INsite Atlanta May 2009 Issue by INsite Magazine

M ay 2.090F9REE

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Taste of the Month

Vo l. 17, N o

tainment Monthly r e t n E s ’ a t n Atla ta.com

insiteatlan

TAPAS!

JOBLESS? Try Our Continuing Education Guide

Plus Interviews With:

Drew Barrymore | Atlanta’s Monica Pearson Mike Epps | Fastball | Rachel Weisz

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PG 3 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

CONTENTS • MAY 2009 • VOLUME 17.9 Atlanta’s

Entertainment Monthly

INTERVIEWS 07 CARLOS CUARÓN 08 RASHIDA JONES 10 MONICA PEARSON 11 DREW BARRYMORE 12 IDRIS ELBA 18 ACE ENDERS 21 MIKE EPPS 22 RACHEL WEISZ 23 MC LARS 27 FASTBALL 28 RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS 29 JOSH SMITH/AL HORFORD 29 JADAKISS

FEATURES 09 TAPAS 24 EDUCATION GUIDE

COLUMNS

SUPER DETAIL

$10 OFF Expires 6-30-09. Only valid at Ponce and Buckhead stores.

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05 ON TAP 05 ON THE CHEAP EVENTS 06 AROUND TOWN 06 BOOKS 07 UNDER THE LIGHTS 13 MOVIE REVIEWS 16 CONCERT CALENDAR 19 ROAD WARRIORS 19 WE GOT NEXT 20 ALBUMS 30 FANATIC

www.insiteatlanta.com STAFF LISTING Publisher Stephen Miller steve@insiteatlanta.com National Managing Editor Bret Love bret@insiteatlanta.com Art Director Michael T. graphics@insiteatlanta.com Music / Sports Editor DeMarco Williams demarco@insiteatlanta.com Events Listing Editor Glenn LaFollette glenn@insiteatlanta.com Special Features Editor Marci Miller marci@insiteatlanta.com Entertainment Editor Matt Goldberg matt@insiteatlanta.com Web Design Michael T. graphics@insiteatlanta.com

PG 4 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

Contributing Writers / Interns: John Moore, John Davidson, Jon Latham, John C. Snider Benjamin Carr, Ryan Loftis, Mike Brune, Matt Goldberg Mitchell Hughes, Alexis Gray, Rodney Hill, Rebecca Crosby, Zena Scott, Alex S. Morrison, Blue Sullivan Michele Fontanelli Arnett, Roger Presswood Dave Cohen and Russ Marshalek CONTACT US 2250 North Druid Hills Rd. #234 Atlanta, GA 30329-3118 phone 404-315-8485 website insiteatlanta.com ADVERTISING INFORMATION �� Editorial content of INsite is the opinion of each writer and is not necessarily the opinion of INsite, its staff, or its advertisers. INsite does not knowingly accept false or mi leading advertising or editorial content, nor do the publisher or editors of INsite assume responsibility should such advertising or editorial appear. No content, i.e., articles, graphics, designs and information (any and all) in this publication may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from publisher.

Check out our Continuing Eduction Guide on Page 24!

LOCAL EVENTS

OnTap this Month EMAIL EVENTS TO ONTAP@INSITEATLANTA.COM

May 15: Various Atlanta Restaurants

MARCH OF DIMES DINING OUT

March of Dimes will hold its 25th Anniversary "Dining Out" followed by "Stepping Out" on Friday, May 15. Dinner at one of the 50 participating restaurants begins at 7pm and the "Stepping Out" after-party at The Mansion on Peachtree goes from 9pm - midnight. The cost is $1,000 or $1,500 for a table of ten, depending on the restaurant selection. After dining out, participants will "step out" to The Mansion on Peachtree, where partygoers can indulge in desserts, signature beverages, bid on silent auction items and dance the night away. For more details visit their website at www.marchofdimes.com/georgia or call 404.350.9800 x208.

May 17: Lakewood Amphitheatre

COLDPLAY

Alternative English rock band, Coldplay, returns to Atlanta this month and is joined on tour by singer/songwriter Pete Yorn and Australian indie rock band, the Howling Bells. Featuring new music from their wildly successful fourth album release VIVA LA VIDA, the Brit rockers continue to sell out venues around the world. In addition to covering some of their older tunes, look for sets to feature hits like Viva La Vida, Violet Hill, Lost! and 42. For more information about tickets, visit www.ticketmaster.com.

May 23 & 24: Decatur Square

DECATUR ARTS FESTIVAL

Come celebrate the 21st annual Decatur Arts Festival this Memorial Day weekend. There will be artists from all disciplines and features hands-on participatory art as well as demonstrating and performing arts. There are also a number of events taking place throughout the month. Scheduled events include: Outdoor Artists Market (May 23-24), Fine Arts Exhibition (May 29, 5-7pm), ArtWalk (May 22, 5-10pm), Kids and Teens Festival (May 23,10 am - 2 pm) All events are free. For additional information, visit www.DecaturArtsFestival.com or call (404) 371-9583.

May 23 & 24: Historic Grant Park

ATLANTA JAZZ FESTIVAL ‘09

The Atlanta Jazz Festival is back for another year of legendary performances with its signature "31 Days of Jazz" series. The goal is to bring jazz to diverse venues, including The Rialto Center for the Performing Arts, The Carter Center, Underground Atlanta and the High Museum. The highlight of the month will be the 2-day festival taking place over Memorial Day Weekend in Historic Grant Park. A majority of the festival's events are free and open to the public. For more information including lineup and a schedule of events, visit www.atlantafestivals.com.

May 29-31: Atlantic Station

AVP CROCS TOUR ATLANTA OPEN

Don't miss the sand, sun and fun as Atlanta's biggest beach party, featuring over 2,000 tons of sand and pro beach volleyball, returns to Atlantic Station. The AVP is comprised of the best men's and women's pro beach volleyball players in the U.S. and the world and now stands alone as the only pro beach volleyball tour in the country. Courtside tickets are $35, general admission tickets are $20 and youth tickets are $10 per session. A portion of the ticket sales will benefit Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. For more information, visit www.avp.com.

May 30: East Atlanta Village

EAST ATLANTA BEER FESTIVAL

This annual event, now in its 6th year, will take place on Saturday, May 30 in the East Atlanta Village. Festivalgoers will be able to sample over 120 craft beers from across the globe and visit shops and restaurants in the village. The stage will feature live, local music. All proceeds will benefit community projects. Admission is $30 in advance, $35 at the gate. A souvenir 6 oz sampling glass is included with paid admission. No one under 21 will be admitted, pets and backpacks/bags are not permitted. For more information, visit www.Eabfonline.com.

ATLANTA ON THE

CHEAP!

TOP EVENTS FOR SMALL CHANGE IN SEPTEMBER

EVENTS HAPPENING FOR SMALL CHANGE IN ATLANTA

Know about a low cost event or happening in Atlanta? Email atlcheap@insiteatlanta.com

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY

Saturday, May 2, Free Comic Book Shops throughout Atlanta www.freecomicbookday.com This annual event happens every year on the first Saturday in May. Participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely free to anyone who comes into their stores. Check the website for locations in Metro Atlanta.

FIESTA ATLANTA

Sunday, May 3 10:00 AM, Free 265 Park Avenue West, NW Atlanta, GA 30313 www.fiestaatlanta.com 404.222.PARK Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Atlanta's largest Hispanic outdoor festival. Fiesta Atlanta is a day-long celebration of Latino culture, featuring continuous live musical performances on 2 stages by national and local recording artists, sponsor displays with many free product samples, arts and crafts and authentic food from several Latin-American countries.

TASTE OF UNDERGROUND ATLANTA Thursday, May 7, 11:30AM, $3 Donation or 5 Canned Goods 50 Upper Alabama St. Atlanta 141 E. College Ave. Decatur www.underground-atlanta.com 404.523.2311

Every first Thursday from April to June, visit Underground Atlanta during lunch time and enjoy free eats from their restaurants, live entertainment, giveaways and special offers. Browse the vendor market, for select Underground Atlanta merchants and sponsors.

SWEET AUBURN FESTIVAL

Friday, May 8 - Sunday May 10 12:00PM - 7:00PM Free event 145 Auburn Avenue, Atlanta www.sweetauburn.com 404.478.7820 Now celebrating the 25th year of culture, heritage and the arts on Atlanta's Historic Auburn Avenue, the Sweet Auburn SpringFest has become the largest African-American cultural festival in the Southeast. The festival features up to 10 Stages of continuous entertainment, food, cultural pavilions, kids zone and much more!

TARGET FREE SECOND TUESDAYS

Tuesday, May 12 1:00PM - 7:00PM, Free Imagine It! Children’s Museum of Atlanta 275 Centennial Olympic Park Drive www.childrensmuseumatlanta.org 404.659.KIDS

Through a sponsorship by Target, admission is free for all visitors who come during these special hours. Tickets are issued on a first come first served basis as museum capacity permits. Reservations are not accepted. Activities taking place that day include "Juggling with the Jester" and "Knight's Tales" story time. Check the website for additional free Target dates happening throughout the year.

