ATLRetro

Joe Gransden.

Monday, March 18

First and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Cafe 290 with 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. Special guests at this show are The Cambridge Middle School Band directed by Ryan Borger.  Northside Tavern hosts its weekly Blues Jam featuring blues and southern soul singer, Lola Gulley. Enjoy BBQ and Pead Boy and the Pork Bellies at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack.

Tuesday, March 19

Thrash to iconic LA punk band BAD RELIGION in heaven at The Masquerade. Minneapolis-St Paul gypsy-rock Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles play the Earl. St. Patrick’s Day may be over, but Irish-themed  THE QUIET MAN (19952), starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, is this week’s retro cinema classic  at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern. Kool Kat Calu Cordeira mixes tiki libations at Mai Tai Tahitian Tuesday starting at 9 p.m. at the Dark Horse Tavern. Grab your horn and head over to Twain’s in Decatur for a Joe Gransden jazz jam session starting at 9 p.m., or you can blues it down with Nathan Nelson & Entertainment Crackers at Northside Tavern. Head over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for some old school R & B, rock ‘n roll and blues with Gray Sartin.

Wednesday, March 20

Head to Centennial High School in Roswell at 7 p.m. for a special concert by Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra featuring jazz and swing standards in the tradition of the Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups. Catch THE QUIET MAN (1952) at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern. Old enough to feel Retro? It’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd. Get ready to rumba, cha-cha and jitterbug at the weekly Swing Night at Graveyard Tavern. Danny “Mudcat” Dudeck brings the gospel blues to Northside Tavern. Billy George blues it down at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack.

Thursday, March 21

The third annual weekend-long Southern Fried Burlesque Fest at the Wyndham Atlanta Galleria kicks off with a happy hour mixer which also will double as the monthly meet-up of the Atlanta Burlesque & Cabaret Club from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., then get a sneak peek at burlesque’s future stars at the Just Hatched Newcomers Showcase and catch the Atlanta premiere of  THE BURLESQUE ASSASSINS, a Canadian comedy/spy action indie feature film set in a 1950s Burlesque theater starring d’Lite and other top burlesque performers from around the world. Read our spicy SFBF preview here. THUNDER ROAD (1958), the Robert Mitchum moonshine exploitation flick, is a ridiculously fun and culty movie, and it’s playing in its natural habitat at the Starlight Drive-In as part of the Atlanta Film Festival at 8:45 pm. It’s a super alt-garage night with Abby Go-Go, Bambara, Religious Girls and Nung River at 529. JB Walker & the Cheap Whiskey Band brings Southern rock to Atlanta’s favorite famous dive strip bar, the Clermont Lounge. Relax with a cocktail while listening to Tongo Hiti playing Retro-Polynesian luxurious live lounge sounds, as well as trippy takes on iconic pop songs, at vintage tiki bar, Trader Vic’s, every Thursday night. Joe Gransden joins the Sal Gentile Trio for a jazzy night at Pricci. Go to Northside Tavern to hear the classic 50s Chicago-style blues of The Breeze Kings. Get on over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack to hear the honkytonkin’ blues of Chickenshack. Plectophelia provide the strumming at Red Light Cafe‘s weekly Bluegrass Thursday.  THE QUIET MAN (1952) plays a final night at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern.

Friday, March 22

The Southern Fried Burlesque Fest at the Wyndham Atlanta Galleria teases into full gear with classes and vendors during the daytime, the Free Range International Showcase headlined by Miss Exotic World 2010 Roxi D’lite and featuring performances by local and national stars including Reigning King of Burlesque Russell Bruner and legends Judith Stein and Toni Elling at 9 p.m. and an after-party at 11:30 p.m with music by Till Someone Loses An Eye featuring Kool Kat Aileen Loy and  Good Golly Svengali. More details in our preview here  Leonard Cohen brings his one-of-a-kind performance to the Fox Theatre. The Electromatics play a combination of Chicago/West Coast blues, blue-eyed soul and an essence of standard Jazz and Sinatra under the dinosaurs at Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX. Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-Devilles rockabilly it up at The Alamo in Newnan. The Blues Barons blues it down at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. Head to Northside Tavern to hear blues legend Robert Lee Coleman. Grim Rooster, featuring Kool Kat Phil Stair, honkytonks it up at Big Tex in Decatur.

1958 photo of the Healey from Georgia State University. (You can see this view today at https://www.atlantatimemachine.com/downtown/healey2.htm)

Saturday, March 23

Get on up to Southern Fried Burlesque Fest at the Wyndham Atlanta Galleria with classes and vendors during the daytime, then see some of the south’s and nation’s finest compete in the Southern Fried Burlesque Pageant, hosted by Cora Vette with “farewell” performances by last year’s pageant winners Orchid Mei and New Orleans’ Slow Burn Burlesque! Then close out the night with the Southern Scorcher Showcase featuring Talloolah Love, Kisa Von Teasa and talent from all over the Southeast! Again, read more in our preview here. Celebrate the centennials of two landmark downtown Atlanta high-rises the neo-gothic Healey Building and the Kessler City Lofts in a highlight of the Atlanta Preservation Center‘s 1oth annual Phoenix Flies. Read our ATLRetro preview here. Mon Cherie Presents a Rocky Horror Fetish Night at The Masquerade, so dig out your favorite costume from the cult classic and do the Time Warp again. Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-Devilles shake up The Depot in Covington. Bonaventure Quartet swings into Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs. Cruise-O-Matic plays at Big Tex. Chicken Raid 2013 honors the memory of blues legend Mr. Frank Edwards with a variety of performers at Northside Tavern. Big C and Velvet Delta bring some hot and heavy blues to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. As usual, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, March 24

Get your final shopping done and catch up with the stars before they leave town at Southern Fried Burlesque Fest at the Wyndham Atlanta Galleria. Francine Reed and The Trio jazz up The Family Dog. Porch Bottom Boys honkytonk up brunch at Big Tex at noon. Chicken Raid 2013 continues at Northside Tavern to wrap up your weekend or check out some down and dirty Snake Legs blues at Fatt Matt’s Rib Shack.

Frida Kahlo. Photo credit: Nickolas Muray

Ongoing

The Atlanta Film Festival offers 10 days of programming (March 15-24, 2013) for all the cinema junkies who need a fix (or merely a break from the cold wasteland known as March at the multiplex). Headquartered at the historic Plaza Theatre, the festival is overflowing with content from new feature films, documentaries and shorts to seminars on the business and craft of filmmaking, and meet-and-greets around town. For a quick guide to what’s retro at AFF this year, click here.

The Atlanta Preservation Center‘s 1oth annual Phoenix Flies offers more than 200 opportunities to tour or otherwise experience Atlanta’s mist significant historic buildings and sites, many of which are not regularly open to the public. Read our ATLRetro preview here.

Make a date with FRIDA AND DIEGO: PASSION, POLITICS AND PAINTING, a blockbuster special exhibition showcasing the works of one of art’s most famous couples, at The High Museum of Art through May 12.

EXTREME MAMMALS from sabertooth tiger skulls and wooly mammoth fur to contemporary creatures such as the duck-billed platypus invade Fernbank Museum of Natural History through August 18.

Learn about  a different side to the third American president and Constitution author in the Really Retro special exhibition Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: How the Word is Passed Down at the Atlanta History Center through July 7.

Every Tuesday and Thursday night is Retro Cinema at Movie Tavern. Check out classic movies on the big screen weekly at 7:30 p.m.

