Cover Story
Beating back the blues
“The road goes on forever,” Gregg Allman sang in one of his most famous songs, the one about evading the soul–snatching midnight rider. After years of unimaginable highs punctuated by gut–wrenching lows, he finally shook loose that black specter — when the road led him to Richmond Hill. “I had been through Savannah as a…
Monday, January 23
Here’s what’s going on today (Monday, Jan. 23): Mike Malloy, one of the stars and producers of “The Scarlet Worm,” will attend tonight’s screening at Muse Arts Warehouse (9 p.m.) and conduct an audience Q&A. This quirky 2011 homage to classic “Spaghetti Westerns” is part of the Psychotronic Film Festival, and is preceded (at 6:30)…
Silence is golden: ‘The Artist’
THE ARTIST ***1/2 The definitive look at the transition from silent films to talkies arrived courtesy of the 1952 musical Singin’ in the Rain. The story about a talented nobody becoming an overnight success while an established performer simultaneously suffers a career crash’n’burn has been filmed ad nauseam, most recognizably in the various screen incarnations…
Sunday, January 22
Here’s what’s going on today (Sunday, Jan. 22): The 2012 Psychotronic Film Festival begins with a strong triple-header at Muse Arts Warehouse: At 2 p.m., it’s the pseudo-Bollywood epic “Adhisaya Pravi” from India, with the British shocker “The Innocents” following at 5. And at 8 p.m. we get the southeastern premiere of the animated “Chico…
My Life
A journey in Time
Shame, Extremely Close etc., Contraband, The Artist
SHAME *** Michael Fassbender went all James Brown on us in 2011, as the hardest working man in show business — or at least in film — appeared in leading roles in no less than four motion pictures. Fassbender was compelling as Rochester in Jane Eyre, as Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method and especially…
Downton Abbey comes to City Hall
IT’S ABOUT a strict pecking order and complex rules of social standing. It’s about betrayal, envy and subtle mutual acrimony. It’s about interesting and unusual accents. Oh, and the hit PBS show Downton Abbey is also about all those things. Watching Savannah City Council on the most recent webcast at the excellent City Government channel…
Soul and the City
Like Rome, Jerusalem, and other old cities where historical majesty coexists with the everyday realities of paying bills and finding a parking place, it’s easy to lose perspective here. Yeah, yeah, we Savannah residents adore our public squares and charming buildings. We understand (and encourage) outsider fascination with our small Southern city and its unique…
Melancholy, baby
Not so long ago, Dare Dukes was just another part–time musician and frustrated novelist living in a crummy flat on the Lower East Side of New York. Everything changed when he got married and relocated to Savannah. That was in 2007, and by whatever stroke of magic, serendipity or plain old dumb luck – he…
Mark your calendar: Savannah Stopover bands
The bands and artists for the 2012 Savannah Stopover have been announced, and while there are some names that’ll be familiar from last year’s inaugural festival, the majority are not only entirely new to the Stopover, they’ve never played Savannah before. The Stopover takes place March 7–10, at a cross–section of 10 to 20 local…
‘Cue up the southside
Southsiders really have a road trip ahead if they’re looking for a plate of mom and pop-style barbecue. There is an option: the corporate ’cue restaurant Sticky Fingers at the corner of White Bluff Road and Abercorn Street. I stopped in last week, my first visit ever to the franchise and am happy to report…
Give it up for the new year
Several armed robberies augured in the new year. On January 4, about 9:30 p.m., officers were dispatched to 11975 Apache Avenue to the Dollar General. Employees told police two armed suspects entered the store and came into the breakroom. The suspects demanded money and made employees take them to the registers. The suspects were both…
Review: The Iron Lady
THE IRON LADY *1/2 Taking Meryl Streep out of The Iron Lady and replacing her with just about any other actress would be akin to removing the meat out of a beef stroganoff dinner and replacing it with a Hostess Twinkie. The result would be a thoroughly indigestible mess, worthy only of being flung into…
Don’t try this at home
Ah, there’s nothing like the smell of burnt rubber in the morning. Along with the squealing sound of hard–working brakes, the aroma of taxed tires was in the air over the racetrack on Hutchinson Island last week as the Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Police Department put 10 new vehicles through the paces. The SCMPD is considering…
Yarn, Delicate Cutters
YARN With Dangermuffin At 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20 Live Wire Music Hall, 307 W. River St. $8 Blake Christiana grew up in Schenectady, N.Y. with a hippie dad who exposed his son to the acoustic, country-flavored tunes of mid-period Grateful Dead, as well as Jerry Garcia’s bluegrass offshoot, Old & in the Way. Making…
Two wheels, one world
Shot on location in Zambia, Ghana, India, Guatemala and California, With My Own Two Wheels brings together the stories of five disparate individuals who use the bicycle as a way of making change in the world – “one pedal stroke at a time,” as the film’s producers like to say. With My Own Two Wheels…
Wuss on wheels
I try hard to brand myself as a tough lady, a woman of valor, a working mama who feeds backyard chickens in high–heeled boots. But next to some women, it’s obvious I’m merely an amateur — a poseur, really — in the field of badassery. Specifically, I am referring to the Savannah Derby Devils. If…
Fred and Fred and Vinnie
Fred Stoller is the archetypical “where have I seen that guy before?” actor. A former standup comedian, the Brooklyn native has been in lots of TV stuff you’ve watched, from Scrubs to Everybody Loves Raymond to Wizards of Waverly Place. He was in movies like Dumb and Dumber, Little Man, Goldmember and Joe Dirt. Stoller’s…
Pass the pop culture
Although this year’s Psychotronic Film Festival is populated by the usual weirdo cult movies and unfathomable foreign horror yarns, there are a few titles that stick out like a Siskel & Ebert sore thumb. They’re “A” films that would not be out of place in Psychotronic Film Society chief Jim Reed’s “other” series, Movies Savannah…