KIRKWOOD SPRING FLING AND TOUR OF HOMES

Festival- Sat. May 16, 10AM -7PM Free Tour of Homes-Sat. May 16 & Sunday May 17, 2PM-6:00PM, $12 per person Bessie Branham Park www.kirkwoodfling.com 404.371.3343 This 7th annual event will feature an open air artist market, live music on the big stage, a tot trot and children's area for the kids, and plenty of food and drink vendors. There will also be a Tour of Homes on May 16 & 17 and tickets can be purchased at the festival or in advance at several local businesses. The tour will focus on Kirkwood's diverse collection of building styles.

SCREEN ON THE GREEN

Thursday, May 28 6:00PM - 11PM Free Centennial Olympic Par www.peachtreetv.com 404.222-PARK

This popular summer movie series kicks off its 10th season with fan favorite, Back to the Future. Other upcoming titles include Dream Girls, Field of Dreams and Home Alone. Moviegoers are welcome to bring picnic baskets and food, but no glass containers or alcoholic beverages can be brought into the park. Food and beverages can be purchased from on-site vendors. Moviegoers are also asked to leave pets at home. Umbrellas and highbacked chairs are strongly discouraged and grills of any sort are strictly prohibited.

2009 GOOD NEIGHBOR DAY OPEN HOUSE AND AIRSHOW

Saturday, May 30 12:00 PM - 5PM Free Parking is $5 per car Dekalb Peachtree Airport www.pkdairport.org 770.936.5440

This free airshow will feature Team Aeroshell Aerobatic Team, Team RV Formation Flying Group, along with many other spectacular aerobatic performers! Check out the children's playground at PDK Park and grab a bite to eat at The Downwind restaurant. Atlanta on the Cheap by Marci Miller

ATLANTA ON THE CHEAP! E-MAIL NEWSLETTER Sign Up at : newsletter@insiteatlanta.com

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Book Reviews ROCK BOTTOM BY MICHAEL SHILLING (BACK BAY BOOKS) & BLACK DOGS: THE POSSIBLY TRUE STORY OF CLASSIC ROCK’S GREATEST ROBBERY BY JASON BUHRMESTER (THREE RIVERS PRESS) BY JOHN B. MOORE Writing a great rock novel is a whole lot harder than it sounds. There have been countless attempts over the years, and the result is usually a collection of boring tour urban legends and rejected VH1 Behind the Music scripts. It’s a pretty big feat then that both Michael Shilling and Jason Buhrmester have managed to turn in solid rock stories just months apart from each other. Shilling’s Rock Bottom revolves around a once-promising band playing their last shows of a European tour before imploding. The L.A.-based band, Blood Orphans, was signed with much fanfare, but then pegged as racists

by a rock critic, essentially killing their shot at fame and fortune. The band members, all of whom pretty much hate each other, include the drummer/founder and son of a porn king; a wimpy guitar player who is actually too good to be playing in a band like Blood Orphans; a mediocre bass player with a skin condition that is literally ripping the flesh from his hands; a born-again frontman now groping for a new religion; and their coked -p female manager/ co-founder. The characters are strikingly compelling and the situations are told as only someone who has been through them before could describe (Shilling, it should be noted, used to drum for a Seattle band and spent his fair share of time touring in a van). Like Shilling, Buhrmester sets his first novel in the world of rock. Black Dogs takes a real scenario, the unsolved 1973 theft of $200,000 from Led Zeppelin, and uses it as the basis for his book. A handful of childhood friends in Baltimore, none of them big Zeppelin fans, by the way, conspire to rob the British band when they play New York at the end of their latest tour. The band apparently always insisted in getting paid in cash. Buhrmester’s characters, like those in Rock Bottom, are well thought out and beyond the typical burn out, rock fan stereotype. The end of the book is pretty much a foregone conclusion, but Buhrmester unravels the story in such an interesting manner that it’s worth racing to the end. Two solid efforts from first time authors. Can’t wait for the encores. Rock Bottom (A); Black Dogs (B+)

FILM INTERVIEW

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE Carlos Cuarón On Soccer, His Debut Film & the Rebirth of Mexican Cinema

Major Theatrical Performances this Month MOVIN’ OUT

BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS

www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com

www.CenterTheatreAtlanta.org

May 1 - 3 Fox Theatre Box Office 404.881.2100

kind of corruption. What is a worldwide trend– and I show in the movie– is the thing of the head coach having a cut of the players’ salaries. That has been standardized. It happens in Spain and it happens in England, too. That happens in Argentina and it happens in Mexico. And those poor guys. I think it’s totally unfair.

HILE IT PROBABLY MAKES GUYS like Lou Dobbs and Tom Tancredo cry themselves to sleep at night, Mexican auteurs are making it big in America and worldwide. While it is debatable where their phenomenal success began, there’s a strong argument to be made that it started with 2002’s “Y Tu Mexican auteurs have been able to tap into the Mamá También,” which was co-written by Carlos mainstream in a way that wasn’t previously posCuarón and co-written/directed by his brother, sible. You, your brother, Guillermo del Toro,and Alfonso Cuarón (who has Alejandro González gone on to direct “Harry Iñárritu have managed THE PRESENT TIME THAT Potter and the Prisoner of to have larger success Azkaban” and “Children WE ARE LIVING IS VERY and recognition than of Men”). earlier generations of THE PAST, DIFFERENT FROM Now, Carlos Cuarón filmmakers like makes his feature film AND THE FACT IS THAT WE Hispanic Luis Buñuel and Pedro directing debut with DON’T THINK OF MEXICO AS Almodovar. Why do you the funny and charming think that is? “Rudo y Cursi,” which OUR ROOFTOP. WE HAVE It’s a generational thing. reunites “Y tu mamá” The present time that we PLANET HERE, A VERY A stars Diego Luna and Gael are living is very differGarcía Bernal as soccerINTERESTING PLANET, AND ent from the past, and playing brothers who are fact is that we don’t WE CARE ABOUT HUMANITY the winners on the pitch but think of Mexico as our losers at everything else. AND NOT NATIONALITIES. rooftop. We have a planet I recently spoke with a very interestNATIONALITIES ARE JUST here, Cuarón about the politics ing planet, and we care of soccer and the success ACCIDENTS IN OUR LIVES. about humanity and not of the Mexican auteurs nationalities. Nationalities compared to previous are just accidents in our lives. I was given a Mexigenerations. can passport just because I was born in Mexico City. If I had been born in Los Angeles, I would I wanted to talk to you about Mexican culture have been American. If I had been born in Los because there’s a great line in your movie about Angeles two hundred years ago, I would have been how owners just create a new team if they’re not Mexican. These are just accidents. What we value winning. I don’t know much about football, but is is humanity. I guess what we have in common, as this a worldwide trend or was this just trying to Faulkner would put it, is that we care about telling convey the particulars of the football business in stories about the human heart in conflict with itself. Mexico? And I think that’s the difference from the previous No, it’s not a worldwide trend at all. As I am generation. And I think our themes, the treatment making a social portrait it is with soccer because it of those themes, is very universal but the context is is the most important sport in Mexico and in the very specific. So it is a very colorful and rich and world. And the thing with that is that it is the spenew to American audiences the context in “Rudo y cific Mexican dynamics and it was hard to explain Cursi” but it’s also very rich and all of that, the difto the Argentina actor, the guy who plays Baton ferent contexts in “Babel” or “Children of Men”. The [Guillermo Francella], and while we were doing the fact that we value that is a reflection of what is hapscene he would say, “I don’t get that. Why would he pening today, even if it’s a futuristic story like my say that?” So it was me and Diego explaining that brother’s. I think that’s what’s happening… and not in Mexico it is very common that a second division just with the four of us. They are the best known, team buys a franchise of a shitty first division team obviously, but I think there are other people, like and that’s how they go up. It’s not very sportsmanCarlos Reygadas (who did “Japan,” “Battles in like but that happens. He just didn’t get it. And Heaven” and “Silent Light”) and Fernando Eimbcke with this, I don’t want to say there isn’t corruption (who did “Duck Season” and “Lake Tahoe”). We outside of Mexico. No, there’s a lot of corruption in all share that universality of themes and characters soccer in the world. A lot. But not that kind of corand, at the same time, both the specificity of charruption. Argentina is different. There’s a different acter and context.

photo: Joan Marcus

BY MATT GOLDBERG

Under The Lights

Movin’ Out, the Tony Award-winning new musical conceived, choreographed and directed by Twyla Tharp and based on 24 classic songs by Billy Joel. Told through more than two dozen of Billy Joel’s songs, Movin’ Out is the story of lifelong friends through two turbulent decades that change them and the world around them forever. Songs like “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” and “Pressure” all come together to weave a musical backdrop which beautifully complements Tharp’s innovative choreography. The songs and dance take audiences through a poignant narrative comprised of three main elements: post-World War II idealism, the Vietnam War and its subsequent unrest, and finally, survival. Many will recognize Movin’ Out’s main characters, as they come straight from Joel’s lyrics. There’s Brenda and Eddie from “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,” Tony and Sergeant O’Leary from “Movin’ Out,” Judy from “Why, Judy, Why,” and James from “James”—and their story is told completely through dance, with no dialogue whatsoever. Movin’ Out is “a story told without language,” Tharp says. “The movement and the action tell the story—the experience, the emotional resonance, comes from action rather than language.”