By Andrew Kemp
Contributing Writer

The wait is over as the Atlanta Film Festival returns to screens today, kicking off 10 days of programming (March 15-24, 2013) for all the cinema junkies who need a fix (or merely a break from the cold wasteland known as March at the multiplex). As per usual, the festival is overflowing with content from new feature films, documentaries and shorts to seminars on the business and craft of filmmaking, and meet-and-greets around town. If you’re reading this, the safe money says that you’re looking for retro options, and as the title up there suggests, we’re here to oblige.  Here’s a quick guide to what’s retro at AFF this year, which by the way is headquartered at the historic Plaza Theatre.

Let’s start with the true retro bits of cinema history. The AFF is an Oscar-qualifying festival, so it caters primarily to new films, but a retro gem occasionally makes it onto the schedule. This year, you can get your fix at a must-see screening of THUNDER ROAD (1958). This Robert Mitchum moonshine exploitation flick is a ridiculously fun and culty movie, and it’s playing in its natural habitat at the Starlight Drive-In on Thursday, March 21 at 8:45 pm. There will likely be plenty of audience participation at the screening, and the same can be said of the THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975), playing at two midnight shows on consecutive Fridays, March 15 and 22 at its home turf of the Plaza Atlanta, featuring the usual antics of the Lips Down on Dixie crowd.

The Plaza is also hosting an unusual new film with a connection to an odd relic of the early 80s. William Friedkin’s  CRUISING (1980) is something of an embarrassment today, a movie that purports to take a serious look at gay culture but winds up taking several ugly steps in the wrong direction. The cut released in theaters is bad enough, but rumors linger of a much-longer version containing 40  minutes of explicit gay sex and S&M material that would have taken the film to an X rating. The footage is lost, but actor and professional-insubordinate James Franco is teaming with director Travis Mathews to imagine that missing material and explore the nature of filming controversial, or even blatantly harmful, art in INTERIOR. LEATHER BAR, a piece of “docufiction” playing at the Plaza’s upstairs screen on March 21 at 9:15 pm, or directly opposite the THUNDER ROAD screening, so some choices are going to have to be made.

If you’re interested in new films with a retro angle, you’ll want to look out for the Australian film THE SAPPHIRES, an adaptation of a play (itself based on a true story) about a group of Australian indigenous women who become a singing group for the troops in Vietnam only a year after a referendum expanded indigenous rights. The film stars Chris O’Dowd, the funny cop from BRIDESMAIDS (2012), as the group’s manager and has a fairly awesome late-‘60s style soundtrack that’s already found a lot of success in its home country. THE SAPPHIRES is playing the Plaza’s upstairs screen on Sunday, March 17, at 6:00 pm. Moving forward a decade, the new Canadian film BECOMING REDWOOD orbits around a young boy in 1975 who decides to beat Jack Nicklaus at golf as a play to get his parents back together. The quirky dramedy was a big hit at the Vancouver International Film Festival, and  makes its Atlanta debut at 7 Stages on Saturday, March 16, at 2:45 pm.

If you’re into documentaries, consider OUR NIXON, a new doc assembled from an astonishing find of home movies shot by some of President Nixon’s closest aides, like H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. The FBI seized the Super 8 films as part of its investigation into Watergate, and they’re only now being seen by a public that long ago closed that chapter of American history. The footage is incredibly intimate and personal, showing a side of Nixon that’s literally never been seen before on film until now. OUR NIXON plays at 7 Stages on March 21 at 8:30 pm. For a hustler of a different variety, ICEBERG SLIM: PORTRAIT OF A PIMP presents a comprehensive look at the late pimp and author who helped illuminate a shadowy profession and redefine urban style and culture for a generation of young men. The Hughes Brothers once tried to mount an adaptation of Slim’s novel PIMP:THE STORY OF MY LIFE, but the project fell apart. Now producer Ice-T and his longtime manager Jorge Hinojosa bring Slim’s story to the screen. It arrives on Tuesday, March 19, at 7:15 on the Plaza’s main screen.

If you’re familiar with writer and all-around-badass George Plimpton, you know that his resume reads like one of those Most Interesting Man in the World commercials, which makes PLIMPTON! STARRING GEORGE PLIMPTON AS HIMSELF the world’s ballsiest documentary for attempting to fit the story of his life into a mere 86 minutes. They’ll give it a shot on March 23 at 10:45 am at the Plaza. Film nuts will also want to keep an eye out for CASTING BY, a new documentary about the hidden world of casting directors, and how some of the legends in the field helped to shape the film renaissance of the ‘60s and ‘70s. The doc unspools at the Plaza on March 20 at 7:00 pm.

Music lovers will want to look out for two documentaries that shed some light on a couple of major figures. GOOD OL’ FREDA tells the story of Freda Kelly, a girl who started working for a local band and then spent a decade as The Beatles’ fan club secretary” as they became the world’s biggest band. GOOD OL’ FREDA, a film that began life as a successful Kickstarter project, plays at 9:15 pm on March 16 at Druid Hills Baptist Church. Meanwhile, SCARRED BUT SMARTER tracks the career and roots of Atlanta indie rock band Drivin’ N Cryin’ with two screenings at the Plaza’s main screen on Friday, March 22 at 8:00 pm and Sunday, March 24 at 6:30 pm. There’s also an after-screening party happening at the Highland Ballroom, although AFF’s website isn’t clear about whether or not party access is covered in the cost of your movie ticket. Stay tuned.

There’s plenty more happening at the festival, so for further information and scheduling, definitely take a spin on the AFF’s official website. Frankly, it’s exciting to see the AFF fully embrace the city’s many retro venues this year. The Plaza has had a strong relationship with the festival, but 7 Stages, Goat Farm Arts Center and the Starlight are all a part now, making the fest feel even more closely tied to the pulse of the city and its growing film community. ATLRetro will be present at a bunch of screenings, so keep an eye out and introduce yourself! We’d love to hear from you. See you on the other side!

Andrew Kemp is a screenwriter and game writer who started talking about movies in 1984 and got stuck that way. He writes at www.thehollywoodprojects.com and hosts a bimonthly screening series of classic films at theaters around Atlanta.

The National Tour of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET (Photo by Paul Natkin)

A fateful winter day when four of rock and country’s greatest sang together is recreated in MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, the hit musical which plays the Fox Theatre from March 12-17 as part of the Broadway in Atlanta series. The extraordinary recording session on Dec. 4, 1956, included Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash and was presided over by legendary Sun Records owner/producer Sam Phillips. Among the rock hits recorded that night were “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Fever,” “That’s All Right,” “Sixteen Tons,” “Great Balls of Fire,” “Walk the Line,” “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” “Who Do You Love?,” “Matchbox,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Hound Dog” and more.

The family of Johnny Cash, in a twist of fate and coincidence, moved to Memphis in the early 1950s. One day he worked up his gumption to show up at Sun and ask Sam for a recording contract. Sam wasn’t interested in the gospel songs that were Johnny’s first love and was rumored to suggest he “go home and sin, then come back with a song I can sell.” Johnny says that anecdote didn’t happen, but he did switch to rockabilly, Sam took him on, and he recorded early hits such as “Hey Porter,” “Folsom Prison Blues” and ‘Walk the Line” at Sun. He actually became Sun’s best selling artist and the first to complete an LP.

To find out more about MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET and Johnny Cash’s Sun years, we caught up with David Elkins, who plays Johnny in the national tour company.

David Elkins as Johnny Cash in The National Tour of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET (Photo by Paul Natkin)

How did you get the part of Johnny Cash?

