ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Come see what’s shakin’ in ATLRetro This Week!

Monday, October 8

Get rocked with King Kahn & The Shrines with Gabriella Cohen at the Drunken Unicorn! The Plaza Theater kills it with a screening of Stuart Gordon’s RE-ANIMATOR (1985) at 5:30pm! Amy Scott’s documentary covering the life of Hal Ashby, HAL (2018) screens the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema, through Oct. 11 (see our Retro Review here)! Blues it up with Ana Popovic at City Winery! Rock out at the Masquerade with Authority Zero, Runaway Kids, In the Whale and Resident One. Get folksy with David Gans at Smith’s Olde Bar! Get rocked with Scotland’s Simple Minds at the Tabernacle! Get your vinyl fix during Little 5 Points Corner Tavern’s Records of Mass Destruction event every Monday! Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/ Duluth/Marietta) gets bewitched with David Yates’ HARRY POTTER & THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX (2007) at 7:30pm! 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!” Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam!

Tuesday, October 9

The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema kicks off their new Classics Series with a screening of Steven Spielberg’s INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) at 7pm! It’s a Boolesque Spooktacular with Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and her burly-Q gals of Syrens of the South promising to rattle your bones at the Red Light Café! Celebrate 50 years of Peter Yates’ BULLITT (1968) starring Steve McQueen at 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); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); and Regal Mall of Georgia Stadium (Buford)]! Get the blues with The D’Notes at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Or get to the root of it all with the Sleepwalkers and Illiterate Light at Eddie’s Attic! The Goo Goo Dolls rock out at the Tabernacle! Catch Murder by Death and Tim Barry at Terminal West! The Plaza Theater screens David Hartman’s PHANTASM (1979) at 5pm, and Don Coscavelli’s BUBBA HO TEP (2002) at 6:45! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! 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! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, October 10

Shock rock it up with Alice Cooper at the Cobb Energy Centre! Or rock out with Public Image Ltd at the Variety Playhouse! WUSSY MAG delivers a gore-tastic event at The Plaza Theater with a screening of Brian De Palma’s CARRIE (1976), chock full of bloody fantastic lobby shenanigans, prizes and more, at 7pm! The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema dishes out 40 years of terror with a screening of John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN (1978), for one night only, at 7pm! Or make your way to Woodruff Park for a free screening of Jim Henson’s THE DARK CRYSTAL (1982) at 6pm! Your favorite band of specters has returned to the Center for Puppetry Arts as The Ghastly Dreadfuls bring you creepy tales, frightful songs and devilish dances, haunting through Oct. 27! Raise a ruckus at the 10th Annual Hell on Wheels in Commerce, revving it up through Oct. 14th, featuring a classic car/motorcycle show, vendors, artists, a pin-up contest, film screenings and more! Tonight Hell on Wheels gets down with Andrea Colburn & Mud Moseley! The Plaza Theater kills it with a screening of Stuart Gordon’s RE-ANIMATOR (1985) at 5:30pm! Have a bloody fantastic time at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Flashback Cinema series screening of John Carptenter’s classic HALLOWEEN (1978) at 2:30pm/7:30pm! Get cozy with Audrey II during a screening of Frank Oz’ LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1986) at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth/Marietta) at 7:15pm! Freak-folk it up with Phil Cook and Andy Jenkins at Eddie’s Attic! Or get folk-rocked with Send Medicine at The Star Bar! Funk it up with the Mike Veal Band at Tin Roof Cantina! Catch a hairy Werewolf Wednesday double feature of Neil Marshall’s DOG SOLDIERS (2002) and Dan Attias’ SILVER BULLET (1985) at Noni’s Bar & Deli during their Cinema Paradiso film event starting at 10pm! Emory Cinematheque kills it with their “Hitchcock/Hitchcockian” series with a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951) at 7:30pm! Catch a screening of Cameron Crowe’s SAY ANYTHING (1989) at Brookhaven’s CineBistro at 7pm! Catch a screening of Disney’s THE LION KING (1994) at SCADShow at 6pm! 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, October 11

Ultra Popcorn Theatre Company presents Steve Martin’s WASP and ZIGZAG WOMAN at 7 Stages (Black Box Theatre), through Oct. 13! Get hellacious with Out of the Box Theatre’s production of EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL, killing it through Oct. 20! And 7 Stages continues their production of WAITING FOR GODOT, through Oct. 14! The Fall Kavalkade O’Kountry starring Kook Kat Spike Fullerton and the Ghost Riders Car Club gets down at the Clermont Lounge! Day 2 of Hell on Wheels brings you live music with Poison Whiskey and a 1am screening of Gerald Potterton’s HEAVY METAL (1981)! Bloody Disgusting presents their Retro Nightmares series at Studio Movie Grill (Duluth/Marietta) with screenings of Jim Sotos’ SWEET SIXTEEN (1983) and Mike Mendez’ THE CONVENT (2000) at 7:45pm! Cody Matlock & the Mothership get down at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Spend the night with The Rogue Tones, Robbie Fulks and Redd Volkaert at Eddie’s Attic! Rock out at The Highlander with DJ Howiestein and Mister Wilson’s Over the Edge Record Party! The Masquerade rocks out with Minus the Bear and Caspian in Heaven! Make your way to the Red Clay Theatre for a night with Leigh Nash and The Mosleys! Get folksy with Laurie Ray and Brian Revels at the Red Light Café! Haunt on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for Nightmare Cirque! Get countrified with Wheeler Walker, Jr. and Adam Chaffins at Terminal West! It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s so get swanky and hula on down for a night of rockin’ island tunes and some killer island cocktails! 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, October 12

Carnival of Doom kills it with their Creature Feature 2018 Kennesaw “Drive In” featuring a screening of Noriaki Yuasa’s DESTROY ALL PLANETS (GAMERA VS. VIRAS) (1968) at 7:30pm! Rock out with Richie Ramone, the Guillotines, Dusty Booze & The Baby Haters, Paint Fumes and Bad Spell at The Star Bar! Get your ‘70s europunk fix with GG  King, Trampoline Team, Sick Thoughts, Get High Boys and Paralyzer at The Earl!  Slippery When Wet pays tribute to Bon Jovi at The Vista Room! Boogie down to The Deep End for Femme! Dance, Music and Performance Art celebrating women in the arts! Rev on down to Hell on Wheels for more shenanigans with McPherson Struts, Little Lesley & the Bloodshots, the Captain & Maybelle Side Show, the Matt Brantley Band, Angela Reign and a 1am screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s THE OUTSIDERS (1983)! The Plaza Theater kicks off their screenings of Steve Miner’s HALLOWEEN H20 (1998) and Wes Craven’s THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977), through Oct. 14!  Get some soul with Maxwell at Chastain Park! Kathy Mattea gets countrified at City Winery! Battle & Brew spooks it up with Keenan Ivory Wayans’ SCARY MOVIE (2000) franchise beginning at 5pm! 7 Stages continues their production of WAITING FOR GODOT, through Oct. 14! The Fernbank Museum presents their After Dark: Forensics event at 7pm! Get down with the Burnt Hickory Blues Band at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! It’s a night of rockin’ soul at the Red Light Café with Diane Durrett & Soul Suga! Jam it up at Smith’s Olde Bar with Casual Cadenza, Three Star Revival and TasteBud! Sean Solo delivers a Simon & Garfunkel tribute at Venkman’s, followed by Freebird! Haunt on down to Netherworld Haunted House’s new deadly digs in Stone Mountain for their horrorific 22nd season, getting gory through Nov. 4! Get the old-school blues with Beverly “Guitar” Watkins 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, October 13

