ATLRetro

Friday, June 17

Libby Whittemore

It’s an all-around jazzy evening at three Atlanta theaters, attractions and museums. Beloved Atlanta chanteuse Libby Whittemore returns to Actor’s Express for the second show in a four-day run (June 16-19) of LISA & LIBBY’S SUMMER CAMP, joining singer Lisa Paige and musical director/accompanist Robert Strickland for a summer-themed new installment to the Libby’s at the Express series. The show combines standards, Broadway tunes, and more, and in the second act, the 31st Ladyof Country Music Connie Sue Day. Shows start at 7:30 PM. Vocalist Marsha DuPree sings sweet, soulful cabaret and musical revue favorites at Callanwolde Jazz on the Lawn. Or head to the halls of the High Museum of Art for a night of art and Friday Jazz with Kevin Bales. Joe Gransden brings his big band style of jazz to Jazz Journeys at Georgia Aquarium. If swingin’ blues is more your mood tonight, Jump’n Jukes are at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. Or catch an IMAX movie and merengue the night away during Salsa Night with Salsambo Dance Studio at Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX.

Saturday June 18

What could be more retro than the first annual Rockabilly Luau at the Masquerade Music Park from noon to 8 PM, featuring a mix of rockabilly, psychobilly, surf and psycho-surf music by Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho DeVilles, Daikaiju, The Pelvis Breastlies, The Mystery Men?, The Rebel Surfers,The Go Devils, The Atomic Rockets and C.N.I. COW. More performers include Blast-off Burlesque, Davina and the Harlots, The Spinderellas and authentic Polynesian dancers and fire dancers. The total tiki day also promises Hawaiian BBQ and beer, a pre-1968 car show, Hawaiian pin-up girl and swimsuit contest, live tiki carving, lei greeters, a worst Hawaiian shirt contest, vendors and classic tropical drinks. All ticket sales support two local animal rescues. Catch ATLRetro‘s sneak preview with founders and this week’s Kool Kats Chris Mattox and Jessica Vega here and an exclusive interview with The Rebel Surfers here.

Papa Said Knock You Out and that’s exactly what Atlanta Rollergirls plan to do today in their monthly double-header at the Yaraab Shrine Center. First bout between the Sake Tuyas and Toxic Shocks is sold out, we hear, but tickets were still available at press time for the second match at 7:30 PM between Atlanta Rumble B‘s and visiting team Fort Myers Derby Girls. Then take the Highway to Hellbilly as world-famous mountain Dancing Outlaw Jesco White and country singer-songwriter Roger Alan Wade burn up Atlanta at 529 Club in East Atlanta. DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno. And of course, ’80s metalheads/rockers will want to head to Lakewood Amphitheatre for Heart and Def Leppard.

Sunday June 19

Blake Rainey & His Demons headlines blues “dunch” between 1 and 4 PM at The Earl. Hall & Oates play Chastain Park Amphitheatre.

Closing this weekend

Ray Harryhausen's interpretation of the Cyclops in THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958)

Sun. June 19 is the last day to see the original images which inspired Ray Harryhausen‘s amazing stop-motion cyclops, centaurs and other mythological beasts in the special exhibition, MONSTERS, DEMONS AND WINGED BEASTS: COMPOSITE CREATURES IN THE ANCIENT WORLD at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University through June 19. The exhibition of monstrous art, drawn from the museum’s permanent collections, shows how the ancient Greeks were inspired by other Middle Eastern cultures in developing a vast repertoire of richly imagined creatures.

Kandace Christian as Margaret Mitchell. Photo courtesy of Melita Easters.

Find out about the headstrong, irrepressible early years and the human side of MRS. JOHN MARSH..THE WORLD KNEW HER AS MARGARET MITCHELL at the Ansley Park Playhouse. The well-reviewed hit one-woman show by Melita Easters and starring Kandace Christian has gotten some great reviews and even includes a rare perspective on her year at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts – the only time she ever left the Southeast. Friday and Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday at 2 PM.

Ongoing

MODERN BY DESIGN, the High‘s newest special exhibition opening on Sat. June 4, celebrates three key moments in modern design and also the Museum of Modern Art, New York‘s (MOMA) collection history. The works on loan from MOMA cover “Machine Art” (1934), “Good Design” (1950-55) and “Italy: The New Domestic Landscape” (1972), with the latter addressing modernism in the context of 1960s and ’70s counterculture.

The ever irreverent Dad’s Garage Theatre takes a stab at the ’80s horror genre of camp slasher films in SLAUGHTER CAMP about a homicidal maniac terrorizing a theatre camp. June 2-25 on the main stage.

Get a rare chance to view original manuscript pages from the last four chapters of ATLANTA’S BOOK: THE LOST GONE WITH THE WIND MANUSCRIPTat the Atlanta History Center. The new exhibit, which opens today and runs through Sept. 5, is part of a series of activities celebrating the 75th anniversary of the publication of the international bestseller and also includes foreign and first edition copies, the desk Margaret Mitchell used while writing it and select images.

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