Friday, April 15
The 75th annual Dogwood Festival begins at noon at Piedmont Park including a large juried fine arts market, continuous live music including New Orleans-style blues from Swamp Funk Quartet at 3:40-4:30 pm, kid’s village, food vendors, Friends of Dogwood tasting pavilion, rides on the vintage Seattle Wheel (read ATLRetro’s preview here), built for the 1963 Seattle World’s Fair, and a classic 1965 carousel, and more. Also happening this weekend is Sweetwater 420 Fest in Candler Park, also featuring an artists’ market and plenty of live music acts, including the Gimme Hendrix Band at 5:20 PM.
The Atlanta Braves celebrate Jackie Robinson Night in honor of the 64th anniversary of the legendary player’s debut in Major League Baseball, breaking the color barrier, with a pre-game reception and on-field ceremony featuring Hank Aaron before 
tonight’s game against the New York Mets. Rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson holds court at The Loft, while contemporary Atlanta rockabilly band Psycho Devilles descends into The Basement at 1245 Joseph Street. Danish duo The Raveonettes, at The Masquerade tonight, blend ’60s beat with ’80s alt-garage for a sound both Retro and original. Eighties alt-rockers Toad the Wet Sprocket hit Variety Playhouse. The Hollidays bring rhythm and soul to Sidelines in Marietta. Salsambo Dance Studio unleashes some Latin heat at Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX. Joe Gransden and Kenny Banks jazz up The Mansion on Peachtree. Saxophonist Brian Hogans headlines Friday Jazz at The High Museum of Art, including full gallery access (see ongoing for current exhibits) and a cash bar. Or go really retro with the Atlanta Opera‘s COSI FAN TUTTE at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. In Mozart’s comedic masterpiece, two Italian officers boast of their fiancees’ faithfulness, only to have a clever friend put it to the test.
Saturday April 16
Vinyl-lovers rejoice! Today is Record Store Day so be sure and support your local indie record store, even if you decide to buy a CD! Decatur CD celebrates with sales, Community BBQ sliders, free beer, concert ticket giveaways, and Atlanta’s own King of Pops with scrumptious freshly made popsicles outside after 2 PM (weather permitting)! Other great Atlanta and Athens indie music shops will host their own celebrations, so get yourself to Fantasyland Records, Wax n’ Facts (live music), Wuxtry (live bands at the Athens location), Criminal Records (live music) and Full Moon Records.
The 75th annual Dogwood Festival continues all day at Piedmont Park including rockin’ blues from Lefty Williams at 5 PM and outrageous ragtime from Blair Crimmins & the Hookers at 6:30 PM. Read ATLRetro’s interview with Blair here. Meanwhile at Sweetwater 420 Fest, catch 7 Walkers featuring Bill Kreutzman of The Grateful Dead at 4:50-6:30 PM.
Mon Cherie’s The Chamber Reunion transports attendees back to Atlanta’s notorious ’90sGoth/Industrial/fetish club with live fetish performances, burlesque/Boi-Lesque, aerial feats, go-go dancers, drag skits, body paint, a chocolate bar and more surprises to tickle your fancy tonight at The Masquerade from 9 AM late into the night. Mon Cherie provides an exclusive preview as this week’s Kool Kat.
On any other night, The Chamber Reunion would win hands down the most exotic extravaganza in town, but tonight isn’t any other night. Creative competition comes from The Artifice Club, which presents The Clockwork Carnival, a steampunk circus featuring a night full of gypsies, fire eaters and other curiosities at The Goat Farm. Featured acts 
include The Imperial Opa, Hot Toddies Flaming Cabaret, the amazing aerial feats of Blast-Off Burlesque‘s Sadie Hawkins, Thimblerig Circus, Pyro Salto of Birmingham, AL, music by DJs Doctor Q and The Davenport Sisters, and more. Also featured is a Vendor’s Market Caravan, photography sessions, The Circus Contraption Contest with prizes awarded for the most creative device you would need to work at a carnival, and a steampunk costume contest to crown the King and Queen of the Carnival. Festivities start at 4 PM and also last into the very wee hours of the night, we suspect. For ATLRetro’s sneak preview with Doctor Q himself, click here.
In Atlanta Rollergirls action at the Yaarab Shrine Center, the Dirty South Derby Girls take on the Tampa Tantrums at 5 PM, followed by a whole lotta shaking going on as the Denim Demons and the Toxic Shocks skate it out for a chance at a first win of the season. The Psycho Devilles rockabilly it up at Dixie Tavern in Marietta. Variety Playhouse turns the clock back and invites you to dig out the shoulder pads for The Reagan Rock Prom featuring “The Greatest ’80s Soundtrack Songs of all Time.” Music, dancing, a prom king and queen contest and refreshments. Better Than The Beatles pays tribute to the Fab Four at Jerry Farber’s Side Door. DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno.
Sunday April 17
Spend a lazy Sunday at the Dogwood Festival at Piedmont Park, catching bands such as easy-going, all-American Jackson County Line (2 PM). Or Sweetwater 420 Festival winds down with several bluegrass acts. Gentleman Jesse serves up the blues “dunch” between 1 and 4 PM at The Earl. Catch the final matinee performance at 3 PM of the Atlanta Opera‘s COSI FAN TUTTE at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. At night, legendary blues musician Taj Mahal plays Variety Playhouse.
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. Opened April 14 and runs Thurs., Fri. and Sat. nights at 8 p.m. through May 7.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec died in 1901, but it’s not a stretch to say that his vibrant posters and prints of showgirls, nightclub stars and the café culture influenced the 20thcentury romantic view of Paris and still inspire today’s burlesque performers. The High Museum of Art’s dynamic new special exhibition, TOULOUSE-LAUTREC AND FRIENDS: THE IRENE AND HOWARD STEIN COLLECTION, runs through May 1. Also at the High through May 29 is the MOMA-organized HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON: THE MODERN CENTURY, another blockbuster exhibit showcasing a photographer and photojournalist who captured on film many of the seminal moments of the 20th century from World War II to the assassination of Ghandi, China’s cultural revolution to civil rights and consumer culture in America.
Tune back in on Monday for This Week in Retro Atlanta. If you know of a cool happening coming up, send suggestions to ATLRetro@gmail.com.
Piano keys normally appear in organized rows and it’s the player who touches them out of order and creates waves of sound that become music to our ears. We listeners only see the front and top part—white or black—and not the full length that connects with the strings within the instrument itself. Across a wide expanse of hardwood floor of a gallery at the High Museum of Art, however, cast-off keys literally ebb and flow like tides in a storm—broken only by one lone dark head rising above the water.
Radcliffe is at the High today to participate in a preview tour for media of RADCLIFFE BAILEY: MEMORY AS MEDICINE, the most comprehensive exhibition of his works to date, opening this Sunday June 26 and running through Sept. 11 at the High. Born and bred in Atlanta, his parents brought him to the High as a child and he graduated from the High-affiliated Atlanta College of Art in 1991. In the years since then, both the 40-year-old artist and the museum have matured into globally-renowned figures in fine art. Frankly it’s nice to see that the High now feels comfortable enough in its own shoes not only to display a homegrown master but also to remind the global art community that not just commerce but also culture does happen in a city that often seems cockily focused on its business and sports achievements.
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