Cover Story
‘The world becomes my gallery’
IF ALL GOES according to plan, as this issue hits stands artist Kiril Jeliazkov and a small crew will be hard at work installing over 120 twenty-foot-tall canvas abstract paintings in Forsyth Park. When complete, it will not only be one of the largest, but one of the most daring art exhibitions the city has…
New releases: Things We Lost in the Fire, Jesse James, more
Things We Lost in the Fire *** Hot from helming last year’s After the Wedding (an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign-Language Film), Danish director Susanne Bier returns with her first film in the English language. But if there was any worry that Bier was “going Hollywood,” this somber and mature drama immediately quells that notion.…
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Savannah Recycles… now Editor, Curbside recycling appears to be in the process of happening, meanwhile, many people in Savannah & Chatham County are recycling right now, and have been for years. Everything that we recycle right now, will not be burned in the city incinerator. Earlier this year, I was dropping off my recyclables on…
Film Festival: Will Frears jumps from stage to screen
THOUGH PERHAPS more immediately known as the son of renowned film director Stephen Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity, My Beautiful Laundrette), Will Frears has made a name for himself in his own right as a stage director of great repute, both in the U.S. and his native U.K. The gregarious young Englishman makes his first…
Noteworthy live shows
Bearfoot One of the fastest rising bluegrass bands on the road today, this co-ed Anchorage, Alaska quintet was formed in 1999 by a diverse group of then-teenage music camp counselors. The band (mandolin, guitar, upright bass and two fiddles) incorporates traditional bluegrass as well as jazz. They took Best Band honors at the Telluride Bluegrass…
A taste of this week’s live gigs
Jim Reed Alas, alak, Alaska Intentionally obtuse and at times unsettling female fronted ultra-indie Ca. psych-folk that’s receiving a positive reception at college radio. With young, quirky, low-fi, organic Az. psych act French Quarter Music and the intriguing (but at times overbearingly self absorbed/aware) trashcan noise/twee anti-folk of Foot Ox. Mon., 8 pm, The Sentient…
The hard sell@AASU
This play’s real name is Hospitality Suite. At least that’s the name playwright Roger Rueff gave it. But then a Hollywood big shot named Kevin Spacey came along and optioned it for a film he was producing. Somewhere along the way, the name was changed to The Big Kahuna. While the stage play may not…
Oh, Rocky, the Horror
It’s just a jump to the left — and then a step to the right. The folks at the Savannah Actors Theatre, bless their hearts, are ready to take us all on a strange journey, that same strange journey experienced by Janet and Brad. And it’s all coming just in time for Halloween, with performances…
Exhibits and openings
‘she may be a jedi’ — Recent paintings by Katherine Sandoz at Rosewood Contemporary Art, 113 E. Oglethorpe Ave., through Nov. 24. Reception Fri. Nov. 2, 6-8 p.m. ‘Nowness and Permanence in Art’ — A look at the timelessness of art, at Daedalus Gallery, 414 Whitaker St., Nov. 1-Dec. 31. ‘Ancient Skies: A Look at…
Film Festival: Take Ten
TEN YEARS AGO a little start-up called the “Savannah Film and Video Festival” premiered at the Trustees Theatre, then newly restored by the Savannah College of Art and Design. A decade later, under the truncated moniker “Savannah Film Festival,” it has become not only one of the best-regarded such events in the country, but an…
Savannah Music Festival announces lineup
SINCE 2003, when the long-running Savannah Onstage International Arts Festival broadened its scope significantly and was reborn as the diverse Savannah Music Festival, our city has played host to one of the most interesting and unique musical celebrations of its type in the U.S. For many locals and visitors alike, 2008’s 17-day installment of the…
Film Festival: Brad Paisley, poop star
FOR A FIVE-MINUTE SHORT about finding a toilet, Numero Dos certainly boasts an interesting — and complicated — pedigree. The “plot” concerns the efforts of a roadie for country superstar Brad Paisley to find a restroom, because according to an ancient unwritten rule of the road, “you just don’t go number two on a tour…
Film Festival: John Sayles interview
JOHN SAYLES HAS BEEN called the grandfather of the indie film. He’s been called the voice of the American working class. He’s a director, an actor, and a screenwriter. His body of work is almost impossibly diverse: Shock-flicks by Roger Corman. An ode to West Virginia coal miners (Matewan). A look at Texas border politics…
Film Festival: New Urban Cowboy
KNOWN TO URBAN PLANNERS and designers the word over as the father of “New Pedestrianism,” Michael E. Arth decided to put his groundbreaking ideas about compact, walking-oriented, mixed-use neighborhoods to the ultimate test. He chose an almost unbelievably blighted area in DeLand, Fla., outside Daytona Beach. In an area of town once called the Garden…
Film Festival: My First Guitar
NICK MEAD’S documentary My First Guitar is about exactly that: It’s a remarkably intimate collection of reminiscences with some of music’s biggest names about their very first six-string. It’s almost as if, by getting them to turn back the pages, Mead captures these artists in a candid, sometimes even childlike state of wonder. While the…
Film Festival: Ed Burns’ Purple Violets
WHAT DOES IT SAY about today’s movie biz that the producers of a film with established, respected stars like Ed Burns, Debra Messing and Selma Blair would rather avoid theatres entirely than risk a bad opening weekend? It’s either a sad comment on the state of the industry today, or a bold pioneering statement of…
Film Festival: Making horse racing cool again
