ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Check out what’s on the Retro menu This Week in ATLRetro!

Monday, July 24

GKids Presents Studio Ghibli Fest 2017 with a screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE (1989) at theatres across Atlanta at 7pm [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Regal Mall of Georgia 20 Plus Imax (Buford) and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)]! You’re your way to Avondale Towne Cinema for Hamiltunes! Folk it up with Todd Sheaffer at City Winery! Get the blues with Larry Griffith at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! 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 get some soul with Brandon Reeves at Blind Willie’s!

Tuesday, July 25

The Landmark Midtown Art Cinema kicks off their new Classics Series with David Lean’s THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957) at 7pm! Or spend the night with a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s VERTIGO (1958) at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Retro Cinema series at 7:30pm! “Swamp Yankee” The Suitcase Junket, Big Brutus and Chastity Brown get down at Eddie’s Attic! Rock out with Jimmy Herring & The Invisible Whip at Terminal West! Blues it up with JT Speed at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! The Redstone Ramblers get down at Blind Willie’s! 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 their Downtown Tuesday Night 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, July 26

Rock out and make your way to The Star Bar for a night with Las Pinas and Kool Kat Jeffrey Butzer & The Bicycle Eaters! Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Spend the night with an encore screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s VERTIGO (1958) at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s Retro Cinema series at 7:30pm! It’s a night of fuzzy rock ‘n’ roll at 529 with Shantih Shantih, Impossible Vacation, Minorcan and Nikki & The Phantom Callers! Get to rockin’ with Matthew Sweet and Tommy Keene at City Winery! Get folksy with Steve Poltz at Eddie’s Attic! Cody Matlock dishes out the blues at Blind Willie’s! Make your way to The Vista Room for Bluegrass & Beyond! It’s a night of late ‘90s power metal with DragonForce at the Masquerade! Get the blues with Michael Preston at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ 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, July 27

Shimmy on down to the Red Light Café for The Savannah Sweet Tease’s “I Love the ‘90s” event with featured guest Kool Kat Lola LeSoleil! Spend the night with Barry Manilow at the Fox Theatre! Get countrified and stomp on down to The Star Bar for a night with Truckstop Confidential, BLACKFOX, Chickens and Pigs and Antic Clay! Or rock on down to the Clermont Lounge for a night of debauchery with The Crush, Forsaken Profits, We Want Blood and ATTN SPAN! Get to rockin’ with Matthew Sweet and Tommy Keene at City Winery! Or get rootsy with Mark Miller at Eddie’s Attic! Reggae it up with Rebelution and Nahko & Medicine for the People at the Tabernacle! Folk it up with Lilac Wine at Venkman’s! Get the blues with George Hughley & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so rock on down to Trader Vic’s for a night with the Knotty Boys! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! 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, July 28

Make your way to The Star Bar for a night with The Woolly Bushmen, Midnight Larks and Pono AM! Get down with The Swimming Pool Q’s and Pylon Reenactment Society at The Vista Room! Retro it up at Chastain Park during the Retro Futura Tour featuring Howard Jones, Men Without Hats, English Beat, Katrina & The Waves and Modern English! Get hellacious with Kool Kats The Casket Creatures, Die 985 and The Zombie Mafia at Sweetwater Bar & Grill (Duluth)! Get psyched for A Drug Called Tradition’s MEDICINE MUSIC LP release party at The Earl! Get old-timey with the Georgia Mountain String Band and Cold Heart Canyon at Eddie’s Attic! Hula on down to Heretic and have a helluva good time at RITUAL’s Gothic Luau! Spend the night with James Bond as SCADShow screens John Glen’s THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (1987) at 7pm! Rock on down to The Highlander for a night with Air Wolves, Boston Marriage, and Dogs in Slow Motion! Gets some soul with The Raukus Jubilee featuring Gina Maria at the Red Light Café! Funk it up at Venkman’s with Spirk and The Atlanta Funk Society! Groove on down to Park Tavern for a night with Yacht Rock Schooner! Get the blues with Michael Preston at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! House Rocker Johnson gets the blues at Blind Willie’s! Get down with Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck and Beverly “Guitar” Watkins at the Northside Tavern! And as always, time-warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens 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, July 29

Get monsterific at Avondale Towne Cinema as Kool Kat Shane Morton, a.k.a. ghost host with the most, Prof. Morte and his Silver Scream Spook Show presents Atlanta’s first ever kaiju toy show (Kaiju Cult) featuring toys, art (with special guests, including Kyle Yaklin and more) and a live Spook Show followed by screenings of Shan Hua’s INFRA-MAN (1975) at 1pm and 10pm! Get intergalactic at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre during their screenings of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. (1982) at 3pm and 8pm! Or get sin-sational and make your way to Diesel Filling Station for the 2017 Atlanta ZOMBIE Pin-Up Contest! Honkytonk it up with the Georgia Soul Council and Cadillac Jones at 529! Chastain Park rocks out with Foreigner’s 40th Anniversary Tour featuring Cheap Trick and Jason Bonham! Get folksy with Michelle Shocked at City Winery! Get the folk blues with Hill Roberts at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Make your way to Eddie’s Attic for a night with Lonnie Holley, Minton Sparks and Michelle Malone! Blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a side of Dry White Toast and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ! Get old-timey with The Vaudevillains, Kool Kat Spike Fullerton, the Glacier Singers and more at the Red Light Café! Head on down to the Variety Playhouse for a night with Toad the Wet Sprocket and Beta Play! Rockabilly it up with Rodeo Twister at Venkman’s! Get the bottleneck slide blues with the Jon Harris Band at The Vista Room! Get mischievous at The Star Bar with Gateway to Hell, Dusty Booze & The Baby Haters and We Want Blood! It’s a scattered, smothered and covered sort of day with the Waffle House Museum Open House in Decatur! Make your way to Elliott Street Pub for a night with Bird City Revolutionaries and The Morkestra Live! Get down with Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck at Northside Tavern! Or get bluesy with the Randall Bramblett Band at the Red Clay Theatre! Get down and dirty with Sandra Hall & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, July 30

Celebrate 35 years of Amy Heckerling’s ‘80s classic, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (1982) at theatres across Atlanta (2pm/7pm) [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); and AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming)]! Make your way to City Winery for The Band of Heathens! Have a barrel of laughs at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre’s 6th Annual Silent Comedy Shorts featuring the antics of Keaton, Chaplin and more, from 3pm – 5pm! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar! And Fatback Deluxe dishes out some classic blues at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

Catch the Andy Warhol exhibit at the High Museum through Sept. 3!

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!

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

ATLRetro is hot, hot, hot This Week! Cool off with a Kool Kat fix and come see what we’ve dug up just for you!

Monday, July 17

Get horrorific and make your way to Synchronicity Theatre for Horror Films in Hotlanta: Film Festival 2017! Make your way to the Mammal Gallery for 16mm Avante-Garde films by Julie Orlick! Catch a screening of Herbert Ross’ STEEL MAGNOLIAS (1989) at the Alpharetta Branch Library at 10:30am! Get the blues with Larry Griffith at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get some old southern soul with The Pussywillows, Hans Wenzel & The Eighty Sixers and Danielle Howle at Smith’s Olde Bar! 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! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! Or catch Bill Sheffield at Blind Willie’s!

Tuesday, July 18

The Tabernacle dishes out a night with AFI and Circa Survive! Garage rock it up with The Coathangers, the Residuals, The Gartrells and Bitter at The Earl! Get folksy with Wild Rivers and Von Strantz at Eddie’s Attic! Spend the night with Hans Zimmer at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre! Blues it up with JT Speed at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! The Real Deal Blues Band gets down at Blind Willie’s! 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 their Downtown Tuesday Night 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, July 19

Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Get to rockin’ ‘70s stoner-style with The Atomic Bitchwax, Mirror Queen, Spore Lord and HOT RAM at The Star Bar! Funk it up with The APX at City Winery! Get countrified with Striking Matches at Eddie’s Attic! Rock out late 90s style at the Masquerade with Taking Back Sunday, Every Time I Die, and Modern Chemistry! The Electromatics dish out a night of Chicago and West Coast Blues at Blind Willie’s! Or make your way to the Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) for a screening of Tim Burton’s BATMAN RETURNS (1992) at 7:15pm! Get the blues with Michael Preston at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ 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, July 20

Here’s looking at you kid! Catch a screening of Michael Curtiz’ CASABLANCA (1942) at the Fox Theatre at 7:30pm! The Film Crew presents a free screening of Kool Kat Bret Wood’s THE UNWANTED (2014) at The Speakeasy (Porterdale) at 8pm! Make your way to the Dixie Tavern for a Chris Cornell Memorial Show and Benefit! Rock out with Fastball and Parker Gispert (The Whigs) at City Winery! Get some old-school soul with Rudy Currence at Eddie’s Attic! Stomp on down to the Red Light Café for their Bluegrass Pickin’ Party! Get funky at Terminal West with Boyd Tinsley and Moontower! Folk it up with Lilac Wine at Venkman’s! Mick Kolassa’s Taylor Made Blues Band rocks out at Blind Willie’s! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night with Kool Kat Joshua Longino and The Disapyramids! Get your rockin’ Americana fix with Michelle Malone and Matthew Kahler at the Red Clay Theatre! Atlantic Station’s Movies in Central Park continues with a free screening of Gil Junger’s 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU (1999) at dusk! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! 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, July 21