Through May 24 Center Theatre Box Office 678.812.4002

Center Theatre announces the final show in its inaugural season, Neil Simon’s autobiographical comedy, Brighton Beach Memoirs. Brighton Beach Memoirs is set in pre-World War II Brooklyn, where Eugene Jerome, an ambitious, somewhat starry-eyed who teenager wants to be a writer, lives with his extended Jewish family in a lower-middleclass home that is filled with tension, love and plenty of laughs. The New York Daily News Brighton calls Beach Memoirs photo: www.twmeyer.com "Simon's funniest, richest, and consequently the most affecting of his plays." Beach Memoirs is directed by Robert Egizio and stars Benjamin Appley-Epstein as Eugene. The Center Theatre is located at the MJCCA, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, in Dunwoody.

THE LITTLE PIRATE MERMAID Through June 21 Puppetry Arts www.puppet.org 404.873.3391

DRIVING MISS DAISY

Through May 17 Balzer Theatre Tickets 678.528.1500 www.TheatricalOutfit.org

Spanning 1948-73, this 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning play (turned O s c a r- w i n n i n g film) is one of most Atlanta's c h e r i s h e d Southern stories. It's a bumpy road when Hoke, a middle-aged black man, is first hired to chauffeur the photo: Chris Bartelski aging and resistant Daisy Werthan, a white Jewish doyenne. But in time, their unlikely yet abiding friendship evokes our tears, laughter and faith in love's resilient and revitalizing power. Robert J. Farley, who directed "Daisy's" regional premiere in Atlanta 21 years ago, returns to direct.

From the imaginative mind of Artistic Director Jon Ludwig comes a brand new seafaring adventure based on Hans Christian Andersen’s classic The Little Mermaid. In this marionette extravaganza, watch the Sea King’s daughter fall in love with a swashbuckling pirate after saving him from a terrible storm. Her only chance to win his heart is to make a deal with the evil Sea Hag. Will the Little Pirate Mermaid’s sacrifice lead to happiness with her buccaneer beau? Complete with colorful creatures such as a talking parrot, a dolphin, other sea dwellers, and of course Pirates! Creating a world premiere puppet show could call for rough seas, but the artists at the Center for Puppetry Arts know how to keep things shipshape. Puppet Designer Jason von Hinezmeyer led a crew of 7 talented artisans as they handcrafted over 40 puppets including numerous marionettes (string puppets), which are a perfect medium for creating a sense of weightless, “underwater” floating. The magic continues as the story goes above the water for lots of pirate ship fun.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR NEW WRITERS! Movie Reviewers

Album Reviewers

Please Contact Managing Editor Bret Love for Details...

bret@insiteatlanta.com

PG 7 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

FILM INTERVIEW

Keepin’ Up With the Joneses BY DEMARCO WILLIAMS

ASHIDA JONES IS A KEEPER. SHE’S got the cutie-in-the-mall look. She has Harvard-educated smarts. She sports an unwavering girl-next-door sensibility too. As a guest on the hit show The Oﬃce, a co-star in March’s I Love You, Man and the new NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, she also demonstrates a subtle sense of humor that just won’t quit. On top of all of that, the 33-year-old actress has parents, actress Peggy Lipton and music icon Quincy Jones, with some serious connections. And as INsite recently found out, Rashida Jones’ mystique grows even stronger when you’re sitting at the same table. I Love You, Man was full of straight talk between the ladies. Are you like that? I don’t know about everybody, but for me, it was a pretty honest portrayal of how girls talk. We are de-tailed. I think that guys don’t actually know that, which is why I think it’s a good thing that it’s being represented in a movie because you don’t get to see that that often. It’s weird ‘cuz it’s not a way that guys would expect. It’s not in a bragging way. It’s just that we like to be really speciﬁc. We like to know everything about everything that’s going on with each other so you can refer back to it later. We just wanna understand. It’s a way to understand each other, to know sexual details.

Your Neighborhood Pizzeria!

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director] Judd Apatow has a big eﬀect on people like that. Everybody who kinda starts with him has just blown up out of nowhere. It’s a nice full-circle thing for us.

Talk about your new series with Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation. I play a nurse named Anne Perkins. My boyfriend –We live together- falls into this ditch and he breaks both his legs. I try to get somebody to help me, somebody in the city to fill it in or fix it or whatever. Amy is the one city official that listens to me and, for some reason, decides I’m going to be her cause. We kinda become friends and we work on this project together. How different is it from The Office. Is it technically a spin-off? It’s not technically a spin-off. That was kinda confusing where somebody at NBC said that without really knowing that. It’s totally different characters. There’s no overlap. It’s a fictional town in Indiana. What’s similar about it is the documentary style, that and the interviews and stuff. But that’s kinda where it ends. You’ll get the sense of two camera crews because there’s one following me and my cause and then [one following] Amy and her rise through government. They come together as we come together. It should be pretty different. It doesn’t take place in one little area. It’s not contained in that same way. The characters are totally different.

Where did this comedic bug come from? You know, I don’t know. I know my mom said as early as she can remember letting me watch TV, Do you think because you had both parents in I insisted on my one treat a week when I was like entertainment that’s why you did too? six, seven, eight was to stay up and watch Saturday I was like the rebel. I was like, “I’m going to go to Night Live. I’ve always been a huge fan of that law school! I’m not going to do what my parents show. I don’t know where the comedy thing comes do!” I was going to do everything to not be in enfrom. I’m, like, completely obsessed with comedy. tertainment, but I kinda caught the bug. You have When I was living in New York, I would go and such a fortunate life if you can work as an actor. It’s see stand-up as much as I could. I think I have a such a wonderful job. I get to laugh all day, hours lot of awe for people who can make you laugh. and hours a day. It’s really nice. It’s such a specific thing. It’s so hard to do. It’s so hard to make a group of people laugh. It’s like an Has the music bug ever hit you? achievement almost, in the way that it’s not to Yeah, music is definitely a huge part of my life. I make somebody cry. I feel like it’s easier to make kinda tool with it once somebody cry than to in a while. If somemake them laugh. To YEAH, MUSIC IS DEFINITELY body needs me to sing me, it’s one of the best A HUGE PART OF MY LIFE. I backup… things in the world- to KINDA TOOL WITH IT ONCE IN make somebody laugh. A WHILE. IF SOMEBODY NEEDS Seriously? Yeah, I always like to Did your mother steer ME TO SING BACKUP… keep it somewhere in you into acting? I my life. I’m obviously mean, there aren’t too many Harvard grads in terrified to actually call it a career. Also, I feel like Hollywood. I’d have to study a lot more and know a lot more There are a couple of us. We definitely talked about music too. about it. I acted in school plays, from the time I was like five, and then in college. I always thought Who have you sang backup with? of it as an extracurricular [activity] ‘cuz in my mind I sing backup with Maroon 5. I’ve known those I was like, “I gotta be serious. I gotta go to school guys for a long time. I used to sing backup for them and get a real job. I can enjoy that [acting] stuff on live. I did their demo and I sang on their first album the side.” I never thought it was something I could and second album. pursue professionally ‘cuz it was so fun. Then I got to the real world and realized it wasn’t all fun. It Weren’t you on a 2Pac song too? was tough. It is for any actor. Yeah, it was like a 2Pac tribute album (The Rose that Grew from the Concrete). [Rashida’s sister, You guest-starred on Freaks and Geeks with Kidada, was once engaged to 2Pac.] ILYM co-star Jason Segel. Do you feel like you’ve come full circle by starring in this movie with Are you gonna do an album on your own? him? Maybe one day. I feel like being a musician is so Freaks and Geeks, for me, was like a huge turning difficult. I have so much respect for music theory. point. Everybody thinks actors have choices; they I wouldn’t want to do it unless I had a full grasp of can do whatever they want. Actually, that’s not that- only because I respect it so much. Unless I true. You just kinda take the jobs that you’re given. was totally committed, I wouldn’t do it. Freaks and Geeks was the first time that I read something –I was like 23- and I thought, “This is What genre of music turns you on? really good. This is the kind of stuff I want to do.” I I grew up with R&B and jazz. For me, that’s it. had such a good time on the show. I made friends with Jason. We’ve been friends the whole time. I’m Maybe you could go on American Idol. friends with a bunch of people on the show still. Trust me, I would. If I wasn’t above the age limit, Yeah, it’s really nice to come back together after I would have loved to. I think about it all the time. kinda working on our own. Obviously, [writer/

DINING

Taste of the Month-Tapas Eclipse di Luna

764 Miami Circle 404.846.0449 4505 Ashford Dunwoody 678.205.5862 www.eclipsediluna.com

Mediterranean Grill

2126 N. Decatur Rd. 404.320.0101 985 Monroe St. 404.917.1100 1255 Johnson Ferry Rd. 678.996.0045 www.mediterraneangrill.com

Agave Restaurant An eclectic southwestern eatery & tequila bar est. 2000 Cabbagetown / Grant Park Dinner nightly at 5pm 404-588-0006 www.agaverestaurant.com

