artful garden tour

Weekend Update: May 13-15, 2011

Posted on: May 13th, 2011 By: Anya99

It’s only bad luck if you stay home on Friday the 13th, but Saturday is another of those Retro-crazy days full of tough choices. ATLRetro is terrifyingly torn between doing the zombie, rockabilly and ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL

Friday, May 13

For Whom The Ramones Toll. Read the Mark Arson’s review to find out why you shouldn’t miss one of two screenings of cult favorite ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL, this month’s Art Opening & A Movie, at the Plaza Theatre. Since ROCKY HORROR is downstairs in the main theatre, tonight’s midnight show will be in the more intimate upstairs screening room, but we’re certain there will be plenty of screamin’ as #1 Ramones fan Riff Randall (PJ Soles) and mouse-loving music teacher Mr. McGree (Paul Bartel) declare school’s out to no-fun Principal Togar (Mary Woronoff). And you get a chance to see some groovy artwork by ATLRetro featured artists Derek Yaniger, Chris Hamer and more of Atlanta’s best pop culture artists.

Indie alt-rock bands Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven play the art deco built-in-1931 Buckhead Theatre. Redneck underground favorites Slim Chance & the Convicts team up with the alt-country Wheel Knockers for a no-cover show celebrating their new EP release and to say farewell to their bass player at Milltown Arms Tavern in Cabbagetown. Chanteuse Julie Dexter sings jazz and soul at Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX.

Saturday May 14

Celebrate the 75th anniversary of the publication of the book GONE WITH THE WIND from 10:30 AM to 4:30 PM at the Margaret Mitchell House in Midtown. Experience 150 years of history with this special program which delves into the entire GWTW story, including Civil War soldiers fighting the Battle of Atlanta, the city in the 1920s when Margaret Mitchell wrote the book, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel’s lasting legacy. The all-day event is part of a yearlong Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind 75th Anniversary Celebration series by the Atlanta History Center.

Check out this week’s Kool Kat for a sneak peek into one of the gardens of several privately-owned historic homes featured in the Artful Garden Tour, benefiting the High Museum of Art, from 10 AM to 5 PM. Gardens are located in Loring Heights, Druid Hills, Peachtree Battle, Buckhead and Ansley Park and local artists will be working on or showcasing their art in each location.

Blair Crimmins.

From 1 PM to Midnight, eat smoked pork sandwiches and listen to some of Atlanta’s best bands at Twain’s during the 3rd annual SpringFest benefiting The Atlanta Community Food Bank. Early on it’s family time with DJ Amy Handler of AM 1690’s The Kids Are Alright and the Imperial Opa dazzling with circus antics until 2:30. Then bands takeover including The Shathouse Rats, beach music-inspired The Mermaids, soul/funk/blues performers Amy Wren and What It Is, ’20s ragtime revivalists Blair Crimmins and the Hookers (read ATLRetro’s interview with Blair here), and Gentleman Jesse and His Men.

Help recreate George Romero‘s 1968 classic, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, in Virginia-Highland by joining the second annual Zombie Pub Crawl. Get to Diesel between 4-7 PM to have professional make-up artists from Atlanta’s top Halloween attractions Chambers of Horror, Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse and Netherworld apply your make-up or get a 10% discount at Norcostco/Atlanta Costume to do your own. Sponsors include Splatter Cinema/Gorehound Productions, Jagermeister, Red Bull and Sam Adams.

Have a spanking good time at Mon Cherie’s Rockabilly Lounge at The Masquerade with Hard Luck and Trouble, Rev. Andy spinning Psychobilly Freakout, a burlesque show benefiting Burlesque Hall of FameLegends, a Ragin’ Rockabilly Raffle and free shots of that ultimate Retro delicacy, Jello! Be sure to wish Mon Cherie “Happy Birthday.”

Catch a 9:30 PM encore screening of ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL at The Plaza. Bon Jovi rocks Philips Arena. Legendary keyboardist Ike Stubblefield is at Northside Tavern tonight. DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno.

Sunday May 15

Washboard Confessional headline blues “dunch” between 1 and 4 PM at The Earl.

Ongoing

Leave it to the mad geniuses at Dad’s Garage to transform a beloved children’s classic into a bloody puppet musical. SCARLETT’S WEB features all your favorite characters from Wilbur the pig to Templeton the rat but adds some splattery special effects. Never mind, it’s all in fun though, they say, and definitely recommended only for anyone old enough to appreciate adult humor. Thurs., Fri. and Sat. nights at 8 p.m. extended through May 21.

At the High Museum of Art through May 29 is the MOMA-organized HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON: THE MODERN CENTURY, a blockbuster exhibit showcasing a photographer and photojournalist who captured on film many of the seminal moments of the 20th century from World War II to the assassination of Ghandi, China’s cultural revolution to civil rights and consumer culture in America.