I answered an open call audition inNew York City. Yes, I was going in solely for the role of Johnny.  I couldn’t begin to do those other guys justice. But I knew what I sounded like when I sang, and I just thought, “I can do that.” I love Johnny and his story. I respect his life’s journey and what he stood for, so it’s a real honor to try and bring a glimpse of that, one slice of time in his life, and share that with people everyday.

Some people may be less familiar with Johnny Cash’s relationship with Sun Records than with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. What will audiences learn about him in MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET that they may not know?

Johnny Cash was there at Sun, but he left for Columbia Records, which is one of the dramatic story points in the show. He wanted to record a gospel album, and Mr. Phillips didn’t want to record it. He didn’t think the kids would buy it, but Columbia said they  would record it. It’s true that when most people think of Johnny, it’s more the “Man in Black” Johnny Cash of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and later AMERICAN RECORDINGS even, with [producer] Rick Rubin. That’s maybe why the Sun Records years don’t stick out as much today to some.

How did you approach playing Johnny Cash?

Instead of tackling the icon and trying to bring all that to the stage in less than two hours, I approached him as a 24-year-old kid from Arkansas who grew up picking cotton. My grandmother grew up 200 miles north of where Johnny was born [in Kingsland], so I heard all sorts of stories about picking cotton, working in the fields, and looking out for rattlesnakes. I thought of those folks who I have met. It made [Johnny’s early life] immediately tangible for me.

What are your favorite songs in the musical?

I really like our Quartet numbers. We do “Down By the Riverside” and “Peace in My Valley.” Those are pretty magical moments when we get to harmonize. And personally I love watching the other guys do their thing. I get to be on stage and watch them. Everybody I work with is so talented. I really love doing “Walk the Line,” too. People really open up to it. The first song I do is “Folsom Prison Blues,” and that song always gets a great reaction. After one show, I talked to a navy midshipman who used to listen to Johnny Cash all the time. He said, while I was singing, he closed his eyes and thought of his friends. I thought that was very genuine and from the heart. Things like that are very special.

I did a show in Durham, NC, and Johnny Cash’s nephew and his family met me after the show. He said that someone had told him he should go see the show. He said he figured that the other guys will be pretty good, but “nobody sounds like my uncle Johnny…but you nailed it.” That was such a blessing to me and a real confirmation of what we are trying to do.

Ben Goddard as Jerry Lee Lewis, James Barry as Carl Perkins, Cody Slaughter as Elvis Presley and David Elkins as Johnny Cash in The National Tour of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET (Photo by Paul Natkin)

Do you have any ritual for getting in character?

My warm-up consists of singing along to the HYMNS BY JOHNNY CASH album that he recorded shortly after he left Sun. I also watched old videos of his appearances on TV shows such as TOWN HALL PARTY and THE TEX RITTER SHOW and other clips of that era. It is not an impersonation, but I try to channel the feel of those shows. I think about what makes Johnny such a dynamic performer, so earnest and direct with his delivery. He really made each song his own. He was a storyteller. When he covered other people’s songs, he attached an earnestness, just a storyteller’s sensibility to every song. And there’s always that danger, that unpredictability under the surface that I think people are drawn to.

What will audiences be most surprised by?

I think audiences will be surprised by the undeniable impact this one man, Sam Phillips, had on the birth of rock n roll. He really had a gift for pulling new sounds out of young artists, and he recognized the racial barriers in music and helped to knock those down. He’s one of the few people in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that wasn’t a musician. The show really is an ode to Sam Phillips. He really anchors the whole story. The script [by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux] was based on GOOD ROCKIN’ TONIGHT: SUN RECORDS AND THE BIRTH OF ROCK N ROLL by Colin Escott and Martin Hawkins. You can really feel the respect and love the authors have for Sam. It’s interesting to listen to the music of that time. If you listen to what they would have heard on the radio, then you can better understand why what they did at Sun was so revolutionary.

Vince Nappo as Sam Phillips in The National Tour of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET (Photo by Jeremy Daniel)

In MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, you’ve had the pleasure of performing in a lot of vintage theaters before getting to our Fabulous Fox. Any favorites?

A great part of the tour has been seeing beautiful old theaters. One of the cast members, Katie Barton, who is the understudy for Elvis’s girlfriend Dyanne, is from Atlanta and she told me the Fox is beautiful. There was Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, NY, where Duke Ellington performed and KING KONG played. I liked the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia. It wasn’t the most beautiful and the boards were a bit creaky, but it takes you back in time a bit and it felt great to be right in the middle of the city. The [former] Hippodrome [ now the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center] in Baltimore was also very impressive and a lot of fun to play in.

1958 photo of the Healey from Georgia State University. (You can see this view today at https://www.atlantatimemachine.com/downtown/healey2.htm)

By Kristin Halloran
Contributing Writer

Well, in like a lion is right. As a transplanted New Englander, this isn’t the kind of weather I expect from March in Atlanta, so I’m crossing all my fingers and toes that March undergoes its magical transformation into a lamb very soon… but in the process, how about a mythical regenerating bird? This month, the Atlanta Preservation Center will hold its 10th Phoenix Flies, with more than 200 opportunities for Atlantans to tour or otherwise experience significant historic buildings and sites, many of which are not regularly open to the public.

Phoenix Flies was created in 2003 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of one of Atlanta’s treasures, the Fox Theatre, NOT being demolished, and it’s gotten bigger and better each year since then. There’s something for everyone – in recent years, bike tours have been added to the lineup; there are neighborhood walking tours, cemetery tours, building tours, poetry readings, public art walks, storytelling and even a progressive organ crawl. Click here for the full calendar or pick up a printed booklet at most of the tour locations.

Three intown residential buildings are celebrating their centennials this year with opportunities for visitors to discover the joys of intown living: the Healey Building, Kessler City Lofts and the Ponce Condominiums. The Healey, a former office building in the charming and walkable Fairlie-Poplar historic district, is a neo-Gothic skyscraper a block off of Woodruff Park. It was named after its developer, William T. Healey, and designed by Walter T. Downing with the firm of Bruce and Morgan. The beautiful central rotunda was originally intended to connect two towers, the second of which was never built. Renovation was completed in 1988 by Atlanta architecture firm Stang and Newdow, now part of Stevens & Wilkinson, and today the building is full of happy downtown residents. The base houses an assortment of restaurants, shops and offices, including neighborhood favorites such as Le French Quarter Cafe and the VSA’s Arts for All Gallery . When you visit, pay close attention to the interior details that were retained, like the elevators and mail chutes. The Healey will celebrate its centennial with a Phoenix Flies tour on March 23, followed by a reception in the lobby and a chance to see the city views from the 16th floor. Visit the building on Facebook and learn more about the celebration here.

1947 photo of Kline's (now Kessler City Lofts) from Georgia State University.

Following the celebration at the Healey, head a few blocks south to the Kessler to celebrate with us! This location at the corner of Peachtree Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive has housed retail stores since 1855, including Ryan & Myers; Douglas, Thomas & Davison; Davison-Paxon-Stokes; Duffee-Freeman; J.Saul & Co.; Kline’s; Grayson-Robinson; and H. Kessler & Co. Davison-Paxon-Stokes (later moved to the corner of Peachtree and Ellis, where 200 Peachtree is located, and acquired by Macy’s) built the building as it stands today – more or less. In 1964, shortly after Kessler’s moved in, Hunter Street (now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) was widened and a 14-foot slice was taken off the south face of the building.