Come savor the flavor of Mediterranean Grill. For over 9 years their loyal customers have made family/chef-owned and operated Mediterranean Grill the place in Atlanta for authentic Mediterranean food. Delight in fresh, homemade Middle Eastern and Greek specialties prepared to order with the highest quality ingredients. Upon opening in1997, Eclipse di Luna set the trend in Tapas style restaurants in Atlanta. With over two dozen Tapas to choose from, there is something to please any taste. The Tapas is priced affordable, mostly between $3.95 and $5.95, to encourage multiple sampling. They offer several that are cheese based. These include the Quesos Espanoles, a tasting of Spanish cheeses with assorted accompaniments. The Tortilla Espanola is a Spanish style omelet with potatoes, wild mushrooms & onions in a roasted garlic cream. And the Pimientos Rellenos con Queso de Cabra which is a herbed goat cheese tomato sauce in crispy piquillo peppers. Eclipse features two chicken Tapas including the Pollo a la Parilla, a chicken breast grilled and marinated with red pepper salad and avocado. The Pollo al Ajillo is a braised garlic chicken in its own broth. On the beef side, The Brocheta de Bistee is a red wine marinated skirt steak skewered with chimichurri. Also try the Bocadillos de Carne is a shredded beef sandwich with sweet & sour onions. There are several seafood dishes to choose from including the Gambas al Ajillo which is sautéed shrimp & garlic with calabes pepper. For mussels fans, try the Mejillones en Salsa Roja served in a spicy tomato broth with plum tomatoes. Eclipse di Luna has won several awards including “Best Appetizers”, “Atlanta’s Top 100 Restaurants” and “Best Tapas”.

Mediterranean Grill offers a wide ranging menu for lunch and dinner. Appetizers and salads are served on small and large plates and include Humus, Tabouleh salad and Greek salad. They also serve a great Calamari dish as well as homemade Lentil Soup. Some popular entrees include Grilled Fresh Vegetables, Vegetarian Plate, Lamb Shank (at a great bargain of just $9.99) and their Combination Feast of generous portions of shish kabob, kufta kabab, and gyros slices. Mediterranean Grill offers a large selection of pita wraps that are popular for lunch. These include the ever popular Gyro sandwich, several kabob sandwiches and a Falafel sandwich. Many choose their Business Lunch Combo Special which comes with generous portions of shish kabob, kufta kabob, and gyro slices served with rice pilaf, salad and pita. It is just $6.49 and comes with a drink. Mediterranean Grill offers dine-in, carry-out, phone orders and catering for large and small affairs.

Mezza

Loca Luna

2751 Lavista Rd. Decatur, GA 30033 404.633.8833 www.mezzabistro.com

Mezza...A Lebanese Bistro and Dar offers one of the most characteristic elements of Lebanese cuisine. Much like tapas, Mezza is an array of small hot and cold appetizers. At Mezza you will find the most authentic homemade Lebanese tapas, great wines and enjoy belly dancing and hookahs in their newly expanded Dar (lounge) on weekends. Located just a few miles from Emory campus, Mezza has become a neighborhood favorite. The restaurant offers the largest Lebanese tapas menu in the city. The menu has a large variety of vegetarian dishes, some of which are vegan, in addition to a large variety of meat, chicken and seafood offerings. There are 20 vegetarian mezza including the standard favorites: hummis, falafel, baba ghannouge, and fried eggplant. Non-vegetarian dishes range from cilantro fish, beef stuffed grape leaves, kebobs and lemon shrimp. Over the years Mezza has garnered great reviews and awards. In recent years Mezza has been awarded Best Mediterranean / Middle Eastern Restaurant in various publications. Mezza also ranks as the top Lebanese Restaurant in Zagat’s Survey and Atlanta Magazine Top 100.

Voted Best Southwestern Restaurant 2008 Insite Magazine, Creative Loafing, Atlanta Cuisine, The Sunday Paper, Jezebel Magazine

550 Amsterdam Ave. 404.875.4494 www.loca-luna.com Samba. Salsa. Merengue. They have it all at Loca Luna, where you'll find live Latin music nightly and great food. Sample savory dishes from Spain, South America and the Caribbean. Their wide range of tapas are priced mainly between $5 - $7. Here you will find delicious selections like: Falda de Bistec, carne asada steak skewers; Ceviche De Camarones, Ecuadorian shrimp; Albondigas, lamb meatballs; Vodka Rigatoni, rigatoni with vodka crema sauce and Asparagus Gallegos; grilled jumbo asparagus, garlic and lemon alioli.

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Atlanta’s Best Tapas Restaurant The happening bar is open till 2:30am on weekends with a wide selection of exotic cocktails, top shelf liquor and many wines to complement a good meal or a night of dancing. Make sure to try their world famous Mojito while you’re here, it has been voted best in Atlanta. Loca Luna has also been voted best late night venue, patio, appetizers and girls night out, among others, by both local and national publications. They feature live Latin music every night on their large dance floor and the hottest DJ’s spin late night on Fridays and Saturdays. There is plenty of free parking a free valet available.

OPEN FOR LUNCH! 4505 Ashford Dunwoody Rd. 678.205.5862 764 Miami Circle 404.846.0449 www.eclipsediluna.com PG 9 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

LOCAL INTERVIEW

NEWS AT 11 Iconic Anchorwoman Monica Pearson On Her Inﬂuential Career

BY BRET LOVE

OVING TO ATLANTA FROM Louisville, Kentucky in 1975 to take over for retiring WSB anchor (now Atlanta Social Season publisher) Gloria Lane, Monica Pearson has been a highprofile fixture on the city’s nightly news scene for more than three decades now, delivering the day’s headlines and interviewing the world’s most famous celebrities. One of the first African-American anchors in the South, she has also become one of the most critically acclaimed, earning 28 Local and Southern Regional Emmy Awards as well as awards for Excellence in Journalism, Broadcaster of the Year, and a Humanitarian of the Year honor from the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust. She’s also remained strongly involved in the community, serving on the Board of Directors of True Colors Theatre Company, The High Museum and the Advisory Committee for the Alliance Theatre Company, as well as reading weekly to first graders in Atlanta Public Schools through the BookPals program of the Screen Actors Guild. But if you ask most people about the anchor formerly known as Monica Kaufman (she wed Dekalb County policeman John E. Pearson, Sr. in 2005), the first thing they’ll mention is her hair, which has undergone more changes in color and style over the past 30 years than Madonna’s wardrobe. The always-engaging Monica recently sat down with us to discuss how the Internet is changing the news, her not-so-secret hobby and, of course, the public’s fascination with her hair.

people who are experts in those areas. My whole thing is that it doesn’t do any good to tell stories about problems if you don’t also help provide solutions. How has the increased presence of tabloid culture impacted the industry? I think it’s confusing to viewers, because the lines have become blurred to them. There are times when I’m not interested in what Britney Spears is doing, and she ends up on the news anyway because there is that portion of our audience who wants to know about it. But it’s not gonna get the time it gets on Entertainment Tonight!

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IS THAT IN TROUBLED TIMES THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE AFFECTED, AND YOU WANT TO TELL THEIR STORIES. THE POSITIVE SIDE IS THAT YOU CAN TRY TO FIND SOLUTIONS TO THOSE PROBLEMS.

You’ve been a news anchor for over 35 years now. How has the business changed most over that time? I think the biggest change has been the introduction of the Internet. Sometimes we stream what we’re doing on-air to our website and get almost as many viewers there as on television. My daughter is 28, and people her age don’t sit down to watch a newscast. They’ll use their iPhone and go to websites to get the information they need, so for me the biggest change is having to operate in two mediums. I like that, because viewers can go to our site and see the original [Closeups] as well as outtakes that didn’t make it on the air. What are the biggest challenges and rewards of the job when the nation is going through troubled times such as these? The biggest challenge is that in troubled times there are so many people who are affected, and you want to tell their stories. The positive side is that you can try to find solutions to those problems. For instance, this week we’ve got panels here at WSB where people can call in and get help dealing with mortgages or 401ks from PG 10 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

A lot of anchors see local news as a steppingstone to a national media outlet. What has kept you in Atlanta all this time? It’s gonna sound funny, but I really am an old-fashioned girl and I believe in loyalty. This station gave me an opportunity when I came to work here 33 years ago, when there were no AfricanAmericans on the 6 o’clock news. And when you think about moving, it means moving your whole family. Here, I could do all the things I wanted to do, but still go with her to school activities and apple-picking festivals and basketball games. The next job up from this would’ve been as a [network news] correspondent, but I didn’t want to have to live out of a suitcase. So it was quality of life and loyalty to the company that kept me here. Did you ever have a backup career in mind if the news thing didn’t work out? Oh yeah, I still have one! (Laughs) I don’t take anything for granted. The reality is that someone else could easily come along and have my position, so I always have a backup plan. I pride myself as much on my writing and reporting abilities as I do my on-air performance, so I could always go back to newspapers or radio, which is actually what I started out doing. I could also do public relations or go back and get my teaching certificate, because I’d love to teach young people how to do what I do.

