ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

So many shakin’ shindigs in ATLRetro This Week! We’ve got Kool Kats galore, Southern SurfStomp!, the annual Johnny Cast tribute and more! So come on out and get retro!

Monday, September 10

Landmark Midtown Art Cinema screens Susanna Nicchiarelli’s NICO 1988 (2017) through Sept. 13 [check out our Retro Review here]! And don’t forget to get scandalous and catch a screening of Matt Tyrnauer’s SCOTTY AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2017) through Sept. 13 [check out our Retro Review here]! Spend the night with Glenn Jones at City Winery! Get your Americana fix with Israel Nash and Slow Parade at The Earl! Rock out with Hot Snakes and Jacuzzi Boys at the Masquerade! Get your vinyl fix during Little 5 Points Corner Tavern’s Records of Mass Destruction! every Monday! Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/ Duluth/Marietta) screens Chris Columbus’ HARRY POTTER & THE SORCERER’S STONE (2001) at 7:30pm! Catch a screening of Satoshi Kon’s PERFECT BLUE (1997) at theatres across Atlanta at 7pm [AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 18; Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth); and Regal Mall of Georgia Stadium (Buford)]! 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!” Get the blues with Bill Sheffield 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 as they dish out The Pork Bellys and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, September 11

Get folksy and countrified with Darling West at Eddie’s Attic! Geek it up with Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and her burly-Q gals of Syrens of the South as they get shimmy-stastic during their Tease Tuesday Burlesque: Nerdtastic event, shakin’ it up at the Red Light Café! Get folksy with Robert Earl Keen and Adam Wright at City Winery! Get your Latin jazz fix with Tito Gato at Java Monkey! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! Spend fantastical nights with the Alliance Theatre’s production of A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHT DREAM at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, through October 21! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with DJ Quasi Mandisco’s Little 5 Points Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! Gray & The Bad Boys get down at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Blind Willie’s gets down with Steve Cunningham! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, September 12

Emory Cinematheque kills it with their “Hitchcock/Hitchcockian” series with a  screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s THE 39 STEPS (1935) at 7:30pm! Hey all you homicidal housewives! Catch a screening of John Waters’ SERIAL MOM (1994) presented by WUSSY MAG at The Plaza Theater at 7pm! Or celebrate the one and only Burt Reynolds with Georgia Brewed Cinema’s screening of Hal Needham’s classic SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (1977) at Georgia Beer Garden at 7pm! Or get down with the Replicants at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth/Marietta) with a screening of Ridley Scott’s BLADE RUNNER (THE FINAL CUT) (1982) at 7:15pm! KICK pays tribute to INXS at City Winery! Get indie with Sloan at The Earl! Grit it up with Bradford Loomis, Chuck McDowell, Jenna Longmire and Andy Liechty at the Red Clay Theatre! Take a magic carpet ride to the Fox Theatre for Disney’s musical ALADDIN, through Sept. 23! Rock out blues-style with Lucky Valley, God Bless Relative, Dustin Price and BRTLY at Smith’s Olde Bar! Spook it up and spend the night with Red Mouth and Deadly Lo-Fi at The Star Bar! Make your way to the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Flashback Cinema series screening of Rodger & Hammerstein’s THE KING AND I (1956) at 2:30pm/7:30pm! Get some soul with Kool Kat Scott Glazer’s Mojo Dojo at Blind Willie’s! Catch a cyberific double feature of Nora Ephron’s YOU’VE GOT MAIL (1998) and Ariel Schulman/Henry Joost’s CATFISH (2010) at Noni’s Bar & Deli during their Cinema Paradiso film event starting at 10pm! TCM Big Screen Classics brings Robert Wise’s THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) to theatres across Atlanta at 2pm/7pm [AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 18; Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); and AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)]! Rock on down to The Highlander for their Punk/Metal/New Wave Karaoke Night, every Wednesday! Funk it up with the Mike Veal Band at Tin Roof Cantina! Get rocked with The Wild Hares at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires up a night of acoustic blues! St. James Live! delivers their Hump Days Blues night, getting classic blues-style every Wednesday! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, September 13

Raise a ruckus at The Earl with Cold Heart Canyon, Nikki & The Phantom Callers and Evan Stepp & the Piners! Honky tonk on down to the Clermont Lounge for a night with Kool Kat Spike Fullerton with the Ghost Riders Car Club! Or spend the night with Chris Isaak at Atlanta Symphony Hall! Rock out with Landt, Wicked Spring, Pine & Tolliver and Katie Martin at The Star Bar! Make your way to the Variety Playhouse for a night with Neko Case and Thao! Roots rock it up with the James McLean Band, Cody Matlock and Shawn Spencer at Vinyl! Boogie on down to Firefly Studio Decatur for Down South Swing’s Level 1: 6 Count swing dance class! Rock out at The Highlander with DJ Howiestein and Mister Wilson’s Over the Edge Record Party! Catch a screening of Satoshi Kon’s PERFECT BLUE (1997) at The Plaza Theater! Make your way to Venkman’s for a night with Yesterday’s Wine! It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s so get swanky and hula on down for a night of rockin’ island tunes with Bogey & The Viceroy and some killer island cocktails! Get down with the Juke Joint Dukes at Blind Willie’s! Cody Matlock & the Mothership get down at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! 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! And as always, boogie down at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, September 14

Shake yer booty with Kool Kat Sen. Artie Mondello with The Delusionaires, Kinky Waikiki and DJ Tikinaut at the official Southern Surf StompFest pre-party at Trader Vic’s! Matt Wauchope and Terrence Prather deliver a New Orleans piano tribute to Bob Dylan and Tom Waits at Venkman’s! Join Circus Combustus’ spectacle, The Bardos of Vaudeville through Sept. 16! Get bewitched with Ritual’s Hocus Pocus (Witches and Warlocks Party) at Heretic! Get some soul with Rachelle Ferrell at City Winery! Bluegrass it up with Circus No. 9 at the Crimson Moon Café! Get the blues with the Taylor Made Blues Band at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Stomp on down to Eddie’s Attic for a night with The Black Lillies and Sandra McCracken! Chris Botti gets jazzy with the Atlanta Symphony at Atlanta Symphony Hall! Get old-school and rock out at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre with Judas Priest and Deep Purple! Members Only gets down with their Fanny Pack Friday 80s/90s Dance Party at Venkman’s! Blind Willie’s dishes out a night of rockin’ blues with House Rocker Johnson & The Shadows! Little Joey’s Jumpin’ Jive gets down at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get funky with Zydefunk at the Northside Tavern! Time-Warp it up 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, September 15