When Rich’s closed in 1991, it drastically affected the department store shopping environment in the southern part of downtown. Kessler’s, which also had locations in Smyrna, West Point, Decatur, Rome, Newnan and Canton, held on until 1998. The building was renovated by Brock Green Architects and Planners, now part of Lord Aeck Sargent, and Kessler City Lofts opened in 2000. Its most striking features are its exposed brick walls, simple concrete columns, original floors and the water tower on the roof. Inspired by the Atlanta Downtown Neighborhood Association‘s loft tours of the past, Kessler residents will open up several occupied and available units to the public starting at 4 p.m. on March 23. Make your way up to the rooftop deck for a sunset toast to another 100 years. You can visit the Kessler on Facebook and learn more about the centennial event here.

Last but definitely not least, the Ponce. One of Atlanta’s most striking residential buildings, the Ponce de Leon Apartments were designed by William Stoddart, not long after he completed the neighboring Georgian Terrace Hotel. At the time, this area of midtown was full of mansions – think Rhodes Hall; the Peters House, now Ivy Hall, and the Rufus Rose House.

undated photo of the Ponce de Leon Apartments and the Georgian Terrace from Georgia State University. (See another view here: https://atlantatimemachine.com/downtown/ponce_75.htm

The Ponce was Atlanta’s first high-rise luxury apartment building, and luxurious it was, with 16 large apartments – three or four bedrooms, three bathrooms, sleeping porches, and separate kitchens and servants’ quarters. In addition, the upper floors housed “bachelor apartments” of two or three rooms each. Many of the residents, especially those in the smaller apartments, chose to dine in the cafe on the ground floor. The Ponce was converted to condominiums in 1982 when many of its interior Beaux-Arts finishes were restored. Exterior renovations are ongoing.

The Ponce is also participating in Phoenix Flies with a centennial tour on March 16, including a visit to the rooftop to see spectacular views of Atlanta. And of course, you can also visit the Ponce on Facebook.

ATLRetro Contributing Writer Kristin Halloran is a damn Yankee who loves living in downtown Atlanta. She is an architect at Lord Aeck & Sargent, and her favorite things include vintage postcards, old brick buildings and secondhand bookstores.

Splatter Cinema presents STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997); Dir. Paul Verhoeven; Starring Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer and Neil Patrick Harris; Tuesday, Mar. 12 @ 9:30 p,m.; Plaza Theatre; Trailer here.

By Aleck Bennett
Contributing Writer

Splatter Cinema returns to Atlanta’s historic Plaza Theatre this month with that enduring tale of Man vs. Bug: Paul Verhoeven’s STARSHIP TROOPERS. But lurking beneath the shimmering surface of blood and insect guts is a knowingly subversive take on Robert Heinlein’s classic novel of military science fiction.

It’s safe to say that Robert A. Heinlein is one of the most influential authors to ever work within the sci-fi genre. This is not to say he’s universally loved, mind you. Certainly, the man’s got as many detractors as acolytes. But through the years, his provocative output has inspired many others to create works in response, whether furthering his themes and ideas or standing in stark contrast to them. And the novel that best exemplifies this aspect of his art is the polarizing STARSHIP TROOPERS.

First published in 1959, STARSHIP TROOPERS was written by Heinlein largely as an attempt to explain his political thinking at the time. Under attack from others within the sci-fi community for his increasingly conservative and pro-nuclear testing stances, he took time off from writing what would become STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND and sought to clarify his positions through this novel.

The book was extremely successful, winning the 1960 Hugo Award for Best Novel and continuing to sell strongly in the decades after its initial printing. It also almost single-handedly created the sub-genre of military science fiction. However, it likewise sparked a hailstorm of criticism that continues to this day. The novel’s staunchly nationalistic pro-military and pro-war stances came across as borderline fascistic to a number of people—a number that included screenwriter Ed Neumeier and director Paul Vershoeven. Reuniting 10 years after their collaboration on the similarly satirical ROBOCOP, the pair set out to not only send up the militaristic and jingoistic aspects of Heinlein’s novel (and similarly themed action films as a whole), but to make an explicitly anti-war film and—by extension—to say (as Verhoeven puts it in the film’s DVD commentary) that “war makes fascists of us all.”

A bug alien skitters behind marine hero Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) in STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997), based on the iconic 1959 Robert Heinlein novel.

Superficially, this is a glorious action film. It follows young recruit Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) as he rises through the ranks of the military during a war against the arachnid inhabitants of the desert planet Klendathu, which began when the bugs lobbed an asteroid into the city of Buenos Aires, killing millions. He initially joins to impress his girlfriend, pilot Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards), but finds himself swept up into war after the destruction of his home city. The film is filled with expertly-shot and edited action sequences, as armies of humans and insects are slaughtered en masse. It’s bloody, and it’s slimy, and brains get sucked out of people’s heads and stuff blows up real good. The film’s pace never lets up once things are set into motion. It’s fast, funny, tense and terrifying. It’s practically everything an over-the-top action movie ought to be.

But it’s also peppered with shots lifted from Leni Reifenstahl’s TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, clothing inspired by Nazi uniforms, architecture inspired by Albert Speer and propaganda-styled military recruitment ads disguised as news items. Verhoeven, who grew up in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, cleverly appropriates these familiar elements and uses them as satirical and hyperbolic weapons in order to attack glorification of military might and nationalism. This is much along the lines of what he and Neumeier previously did in ROBOCOP, using the trappings of a conventional action picture to slyly send up commercialism, the mass media and the trend toward privatization of previously public works. Verhoeven and Neumeier reference these WWII-era touchstones in order to detail the militaristic and war-driven society that Heinlein presented in his novel as practically a utopia, and how they see that road as eventually leading to fascism.

A proto-Nazi-uniformed Neil Patrick Harris inspects a captured alien in STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997).

Of course, it’s not easy to sell a film in which your heroes end up fighting for a society that the filmmakers keep trying to depict as intrinsically evil, and in which Neil Patrick Harris, of all people, eventually winds up wearing an SS uniform. As a result, the movie wound up being nearly as polarizing as Heinlein’s novel, with many reviewers inaccurately (according to the filmmakers) reading the film as a celebration of fascism instead of the subversive critique Verhoeven and Neumeier intended. However, Verhoeven’s technical mastery has resulted in the film’s enduring legacy as one of the great contemporary action films, regardless of its political aims. Its success at the box office has resulted in three sequels, a computer-animated television series, a board game, several video games, a TROOPERS-themed pinball machine and graphic novel adaptations.

So enjoy STARSHIP TROOPERS on any of its many levels: as a straight-up no-holds-barred sci-fi action flick, as a witty take on action films, as an anti-war movie or as a subversive satire of Heinlein’s novel. Any way you take it, it’s a whole helluva lot of fun.

Aileen Loy, performing with Till Someone Loses an Eye at the Star Bar on Jan. 10, 2013. Photo credit: Jolie Simmons.

ATLRetro has had our eye on Atlanta visual and performance artist Aileen Loy for a long time, and now seems like the perfect time to catch up since her band Till Someone Loses An Eye will be playing Sunday March 10 in a three-month second Sunday series at the Corner Tavern in Little Five Points. The unique nine-person ensemble also will be opening for self-described “rockabilly-porno-metal with a country twist” Fiend Without a Face  and Ricer on Wed. March 6 at the Star Bar. Other band members include  Sam McPherson and Michael A. Robinson (L5P Rock Star Orchestra/DRACULA THE ROCK OPERA); Meredith Greer (The Chameleon Queen); Steve McPeeks (Art of Destruction); Frank Anzalone (Walk From the Gallows); Brigitte Warren (Wicked Geisha Ritual Theatre); and Dee Dee Chmielewski (DRACULA).

