A wild ride
If you can only see one movie during the Savannah Film Festival this year, make it the independent feature Take Me Home. The directorial debut of Sam Jaeger, a star of the TV series Parenthood, Take Me Home is a romantic comedy – not the cookie-cutter, Jennifer Aniston-in-a-delightful-conundrum variety currently clogging the Multiplex. Jaeger wrote…
From Britain with funk
American funk music has a deep-rooted appeal that goes far beyond the borders of this country. In Japan, for example, funk is as prized as the finest cuts of sushi. “There’s an amazing band there called Osaka Monorail,” says Eddie Roberts, guitarist for the British band the New Mastersounds. “The front guy has completely modeled…
The empire strikes back
SEVERAL THINGS came to mind the other night at the District One and Two City Council candidate forum at St. John Baptist Church on Hartridge Street — a lovely and welcoming sanctuary, by the way, if you’ve never been there. For an event that was billed as having high fireworks potential — given the marquee…
Kosher Zimmern
IF YOU live in Madagascar, eating stickbugs seems completely normal. But Jews with American Southern accents? Totally bizarre. Weird enough, in fact, to intrigue TV foodie Andrew Zimmern to stop at B’nai B’rith Jacob synagogue on Derenne and Abercorn last week. The Bizarre Foods host and his crew swept through the Savannah to film a…
‘People tend to remember the bad guys’
Ray Liotta comes off like a regular guy. Unlike a lot of actors, in conversation, he uses the word movie instead of the more pretentious film; after 25 years as an A–list star, the New Jersey native’s take on his profession is refreshingly rooted in reality. He refers to himself as a “journeyman.” Liotta is…
What happens to the jailbirds?
The Savannah Film Festival, says writer/director Brian Jett, is the perfect venue for unveiling his first feature film, Let Go. “The challenge with a movie like Let Go is, it’s a little bit more broad than your typical Sundance or Toronto Film Festival movie,” he explains. “So I don’t know that it’s necessarily something that…
More on ESPLOST
Editor, Thank you for Jessica Lebos’ informative article this week on the ballot measures that will be up for voter consideration next month. Regarding the authorization to renew ESPLOST — the 1 percent sales tax earmarked for capital improvements to our schools — there are a couple additional points that voters really need to know.…
Crawling with Andrew
THE PHONE call was like most I get from TV food shows: “We’re looking for a few good story ideas in Savannah. Can you help?” Sure, I’ve got lots of good food story ideas, but food TV is about entertainment, colorful characters and mass appeal. Sometimes the food falls to the wayside. That wasn’t the…
X appeal
Oklahoma native James Marsden schlepped around Los Angeles for nearly a decade, taking one small film or TV role after another, until he got his big break. That was in 2000’s X–Men, the first in a lucrative series of colorful Marvel Comics movie adaptations. Marsden was cast as the mutant Cyclops, a role he would…
Shadows of America
Apparently, we have Ted Turner to thank for the National Film Registry. In the 1980s, the media mogul purchased MGM’s library of classic films, and proceeded to “colorize” many of the black and white ones, to make them (he said) more appealing to a contemporary audience. As we see in the documentary These Amazing Shadows,…
Farming is sexy
If sun–kissed cuties in overalls driving tractors through sun–dappled fields sounds like your kind of fantasy, this one’s for you. A paean to those who make the sustainable food movement possible, the documentary GROW! profiles 20 young organic farmers throughout Georgia who have shouldered the challenges of working the land and growing food for their…
Mark your calendar: Mad Men
With apologies to Don Draper and Roger Sterling … we’re talking Mad Men here, aka “The Usual Gang of Idiots.” Jim Morekis and I both think this may be the most exciting event announcement we’ve seen this year. Eight cartoonists, editors and artmen from MAD Magazine are coming to Savannah Nov. 11–13, to work with…
Savannah Film Festival 2011 schedule
Saturday, Oct. 29 7:30 p.m., Trustees Theater Screening: “The Artist” Sunday, Oct. 30 9:30 a.m., Trustees Theater Screening: “Grow!” Plus Selected Shorts 11:30 a.m., Trustees Theater Screening: “Take Me Home” Plus Selected Shorts 2 p.m., Lucas Theatre Screening: “Barry Lyndon” Post-film discussion with Alec Baldwin and James Toback 2:30 p.m., Trustees Theater Screening: “A Year…
The Lily Tomlin continuum
One ringy–dingy, two ringy–dingys, and there’s that voice on the other end of the line. It’s Lily Tomlin, one of the most prolific and honored comedic performers of the last 40 years. With four Emmy Awards, two Tonys, a Grammy, two Peabodys and an Academy Award nomination (for 1973’s Nashville, her first–ever film), Tomlin certainly…
From chair to stage
The subtitle for The Drowsy Chaperone is A Musical Within a Comedy. That’s pretty self–explanatory – once you know what you’re getting into, you can sit back and let it wash over you. When The Drowsy Chaperone was conquering Broadway, back in 2006, audiences found a kindred spirit in the show’s interactive narrator, known only…
Long arm of the law
The Chatham Narcotics Team is “requesting” that local businesses stop selling “herbal incense,” aka synthetic marijuana, stating that in the past 18 months there have been “at least six reported cases of persons smoking Herbal Incense and having serious physiological issues.” Some of these issues have included strokes, hallucinations, chest pains, and psychotic episodes. “Herbal…
Halloween in the clubs
LIVE WIRE MUSIC HALL WEEKEND 307 W. River St. Jacksonville’s dub/electronica hypno–masters Greenhouse Lounge headline “Dirty Dub–o–Ween” Friday (Oct. 28), with Savannah’s own electronic hip–hop duo Thumbprint (Paxton Willis and Rick Riles). Skrubz and Grisly Adams round out the neon–lit electric bill, starting at 9 p.m. Admission is $10. On Saturday, perennial jam–band Turtlefolk is…
Better left to chance
Sometimes you write the song, goes the old saying, and sometimes the song writes you. Savannah native Tony Arata wrote “The Dance” in the mid 1980s, and after it became Garth Brooks’ second–chart–topper, in 1990, it was named Song of the Year and Video of the Year by the Academy of Country Music. “The Dance”…
Women & children first – or, you know, whenever
I WANTED to be on time for last week’s Mayoral Debate on Women’s and Children’s Issues, I really did. But once my husband and I worked out who was picking up what kid at which activity, it was ten past six and raining and I was still several traffic–constipated miles from the Coastal Georgia Center.…
What the @$#! is Rugelach?
First of all, you have to say it right. When it comes to Jewish food, “ch” doesn’t sound like the one in “cheese” or “patch.” It’s more of a growly “h” that comes from the back of the throat, reminiscent of a bear with a cold. Say it now: Rugelach. Did you get that “achhh”…
Exhibits & openings this week
Alter-Ego: A Decade of Work by Anthony Goicolea – This midcareer survey consists of approximately 30 works, including photographs, drawings, videos, and mixed-media installations by this Cuban-American, Georgia born artist. Through January 8. Jepson Center for the Arts, 207 West York St., www.telfair.org/ Betsy Cain: In Situ – Savannah painter Cain’s first solo show at…
Will vomiting kill you before the zombies do?
Zombies have so many disturbing traits, but my question involves only two: the stench of decomposition and their tendency to congregate in large numbers. A single dead body gives off a foul odor that is overpowering, certainly enough to make a normal person vomit. Now, say you’re one of those zombie apocalypse survivors, barricading yourself…