The first thing people asked about when I told them I’d be interviewing you was your hair. Is it odd to you that people are so fascinated by it? It is, because I don’t think anything of it! I’ve been changing my hair my whole life– it’s a black woman thing! Hair is an accessory, but it didn’t hit me until I got into television that viewers don’t like change. When I change my hair, it drives ‘em crazy! Thank god I’ve been around so long that they’re used to it now and it’s kind of become my trademark, but years ago I had

a news director put a clause in my new contract that I couldn’t change my hair without the station’s approval. You know how long that lasted! (Laughs) What’s something viewers who have watched you for the past three decades might be surprised to learn about you? I have my motorcycle license, which I got about a year and a half ago. My husband has always ridden motorcycles, and he bought a new one after we got married. I rode on the back with him and enjoyed it, but don’t necessarily like the way he drives, so I decided I wanted to get my own license. Now I have a little 250cc Honda Rebel, and I don’t ride at night or in heavy traffic because I’m still a beginning rider. My husband’s got a Harley, which is what I want to get once I get better at it and more comfortable with it. Speaking of your husband, how difficult a decision was it to take on his last name after decades of being professionally known as Monica Kaufman? It wasn’t hard at all, and he didn’t even ask me to do it. In fact, when I told him I’d decided to change my name to Pearson, he said, “You are?!” Even though I’ve been married before, this is the first time I’ve honestly felt like this is gonna work and there’s no turning back. So it was a no-brainer to me, though the station just about went bonkers. When you’ve had someone on the air for 30 years with one name, it’s tough because you have to change graphics and this and that. But we used to be NBC and we became ABC, and it worked, so I knew

people would eventually accept it. I’m glad, because it was a new start for me. You’ve long been involved in social issues involving women and children. Where does that desire originate? I think it comes from my mom. My parents divorced when I was very young, but even though she was a single mother, my mom always encouraged us to give back to the community. She was living on minimum wage and had to hock her engagement ring every year to pay for my Catholic school tuition, but she would still volunteer when I was growing up. She’s been the example. I especially love causes dealing with children– reading to first graders at elementary schools– as well as seniors. I also work with the High Museum and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s talent development program, and all of those things are extensions of the work my mother did. How do you think being a breast cancer survivor has changed the way you approach your life? When I was diagnosed, there were no tears or fears or saying, “Oh, I’m gonna die!” My mother always said none of us came here to stay; you can’t control when you’re going or how you’re gonna go. So my attitude was, let’s get it fixed and move on. What it became about for me was setting my priorities. So I’ve now learned how to take care of myself, and breast cancer taught me that I had to take care of my body and be as good to me as I am to others.

FILM INTERVIEW

Sand, Sun and FUN!

Love and Longing Drew Barrymore on Romance in the Internet Age BY B. LOVE

Of course, struggling with the issues that plague single people looking for love in the modern world was the EW ACTRESSES ACHIEVE SUCCESS AS central theme of He’s Just Not That Into You, which early in life as Drew Barrymore, who became was adapted from the best-selling book by author Greg an international star at the age of seven after her Behrendt. The film foresees an era in which everyone will breakout turn in Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi blockbuster E.T.: be dating electronically, which is a reality that Barrymore The Extra-Terrestrial. But even fewer manage to battle admits she struggles with herself. back from the brink of adolescent burnout to become one still have a wall phone, so this whole idea [of cell “I of Hollywood’s most beloved beauties. phones] and having to respond immediately and be At age 34, Barrymore seems to have hit a stride in her quirky and quippy is strange to me. No guys call anymore; professional life lately, with He’s Just Not That Into You wanted to discuss that in the it’ s all text messaging. So I (which she both starred in and executive produced) film, because it’ s so important in our day and age of bringing in over $100 million at the box office, her HBO Facebook and Internet dating film Grey Gardens garnering and texting. universal critical acclaim I REALIZED THAT I HAD TO new ballgame.It’”s just a whole and her directorial debut, OVERCOME THE TRIALS AND Like the book, the film Whip It!, due in theaters later also stars Jennifer this year. It’s a far cry from TRIBULATIONS OF MY LIFE. (which Ginnifer Goodwin, Aniston, the controversy of her teen Johansson, Ben AfScarlett YOU HAVE TO; YOU DON’T years, when drug addiction, fleck and Long) deals primarbattles with her parents and HAVE A CHOICE. AND THE ily with professional women a penchant for outlandish FACT IS THAT EVERYTHING IN seeking more satisfying behavior made her seem like relationships, often making a safe bet to be another child A CHOICE, LIFE ACTUALLY IS excuses for why the men in star tragedy in the making. their lives aren’t giving them SO I JUST CHOSE TO GET MY These days, the charming, the things they want, need free-spirited actress credits a BACK ON TRACK AND LIFE and deserve. The overall mespositive attitude with helping sage is one of empowerment, to turn her life around. “I CONTINUE TO GO ON AN urging women not to cling to believe you can be the person FOR HAPPINESS AND INCLINE something that clearly wasn’t that you dream of being,” she meant to be. insists with a smile. “I realENJOYMENT OF LIFE ON A “I believe there are no rules,” ized that I had to overcome Barrymore says when asked DAILY BASIS. the trials and tribulations about her own philosophy of of my life. You have to; you think at a certain love. “But I don’t have a choice. And the fact is that everything in life point something clicks and you’re just not willing to acactually IS a choice, so I just chose to get my life back on less than what your heart desires. You run into that cept track and continue to go on an incline for happiness and wall and hit your head so many times that you’re just lying enjoyment of life on a daily basis.” get it. ’ I don’t think there there bloody on the floor, like ‘I The one area that has not yet seemed to click into place are rules, but I think there is a good global case-by-case is her love life. Briefly married to Jeremy Thomas in the basis of how you should treat someone and how you want mid-‘90s and to comedian Tom Green from 2001-2002, to be treated.” Barrymore’s on-again/off-again relationship with actor For Barrymore, whose life has seen more ups and Justin Long has made her a tabloid favorite in recent downs than your average rollercoaster, treating herself months. The actress readily admits that her lifestyle well seems to be a major priority these days. As she condoesn’t make her the easiest person to have a romantic tinues to deny reuniting romantically with Long despite connection with. being seen out together numerous times since their “I’m a workaholic,” she confesses, “and I travel all of breakup, the actress-turned-producer-turned-director the time. To not have any routine about it can be very trying on a relationship, but I love my job. I try to be more seems content to focus on her career for the moment, trusting that all good things will come in time. rational than emotional in my approach. You choose to “I’m not ready to have a family,” she insists, “and I’m not be this person. You choose to have this life. You choose to ready to get married. My head is so not in that place. It’s have these passions. These are choices we make. So let’s more about enjoying life, having fun, working and spendcelebrate them instead of letting them bring us down all time with my friends. For me, those are my priorities ing of the time and struggling with them.” right now.”

May 29-31, 2009 Atlantic Station FOR TICKETS VISIT www.AVP.com PG 11 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

FILM INTERVIEW

IDRIS TO IMPRESS

Dashing Brit Idris Elba sweeps the casts of Office and the just-released thriller Obsessed off their collective feet.

BY DEMARCO WILLIAMS

T’S A TRADITIONAL THRILLER AND IT’S good,” explains Idris Elba, the Obsessed male lead caught in one of Hollywood’s most photogenic love triangles ever. Beyonce Knowles plays his wife. Heroes’ Ali Larter is his psychotic admirer from work. “Obviously, when you look at the [movie] poster, you’re thinking, ‘Hmm, I wonder what this is about.’ I think you people will be surprised in that it’s very traditional, which makes it refreshing.” What isn’t particularly original is for women to gush all over the 36-year-old London native. On NBC’s The Oﬃce, his straight-laced Charles Miner character can’t shake his female co-workers from his pants legs fast enough. In the ’07 movie Daddy’s Little Girls, he earned a whole other following by portraying a loving father. Even on HBO’s famed The Wire, amidst all the drug deals and shootouts, he still had fans of the fairer sex fawning all over him. Now, he’s Beyonce’s on-screen hubby. Some dudes really do have all the luck.

who we would think to be a good fit for this part of the film for the script for chemistry with myself and blah, blah, blah. Beyonce was a favorite of the producers for a long time. She loved the script, loved the idea of working with me. Then Ali’s character came on board. My involvement, except for being a performer, was helping the [production] team put together a good [acting] team for the film.

What was the most memorable moment from filming? Honestly, it wasn’t actually filming. It was the day I met Beyonce for the first time. It was so bizarre. We literally were brought onto set and we had to do a photo shoot for photos that were used in the film. Beyonce’s an icon. She’s one of the most famous women in the world. She walks into the studio set and, I think, the director said, “Idris, have you met Beyonce? Beyonce, have you met Idris?” Hi! Hey, how are you? I’m a great fan. [Beyonce responds] “I’m a great fan too.” [Obsessed director Steve Shill says] “Okay, you two. I need you to stand over here in this house and start kissing for this photograph.” I’m like, “Wait a second.” I managed to do it somehow, but it was definitely very surreal.