Rev on down to Avondale Towne Cinema for A Rockabilly Rumble featuring Bucky Lastard, The Sideburners and Kitty Rose & The Rattlers! Bewitch it up, run amuck and catch a screening of Kenny Ortega’s HOCUS POCUS (1993) hosted by Interactive Flicks during their Movies in the Woods series at Foxhall Resort in Douglasville at 5pm! Geek it up at Battle & Brew for a screening of Jim Sharmon’s THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) at 5pm! Surf on down Kavarna for Kool Kat Chad Shivers’ Southern Surf Stomp! featuring Phatlynx, the Flamethrowers and Netherglades! It’s your last chance to rock on down to Hell on Wheels  for a day of revved up shenanigans with Slim & the Gems, Kool Kat Rev. Andy Hawley and the Southern Ska Syndicate, the Captain & Maybelle Side Show, Lonely Highway, Mustang Sally, Joe Santana and more! Boogie down with Kool Kat VJ Anthony during his ‘80s New Wave Dance Party: Halloween Pride: Dead or Divine at Amsterdam Atlanta! Rock out with Cat Power at Center Stage! Make your way to City Winery for a night with Gaelic Storm! The Dround Hounds get down at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Get retro-rocked with The Artisanals and The Pollies at The Earl! Stomp on down to Eddie’s Attic for a night with Roxie Watson! It’s a sin-tillating night of shenanigans at the Red Light Café with The Fandom Nerdlesque’s Howl-A-Ween Villains event! Bluegrass it up with the Steep Canyon Rangers at the Variety Playhouse! Catch a free screening of Disney’s BEAUTY & THE BEAST (1991) at Venkman’s! Stomp on down to the Tucker Brewery and spend the night with the Andy Browne Troupe! Rock on down to Allied Ink Tattoo for their Punk Rock Flea Market, from 4pm – 9pm! Spend the night with Lauryn Hill at Chastain Park! Slippery When Wet pays tribute to Bon Jovi at Madlife State & Studios! Spook on down to the Sleepy Hollow Christmas Tree Farm in Powder Springs for Stranger Things Tours & a Nighttime Corn Maze, through Nov. 3! Tony Bryant and Shelton Powe get down at the Northside Tavern! 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, October 14

Get jazzy with Francine Reed and Joe Gransden at Venkman’s! Get your BOO fix at Battle & Brew’s Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza at 5pm! Spend fantastical nights with the Alliance Theatre’s production of A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHT DREAM at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, through October 21! TCM Big Screen Classics presents a screening of Frank Capra’s MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939) at 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); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); and, AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming)]! Get folksy with Passenger at the Buckhead Theatre! Bluegrass it up with Noam Pikelny and Stuart Duncan at City Winery! Be an outlaw and spend the night with Michael Martin Murphey and Sugarcane Jane at Eddie’s Attic! Banjo it up with Quattlebaum at the Red Light Café! Get funky with Risky Biscuit at Tin Roof Cantina! Get your suspense fix at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Flashback Cinema series screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic REAR WINDOW (1954) at 2:30pm/7:30pm! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar with Eddie Tigner!

Ongoing

Get your Beckett fix as 7 Stages presents WAITING FOR GODOT, through Oct. 14! (LAST CHANCE!)

Get hellacious with Out of the Box Theatre’s production of EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL, killing it through Oct. 20!

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

Your favorite band of specters has returned to the Center for Puppetry Arts as The Ghastly Dreadfuls bring you creepy tales, frightful songs and devilish dances, haunting through Oct. 27!

Spook on down to the Sleepy Hollow Christmas Tree Farm in Powder Springs for Stranger Things Tours & a Nighttime Corn Maze, through Nov. 3!

Haunt on down to Netherworld Haunted House’s new deadly digs in Stone Mountain for their horrorific 22nd season, getting gory through Nov. 4!

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.

by Brooke Sonenreich
Contributing Writer

HAL (2018); Dir. Amy Scott; Starring Hal Ashby, Allison Anders, Judd Apatow, Rosanna Arquette; Opens Friday, Oct. 5 at the Landmark’s Midtown Art Cinema; Trailer here.

In this vivacious documentary, director Amy Scott follows the life and times of Hollywood director Hal Ashby. With archived footage, interviews, audio and once forgotten letters, Scott fills in the missing pieces to a life and career filmgoers might have overlooked.

HAL’s a film that makes you want to return to all of Ashby’s work, even if it’s to catch what you missed. He’s the pot-smoking, neurotic genius behind films like HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971), THE LAST DETAIL (1973), SHAMPOO (1975), COMING HOME (1978), BEING THERE (1979) and more.

‘Courtesy of Sundance Institute.’

Ashby’s journey through Hollywood is as unique as he is. He started off as a copier in large L.A. studios, but joined the cutting room soon after to become an editor to Norman Jewison. By 1967 he had edited Jewison’s IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967), a movie about a black police detective who is assigned to investigate a murder in the south. In times when it wasn’t popular, Ashby continued tackling the topic of racism throughout his career.

Scott does a fantastic job at editing herself, lining up interviews with relevant pieces of dialogue from Ashby’s most beloved films. While attending to Ashby’s most loved and least liked films, HAL follows the stories of Ashby’s love life, his broken home, his estranged daughter, and his dearest friends and actors. It’s an inspiring film that should not be missed.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

The horror! The horror! Atlanta kicks off its Halloween celebrations with a bang! Spook up the weekend with a whole lotta horror classics by haunting on down to the fifth annual Monsterama Convention invading the Atlanta Marriott Alpharetta and haunting all your senses this weekend (Oct. 5-7)! From legendary actors to spookshows to monstrous sightings, here are our top reasons to get your classic monster fix at MONSTERAMA!

1)  200th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF FRANKENSTEIN. Valentine Wolfe is back for another year with the release of their new creation,THE HAUNTING OF MARY SHELLEY,providing an eerie auditory experience as they accompany Thomas Edison’s 1910 classic silent horror film, FRANKENSTEIN, on Saturday at 1pm, featuring narration by Kool Kat Madeline Brumby!

2) SILVER SCREAM SPOOK SHOW. Kool Kat Shane Morton, a.k.a. ghost host with the most, Professor Morte and the Silver Scream Spook Show featuring the Go-Go Ghouls will terrify with a live spook show featuring special guest Luciana Paluzzi at 4pm, followed by a spook-tacular screening of Kinji Fukasaku’s THE GREEN SLIME (1968) on 16mm, Saturday beginning at 4pm!

3) FANGTASTIC FILM. It’s monster movie madness with screenings of horrorific classics (mostly screening in 16mm) including Jules Bass’ MAD MONSTER PARTY (1967), Don Dohler’s FIEND (1980), Howard Ziehm’s FLESH GORDON (1974), Kinji Fukasaku’s THE GREEN SLIME (1968), Thomas Edison’s FRANKENSTEIN (1910), Paul Annett’s THE BEAST MUST DIE (1974), Mel Welles’ LADY FRANKENSTEIN (1971), Paul Naschy’s NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF (1981), Val Guest’s WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH (1970), Sam Irvin’s ELVIRA’S HAUNTED HILLS (2001), Jim O’Connolly’s THE VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969)
and more!

4) CINEPROV RIFFS THE FIEND. Madness, monsters and corpses OH MY! Hilarity ensues as New MST3K writer Larry Johnson and CINEPROV riffs Don Dohler’s FIEND (1980) in 16mm, Friday at 10pm!

5) SPOOKTACULAR GUESTS. Catch some killer guests, including our Kool Kat of the Week, Director Jeff Burr (FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM), Sam Irvin (ELVIRA’S HAUNTED HILLS; OBLIVION), Mark Goddard (LOST IN SPACE; THE RIFLEMAN), Luciana Paluzzi (THUNDERBALL; THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN), Rachel Talalay (FREDDY’S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE; TANK GIRL), Ken Sagoes (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3), creaturific artist Kool Kat Mark Maddox, Kool Kat Shane Morton, ghost host with the most, a.k.a. Professor Morte, glamour ghoul Kool Kat Madeline Brumby and so many more!

6) MONSTER MAKEOVERS.  Get gore-gous with monster make-up galore as part of this year’s Makers Track! Kevin Moe delivers a monstrous “Mask Making” panel, Fri. at 9:30pm! Bethany Marchman-Arriagada apes it up with her “Girl Makes Gorilla” panel, Sat. at 10am! And win some monstrous prizes with the annual FACE-ON make-up contest, Sat. at 5:30pm! And don’t forget to stick around for a creeping cornucopia of frightful faces and monster masks!

