Fresh Loaf

THREE WISE MEN: Hugh Adams (left), Barry Stoltze and Brik Berkes in Theatrical Outfit's 'It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.'

Something about radio seems particularly suited to the holidays, perhaps because we grow up with the tradition of radio stations switching to all-Christmas formats after Thanksgiving. Several theaters, including Theatrical Outfit and the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company, are staging holiday plays that tap into the live radio format. Even if a performance isn’t going out over the airwaves, the audience still feels a charge when that “ON THE AIR” sign lights up.

The 1940s Radio Hour, for years a perennial holiday show at Marietta’s Theatre in the Square and playing this year at Dahlonega’s Holly Theater, evokes the spirit, songs and commercials of the WW II era. From Dec. 3-21, Theatrical Outfit harks back to roughly the same period with a remount of last year’s Christmas show, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, which imagines Frank Capra’s classic film performed for an audience by five actors. Read the rest of this entry »

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A lawsuit against Kai Franklin Graham, who was supposed to go on trial Monday in federal bankruptcy court, has been settled, according to documents filed today in federal bankruptcy court.

Free At Last Bail Bonds had sued Graham in late 2005 to recover $185,000 the company lost after her then-husband, major cocaine trafficker Tremayne “Kiki” Graham, cut his ankle monitor and went on the run. Kai Franklin Graham, the daughter of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, had filed for bankruptcy in early 2005 to avoid having to repay the bond.

According to court documents, Free At Last settled for a fraction of what it sought — just $6,000.

As of last month, it had appeared all but certain that the case would go to trial. “We’ve talked about [a settlement] many times,” Cameron McCord, an attorney for Free At Last Bail Bonds, said during an October hearing. “I just think we’re too far apart.”

Free At Last had claimed Graham misled authorities about her financial situation and her knowledge of her then-husband’s whereabouts, and therefore shouldn’t be allowed to receive bankruptcy protection.

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It’s that time of year again folks - Fiction Contest time! And we know that given the current economic situation (there’s some serious cash at stake here people), there are more starving artists out there than ever.

So, submit a manuscript of no more than 3,000 words either as a hard copy to our offices or online. All works of fiction must in some way incorporate the word “pop” — as a theme, a metaphor, whatever. You can use the word as any way you like; just use it well. Originality is encouraged, and the word count is enforced.

Click on the image below for more details or to submit an entry.

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This week CL Charlotte’s Matt Brunson discusses the DVD releases of the Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection, Hellboy II: The Golden Army and more.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PREMIERE COLLECTION (1927-1947). The home entertainment arms of Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures released their own Hitchcock collections in 2004 and 2005, respectively, and now here’s 20th Century Fox belatedly joining the party with their own resplendent box set.

Hitchcock had already directed a couple of films before helming The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), but this is the movie that was commonly called (even by the Master himself) “the first Alfred Hitchcock picture.” Read the rest here.

(Photo Courtesy MGM)

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It sounds like the happiest place on Earth.

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If you’d like to help shut down the former School of the Americas at Fort Benning, but can’t spare the time and gas money to join the march in Columbus this weekend, you still have an option. Tomorrow night, Eyedrum will host a benefit concert for SOA Watch, the group founded by Father Roy Bourgeois that sponsors the annual protest march.

Maybe “rock out” is overstating it; perhaps it’ll be more like “strum out,” given the folk-heavy lineup, which includes scene vets Caroline Aiken and Elise Witt, social activist Alice Lovelace, the charmingly named Atlanta Sedition Orchestra and many others.

The event begins at 6:30 p.m. with an exhibition by socially conscious graphics group Beehive Collective. The concert starts at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $25 for early birds and drop the later you walk in, but a sell-out is  expected, so don’t say you weren’t warned. Tix are available at Charis Books. Details are here.

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Just two weeks before the Dec. 2 runoff, the Georgia Conservation Voters’ political action committee has slammed Georgia Public Service Commission Republican nominee Lauren “Bubba” McDonald on a website called “The Truth About Bubba.”

The site brands McDonald as a “special interest puppet” who consistently voted in favor of industries — the same ones who’ve contributed “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to his campaigns — when he previously served on the commission. The site includes specific instances where it says McDonald pushed for helping out the utilities more than Georgians.

“Having Bubba McDonald serve on the Public Service Commission is like letting the fox guard the hen house,” says Chris Osborne, Executive Director of Georgia Conservation Voters. “During his tenure holding public office, Bubba McDonald has proven to be nothing more than a puppet of the special interests. He has consistently voted against middle class ratepayers in favor of his campaign donors.”

McDonald is running against Democratic candidate Jim Powell. CL endorsed Powell in its General Election issue.

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The Obama for America campaign just won a landslide election, but it isn’t done yet. Now it’s looking to collect information from its many supporters and donors that, I can only assume, will allow our president-elect to achieve world domination and enslave the human race. Or perhaps I’ve been listening too much to Congressman Paul Broun.