It’s a night of dirty rock ‘n’ roll with The Unsatisfied, the El Caminos and Night Terrors at The Star Bar! Raise a riotous ruckus with High Spirits, Bible of the Devil, Gunpowder Gray and Kool Kat Adam McIntyre with The Pinx at The Earl! Natural Wonder pays tribute to Stevie Wonder at City Winery! Joe Gransden gets jazzy at the High Museum! Get your nitty gritty fix with The Dirty Soul Revival at Smith’s Olde Bar! Gary Clark Jr. dishes out the rockin’ blues at the Tabernacle! Get folksy with John Moreland and Travis Linville at Terminal West! It’s a night of psychedelic rock ‘n’ roll with The Black Lips, the Subsonics and The TNT Band at the Variety Playhouse! Venkman’s funks it up with The Wasted Potential Brass Band and The Chris Paterno Band! Cross the pond with Abbey Road Live at The Vista Room! Get down with Jarekus Singleton at Blind Willie’s! Spend the night with The Queen of Soul at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre’s presentation of Natural Woman! Spend the night with Charlie Wilson at Chastain Park! For your spiritual well-being, make your way to the three-day (July 21-23) Mystic South Conference 2017 at Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter at Ravinia! Get jazzy with The Kerry Hill Band at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get the blues with Deb Callahan at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Or blues it up with John Hammond and Rob Baird at Eddie’s Attic! Get down with Stoney Brooks at the Northside Tavern! And as always, time-warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens 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, July 22

Rev it up with a Rockabilly Reckoning at the B3 Bar & Grill (Austell) with hellacious live tunes with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt & The Psycho Devilles, Billy Harlan & The Rocka’ Billy’s, Little Lesley & The Bloodshots, Kitty Rose, Crypt 24; a retro car/motorcycle show; pin-ups; vendors and more! Or hula on down to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their 9-Year Anniversary Psycho Beach Party featuring Kool Kat Joshua Longino and The Disapyramids, DJ Brian Parris, tasty tiki drinks and more! Have a raucous good time with The Sh-Booms, Metal McDonald, Black Cat Rising and Bad Friend at The Star Bar! Haunt on down to Amsterdam Atlanta for Kool Kat VJ Anthony’s COFFIN CLASSICS: Goth Industrial Music Video Dance Party featuring Goth, dark 80s and more! Get retro with the Western Sizzlers and Bas Clas at Avondale Towne Cinema! Get the jam band blues with John Ginty at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Gypsy jazz it up with Kool Kat Amy Pike & The Bonaventure Quartet and Jonah Smith at Eddie’s Attic! Get the old-school blues with the Juke Joint Dukes at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Folk it up with Sailing to Denver at Venkman’s! Blind Willie’s dishes out a night of rockin’ blues with James Armstrong! Spend the night with The Queen of Soul at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre’s presentation of Natural Woman! Albert White gets down at Northside Tavern! Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their Studio Ghibli series, featuring a screening of Tomomi Mochizuki’s OCEAN WAVES (1993) at 10:30am and Hayao Miyazaki’s CASTLE IN THE SKY (1989) at 1pm! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, July 23

Get your magical nanny fix at the Fox Theatre’s screening (and sing-a-long) of Robert Stevenson’s MARY POPPINS (1964) at 2pm! Get your fill of stadium rock at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre with STYX, REO Speedwagon and Don Felder! Get revived with The Howling Tongues at Park Tavern’s Sunset Sessions! GKids Presents Studio Ghibli Fest 2017 with a screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE (1989) at theatres across Atlanta at 12:55pm [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Regal Mall of Georgia 20 Plus Imax (Buford) and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)]! The Moody Blues invade Chastain Park! Get down and dirty with Swanky Tiger, The Paper Arcadia and The Warsaw Clinic at the Masquerade! Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their Studio Ghibli series, featuring encore screenings of Tomomi Mochizuki’s OCEAN WAVES (1993) at 10:30am and Hayao Miyazaki’s CASTLE IN THE SKY (1989) at 1pm! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar! And Fatback Deluxe dishes out some classic blues at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

Catch the Andy Warhol exhibit at the High Museum through Sept. 3! 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!

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 shakin’ in ATLRetro this week!

Monday, July 10

Get terror-filled with The Plaza Theater’s screening of Mario Bava’s BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1964), through Thursday! Make your way to The Earl for a night with the Plastic Pinks, Midnight Larks and more! Catch a screening of Blake Edwards’ VICTOR/VICTORIA (1982) at the Alpharetta Branch Library at 10:30am! Get the blues with Larry Griffith at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get jazzy with the Emerald Empire Band at The Vista Room! 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, July 11

Get creaturific at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s screening of Steven Spielberg’s JAWS (1975) during their Retro Cinema series at 7:30pm! Honkytonk on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with I Draw Slow and Rodeo Twister upstairs, or catch Blood on the Harp, The Singing Butcher and Reverend Hylton downstairs! Make your way to the Infinite Energy Center for a night with James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt! Get funky at ATL Live on the Park, Season 8 in Piedmont Park! Let Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and her burly-Q gals of Syrens of the South help you get to jumpin’ with their Tease Tuesday Burlesque: Patriot Acts event, shakin’ it up at the Red Light Café! Blues it up with JT Speed at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! 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 their Downtown Tuesday Night 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, July 12

Rock out at 529 with Shocked Minds, The Gartrells, The Whiffs and Bad Spell! Avondale Towne Cinema gets down with a Blues Jam! Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Get michevious at The Star Bar with The Jasons, Flamingo Nosebleed, Robot Party and Kool Kats The Joy Kills! Spend the night with Killing Kuddles at Vinyl! Stomp on down to The Vista Room for Bluegrass and Beyond! Get creaturific at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s encore screening of Steven Spielberg’s JAWS (1975) during their Retro Cinema series at 7:30pm! Or make your way to the Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) for a screening of Tim Burton’s BATMAN (1989) at 7:15pm! Funk it up with Les Nubians at City Winery! Get the blues with Michael Preston at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Rock out with the Garrison Blagg Band at The Regent Cocktail Club! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ 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, July 13

Honkytonk it up at Smith’s Olde Bar for a rockin’ tribute to Waylon Jennings featuring Andrea Colburn & Mud Moseley, Kool Kat Spike Fullerton and the Ghost Rider’s Car Club, JASON & LAUREN (of the Whiskey Gentry), Cold Heart Canyon, Radio Birds, Reverend Hylton, Barb Carbon Music and more!  Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt gets acoustic and pays tribute to Waylon Jennings at! Rev on down to the Georgia mountains (Hiawassee) for the Georgia Mountain Moonshine Cruiz-In! Spend the night with Takenobu at Eddie’s Attic! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night of island tunes and tasty libations! Atlantic Station’s Movies in Central Park continues with a free screening of Gary Ross’ PLEASANTVILLE (1998) at dusk! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! 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, July 14

Get your horrorific rock fix at The Star Bar with Kool Kats, The Casket Creatures, Death is a Dialogue, Useless Against and Resident One! Yacht Rock Schooner dishes out a night of smooth rock ‘n’ roll at Dixie Tavern! Folk it up at Avondale Towne Cinema with Threadbare Skivvies and Ben Provencial! Make your way to the Lawrenceville Lawn for a screening of Hal Needham’s SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (1977) at 8pm! ATL Collective relives The Beatles’ WHITE ALBUM at Terminal West! Or shimmy on down to City Winery for Clubesque: A Contemporary Cabaret! Rock out with the Jess Goggans Band at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Get the country blues with Sturgill Simpson and Adia Victoria at the Fox Theatre! Get yer old-time jugband fix with Uncle Daddy and the Kissin’ Cousins at the Red Light Café! Catch the Amy Ray Band and The Honeycutters at the Variety Playhouse! Eighties it up with Electric Avenue at The Vista Room! Get the blues with Bill Sheffield at the Northside Tavern! And as always, time-warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens 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, July 15

Spend the night with The Steve Miller Band and Peter Frampton at the Verizon Amphitheater! Get heavy and rock out STAR WARS-style with Galactic Empire at the Masquerade! Faux grass it up with the Possum Kingdom Ramblers and Bean & Bear at Avondale Towne Cinema! Folk it up with Shawn Mullins at City Winery! Get down with the Little G Weevil Band at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Get the rockin’ blues with The Tedeschi Trucks Band, Hot Tuna and The Wood Brothers at the Fox Theatre! Bluegrass it up with The Dappled Grays at The Vista Room! Sammy Blue gets down at Northside Tavern! Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their Studio Ghibli series, featuring a screening of Hiroyuki Morita’s THE CAT RETURNS (2002) at 10:30am and Isao Takahata’s ONLY YESTERDAY (1991) at 1pm! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, July 16

Get to cookin’ at the Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival at Park Tavern (1-5pm), featuring tasty tomato creations and live music with The B-53s, followed by their Sunset Sessions with The Whiskey Gentry! The Supersuckers and Andrea Colburn raise a ruckus at the Masquerade! Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their Studio Ghibli series, featuring encore screenings of Hiroyuki Morita’s THE CAT RETURNS (2002) at 10:30am and Isao Takahata’s ONLY YESTERDAY (1991) at 1pm!   Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar! And Fatback Deluxe dishes out some classic blues at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

Catch the Andy Warhol exhibit at the High Museum through Sept. 3!