7) WARPED WRITERS & LITERARY PANELS. Writers make the monstrous world go ‘round, so check out guest authors, Dacre Stoker, Bram Stoker’s great grand-nephew (DRACUL; DRACULA THE UN-DEAD), Nancy A. Collins (VAMPIRELLA; SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK), Georges Jeanty (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Comics), James A. Moore (THE LAST SACRIFICE; BLOOD RED), Charles Rutledge and vampire aficionado J. E. Browning (GRAPHIC HORROR: MOVIE MONSTER MEMORIES), and so many more!

8) SCARE-TASTIC SHOPPING. Horror cons are the perfect place to stock up on both classic horror memorabilia, cult classics on DVD and creepy clothing, costumes and accessories. So come on down to the dealer’s room and check out all the toys, collectibles and monstrous goodies you can get your ghoulish little hands on!

9) MONSTER PROM. Hey all you boils and ghouls, get frightfully funky at this year’s Monster Prom, Saturday at 8pm! Dust off the old rat-infested tux, clear out the cobwebs, shine up your shoes and get ready to do the Monster Mash, and maybe even Time-Warp into the wee hours of the morning!

MONSTERAMA main con hours are Fri. Oct. 5 from 2 to 12 a.m.; Sat. Oct. 6 from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m.; and Sun. Oct. 7 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more info, visit the MONSTERAMA official website here.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

The Women in Horror Film Festival kills it at Crowne Plaza Atlanta & Conference Center – Peachtree City this Thursday-Sunday Oct. 4-7. Festival creators Kool Kat Vanessa Ionta Wright and Samantha Kolesnik showcase one helluva line-up of creative kickass female minds in every aspect of the horrorific cinematic and filmmaking experience, contemporary and retro alike, with over 70 short films to whet your most nightmarish appetities!. The festival has much to offer all the genre cinephiles in your life, from slasher gore-fests to comedic catastrophes, check out our top reasons to get your spine tingled at the WIHFF!

1) BOOGIE DOWN AND BRING OUT THE DEAD. The gals of WIHFF throw some hellacious parties! So guys and ghouls, why not VIP it up and make your way to the fest on Thursday night, get your photos taken on the Dead Carpet and get hell-bent at the VIP Party (Oct. 4/7:30pm (photos); 8pm (party)). Or get horrorfied on Friday at the After Party, hosted by HorrorPack (Oct. 5/11:00pm). And the rest of the fest wouldn’t be the same without after parties on Saturday (Oct. 6/10:30pm) and Sunday (Oct. 7/9:00pm), so why not monster mash it up with the best of ‘em!

2) MARIANNE MADDALENA. One killer genre Producer, Marianne Maddalena has produced 26 plus films and television series including THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS (1991), WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE (1994), SCREAM (1996), DRACULA 2000 (2000), THE HILLS HAVE EYES (2006) and more!

3) TRINA PARKS. Best known for her role as Thumper in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1971), Parks’ career spanned the ‘70s with appearances in an episode of Rod Serling’s NIGHT GALLERY (“The Phantom Farmhouse” – 1971); DARKTOWN STRUTTERS (1975); THE MUTHERS (1976) and more. She came back deadlier than ever in David DeCoteau’s IMMORTAL KISS: QUEEN OF THE NIGHT (2012).

4) ELM STREET GORE-GAL, HEATHER LANGENKAMP. Langenkamp won our horror hearts with her portrayal of nightmare-filled teen Nancy Thompson in Wes Craven’s ‘80s classic spawning its own hellacious franchise, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984).

5) FRIGHTENING FILMS! The WIHFF has heads rolling with three days of non-stop action filled to the bloody brim with films galore! Friday’s (Oct. 5) schedule includes an Experimental Horror Block, a Horror Comedy Shorts Block, a Features Screening (SHE WAS SO PRETTY: BE GOOD FOR GOODNESS SAKE, dir. Brooklyn Ewing), a Sci-Fi Shorts Block, an International Shorts Block, a second Feature Screening & World Premiere (BUGS: A TRILOGY, dir. Simone Kisiel), and a Macabre Thrills Block! Saturday (Oct. 6) terrifies with a Psychological Shorts Block, a Thriller Shorts Block, and a Feature Screening (ECHOES OF FEAR, dir. Brian and Laurence Avenet-Bradley)! And Sunday (Oct. 7) gets gory and kicks off the day with a Feature Screening (ALL THE CREATURES WERE STIRRING, dir. Rebekah and David Ian McKendry), a Regional Horror Shorts Block (including Kool Kat Dayna Noffke’s 2018 “Teaser”), an Animation Horror Shorts Block, a Feature Screening (RELICT: A MESOPOTAMIC TALE, dir. Laura Sanchez Acosta), a Student Horror Shorts Block and a Body Horror Shorts Block! So, come on out and discover some new terrifying talent!

6) KILLER PANELS. WIHFF offers several killer panels including “From Indie to Studio – Making the Leap” featuring one helluva line-up with Gillian Albinski (THE WALKING DEAD; THE STRANGERS), Mark Simon (ONE MISSED CALL; NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET III), and Marianne Maddelena (Oct. 6/12:30pm). Or catch the Diversity & Visibility panel featuring Trina Parks and horror author Mylo Carbia (Oct. 6/4pm).

7) WARPED WRITERS. There wouldn’t be films without writers, and of so WIHFF offers up highly acclaimed horror/thriller/suspense writer Mylo Carbia, a.k.a. Hollywood’s No. 1 horror film ghostwriter turned author (THE RAPING OF AVA DESANTIS / VIOLETS ARE RED). Carbia will be selling and signing during the festival.

8) SCARE-TASTIC SHOPPING.  You won’t want to miss out on the horrorific wares the festival vendors have to offer, from handmade horrors, to gothic gifts. During your stay, why not stock up on macabre movie memorabilia, cult classics and creepy clothing, costumes, accessories and more. Keep your eyes peeled for our fiend and horror filmmaker, Lynne Hanson and her spooky horror art! Vendors will be selling/meeting guests from daily during the festival.

Women in Horror Film Festival main festival hours are Fri. Oct.5  from 11 a.m. – 12 a.m.; Sat. Oct. 6 from 11 a.m. to 12 a.m.; and Sun. Oct. 7 from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. For more info, visit the Women in Horror Film Festival official website here.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Jeff Burr, local award-winning independent filmmaker, will be joining a sinister line-up of horrorific guests Monsterama Convention’s fifth frightening year, co-chaired by our classic monster-lovin’ fiend, friend and Kool Kat Anthony Taylor, creeping into the Atlanta Marriott Alpharetta this weekend, Friday – Sunday (Oct. 5-7)! Prepare for a ghastly weekend of ghoulish proportions including a guest list filled to the blood-curdling brim with chillers like Luciana Paluzzi (THUNDERBALL; THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN); Rachel Talalay (FREDDY’S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE; TANK GIRL); Ken Sagoes (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3); creaturific artist Kool Kat Mark Maddox; Victorian chamber metal musicians Valentine Wolfe; Kool Kat Shane Morton, ghost host with the most, a.k.a. Professor Morte; glamour ghoul Kool Kat Madeline Brumby and so many more! So why not get wicked and haunt on down to MONSTERAMA for a weekend of monster madness!

Burr’s film career spans 30+ years as writer, director, producer and actor. His love of filmmaking spawned as a child growing up in Dalton, GA, with the production of Super 8 films with his neighborhood friends, and became full-on reality when he was a student at the University of Southern California. He and classmate Kevin Meyer produced their student film, a Civil War drama, DIVIDED WE FALL in 1982, which gained a lot of attention from film festival goers and jurors, taking home over a dozen awards world-wide. His first feature film, horror anthology FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM released in 1987 under the title THE OFFSPRING, starring the Godfather of Horror, Vincent Price, alongside a strong cast of actors and actresses. On April 28, 2015, Shout Factory released their Blu-ray of WHISPER, containing bonus features produced by local horror history expert and documentarian, Kool Kat Daniel Griffith of Ballyhoo Motion Pictures [RETURN TO OLDFIELD, and A DECADE UNDER THE INNOCENCE]. Burr continued to delve deep into the abyss of horror as the director of STEPFATHER II (1989), LEATHERFACE: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III (1990), PUPPET MASTER 4 (1993), PUPPET MASTER 5 (1994), PUMPKINHEAD II (1993) and he will continue to play in the filmmaker fire as long as he is able!