To call Aileen an eclectic talent would be an understatement for her passions definitely are eclectic and her talent unquestionable. Her singing voice is unexpectedly deep for a woman and has often been compared to Tom Waits. her costumes are always the very spirit of Bohemian and often feature bones, whether she is in full Mexican skull-face Day of the Dead regalia or  a skintight black pants fronted by a human pelvis and skeletal legs. Still to call her a goth would be selling her short. She certainly displays a passion for the macabre, but she also equally embraces the playful, including the recent Renaissance of carnival/circus culture and even a gypsy steampunk edge. Till Someone Loses An Eye lists its influences as Waits, Nick Cave and Gogol Bordello and its interests as “rusted metal, old time circus culture, cheese sandwiches, small rocks, freaks, geeks and miscreants.”

When she is not making music, Aileen crafts cool, creepy jewelry using prosthetic eyeballs and teeth, and she has experimented in film and just about every type of artistic media. If that’s not multi-talented, we don’t know what is. But enough talking about Aileen, let’s get talking to her.

ATLRetro: Seeing your artwork and listening to your music, we can imagine you being closer to Wednesday Addams than Cindy Brady as a little girl. How old were you when you started down the path to the darker side of creativity, and what pulled the trigger?

Aileen Loy: That’s a fair cop – I was a pretty serious and awkward little girl. I’m not sure how to answer the rest of that question but there was probably a library card involved.

Aileen Loy plays a mean harmonica with Till Someone Loses an Eye at the L5P Halloween Festival 2012. Photo credit: Stephen Priest.

Who/what were some of your early inspirations musically and visually that still influence your work today?

Johnny Cash, Tennessee Ernie Ford, a lot of classical music. My parents had a weird assortment of albums when I was growing up, so I’d go from listening to SONGS OF THE GUIANA JUNGLE, Lord Kitchener, those odd Reader’s Digest collected works of *insert western classical composer or awesome polka guy, here*, lots of Bollywood, Johnny Mathis and a good dose of Kitty Wells, Dolly, Willie Nelson. Rock and roll was kind of special because I got to discover that on my own. Those were the albums we played when the folks were at work or at my friend’s house. Dad went on a “Rock and roll is the music of the devil; we must burn all rock albums and rid the world of it’s horrible influence” phase, so most of my albums stayed in my room hidden safely behind the Mozart and Ravi Shankar. It was an odd time.

Why do you think circus and carnivale culture has made such a comeback and is seemingly in a renaissance in the independent arts scene from burlesque to steampunk to modern-day proud-to-be-freaks shows?

Good question and I don’t really know. I’ve always been drawn to it because it seemed like a magical amorphous place, where one can, not only be exactly what one is, but is encouraged and expected to be fully that – to gain power and reflect competence and heart through what others might view as “freakish.” It’s a place where no one expects tidy and convenient truths. Fantastic stuff. I think I definitely would have felt safer in there as a kid.

Your vocals have often been compared to Tom Waits, which is unusual for a woman. Did you work to create your unique singing voice or did it just come natural?

I’ve always had a little froggy voice, and the vocalists that I really loved had such huge resonance. You could feel them in your chest! So, yeah of course I wanted to sound like them. That would be me, age 5, trying my damnedest to sing Johnny Cash, and eventually I could. I had a voice therapist tell me that I have the physiology for it . My vocal cords are similar to a male’s. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to train that low.

Aileen Loy fronts Till Someone Loses An Eye at 7 Stages during Day of the Cupcake, Oct. 8, 2012. Photo credit: Jolie Simmons

Tell us about Till Someone Loses an Eye, your latest band. Why the name? And what makes this band special and unique musically?

I thought the name was funny. It could be a threat, an eventuality, or an aspiration. The band is personally interesting to me because everyone has such a widely different back story and vibe from one another, and it informs the music in a pretty cool way.

At an Artifice Club performance in fall 2012. Photo credit: James Curtis Barger.

You list some of your collaborators as “heads of mischief.” What do you mean by that?

I was being glib when I wrote that, just trying to fill a page and get it up. But now it’s very apparent to me that it’s absolutely true on its face, no explanation needed. Lovely troublemakers, all of them.

You’re playing twice this week. Wed. March 6 at Star Bar and then Sunday march 10 at Corner Pub, which is going to be a once-monthly event on second Sundays. Do you have any special plans for either show? Why should folks come out?

Wednesday’s show we’re playing with Fiend Without a Face and Ricer, two reasons right there to come. Second Sundays, we have the whole night to do whatever we want. We could play two full sets just us, or have another band open, or musicians sit in for a song or two. This Sunday, the band, Tulsa, is coming through from SXSW and will be doing an early opener set at 8:30.

A vintage stag pocketwatch sporting a prosthetic eye designed by Aileen Loy.

What are you up to in the visual arts right now? Last time I checked you were making beautiful jewelry involving teeth.

Still plugging away, trying to up the scope of the teeth jewelry a bit and take it to a logical conclusion, not sure what that is. I’ve got a few new projects brewing, but it’s still to foggy to talk about them with any kind of intelligence.

What artistic or musical accomplishment are you most proud of so far, and why?

I’m just happy I’m doing it. Neither was particularly supported when I was growing up, so I kind of always found my own way around. Definitely, a late bloomer.

Finally we had to ask. What’s your favorite whiskey and why?

Is there ever a bad whiskey?

Joe Gransden.

Monday, March 4

First and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Cafe 290 with 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. It’s a Dead Man’s Party at Monday Nite Resurrection at Mary’s in East Atlanta Village, featuring episodes of THE WALKING DEAD (8-10) and then DJ Wolf digging up the best in 80s new wave/pop/dance (10 – 2:30). Northside Tavern hosts its weekly Blues Jam featuring blues and southern soul singer, Lola Gulley. Enjoy BBQ and Pead Boy and the Pork Bellies at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack.

Tuesday, March 5

John Travolta disco-fest SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977) is this week’s retro cinema classic  at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern. Kool Kat Calu Cordeira mixes tiki libations at Mai Tai Tahitian Tuesday starting at 9 p.m. at the Dark Horse Tavern. Grab your horn and head over to Twain’s in Decatur for a Joe Gransden jazz jam session starting at 9 p.m., or you can blues it down with Nathan Nelson & Entertainment Crackers at Northside Tavern. Head over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for some old school R & B, rock ‘n roll and blues with Gray Sartin.

Wednesday, March 6

Self-described “rockabilly-porno-metal” band Fiend Without a Face headlines with Till Someone Loses an Eye, featuring this week’s Kool Kat Aileen Loy, and Ricer to make it not just another dark and interesting night at the Star Bar. Catch SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977) for a second night at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern. Old enough to feel Retro? It’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd. Get ready to rumba, cha-cha and jitterbug at the weekly Swing Night at Graveyard Tavern. Danny “Mudcat” Dudeck brings the gospel blues to Northside Tavern. Billy George blues it down at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack.