Can you talk about the chemistry between you and your Obsessed leading ladies? These women, outside of the fact that they’re very How different is the job market for black actors across beautiful, are very strong characters and very strong the Atlantic compared to America? personalities in the film. Both Ali and Beyonce are very In England, understanding that Afro-Caribbeans make dedicated actresses and put their heart and soul into the up make 5% of the population there, the stories and film. The chemistry between the three of us was phedepictions of Afro-Caribbean life are slimmer then, say, nomenal from Day 1. Neither of us knew each other, so it here in America where African-Americans are a much was really a nice feeling to get on set and get on with the bigger majority of the population. Therefore, the stories work. Everyone had the same common goal, which is to will reflect African-American culture more here. There’s make a good, authentic film. I did very few scenes with more room for that. I feel that in England, growing up the two of them together, but I believe they got along our culture wasn’t represented. It was definitely work for really well. Ali had nothing black actors; otherwise, but good things to say I wouldn’t be here. But YOU KNOW, I’M A FAN OF about Beyonce and vice wasn’t so much of versa. So, overall, it was a THRILLERS. I THINK THAT WE there a representation of our very good vibe and good ALL ARE. HAVING GROWN UP culture, but more represenworking environment. IN THE LAST 20 YEARS, THERE tation of one black man in HAVE BEEN SOME PHENOMENAL a scene, or one black family Beyond the ladies, what a story. That’s the main THRILLERS. I THINK THE GENRE indifference. drew you to the project? The history of You know, I’m a fan of HAS TAKEN A LEFT TURN. African-Americans in this thrillers. I think that we country is bigger, longer. all are. Having grown up Therefore, the stories are bigger and stronger. in the last 20 years, there have been some phenomenal thrillers. I think the genre has taken a left turn. This is You have a reoccurring role on The Office. Will audiquite a traditional thriller in the sense that it’s a human ences be seeing you do more comedies? story about very ordinary people [involved in] an Yes, you will see me in more comedies. I definitely extraordinary event. I felt great about doing that. Again, want to extend that arm of what I’m doing. It allows me it’s my first thriller, so I enjoyed it. I was the first actor to goof around. I don’t get that opportunity because of on this film. My role was to work with the producers on the characters I play. Even in The Office, I’m not playing

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What’s the name of your production company? Head Shell. I’m working on two documentaries and I’m working on two dramas at this point for television. It’s a lot of hard work. You have an extensive resume of stage work too. Do you prefer theatre or ﬁlms? I prefer the screen at this point, only because I’ve been working at screen acting for a while. But I’m very fond of the theatre. Whenever I get a chance to go back to the theatre, I love it. I especially love the rehearsal process in theatre, which you don’t really get in ﬁlm. Screen is where my heart is at.

You also DJ and produced a song from Jay-Z’s American Gangsta album. So, do you prefer DJing or acting? I prefer acting because that’s what I’ve been doing for a long time. But DJing is really incomparable. You have to keep people dancing for whoever many hours. It’s a challenge. It’s a live show. I enjoy doing it. I’ve been doing it for a long time. I make my money from acting, which is my favorite thing to do. As I’m growing, the DJing and the music are running hand in hand, so I’m doing more production. I’m gonna put some music out eventually. Outside of that, I’m going to see the typical route for actors which is directing and writing. I think I’ll be doing a little more of that too. What kind of music would you put out? I’m working on this record right now, which is a lil’ bit of a hybrid. It has a very Caribbean feel but it also has an R&B feel to it and a lil’ bit of hip hop. It’s kinda like my inﬂuences in music come from all over the world. So, this record that I’m producing puts out elements of everything. I don’t wanna compare, but when I ﬁrst heard Wyclef, it kinda reminds me of where my head is at now.

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Anything else lined up for television? At this point, I haven’t any plans to go back to television and do a television drama. I’m sort of focused on films. I have a small production company and I’m doing some stuff that may make it to television. But I don’t see myself acting on television for now. I love The Office and I think it’s an exceptional show, which is why I’m doing it. But saying that, my focus is in film.

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Hugh Jackman (left) slips off his Broadway tights for a pair of superhero ones in “Wolverine,” a prequel to the popular “X-Men” series. Liew Schreiber (right) plays his brother, Sabertooth.

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coming this month May 8: Star Trek (PG-13)

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May 22: Terminator: Salvation (PG-13)

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FILM

Up, Up and Away!

INsite Entertainment Editor Matt Goldberg Goes Soaring to promote Pixar’s Upcoming Film “Up” BY JOHN B. MOORE

S YOU HAVE PROBABLY DETERMINED from the poster and trailers, Pixar’s upcoming film, “Up” is about a man who ties a bunch of a balloons to his home and floats away on a trip to South America. Pixar attempted to re-create the experience by inviting journalists to strap themselves in to a chair and then float way off the ground (albeit tethered because Pixar is not going to let folks just take their chair and balloons to South America. Chairs are expensive). While it looked scary as hell, I knew I couldn’t turn down this opportunity because it’s likely you don’t get a second chance to float in a chair tied to a bunch of balloons. But it was actually rather relaxing. Once you push that thought of plummeting to your death out of your mind, you’re just floating there and I would happily do it again if offered. Disney-Pixar’s “Up” hits theatres on May 29th.

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�� Yacht Rock Revue �� Friday Flow �� Tony Rock & Friends �� The Features �� David Mead �� Harmonic Production �� The Black Kids �� Fight Case for Sushi �� Telepath �� Zydefunk �� Thomas Tillman �� 500 Songs for Kids �� The Kinks �� Cursive, Man Man �� Player/Kommander �� DMB Tribute Band �� VA to GA Talent Showcase �� Jack’s Mannequin �� Junior Boys �� Suburban Soul �� Funky Fiasco �� So Far Gone �� Electromatics �� Curiosity Shoppe �� 500 Songs for Kids �� Cassavettes �� Ben Harper �� Ponderosa �� Aid for Autism �� The Pains of Being Pure at Heart �� Missy Raines �� The 1 Guy �� Uncle Sugar �� 500 Songs for Kids �� Songwriter’s Open Mic �� A Hope for A Golden Summer �� Protest the Hero �� Stampede �� 500 Songs for Kids �� Club Awesome �� Meiko �� Bluegrass Jam Session �� Gavin DeGraw �� The Gaslight Anthem �� Nathan Nelson & BonJu �� Luke Bryan �� Shinedown �� Candlebox �� Tru Skool Tuesdays �� Mice Parade �� Mudcat & Little Brother �� Parkway Drive �� The Supervillians �� Mudcat �� Tyler Reeve �� 500 Songs for Kids �� The Soulphonics �� Amos Lee

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www.bottler.biz PG 16 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

�� Al Smith’s Midtown Jam �� Straight Up Blues �� Eddie Shaw & the Wolf Gang �� The Dynamites �� The Belleville Outﬁt �� Open Mic Jam �� Lez Zeppelin �� Ben Chapman & the Accents �� The Breeze Kings �� Dean Dollar Band �� 500 Songs for Kids �� Sean Falyon �� Jimmy Herring Band �� Ratsack �� Straight Up Blues �� Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun �� Richard Shindell �� One Love �� Shpongle �� Pavement Band �� Soul Shakers �� Shane O’Dazier �� 500 Songs for Kids �� The Luchagors �� Kevin Devine �� Trent Tomlinson

�� Unzipt �� Sub*stance �� Francine Reed �� The Dexateens �� Ben Wakeman �� Kochis �� The Horrorpops �� Burnt Bacon �� Slippery When Wet �� 500 Songs for Kids �� Leslie �� Vienna Teng �� Almost Heroes �� Pink Floyd Tribute �� Wrong Way �� David Fountain �� Asylum Street Spankers �� System Obsolete �� Uncle Sugar �� NIN & Jane’s Addition �� Cyril Neville �� Guns-n-Roses Tribute �� Songwriter’s Open Mic �� Jungol �� Stampede �� The Burning Hotels �� Tru Skool Tuesdays �� Open Screen Night �� Gritz and Jelly Butter �� Psyopus �� Nathan Nelson & BonJu �� The Funky Fiasco �� Al Smith’s Midtown Jam �� Alkaline Trio �� Tim Easton �� Eilen Jewell �� Greg Koons �� Fischerspooner �� Kreator �� Mudcat �� Tyler Reeve �� Ty Reynolds �� The Soulphonics �� Time 2 Shine �� Orange Tulip Conspiracy �� Jeff Talmadge �� Open Mic Jam �� Pretty Lights & Dieselboy �� The Breeze Kings �� Andrew Black �� Comcast Bands on Demand �� FREAKOUT!!! �� Reggae Night �� Big Bill Morganﬁeld �� Mastodon �� Dan Sartain �� The Drexlers �� The Express Yourself School Art Show �� E-Hurtem, D-Chase �� Mudcat �� Az Izz �� Blueground Undergrass �� The Wood Brothers �� The Dustup �� Thomas Tillman �� B.O.B. �� En Vogue & Tank �� Cadillac Jones �� Carolina Herring �� Oh Hai BBoy Battles �� The Thermals �� Fat Back Deluxe �� Fly By Radio �� Webb Wilder �� The Constellations �� The Crystal Method �� Nevermind �� Rehab �� Who’s Bad �� The Buddy O’Reilly Band �� EP3 �� Coldplay �� Uncle Sugar �� Korey Bowie �� Reed Pittman �� Girlz Girlz Girlz �� Death Match �� Songwriter’s Open Mic �� Under the Porch �� Stampede �� Dead Zealous

