of Design Atlanta(MODA) exhibits 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair through Jan. 4!

The Marietta Museum of History gets Victorian as they present their “Peeling Back the Layers: Victorian Wedding Ensembles” exhibit through May 2, 2015!

William Bremen Jewish Heritage Museum’s, “Where the Wild Things Are: Maurice Sendek in His Own Words and Pictures” getting wild through July 5!

HepCat’s Hop gets swingin’ every first Wednesday of the month at the 57th Fighter Group Restaurant!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Fueling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night rocks out at the Famous Pub every Friday night with a different 80’s theme!

The Star Bar delivers Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night at 10pm, every Tuesday!

Steve’s Live Music’s Gypsy Jazz Brunch offers up a plate of Hot Club jamming and Parisian Swing with Kool Kat Amy Pike and the Bonaventure Quartet from 12:30 to 3:30 pm every 2^nd & 4^th Sunday!

Boogie on down into Disco Hell at The Family Dog as DJ Quasi Mandisco delivers a night of classic funk, soul and disco the last Friday of every month.

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW(1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor/Contributing Writer

Baby, it’s cold outside! But no worries! Retro Atlanta promises to get you warm and toasty with a week of rockin’ good times, and shakin’ shenanigans galore! So get hip to the jive and come on out to see what Retro Atlanta has in store for you!

Monday, November 3

Don’t let the Monday blues keep you down! Rock down to the Masquerade for a night with Hot Water Music, Dave Hause and The

Dave Hause, Photo Credit: Jen Maler Photography

Flatliners! Or for a night of retro rock and psych funk, head over to Terminal West for J. RoddyWalston & the Business and Fly Golden Eagle! Get folksy with MarkRogers & Mary Byrne, Love Me Till My Heart Stops and Moses Nesh at The Earl! Arts at Emory presents Clive Donner’s THE CARETAKER (1963), based on Harry Pinter’s play, during PinterFest at the Emory Schwartz Center. Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 17-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! Get a little soul at Blind Willie’s with BrandonReeves! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! Blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a taste of the Pork Belly’s and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ! And Halloween may be over, but the season still haunts with The Plaza Theater’s encore screenings of Ruggero Deodato’s CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1979), Ken Wiederhorn’s SHOCK WAVES (1977) and William Lustig’s MANIAC COP 2 (1990) will terrorize through Nov. 6!

Tuesday, November 4

It’s a night of mischief and mayhem as Vincent Vega and Jules go on a rampage at CineBistro at Town Brookhaven during their ‘Cineclassics 2014’ screening of Quentin Tarantino’s PULP FICTION (1994)! Get scroogey with The Muppets at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their screening of Brian Henson’s holiday classic, THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL (1992) during their “Home for the Holidays” series at 7:30! Spice up your life at the Midtown Art Cinema with their screening of Federico Fellini’s I VITELLONI (1953) at 7pm (digital restoration)! Rock out at Eddie’s Attic with Ed Roland & theSweet Tea Project! For a night of back porch folk rock, stomp down to TheLoft for a night with Jamestown Revival, Pete Molinari and the LeftyWilliams Band! Or get your Americana fix at Java Monkey with TimPepper! Get jazzy at Gladys Knight’s Chicken & Waffles with Ron James! It’s a night of flamenco and Spanish folk tunes at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with Carmen Ladesma & Jose Mendez straight from Spain! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with KoolKat Jeff Clark and Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night! Make your way to Big Tex for a night with Moira Nelligan & The Dixie Jigs and their old-fashioned Americana! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm! Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint gets the blues with the Bob Page Trio! Blues it up at Blind Willie’s with Blues Station! Or boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and blues! And as always, The Entertainment Crackers get bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, November 5