Thursday, March 7

Universal Horror meets funk when Here Come The Mummies unwraps their instruments at The Variety Playhouse. Give a rockin’ send -off to SXSW for the District Attorneys, featuring Kool Kat Drew Beskin, at 10 High. Also playing are Athens folk-pop singer-songwriter Ruby Rabbitfoot and more. The Atlanta Burlesque and Cabaret Society meets every first Thursday of the month at Elliot Street Pub. It’s a super alt-garage night with six bands headlined by Nashville via Memphis’ Useless Eaters and also including Abby Go-Go, Ghost Bikini and more at Star Bar, and best, of all there’s no cover – yup, it’s free! Ghost Riders Car Club, featuring Kool Kat Spike Fullerton, honkytonks it up at Atlanta’s favorite famous dive strip bar, the Clermont Lounge. Relax with a cocktail while listening to a live band or DJ playing Retro-Polynesian luxurious live lounge sounds, as well as trippy takes on iconic pop songs, at vintage tiki bar, Trader Vic’s, every Thursday night. Go to Northside Tavern to hear the classic 50s Chicago-style blues of The Breeze Kings. Get on over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack to hear the honkytonkin’ blues of Chickenshack. Culliton, Dean & Hall provide the strumming at Red Light Cafe‘s weekly Bluegrass Thursday.  SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977) plays a final night at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern.

Friday, March 8

Mosey on down to the Star Bar to hear Brooklyn’s the Defibulators, who blend bluegrass, country, honky tonk, rockabilly, Dixieland jazz, punk and maybe a touch of anti-folk into an intoxicating, good-time mélange that reinvents the conventions of country music with a CBGB-meets-Grand Ole Opry feel. Also playing are Julea and Her Dear Johns, featuring singer-songwriter Kool Kat Julea Thomerson of The Bareknuckle Betties, and Canton gritty honk tonk band The Mighty Bison. It’s An Evening with the Cowboy Junkies at the Variety Playhouse. Cooper Tisdale moves from funky jazz to groovy pop with special guest vocalist Octavia Jones Samba under the dinosaurs at Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX. Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-Devilles rockabilly it up at Cinema Tavern in Villa Rica. Little Joey’s Big Band blues it down at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. Head to Northside Tavern to hear Mudcat and his Piedmont Playboys. Terry Flynn Band honkytonks it at Big Tex in Decatur.

Saturday, March 9

Aside from the Beatles and perhaps the Beach Boys, no mid-’60s rock group wrote melodies as gorgeous as those of the Zombies. Be sure to be there Saturday to see them Saturday night at Variety Playhouse. Carnivale strikes Red Light Cafe with a bonafide Southern Fried Sideshow featuring the incredible human feats of Atlanta’s own Captain & Maybelle; music by the lovely ladies of  all-female Elvis tribute band, the Pelvis Breastlies, as well as juggler extraordinaire Jamie Danger and ever-charming mustached hosts the Rose Bros. It’s Rockabilly Madness when Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho-Devilles shake up Marietta’s Dixie Tavern, Truett Lollis brings old-school Southern rock to The Family Dog. Tommy Dean Trio jazzes up Big Tex. Legendary blues pianist Ike Stubblefield plays Northside Tavern. The Jumpin’ Jukes leap into Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. As usual, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, March 10

Support the horniest little performance art troupe in L5P and pick up some sweet and sinister eats at The Baphomettes’ Bake Sale from 2 to 6 p.m. at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club. Be sure to enter the raffle for a chance to win an ATLRetro T-shirt featuring our logo by DEREKArt, coffee from Coffee Shop of Horrors (co-owned by our wondrous webmistress Roxana Stan) and MANY other swell prizes! This week’s Kool Kat Aileen Loy sings again when Till Someone Loses an Eye launches the first of three monthly second Sunday concerts at The Corner Tavern in L5P. Recent Kool Kat Kitty Love‘s Cheeky Belles are back for a Spring Fling in this month’s Kitty Love’s Sultry Sundays at Red Light Cafe.  Francine Reed and The Trio jazz up The Family Dog. Join Uncle Sugar at Northside Tavern to wrap up your weekend or check out some down and dirty Snake Legs blues at Fatt Matt’s Rib Shack.

Frida Kahlo. Photo credit: Nickolas Muray

Ongoing

Make a date with FRIDA AND DIEGO: PASSION, POLITICS AND PAINTING, a blockbuster special exhibition showcasing the works of one of art’s most famous couples, at The High Museum of Art through May 12.

Learn about  a different side to the third American president and Constitution author in the Really Retro special exhibition Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: How the Word is Passed Down at the Atlanta History Center through July 7.

Every Tuesday and Thursday night is Retro Cinema at Movie Tavern. Check out classic movies on the big screen weekly at 7:30 p.m.

Our BFF blog Wrestling with Pop Culture is celebrating its second anniversary with the biggest, baddest Monstrosity Championship Wrestling match yet this Fri. March 1 at 9 p.m. at Famous Pub in Toco Hills. The horror-movie-inspired league is crowning its first champion, Professor Morte and the Silver Scream SpookShow gang will be on hand for scary shenanigans and Metal Gaga will be providing unforgettable entertainment with heavy metal versions of Lady Gaga hits. Oh, and lest we forget, you’ll have another chance to win a Pine Street Market box of meat and other fun prizes in the raffle! All that and more for only $10!

The night’s fearsome and fun festivities include semifinal matches pitting the Phantom against “Bona Fide” Fred Yehi and Papa Marko against “The Undead Luchador” Supernatural! Witness a queer bar brawl where previous Kool Kat Johnny Danger and Dragula take their fight against the intolerant Alabama Wolfman and Kentucky Wolfman all over the bar! Quozzy Quozzbourne promises to bring a St. Patrick’s Day leprechaun to the party, Dark Mon vows to preach his own Easter sermon, and well, they tell us there’s much, much more.

We interviewed Jonathan Williams, the monster-mind behind Wrestling with Pop Culture, last year for WWPC’s first birthday, so this time we asked him who else will be the Koolest Kat in the bar. He suggested DeWitt Dawson, better known within wrestling circles as “Double D,” who will be managing Fred Yehi in the MCW tournament and also manages some of Georgia’s other top wrestling talents from Universal Independent Wrestling in Villa Rica, NWA Atlanta in Locust Grove, etc. After all, as Jonathan notes, “managers are kind of a lost art in wrestling.” So it was a special treat to ask DeWitt not just to go behind the scenes for a preview of this Friday’s action but also about what it takes to be a wrestling manager, what he loves about the sport and how he became a master at his craft.

ATLRetro: What role do you play as a manager?

DeWitt Dawson: Simply put. I am the eyes, the ears and the mouth for my charges. I am the best foot forward outside the ring, so all they have to think about is what goes on inside them ropes and turnbuckles. If they need to be somewhere, Double D gets ’em there early. If they need to leave somewhere, Double D gets ’em out before the first blue light hits the scene.

How do you select the men you manage?

I am looking for folks who can benefit from my counsel as much as I can benefit from their talent. Nothing under the sun is free but bad advice, and the ole Alabama Icon don’t give out nothing but golden nuggets of wisdom. So that must be repaid with championships. I am not here to manage folks who might get it, or who can get it done. I only open up my waiting arms to them that need that extra push to not just be good, but to be great.

Who do you manage?

Little darling, my clientele is not hard to validate, but I ain’t going to make it that easy on you. The bricks that are building Double D’s Empire are ever increasing. If you really want to know who I am managing, start taking stock of the titles that sit on the waists of the champions in this state, and I bet you won’t have to look far to see Dewitt Dawson somewhere close by.

What attracted you to professional wrestling?

Honey, you would have a whole heap less work if I told you what didn’t attract me to this business, ’cause I can honestly say that I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t in love with professional wrestling. One of my earliest memories is a young Double D huffin’ and weezin’ trying to catch his breath in the wee morning hours having my first asthma attack. I didn’t know up from down or Hell from Heaven, and the only way my lovin’ mama could get me to calm down was to tell me that she bet all the wrestlers that I loved so much were up getting ready to be on TV that Saturday morning. That settled me right down, and you can bet your last money that I went to the emergency room and got back home in time to see Ko Ko B Ware on the TV that morning.