For more weekend fun, tune back in on Friday for ATLRetro Weekend Update. If you know of a cool happening we’ve missed, send suggestions to ATLRetro@gmail.com.

Category: Weekend Update | Tags: AM 1690, Amy Handler, Amy Wren, Art Opening & A Movie, artful garden tour, Atlanta Community Food Bank, Atlanta History Center, Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse, Blair Crimmins, Bon Jovi, Buckhead Theatre, burlesque, Burlesque Hall of Fame, Camper Van Beethoven, Chambers of Horror, Chris Hamer, Clermont Lounge, Cracker, Dad's Garage, Derek Yaniger, Diesel, Fernbank, Gentleman Jesse, Gone with the Wind, Gorehound Productions, Hard Luck and Trouble, Henri Cartier-Bresson, High Museum of Art, Ike Stubblefield, Imperial Opa, Julie Dexter, Margaret Mitchell House, mark arson, Martinis & Imax, Masquerade, Milltown Arms, Mon Cherie's Rockabilly Lounge, Netherworld, Norcostco, Northside Tavern, Philips Arena, Plaza Theatre, psychobilly, Ramones, Rev. Andy, rock n roll high school, romeo cologne, Scarlett's Web, Shathouse Rats, Slim Chance and the Convicts, Splatter Cinema, SpringFest, The Earl, Twain's, Washboard Confessional, Wheel Knockers, Zombie Pub Crawl, zombies

Kool Kat of the Week: An Artful Garden for an Artful Cause

Posted on: May 13th, 2011 By: Anya99

This week’s Kool Kat isn’t a person but a garden which happens to belong to a Retro home, one of those 1920s neo-Tudor-revival manors on Fairview Road where we can only imagine the Gatsby-style Charleston parties that once went on. Vintage Atlanta got a massive break in the early 1990s when a lawsuit finally took away the threat of Freedom Parkway being extended through what’s now Freedom Park. It was too late to save all of the historic homes that were demolished in the 1960s and ‘70s due to the specter of the “Stone Mountain Freeway,” but the threat of overlooking a highway lowered home prices in the parts of Druid Hills next door to it enough to make a deal for homeowners Christine Cozzens, an English professor at Agnes Scott College, and Ron Calabrese, a biology professor at Emory University. A potential view of asphalt vanquished, they planted a garden so beautiful that it’s a work of art, one of several that complement historic homes in Druid Hills, Morningside and Buckhead on The Artful Garden Tour, Sat. May 14 from 10 AM to 5 PM, which benefits the High Museum of Art.

Druid Hills itself could be called a garden neighborhood, designed to around curving interconnecting parks by pioneering landscape architect Frederik Law Olmsted, who also designed Central Park in New York and the Chicago’s World Fair. Olmsted embraced living in nature, and so does this house. Cozzens grew up in a neo-Tudor revival house and loved the fact that former owners had never changed the floor plan, as has happened to many Druid Hills homes, but the one addition the couple did make was a conservatory. “The idea was that we needed some more living space but we wanted to be able to be outdoors year-round,” she says. The garden, designed by well-known Atlanta landscape architect Mary Palmer Dargan, of Dargan Landscape Architects, literally encircles the house so big windows in the front and back also provide breathtaking views.

When Cozzens and Calabrese moved in with her then-small three children, the only blooms endured for a few weeks in the spring, but now the house is surrounded by an eclectic variety of shrubs, native plants and perennials, allowing for year-round color without a lot of work to maintain the loveliness. The variety reminds Cozzens of Merrion Square and other places in Dublin which the Irish literature expert has visited while leading student trips. “It wouldn’t be miles of privet or boxwood,” she says. “It would be different leaf textures, different colors, different everything right next to each other—an incredible tapestry of leaves.”

Winding paths lead to other parts of the garden including a vegetable planting area with five beds, the Crepe Myrtle Parking Nook which makes for a breathtaking view from the kitchen window, and Emma’s Garden, named after the family’s daughter, which still contains the small unicorn statue the now-20-year-old loved at age 9. The house and garden took a tragic hit in 2009 when a giant tree fell, and the drought gave an extra hit, but the possibility to participate in this year’s Artful Garden Tour provided inspiration to revive the garden after that difficult time. It’s also been featured in the HGTV series GROUND BREAKERS.

Tickets for The Artful Garden Tour are available here.

Category: Kool Kat of the Week, Retro Home | Tags: agnes scott college, artful garden tour, central park, Chicago World's Fair, Dargan Landscape, Druid Hills, Emory University, fairview road, Frederik Law Olmsted, freedom park, freedom parkway, Ground Breakers, HGTV, High Museum of Art, Mary Palmer Dargan, stone mountain freeway

ATLRetro

Your Guide to 20th Century Atlanta in the 21st Century

Weekend Update: May 13-15, 2011

Kool Kat of the Week: An Artful Garden for an Artful Cause

Links