ATLRetro caught up with Jeff Burr for a quick interview about his love of film; his first ever feature-length film, FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM; his experiences with the one-and-only Vincent Price and this year’s maniacal MONSTERAMA madness!

From A Whisper to a Scream Set – Vincent Price, Jeff Burr

ATLRetro: As a visual storyteller and filmmaker, you’ve played the roles of director, writer, producer and actor for the last 30-plus years. What drew you to become a filmmaker and what keeps you playing the game?

Jeff Burr: I grew up in Dalton, GA and for whatever reason always loved movies. My mom worked for a radio station and had a pass from the local theaters to see any movie for 50 cents, so I saw quite a few movies from a young age. Both of my parents were active in community theater in Dalton, and I always loved going backstage, etc. to see how the sets were built and behind the scenes. I started making Super 8 films with my friends and it grew from there. It is a calling, or an obsession, or an addiction…pick your label. It is one of the most frustrating, heartbreaking, crazy endeavors to make a film – the only thing worse is not doing it! If you will permit a shameless plug, on the Scream Factory Blu-ray of my first feature film FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM, there is a documentary by Daniel Griffith called A DECADE UNDER THE INNOCENCE, and that is truly my origin story.

Is there a film you have always wanted to make? Or still plan to make?

Heck yes! I have several films that I want to make. One is a comedy/drama, another is a period adventure film in the vein of THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING, albeit lower-budget and messy, not unlike AGUIRRE in scale. I am also working with a talented writer from Florida, Jonathan Dornellas, on a horror script about a subject that affects everyone.

You co-directed your final student film for USC, DIVIDED WE FALL (1982), with Kevin Meyer, winning over a dozen awards at film festivals world-wide. Can you tell us a little about the film, and what it felt like to win so many awards as a student filmmaker? And most importantly, how can our readers access the film, if possible?

DIVIDED WE FALL was a period Civil War action/drama that kind of became our own version of APOCALYPSE NOW. The film grew and grew in scale and took close to a year to make. John Agar (a name Monsterama fans would hopefully know and love), Nicholas Guest and David Cloud starred. Future “Leatherface,” R.A. Mihailoff and veteran character actor Mike Shamus Wiles had major supporting parts. Kevin Meyer and I did everything on it – writing, directing, photographing, editing, producing, etc. We dropped out of school to finish it and had a big premiere in November of 1982. The film went on to win awards, etc., but the gates of the Hollywood Studios didn’t magically open for us, as we probably naively thought! I am hoping the film will be included on the upcoming Turbine (germany) release of FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM.

Your first feature film and horror anthology, FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM (1987) [a.k.a. THE OFFSPRING], which was shot mostly in Dalton, Georgia, just a few short hours north, became a huge cult hit amongst genre lovers. Any fun/scandalous behind-the-scenes stories you’d like to share with our readers?

The making of FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM is full of stories, and if you’ll permit me one more shameless plug I would suggest that if you have any interest in the making of a very low-budget regional film in the 1980s there is an amazing documentary on the Scream Factory Blu-ray from Daniel Griffith and Ballyhoo Productions entitled RETURN TO OLDFIELD. WHISPER was my first feature film, and in many ways it felt like an extension of my Super 8 films. I was happy and lucky to have my brother William as one of the producers, and my great and talented friend from college Darin Scott as the other producer and co-writer – not to mention another great college friend C. Courtney Joyner as the other co-writer. The crew was a mix of amateur and professional, and it was an amazing experience. The cast was a dream come true, and getting to work with actors such as Vincent Price, Clu Gulager, Cameron Mitchell, Terry Kiser, Harry Caesar, Rosalind Cash, Angelo Rossitto, Susan Tyrrell and Martine Beswicke was pure artistic bliss. As far as scandalous stories go, you’ll have to see the documentary and hear the commentaries!

Speaking of WHISPER, in your opinion, what are the pros and cons of directing an independent “regional” film vs. a Hollywood studio production?

Well the obvious “con” about doing a regional low-budget film is that you don’t have money to throw at problems that invariably rise up, but the good thing is that you can solve those problems with imagination. It might lead down a different and better path. What was wonderful about making the film was that I had complete creative control, and didn’t have to justify every artistic decision to some producer or executive. I am an independent filmmaker at heart, and that is where I belong. It has only taken me 30+ years to figure out what I knew at age 17! And for the record, I really have never directed a real “studio” film.  I would say I made it to the triple A ballpark but never really took a swing in the major leagues.

What were the advantages of revisiting the neighborhood backlot of your childhood?

Whisper – Roger Corman and Vincent Price unite!

The advantage of shooting a film in Dalton was that I knew some pretty interesting locations and was able to shoot them, and the town itself was incredibly cooperative and enthusiastic. No film had ever been shot there, and of course the process of making a film was very different then. Now there are films made in every small town in America! But Dalton really was a supporting character in the movie, and it could not have been made anywhere else. In a very literal sense, I owe whatever career I have and had to the town of Dalton.

What was it like to work with the “Merchant of Menace,” Vincent Price, a.k.a. Julian White, the historian and thread that tied the terrifying tales together in WHISPER?

Working with Vincent was heaven. Getting Vincent to do the movie was hell. He was just as you would probably expect – generous, funny, so intelligent, warm, and so damn talented. It was an honor, and I do mean an honor, to be able to direct him. But in the process of getting him to do the movie, man oh man there were a few moments I will never forget. Watch the documentary! (And come talk to me at Monsterama – I will tell the whole story!)

In true Price fashion, his character says, “One thing I’ve learned, my dear, is that one is never too old for nightmares.” As a purveyor of horror [TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III; PUPPET MASTER 4 & 5; PUMPKINHEAD II, etc.], would you agree with this statement? Can one be too old for spooky, nightmarish fun?

No one is ever too old for nightmares. What makes you have nightmares might change, but there will always be delicious dread certain nights when you lay your head on your pillow. And one thing that horror fans (of which I am proud to be one) have is a sense of wonder and humor that keeps you young. I don’t like the phrase “They never grow up.” Better, “They never grow old!” To have a sense of wonder about the world, and an amusement, or bemusement, even of the worst of the world is a great quality to possess.

Do you think you’ll ever return to Dalton to make another feature film?

LET US PREY (early Super 8 film starring Bobby Pike)

I absolutely intend on making more films in Dalton! There is an amazing talent pool in North Georgia, one that is growing as I type this! And the filmmaking infrastructure in GA is here to stay. GODZILLA, KING OF MONSTERS shot for one day in Dalton. I would have fainted if that had happened when I was 14!

Who would you say are the filmmakers or films that inspired you the most and what was it about those particular filmmakers/films that inspired you?

I have been inspired by many films and filmmakers. In the horror genre, David Cronenberg, George Romero, John Carpenter, James Whale, Michael Reeves, Roger Corman – way too many to mention!  Certain fairly obscure films that I saw as a kid and always stuck with me are PHASE IV, EQUINOX, SHOCK WAVES, THE TERRORNAUTS. However, I would say the most influential movie that I have seen is 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. I saw it as a kid, and I have seen it many, many times since on the big screen. Just saw it twice in the 50 year anniversary edition.  I don’t know why that film hooked onto me, but it did and it has stayed with me for 50 years. Other directors/films I love are Jerry Lewis, William Friedkin, Orson Welles, Sam Peckinpah, Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkovsky – again too many to mention. To be a filmmaker, you have to be a lover of film, of all film, from all countries.

Can you tell us a little about working for the king of B-films, Roger Corman, at New World Pictures?

I worked in the advertising department with Jim Wynorski, and it was as crazy and as educational as you could imagine. My crowning glory was that my tagline was used for the newspaper ads for SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE – “He’s dressed to drill!” And a few years later, I had a meeting with Roger about directing Vincent Price, and he came to the set to have a reunion with Vincent!

Would you agree that independent filmmakers have come to rely on the popularization of smaller and more local film festivals, especially genre filmmakers? Why do you feel that film festivals are so important to independent filmmakers?

Film festivals are essential to low-budget indie filmmakers, as it can be the only theatrical exposure that they have. To see a film with an audience and to hear the reactions is uplifting and incredibly educational for filmmakers.  And it is a way to break through the white noise of so many films out there, with word of mouth, reviews, etc. I hope that the theatrical experience for smaller films doesn’t go away!