Art Show

�� Tru Skool Tuesdays �� Robinella �� Zach Deputy �� Parachute �� Nathan Nelson & BonJu �� Soul of John Black �� Al Smith’s Midtown Jam �� Gavin Rossdale �� The Explorer’s Club �� Brandi Carlile �� Holly Belle �� Kate Voegele �� The Status �� Mudcat �� Tyler Reeve �� Hinder �� Little Tybee �� Algebra �� Open Mic Jam �� ATL Allstars �� Sons of God �� Passaﬁre �� The Breeze Kings �� Roxsome �� Nathan Beaver �� Altered & Afterglow Radio �� 3 on 3rd �� Francine Reed �� Bob Long III �� Danny Barnes Band �� Jazzmatic �� Marcy Playground �� Mudcat �� Craig Campbell �� Wilx �� Bubbapalooza �� Paul Thorn �� Eric Hutchinson �� Pastor Troy Unplugged �� Mr. Lif �� Vigilantes of Love �� El Scorcho �� Bill Shefﬁeld �� Grayson Hill �� Bubbapalooza �� Mulgrew Miller �� The Drownout �� Moby Dick �� The Breakfast Club �� Warm in the Wake �� The Megan Linville Band �� Snake Oil Medicine Show �� Uncle Sugar �� Hightide Blues �� Toad The Wet Sprocket

�� Slippery When Wet �� The Juan Maclean �� Songwriter’s Open Mic �� Jerry Joseph �� The Ataris �� Stampede �� Matt James �� Tru Skool Tuesdays �� Jerry Joseph �� Static-X �� Stanton Moore Trio �� Nathan Nelson & BonJu �� Mother Earth & Sun �� Al Smith’s Midtown Jam �� Dead Confederate �� Liz Durrett �� Joe McGuinness �� Mudcat �� Villanova �� The National �� Producers Swap Meet �� Isis �� Miss Tess & The Bon Ton �� Open Mic Jam �� New Kids On The Block �� Oceano �� The Breeze Kings �� Sean McConnell �� Mausiki Scales �� Unknown Hinson �� Packway Handle Band �� YARN �� Montgomery Gentry �� Nappy Roots & Guests �� Ike Stubbleﬁeld �� The Breakfast Club �� Fastburn �� Bonnie Prince Billy �� Young Antiques �� Jackopierce �� The Apostles �� Testament �� The Breeze Kings �� Wrong Way �� The Bridge �� Jonathan Coulton �� Groovestain �� Clay Walker �� The Helio Sequence �� Tony Furtado �� The Business �� Evelynn Rose

Coldplay @��(5-17)

Thank you to our... Sponsors, Artists, Vendors & Attendees for making the return home to Piedmont Park spectacular! S      D   :  :

PG 17 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

Gone ‘Til November Ace Enders Goes Solo MUSIC INTERVIEW

BY JOHN B. MOORE

they the same guys who you’ll take on tour? It was just me in the studio with my producer, Chris Badami, on drums. My guitar player who comes out on tour also recorded some parts at his place in North Carolina.

Just 26 years old, Ace Enders has already built up a resume many career musicians twice his age would envy. He’s already got five EPs to his name, released two wellreceived emo albums fronting The Early November (including a How would you describe this sound to those who know you from 3-CD concept album) and somehow managed to find the time to The Early November or I Can Make a Mess...? put out another full-length under the moniker I guess I would say it’s a natural progression I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody’s Business. I’VE NEVER BEEN BIG from my other projects. It’s different, but the Having closed up shop on The Early November natural next step. INTO POLITICS OR recently, Enders is now officially going it alone PUSHING POLITICAL and about to release his first solo record, Ace Is it a different feeling at all knowing that VIEWS; THE ONLY Enders and a Million Different People. your name is out front now vs. just being the Enders spoke with us recently about going it THING THAT’S REALLY singer of a band? alone, breaking up the band and politics. Yeah, it’s a little bit different and I do feel a IMPORTANT TO ME IS little more pressure. It’s not much different THAT WE’RE ALL HEADING How did you know it was time for The Early though. IN A POSITIVE DIRECTION. November to call it quits? LUCKILY THE ELECTION You’ve never been shy to share your politiWe just were all going in different directions. Most of the guys had an idea of other things HAD THAT SAME SPIRIT. cal views. Did the last election influence the that they wanted to pursue towards the end of writing of this record at all? the time we were together, so it was just a natural time for all of us The election was a huge deal, but I was more influenced by the to move on to other things. climate of society right now, even though it does all tie in. I’ve never been big into politics or pushing political views; the only When the band ended, did you immediately start working on thing that’s really important to me is that we’re all heading in a this record or did you take some time thinking about what you positive direction. Luckily the election had that same spirit. wanted to do? I had a lot of songs written at the time that would have been Any songs you’re particularly proud of? songs for the old band. I basically just kept doing what I had been I would have to say “The Sign.” It’s just one of my favorite songs doing, just with this new project. It took some time to get everythat I’ve made and I feel like it captures what I wanted it to capthing organized and off the ground leading up to the release in a ture in the right way. couple of weeks, but I’ve been working toward this since the time the old band ended. Any plans for more side-projects? Not yet. This is going to be my main focus. What musicians did you have backing you up on this record? Are

PG 18 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

How did you end up working with Vagrant? Drive Thru and Vagrant decided to team up for this release. I haven’t worked with Vagrant for long, but they’ve been awesome and so supportive. What’s next for you? I’m on tour right now in Australia, and as soon as I get home I head out on two back to back U.S. tours until the middle of May. After that I’ll probably continue touring through the end of the summer. I’m really excited for this record to come out and to play the songs at shows and see all the old familiar faces again.

Road Warriors April 2009 Hottest Shows BY JON LATHAM 5/2  BEN HARPER AND RELENTLESS7

Variety Playhouse Hard times call for hard rock, and groove man Ben Harper felt that way when he got together his new outfit, Relentless7. Influenced by the high-octane force of giants like Led Zeppelin, Harper and the band are ready to deliver a Rock and Roll revival. Tickets are long gone for this one, but for those in attendance, they will be witnesses to what is sure to be the next great chapter in Ben Harper’s career.

5/9  STEPHEN LYNCH

Tabernacle Acoustic-folk funnyman Stephen Lynch writes songs for every man, kind of like Springsteen. However, Springsteen steers clear of topics like gerbils in an orifice, the joy of Special Olympics, killing your grandfather for inheritance, or the fear of waiting for an AIDS test to come back. Who can’t relate to one if not all of those?

5/10  NINE INCH NAILS & JANE’S ADDICTION

Lakewood Amphitheatre Trent Reznor brings NIN to Atlanta, touring

in support of ‘The Slip’, their latest critically lauded album. Much talked about is their co-headliner, the original line-up of Jane’s Addiction, touring together for the first time in over 15 years. Both bands are hitting the festival circuit this summer, but the chance to see these bands together is an offer no fan could refuse.

5/15  MASTODON

Center Stage Atlanta can be proud of Mastodon; whether on the road by themselves or touring in support of monster acts like Metallica, the band never seems to be off the road unless they are in the studio. Their new album, Crack the Skye, is finished and released, so on the road they went. Center Stage serves as a triumphant homecoming for the guys, who will be playing Crack the Skye in its entirety.

5/16  THE THERMALS

The Masquerade Portland’s indie pop band The Thermals bring their sunny songs to Atlanta this month. Touring behind their stellar fourth record (Now We Can See), the trio brings the energy of a punk band with melodies that that would make the Beach Boys proud. Consider

yourself lucky to be seeing the band in such an intimate setting like The Masquerade.

5/17  COLDPLAY

Lakewood Amphitheatre Still making the rounds on their epic trek in support of their Grammynominated album ‘Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends’, the four lads from Coldplay continue to show A-Town some love. After two amazing shows last November in Philips Arena, this performance at Lakewood will mark their third stop in Atlanta on this tour. Expect more gratitude from Coldplay in the form of numerous fan favorites that will surely populate this setlist.

5/22  PAUL THORN

Variety Playhouse Paul Thorn is a preacher’s kid, and a Southern preachers kid at that. Lord knows he was blessed with the gift of gab, so it’s no wonder that his charm and good-ol’-boy wit translate into awesome, personal songs. Teetering between rock, blues, country, and southern gospel, Thorn lets loose with a lot of soul in every performance, turning any venue into a Holy Ghost rock and roll throwdown.

WE GOT NEXT THE SWEAR

The Masquerade Marcy Playground was one of a handful of 90’s bands with a slew of great songs that unfortunately get remembered for one insanely catchy song. It’s been five years since their last record and more than 10 years since “Sex and Candy” was playing out of every radio, and the band is about to release Leaving Wonderland. Originally conceived as a solo record, the songs are among the band’s best stuff. They are also planning a B-Sides and rarities release this summer, as well. Expect a mix of new and old at the show.

