As a red-blooded, card-carrying Alliance Theatre subscriber, I can tell you that this year’s season – coincidentally the Theatre’s 40th season – is going to be a real treat. Two August Wilson plays (Radio Golf and Gem of the Ocean), a gospel version of Jesus Christ Superstar featuring Atlanta choirs, a Second City created improv/sketch comedy piece and a live-action version of Andre Benjamin’s Class of 3000, the Alliance is bringing it to the arts community in Atlanta. And now, you can be a part of that by competing to become an Alliance Reviewer for the Alliance Theatre 2008-09 Season blog!

Simply submit a one-page essay on “Why Great Theatre Matters to Atlanta” and e-mail or snail mail it to the Alliance by Monday, June 16 for consideration. Five reviewers will be selected and notified by the end of June, and will get to attend not just all the Alliance and Hertz Stage shows, but also get free tickets for an additional showing!

Of course, I would’ve found out about this after I got my subscriber package, but if you’re a subscriber also, that doesn’t rule you out. Hurry up and submit!

Be an Alliance Reviewer for the 2008-09 Season! [link]

Old news, good times: This stunning fan-made video was shot here in Atlanta. From the technical skill required to put this together to the choreography and physical feats necessary to pull it off, this is great work. Geeky? Damn straight, people. But who doesn’t love a good lightsaber duel?

If you like to take pictures, you’ll dig the hell out of the Sloss Furnaces . The place is loaded with great inspiration for pictures, from the interaction of nature and industry to the textures of rotting metal and weathered brick. And yet, the place is classy, accessible, and somehow clean feeling even though it’s also rife with rust and weeds. Beautiful juxtaposition there.

The Sloss Furnaces, located in downtown Birmingham, are about two hours from metro Atlanta and worth the drive. The place is kept as a local heirloom, but it’s not a behind-ropes sort of place. Wander around. Touch things. Take pictures. The place is just set out for you, interactive in the most elemental sense—you control your trip, you decide where to go, you find your own unique photos even in this often-photographed place.

The steampunk vibe is palpable and lovely.

There’s this terrific performance venue on the grounds, too, beneath a towering metal ceiling, with a sloped warehouse-style floor ending in a stage that slopes up and away from the audience—perfect for visibility and a great mix of an outdoor venue with some indoor comfort. When we were there, in the midst of an otherwise quiet Sunday, dudes were sword-fighting on stage, in front a cameraman. It was like a damn episode of Highlander in there, in a good way: industrial swordplay.

First, it was kids with iron rods, letting loose with huge overhead swings and swashing blows. Their “swords” clattered off the stage, sending thudding, ringing echoes into the space. They hollered dramatically. One kid back-flipped away from a lunge. If you’d told me these kids were going to replace those rods with lightsabers, I would’ve believed you.

Then, after all that, they did it again. Same moves, better timing.

All this was a rehearsal of the Shakespeare at Sloss company, preparing their performance of Macbeth for this weekend. It looks like one hell of an exciting, stylized production, and they couldn’t ask for a better space for action-packed Shakespeare. If you’re game, take some of your weekend and head out to performance this weekend, May 3rd and 4th. The show’s at 3pm each day, so you can drive out and back, no problem.

If you happen to catch the show, be sure to come back here and drop a review in the comments. I’m hoping to get out there, but I’ve got to work, so I may be counting on your reviews for my vicarious satisfaction.

For those of you curious about the collaborative show between Big Boi and the Atlanta Ballet, look no further than Russell’s review.

I’m nearly deaf, but I’m willing to be deafened more.

That’s what we thought when we drove by the Young Blood Gallery down on Glenwood Ave and saw (gasp!) a “For Rent” sign on the lawn and paint thrown over the familiar Young Blood look. Egads!

The good news is, Young Blood is gone only from its old location. Soon(ish?) we’ll see it re-emerge someplace big enough to accommodate it bigger events, bolder shows, and crazier aspirations for the future. (Check out the announcement on the Young Blood site for the official line on the move.) Fingers crossed, it won’t be too long before we see what the new version of the Young Blood Gallery looks like in a new home.