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!

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 shakin’ in ATLRetro this week!

Monday, July 3

Departure dishes out a night of Journey at City Winery! Get down and dirty with Beverly “Guitar” Watkins at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Catch a screening of Hal Ashby’s HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971) at the Alpharetta Branch Library at 10:30am! Get the rockin’ blues with The Delta Troubadours, Meaning of Everything and Max Norton at Smith’s Olde Bar! 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! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam!

Tuesday, July 4

Celebrate the 4^th, get funky and jazz it up with the 4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra at Pallookaville! Pay tribute to Billy Joel with The Stranger at City Winery! Blues it up with JT Speed at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! 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 their Downtown Tuesday Night 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, July 5

Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Blues it up with Frankie’s Blues Mission at Blind Willie’s! Get the blues with Michael Preston at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Rock out with the Garrison Blagg Band at The Regent Cocktail Club! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ 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, July 6

Get artsy and rock on down to The Highlander for their Punk’s Not Dead, a multi-media art show diving into the history of punk rock at 9pm! Hilarity ensues with Cineprov at The Plaza Theater as they dish out a reptilian tale of terror and riff John McCauley’s RATTLERS (1976) at 7:00pm! Make your way to The Earl for a night of rock ‘n’ roll with CFM, The Cairo Gang and Paralyzer! Get criminal and countrified with The Van Lears, Kameron Corvet, The Alchemy, and Ryan Calhoun at Smith’s Olde Bar! Or get damned and stomp on down to The Star Bar for a night with Dirty Rotten Snake in the Grass, Deadly Lo-Fi, and The Liquors! Folk it up with Lilac Wine at Venkman’s! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night of island tunes and tasty libations! Atlantic Station’s Movies in Central Park continues with a free screening of James L. Brooks’ AS GOOD AS IT GETS (1997) at dusk! Get down with The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! 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, July 7

Get terror-filled with The Plaza Theater’s screening of Mario Bava’s BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1964), through Saturday! Or get covert and Bond it up during SCADShow’s screening of Lewis Gilbert’s THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977) at 7pm! Raise a ruckus with Unknown Hinson and Clownvis Presley at Terminal West! Make your way to Smith’s Olde Bar as El Scorcho presents Chris Cornell – A Life & Music Celebration! Rock out with Timmy James & The Blue Flames, The Crush and The Accidents at The Earl! Donna Hopkins rocks out at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Get down with The Silver Tones at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Cross the pond and catch Please Please Rock Me at Venkman’s! Funk it up with the Atlanta Funk Society at The Vista Room! Eighties it up with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade at Wild Wing Café in Suwannee! Boogie on down to The Earl Smith Strand Theatre for their Jukebox Giants: Motown & More event, through Sunday, July 9! Bluegrass it up with The String Cheese Incident at Chastain Park! Get down with George Hughley & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! Get your old-school blues fix with Cool John Ferguson at the Northside Tavern! And as always, time-warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens 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, July 8

Surf on down to Kavarna as Kool Kat Chad Shivers presents his Southern Surf Stomp! featuring Kool Kat Sen Artie Mondello and the Delusionaires, El Capitan and Kitty Rose! Scream Queen it up and hang with Lynn Lowry (SHIVERS, THE CRAZIES, CAT PEOPLE) at her photo signing, hosted by Monsterama Con, at Two LiRu Antiques in Acworth! Make your way to Historic Oakland Cemetery for their Malts & Vaults event, where beer meets history! Boogie down ‘80s-style with Kool Kat VJ Anthony during his 80s New Wave Music Video Dance Party: Erasure/Yazoo Edition at Amsterdam Atlanta! Jam out with Gr8ful Dude & Frenz and Captain Trips & The Sunstroke Serenaders at Avondale Towne Cinema! Make your way to City Winery for a night with The Verve Pipe! Get the blues with JP Soars & The Red Hots at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Or get rootsy with Cody Marlowe, Hannah Thomas and Emmy Law at Eddie’s Attic! Fat Matt’s Rib Shack dishes out the blues with Sana Blues! Tribute rocks out to the tune of the Allman Brothers at Northside Tavern! Eighties it up with Saved by the Band at Venkman’s! Get down and dirty with House Rocker Johnson & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! Bluegrass it up for night two with The String Cheese Incident at Chastain Park! Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their Studio Ghibli series, featuring a screening of Yoshifumi Kondo’s WHISPER OF THE HEART (1995) at 10:30am and Hayao Miyazaki’s THE WIND RISES (2013) at 1pm! ATL Collective relives TLC’s CRAZY, SEXY, COOL at the Variety Playhouse! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, July 9

Make your way to Park Tavern’s Sunset Sessions and get down with a night of Prohibition pandemonium with Kool Kat Blair Crimmons & The Hookers! Dweezil Zappa it up at City Winery! Get your apocalyptic cowboy fix with Roselit Bone and the Rollfast Ramblers at The Earl! Swamp folk it up with The Krickets at Eddie’s Attic! Rock out with Cosmic Gypsies at Johnny’s Hideaway! Metallica invades Suntrust Park! Get your Americana fix at the Red Light Café with Brian Revels, The Singing Butcher and The Boy Jones! Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their Studio Ghibli series, featuring encore screenings of Yoshifumi Kondo’s WHISPER OF THE HEART (1995) at 10:30am and Hayao Miyazaki’s THE WIND RISES (2013) at 1pm!  Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar! And Fatback Deluxe dishes out some classic blues at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

Catch the Andy Warhol exhibit at the High Museum through Sept. 3!

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!

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

ATLRetro is hot, hot, hot This Week! Come see all the shakin’ summer shenanigans we’ve dug up just for you!

Monday, June 26

Get prehistoric and catch a free screening of John Milius’ eighties classic, CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) at Dad’s Garage Theatre Company at 8:30pm! Catch a screening of Robert Mulligan’s SUMMER OF ’42 (1971) at the Alpharetta Branch Library at 10:30am! GKids Presents Studio Ghibli Fest 2017 with a screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1988) at theatres across Atlanta [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Regal Mall of Georgia 20 Plus Imax (Buford) and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)]! Stomp on down to Eddie’s Attic for a night with The Station Breaks! Rock out with Dave Mason (Traffic) at City Winery! 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 to the root of it all with Brandon Reeves at Blind Willie’s! Skye Paige, “Queen of Slide Guitar” rocks out at the Little Vinyl Lounge! 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, June 27

Get horrorific with our Kool Kat of the Week, Vanessa Ionta Wright (RAINY SEASON) and Kool Kat Debbie Hess (HORROR HOTEL) and more local horror aficionados during the Attack of the 50 Foot Film Fest, promising to terrify at The Plaza Theater at 7pm! Or hop across the pond and catch Scott Freiman’s documentary, DECONSTRUCTING THE BEATLES’ SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (2017) tonight and Thurs. June 29! Or why not celebrate the album’s 50th Anniversary with a screening of Robert Stigwood’s SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (1978) at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern at 7:30pm! Get some soul with Sam Lewis at Eddie’s Attic! Funk it up with Jon Cleary and Bobby Messano at City Winery! Make your way to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with Micah Schnabel (Two Cow Garage) and Trae Vedder!  Get down with John Mellencamp at Chastain Park! Blues it up with Frankie’s Blues Mission at Blind Willie’s! Get jazzy with Deb Bowman at The Regent Cocktail Club! 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 their Downtown Tuesday Night Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! Get down and dirty with Gray & The Bad Boys at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, June 28

Get some classic soul ‘n’ funk with Nick & The Grooves at Avondale Towne Cinema! Catch an encore screening of Robert Stigwood’s SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (1978) at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern at 7:30pm! Bluegrass it up at The Vista Room during Bluegrass and Beyond with The Vista String Band! Rock out with the Garrison Blagg Band at The Regent Cocktail Club! The Hollidays deliver a night of rhythm ‘n’ soul and rock ‘n’ roll at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Get your Chicago/West Coast blues fix with The Electromatics at Blind Willie’s! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ 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, June 29

Skank it up at The Star Bar for a rockin’ ruckus with The Toasters and Lloyd’s Rocksteady Revue! Get funky with the 4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra, Bill Brovold, the Frank Pahl Duo, and Duet for Theremin and Steel at Avondale Towne Cinema! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night with Kool Kat Joshua Longino and The Disapyramids! The Red Light Café dishes out a night of murder, mayhem and mockery with the Tied and Tasseled Fetish Cabaret’s Wanted! A Criminal Night of Burlesque and Drag! Rock out with Spiral Stairs, The Preakness and Floral Print at The Earl! Get countrified with The Steel Woods and George Shingleton at Eddie’s Attic! Get rootsy with The Black Lillies at City Winery! Get rocked at Lakewood Amphitheatre with the Van’s Warped Tour! Atlantic Station’s Movies in Central Park continues with a free screening of Jan de Bont’s TWISTER (1996) at dusk! Or catch a free screening of David Anspaugh’s RUDY (1993) at Town Brookhaven’s Movies on the Town event at dusk! Get down with George Hughley & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! 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, June 30