Rock out surf-style with the big kahuna, Kool Kat Chad Shivers and his kickin’ cohorts at the rockin’est annual shindig in Avondale Estates, the Southern Surf StompFest, catching a wave at Little Tree Art Studios, featuring The Surge!, The Mystery Men?, Los Tiki Phantoms, The KBK, The Flying Faders, Go!Tsunami, The AmpFibians, Forbidden Waves, DJ Tikinaut and so much more to feed your kitschy vintage culture lust (check out our Shop Here feature for 2th9’s Retro and Jezebel Blue here)! Or hang with the Man in Black during The Star Bar’s annual Johnny Cash Tribute & Diabetes Benefit, featuring Kool Kat Spike Fullerton with the Ghost Riders Car Club, Rodeo Twister, The Downer Brothers, the Sideburners, the Cabbagetown Cowboys, Anna Kramer, Jim Lavender and more! Make your way to the Roswell Arts Festival running through Sept. 16, featuring art, tasty treats and a rockin’ musical line-up, including the Andy Brown Troupe! Haunt on down to the Historic Oakland Cemetery for their Malts & Vaults event! Make your way to Avondale Towne Cinema for their Elton John Jam! Rock out in Piedmont Park during Music Midtown 2018, running through Sept. 16! Rev on down to Big Tex for a night with Kitty Rose & The Ramblers! Get a second helping of Rachelle Ferrell at City Winery! Spend the night with Eric Dodd and Kenny White at Eddie’s Attic! Groove on down to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra plays Prince! The Georgia Players Guild presents the music of Led Zeppelin and The Who at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre! The Cazanovas get the rockin’ blues at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Catch a screening of Disney’s LION KING (1994) at Venkman’s at 10am, later that night followed by The REMakes paying tribute to R.E.M.’s early work! Or funk it up with Peter Case at the Red Light Café! Get Sweet ‘n’ Salty at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get funky with Zydefunk at the Northside Tavern! Get down with Sandra Hall & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne and DJ Kwasi Mandisco transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, September 16

Get hell-bent and rock on down to The Earl for the Supersuckers’ 30th Anniversary Big Show with Sodajerk! Universal Studios Presents a 25th Anniversary screening of Steven Spielberg’s dino-rific classic, JURASSIC PARK (1993) at theatres across Atlanta [AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 18; Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville), Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Marietta); and Regal Mall of Georgia Stadium (Buford)]! Get your Irish folk fix with The High Kings at City Winery! Or get folksy with Peter Bradley Adams at Eddie’s Attic! Get some soul with Sam Ravenna at Smith’s Olde Bar! Bewitch it up in the land of Harry Potter at theatres across Atlanta with a screening of David Yates’ HARRY POTTER & THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX (2007) at 2pm, followed by a screening of HARRY POTTER & THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (2009) at 6pm [AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); AMC Phipps Plaza 14; and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)]! March it up with Georgia Brewed Cinema’s screening of Charles Stone III’s DRUMLINE (2002) at Georgia Beer Garden at 7pm! Make your way to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for 10,000 Pontiacs! Make your way to the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Flashback Cinema series screening of Herbert Ross’ STEEL MAGNOLIAS (1989) at 2:30pm/7:30pm! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar with Eddie Tigner!

Ongoing

Take a magic carpet ride to the Fox Theatre for Disney’s musical ALADDIN, through Sept. 23!

Spend fantastical nights with the Alliance Theatre’s production of A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHT DREAM at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, through October 21!

ATL CRAFT presents a magical occult Movie Night every second Friday of every month!

My Parents’ Basement goes old-school with their monthly Pinball Tournament, every first Wednesday of the month!

Geek it up and get to bowlin’ at The Comet Pub & Lanes’ Comet Cosplay, getting nerdy the first Monday of every month!

Dad’s Garage’s Big Boozy Nerdy Game Night brings out the kid in you, every first Monday of the month at 7pm! 

Union EAV rocks out with their Punk Rock Karaoke ATL, and every last Tuesday of the month!

The Highlander rocks out with their Punk/Metal/New Wave Karaoke Night, every Wednesday!

Get your vinyl fix during Little 5 Points Corner Tavern’s Records of Mass Destruction! event, every Monday!

Geek it up at My Parents’ Basement with their weekly Tuesday night Nerd Trivia at 8pm!

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

Get your reggae fix with Rub-A-Dub gettin’ down at WildPitch Music Hall, every second Sunday of the month!

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.

Michael Madsen. Photo credit: Isaac Alvarez. Weinstein Co. Used with permission.

By Gregory Nicoll
Contributing Writer

“I don’t always play bad guys,” observes Michael Madsen, his voice as raspy and powerful as a Harley-Davidson’s exhaust pipe, “but for some reason when I do, it gets more attention than when I play somebody who doesn’t have a gun.”

Even without a firearm in his hand, the burly 6’ 2” actor radiates an onscreen menace so palpable it inspires nightmares. His breakthrough role was playing Mister Blonde in Quentin Tarantino’s RESERVOIR DOGS (1992), for which he tortured a policeman with a razor and gasoline in one of the most disturbing sequences of ’90s cinema. But despite equally convincing performances in high-profile good-guy parts – such as the loving dad in FREE WILLY (1993), the action hero in SPECIES (1995), and a stoic lawman in WYATT EARP (1994) – Madsen still finds himself cast more often on the dark side, with unforgettable bad-guy turns in KILL BILL (2003/2004), HELL RIDE (2008), DONNIE BRASCO (1997) and THE GETAWAY (1994) His latest movie is Tarantino’s much-anticipated new western, THE HATEFUL EIGHT, which opens on Christmas day in an extended limited-release 70mm Ultra-Panavision “Roadshow” presentation with a overture and an intermission (Regal Atlantic Station 18), with a wide release starting Dec. 30 (Landmark Midtown Art Cinema, etc.).

We spoke with Michael Madsen by phone from his seaside California home.

ATLRetro: Let’s hear about THE HATEFUL EIGHT. Sure hope you’re not weary of talking about it.

Michael Madsen: Not really! It’s hard to get weary of Tarantino, who’s such a force to be reckoned with. This is the third time he’s reached out to me with, “Let’s get on the bus.” Only in this case it’s, “Let’s get on the horses!”

So, this is a western about characters who all get stranded together after their stagecoach is re-routed?

It’s pretty hard to put a lid on what it is, but it’s about a bunch of eight people who’ve got an agenda, an agenda that’s pretty complicated. The script was one of the most fascinating things I’ve ever read. I guess it’s somewhere between THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960) and THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967). 

Is there any previous classic western movie to which it could easily be compared?

Well, maybe ONE-EYED JACKS (1967), which is probably the greatest western I’ve ever seen. It’s the only picture Marlon Brando ever directed, taking over from Stanley Kubrick. I just love it. ONE-EYED JACKS is about everything. There’s nothing that it isn’t about. There are so many themes in there, it’s mind-boggling. It’s one of Marlon’s finest. Him and Karl Malden are so wonderful together, it’s just unbelievable.

Karl Malden was fabulous in just about everything, from A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951) to NEVADA SMITH (1966).

That was with Steve McQueen. What a power he was on the screen!  [Quoting NEVADA SMITH] “You haven’t got the guts!” Yeah, he’s shot in the kneecaps and it’s pretty horrendous, but, wow…

When I first moved to Malibu, I lived right next door to Steve McQueen. Steve was one of those guys who came along at time when the movie industry – when Sam Peckinpah and John Sturges and Norman Jewison were making films. Those kind of directors, they don’t really exist anymore. They were as much responsible for Steve’s success as he was himself, the combination of him, a personality like that, put together with those kinda directors. Steve was one of a kind and he made some – well, I like THE GETAWAY (1972). To me, that’s the quintessential Steve McQueen movie. I got to be in the remake of it, which was great, but I would have preferred to play Doc McCoy [McQueen’s role]. Alec [Baldwin] did a good job, but I think I coulda pulled that off.

