News & Opinion

News about Atlanta issues, arts, events, and more

Out on Film opens, a Soul-ful sighting, TCM scores Scorsese and a warm “Welcome”

The impressive line-up for this year's 24th annual Out on Film festival opening Thursday night at Landmark Midtown Cinema and running though Oct. 6 only underscores why the Atlanta LGBT cinema festival is one of the oldest and most attended in the country (Out on Film even earned a place on Atlanta magazine's "The Good, the Bad, and the Indie" history of film in Georgia in our September issue). As an honored Out on Film juror, we've already previewed 15 of this year's film in advance. Based on what we've seen, here's our completely unofficial "to do" list for this year's offerings:
Mjcca

Book Festival of the MJCCA hosts Judy Blume, Mitch Albom, and more

In 1992, the first Book Festival of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta was so small—it featured just two novelists—that volunteers baked cookies as a thank-you for the writers. Nearly a quarter century later, the 18-day festival hosts 45 authors, and they still bake the cookies (now with help from a caterer).

Gushing over “Gatsby”

The New York Times ran a story yesterday on the DiCaprio-emblazoned paperback edition of "The Great Gatsby" and how it’s offended the sensibilities of some booksellers. The article recalled to my mind a first edition of the book, complete with iconic dust jacket, I encountered four years ago while working on a short profile of Buckhead’s Grey Parrot Gallery.
Che Butter Jonez

A visit to Che Butter Jonez, one of Southwest Atlanta’s happiest little restaurants

There are few restaurants in Atlanta like Che Butter Jonez, where Malik Rhasaan interprets some of the dishes he grew up eating in Queens—a flagship lamb burger, chicken pitas and bodega-style breakfast sandwiches, a pastrami-topped patty melt called the Patti LaBelle—while Detric Fox-Quinlan works the counter.
Roadie

How the journeys of four much-hyped Atlanta startups stack up

For those feeling inspired by stories in this package and drafting their resignation letters, a cruel dose of reality from the Harvard Business Review: “If you’re launching a business, the odds are against you: Two-thirds of startups never show a positive return.” Striking startup gold is incredibly rare, but it does happen. Here are a few much-hyped startups and their (sometimes short) journeys, alongside onetime Atlanta darling Mailchimp.

Research news: A sod shortage, soil DNA, and direction-giving chimps

We don’t want to alarm y’all, but evidently there will be a Georgia sod shortage this year.
Teaching kids to ride a bike in Atlanta

How to teach your kids to ride bikes safely in a city built for cars

Can you ever feel comfortable letting children bike solo around a city with countless hills and roaring cars, one that’s still recovering from generations of autocentric planning? Is that traditional rite-of-passage still safe? Absolutely.
Quincey Patterson BankHead Priest

Is there room for longtime residents in “that new Atlanta”?

With a marquee greenspace, a planned Microsoft campus, and other flashy new developments, Grove Park and Bankhead are ground zero for Atlanta gentrification. What happens to the people who are already there?

Pow! With Heroes + Villains, photographer Philip Bonneau recreates Saturday morning magic

Just in time for the city’s Pride celebration this weekend, Atlanta visual artist Philip Bonneau brings his 40-piece homage to childhood, the fourth and final “issue” of his Heroes & Villains series to life at Suite Spot in West Midtown. For a generation of kids raised on 1980s Saturday morning cartoons, Disney animated features and comic books, this exhibition is best viewed with a heaping bowl of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs doused with cold milk. Just one week into the month-long show, half of Bonneau’s photographs are already sold (he’s donating proceeds from the show to Lost –n- Found Youth, Inc., the city’s year-old nonprofit whose mission is to take LGBT youth off the streets and into more permanent housing). Throughout the exhibition, Bonneau imaginatively recreates his favorite Marvel and DC comic book characters, Disney villains and many beloved Saturday morning TV favorites.

Weather woes snowball for Book of Mormon fans, Fox Theatre

For Atlanta fans of Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone’s Tony Award-winning musical The Book of Mormon, this week’s ice capades have proven scarier than the show’s “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream” number. With today’s temps promising to melt the last of the ice, the most-anticipated show of the current Broadway in Atlanta season at the Fox Theatre will — fingers crossed — finally get on stage tonight at 7:30 after the show’s producers scrapped Tuesday’s opening night and Wednesday’s media night performances. To accommodate things, producers have added an additional Monday 7 p.m. performance of the show, which, in turn, has snowballed into another headache. The Book of Mormon cast had set aside Monday night Feb. 3 (the show’s one dark night) to contribute their time and talent to Crush: A Valentine to the 90s, a benefit cabaret to raise money for the Atlanta meals on wheels nonprofit Open Hand and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS at the Woodruff Arts Center. The cabaret has now been cancelled and organizer Kevin Ireland says cabaret ticket holders will be contacted beginning today.

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