Get trapped at Videodrome (JavaDrome) for a screening of Brian Trenchard-Smith’s DEAD END DRIVE-IN (1986) at 8:30pm! Boogie down in The Basement with Nonsense ATL’s Commotion: A Tribute to Women in Music! Honkytonk it up with Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires, Lonnie Holley, Bitter and Reconciler at The Earl! Get to rockin’ with ZOSO Rising, Cannibal Joe and Lars Nagel (El Caminos) at Smith’s Olde Bar! Boogie on down to The Earl Smith Strand Theatre for their Jukebox Giants: Motown & More event! Swing on by American Legion Post 201 (Alpharetta) for a night of Swingin’ the Blues! Stomp on down to Avondale Towne Cinema for a night with Heather Luttrell and Skye Paige! Get down and dirty with House Rocker Johnson & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! Get the blues with Groove Rocket at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get your old-school blues fix with Albert White at the Northside Tavern! And as always, time-warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens 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, July 1

Glam it up at The Earl as Jerome Newton & The Band Who Fell to Earth recreates Ziggy Stardust’s farewell concert! Rock on down to The Star Bar for a night with The Dwarves, Richie Ramone, the Vaginas and We Want Blood! Jazz it up with Marcus Johnson at City Winery! Get old-timey with Tray Dahl & The Jugtime Ragband at The Vista Room! Get funky with the 4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra at Venkman’s! Boogie on down to The Earl Smith Strand Theatre for night two of their Jukebox Giants: Motown & More event! Eighties it up with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade at Guston’s Grille (Kennesaw)! Or boogie down to The Basement for their Heyday 80’s Dance Party! Make your way to Eddie’s Attic for a night with Kick the Robot! Robert Lee Coleman dishes out the blues at the Northside Tavern! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, July 2

Geek it up at the Atlanta Comic Convention July 2017, from 11am – 5pm! Get some soul with Kool Kat Ruby Velle & The Soulphonics during Park Tavern’s Sunset Sessions! Back in the Saddle delivers a night of old-school western with Little Country Giants at Eddie’s Attic! Get old-timey with Tray Dahl & The Jugtime Ragband at Venkman’s! Boogie on down to The Earl Smith Strand Theatre for night three of their Jukebox Giants: Motown & More event! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar!

Ongoing

Catch the Andy Warhol exhibit at the High Museum through Sept. 3!

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!

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

Vanessa Ionta Wright, local filmmaker, co-founder and Director of the Women in Horror Film Festival, and horror aficionado helps dish out a night of terror, alongside fellow Atlanta indie filmmakers, with a screening of her short film, RAINY SEASON (2017), during the first ever Attack of the Fifty Foot Film Fest! Hosted by HORROR HOTEL producer and Kool Kat Debbie Hess, the fest features quality shorts created by local filmmakers (HORROR HOTEL episode “Sleep Tight” by Kool Kat Ricky Hess et al; ATTACK OF THE FACE MELTERS co-directed by Blake K. Swell and Tyler Weddle; and MR. LOCKJAW PREQUEL: EPISODE ONE directed by Byron Erwin)! So if you’re looking for a bloody fangtastic time and want to chat it up with some killer local filmmakers, make your way to The Plaza Theatre on June 27 at 7pm!

Wright, both writer and director of RAINY SEASON received full authorization by the King of Horror himself, Stephen King, to adapt his short story, “Rainy Season,” (first published in the Spring 1989 issue of MIDNIGHT GRAFFITI), into a live-action piece of bloody art, for the sole purpose of screening at film festivals in 2015. By way of King’s Dollar Babies program, Wright invested her blood, sweat and tears along with her WIHFF co-founder and Executive Producer Samantha Kolesnik and they are excited to bring the film to Atlanta’s horror film-loving audience!

ATLRetro caught up with Vanessa to chat about her film, the Attack of the Fifty Foot Film Fest, women in genre filmmaking and her upcoming Women in Horror Film Festival. While you’re takin’ a gander at our little Q&A, why not take a peek at RAINY SEASON’s official 2017 trailer, here.

ATLRetro: Attack of the 50 Foot Film Fest! Sounds exciting and right up ATLRetro’s alley! Can you tell us a little about the event, what inspired it, and how you got involved?

Vanessa Ionta Wright: The organizer of the event, Debbie Hess, wanted to put together a ‘mini’ fest of horror/sci-fi/suspense themed films produced by local Atlanta filmmakers that were either world premiere films or first time in Atlanta proper premieres. She wanted to curate a selection of quality indie films that would showcase and celebrate the talent and production capabilities of Atlanta filmmakers themselves. The world knows Atlanta as a premium destination for studio filmmaking with big budgets but Atlanta also has some excellent and creative filmmakers right here that can deliver the goods on an indie level as well. Collaborating with multiple filmmakers made it feasible to bring these short films to the big screen. The Plaza Theatre seemed the perfect venue with its historic background for such films. She put out a call to submit films for consideration. RAINY SEASON was a good fit.

Care to share a little about the other featured films and their directors?

I haven’t personally met any of them yet, but am very much looking forward to it, as well as seeing their films. Here is all the information I was able to gather with my spy skills: The Hesses (Ricky, Al and Debbie) produce the HORROR HOTEL series filmed in Atlanta. Ricky is the creator and primary director of the series with the first season streaming on Hulu, an anthology feature film of the 2nd season episodes which are available on Amazon Prime and coming soon to DirectTV. Their festival film, “Sleep Tight” is the pilot episode of the 3rd season and promises to creep it up with attack bed bugs! ATTACK OF THE FACE MELTERS, written by Blake K. Swell and co-directed by Tyler Weddle and Swell, features Jack, a lovable comic geek that enjoys his comics more than his girlfriend. Life takes a turn when Jack’s comic book comes to life. And LOCKJAW PREQUEL: Episode One, directed by Byron Conrad Erwin, written by Justin Craig, features a ventriloquist with mundane aspirations of becoming a children’s entertainer who becomes subject to his dummy’s more sinister desire: interrogating and torturing criminals for the mob.

We’re excited to see that your short film RAINY SEASON, adapted from Stephen King’s short story will be screening at the fest. Can you tell us a little about the film and the making of? Any interesting or crazy tales to tell about filming your short?

I feel like the entire experience from beginning to end has been crazy and interesting. I secured the non-exclusive rights back in July 2015 and began work on the script. Once the script was basically locked — I say basically because I was doing rewrites up until a day before shooting — I started putting together a team to get this sucker produced. I

Vanessa Ionta Wright

met Executive Producer Samantha Kolesnik at a film festival in Los Angeles and she was in the process of having her short film THE PRICE OF BONES (2016) produced and wanted to be more involved with production, so I asked if she wanted to jump on board RAINY SEASON.  She went from “Sure, I’ll help out,” to Executive Producer.  This film would not have happened without her. I then reached out to Director of Photography Mark Simon and was honored that he wanted to be a part of this project. Working alongside John Hughes, Mark began his career on some of the most iconic films in history (SIXTEEN CANDLES, THE BREAKFAST CLUB, FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF). We were so lucky to be working with so many talents in this industry.

One of our biggest challenges, being on such a tight and small budget, was the fact that our set had no electricity or running water and we were shooting nights in an isolated location during the hottest days of August.  Thank goodness for generators, port-a-potties and a healthy respect for bats.

And how cool that your adaptation is fully authorized by King. Can you tell us a little about that process and how long it took for you to get King’s blessing?

This wasn’t as daunting as I thought it might be. The process was fairly simple. “Rainy Season” is part of King’s Dollar Babies Program, which allows aspiring filmmakers to secure the non-exclusive rights to his work and adapt it for the screen. I looked at the list of available stories and filled out an application and waited. Two weeks went by and I received an email granting me permission to adapt the story. I signed the contract and mailed my dollar bill to the “Master of Horror.”  The completed film can in no way make a profit or be distributed. It is for festival use only. So many people have asked, “Why on earth would you make a film that can’t be distributed or make any money?” I look at this film as a very expensive resume. I felt like this film could be a great opportunity for everyone involved to take the next step. Plus it doesn’t hurt to have Stephen King’s name on your film.

Behind the scenes – RAINY SEASON

Are there any other horror stories you’d like to adapt to film, those that have yet to hit the big screen?

I am always late to the party when it comes to reading. Generally, I’ll read a book and think, “That would make an awesome film!” and then I look it up and it’s already been done. I also read a lot of older books…I might need some book recommendations on new horror releases.

Can you tell our readers what drew you to filmmaking and which filmmakers would you say inspired you most?

I think I’ve been drawn to filmmaking my entire life, I just didn’t realize that it could be a career. I started writing stories at an early age, and the moment our family got a VHS movie camera I started bringing those stories to life. I have always been inspired by those who can take the seeds of an idea and grow it into a visual medium that can evoke an emotional response, be it laughter, tears or fear. I grew up on television and movies.  So much of it was still new. Premium cable television got popular in the early 1980s and I was front and center. I was always drawn to the scarier programs. I remember sneaking around to watch COMMANDER USA’s GROOVIE MOVIES and films like MY BLOODY VALENTINE , FRIDAY THE 13TH III, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, CAT PEOPLE and more. I was also an avid watcher of the early TWILIGHT ZONE series and the films of Alfred Hitchcock. I loved suspense more than anything. Gore was fun, but the anticipation of terror got me every time. And the horror of the 1970s and 1980s is so iconic. I watched films by John Carpenter, Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper and thought, “I want to do that!”

