ATLRetro

Friday, March 11

Mike Geier and one of the lovely Dames Aflame.

Phoenix Flies tours include Piedmont Park Past to Future‘ neo-Gothic Oglethorpe Campus & Museum; Historic Downtown; Hinman Home (1896), now Stonehurst Place Bed & Breakfast, Catholic Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, whose beginnings date back to 1848 and cornerstone was laid 1869; Historic Midtown; and the 2nd Friday Art Stroll of Castleberry Hill art galleries.

Day Two at Southern Fried Burlesque Fest features a Free Range Burlesque show hosted by Mike Geier of KingSized with special guests Dames Aflame. Performers include international stars Dirty Martini andJo Boobs; legends Tiffany Carter and Gyna Rose Jewel; and regional and local performers including festival organizers Katherine Lashe and Ursula Undress ofSyrens of the South.

It’s an all-star night at Star Bar with Drivin’ n Cryin’lead man Kevn Kinney & the Musical Kings opening for The Baseball Project, featuring REM‘s Pete Buckand Dream Syndicate‘s Steve Wynn. Just down the street, Colin Hay, of ’80s Aussie hit-makers Men at Work, does a solo gig at Variety Playhouse. Serving up jazz with a wide Western swing, The Bonaventure Quartet, featuring Atlanta chanteuse extraordinaire Amy Pike, plays Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX. J.T. Speed serves up Southern soul and blues at Fatt Matt’s Rib Shack.

Saturday March 12

A blockbuster Saturday for Phoenix Flies features a Grant Park Work Day, an open house at L.P. Grant Mansion, one of only two antebellum homes still standing in the city of Atlanta and home to Phoenix Flies sponsor the Atlanta Preservation Center; and tours of Sylvester and Harmony Grove Cemeteries, which date back to the 1800s; Wren’s Nest, a Queen Anne Victorian mansion which was home to author Joel Candler Harris, including storytelling; Fox Theatre; Druid Hills; Center for Puppetry Arts;Historic Downtown; Castleberry Hill; Marcel Breur’s Atlanta Central Library; and Inman Park United Methodist Church, completed in 1898.

See some of the best local, regional and national burlesque performers compete to be queen of the first Southern Fried Burlesque Pageant hosted by Burlesque Mayor of NYC Johnny Porkpie.  Afterwards “Godfather of Atlanta Burlesque” and this week’s Kool Kat Torchy Taboo hosts a Dirty South Showcase featuring ravishing regional stars including local favorites Tupelo Honey and Rosie Palms.

Eighties heart throb Rick Springfield kicks off a series of ’80s rock concerts at Wild Bill’s in Duluth. VIP side stage seats are even available for those who want to relive their teenybopper fantasies of being “Jesse’s Girl.” Get tickets fromTicketmaster or call the Wildline at (678) 473-1000. At Eddie’s Attic, catch CC Booker III featuring Will Scruggs, a SoulJazz tribute to the music of three great artists: Ray Charles, King Curtis, and Booker T

Rick Springfield live.

and the MGs. Dennis Palmer & Col. Bruce Hampton experiment at the Five Spot. Jumpin’ Jukes offer up swingin’ blues at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. Joe Alterman Trio jazzes up Jerry Farber’s Side Door. U2 cover band Uno Dos Tres Catorce is one of four bands on the roster at Meehan’s Public House. DJ Romeo Colognetransforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno.

Sunday March 13

Southern Fried Burlesque Fest strips down the art of tease with a Legends Panel featuring Gyna Rose Jewel, Tiffany Carter and “Godfather of Atlanta Burlesque”Torchy Taboo from 10 am to noon.

Have a Sunday in the Past with Phoenix Flies. Today’s tours and presentations include Grant Park neighborhood and Grant Park; Callanwolde, a magnificent Gothic-Tudor mansion once home to members

Callanwolde

of the Candler family who founded the Coca-Cola Company and now a fine arts center (see last week’s Kool Kat piece on ballroom dancer extraordinaire David Spencer who teaches one of many arts classes there); Wren’s Nest, with storytelling; All Saint’s Episcopal Church, a 1906 Victorian-Gothic building with Tiffany windows; Georgia Tech by the Georgia Tech Living History Program; Stonehenge Mansion & Sanctuary, a Gothic mansion in Druid Hills built as a residence but now houses St. John’s Lutheran Church; and Castleberry Hill.

Ongoing

Good grief, CB’s an adolescent now, his little sister’s a goth, his ex-girlfriend’s in a mental hospital for setting too many fires, his friends are all drunk, and when his dog dies from rabies after killing a “little yellow bird,” he starts to question the existence of an afterlife. That’s the wacked-out premise of DOG SEES GOD: CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE BLOCKHEAD, a black comedy inspired by the popular PEANUTS comic strip and performed by the new Fabrefaction Theatre Company, which runs through March 13.

KOOL KAT Emily Yetter stars as a precocious, politically incorrect Tinkerbell in J.M. BARRIE’S PETER PAN under the big tent at Pemberton Place, next to the World of Coca-Cola.  Performances have been extended through April 10.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec died in 1901, but it’s not a stretch to say that his vibrant posters and prints of showgirls, nightclub stars and the café culture influenced the 20th century romantic view of Paris and still inspire today’s burlesque performers. The High Museum of Art’sdynamic new special exhibition, TOULOUSE-LAUTREC AND FRIENDS: THE IRENE AND HOWARD STEIN COLLECTION, runs through May 1. Also at the High through May29 is the MOMA-organized HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON: THE MODERN CENTURY, another blockbuster exhibit showcasing a photographer and photojournalist who captured on film many of the seminal moments  of the 20th century from World War II to the assassination of Ghandi, China’s cultural revolution to civil rights and consumer culture in America.

Tune back in on Monday for This Week in Retro Atlanta. If you know of a cool vintage or vintage-inspired happening, send suggestions to ATLRetro@gmail.com