Can you give us five things you’re into at the moment that we should be watching, reading or listening to right now— past or present, well-known or obscure?

The 50th anniversary reissue of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY; the reissue of SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT in Burt’s memory; waiting for Don Coscarelli‘s book on independent filmmaking, TREE OF LIFE Criterion Blu-ray; and waiting for the (soon to be released) TALES FROM THE HOOD 2 from my good pals Darin Scott and Rusty Cundieff!

Any advice for up and coming filmmakers out there trying to get their foot in the door?

The most obvious piece of advice for aspiring filmmakers is get out there and make a film. Make one, learn from it, apply the lessons to the next one, and on and on in a never-ending cycle. Two more things – don’t be more excited about the gear you have to make the film than the story you are telling. Love your actors and cast very, very carefully. A wrong casting decision cannot be fixed in post. In the scripting, shooting, and post processes, take your time so you don’t waste the audience’s. And as quickly as you can, learn that the most important thing to photograph is the human face.

What’s next for Jeff Burr? Anything exciting coming down the pike?

William Burr doubles as Cameron Mitchell (Whisper)

There’s always something exciting coming down the pike! I’ve got projects I am working on, and who knows what lurks down an unknown road?

And last but not least, what are you looking forward to most at MONSTERAMA, one of our favorite local classic monster conventions around!? Anything exciting planned for attendees?

I think I will be on a panel, and there will be full disclosure about any area of my checkered career that anyone wants to know about. I am just looking forward to talking to people that have the same love of movies that I do, and I always learn of films that fell under my radar that I will then seek out, etc. I look forward to seeing Sam Irvin again – he is a great guy and a talented and dedicated filmmaker. And of course to meet Mark Goddard, Luciana Paluzzi, etc.  Meeting and talking to actors you have admired since childhood is a great thrill.  And I have some THE KLANSMAN questions for Luciana!!!

All photos courtesy of Jeff Burr and used with permission.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Get spooked in ATLRetro this week! We’ve got MonsteramaCon and the Women in Horror Film Festival (WIHFF) to knock your socks off and so much more! As the days creep closer and closer to that most haunted pinnacle of fright and terror, we’ve dug up some spooktacular events just for you! The ghosts and goblins have been let loose, so don’t be a fraidy cat; get out and get Retro!

Monday, October 1

The Plaza Theater gets horrorific with screenings of Stephen Chiodo’s KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (1988) and Kevin Connor’s MOTEL HELL (1980), through Oct. 4! Or catch The Plaza’s screening of Quentin Tarantino’s KILL BILL VOL. 1 (2003) at 9:30pm! Celebrate 30 years of Hayao Miyazaki’s MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1988) at theatres across Atlanta at 7pm [AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); and AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)]! Get jazzy with Simona Minns at the Red Light Café! The Milk Carton Kids dish out a night of Americana at the Variety Playhouse! Spend the night with The English Beat at City Winery! Get your Beckett fix as 7 Stages presents WAITING FOR GODOT, through Oct. 14! Get your vinyl fix during Little 5 Points Corner Tavern’s Records of Mass Destruction event every Monday! Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/ Duluth/Marietta) screens Mike Newell’s HARRY POTTER & THE GOBLET OF FIRE (2005) at 7:30pm! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 17-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! Get the blues with Barrelhouse Bob Page at Blind Willie’s! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam!

Tuesday, October 2

The Atlanta Opera brings you CHARLIE PARKER’S YARDBIRD, a jazz opera about the life of Charlie Parker at Paris on Ponce at 7:30pm! Get intimate with David Byrne at the Fox Theatre! Kung fu it up with a screening of Chang Cheh’s FIVE DEADLY VENOMS (1978) at The Plaza Theater at 9:30pm! Rock out with A Hawk and a Hacksaw and Casey Hood at The Earl! Funk it up with The Senators at City Winery! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! 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! Blind Willie’s gets down with the Tyler Neal Band! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, October 3

Woodruff Park spooks it up with a free screening of Tim Burton’s BEETLEJUICE (1988) at 6pm! Get spellbound and catch a screening of Nicolas Roeg’s THE WITCHES (1990) at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth/Marietta) at 7:15pm! Grind-core it up with Captured! By Robots at The Earl! The Star Bar dishes out a night of ‘60s psyche rock with The Sun Machine, Black Cat Rising and Naan Violence! Emory Cinematheque kills it with their “Hitchcock/Hitchcockian” series with a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s NOTORIOUS (1946) at 7:30pm! The Atlanta Opera brings you CHARLIE PARKER’S YARDBIRD, a jazz opera about the life of Charlie Parker at Paris on Ponce at 7:30pm! Get kung fu’d with a screening of Jeong Chang-Hwa’s KING BOXER [FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH] (1972) at The Plaza Theater at 9:30pm! Or catch a screening of John Landis’ COMING TO AMERICA (1988) at Brookhaven’s CineBistro! Celebrate 30 years of Hayao Miyazaki’s MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1988) at theatres across Atlanta at 7pm [AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); and AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)]! Get your Gene Wilder fix at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Flashback Cinema series screening of Mel Brooks’ YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) at 2:30pm/7:30pm, or catch a screening at The Springs Cinema & Taphouse at 1:45pm/7:25pm! Catch a screening of Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1991) at SCADShow at 6pm! Blind Willie’s gets rockin’ with their Blues Jam hosted by the Cazanovas! Rock on down to The Highlander for their Punk/Metal/New Wave Karaoke Night, every Wednesday! 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, October 4

Take a walk down the “Dead Carpet” for the second annual Women in Horror Film Festival brought to you by Festival Directors Kool Kat Vanessa Ionta Wright (RAINY SEASON) and Samantha Kolesnik (keep your bloody eyes peeled for our exclusive Kool Kat interview with Sam, coming soon), killing it through Oct. 7 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel & Convention Center in Peachtree City, featuring a horrorific lineup of shorts and feature-length films, panels, vendors and special guests including Marianne Maddalena (SCREAM; THE HILLS HAVE EYES), Trina Parks (DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER), Ross Childress (Collective Soul) and more!

Cineprov gets kaijurific with a night of MST3K-style laughs at The Plaza Theater as they screen/riff Noriaki Yuasa’s GAMMERA THE INVICIBLE (1966) at 7:30pm! Or kung fu it up at The Plaza with a screening of Jim Jarmusch’s GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI (1999) at 9:30pm! Creep on down to the FoxTale Book Shoppe in Woodstock for night with Dacre Stoker and the release of his new book, DRACUL at 6:30pm! Shakey Graves dishes out a night of rockin’ Americana at the Tabernacle! Rock Chastain 2018 brings you 10,000 Maniacs, Yellow Brick Road (a tribute to Elton John), the Dreambrother Band and Pony League! 7 Stages presents WAITING FOR GODOT, through Oct. 14! Bloody Disgusting presents Amityville Double Feature with screenings of Sandor Stern’s AMITYVILLE: THE EVIL ESCAPES (1989) and Tony Randel’s AMITYVILLE: IT’S ABOUT TIME (1992) at Studio Movie Grill (Duluth/Marietta); Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 18; and, Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee)! Burly Q it up with The Candybox Revue’s Burlesque Karaoke at the Red Light Café!  Rock out with Landt, Wicked Spring, 72nd & Central and Katie Martin at The Star Bar! Folk it up with Donovan Woods and Tyler Boone at Eddie’s Attic! Get your ‘90s alt rock fix with Edwin McCain at City Winery! Bluegrass it up with the Georgia Mountain String Band at Venkman’s! It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s so get swanky and hula on down for a night of rockin’ island tunes with The Knotty Boys and some killer island cocktails! Get the blues with The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! 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, October 5

The horror! The horror! Atlanta kicks off its Halloween celebrations with a bang! Spook up the weekend with a whole lotta horror classics by haunting on down to the fifth annual Monsterama Convention invading the Atlanta Marriott Alpharetta and haunting all your senses through Oct. 7! You won’t want to miss our exclusive Kool Kat interview with Director Jeff Burr (FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM; PUMPKINHEAD II; TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III) coming soon! Experience five horrorific tracks (Main, Maker, Literary/Arts/Comics, Media and Film Screenings) while perusing the monsterific vender tables. Catch some killer guests including  Luciana Paluzzi (THUNDERBALL; THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN); Jeff Burr; Rachel Talalay (FREDDY’S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE; TANK GIRL); Ken Sagoes (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3); creaturific artist Kool Kat Mark Maddox; Kool Kat Shane Morton, ghost host with the most, a.k.a. Professor Morte; glamour ghoul Kool Kat Madeline Brumby and so much more! Tonight you won’t want to miss the Monster Kids PJ Fiesta with a screening of Jules Bass’ MAD MONSTER PARTY (1967) at 7:30pm; the Professor Fear and Pinky Show; a concert by Valentine Wolfe (Victorian chamber metal); Cineprov riffing Don Dohler’s THE FIEND (1980) in 16mm at 10pm; and a screening of Howard Ziehm’s FLESH GORDON (1974) at midnight! So, come on down for the horror that is Monsterama and get your classic horror fix!