As an independent female filmmaker working in the horror genre, what challenges have you personally faced that seem to be a common theme amongst women in the industry?

I don’t know that I have faced any challenges in the industry due to being a woman. I think the challenges I have faced are common to all independent filmmakers regardless of gender. There is an audience for every film and I think as filmmakers we are all trying to find the most effective route to get our films in front of those audiences. Filmmaking is expensive, time consuming and extremely competitive. I think for years this industry has been dominated by men at the top, but we are seeing more and more women in these top creative and executive roles. And I certainly don’t think that I, or any other woman, should be given opportunities simply based on our gender. If I get hired as a director it should be because I am the best director for the job, not because I’m a good female director.

It seems that little by little, women are finally getting the attention they deserve when it comes to film, especially within the horror genre, which brings us to your Women in Horror Film Festival coming up in September. Can you give us a sneak peek into that venture and why you think it’s important that these types of events take place?

Samantha Kolesnik and I are very excited to be bringing this event to the Atlanta area. As genre filmmakers, we have noticed an unbalanced representation of women at horror film festivals and at the box office. We decided to create a platform to showcase female genre filmmakers and screenwriters. Not to create a women only event, but to promote those women who are currently creating films and screenplays and to get them noticed in an otherwise saturated market. We are striving for more equality in the industry, a balanced representation of talented filmmakers and writers. We are very excited to be welcoming some very special guests to the event that many horror fans will recognize: Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Jen and Sylvia Soska, Horror Producer Marianne Maddalena, Lynn Lowry, Horror authors Mylo Carbia and Meg Hafdahl and famed zombie from AMC’s THE WALKING DEAD, Sonya Thompson.  These trailblazing women have been hugely supportive of what Samantha and I have created and we’re thrilled to be working alongside them. The festival will be accepting submissions through July 15, 2017, and the fest will take place September 21-24, 2017, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel & Conference Center in Peachtree City, just down the street from Pinewood Atlanta Studios and Raleigh Studios, home of THE WALKING DEAD.  Your readers can go here for more information.

Who are your favorite women horror directors and why?

Some of my favorites would be Kathryn Bigelow (NEAR DARK), Jennifer Kent (THE BABADOOK), Mary Lambert (PET SEMATARY), Mary Harron (AMERICAN PSYCHO). I am quickly becoming a fan of some amazing up and coming indie directors like Heidi Hartwig (WONDER VALLEY), Justine Raczkiewicz (WASTE) and Audrey Cummings (BERKSHIRE COUNTY). Why I like these particular directors? They know how to tell great stories. They are able to scare and disturb audiences while also creating thought provoking subject matter. I like them because they make great films. It’s why I like any director. I know I’m leaving people off of my list. I could create a spreadsheet of my favorite horror films and directors and you could offer a centerfold-type fold out for your readers. -Ha!-

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

I love lists! I’m limited to only 5?! WATCHING: THE KEEPERS (Netflix Docuseries); MAKING A MURDERER (Netflix Docuseries); submissions for WIHFF – even though Sam and I are not judging the work, we are watching and enjoying all of the films, so that has been taking up a lot of my screen time; and some of my all time favorite films and TV shows in no particular order: RUSHMORE (Anderson), RAISING ARIZONA (Cohen Bros), HALLOWEEN (Carpenter), PSYCHO (Hitchcock), PULP FICTION (Tarantino), GOODFELLAS (Scorsese), A BRONX TALE (DeNiro), BACK TO THE FUTURE (Zemeckis), SLING BLADE (Thorton), ROCKY (Stallone), DIE HARD (McTierman), ALIEN (Scott). Series that I love and have loved:  THE WALKING DEAD, HEROES, BREAKING BAD, FRIDAY THE 13th the Series, AMAZING STORIES, STRANGER THINGS, GREATEST AMERICAN HERO, V, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, DARK SHADOWS, etc. There are so many more that I will remember after this is printed!

Any advice for women filmmakers out there trying to get their foot in the door?

This advice is for all filmmakers. Get out there and make your films. Find good talented people to work and collaborate with and get your film made.  There are so many resources for funding now. Get your hands on a good script or write one yourself and do it. There is no career in film without the film. And surround yourself with good, creative, talented people. You never know who you might meet, so network like crazy. Go to film festivals, get involved with the local indie film scene, and offer to help out on set even if you don’t get paid. Favors get repaid, so support each other, and treat your cast/crew with respect and kindness.

Getting back to what brought us here, Attack of the 50 Foot Film Fest! Anything exciting planned for fest-goers? Can we expect this to be an annual event, something we all can look forward to in years to come?

I’m not sure if this will become an annual event, but I do hope so! I love that Debbie Hess is giving an opportunity to local filmmakers to screen their films. This is about sharing our work. It’s not a competition and we are all there to cheer each other on and give audiences a chance to see some films they might not otherwise have the opportunity to see. And the Plaza is just a super cool venue, so much history there! Friends, fans and moviegoers will have the chance to meet the filmmakers and even the cast of some of these films, which is pretty exciting in my book.
And last but not least, what’s next for Vanessa Ionta Wright? Any other films in the works we should know about?

Right now I am enjoying the RAINY SEASON ride. It’s currently hitting festivals and I want to enjoy the success of the film before I jump into the next one. And WIHFF is keeping me pretty busy as it’s the first year! My plan is hopefully direct a feature in the next year or two so Samantha Kolesnik and I have been making a plan to make that happen. We are actually currently working on a screenplay together, which I am very excited about. I will be at the Attack of the 50ft Film Fest so please be sure to stop by and say hi, I love meeting people!

All photos courtesy of Vanessa Ionta Wright and used with permission.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Rock ‘n’ Roll into the summer and check out all the shakin’ shindigs we’ve found just for you in ATLRetro!

Monday, June 19

The Plaza Theater continues their Clint Eastwood Film Festival through June 22, with screenings of Eastwood’s GRAN TORINO (2008) at 7:10pm, and Eastwood’s PLAY MISTY FOR ME (1971) at 9:30pm! Or head out to the Alpharetta Branch Library for their screening of Norman Jewison’s MOONSTRUCK (1987) at 10:30am! Funk it up with Soul Underrated at City Winery! Make your way to Terminal West for a night with Bokante! 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! Retrowave on down to Vinyl for a night with Vampire Step-Dad! Barrel House Bob Page dishes out a night of rockin’ blues at Blind Willie’s! Skye Paige, “Queen of Slide Guitar” rocks out at the Little Vinyl Lounge! 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, June 20

Rock out with Dirty Fences and RMBLR at The Earl! Get cosmic and funky with Electric Kif and the Stephen Cox Electric Trio at the Red Light Café! Catch a screening of Don Siegel’s THE BEGUILED (1971) at 7pm and Sergio Leone’s THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1967) at 9pm during The Plaza Theater’s Clint Eastwood Film Festival! Catch the beach boogie encore as RiffTrax LIVE presents a Summer Shorts Beach Party at theatres across Atlanta at 7:30pm [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)]! Folk it up with the Joe Taylor Group and Guthrie Brown at Eddie’s Attic! Stomp on down to Blind Willie’s for The Boo Hoo Ramblers! Get jazzy with Deb Bowman at The Regent Cocktail Club! 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 their Downtown Tuesday Night Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! Get down and dirty with Gray & The Bad Boys at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, June 21

Make your way to Chastain Park for a night with Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie! Get your ‘60s neotropical pop/soul fix with Adron and Josh Kelley at Eddie’s Attic! Get Dirty Harry’d at Studio Movie Grill’s (Alpharetta/Duluth) screening of Ted Post’s MAGNUM FORCE (1973) at 7:15pm! Rock out with the Garrison Blagg Band at The Regent Cocktail Club! The Hollidays deliver a night of rhythm ‘n’ soul and rock ‘n’ roll at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Get some southern soul with Kool Kat Scott Glazer’s Mojo Dojo at Blind Willie’s! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern for a rockin’ night of the blues with Beverly “Guitar” Watkins! 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, June 22

The Plaza Theater closes out their Clint Eastwood Film Festival with a 9:30pm screening of Sergio Leone’s FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1967)! Rock out with 10 Hit Combo, Swartzwelder, The 19 Hands and Bleach Garden at Union EAV! Get rocked with Los Colognes and the Roadkill Ghost Choir at The Earl! Raise a ruckus with MIPSO at Eddie’s Attic! Get poppy with Baby Baby and Pls Pls at The Star Bar! Folk it up with Lilac Wine at Venkman’s! The Madrid Express keeps the music alive in memory of Kool Kat Col. Bruce Hampton at The Vista Room! Atlantic Station’s Movies in Central Park continues with a free screening of Sydney Pollack’s SABRINA (1995) at dusk! Get countrified with Mac McAnally at City Winery! Get down at Sweet Betty’s Birthday Bash at Blind Willie’s! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so swank it up with Bogey & The Viceroy at Trader Vic’s! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! 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, June 23