The character of Doc in the original Jim Thompson novel THE GETAWAY has much more of an edge to him than in the films.

Well, I teased Alec constantly during the making of that thing. Every single time we were on the set and he was doing something, I’d go, “You remember the way Steve was standing?” or, “You remember the way Steve was holding the gun?” or “When you look around the corner, you remember how Steve did it?” and he’d go [imitating Baldwin’s voice], “Madsen! Shut up, Madsen! You’re driving me crazy.” It was really funny. I teased him quite a bit, but he had a good sense of humor about it. At the end of the film he actually bought and gave me the Smith & Wesson handgun that I used in the movie.

Speaking of firearms, will we be seeing much of the trademark Tarantino gunplay violence in HATEFUL EIGHT?

Oh, sure. Of course. Wouldn’t be the same without it.

Michael Madsen in HATEFUL EIGHT. Weinstein Co. Used with permission.

Last year Tarantino was furious when his HATEFUL EIGHT script got leaked online, and you were one of the few insiders who’d been given a copy.

People actually thought it was me! I was in Italy at the time. My buddy and I were on an elevator, this was about 2 :00 in the morning and we’d just got back to the hotel, and he was looking at his phone, and all of sudden he goes, “Oh my god!” And I go, “What is it?” And he goes, “Oh, Michael, oh my god, somebody leaked out Quentin’s script and he’s all pissed off, and he says he only gave it to three people, and it wasn’t Tim [Roth].” And I was, like, “Holy shit, man, it sounds like I’m a suspect!” So I called him the next day and I said, “Quentin, man, say something to somebody, because obviously it wasn’t me.” And he started laughing actually. He thought it was funny that this had so quickly been heard about as far away as Italy, that the very next day it was worldwide news.

Not much later you participated in a staged public reading of the HATEFUL EIGHT script. Was Tarantino directing you live on stage?

Oh, he sure was, he had on a black cowboy hat and was coming over to the actors and giving them direction, right in front of everybody. Quentin read all the stage directions aloud. He had a coffee pot for a prop, and I had a bandana for my prop. It was a fascinating night. I’ve never done anything like that.

Did you rehearse for this?

Yeah, we rehearsed for three days before the show, and once in the afternoon right before the show. It was a lot of hustling around to get everybody together, but to have the whole cast together in one room and start reading through this thing, and putting it up on its feet, and to know now that we’re actually gonna go and film it later, it was a great, great, great kind of boost for me.

How did it feel to have that immediate feedback from the audience? People must have been laughing, reacting in various ways…

Well, everybody was very, very respectful. That’s what I remember. I’d seen everybody coming in, because I was in the back as the theater started to fill up, and I’d been looking out the windows in the front of the building, and everybody was all dressed up! It was really kind of an evening with all the girls all dolled up and guys dressed up. Nobody was allowed to bring their phone inside or have any kind of recording devices.

I heard that you don’t carry a cell phone. Is that still true?

I don’t like them, put it that way. I didn’t even get an iPad till about six months ago. I just really didn’t get the point of it. I would see people on their phones in the car, on their phone constantly, and when I had one myself it seemed like I became so dependent on it. I started wondering why does everyone need it so badly when no-one ever had it before, and back then everyone got along fine. Was it really that important to talk to somebody if you can call ‘em an hour later? But I have five kids, and I gotta have a phone,  but I frequently don’t charge it up and “accidentally” leave it somewhere, and I try really hard not to become obsessed with it.  I heard that Christopher Walken doesn’t have a cell phone, and he’s my hero; and if he honestly doesn’t – or if he’s just saying that to sound cool – I don’t know, but I’m hoping he really doesn’t have one.

Michael Madsen. Photo credit: Isaac Alvarez. Weinstein Co. Used with permission.

Speaking of contemporary actors, you recently worked with Danny Trejo on a film called HOPE LOST. What was that like?

I’m not real fond of that title but, uh, it was shot in Rome and it’s basically about girls sold into the sex trade. The movie is a little rough, not for everyone. When you’re working on lower budget things, sometimes you have a bit more control over dialogue and scenes. In the original script I did some terrible things and got killed, but I didn’t end up doing that. My character lives, and I actually walk away from a bad situation at the end. Danny’s such a great actor and wonderful presence on screen. You walk the streets of Rome with Danny, and people come out of the restaurants shouting, “Machete! Machete!” Pretty funny. He’s Machete, no doubt about it. He’s got that mug!

I always wanted to see you cast as James Bond’s CIA counterpart, Felix Leiter, in the 007 series. That unfortunately didn’t happen, but you did get that nice supporting bit in DIE ANOTHER DAY (2002).

I loved working on that! Pierce Brosnan was a friend of mine and he lived right down the street from me, and that’s how that kinda happened. I went and I met [007 film producer] Barbara Broccoli, and they wanted to find a spot for me, and I did that one. I would have come back, I would have loved to. Judi Dench was such a great pleasure to work with. Having a Bond film as a credit is pretty cool. I’d like to do a few more.

You did an episode of HAWAII FIVE-O in 2014 which was notable because you were a bad guy who turned out to be a good guy.

What happened was, I’d heard there was some interest in having me on the show, and I was a huge, huge fan of the old show [the original HAWAII FIVE-O series which ran from 1968 to 1980]. That music, that opening title sequence is so bitchin’ and I remember watching that show most of my life, and just thought it was super cool. You can’t touch that thing. When they were interested in me, it was like a boyhood dream to be on HAWAII FIVE-O, but when they started calling me to do it, I said, “You know what, man, I’m not gonna come on the damn thing if you’re gonna kill me. There has to be something else. I’m gonna come in and get thrown down the steps by Scott Caan and then at the end get killed in a shoot-out. Please, please come up with something better for me.” And so, it really wasn’t until six months later after that conversation that they actually called me to do the show, and obviously when I read the script, the ending was the wonderful thing about it. You realize that this guy wasn’t such a bad person, and there’s this huge redemption, and that’s why I did it.  I’ve never seen the episode; I was out of the country when it aired. I got a lot of compliments from my family about it.

You were crammed into the tiny backseat of that Chevy Camaro for much of the time.

Being trapped in a car with Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan is an interesting experience. Both of those guys are good actors and I had fun with them, but if they’re not complaining about being stuck in Hawaii, all they do is talk about cigars all day.

They complain about being in Hawaii?

These two guys, you gotta understand, were in their fourth season, and after that many episodes I would imagine that sooner or later it might start to get to you. I saw Scotty in the parking lot in the early, early morning on my first day, and I said,”Hey man, where’s a good place to eat?” And he goes, “L.A.!” [laughs]

Hey, you know who directed that episode? Peter Weller, ROBOCOP (1987)! Peter’s a really intelligent guy, and I really enjoyed working with him. He really gave me a wide berth, let me come in and do my thing. He understands the actor’s dilemma, and he’s very, very methodical in his direction of exactly how he wants certain things. I was lucky to have him there because I wanted that thing to matter, I wanted that to be a good episode, I was thrilled to be on it, and to have him direct it made it just that much better.

I’m betting that you personally own some cars that are cooler than Danno’s Camaro.

