ATLRetro

Friday, March 18

Phoenix Flies tours go into their final weekend with Ivy Hall (Peters House, now SCAD Writing Center), Edward Gay House, Inman Park Arboretum, Historic Downtown; Catholic Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, whose beginnings date back to 1848 and cornerstone was laid 1869.

Glenn Phillips and Swimming Pool Qs play Red Light Cafe. Bryan Adams rocks Atlanta Symphony Hall with a solo acoustic night. SFJAZZ Collective performs hits of Stevie Wonder at Emory University’s Schwartz Center. It’s Salsa Night with Salsambo Dance Lessons & Entertainment at Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX. Fatt Matt’s Rib Shack serves up roots, blues and BBQ with Atlanta Boogie. Better Than the Beatles with Johnny Porazzo and David Lowell pays tribute to the Fab Four at Jerry Farber’s Side Door.

Saturday March 12

Wren's Nest at night.

Another blockbuster Saturday for Phoenix Flies features 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  Wren’s Nest, a Queen Anne Victorian mansion which was home to author Joel Candler Harris, including storytelling; Fox Theatre; Druid Hills; Historic Downtown; St. Paul United Methodist Church; Cathedral of St. Phillip; Olmsted Park; Funerary Art and Christian Symbolism at Historic SouthView Cemetery; New Hope African Methodist Episcopal Church; Civil War Atlanta; Unseen Underground; Beltline; Whittier Mill Village; and So/No Midtown.

It’s a boffo Retro evening, too with Blast-Off Burlesque inaugurating their Taboo-La-La series with a special screening of the 1995 sin-sational camp classic SHOWGIRLS at the Plaza Theatre featuring a live preshow including a costume contest, Nomi auditions and an audience recreation of the infamous swimming pool scene. Come early at 8 PM for a party with free refreshments. Festivities are free for Plaza members, $15 for general public and it all supports the city’s oldest continually operating theatre which is now a nonprofit. Read Mark Arson’s review here.

Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) cracks the champagne with a grand opening party at 7 PM for its dynamic new Midtown exhibition space including special exhibition PASSIONE

'64 MV Agusta 500cc is one of 11 vintage and contemporary Italian motorcycles on display at MoDA. Photo courtesy of Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum

ITALIANA: DESIGN OF THE ITALIAN MOTORCYCLE, featuring 11 vintage and contemporary bikes. Exhibit Curator Joe Remling is this week’s Kool Kat. It’s Bangers and Smash Atlanta Rollergirls action at the Yaarab Shrine Center as the Toxic Shocks take on the Apocalypstix at 5 PM and Atlanta Rumbles Bs challenge the Gold Coast Derby Girls from Fort Lauderdale at 7:30 PM. Comedienne and MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW star Cloris Leachman delievers a one-woman stand-up show at Buckhead Theatre. It’s another rousin’ rockabilly/psychobilly night at Star Bar with Belmont Playboys and Atomic Rockets. Better Than the Beatles with Johnny Porazzo and David Lowell pays another tribute to the Fab Four at Jerry Farber’s Side Door. DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno.

Sunday March 13

Have a final Sunday in the Past with Phoenix Flies. Today’s tours and presentations include Grant Park; Meadow Nook Home; Wren’s Nest; Wrecking Bar; Druid Hills Presbyterian Church; Olmsted Park; Inman Park; Front Lines of Battle of Atlanta; and East Lake Golf Club. Described by Creative Loafing as “vintage Chicago blues with a New Orleans accent,” Spanky & the Love Handles serves up blues “dunch” between 1 and 4 PM at The Earl. Cowboy Envy strums the Western way at an early 3 pm gig at Eddie’s Attic.

Ongoing

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.

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