It’s Day 2 of the Women in Horror Film Festival, so come on down and get your horror fix with a helluva lot of killer films, genre panels and more! Haunt on down to Netherworld Haunted House’s new deadly digs in Stone Mountain for their horrorific 22nd season, getting gory through Nov. 4! Get hellacious with Out of the Box Theatre’s production of EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL, killing it through Oct. 20! The Georgia Metropolitan Dance Theatre presents Dracula: The Halloween Ballet with a Bite at the The Earl Smith Strand Theatre, through Oct. 7! The Plaza Theater kills it with screenings of David Hartman’s PHANTASM (1979), Stuart Gordon’s RE-ANIMATOR (1985), and Don Coscavelli’s BUBBA HO TEP (2002), through Oct. 7! Make your way to Oktoberfest in Piedmont Park at 6pm! The Atlanta Opera brings you CHARLIE PARKER’S YARDBIRD, a jazz opera about the life of Charlie Parker at Paris on Ponce at 7:30pm! ATL Collective relives The Police – SYNCHRONICITY at the Buckhead Theatre! The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra gets bewitched with their Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets in Concert featuring a live performance of John Williams’ score with the film playing on a 40-foot screen, at Atlanta Symphony Hall, through Oct. 7! 7 Stages presents WAITING FOR GODOT, through Oct. 14! Spend the night with Eliot Bronson at Eddie’s Attic! Rock on down to The Highlander for their Rock ‘n’ Roll Extravaganza featuring We Want Blood, Genki Genki Panic and the HARAKIRIS! Amy Scott’s documentary covering the live of Hal Ashby, HAL (2018) opens at the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema! Funk it up New Orleans-style with Dumpstaphunk and AJ Ghent at the Variety Playhouse! Get your ‘90s alt rock fix with Edwin McCain at City Winery! Venkman’s celebrates Janis Joplin and Amy Winehouse! Geneva Red & The Original Delta Fireballs get down at Blind Willie’s! Get the old-school blues with Robert Lee Coleman 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, October 6

Day 2 of the Monsterama Convention kills it with Professor Morte’s Silver Scream Spook Show’s screening of Kinji Fukasaku’s THE GREEN SLIME (1968) on 16mm with special guest Luciana Paluzzi at 4pm. Monster Mash it up at the Monster Prom! Day 3 of the Women in Horror Film Festival brings you more killer panels, workshops and blocks of killer films! Rev on down to The Vista Room for a night with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt & The PsychoDevilles! Get hellacious and hell-bent at the Masquerade with Slaughter Que 2018, featuring one helluva rockin’ line-up with Kool Kats The Casket Creatures, Order of the Owl, Gunpowder Gray and so much more! The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema presents a Hal Ashby matinee screening of HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971) at 11am! Head on down to the Sweet Auburn Music Fest getting down through Oct. 7! Skank on down to City Winery for a night with Kool Kat Rev. Andy Hawley and the Southern Ska Syndicate! Spook on down to the Sleepy Hollow Christmas Tree Farm in Powder Springs for Stranger Things Tours & a Nighttime Corn Maze, through Nov. 3! Creep on down to the Center for Puppetry Arts for A Ghastly Gathering with the Ghastly Dreadfuls! Make your way to Avondale Towne Cinema for a Sting and Police Jam! The Georgia Metropolitan Dance Theatre presents Dracula: The Halloween Ballet with a Bite at the The Earl Smith Strand Theatre, through Oct. 7! Get folksy with Maria Muldaur at the Red Light Café! Rock out with New Junk City at The Earl! Leucine Zipper and the Zinc Fingers geeks it up and rocks out with the El Caminos, the Wussy Pillows and more at The Star Bar! Get some soul with Amel Larrieux (Groove Theory) at City Winery! The Turnpike Troubadours dish out a night of Americana at the Tabernacle! Boogie on down to The Basement for Heyday Pride – 80s Dance Party! Or make your way to Kavarna for a night of Yesterday Calling featuring ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s covers! Get experimental and rock out with Lydia Lunch Retrovirus at the Drunken Unicorn! Keisha & Kourtney Jackson dish out their Ladies of ‘60s Soul at Venkman’s! Get your second helping of Eliot Bronson at Eddie’s Attic! Cody Matlock gets down at the Northside Tavern! Geneva Red & The Original Delta Fireballs get down 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, October 7

It’s your last chance to get terror-fied at the Women in Horror Film Festival, so come on out and get your horror movie fix! And it’s day 3 and your last chance to get your classic horror fix at the Monsterama Convention! Geek it up at Atlanta Comic Con from 11am – 5pm! The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema presents a Hal Ashby matinee screening of BEING THERE (1979) at 11am! The Atlanta Opera brings you CHARLIE PARKER’S YARDBIRD, a jazz opera about the life of Charlie Parker at Paris on Ponce at 3pm! The Georgia Metropolitan Dance Theatre presents Dracula: The Halloween Ballet with a Bite at the The Earl Smith Strand Theatre! Get down with The Dirty Heads at the Tabernacle! Celebrate 50 years of Peter Yates’ BULLITT (1968) starring Steve McQueen at 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); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); and Regal Mall of Georgia Stadium (Buford)]! Stomp on down to The Earl for a night with Blitzen Trapper! Get some soul with Amel Larrieux (Groove Theory) at City Winery! UB40 celebrate 40 years and rocks out at the Buckhead Theatre! Have a bloody fantastic time at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Flashback Cinema series screening of John Carptenter’s classic HALLOWEEN (1978) at 2:30pm/7:30pm! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar with Eddie Tigner!

Ongoing

Get your Beckett fix as 7 Stages presents WAITING FOR GODOT, through Oct. 14!

Get hellacious with Out of the Box Theatre’s production of EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL, killing it through Oct. 20!

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

Spook on down to the Sleepy Hollow Christmas Tree Farm in Powder Springs for Stranger Things Tours & a Nighttime Corn Maze, through Nov. 3!

Haunt on down to Netherworld Haunted House’s new deadly digs in Stone Mountain for their horrorific 22nd season, getting gory through Nov. 4!

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.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Come see what’s on the Retro menu This Week!