Well, over the years I certainly have had some interesting vehicles. I entertained my boyhood fantasies after I started making some money as an actor. I got a ’57 Chevy small block and put dual quads on the damn thing. I had a Stingray with a big block four-speed. I went through a couple of Plymouth Roadrunners and even a Superbird. The thing is, you get these cars that you’ve always dreamed about having, and you end up with flat tires and dead batteries. You can’t really drive them that much, and you have to keep them somewhere, and it ends up being an expense that doesn’t make sense, especially if you have children. A lot of my toys are gone. I let most of them go. The last one I had was a ’67 GTO; that was really pretty cool. I bought it from the original owner. I got a couple motorcycles and I still have my Jaguar, but I’ve recently – funny you should say – I’ve recently started to get that feeling again. Wouldn’t be nice to have a nice 427 Chevelle downstairs? Nice fuckin’ four-speed convertible. I was even thinkin’ of getting something for my son, something we can build together.

Are you a liquor guy or a beer guy?

I’m not any one thing.  I think drinking is one of those things that requires moderation.  I like to have some wine with dinner, but I’m not like a big drinker. If I’m flying on a plane, I’ll have a Jack and Coke. If I’m out with my wife and I don’t have to drive anywhere, I’ll have a martini. If I’m with my sons watching a game, I’ll drink a beer. But I’m not…

You’re not Charles Bukowski or anything.

Jesus, no!

Or Lee Marvin.

[Laughs] You know, I’m very fond of Lee Marvin. That fuckin’ guy, he had such a – you look at CAT BALLOU (1965) or POINT BLANK (1967) – he really, really had a tremendous screen presence, and whenever you read a little bio of him, they have to throw in that last little line about him being a heavy drinker. You kinda wonder, is it really necessary to highlight that particular part of his personality? Most of the guys from that era were drinkers. Look at Dean Martin in the Matt Helm movies – he was hammered, and you can tell when you watch the movie! All of those guys were drinkers back then, and nobody thought there was anything wrong with it.

You have over a hundred screen credits. If you could pick three that you feel were unjustifiably overlooked, and get them re-appraised, which movies would they be?

I did a boxing picture called STRENGTH AND HONOUR (2010), playing an Irish-American prizefighter, probably one of the better pictures I’ve ever done, and it never got a proper release. It was actually finished at the same time as Mickey Rourke’s huge comeback, THE WRESTLER (2008).  I spoke to the director and he told me about trying to get it a second life, and how some investors convinced him he should re-release it in 3D. I was speechless! I hung up on him.

In addition, I did a cop picture called VICE (2008) which was shot by Andrzej Sekula, who was the director of photography on RESERVOIR DOGS and PULP FICTION (1994). I rewrote the beginning and the ending, and then I got Darryl Hannah into it and had a lot to do with the whole production. It’s a slow, quiet film but it’s about redemption, and I dedicated it to Chris Penn [Madsen’s RESERVOIR DOGS co-star] because he had passed away when I was making it.

And HELL RIDE! That came out on DVD, and people didn’t really know what it was. Now it’s become kind of a cult thing. The plot doesn’t make any sense, but it’s fun to watch. Those are three of them, right off the top of my head.

I know that you own your character’s motorcycle from HELL RIDE. Did you keep anything else? Do you have, say, the Zippo lighter from RESERVOIR DOGS?

As a matter of fact, Quentin has that. He has the razor, too. It’s the exact same razor that Uma Thurman uses in KILL BILL, when she’s buried alive. Mister Blonde’s razor! Quentin’s real good about keeping stuff. I’ve got a lot of clothes. I have Mister Blonde’s suit.

Tarantino must have been a big fan of John Dahl’s KILL ME AGAIN (1989), an earlier film where you tie somebody up and get rough with them.

There’s a strange story. Originally I remembered him telling me that that’s where he got the idea for me to be Mister Blonde, but I did a cable talk show many years ago and said that, and later when I ran into him he told me that was not why he’d cast me as Mister Blonde. KILL ME AGAIN was a good movie, but nobody saw it. John Dahl, man, John Dahl in his glory. Whatever happened to John Dahl? He’s vanished. I was supposed to do RED ROCK WEST (1993) with him, and then he opted for Nick Cage, and that’s where my relationship with John went south!

There was once talk of you and John Travolta reprising your roles from RESERVOIR DOGS and PULP FICTION in a prequel, in which your characters were brothers.

The Vega brothers! Well, you know John and I are not kids any more. I was at the Cannes Film Festival recently, hanging around with Quentin, when I finally met John. Now that the two of us have been standing together in the same room with Quentin, I think the idea became a little more interesting, more timely. I don’t think it would necessarily be a prequel, but I do think him and me together in some capacity, in a reminder of the other two pictures, is a lot more possible now. It would be nice, wouldn’t it? But you’ll have to ask Quentin about that.

One final question: Have you thought about doing any directing?

You know what? I just finished a Roger Corman picture called COBRAGATOR (2015). I love Roger! His movies are sci-fi pictures, and there is something about a Roger Corman film that’s different from the rest of that genre. Working for him is a pleasure, and I did get to do some directing in it, and I got a great deal of pleasure out of it. I realized that I’ve been wanting to direct forever, but nobody’s ever asked me to do it. The hard thing about it is you need that breakout, you need someone to actually say, “Okay, you get to direct this movie,” but if you haven’t ever done it before, there’s always that doubt. Can he really do it? Can he actually direct? Which, obviously, I could. I’d love to do that. I hope it’s in my future. I would like to do that a lot.    

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

This week in Retro Atlanta is the Kat’s Meow! Come see what we’ve found for you! From old-school rock, punk ‘n’ blues to a whole lotta classic cinema on the big screen! Come on out and live la vida Retro!

Monday, August 10

Get really retro and conspire with Orson Welles at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their screening of Carol Reed’s classic, THE THIRD MAN (1949), running through Aug. 13! Skye Paige, “Queen of Slide Guitar” rocks out at the Little Vinyl Lounge! Barrelhouse Bob Page gets down and dirty at Blind Willie’s! Or 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!’ Eighties it up with Blast-Off Burlesque as they start your week off right with a night of adults-only trivia, at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, with a different theme every Monday night at 8:30pm! Truett Lollis delivers a night of blues and soul at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! Get folksy with Jamie Laval at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Make your way to the Lefont Theatre for their screening of Bao Nguyen’s LIVE FROM NEW YORK! (2015), exploring forty years of SNL at 7pm! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a side of Dry White Toast and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, August 11

It’s sci-fi madness at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema’s “Tuesday Sci-Fi Classics” series, so live long and prosper with their screening of Jean-Luc Godard’s ALPHAVILLE (1965) at 7pm! Get funky and jazz it up with Nellie McKay at Eddie’s Attic! It’s a night of burly-Q shenanigans with Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and Syrens of the South, at the Red Light Café with their Tease Tuesday Burlesque: Back to School event featuring Rosie Rivet-her’s devious debut and more! Bluegrass it up with Curtis Jones & Primal Roots at Steve’s Live Music! Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues at Blind Willie’s! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with their ‘80s Dance Night! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm! And as always, The Entertainment Crackers get bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, August 12