The English Beat and Hermits of Suburbia invade theMasqueradewith a whole lotta skankin’ ska, reggae and new-wave!Get glammed up and rock out with The Unsatisfied and Ajeva at Smith’s Olde Bar in the Atlanta Room! Or get bluesy in the Music Room with Maria Maldaur and Francine Reed!Or get cosmically rocked atVinylwith Cass McCombs and The Meat Puppets!The Earl delivers a night of retro rock and pop with the Dum Dum Girls, Ex Cops and Del Venicci! Swing on by the 57th Fighter Group Restaurant for a rockin’ rollin’ swing dance with HepCat’s Hop, every first Wed. of the month! Get glamorous at the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) as they screen Deborah Riley Draper’s peek into the history of the fashion world, VERSAILLE ’73: AMERICAN RUNWAY REVOLUTION (2012), while getting to experience their 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair exhibit, running through Jan. 4! Rock out at 529 with Meatbodies, Purling Hiss, the Vincas and Landline! Emory Arts’ delivers their “Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema” series with their screening of Andrzej Wajda’s THE WEDDING (1972) at White Hall! Or creep down to AMC Phipps Plaza 14 for their screening of Henry Selick’s THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993) at 2pm and 7pm, during their AMC Classics series! Honky-tonk on down to The Star Bar as they get smokin’ during their Slim Chicken Honky-tonk Extravaganza,featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes! Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Boogie on down to East Atlanta’s Graveyard Tavern for their Graveyard Swing Night, held the first Wednesday of every month, promising an evening of swingin’ jazz and jive with the Savoy Kings! Make your way to Elliott Street Pub for Alex Gordon Hi-Fi! It’s your last chance to get comfy with The Muppets at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their screening of Brian Henson’s holiday classic, THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL (1992), part of their “Home for the Holidays” series at 7:30! The Black Lillies deliver a night of Americana at Eddie’s Attic! Blues it up at Blind Willie’s with Andrew Black! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack gets the blues with Frankie’s Blues Mission! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, November 6

TheVariety Playhouse rocks out with one of the “most influential guitar players to come out of the British blues rock scene,” Robin Trower and Tony Levitas! Blues it up at The Strand Theatre with Roger “Hurricane” Wilson! Get folksy with Kate Callahan at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! It’s a night of vintage ‘60s inspiration at the Buckhead Theatre with The New Pornographers and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart! It’s an old-time string band hootenanny at Smith’s Olde Bar in the Music Room with Acoustic Syndicate and The Hackensaw Boys! Or rock out retro-style in the Atlanta Room with BAST, Missing Letters, The Yev and Frisky Monkey! Terminal West delivers a night of rockin’ blues with Aaron Behrens (Ghostland Observatory) & the Midnight Stroll! It’s Bluegrass Thursday at the Red Light Café, so stomp on down for a night with Nine Years Apart and Jason C. Waller! Hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night of cool island tunes and a couple Mai Tais! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Delifor their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Get the blues, Americana-style with Heather Luttrell at Blind Willie’s! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! And as always, get your boogie on at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, November 7

Hey kiddies! It’s Corndogorama 2014, celebrating 18 years and rockin’ out at The Star Bar, with 2 days of rockin’ tunes for a cause! This year’s charity is the Children’s Restoration Network (CRN) and tonight’s musical lineup, beginning at 9 pm is Brain Box, Coma Girls, All My Vices At Once and more! It’s a night of ‘70s Brit rock at the Variety Playhouse with Ian Hunter & the Rant Band(Mott the Hoople) and Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby! Honky-tonk punk on down to 529 for Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires, The North Trolls and The Marrows! Culture jam with Mark Hosler (Negativland) at Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery! Get revived and swing on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with Donkey and The McNifficent 7! Rock down to the Highlander for a night with Ricer, the Rememberables and Spray Tan! Get funky at Big Tex with Dapper Slap! Boogie on down to The Strand Theatre for their presentation of Quentin Tarantino’s PULP FICTION (1994), with a dance-off on stage before the show! Get artsy with film at Film Love’s event, Through the Image: The Power of the Visual in Storytelling at the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center! Emory Arts’ delivers their “Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema” series with their screening of Wojciech Has’ THE SARGOSSA MANUSCRIPT (1964) at White Hall at 7:30pm! Get jazzy, New Orleans-style at the Ferst Center with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band w/ Allen Toussaint! Get funky at The Family Dog with Sugarfoot! Shimmy down to Center Stage for the Clubesque: A Modern Cabaret event! The Rockaholics deliver a night of blues, rock and soul at Hottie Hawgs BBQ! Boogie under the dinosaurs at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event delivering a night of Chicago and West Coast blues with the Electromatics! Rock out at the Northside Tavern with the Allman Brothers Tribute Band! Get down and dirty at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues for a night with Snake Legs! Get some soul at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with Gareth Asher & the Earthlings! Delta Moon delivers a night of blues, Americana and roots at Blind Willie’s! John Sosebee delivers the blues at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! And as always, Time-Warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW(1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, November 8