Monday, September 24

Make your way to The Earl for a night with Harlan T. Bobo! Rock out with Cloven Hoof at The Basement! Geek it up at My Parents’ Basement with their Drink ‘n’ Draw event! Get your vinyl fix during Little 5 Points Corner Tavern’s Records of Mass Destruction event every Monday! 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!” 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 25

Thrash it up at the Masquerade with Suicidal Tendencies and MADBALL! Battle & Brew kills it with the Villians Ball Art Show – Opening Night! Get the rockin’ blues with Joel DaSilva & the Midnight Howl at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Get folksy with William Fitzsimmons at Eddie’s Attic! Or get to the root of it all with Cody Marlowe, Arson Daily and Wanderwild at Smith’s Olde Bar! Make your way to My Parents’ Basement for Harry Potter Comic Book Trivia! Rumours pay tribute to Fleetwood Mac at City Winery! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! 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! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, September 26

Landmark Midtown Art Cinema rocks out with their one-time only screening of Kevin Kerslake’s Joan Jett documentary, BAD REPUTATION (2018) at 7pm! TCM Big Screen Classics presents a screening of Nicholas Ray’s REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955) at 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); Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/ Duluth/Marietta); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); and AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)]! Stomp on down to The Earl for a night with Joshua Hedley and Cale Thompson! Emory Cinematheque kills it with their “Hitchcock/Hitchcockian” series with a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943) at 7:30pm! The Highlander rocks out with their Punk/Metal/New Wave Karaoke Night, every Wednesday! Get your Bowie fix and make your way to the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Flashback Cinema series screening of Jim Henson’s LABYRINTH (1986) 2:30pm/7:30pm! Catch a cyberific double feature of LaVar Burton’s THE SMART HOUSE (1999) and Donald Cammell’s DEMON SEED (1977) at Noni’s Bar & Deli during their Cinema Paradiso film event starting at 10pm! 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 27

The Atlanta Opera brings you CHARLIE PARKER’S YARDBIRD, a jazz opera about the life of Charlie Parker at Paris on Ponce! Or get your Beckett fix as 7 Stages presents WAITING FOR GODOT, through Oct. 14! Rock out at The Highlander with The Vibrators, Rotten Stitches and Hanging Judge! Studio Movie Grill (Duluth/Marietta) kills it with their Retro Nightmares Cinema Series screening of Mark Rosman’s THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW (1983) at 7:45pm! Get your chance to hang with Optimus Prime with a screening of TRANSFORMERS (1986) at theatres across Atlanta at 7pm [AMC North Dekalb 16; Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 18; AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); Regal Mall of Georgia Stadium (Buford); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Phipps Plaza 14; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough);and AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming)]! Make your way to Noni’s Bar & Deli for A Farewell to Pop-Ups: A Hemingway-Themed Event! Boogie on down to Firefly Studio Decatur for Down South Swing’s Level 1: 6 Count swing dance class! It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s so get swanky and hula on down for a night of rockin’ island tunes and some killer island cocktails! 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 28

The Plaza Theater gets horrorific with screenings of Stephen Chiodo’s KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (1988) and Kevin Connor’s MOTEL HELL (1980)! Get down to Kavarna for Kool Kat Jeffrey Butzer & The Bicycle Eaters’ album release party with special guest Juliana Money and a puppet show by Raymond vs. Raymond! Burly Q it up with The Candybox Revue at the Elliott Street Pub! Make your way to Chastain Park for The Australian Pink Floyd Show! Raise a ruckus with Drive-By Truckers at the Variety Playhouse! heese is as old as the history of the world, so get your tail to The Cheese Fest Atlanta at the Historic Fourth Ward Conservancy! The Atlanta Opera brings you CHARLIE PARKER’S YARDBIRD, a jazz opera about the life of Charlie Parker at Paris on Ponce! 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 29

Celebrate THE Puppet Master during the Center for Puppetry Arts’ Jim Henson Birthday Celebration! Get the blues and make your way to the Mable House Barnes Amphitheatre for the Georgia Blues & Roots Festival! The Atlanta Opera brings you CHARLIE PARKER’S YARDBIRD, a jazz opera about the life of Charlie Parker at Paris on Ponce! Raise a ruckus with Drive-By Truckers at the Variety Playhouse! Eighties it up with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch with Denim Arcade at The Wing Café & Tap House in Marietta! 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 30

The Plaza Theater hosts a Silent Film Festival with screenings of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928) at 4:30pm, Oscar Micheaux’ BODY AND SOUL (1924) at 7pm, and F. W. Murneau’s NOSFERATU (1922) at 9:30pm! Get really retro and Victorian today at the Historic Oakland Cemetery as they present their 40th Annual Sunday in the Park Victorian Street Festival, featuring tasty food, fun and entertainment! Check out the artists’ market, living history demonstrations, storytellers, spooky mausoleums, Victorian costume contests and carriage tours. And you won’t want to miss their vintage musical line-up, and so much more! Or zip on down to Terminal West for a zany night with the Squirrel Nut Zippers! The Atlanta Opera brings you CHARLIE PARKER’S YARDBIRD, a jazz opera about the life of Charlie Parker at Paris on Ponce! Shake a tail feather and help celebrate Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and her burly-Q gals of Syrens of the South’s 11^th Anniversary at 7 Stages with their For the Love of Henson event! Get your Gene Wilder fix at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Flashback Cinema series screening of Mel Brooks’ YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) at 2:30pm/7:30pm! Make your way to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for 10,000 Pontiacs! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar with Eddie Tigner!

Ongoing

Get your Beckett fix as 7 Stages presents WAITING FOR GODOT, through Oct. 14!

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.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Come see what’s on the Retro menu This Week!

Monday, September 17

Celebrate the one and only Burt Reynolds with a screening of Hal Needham’s classic SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (1977) at theatres across Atlanta [AMC North Dekalb 16; Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 18; AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); and Regal Mall of Georgia Stadium (Buford)], through Sept. 19! Get jazzy with Alexandra Jackson at City Winery! Shimmy on down to the Red Light Café as the Candybox Revue brings you their Burlesque Karaoke! Surf on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for The Organ Machines, Moon Bums and Wolfson Green! Spend the night with Sting & Shaggy at the Tabernacle! Catch a screening of Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1991) at theatres across Atlanta at 2pm/6pm [AMC North Dekalb 16; AMC Phipps Plaza 14; AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming); and AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)], through Sept. 20! Get your vinyl fix during Little 5 Points Corner Tavern’s Records of Mass Destruction event every Monday! Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/ Duluth/Marietta) screens Chris Columbus’ HARRY POTTER & THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS (2002) at 7:30pm! Get your Viking metal fix with Finland’s Wintersun, Australia’s Ne Obliviscaris and Sarah Longfield at The Loft! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 17-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! Get the blues with Barrelhouse Bob Page 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 18

Cash in Black pays tribute to Johnny Cash at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Geek it up at Battle & Brew with a Villains Ball, celebrating art of the wicked variety! 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 some soul with Rudy Currence at City Winery! Folk it up with Lula Wiles at Eddie’s Attic! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Venkman’s every Tuesday! Catch a screening of Satoshi Kon’s PERFECT BLUE (1997) at The Plaza Theater, through Sept. 20! 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 Andrew Black! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, September 19

Spend a very special evening with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt and John Mary Go Round at The Star Bar! Live in the shadows as Emory Cinematheque kills it with their “Hitchcock/Hitchcockian” series with a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of REBECCA (1940) at 7:30pm! Spend the night with Brian Revel and Griffin Winton at Eddie’s Attic! Rock out with the Young Dubliners at the Masquerade! Cow punk it up with Ghost Moths, Blood Oaks and Fugitive Sound at Smith’s Olde Bar! Terminal West delivers a night with with Carl Broemel and Steelism! Get mobbed with a screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s classic, THE GODFATHER (1972) at Cobb CineBistro in Brookhaven at 7pm! Sci-fi it up at Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth/Marietta) with a screening of Michael Anderson’s LOGAN’S RUN (1976) at 7:15pm! 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! Or go under the sea and catch a screening of Disney’s THE LITTLE MERMAID (1989) at SCADShow at 6pm! 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); AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming); and AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)]! Blind Willie’s gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Catch a cyberific double feature of Irwin Winkler’s THE NET (1995) and David Fincher’s THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2011) at Noni’s Bar & Deli during their Cinema Paradiso film event starting at 10pm! 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 20

Videodrome and The Plaza Theater join bizarre forces with their Plazadrome Cult Film Series screening of Jonathan Demme’s SOMETHING WILD (1986) at 9:30pm! Bluegrass it up and get Trampled by Turtles at the Buckhead Theatre! Get jazzy with Bob Baldwin ft. Lori Williams at City Winery! Juana Molina dishes out a night of “folktronica” with Kai Riedl at The Earl! Get folksy with Wild Rivers and Kevin Gordon at Eddie’s Attic! The BadAsh Allstar Team presents a Jam Band Jam at the Red Light Café! Boogie on down to Firefly Studio Decatur for Down South Swing’s Level 1: 6 Count swing dance class! Get blues rocked with Lucero and Brent Cowles at Terminal West! Spend fantastical nights with the Alliance Theatre’s production of A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHT DREAM at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, through October 21! It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s so get swanky and hula on down for a night of rockin’ island tunes with The Knotty Boys and some killer island cocktails! Spend the night with Gina Sicilia 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 21