Get adventurous and celebrate 30 years of Pee Wee with The Plaza Theater’s screening of Tim Burton’s PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE (1985) at 7pm! Karma Chameleon on down to the Fox Theatre for a night with Culture Club! Or get your 80s fix at the Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta) with their screening of Adrian Lyne’s FLASHDANCE (1983) at 7:30pm! Get some New Orleans funk ‘n’ blues with the Wasted Potential Brass Band at Smith’s Olde Bar! Or folk it up with Under the Willow at Red Light Café! Blues it up with Frankie’s Blues Mission at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Stomp on down to Blind Willie’s for a night with the BooHoo Ramblers! Lola gets down and dirty at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint! It’s a hootenanny and a half at The Star Bar with their Cowboy Karaoke event, featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes! Rock on downstairs to the Little Vinyl Lounge for a night of retro shenanigans with Kool Kat Jeff Clark and Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! St. James Live! delivers their Hump Days Blues night, getting classic blues-style every Wednesday! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, August 13

It’s a night of old-school punk at the Masquerade with The Dickies and Magoos Heros! Get smooth ‘70s style with an evening with Yacht Rock Revue at the Buckhead Theatre! Rock on down to The Star Bar for a night with Twin Trances, SWOTS, The Mumzees and Hip to Death! Or get your garage rock ‘n’ punk fix at The Earl with Ex Hex, In the Whale and Muuy Biien! Kool Kat Spike Fullerton and the Ghost Riders Car Club honkytonks it up at the Clermont Lounge! Folk it up with Passerine and Molly Conrad at the Red Light Café! Get funky with Dyn-o-mite at Steve’s Live Music! Follow the yellow brick road to Atlantic Station for their screening of Victor Fleming’s THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) at dusk, during their Movies in Central Park series! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so surf on down to Trader Vic’s for some cool island tunes and a few cocktails! Blues it up with Amy Hart at Blind Willie’s! 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! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! 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, August 14

Get your fill of old-school tunes and tasty vittles at the two-day Atlanta Bar-B-Q Festival 2015, with live performances by Heaven Davis (jazz/blues); the Gasoline Brothers (vintage R&R); and Larkin Poe (swampadelic soul)! Rock on down to The Star Bar for The Biters’ Record Release Show, with the Subsonics, Dinos Boys, Gunpowder Gray and more! Eighties it up at Suburban Tap (Marietta) with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade! Stomp on down to Eddie’s Attic for a night with The Cumberland Collective! It’s a night of rock fusion at Aisle 5 with The Aristocrats and the Travis Larson Band! The Red Clay Theatre delivers a night of classic country with The Grascals! Heather Luttrell delivers a night of rockin’ blues at Elliott Street Pub! Celebrate Madonna at Mary’s during their annual Madonnarama event! Get some southern fried blues with EG Kight at the Crimson Moon Café! Blues it up with Pead Boy & Blue Devil at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! The Classical Mountain Fiddles bluegrass it up at the Red Light Café! Rock out with Highbeams while sippin’ a few cocktails under the dinosaurs at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event! Folk it up with Passerine and Honeywood at Steve’s Live Music! Sandra Hall & the Shadows get down and dirty at Blind Willie’s! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern for a night of rockin’ blues with Roy Lee Johnson and Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck! Get the blues with the Barry Richman Band at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! 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, August 15

Splatter Cinema along with Kool Kat Blake Myers and Enjoy the Film (Kool Kat Ben Ruder) deliver a night of cannibalistic chaos at Cinevision Screening Room with their 35mm screening of Umberto Lenzi’s gore-tastic flick, CANNIBAL FEROX/MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY (1981) at 8:30pm! And don’t forget to come early for some chilling lobby shenanigans! It’s day 2 of the smokin’ Atlanta Bar-B-Q Festival 2015, so come on out for some tasty treats with The Dusty 45s (Americana/roots/rockabilly); Brother Hawk (blues/rock); and more! Surf on down to Kavarna for Southern Surf Stomp! featuring The Monterreys, The Cryptides and Bruce Joyner & Atomic Clock! Spook on down to Famous Pub for Kool Kat VJ Anthony’s Coffin Classics event, digging up the best of goth, dark 80s and industrial! Get old-timey and boogie on down to Mac McGee Irish Pub in Roswell for a night with (our upcoming Kool Kat) Caleb Warren and the Perfect Gentlemen! The Dixie Tavern in Marietta delivers “Luau Night: Surfabilly Madness!” with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt & the Psycho-Devilles and The Fugitives! Make your way to the Fox Theatre for the Coca Cola Summer Film Festival’s Saturday Morning Cartoons screening at 10am, followed by a screening of Mel Gibson’s BRAVEHEART (1995) at 7:30pm! Rock on down to The Star Bar for a night with Catfight, The El Caminos and Mouthbreathers! Kool Kat Kim Lenz & the Jaguars honkytonks it up with Andrea Colburn (Hothouse Peaches) at Smith’s Olde Bar! Stagger on over to The Plaza Theater for a screening of George A. Romero’s classic, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) at 9:30pm! The Mablehouse Barnes Amphitheatre delivers A Van Morrison Experience during their South Cobb Arts Alliance Candlelite Concert! Shake a tail feather on down to Elliott Street Pub for The Chameleon Queen’s Carriage Contribution Benefit Variety Show! The Center for Puppetry Arts presents a screening of Ivan Reitman’s GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) at 8pm! Get your western swing fill at the Crimson Moon Café with Carolyn Martin! Blues it up with The Stooge Brothers at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Bluegrass it up with Jim Lauderdale and Adam Klein at the Red Clay Theatre! Rich Robinson (Black Crowes) rocks out at Eddie’s Attic! Eighties it up at the Dallas Public House with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade! Frank Hamilton and Angela Easterling deliver a night of traditional folk tunes at Steve’s Live Music, followed by The Stoneberrys! Make your way to Trader Vic’s for their “Rum Tasting Seminar” from 5-6pm! Eddie Tigner blueses it up at the Northside Tavern! Stomp on down to the Red Light Café for a night with The Dappled Grays! Folk it up with Doria Roberts at the Variety Playhouse! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night! 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, August 16

Get your new-wave and synth-pop fix at the Variety Playhouse with Howard Jones! Geek it up at the Atlanta Marriott Century Center for the Atlanta Comic Convention, from 11-5pm! It’s a night of shakin’ shenanigans at 7 Stages as Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and Syrens of the South celebrate 8 years of tantalizing tease with their 8th Anniversary Show! Get rebellious as TCM presents a sing-a-long with Randal Kleiser’s classic, GREASE (1978) in theatres across the Atlanta area at 2pm and 7pm [Hollywood Stadium 24 in Chamblee, Perimeter Pointe 10; AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 in Lawrenceville; AMC Avenue Forsyth 12 in Cumming; Avalon Stadium 12 in Alpharetta; GTC Merchant’s Walk Stadium 12 in Marietta; AMC Barrett Commons 24 in Kennesaw; AMC Southlake 24 in Morrow; Regal McDonough Stadium 16; Cinemark Tinseltown 17 in Fayetteville; and Georgian Stadium in Newnan]! Jazz it up with Alex Lattimore and The Tyrone Jackson Trio at the Red Light Café! Kool Kat Gringo Star rocks out at Park Tavern! Blues it up with Steve the Blues Dude at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! And get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar!

Ongoing

Blast-Off Burlesque geeks it up with a night of adults-only trivia at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, every Monday at 8:30pm!

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

The Star Bar delivers Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, every Tuesday!