WHEN FILMMAKING BROTHERS John and Brad Hennegan were following six horse racing teams to the Kentucky Derby for their documentary, little did they know that one of the horses would soon become an international household name. While Barbaro’s traumatic racing injury and the subsequent global outpouring of sympathy is not the only subject of The…
Film Festival: When music & politics collide
WHILE MOST AMERICANS probably can’t find Estonia on a map, the small Baltic country actually provided a stirring portrait of bravery during its occupation by the former Soviet Union. Filmmaker Jim Tusty, whose father came to the U.S. as a child from Estonia in 1924, has made a documentary about that episode of European history,…
Takin’ it to the streets
AFTER JUST ONE WEEK, more than 3,000 signatures have been gathered in a petition drive in support of curbside recycling. Proponents of curbside recycling are collecting signatures in an effort to force a referendum on the issue. A referendum could be held as early as February. If voters approve the referendum, the city charter would…
Robin’s world
Kids (and adults) say the darndest things In August I asked my cousin Kate, age 10, for input on articles for Kidsville News, a local children’s magazine. I’d been writing for Kidsville for several months when I realized I’d never actually asked any kids what they might be interested in reading. Strong opinions abound in…
The horn blows, but…
A Greenpoint resident told police a man pulled in her driveway and started blowing his horn. She went out and asked the man to stop because her child was asleep. Instead, the man began cursing at her and spit in her face. The officer contacted the man, who said the woman’s roommate had asked him…
Strange but true
The Entrepreneurial Spirit! (1) A Japanese clothing manufacturer, Kochou-fuku, announced in August a line of air-conditioned shirts, with two tiny battery-operated fans inside to evaporate perspiration (for the equivalent of about $95). (One drawback: The shirt billows out, suggesting that the wearer is overweight.) (2) Among the recent recipients of Marin County (Calif.) Green Business…
Everything else that’s out there
Michael Clayton *** Michael Clayton is the sort of movie that Hollywood should be producing on a weekly basis — but doesn’t. In most other eras, it would come across simply as a competent piece of filmmaking, a solid drama doing a yeoman’s job of making sure the audience got its admission price’s worth of…
Diary of the planet
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‘It’s a revolt against all this lifeless junk’
Every year around this time, the Savannah Music Festival holds a high-profile, invite-only soiree that’s part press conference, part horn-tooting, and part arts-scene-and-regional media shmoozefest. Ostensibly, the intention is to announce the majority of the lineup for next year’s lengthy celebration of roots, traditional and fine arts music. There’s always a short speech by SMF…
Pick of the litter: Cult songstress Cat Power plays Savannah
As legend has it, Georgia native Cat Power (nee Chan Marshall) was infamously slated to perform at MLK, Jr. Blvd.’s sorely-missed Café Metropole several years ago — right around the time the hipster eatery and bar unceremoniously shut down amid ugly rumors of a contentious landlord/tenant dispute. In a way, the fact that the show…
Noteworthy live shows
Von Barlow The Coastal Jazz Association presents a special show by this trap drumming master likened to the great Gene Krupa and known for an unusually expressive way with improvisation. Barlow doesn’t just beat the drums, he approaches them as a melodic instrument, coaxing tones and notes out of his set that most wouldn’t think…
Engineering taste
(a+b)(a-b)=a²-b². Mallie Clark and I are talking math. He’s a Gulfstream engineer and one of two co-owners of Kayak Kafe. “It feels really good when you can get a point across, when you can see it click in their head” he says while discussing volunteering as a tutor for basic math through calculus III. I…
A taste of this week’s live gigs
A Nickel Bag of Funk Female-fronted funk and soul party band. Fri., 9 pm, Mansion on Forsyth Park. Between The Trees New Fl. indie-rockers likened to Jimmy Eat World. Sat., The Apex (Statesboro). Bluegroove Blues outfit featuring Jeff Beasley, Bluesonics’ Ken Harrison, bassist Mike Perry and saxman James Moody. Fri., 9 pm, Jazz’d Tapas Bar.…
Exhibits and openings
‘The Space Between’ — Photography by J. T. Blatty through Oct. 26. Reception Sat., Oct. 13, 7-9:30 p.m. at Venus de Milo, 38 MLK Jr. Blvd. ‘Melancholy Mischief’ — Recent paintings by Kaori Vernon in a heavy gesso technique, Oct. 11-Nov. 1 at Gallery Espresso, 234 Bull St. Reception Thurs. Oct. 18, 6-9 p.m. ‘The…
A non-musical musical
Those who hate opera will be relieved to learn Lend Me a Tenor isn’t an opera. Those who love opera will be relieved to learn that even so, they’ll find plenty to laugh about in this play. Lend Me a Tenor will be presented by the Savannah College of Art and Design School of Performing…
“Mix It Up”
You need Java enabled to view the crossword applet. If you do not have Java installed you can obtain it from java.com. If do have Java you may need to check your security settings to make sure that applets are enabled, especially if you are viewing the puzzle from your hard disk. In Windows XP…
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Thanks for Stoehr column Editor, Thank you to Jim Reed for his insightful column “Who’s minding the Stoehr?” I have a daughter that has performed for the last several years with Savannah Danse Theatre. Not only is SDT the only local Savannah company, for The Nutcracker we also brought together a full orchestra under the…
When gators attack
AN 82-YEAR-OLD WOMAN house-sitting at The Landings was attacked by an alligator Oct. 5 and died from blood loss. When her body was recovered, it was missing the left arm, right hand and right foot. A trapper found the eight-foot alligator and killed it, and it was identified as the killer by its stomach contents.…