I guess [as] a youngern,  it was the crazy characters that I loved – the Ultimate Warriors, the Stings and the Blue Blazers of the world. As I got a little older, I was infatuated with the talkers – the American Dreams and Nature Boys. After that it was the showmen – The Heart Break Kids, the RVDs and the Eddie Guerreros. These days, it is the driven ones who ain’t making a penny over the bare-ass minimum, but they still go out there and put on a hell of a show for the people – the Shane Marxes, the Jagged Edges and the Demigods of the world.

From whom do you draw inspiration?

My inspiration comes from the folks I mentioned just now and from the red clay and white fields of the great state of Alabama. Everybody wants to know why I sound the way I do and say things that they ain’t never heard before. Simply put, it is because these roots run right through the cotton fields and contradictions of Alabama the beautiful. I draw as much inspiration from my brother The Pretty Boy, and Donnie Tidwell, and my uncles, and my mama nem as I do Dusty Rhodes and Shawn Michaels.

How is wrestling different now than in your youth?

I know a lot of people will tell you how everything has gone plum to Hell with wrestling over the last few years, and they make some fine points. But when you get right down to it, good wrestling is the same as it ever was. You tell a good story, somebody gets their ass whipped, and you do it all again the next week.

Which crowds are your favorite?

A paying one. What other kind of crowd is there? Hell, I got a closet full of shotguns that ain’t as loaded as that damn question. But if you got balls big enough to ask it, I got balls big enough to answer it. The only thing that a wrestling crowd needs is passion and a little bit of sense. As long as they got their eyes focused on the action and their mouths open and yelling at who they don’t like and cheering who they do like, they will be just fine. They ain’t got to know every damn hold under the sun, and they ain’t got to be able to name all the damn Villanos to have a good time so long as they ain’t dumb enough to try to put their hands on me and they don’t [think] they’re smarter than everybody else there, then I bet they have a good time.

Why aren’t you a nicer man? Have you considered therapy?

I am as gentle as a pussy cat in the right environs. When I settle into here at the ole home place and I pull off my boots, pop the top on a Paul Bryant beer, cut on them ole Drive-by Truckers, I tell you I am as sweet as pumpkin pie. Because of that, I don’t have no reservation about raising pure hell every time I am anywhere near a squared circle, and the only therapy I need is to see my Empire bathed in the gold of champions.

What are your ambitions in wrestling?

My only ambition in wrestling is to give this business half as much as it has given me and to burn a trail in Georgia that makes General Sherman look like a lightning bug in a damn super nova.

What appeals to you personally about Monstrosity Championship Wrestling (MCW)?

On any night at a MCW show, you ain’t got clue 1 as to what in the blue Hell is going to come through that curtain next. It might be one of the best technical wrestlers you ever laid eyes on, or it might be some kind of half-dead zombie-assed sasquatch monster. You might not know whether to clap your hands or clinch pucker your assshole. It is just like ole Double D; you don’t what you are going to get, but you know good and well it is going to be entertaining as all get out.

What are you looking forward to the most about MCW this Friday?

Aw honey, that is simple. We are going to crown our first champion, and that is always a special occasion in any wrestling show’s history. When you look at the folks that are still kicking in this tournament, then you know it is going to be a champion who is plenty worthy.

Why should even someone who is not a big wrestling fan attend?

Well, if you like drinking cold beer, your ort to be there. If you like womerns who ain’t bashful about showing you a little of that thang, you ort to be there. If you like that damn banging and clanging or some kind of heavy metal outfit, you ort to be there. If you like boxes of meat, you ort to be there. And if you would like to hear the golden voice of the best damn commentator that you have ever heard in your long-legged life, you damn well better have you asses front and center.

A special thank you to Kool Kat Chuck Porterfield for his help with this article.

All photos are courtesy of DeWitt Dawson. All rights reserved.

By Rachel Marshall
Contributing Writer

Deoch. Ceol. Bia. Rince.

Just as you’re leaving the main bar of Midtown’s Rí Rá location, glance over your shoulder on the way to the Harbour Bar and you’ll see these words. They mean: Drink. Music. Food. Dance. Consider some of the other chain restaurants you have been to or fast food gambles you have made – telling you there’s nothing like the neighborhood, or implying you have nothing better to do, so you “gotta eat.”  So, when you work for a site that specializes in the Retro, the nostalgic, and the wonderfully weird… what is one to do with a restaurant that has a dozen locations across the U.S.?

The simple answer to the question is:  “Deoch. Ceol. Bia. Rince.”

Rí Rá’s layout is heavy with homeland and family nostalgia. The founders were passionate about capturing a “proper Irish pub” experience. There are some obvious decisions in the decorations, but then there is something subtle that begins to take over: the warm wooden architecture, the open space and the fact there are large “group tables” scattered throughout the restaurant, actively encouraging patrons to celebrate with friends. Two and four tops throughout the restaurant also cater to those looking for something more intimate or relevant to a date night, but the best experience you can have at Ri Ra comes from sitting down to a large table, surrounded by happy faces that become rosier and louder with each course and each drink.

Friendly bartenders Adam and Eoghan at RiRa.

Crammed into the Harbour Bar with other lovers of food and drink, I entered expecting to hear the lilting Irish “stock” music that often pops up at self-proclaimed “Irish pubs.” Instead? Dropkick Murphies. Flogging Molly. The list just kept going, and before I knew it, the grinding voice of Dave King had enabled me to tuck into yet another Smithwicks. The room was buzzing with photographers and writers and travelers, all of them discussing their own journeys –  if they are going to the upcoming beer festival, if they managed to check out that restaurant they suggested at the last gathering. These are marathon eaters and comprise a total thiasus to all things Bacchus. We sat down ready to dine, ready to drink, ready for the music and the dance of a four-course meal.

Pear and goat-cheese salad at RiRa

Getting into the full array of the tasting menu would push the boundaries of the review. You are a busy reader with things to do, after all! But Chef Kelly Sollinger played an incredible balancing act with his meals. Each dish was playful and a special, worthy introduction to Irish eatery. He respects the qualities of an ingredient that make it subtle or overwhelming. For example, cheddar, an ingredient I believe some chefs play very fast and loose with, became a subtle binder for a boxty cake, decorated with sautéed arugula and balsamic vinaigrette. Earthy rosemary cut the rich density of a ground lamb slider, which also boasted pickled red onion taming the sharpness of a goat cheese spread. Not only are his dishes in perfect synch with their ingredients, but they pair very well with the Harpers, Guinness and Smithwicks on tap – especially the pear and blue cheese salad which melded perfectly with its champagne vinaigrette and the Smithwicks served alongside.

Before we reached dessert, the table enjoyed a 14-day house-brined beef brisket and ale-battered haddock. Brines are tough for me, so is cabbage, but the flavor is there, and the parsley-cream sauce and fluffy piping of mashed potato kept everything in line. Chef Kelly’s background with seafood is delightfully present. The haddock was battered respectfully, giving the diner that satisfying crunch, but letting the haddock’s tenderness and texture take over from there.

Dessert at RiRa: sticky toffee pudding and Guinness and brown bread ice cream.