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

Take a peek at all the shakin’ shenanigans we’ve found for you in Retro Atlanta this week!

Monday, July 13

Start your week off right with some classic cinema! The Salem-Panola Library (Lithonia) offers up Fletcher Markle’s THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY (1963) at 1pm! Or catch a screening of Robert Mulligan’s TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962) at the Charles D. Switzer Library (Marietta), with a pre-show discussion at 6pm! And get dehumanized at the West Cobb Regional Library (Kennesaw) with their screening of Ridley Scott’s BLADE RUNNER (1982) at 6:30pm! It’s a night of rock and ‘60s pop at The Earl with Grand Vapids, Mail the Horse and Sydney Eloise & The Palms! Or rock out at the Masquerade with Guttermouth, Treephort and Rotten Stitches! Get some soul with Brandon Reeves at Blind Willie’s! Skye Paige, “Queen of Slide Guitar” rocks out at the Little Vinyl Lounge! Or 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!’ Join Blast-Off Burlesque as they start your week off right with a night of adults-only trivia, at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, every Monday night at 8:30pm! Truett Lollis delivers a night of blues and soul at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! Get folksy with Jamie Laval at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! 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, July 14

The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema kicks off their “Tuesday Classics” series with Ridley Scott’s BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT (1982) at 7pm! It’s a night of burly-Q shenanigans with Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and Syrens of the South, at the Red Light Café with their Tease Tuesday Burlesque: Patriot Acts event featuring Annette Coquette and more! Make your way to The Plaza Theater for a little murder and mayhem with their screening of John Waters’ SERIAL MOM (1994)! Catch Howard Hawks’ SERGEANT YORK (1941) at the Charles D. Switzer Library (Marietta) at 12:30pm! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with their ‘80s Dance Night! It’s “Bollywood Movie Night” at Chai Pani in Decatur, so make your way for their screening of Ramesh Sippy’s action-adventure film, SHOLAY (1975) at 9pm! Or get classically comedic at Movies ATL 14 with their screening of Billy Wilder’s SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) at 7pm! Get post-apocalyptic at the Diesel Filling Station during Nerd Film Mafia’s rescheduled screening of George Miller’s ‘80s classic action flick, MAD MAX: THE ROAD WARRIOR (1982)! Bluegrass it up with Curtis Jones & the Primal Roots at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Boogie down with Atlanta Boogie at Blind Willie’s! Or blues it up with 4 Korners with Cody Matlock at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Alex Guthrie gets folksy at Eddie’s Attic! Surf on downstairs at The Star Bar to a hidden paradise, in the Little Vinyl Lounge, for Summertime Tuesdays with Poolboy Pietro and Chase the Chum-Man Taylor! Get the blues with JT Speed at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm! And as always, The Entertainment Crackers get bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, July 15

Jazz it up with Sal Gentile at the Elliott Street Pub! Rod “the Mod” Stewart invades the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre! Wax on and wax off at the Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) during their screening of John G. Avildsen’s KARATE KID (1984) at 7pm! Or catch Disney’s classic, CINDERELLA (1950) at the Stonecrest Library (Lithonia) at 1pm! Get some rhythm and soul and rock ‘n’ roll with The Hollidays at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Blues it up with The Cazanovas at Blind Willie’s! Get folksy at Eddie’s Attic with The Honey Dewdrops and Caleb Stine! It’s a hootenanny and a half at The Star Bar with their Cowboy Karaoke event, featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes! Rock on downstairs to the Little Vinyl Lounge for a night of retro shenanigans with Kool Kat Jeff Clark and Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! St. James Live! delivers their Hump Days Blues night, getting classic blues-style every Wednesday! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, July 16

The Fox Theatre’ 2015 Coca Cola Summer Film Festival delivers Steven Spielberg’s JAWS (1975) at 7:30! Here’s looking at you kid, so come on down to Atlantic Station for their Movies in Central Park series’ screening of Michael Curtiz’ CASABLANCA (1942) at dusk! Or catch John Waters’ PINK FLAMINGOS (1972) at The Plaza Theater! Get your reggae fix at Terminal West with Morgan Heritage! Lola gets down and dirty at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint! Mr. Blue Sky delivers some jazzy ukulele folk at Trader Vic’s during Mai Tai Thursday! Bluegrass it up with the Jon Stickley Trio and the Georgia Mountain String Band at the Red Light Café! Get funky at Smith’s Olde Bar in the Music Room with Voodoo Visionary, Johnny Awesome and Percy Sledgehammer! Or rock out in the Atlanta Room with Riverside Voodoo and Chilhowee Royal! Jazz it up with Karen Briggs at the Suite Food Lounge! Blues it up with Tas Cru at Blind Willie’s! 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! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! 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, July 17

Kool Kat Blair Crimmins & the Hookers dishes out prohibition era pandemonium at Paris on Ponce during their 4th Annual Bastille Day Celebration, with performances by the Thimblerig Circus, the Imperial OPA Circus and more, running through July 19! Rock out horror-style with Unknown Hinson and Kool Kat Rev. Andy Hawley at the Masquerade! Get funky with the Tedeschi Trucks Band and Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre! Caleb Warren & the Perfect Gentlemen dish out a night of string jazz and ragtime blues at the High Museum’s Friday Night Music Remix event! Rock out and celebrate 35 years of Pulp at The Earl with Metroscene, Supermagical and Darling Norman! Or stomp on down to Eddie’s Attic for a night with Eliot Bronson and Kristen Englenz! The Drunken Unicorn delivers a night with The Head, Jonas Sees in Color, Yard Dogs and The Marrows! Sadie Hawkins and friends shake a tail feather during her Last Pasties Standing – Girl Groups event at the Red Light Café! Spend an evening with Kate Pierson (B-52s) at the Variety Playhouse! Get folksy at Steve’s Live Music with Donna Hopkins, the Jess Goggans Band and The Pussywillows! Randall Bramblett delivers the blues at the Crimson Moon Café! Or rock out blues style at the Red Clay Theatre with the Freddy Jones Band! 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! Rock out at 529 with PLS PLS, Houston in the Blind and RRest! Meow with the best of ‘em as the Atlanta Lyric Theatre presents Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Cats” at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, running through July 19! Kool Kat VJ Anthony delivers his 80s Music Video Night at Famous Pub! Stoney Brooks gets down and dirty at the Northside Tavern! Blues it up with Atlanta Boogie at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Blues it up with Sandra Hall & the Shadows at Blind Willie’s! 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, July 18