Anyway, an e-mail survey is circulating with this preamble:

Your hard work and passion have defined this movement for change.
Now you can shape the next phase of our extraordinary effort by sharing your campaign experience and ideas about the future.
There are a few questions about you, your work with the campaign, and your interactions with this organization. At the end, you will also have an opportunity to share any thoughts you have that aren’t covered by the questions.

In addition to the usual name, address, phone number, etc., the survey asks about political leanings, past voting patterns, level of political involvement, occupation, level of religious involvement, issues of primary interest to the respondent and whether the respondent would be willing to “volunteer in your community as part of an Obama organization?”

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— The right-wing whackos will never give up. Like the email I got this morning from Janet (Folger) Porter of Faith2Action. See, the Electoral College doesn’t meet until December 15, so there’s stlll time to stop this Obama thing. He’s not even a U.S. citizen. Can’t we just wait and beat him four years from now? No way. In four years, we won’t be able to recognize what’s left of our country. The time for action is now. Oh, boy … The good news is that Obama is still our president-elect and, reports Amy at Georgia Women Vote, he’s keeping his campaign offices open in Georgia in order to help out Jim Martin.

— DCup isn’t bothered by the citizenship issue. As she writes on Politits, her concern is about trust and power. We entrust power to a president and after eight years of Alfred E. Neuman, her trust feels kicked around and abused. She has her fingers crossed that we won’t be fooled again.

— For Sid at Cracker Squire, there’s reason for hope. He likes Obama’s first two major decisions: his selection of Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff and his stance that Joe Lieberman shouldn’t be cast out for his case of man-love for Johnny Mac.

— How scared are the Republicans that Martin can upset the Big Sax Machine? Andre at Georgia Politics Unfiltered says the Republican National Committee is sending $2 million to help make sure Martin isn’t the 60th Democrat in a filibuster-proof Senate.

— Blog For Democracy predicts that the youth vote is going to be Martin’s secret weapon. The Young Democrats of Georgia have launched a campaign through places such as Facebook to get out the vote in the Dec. 2 run-off.

— And, finally, on a day when a former CIA bigwig visits the Wren’s Nest, they also get a call from a desperate grandmother. And then there was the pimp’s answering machine. Certainly a strange day for the house that Joel Chandler Harris built. But at least he was a certifiable U.S. citizen.

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Now that Ted Stevens has been sent packing back to Alaska, the two most closely watched U.S. Senate races in the country are Minnesota and Georgia. The race in the North Star State won’t be decided for a while thanks to a recount.

Down here, Rasmussen Reports’ latest polling shows that incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss holds a four-point lead over Democratic nominee Jim Martin.

Chambliss leads 50% to 46%, with the vote scheduled for December 2. Four percent (4%) are undecided. However, runoff elections typically have lower voter turnout than general elections and can be impacted in either direction by organized get-out-the-vote efforts.

…

Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Georgia voters say they are certain to cast their ballots in the runoff. Of this group, 51% favor Chambliss, 46% are for Martin, and three percent (3%) remain undecided.

…

In Georgia, 52% of voters say they are less likely to vote for Martin if it means the Democrats will gain a 60-seat majority in the Senate. Thirty-eight percent (38%) say they are more likely to vote for Martin if that’s the outcome.

Interestingly, nine percent (9%) of those who plan to vote for Martin say the prospect of a 60-Democrat Senate makes them less likely to vote for him. Only 2% of Chambliss voters who say it makes them more likely to vote for Martin.

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Just about every year, the city of Atlanta asks the state Legislature to create a local gaming authority, presumably to explore the possibility of bringing some kind of gambling to town. The item has been on the city’s legislative wish list so long that it rarely raises eyebrows anymore. Could this year – as cash-strapped  governments everywhere cast about for new sources of revenue – be different?

Mayor Shirley Franklin has again added it to her list and yesterday had a chat with local lawmakers who seemed open to considering gambling as an option.

“There’s a general sense that we’ll see gaming within the city limits and I concur,” Franklin said.

OK, not exactly an impassioned plea for casinos, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Not one to put lipstick on a pig, Franklin pithily summed up the city’s financial picture: “We’re in a downward spiral.”

Nearly all of the mayor’s other requests focused on small tax and fee increases that would bring the city an additional million or two here and there. A casino licensing agreement and vice taxes on gambling could, on the other hand, add tens of millions to city coffers, in addition to helping jump-start redevelopment of Downtown south of Marietta Street – assuming, as most folks do, that a casino would be located at Underground Atlanta.

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Bestselling author and National Public Radio commentator Bailey White speaks in a throaty but quavering drawl that’s so distinctive, you can imagine her spinning leisurely yarns for hours on a front porch in her hometown of Thomasville, Ga. Her voice can be a little misleading, however. White sounds so grandmotherly that a listener may underestimate her as merely quaint, when her writing can reveal unexpected precision and perceptiveness. Read the rest of this entry »

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