Get some rockin’ soul with Pzzyfoot, BAST and Concrete God at Avondale Towne Cinema! Get your 007 fix with SCADShow’s screening of Peter R. Hunt’s ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE (1969) at 7pm! Alt-rock it up with Kevin Griffin (Better Than Ezra) at City Winery! Get the blues with the Barry Richman Band at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Folk rock it up with Daniel Romano at The Earl! Bluegrass on down to Eddie’s Attic for a night with Robbie Fulks and Jack’s River Band! Get revived with Elevation, The Howling Tongues, Gasoline Heart and Mike Dunn at Vinyl! Swank it up with Bogey & The Viceroy at The Vista Room! Get down and dirty with Sandra Hall & The Shadows at Blind Willie’s! Get some southern fried soul with Secondhand Swagger at Venkman’s! Make your way to the Verizon Amphitheater for a night with Chicago and The Doobie Brothers! Rock out with The Wild Hares at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get the rockin’ blues at the Northside Tavern with Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck & the Atlanta Horns and special guest Beverly “Guitar” Watkins! And as always, time-warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens 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, June 24

Jazz it up with Sweet Lu Olutosin at the Red Light Café! Old-time it up with Tray Dahl & The Jugtime Band at City Winery! Or get your Americana fix with The Roosevelts and Eliot Bronson at Eddie’s Attic! Make your way to the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheatre (Peachtree City) for a night with Paul Anka! Get to jammin’ with the Charlie Fog Band and Gr8ful Dude & Frenz at Smith’s Olde Bar! Rock out with Richard Lloyd (Television) and The Night Terrors at The Star Bar! Get folksy with The Good Graces, Straw Polly and the Skipperdees at Avondale Towne Cinema! Put on your boogie shoes and make your way to The Basement to celebrate five years of their Keep on Movin! Dance Party! Head south to Jonesboro, GA as they host the Smokey & The Bandit 40th Anniversary Festival, from 11am to 6pm!  Boogie down and get artsy at The ArtsATL Lawn Party at the Historic Oakland Cemetery! Eighties it up with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade at the Dawsonville Tavern! Haunt on down to Amsterdam Atlanta for Kool Kat VJ Anthony’s COFFIN CLASSICS: Goth Industrial Music Video Dance Party featuring Goth, dark 80s and more! Get some redemption with Sal’s Soulful Sinners at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Folk it up with Sailing to Denver at Venkman’s followed by ‘70s jazz funk classics with Grant Green, Jr.! Randall Bramblett gets the blues at The Vista Room! Rock out with JGBCB and Tribute at the Variety Playhouse! Get rootsy with Damon Fowler at Blind Willie’s! Get the rockin’ blues at the Northside Tavern with Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck & the Atlanta Horns and special guest Beverly “Guitar” Watkins! Get venomous with The Vipers at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their Studio Ghibli series, featuring a screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE (1989) at 10:30am and PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997) at 1pm! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, June 25

Surf on down to Park Tavern for a night with Surfer Blood, Winter and Small Reactions! Twang it up with Saint Luke’s Drifters and The Western Sizzlers at Smith’s Olde Bar! Make your way to Venkman’s for The SoPo Playboys! Rock out with Dave Mason (Traffic) at City Winery! Come on out to Chastain Park for a night with Sheryl Crow! Check out The Station Breaks at Eddie’s Attic! Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their Studio Ghibli series, encore screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE (1989) at 10:30am and PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997) at 1pm! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar! And get the blues with 10,000 Pontiacs at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

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!

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

Michael Stark, former screenwriter for Disney and Universal Pictures and current purveyor of rare horror and sci-fi books (Burnt Biscuit Books) “in the shadows of Pinewood Studios,” and Terrell T. Garrett, screenwriter, reside south of the Atlanta Airport, a.k.a. “Hillbilly Hollywood.” Having written several screenplays together, they decided to take an artistic leap and are currently in the process of producing their first comic, “WOLVERTON: THIEF OF IMPOSSIBLE OBJECTS, along with artist Derek Rodenbeck. Initially slated for the big screen but not quite making it past Hollywood’s current aversion to original works, WOLVERTON was revived as a self-published comic book and labor of love for Stark and Garrett. This action-packed story entangles Jack Wolverton, gentleman thief, within a wicked supernatural web, and “Only he can save the world’s most powerful artifacts from getting into the wrong hands.” While their tale takes place in turn of the century London and Wolverton holds H.G. Wells’ science in high esteem, as opposed to the superstition-riddled occultish general population, “Wolverton isn’t exactly steampunk,” tweeted Stark. “He’s more Schvitz Punk!” The premier issue is finished, however, Stark and Garrett made a decision to add four previously cut pages back in before it goes to the printers, so all you retro-fabulous turn of the century comic-loving kiddies will have more action-packed goodness when it hits the shelves!

Stark and Garrett’s home-grown labor of love is being crowd-funded by a Kickstarter campaign, in part to cover printing costs (28 full-color pages with a 5000 copy run!), but also to put feelers out to gauge interest in their project. They are offering many enticing perks for backers, including digital and hard copies, exclusive signed prints and the chance for a few lucky folks to get drawn and/or written into the action. So come on out and be a part of WOLVERTON history and snatch up an adventurous perk or two via the Kickstarter campaign available through July 6! Check out the full range of rewards here!

ATLRetro caught up with Michael Stark and Terrell T. Garrett to gab a bit about their upcoming comic,  writing for the Hollywood machine; and why going with crowd-funding made sense for this project. While you’re takin’ a gander at our little Q&A, why not take a peek at the teaser trailer and a wee history of WOLVERTON here.

ATLRetro: How did you and your co-writer, Terrell T. Garrett, come up with the idea of “Wolverton?” What inspired the tale and why set the story in turn of the century London?

Michael: I had an old script about a gentleman thief that I pitched to Sean Connery’s company before he did ENTRAPMENT. I wanted to dust it off, but Terrell yawned, finding the trope a bit old-fashioned. So, out of the blue I blurted out: “What if we set it in Edwardian England and he only stole magical objects like the Monkey’s paw?” Suddenly, my writing partner leaned in, very interested, and we knew we had a great idea.

(l-r) Co-Writers Terrell T. Garrett and Michael Stark

Can you tell our readers a little about the creative team behind WOLVERTON?

Michael: I was making a good living writing in Hollywood in the ’90s without actually having anything produced. Those days have changed. The new normal is free options and free rewrites which is why I started looking at trying a different format. Our artist, Derek Rodenbeck, was an army vet whose testimony of overcoming great tragedy with his art really moved us. We think we found a very talented, young man.

Terrell:  I’m currently adapting Alistair MacLean‘s novel, FEAR IS THE KEY, for the big screen. In fact, most of the stuff I’ve written has been in the screenplay format except for a few short stories here and there and a novel that I’m working on at a glacial pace. I’m also a new father.

What is it about the “gentleman thief” trope that inspires you to create a character like Jack Wolverton?

Michael: We were getting known in Hollywood for writing wild set pieces.  I wanted to do something that mixed action with the wit and sophistication of a Preston Sturges or an Ernst Lubitch film. The Gentleman Thief trope fit both worlds perfectly.

We see that you and Garrett worked together on several screenplays, and that you’ve optioned a few to Universal and Disney. Comics and film are similar in that they both rely on dialogue, action and visuals to deliver an awe-inspiring story. As a screenwriter and now a comic book writer, what would you say are the biggest differences between the two, and the challenges of each?

Artist Derek Rodenbeck

Michael: I thought it would be pretty easy to transpose the script into comic book format. I was dead wrong! Especially because modern comic books like modern screenplays have far less text in ‘em than when I was a kid. So, even after we basically locked the book, I’m still calling the letterer and asking if we can fit in a new bit.

Can you tell our readers what drew you to screenwriting, and who would you say are your most inspirational screenwriters/films?

Michael: Thank God for PBS in the 70s.  I saw a Francois Truffaut and Luis Bunuel film festival when I was 10 years old and knew then I wanted to be a screenwriter. Not a director ’cause I looked lousy in jodhpurs. At NYU, I mentored under three Academy winning screenwriters: Ring Lardner JR (MASH, WOMAN OF THE YEAR), Waldo Salt (MIDNIGHT COWBOY, SERPICO) and Ian Hunter, who could tear apart and fix just about anything.

Terrell: I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker when I saw JURASSIC PARK when I was 14 years old. Something about the collective awe in the theater and seeing all the names in the credits made me realize I wanted to be a part of the movie magic. My favorite screenwriters and filmmakers who inspire me are Walter Hill (ALIEN franchise), James Cameron, Jane Goldman (KICK-ASS), Frank Darabont (THE MIST), Dan Gilroy (NIGHTCRAWLER), Joe Carnahan (THE GREY), Bryan Fuller (HANNIBAL TV series), Jon Spaihts (DOCTOR STRANGE, PROMETHEUS) and Diablo Cody (JUNO).

Of course we have to know, as a native Long Islander, what made you fly south, and what is it about Atlanta that’s kept you around for so long?

Michael: That is a very long and surreal story, but basically I was given a month to live a decade ago and went on a spiritual journey that ended up with this nice, Jewish kid from Long Island becoming a minister in a small, rural GA church. That of course would make a good screenplay, but I strictly believe in never writing about your own life. Oh, yeah, I didn’t die BTW.