Have a monstrous good time with our pal Kool Kat Shane Morton during the Silver Scream FX Lab Grand Opening Public Tour, from 10am-6pm! Or catch Trader Vic’s The Art of Tiki & Trader Vic’s seminar discussing Tiki décor, art and mugs, at 5pm! It’s a night of mischief and mayhem at The Star Bar with Thelma & the Sleaze, Bad Spell, Midnight Larks and Daddy Issues! Catch Ridley Scott’s ALIEN (1979) at the Aurora Cineplex at 11:59pm! Get your classic rock fix at Terminal West with Allgood, The Bitteroots and Nine Times Blue! Make your way to the Earl Smith Strand Theatre for their Cruisin’ at the Strand with the Creepers car show, from 2-8pm! The Brat Pack invades the Fox Theatre during their 2015 Coca Cola Film Festival screening of John Hughes’ THE BREAKFAST CLUB (1985) at 7:30pm! Rev it up with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt & the Psycho-Devilles at the Dixie Tavern! The Plastic Pinks deliver a night of garage rock at 529! Or make your way to Aisle 5 for a night with Escape Vehicle and Jon Harris! Skye Paige, “Queen of Slide Guitar” rocks out at Hottie Hawgs BBQ! Folk it up with River Whyless at Eddie’s Attic! It’s a night of hill country blues at The Family Dog with the John Sosebee Band! Blues it up with Selwyn Birchwood at Blind Willie’s! The Rainmen dish out some ‘60s and ‘70s rock ‘n’ roll at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Blues it up with Mr. Chapman’s Quarterly Revue at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get groovy with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night! 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, July 19

Catch a screening of Billy Wilder’s classic film noir DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) in theatres across the Atlanta area at 2 pm and 7pm [Hollywood Stadium 24 in Chamblee, Perimeter Pointe 10; AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 in Lawrenceville; AMC Avenue Forsyth 12 in Cumming; AMC Barrett Commons 24 in Kennesaw; AMC Southlake 24 in Morrow; Regal McDonough Stadium 16; Cinemark Tinseltown 17 in Fayetteville; and Georgian Stadium in Newnan]! It’s your second chance to catch John G. Avildsen’s KARATE KID (1984) at the Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) at 2pm! Get funky with some Georgian soul with Kool Kat Ruby Velle & the Soulphonics, The 200s and The Main Squeeze at Park Tavern! Shimmy on down to the Red Light Café for The Savannah Sweet Tease Burlesque Revue with special guest Sadie Hawkins! Spend the evening with Leon Russell at the Variety Playhouse! Blues it up with Fat Back Deluxe at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Swami Gone Bananas gets psychedelic at Hottie Hawgs BBQ! And get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar!

Ongoing

The Earl Smith Strand Theatre doo-wops it up with The Motown Sound through July 26!

Blast-Off Burlesque geeks it up with a night of adults-only trivia at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, every Monday at 8:30pm!

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

The Star Bar delivers Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, every Tuesday!

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 JOHN CARPENTER’S VAMPIRES (1998); Dir. John Carpenter; Starring James Woods, Daniel Baldwin and Sheryl Lee; Tuesday, Nov. 12 @ 9:30 p.m. (pictures and merch table open @ 9:00 p.m.); Plaza Theatre; Trailer here.

By Aleck Bennett
Contributing Writer

Still feeling unsatisfied after all of the horrors that Halloween and the Buried Alive! Film Festival had to offer? Not a problem! Splatter Cinema and the Plaza Theatre keep the gore flowing with their presentation of JOHN CARPENTER’S VAMPIRES! Turn up early to have your photo taken in a recreation of one of the film’s tableaux and check out the merch table!

Okay. Let’s be honest: the end of the 1980s was probably the worst thing that could have happened to John Carpenter. After a decade and a half of superior filmmaking—capped off by 1988’s savage and darkly comic take on Reagan’s America, THEY LIVE—the road suddenly became very bumpy for the director. Misfires like 1992’s MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN, 1993’s Showtime Networks project BODY BAGS and 1995’s VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED were interspersed with deliberate attempts to recapture past glories. 1995’s IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS, surprisingly, worked; it succeeded in closing off his Lovecraftian “Apocalypse Trilogy” which began with THE THING and continued with PRINCE OF DARKNESS. But his re-teaming with Kurt Russell on 1996’s ESCAPE FROM L.A. was hardly a patch on ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. It wasn’t even 1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS, for crying out loud. And when a quickly-made cash-in knock-off by Enzo G. Castellari is a more entertaining follow-up than the official one, then something is rotten in the state of Carpenter. Realizing that he just wasn’t having fun making movies anymore, John Carpenter decided to retire.

Why, then, did Carpenter change his mind after just two years and film an adaptation of John Steakley’s VAMPIRE$? He largely rejected the plot of the source novel, and pretty much tossed aside the two screenplay drafts that were offered to him, so it wasn’t the story that pulled him back into the game. A good guess is that he saw this as a chance to once again have fun. And how? By making the western that he’d always wanted to make.

He’d attempted to make a western once before with his second feature, ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13. It was originally set in the Old West as a cross between RIO BRAVO and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. However, budgetary restrictions forced him to update the scenario to a present day urban setting. And while Carpenter had long integrated elements from his favorite western filmmakers into his work (Howard Hawks, John Ford and Sergio Leone among them), he had never explicitly returned to the genre. VAMPIRES’ Southwestern setting and revamping (no pun intended) of a “hired guns” trope allowed him to explicitly return to his own favorite genre.

The storyline is relatively simple. A crack team of Vatican-backed vampire hunters takes out a cell of vamps holed up in a New Mexico house. Afterward, an ambush back at their motel leaves only the team’s leader, Jack Crow (James Woods), his partner Tony Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) and a prostitute (Sheryl Lee). Crow pulls together a new team in order to take out the vampire’s leader and his army. There’s some supernatural gussying-up going on (the vamps are after an ancient relic, there’s a climactic exorcism ritual as a plot turn), but as you can see, this is largely a “cowboys vs. Indians” story disguised as a horror movie.

Is it successful? Well, not entirely. It actually makes a fairly good run at turning THE WILD BUNCH into a horror flick, its action sequences are well-staged and deftly shot, it sports a typically good score from Carpenter and it’s more lively than almost anything Carpenter had done in the decade following THEY LIVE. But the leads are woefully miscast. James Woods is sufficiently vicious as a hired killer, but—let’s face it—there’s nobody among us that wouldn’t have rather seen Kurt Russell as the lead of this John Carpenter horror/western hybrid. Daniel Baldwin is…well…Daniel Baldwin, as unfortunate as that might be, and Sheryl Lee is merely okay in her role as Katrina, the prostitute-turned-vampire. But they’re all serviceable in their roles; it’s not like any of them are really bad actors. They’re just not quite right for the project. So while all of this may make this sound like it’s just one of Carpenter’s weaker films, why is it so poorly regarded?

Ultimately, JOHN CARPENTER’S VAMPIRES falls victim to its placement in his filmography. It came at the end of a “lost decade” of sorts, when his career needed a severe revitalization, and when he desperately needed to make an Important John Carpenter Film. And this movie is blissfully unimportant. Carpenter just wanted to have some fun once again, and if it had landed somewhere around BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA in his oeuvre, it would be seen as a nice little detour. Not a damaging entry into his work history, just a fast-paced bit of vampire killing with western flair. But in the context of his career, it was the wrong movie at the wrong time.

So, my advice is this: take the movie out of context. Forget what Carpenter needed, and focus on what it is: a beer-drinking, hell-raising, rip-snorting, ass-kicking, heart-staking, head-cutting, over-the-top, balls-out bit of fun. Don’t even look at it as a horror movie. Because it’s really not, once you get past the surface. Look at it as a blood-soaked action/western with vampires as the villains and James Woods chewing up the scenery like it was made out of cheeseburgers. And have a ball, because everyone making it appears to have been having one.

And thank your lucky stars that it’s not GHOSTS OF MARS.