Rumble on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for a shakin’ night with Dale Watson and Kool Kat Caroline & The Ramblers! Get funky and spend the night with Lenny Kravitz at Chastain Park! Make your way to The Deep End for a Club Soda: Bjork Experience! Spend the night with The Magpie Salute at the Buckhead Theatre! Jazz it up with Chantae Cann at City Winery! Bluegrass it up with Curtis Jones & Primal Roots at the Crimson Moon Café! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down with The Pussywillows! Make your way to The Drunken Unicorn for a night with Sam Evian and Katie Von Schleicher! Eddie’s Attic presents Noah Gunderson! Get jazzy with Christopher Allison at the High Museum! Make your way to the Woodruff Arts Center as the Alliance Theatre, the City of Atlanta – Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs and the Atlanta Jazz Festival, present an artist’s town hall, The History of Jazz in Atlanta. Rock out at Avondale Towne Cinema with Dusty Booze & The Baby Haters and Netherglades! Funk it up and rock out with Jimmie’s Chicken Shack at the Masquerade! Get folk-rocked with Tall as Pine, How and Why and Katie Martin at the Red Light Café! Jangle on down to The Star Bar for a night with the Craig Brown Band, the Midnight Larks and Anna Kramer & Friends! Leftover Salmon dish out a night of Cajun/Zydeco bluegrass with The Infamous Stringdusters at the Tabernacle! Get blues rocked for a second night with Lucero and Brent Cowles at Terminal West! Spend the night with Jump, Little Children and SonderBlue at the Variety Playhouse! Funk it up with Big Sam’s Funky Nation at Venkman’s! Have a drink and boogie down at the 12th Annual Kirkwood Wine Stroll featuring live tunes by Grant Green, Jr., Kool Kat Amy Pike and The Bonaventure Quartet, The Diamond Street Players, the Elegant Bachelors, Cosmic Debris and more! Blind Willie’s dishes out a night of rockin’ blues with George Hughley & The Shadows! Blues it up with JT Speed at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Make your way to the Northside Tavern for a night with the Tyler Neal Band! 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 22

Kaiju it up with Kool Kat Shane Morton, a.k.a. ghost host with the most, Prof. Morte and his Silver Scream Spook Show at The Plaza Theater with a screening of Ishiro Honda’s monster classic and original GODZILLA (1954) and Ghoul Gal shenanigans at 1pm and 10pm! And you won’t want to miss the Kaiju Cult Art Toy Extravaganza, partnering with the Silver Scream Spook Show at Facet Gallery from 7p-10pm! Bluegrass it up with Banjolicious at Venkman’s during their Bottomless Mimosa Brunch! Kenny Howes and Friends celebrate fifty years of The Beatles with a live performance of their work from 1968 at Avondale Towne Cinema! Jazz it up with Gregory Porter at the Mable House Barnes Amphitheatre! Boogie down to Firefly Studio Decatur for their National Americana Month Dance! Leucine Zipper and the Zinc Fingers geeks it up and rocks out with their new album ATOMIC ANARCHY at Kavarna! The Earl Smith Strand Theatre delivers a theatrical tribute to Aretha Franklin with NATURAL WOMAN: AN ARETHA STORY, running through Sept. 23! Bluegrass it up with Darrell Scott at City Winery! ATL Collective relives Elliot Smith’s EITHER/OR at The Earl! Get folksy with Greg Laswell at Eddie’s Attic! It’s tribute night at Smith’s Olde Bar, so rock on down for a night with Stone Temple Pirates, Pandora’s Box and Running with the Devil! Or rock out with Fidlar at the Masquerade! Goth it up at the Red Light Café as The Tied and Tasseled Fetish Cabaret brings you Por el Amor de Goth! Strut on down to East Atlanta Village for The Big Mask March EAV Strut! Or catch the free Lantern Parade at the Eastside Beltline Trail! Get your Americana fix with Mockingbird’s Wing at Java Monkey! Spend the night with Banks & Shane and Rod MacDonald at the Red Clay Theatre! Make your way to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues for a night with Delvis! Make your way to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for Mr. Chapman’s Quarterly Revue! Stoney Brooks and Bill Sheffield get down at the Northside Tavern! Get down with Victor Wainwright 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 23

TCM Big Screen Classics presents a screening of Nicholas Ray’s REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955) at 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); Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/ Duluth/Marietta); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); and AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville)]! The BadAsh Allstar Team gets the blues at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Get alt-rocked with Toad the Wet Sprocket at the Buckhead Theatre! Jon B. gets down at City Winery! Spend the night with Ben Danaher and Heart Hunters at Eddie’s Attic! The Tannahill Weavers dish out a night of traditional Scottish tunes at the Red Light Café! Get folksy with Darlingside and Carolina Story at Terminal West! Rock out with The Jesus Lizard and Dead Rider at the Variety Playhouse! Keisha & Kourtney Jackson dish out their Ladies of ‘60s Soul at Venkman’s! Bewitch it up in the land of Harry Potter at theatres across Atlanta with a screening of David Yates’ HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 1 (2010) at 2pm, followed by a screening of HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 2 (2011) 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)]! Make your way to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for 10,000 Pontiacs! Get your Bowie fix and make your way to the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Flashback Cinema series screening of Jim Henson’s LABYRINTH (1986) 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! (LAST CHANCE!)

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.

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.

by Brooke Sonenreich
Contributing Writer

NICO (2018); Dir. Susanna Nicchiarelli; Starring Trine Dyrholm, John Gordon Sinclair, Anamaria Marinca; Opens Friday, Sept. 7 at the Landmark’s Midtown Art Cinema; Trailer here.

“Don’t call me Nico. Call me by my real name: Christa,” says the disheveled, 45-year-old Danish actress, Trine Dyrholm who plays Nico in NICO, 1988.

The film is a biopic of the last two years of the life of Christa Päffgen, better known as Nico from The Velvet Underground. However, the story is an authentic representation of a time long after Nico’s involvement with The Velvet Underground. It’s a look at Christa’s middle-aged debauchery as she tours through Europe with a group of amateur bandmates. In between driving through beautiful roads, the artist participates in interviews that often bore her with questions concerning her being Lou Reed’s femme fatale. She seems annoyed at, if not completely oblivious to, the fact that without The Velvet Underground her solo rock career wouldn’t be as successful as it is. Indeed, it is her spot in 1960s history that makes her important to her fans more than anything else.

She makes a respectable point though when speaking at an Italian press conference: “Well, I only sang three songs with them. The rest of the time I was playing the tambourine in the background. I did the same thing when I was a model; I was there for my image. Look, my life started after the experience with The Velvet Underground.”

The film moves slowly through Christa’s ups and downs on the road, sometimes following her into the bathroom as she brazenly shoots up heroin into her bruised ankle. Still, it moves through these spaces with little judgment.

Trine Durholm in NICO 1988, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

Often times director, Susanna Nicchiarelli, oscillates between archived footage from Nico’s time with Andy Warhol’s stylish gang to the late 1980s moments of her on stage at various European venues. In contrast to the archived footage of her youth, the singer now shamelessly indulges in food and alcohol. She celebrates her unkempt look as she confidently states, “I’ve been on the top, I’ve been on the bottom; both places are empty.”

Perhaps the most memorable scene is after the star does heroin in a club restroom. She enters the stage to perform the song “Nature Boy” with the backing of an Italian jazz band. It’s a solemn rendition of the song and it conjures up emotions regarding her estranged, suicidal son Christian Aaron Päffgen, or “Ari.”

The film picks up when Ari joins the tour for quality time with his estranged mother. In a rare moment of desperation, when Christa is doing methadone in a room next door, Ari slits his wrists and winds up in a foreign hospital. Here we voyeuristically experience the downside of the Päffgen family’s drug use. Despite Christa’s seamless ability to perform while on heroin, the drugs have infected her and her son’s lives in ways that become more visible than the bruises on her ankle.

The conclusion is weak compared to the rest of the film, if only because of its lazy reliance on end title cards to inform us of the star’s actual death. Nevertheless, even though the biopic is slow moving, it stands well as an entertaining and thorough look at Christa’s last moments in the limelight.