Most kids (and now adults, as the guilty pleasure no longer carries the negative geek stigma) can’t wait to get their grubby little hands on the coolest of the cool comics. What comics were your favorite growing up and what are your favorites now?

Terrell:  I grew up reading Chris Claremont X-MEN comics and the ’90s issues of THE NEW MUTANTS. PREACHER and Neil Gaiman‘s SANDMAN blew my teenage mind. These days, I’m enjoying Alan Moore‘s PROVIDENCE, Brian K. Vaughan‘s SAGA and Matt Fraction‘s ODY-C.

Michael:  Team Marvel and mind warping EC reprints. Now anything by Alan Moore.

WOLVERTON began as an original screenplay and was then regenerated into a comic book. Can you tell us a little about that process and whether seeing it drawn on the page in color helps visualize how it will look on the big screen?

Michael: The screenplay was a director’s wet dream with action scenes that were beyond hyper kinetic. Derek did a great job capturing that energy on the page. Even Wolverton’s hair is constantly in motion.

Any plans to take the tale back to Hollywood after its success as a comic book?

Michael: Well, there was just a huge bidding war over a friend’s graphic novel, so, yes! Hollywood is more interested in acquiring existing material than original screenplays. Maybe they’ll come to us this time if the comic book is successful.

Why a Kickstarter campaign for WOLVERTON? What are the advantages of taking the crowd-sourcing route?

Terrell: We chose Kickstarter because it just felt logical. A lot of creatives have used the crowd-sourcing platform and have found success, especially in the realm of comics. We figured it was worth a shot. Not only to hopefully cover the cost of printing, but to see if people would be interested in our little story.

You’ve put together some great bonuses for investors, ranging from digital and hard copies to exclusive signed prints and the chance to get drawn into the action (Exciting!). What can folks looking to invest via Kickstarter expect to get when they back your comic?

Terrell: Backers can, firstly, expect a fun adventure story full of cool visuals, sparking dialogue and great characters.  Secondly, for the backers who dish out a little extra, they can expect to see their likeness or the name of their business in comic book form or own exciting and original artwork. Thirdly, they can know that they invested in a story with little risk, and have contributed to the dream of a brand new father.

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?

Terrell:  Nonfiction Book: MIND HUNTER: INSIDE THE FBI’S ELITE SERIAL CRIME UNIT by John E. Douglas. Podcast: LIMETOWN. Podcast: THE BLACK TAPES. Science Fiction Book: RED RISING by Pierce Brown. Novella: “Agents of Dreamland” by Caitlin R. Kiernan.

Michael: I’m cycling through John Ford westerns and Jeeves and Wooster books at the moment. I’m not sure what I’ll spit out after that combo meal. Although, Terrell and I already wrote a script about Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in Victorian London.  That may be our next comic book.

Any advice for writers and/or artists out there on putting together and publishing their own comic books?

Terrell:  Treat the artist as your collaborator. Be patient with the process. Never give up.

Michael: Who knew sticking it to the man – the man being Hollywood – would be so damn expensive. Many people I went to film school with are now editors at Marvel and DC. Some even started their own publishing companies. I knew if I asked for their advice, they’d probably talk me out of it and I didn’t want to be talked out of it.

Getting back to why we’re here chatting you up, WOLVERTON, and the comic book’s Kickstarter campaign! Without giving too much away, what can you tell our readers a little about the comic?

Michael:  Here’s how we pitched it to Hollywood. In turn of the century London, Jack Wolverton, gentleman thief, specializes in stealing the arcane, the accursed and the occult. With war about to break out, only he can stop the world’s most powerful artifacts (The Monkey’s Paw, The Hope Diamond and the Portrait of Dorian Gray) from falling into the wrong hands! Think Indiana Jones meets Pirates of the Caribbean.

And last but not least, how many issues are planned and how can our readers snag up their very own copies?

Michael: We are printing up 5,000 copies and you can get a copy before anyone on the planet does by backing us now. If the ship carrying them through the high China Seas isn’t attacked by pirates, expect a summer release.

All photos courtesy of Michael Stark and Terrell T. Garrett and used with permission.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Come see what’s shakin’ in ATLRetro this week!

Monday, June 12

The Alpharetta Branch Library presents a screening of Richard Brooks’ CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958) at 10:30am! 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!” Skye Paige, “Queen of Slide Guitar” rocks out at the Little Vinyl Lounge! 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, June 13

Let Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and her burly-Q gals of Syrens of the South help you get to jumpin’ with their Tease Tuesday Burlesque: June is Jumpin’ event, shakin’ it up at the Red Light Café! Get hunted at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s screening of John McTiernan’s PREDATOR (1987) during their Retro Cinema series at 7:30pm! Nitty gritty it up at 529 with Gunpowder Gray, Illegal Drugs and GT! Get the rockin’ blues with Little Hurricane at The Earl! Get jazzy with Deb Bowman at The Regent Cocktail Club! Get freaky and celebrate 20 years of the Cut Throat Freak Show at Swayze’s! Boogie down with Kolars, The Sh-Booms and Sash the Bash at Vinyl! Jam out with Dead & Company at Lakewood Amphitheatre! Folk it up with Joan Shelley and Jake Xerxes Fussells at Eddie’s Attic! 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 their Downtown Tuesday Night Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! Get down and dirty with Gray & The Bad Boys at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, June 14

TCM Big Screen Classics brings Billy Wilder’s SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) to theatres across Atlanta (2pm/7pm) [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)]! Rock out with The Murder Junkies, The Mentors and Rotten Stitches at 529! Get hunted at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern’s encore screening of John McTiernan’s PREDATOR (1987) during their Retro Cinema series at 7:30pm! Rock out with the Garrison Blagg Band at The Regent Cocktail Club! The Hollidays deliver a night of rhythm ‘n’ soul and rock ‘n’ roll 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 it up with his rockin’ 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, June 15

Get your beach boogie on as RiffTrax LIVE presents a Summer Shorts Beach Party at theatres across Atlanta at 8pm [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)]! Get your indie 90s fix with Edwin McCain at City Winery! Or get geeky with Neil deGrasse Tyson at the Cobb Energy Center! Folk it up with Kelly McFarling and John Elliot at Eddie’s Attic! Atlantic Station’s Movies in Central Park continues with a free screening of Penelope Spheeris’ THE LITTLE RASCALS (1994) at dusk! Or catch a free screening of Robert Zemeckis’ BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) at Town Brookhaven’s Movies on the Town event at dusk! Rock out with Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers, Andrew Leahey and the Homestead and Nobody’s Darlings at Smith’s Olde Bar! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night of rockin’ island tunes and tasty cocktails! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! 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, June 16

Surf on down to The Star Bar as Kool Kat Chad Shivers and Southern Surf Stomp! presents The Blair-Pongracic Band, The Mystery Men? and The Surge! Rock out with The Producers and The REMakes at the Variety Playhouse! Get some soul with ATL Collective as they perform Marvin Gaye’s “WHAT’S GOING ON” at Terminal West! The Plaza Theater kicks off their Clint Eastwood Film Festival, running through June 22, with screenings of Ted Post’s HANG ‘EM HIGH (1968) at 5pm, Eastwood’s PLAY MISTY FOR ME (1971) at 7:30pm and Don Siegel’s DIRTY HARRY (1971) at 9:30pm! Make your way to Avondale Towne Cinema for a night with Escape Vehicle, the Honeysliders and Daybreaker! Get the blues with Mike Lowery and Rev. Freakchild at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Or blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a night with Deja Blues! Faith Carmichael dishes out a night of saucy jazz at the High Museum! Stomp on down to The Vista Room for a night with Donna Hopkins and Voodoo Visionary! Diesel Filling Station, home of many a cool retro shindig has a birthday coming up, so come on out and celebrate during their 9 Year Anniversary Party! Make your way to the Northside Tavern for a night with Stoney Brooks! And as always, time-warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens 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, June 17

Swing on down and shimmy it up Shakespeare-style with DJ Doctor Q and Speak Easy Electro Swing Atlanta’s “A Midsummer Night’s Speakeasy” at the Red Light Café featuring Kool Kat Talloolah Love, Candy LeCouer, Flame Cynders and more! The Plaza Theater continues their Clint Eastwood Film Festival with screenings of Ted Post’s HANG ‘EM HIGH (1968) at 2:30pm, Don Siegel’s THE BEGUILED (1971) at 5:10pm and Eastwood’s UNFORGIVEN (1992) at 9:30pm! Rock out with Natural Velvet, Shepherds and more at 529! Avondale Towne Cinema dishes out a night of rock ‘n’ roll in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of “The Summer of Love” with The Rainmen and Kitten Fontaine! Put on your dancin’ shoes and make your way to Chastain Park for a night with the Gipsy Kings! Bluegrass it up at City Winery with the Packway Handle Band and Cicada Rhythm! It’s a night of blues ‘n’ swampfunk with The Rockin’ Jake Band at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Get down with The Rockaholics at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! The Masquerade dishes out a night of garage pop with The Regrettes and Stef Chura! Spend the night with James McMurtry and Jonny Burke at the Variety Playhouse! Psyche rock it up with Black P*ssy, B.S.O.L and Timmy James & The Blue Flames at The Star Bar! Spend the night with The Skylarks at Kavarna! Departure pays tribute to Journey at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre! Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their Studio Ghibli series, featuring a screening of Isao Takahata’s GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES (1993) at 10:30am and Hayao Miyazaki’s SPIRITED AWAY (2001) at 1pm! Come celebrate Juneteenth at the Historic Oakland Cemetery featuring tours, storytelling and more! Make your way to the Elliott Street Pub for Pop-Up Palooza featuring live music, artists and vendors! Jazz it up as Atlanta Freedom Bands present “Gershwin!” at North Atlanta High School! Get the rockin’ blues with The Cazanovas at the Northside Tavern! Bluegrass it up at Venkman’s during their Chicken Pickin’ Brunch with Banjolicious! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, June 18