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 Philip Nutman
Contributing Blogger

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (1966); Presented by AM 1690; Dir: Sergio Leone; Starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach; Sat. Aug. 13; 3 PM and 7:30 PM; Plaza Theatre. Trailer here.

1966. After shooting up a storm at the European box office between 1964’s A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and 1965’s FOR A FEW DOLLARS’ MORE, Italian movie-making maven Sergio Leone – against his deepest desires – agreed to make a third spaghetti western. Clint Eastwood, growing tired of filming in Spain, was skeptical, but with major US money (from distributor United Artists) and a substantial salary, finally agreed to reprise his role as “the Stranger.” With Eli Wallach on board as the sweaty, foul-mouthed, primal bandito, Tuco, and Lee Van Cleef returning at Leone’s request, too, the film was a “go.”

A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS established the tone of Italian Westerns to come with its callous violence. FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE provided Leone with an expanded lexicon of cinematic storytelling which turned the classic American Western on its head. But with THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, well, Leone turned a TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE-like story, a quest for hidden gold, into a unique film which reinvented the pasta genre he had created and redefined the cinema-going experience.

Three men. One cache of Civil War gold buried in a coffin – story concepts don’t get more simple than this one. But it’s how Leone plays out the three strands of the stories, the three characters and their respective actions towards acquiring the goal which makes this movie special. Leone’s deliberate pacing – punctuated by shocking, explosive moments of unexpected violence – took a new turn. In certain sequences, seconds become minutes; preparation, psychologically and physically, became the calm before the storm. No director of Westerns had ever attempted what he achieved with THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY.

The Good (Clint Eastwood, L), The Bad (Lee Van Cleef, R), and The Ugly (Eli Wallach, center). Copyright United Artists, 1966.

Whether you love Westerns or the films of Clint Eastwood or not, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY also is a film which was designed to be seen and experienced on the big screen. The Civil War sequences are the most striking ever visualized, and the climactic scene will make your heart race (fans of the film know exactly what I’m referring to here; for those of you who haven’t, prepared to be wowed).

The copy screening at The Plaza this weekend is a pristine print of the 2004 remastered Director’s Cut,  struck from the original negative with the basic mono sound adapted into a crisp stereo mix. In 1967, when first released, United Artists cut 18 minutes from the original version to save on print costs and so they could squeeze an extra screening per day at US movie theatres. So this version of the film has barely been screened in American cinemas. A terrific experience all around. NOT TO BE MISSED!!!

ATLRetro Movie Trivia –

• Although Leone’s first three spaghetti westerns are frequently referred to as the “Man With No Name” trilogy, Eastwood’s “Stranger” is called three different names over the course of the three movies: “Joe” in A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS; “Manco” in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE; and “Blondie” – as Wallach’s Tuco loves to derisively call Eastwood in THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (although Clint’s chestnut-brown hair hardly qualifies him for Marilyn Monroe status).
• Speaking of La Monroe, rumor has it that when Eastwood first saw the Italian version of A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and heard how the Roman dubbing artist had changed his voice – slower, more whispery – he decided to start delivering his lines like Marilyn (but with balls instead of boobs). So without the inspiration of a real blonde and an Italian actor who made money redubbing Americans, Dirty Harry would have sounded quite different…

And don’t forget that between the 3 PM and 7:30 PM screenings of this classic, revisionist Western, The Plaza is giving a free show (donations encouraged; remember, The Plaza Theatre is a nonprofit entity): COMING SOON! 35 Minutes of 35mm Trailers at 6:35 PM, a special, rare opportunity to see some of Plaza Manager Ben Ruder’s private collection of retro celluloid teasers! Give generously or pig out at the concessions stand!

Contributing Blogger Philip Nutman is a regular broadcaster for the The Night Crew, a podcast created and run by film journalists Sean Smithson and Thom Carnell. Over the past few months, Phil has presented “Philip Nutman’s THE WILD, WILD WEST” a multi-part, eclectic primer on must-see cowboy movies. The final installment will be live within the next two weeks.

By Philip Nutman
Contributing Blogger

FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965); Presented by AM 1690; Dir: Sergio Leone; Starring Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volonte, Lee Van Cleef; Sat. July 9; 3 PM and 7:30 PM; Plaza Theatre. Trailer here.

In 1965, following the spur-burning European success of his second film as director, Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone returned to the genre he had unwittingly created with 1964’s A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS – the “spaghetti western” – again working with a young actor named Clint Eastwood. Eastwood was yet to become an international star and was still working on the hit US TV show, RAWHIDE, as cattle wrangler Rowdy Yeates. But outside of America, FISTFUL had been a huge box office hit, and Eastwood as “the man with no name” was already becoming a cinematic icon – so much so, Leone was immediately given the green light to make the second of what would become known as his “Dollars” trilogy (The Plaza will screen a restored print of the ne plus ultra of the sequence of films, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY on August 13).

Eastwood dons the poncho again, this time with Lee Van Cleef in A FEW DOLLARS MORE.

A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS can be considered the template all further spaghetti westerns would follow: mysterious, amoral, cynical stranger either arrives in a small town and upsets the status quo, playing the various sides against each other, or said amoral, ethically-questionable stranger is after the money…the only item of value in an emotionally and politically corrupt landscape where a fistful of dollars (or more) are the only things worth fighting for…and death is always lurking outside a saloon swing doorway. The first film in Leone’s trilogy can also be considered as an experiment; with FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, the director escaped the typical curse of a lame sophomore effort to transcend his groundbreaking western debut and set the stage for the cinematic shake-out which he would deliver in 1966’s THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. The three films were finally unleashed on an unsuspecting American public in 1967, and Eastwood finally escaped his career doldrums and became a full-fledged movie star.

Lee Van Cleef in A FEW DOLLARS MORE.

The plot of DOLLARS MORE is as simple as that of A FISTFUL, but in this case, the film delves into a psychological/motivational grounding the former film lacked. It is the work of a filmmaker finding his footing as he reinvents a genre as old as American movie-making itself. The movie sets up a potential conflict between bounty hunters – Eastwood’s squinting, cheroot-smoking nameless stranger and Lee Van Cleef’s steely-eyed Colonel Mortimer.  After conflicts, the two loners team up to go after the psychopathic killer bandit, Indio (perfectly played by Gian Maria Volonte). The final scenes are killer – literally. But whereas Eastwood’s stranger is just after the money, Mortimer has a personal score to settle with scumbag Indio.  No spoilers on ATLRetro – go do yourself a favor and support the Plaza and enjoy a classic movie, even if you’re not a fan of westerns or Clint.

ATLretro Movie Trivia: Eastwood, who is highly anti-smoking, is on record as stating that if Leone wanted him to turn up his bad-ass volume, all the director had to do was get him to stick one of those stinky cigarillos in his mouth and light up. No wonder Clint had no problem shooting so many sleazy outlaws…

Contributing Blogger Philip Nutman is a regular broadcaster for the cinematic podcast The Night Crew, and for the past few months has discussed “The Wild, Wild West,” his eclectic, personal primer on cowboys movies every film lover should watch. His current verbal essay is on the other Sergio – Sergio Corbucci – director of MINNESOTA CLAY, THE HELLBENDERS…and one of the other greatest spaghetti westerns, 1968’s THE GRAND SILENCE (Here’s wishing the Plaza would screen that!)