It’s day 2 of Corndogorama 2014 at The Star Bar! Today’s musical line-up will have you rockin’ all night for a great cause, beginning at 2pm with Spray Tan, Blue Tower, Chickens & Pigs, Hip to Death, Glen Iris, The Higher Choir, Kool Kats Spirits & the MelchizedekChildren, Skin Jobs, Zoners, Kill Baby, Kill, Guantanamo Baywatch, Book of Colors, PLS PLS and more! It’s a day of rockin’ and revvin’ at Frazier’s Harley-Davidson with their Rockabilly Rat Rod & Car Show from 11am to 4pm, offering tasty food, and live music with Grim Rooster (ft. Kool Kat Phil Stair), hosted by Kool Kat Rev. Andy and Garage71! It’s a night of garage and retro rock at The Mammal Gallery with The Ray City Rollers, Blake Rainey & His Demons and The Southern Gentlemen League! It’s a night of alt-funk metal rock at the Tabernacle with Primus! Get funky with Ajeva at The Family Dog! Rock out with the Melvins and Honky at The Loft! Honky-tonk on down to the Dixie Tavern in Marietta as they get smokin’ during their Slim Chicken Honky-tonk Extravaganza,featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes! You won’t want to miss Atlanta’s premier screening of Billy Wilder’s FEDORA (1978) at the Lefont Theatre at 10:30am! And don’t forget to catch the 35mm screening of Federico Fellini’s I VITELLONI (1953) at Midtown Art Cinema at 10am! The Lone Bellow delivers a night of alt-country, blues and folk rock at SCADShow! Get jazzy with a bit of Dylan-style folk at the Red Light Café with Spottiswoode & His Enemies! The “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin will have you boogyin’ all night at theFox Theatre! Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake & Palmer) delivers his ELP legacy at theVariety Playhouse! Get rootsy at Vinyl with Cody Marlowe & the Dead Flowers! Blackfoot Daisy delivers a night of Americana at Java Monkey! Get folksy with Randall Bramblett at Eddie’s Attic! Spend an evening with blues chanteuse Francine Reed & the Shadows at Blind Willie’s! Get funky at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues with the Billy Thompson Band! Blues it up at the Northside Tavern with Ike Stubblefield! It’s a night of indie folk and roots rock at Smith’s Olde Bar in the Music Room with Rosco Bandana, Cornmeal and Radio Birds! Or stomp over to the Atlanta Room for a night with Buck O Five, Amnesty Road and Rob Cash (Six Ways to Sunday)! Get funky with Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue with Lingo at the Buckhead Theatre! Bluegrass it up at Big Tex with Georgia Railroad! Groove over to the Red Clay Theatre for a night with The Bitteroots and Nine Times Blue! The Stooge Brothers deliver their rockin’ blues at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, November 9

Rev on down to The Earl for a rockin’ night with Reverend Horton Heat and El Capitan & the Band With No Name! Calling all vivacious vintage gals! Get saucy at Grease Inc, Magazine in Buford at their Pin-Up Boot Camp, from 11am to 5pm, with full day of learning hair and make-up basics and all things vintage! It’s vigilante day at AMC Phipps Plaza 14 during their matinee AMC Classics screening of Tim Burton’s BATMAN (1989) at 2pm! The Atlanta Symphony delivers a night of baroque, operatic and indie pop with Rufus Wainwright! Get the blues with Bill Sheffield at The Family Dog! Cedar Hill brunches out at Big Tex during their Bluegrass Brunch! And blues it up at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack with Tony Bryant!

Ongoing

Netherworld haunts with two terrifying haunted houses, “Season of the Witch” and “SPLICED” every weekend through Nov. 8! (LAST CHANCE!)

Center for Puppetry Arts presents “The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Silly Hollow” spooking through Nov. 9! (LAST CHANCE!)

Georgia Ensemble Theatre presents “The Elephant Man” through Nov. 16!

Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) exhibits 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair through Jan. 4!

The MariettaMuseum of History gets Victorian as they present their “Peeling Back the Layers: Victorian Wedding Ensembles” exhibit through May 2, 2015!

HepCat’s Hopgets swingin’ every first Wednesday of the month at the 57th Fighter Group Restaurant!

Nerd Film Mafiascreenings at theDiesel Fueling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night rocks out at the Famous Pub every Friday night with a different 80’s theme!

The Star Bar delivers Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Nightat 10pm, every Tuesday!

Steve’s Live Music’s Gypsy Jazz Brunch offers up a plate of Hot Club jamming and Parisian Swing with Kool Kool Kat Amy Pikeand the Bonaventure Quartet from 12:30 to 3:30 pm every 2^nd & 4^th Sunday!

Boogie on down into Disco Hell at The Family Dog as DJ Quasi Mandisco delivers a night of classic funk, soul and disco the last Friday of every month.

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW(1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast ofLips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.