Jazz it up with Norman Connors at City Winery! Or get your bluesy jazz fix with Francine Reed and Lily Windwood at Eddie’s Attic! Kool Kat Brooks Mason and The Georgia Flood funk it up at the Park Tavern The Plaza Theater dishes out more of their Clint Eastwood Film Festival with screenings of Eastwood’s GRAN TORINO (2008) at 1pm, Eastwood’s UNFORGIVEN (1992) at 3:30pm, Sergio Leone’s FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1967) at 6pm, Don Siegel’s DIRTY HARRY (1971) at 7:30pm, and Sergio Leone’s THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1967) at 8:30pm! Or make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their Studio Ghibli series, featuring encore screenings of Isao Takahata’s GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES (1993) at 10:30am and Hayao Miyazaki’s SPIRITED AWAY (2001) at 1pm! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar! And get the blues with 10,000 Pontiacs at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

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!

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

Shake a tail feather in ATLRetro and come see what we’ve dug up just for you this week!

Monday, June 5

Get your ‘80s adventure fix and catch a free screening of Richard Donner’s THE GOONIES (1985) at City Winery at 7pm! Geek it up and get to bowlin’ at The Comet Pub & Lanes’ Comet Cosplay: Wonder Woman, presented by NerdLanta and getting nerdy the first Monday of every month! Get your Bond fix at The Plaza Theater’s screening of Lewis Gilbert’s THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977), through June 8! The Alpharetta Branch Library sends you to court with a screening of Robert Benton’s KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979) at 10:30am! Get the blues with Bill Sheffield at Blind Willie’s! 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! Skye Paige, “Queen of Slide Guitar” rocks out at the Little Vinyl Lounge! Boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam!

Tuesday, June 6

Rock out with Ann Wilson (Heart) at the Buckhead Theatre! Rock out with Nest Egg, Hidden Ritual and A Drug Called Tradition at The Earl! Make your way to Eddie’s Attic for a night with Bobby Whitlock (Derek & the Dominos) and CoCo Carmel! Make your way to City Winery for a night with Bernard “Pretty” Purdie! 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 their Downtown Tuesday Night Dance Party featuring retro-soul, funk, ‘80s, ‘90s and more! The Entertainment Crackers get bluesy with their folksy Americana at Blind Willie’s! And as always, groove on down with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, June 7

TCM Big Screen Classics celebrates the 45th Anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola’s classic THE GODFATHER (1972) at theatres across Atlanta (2pm/7pm) [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); Regal Atlantic Station 18; and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)]! Suzy Bogguss pays tribute to Merle Haggard at Eddie’s Attic! Get funky and groove on down to City Winery for a taste of Bumpin the Mango! Get criminal and make your way to the Studio Movie Grill’s (Alpharetta/Duluth) screening of Don Siegel’s DIRTY HARRY (1971) at 7:15pm! Get the blues with the Cody Matlock Band at Blind Willie’s! Get jazzy at the Red Light Café with Burris and the Jack Jones Quartet, followed by The Gordon Vernick Quartet! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ 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, June 8

Make your way to Criminal Records for  an in store signing and Q&A panel with David J (Bauhaus/Love and Rockets)! Folk rock it up with The Avett Brothers at the Fox Theatre! Rock out with the Eric Johnson Electric Band at the Variety Playhouse! The Split Squad rocks out at The Earl with Dressy Bessy! The Ghost Wolves rock out at Smith’s Olde Bar with Foxtrot & The Getdown and The Bantam Breaks! Atlantic Station’s Movies in Central Park continues with a free screening of Andrew Davis’ THE FUGITIVE (1993) at dusk! The Madrid Express keeps the music alive in memory of Kool Kat Col. Bruce Hampton at The Vista Room! Suzy Bogguss pays tribute to Merle Haggard at Eddie’s Attic! Get your Americana fix with Bay Station at the Red Light Café! It’s Mai Tai Thursday, so hula on down to Trader Vic’s for a night of tunes with the Knotty Boys and tasty cocktails! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! Get down with Kristen & The Honey Badgers at Blind Willie’s! 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, June 9

Rev on down to The Star Bar for a night with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt & the Psycho-Devilles and the Cigar Store Indians! Get your old-school game fix at the Southern-Fried Gameroom Expo 2017 featuring pinball machines, arcade games, consoles and more! And you won’t want to miss the Y’allywood Southern-Fried Film Fest, all running through June 11 at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly Hotel! Get groovy with Yacht Rock Schooner’s Summer Sunsets at Park Tavern! Catch a screening of Gene Kelly/Stanley Donen’s SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952) with a live accompaniment by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at Atlanta Symphony Hall (8pm)! Spend the night with Bond, James Bond at SCADShow’s screening of Guy Hamilton’s GOLDFINGER (1964) at 7pm! Boogie down with the boys as Sadie Hawkins presents: The Men’s Room Quarterly at the Red Light Café! Get brassy with the Wasted Potential Brass Band at the Northside Tavern! Get fuzzed out at The Earl with the White Reaper and The Buzzards of Fuzz! Get rootsy with The Subdudes at City Winery! Get jazzy and funk on down to Venkman’s for The JAZZ of Prince: A Night of Prince’s Jazz-Funk Compositions! Rock out with Captain Trips & The Sunstroke Serenaders at The Vista Room! Eighties it up with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade at Wild Wing Café in Dunwoody! “George Hughley & The Shadows dish out the blues at Blind Willie’s! And as always, time-warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens 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, June 10

Haunt on down to the Historic Oakland Cemetery for Tunes from the Tombs 2017 (12p – 8pm), featuring 3 retro-tastic stages of live music! The Mailchimp Main Stages gets down with Tray Dahl & The Jugtime Ragband, Cadillac Jones, Secondhand Swagger, Delta Moon and Tinsley Ellis (paying tribute to Kool Kat Col. Bruce Hampton)! Shakin’ on the Creative Loafing Atlanta Stage will be The Atlanta Rock n’ Roll All Stars, Dang Dang Dang, Blake Rainey & His Demons, Spencer Garn & The Diamond Street Players, Bad Spell and Five Eight! And you won’t want to miss the Bell Tower Porte-Cochere Stage featuring Octave, Little Country Giants, the Wasted Potential Brass Band and Kool Kat Amy Pike with the Bonaventure Quartet! It’s tribute night at The Star Bar, so rock on down for a night with Clashinista and The Cherry Bomb! Make your way to Amsterdam Atlanta for Kool Kat VJ Anthony’s Prince 80s Music Video Dance Party: Purple Edition! Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their Studio Ghibli series, featuring a screening of Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY (2012) at 10:30am and Hayao Miyazaki’s NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (1984) at 1pm! Funk it up with a twist with Zydefunk at the Northside Tavern! Get Hip to be Smooth at the The Earl Smith Strand Theatre’s tribute to Huey Lewis & The News and Hall & Oates! Catch an encore screening of Gene Kelly/Stanley Donen’s SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952) with a live accompaniment by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at Atlanta Symphony Hall (8pm)! Get countrified at Venkman’s during their Chicken Pickin’ Brunch with Dusty Roads followed by an encore presentation of The JAZZ of Prince: A Night of Prince’s Jazz-Funk Compositions! House Rocker Johnson & The Shadows dish out the blues at Blind Willie’s! St. James Live! delivers their Tribute to the Legends night every Saturday night!

Sunday, June 11

Get your gypsy jazz fix at Venkman’s with The Hot Club of Atlanta! Make your way to the Infinite Energy Center for a night with Hall & Oates and Tears for Fears! Catch a screening of Victor Fleming’s classic, GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) at the Fox Theatre! TCM Big Screen Classics brings Billy Wilder’s SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) to theatres across Atlanta (2pm/7pm) [Hollywood Stadium 24 (Chamblee); AMC Barrett Commons 24 (Kennesaw); Avalon Stadium 12 (Alpharetta); AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 (Lawrenceville); Cinemark Tinseltown 17 (Fayetteville); Perimeter Pointe 10; Regal McDonough Stadium 16 (McDonough); AMC Avenue Forsyth (Cumming); Georgian Stadium 14 (Newnan); and AMC Southlake Pavilion 24 (Morrow)]! Boogie on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for Sadie Hawkins’ Electric Glitterland Rock ‘n’ Roll Cabaret! Or make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their Studio Ghibli series, featuring an encore screening of Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY (2012) at 10:30am and Hayao Miyazaki’s NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (1984) at 1pm! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar!

Ongoing

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!

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.