By dessert, I was in a very happy place with my surroundings and my table-mates. The sponge cake with dates and toffee pudding neighbored a Guinness and brown bread ice cream, sharp on the back end as if I had just finished off a long draw from a tall glass of the same stout. The Irish coffee served was made with the French press method, my favorite when it comes to coffee – you just get so much more flavor from the ground bean that way! One of our bartenders, Eoghan, was circling the table with his third song of the evening – U2‘s “Where the Streets Have No Name.” I have heard that song 101 times, but here we were – all of us from different walks of life and different backgrounds, different beliefs and different moralities, all gathered around a table. The song is about the ideal world where a person is not defined by the “street” where they live, a world where there are no divisions of any sort. At a table like this, at no point do any of us think about one another’s class, race, wealth or some other criteria that has been deemed important. We only think about the food, the drink, the music, and how our conversations simply dance.

Irish coffee tops off an Irish feast at RiRa.

How retro can you get? Before any of the movies came out that we fell in love with and defend its kitch to this day, before we first played a plumber trying to save a princess from an angry monkey, before the first radio broadcast was played… we gathered around the table. Rí Rá, if you give it the chance you need to give it, is not just a chain, not just one in 12, not just another corporation. The restaurant wants you to sit for a while, to have a drink, to eat some food, and to celebrate just being there. This message becomes clearer if you speak to co-founder David Kelly who said, of this “reintroduction” of Rí Rá, that the message is simply: “We exist.”

So, if you aren’t doing anything this St. Patrick’s Day, or hell, this weekend? Head over to Midtown, and pull up a seat at the bar in Rí Rá. Make sure you dance. Make sure you listen to the “music” surrounding you. Make sure you drink. Make sure you eat. Simply exist.

Beginning Tuesday, March 12, Rí Rá will host friends, family and local Irish patriots as they kick-off their six-day toast to St. Patrick, highlighted by a block party celebration, closing off a portion of Crescent Avenue on Saturday, March 16 and Sunday, March 17 for live music performances and other fun activities. For more info on each day’s festivities and other special events, such as whiskey tastings, visit www.rira.com/atlanta/.

Monday, Feb. 25

Northside Tavern hosts its weekly Blues Jam featuring blues and southern soul singer, Lola Gulley. Enjoy BBQ and Dry White Toast at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack.

Tuesday, Feb. 26

Collective Soul‘s Ed Roland and The Sweet Tea Project with Special Guests Kevn Kinney (Drivin n Cryin) and Davin McCoy make it an all-star night at Eddie’s Attic. Alfred Hitchcock suspense classic TO CATCH A THIEF (1955), starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, is this week’s retro cinema classic  at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern. Kool Kat Calu Cordeira mixes tiki libations at Mai Tai Tahitian Tuesday starting at 9 p.m. at the Dark Horse Tavern. Grab your horn and head over to Twain’s in Decatur for a Joe Gransden jazz jam session starting at 9 p.m., or you can blues it down with Nathan Nelson & Entertainment Crackers at Northside Tavern. Head over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for some old school R & B, rock ‘n roll and blues with Crosstown Allstars.

Wednesday, Feb. 27

Singer-songwriter Karla Bonoff is at Eddie’s Attic. TO CATCH A THIEF (1955) plays a second night at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern. Old enough to feel Retro? It’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd, though we hear some of Atlanta’s burlesque beauties are making a Cougar Crawl to jazz things up this week. Get ready to rumba, cha-cha and jitterbug at the weekly Swing Night at Graveyard Tavern. Danny “Mudcat” Dudeck brings the gospel blues to Northside Tavern. Frankie’s Blues Mission blues it down at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack.

Thursday, Feb. 28

Big Mike is back with Tongo Hiti all month at vintage tiki bar, Trader Vic’s, where you can relax with a cocktail while listening to Retro-Polynesian luxurious live lounge sounds, as well as trippy takes on iconic pop songs, every Thursday night. Disco in the Village at Mary’s is your midweek neighborhood dance party, now on Thursdays.  Go to Northside Tavern to hear the classic 50s Chicago-style blues of The Breeze Kings. Get on over to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack to hear Chickenshack. Alfred Hitchcock suspense classic TO CATCH A THIEF (1955), starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, plays a final night at Northlake Festival Movie Tavern.

Friday, March 1

We can’t wait to celebrate the second anniversary of our BFF blog Wrestling with Pop Culture with the most exciting Monstrosity Championship Wrestling bout yet, crowning its first champion and featuring Metal Gaga performing heavy metal versions of Lady Gaga hits, all for a $10 cover at Famous Pub in Toco Hills. Get your steampunk on at Artifice Nights at XS Ultra Lounge with the eclectic rhythms of The Nathaniel Johnstone Band and zany vaudeville banjo-driven rock ‘n’ roll by Curtis Eller’s American Circus.Aku You bring back old-school late 70s/early 80s synth withe a contemporary twist at The Earl with White Gregg and Sharps. Ken Stringfellow of ’80s power-pop band The Posies rocks The Star Bar with special guests Kenny Howe and Blake Rainey & His Demons. One-of-a-kind Atlanta musician Col. Bruce Hampton plays Smith’s Olde Bar with special guests Lew Soloff and Johnny Knapp. Film Love presents ZOOM, a program of short classics of avant garde cinematography, Michael Snow‘s WAVELENGTH (1967) and Ernie Gehr‘s SERENE VELOCITY (1970) and MORNING (1968) at Atlanta Contemporaey Art Center. Catch up on our Kool Kat interview with Film Love founder Andy Ditzler here. Bonaventure Quartet, featuring Amy Pike, jazzes things up under the dinosaurs at Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX. Head to Northside Tavern to hear Danny “Mudcat” Dudeck bring you the gospel blues.

Rod Hamdallah

Saturday, March 2

It’s a Kool Kat Star Bar double header with Rod Hamdallah and Caroline and the Ramblers with Chickens & Pigs also on the marquee. Americana music pioneers Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale play Variety Playhouse. Get your glam and glitter on at Pandemonium II, at The Shelter featuring four djs spinning classic glam to bleeding edge rock’n’roll. Kool Kat Nicolette Emmanuelle plays a live set starting at approx. 9:30 pm, so come early and stay late. The Hollidays brings some soul to The Family Dog. As usual, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night. Nat George & the Nat George Players bring a blend of R&B, jazz and gospel to Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint.

Sunday, March 3

Spend your Sunday afternoon with Professor Morte himself, Shane Morton, and learn old-school Monster Make-Up Class from the master to scare the yell out of everyone you know. $150 fee includes professional make-up kit, and open to anyone age 15 and over. Bonaventure Quartet jazz up dunch starting at 1 p.m. at The Earl. Francine Reed and The Trio jazz up The Family Dog. Cowboy Envy  bring Western swing/Americana/roots to Eddie’s Attic. Join Uncle Sugar at Northside Tavern to wrap up your weekend or check out the blues at Fatt Matt’s Rib Shack with Tony Bryant.

Ongoing

The Plaza Theatre continues on a week-long run of cult classics, FLESH GORDON (1974) through Friday March 1. Read our Retro Review here.

Make a date with FRIDA AND DIEGO: PASSION, POLITICS AND PAINTING, a blockbuster special exhibition showcasing the works of one of art’s most famous couples, at The High Museum of Art through May 12.

Atlanta Lyric Theatre takes you back to the heyday of girl groups such as The Chiffons, The Supremes, Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin in high-energy musical revue BEEHIVE at the vintage Earl Smith Strand Theatre in Marietta.  Through March 3.

Learn about  a different side to the third American president and Constitution author in the Really Retro special exhibition Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: How the Word is Passed Down at the Atlanta History Center through July 7.

Every Tuesday and Thursday night is Retro Cinema at Movie Tavern. Check out classic movies on the big screen weekly at 7:30 p.m.