In the meantime, what do you think would be a good fit for that storefront down in Grant Park? Let’s say I wanted to open a store in there… what do you think the odds are that an independent book store or general geek-shop would be able to cut it down there? What would be a good fit, then, since that idea’s doomed?

this came into us via suggest-a-story and i thought i would put it out there for you. according to archinect, the buckhead branch library may be razed. the building was designed by mack sogin merril elam and is considered something of a marvel in architectural communities.

not all are impressed though. in an ajc article about the potential razing of the library, aaron rents founder and arbiter of all things classy in buckhead, “first class” charlie loudermilk is quoted as saying:

“I see it from my window. I think it’s ugly,” Loudermilk said. “I like brick and limestone, stuff that looks like quality”

(prehaps charlie has something like the black gloss entertainment center from aaron rents in mind. screams quality)

anyway if the library does go, it will be replaced by, you guessed it, a parking garage.

atlanta’s car addiction strikes again.

p.s. - hat tip to the first person to get the author and quote that the title of this post is from

Have you seen Everywhere magazine’s website? This new outfit from the makers of JPG (which is to say, 8020 Publishing and We, The People) is a user-created travel magazine publishing photos, stories, postcards, and travel-worthy sites from reader-contributors around the globe.

Atlanta’s part of the globe. Let’s get in there and make places out of some of our favorite Atlanta spots — let’s make Atlanta a part of Everywhere. Get your photo or article in the magazine and you get a little cash and a free subscription. Even better, we get people coming to Atlanta to see the places they didn’t even think of, and to learn that Atlanta’s not Savannah.

What place would you submit? Where do you take guests from out of town? Where would you send a traveler who wanted to see some authentic Atlanta, something beyond the aquarium and the Coke museum? What are some places worth discovering?

Art Relish is a new website covering the Arts in Atlanta. If you feel like checking out what’s going on in the Atlanta arts on a given evening, Art Relish has an Atlanta Arts calendar. They also have a neato Artspeak Glossary for those of us who aren’t up on all the fancy arts terminology. They accept suggestions for their arts calendar, too, which is a cool resource for Atlanta artists.

Support your local arts scene; check out Art Relish!

Today at lunch I popped over to Atlantic Station with a few co-workers to check out the clothes, art and jewelry on display and to take in a little ambient music. A few of the surface streets are closed to make room for vendor booths, and there’s a stage near the main 17th street entrance where musicans were starting to warm up by way of a loose jam session. While the Friday lunch traffic/attendance was low, it was still promising and we watched it swell even as we closed in on 1:15. I’m sure they’ll be swarms of folks there over the weekend, but all I have to say is “ha! I got there first and got *the* cutest dress for $60!” (insert Nelson ha-ha here).

Swing by tonight if you can, there are some really amazing deals to be found on incredible work and you know they’re not going to last.

Summary of event (what’s left of it, it started on the 20th):

10 a.m.-9 p.m. through Sunday, July 29.

Includes artists market, literary festival, education/children/family programming, the Pan African Film Festival. Also, dance, musical, theater and visual arts events. Venues include Greenbriar Mall, Clark Atlanta University, Atlantic Station, Hammonds House, Woodruff Arts Center, Fox Theater, Horizon Theatre, Center for Puppetry Arts, Rialto Arts Center, Balzer Theater and Tabernacle.

As this is my daughter’s first week of Summer Camp (she’ll be in Pre-K in the Fall) I got my first real opportunity to chaperon a field trip this morning. Her class went to the Center for Puppetry Arts to see their performance of Beauty and the Beast.

This isn’t the Beauty and the Beast of Disney or Linda Hamilton/Ron Perlman, but it’s really clever. Think found object puppets meets Mister Rogers’ land of make believe and you’ll get the picture.

Anyhow, if you haven’t seen a stage play or a puppet show through the eyes of a child recently (or ever) I highly recommend going to the Center for Puppetry Arts. Plus, once the show ended the performers stepped out into the light and explained some of the behind-the-scenes magic. Kids and adults alike can appreciate all the tricks of the trade that make such a wonderful performance come to life.