5/24  HEART W/ JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS

Chastain Park Don’t call it chick rock; you might just get your ass kicked. With Ann Wilson’s soaring vocals and sister Nancy’s guitar chops, Heart remains a force to be reckoned with, especially when you consider their arsenal of songs. Songs like “Crazy on You” and “Barracuda” have found a whole new audience via Guitar Hero. Supporting them is one of the original bad-asses, Joan Jett. She still doesn’t give a damn about her bad reputation, and you’ll know itt from the time she hits the stage.

5/27  THE NATIONAL

Tabernacle It has been almost two years since the release of Boxer, the album that brought with it vast amounts of acclaim. Since then, The National has balanced time on the road with time in the studio working on their next release. Demand for tickets led this show, originally to be held at the Variety Playhouse, to the Tabernacle. This is indie rock at some of its finest and guaranteed to be a show talked about for months to come. Variety Playhouse tickets will be honored at the Tabernacle.

Artists on the verge of making it big

Latest Project: Hotel Rooms & Heart Attacks For Fans of: Patti Smith, The Pretenders, Blondie Why You Should Care: Because Elizabeth Elkins is one of the modern-rock scene’s most dynamic female singer-songwriters.

BY B. LOVE

5/22  MARCY PLAYGROUND

LIZABETH ELKINS IS FAR FROM THE ﬁrst woman in music history to pick up an instrument and write catchy songs. But as a singer/guitarist on the Atlanta music scene for 15 years now, Elkins has proven herself the rare chick-rocker who doesn’t wear her femininity as a badge of distinction, instead recalling ballsy frontwomen ranging from Patti Smith and Chrissie Hynde to Shirley Manson. Her interest in music began at a very early age, thanks in part to parents who listened to ‘50s and ‘60s

classics such as the Shangri-Las, Buddy Holly and Simon & Garfunkle, but also to a relative who was renowned in the classical field. “My grandmother was the first woman to conduct the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, so I grew up seeing her as this great musician, and my mom is also very musical. Then again, my dad is tone deaf,” she laughs, “so I figure I’m somewhere in between.” After moving to Atlanta in 1994 to attend Emory University, she co-founded Alastor, the name of which was inspired by a Shelley poem of which the hyperliterate Elkins (who has a Master’s in Journalism) was

especially fond. A ﬁxture on the local scene for nearly a decade, the group disbanded in 2003, right around the time Elkins won Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest for her song “Deception Bay.” “After that I picked up a management ﬁrm and had a bunch of label interest, but some of the guys in the band had families and weren’t really able to do this 110%. We decided then that it made sense for me to move on and start fresh. I didn’t want to be a solo artist because people think you’re a singer-songwriter,” she says of forming her latest group, The Swear, “and I like the idea of working as a band. I like the input of throwing musical ideas at each other and I like working together on arrangements.” Elkins acknowledges that there’s a part of her that wants to be a dictator, despite the strong songwriting contributions of her bandmates Jeremy Zamora (guitar), Kevin Williams (bass) and Kent Aberle (drums). But in the end, she loves the visceral thrill of fronting a pulse-pounding rock ‘n’ roll band too much to go solo at this juncture. “To me, if a song can’t work on acoustic guitar, it’s not a good song. Many of my favorite artists tend to be pianists or guitarists who do play solo. I started out playing acoustic before Alastor happened, but I never felt like it was the right format for the songs. I love playing acoustic for radio and special shows,” she admits, “but there’s nothing I love more than the feeling of drums behind me and the sheer power of an electric guitar. I don’t think that’s something I’ll ever be able to shake.” Though bands such as Evanescence, The Donnas and Yeah Yeah Yeahs have made female rockers less of an anomaly in recent years, they’re still a vast minority

in the historically male-dominated genre. And while Elkins insists that she hesitates to play the sexism card, she reluctantly acknowledges that her lack of a Y chromosome ultimately impacts The Swear. “You get a reputation as a bitch if you’re a perfectionist and try to get the sound guy to adjust something,” she admits, “and often when we walk into a club they’ll assume I’m just the singer, like, ‘Wait, you have a guitar amp?’ A lot of times people will say ‘Wow, you don’t play guitar like a girl!’ which is sort of a backhanded compliment. And labels will tell you, ‘We can’t market female-fronted rock bands,’ which I think is just weird in this day and age.” Still, Elkins isn’t about to let such things hold her back. The Swear recently made the pilgrimage to Austin’s SXSW music festival to promote their critically acclaimed album, Hotel Rooms & Heart Attacks (which was co-produced by Ted Nicely and mixed by Eli Janney). And Elkins continues to juggle a day job and the band with playing solo acoustic shows ranging from a 2008 CMJ Showcase to a recent BMIsponsored event. She may not have made the Big Time just yet, but for Elkins it’s enough just to get her music out there. “I’m a pretty anxious person,” she confesses, “but what scares me more than anything is the thought of not playing music. You come into this business starryeyed, thinking something amazing will happen. But the longer I’m in it, the more I realize that I selﬁshly do what I do only for myself. All of us would love to be able to make a living doing this, but I think we’re realistic about the fact that we’re lucky to have the fan base that we do. We just try to enjoy it and not stress, because otherwise [the business] will grind you down.” PG 19 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

MUSIC

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By B. Love, DeMarco Williams, John Davidson, John B. Moore, Matt Goldberg & Jon Latham

MASTODON – CRACK THE SKYE (Reprise) Masterful, monolithic metal �� DAMION SUOMI – SELF TITLED (P is for Panda) Billy Bragg’s replacement is on deck �� PG 20 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

�� RICK ROSS – DEEPER THAN RAP (Maybach Music/Def Jam) & JADAKISS –THE LAST KISS (Roc-A-Fella) Two opposing views from atop hip-hop’s summit ��

�� SILVERSTEIN – A SHIPWRECK IN THE SAND (Victory) Canadian hard rockers need to lay off the screams ��

�� QUITE NYCE AND RAYDAR ELLIS – CHAMPS VS. THE LEAGUE (Brick Records) �� Mass(achusetts) appeal MARIA TAYLOR – LADY LUCK (Nettwerk) �� Sleepytime songs for the indie set �� THE HOT RODS – THE HOT RODS (Fontana/Just CHRIS CORNELL – SCREAM (Interscope) West) Cornell’s biggest mistake since leaving Soundgarden Fast songs about tight rides and loose women ��

�� PEARL JAM – TEN [Deluxe Edition] (Epic/legacy) Seattle’s other grunge gods ��

FILM INTERVIEW

17 Again Next Day Air star Mike Epps is just a big kid livin’ in a grown-man’s body.

BY DEMARCO WILLIAMS

IKE EPPS IS ONE OF THE FUNNIEST guys on the planet. So, when you ask him to name a few of his favorite things to do away from the spotlight, you have to prepare for almost anything to come from the Indiana native’s mouth. But even with the mental prep, you can’t stop from erupting in chuckles after he reveals how much of a fan he is of fishing and quail hunting in Sarah Palin’s Alaska. “I was looking to see her out there,” Epps insists. Throughout Mike’s career, he’s had to shoot down critics. Folks said he’d never make it in comedy. The man went on to host Def Comedy Jams. People said he’d never make it in comedy movies. Next Friday, Friday After Next and All About the Benjamins became late-night classics. Cats even swore he’d never succeed in comedy movies that didn’t star Ice Cube. As far we know, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins and this month’s dark comedy Next Day Air made zero mention of the rapper-turned-actor. Cube’s name does come up at the tail-end of this interview, but not before the fun-hearted Epps speaks on humility, his approach to comedy and having his own sitcom. You seem to keep an optimistic outlook on things. With the ups and downs you’ve had in your life, would you consider yourself a success story yet? Yeah, you know, I’m definitely a success story from where I come from. But I feel like my book hasn’t been told. It ain’t fully-written. When you’re tellin’ a book that ain’t fully written, you’re leaving it open for people to know more and what more. Are you at a point now where folks in their early 20s are looking to you as a mentor? Oh yeah. Today, I’m going over to the children’s hospital and I’m going to metro [correctional facility] to talk to the juvenile kids. I do that all the time, without nobody knowing about it. What was it like working with famed music director Benny Boom on Next Day Air? Benny Boom’s gonna get a lot of work in the business. Benny Boom was really strategic about what he wanted. What I liked about him was you could tell he went and did his homework. He wasn’t just like, “Oh, I wanna be famous for makin’ movies.” You get a lot of those first-time video directors and they just wanna be in the business. But Benny Boom really, really got into it. When you see the film, you’ll see all the great movie influences like the Guy Ritchie movies, Pulp Fiction and Dead Presidents. It has a lot of elements of other great films.

Talk about your character in the movie. I think Brody is definitely in the streets. He’s definitely a crook. He’s a lil’ more led on by his partner Guch, played by Wood Harris. Wood is a good actor. He played that menacing role. My character was down for the robbery. Who that character was as a person, had [the script played out differently], he would have probably changed. Nah, I ain’t fuckin’ with that shit! My character was like, “Let’s get the money. Let’s have a good time. What was it like getting those first couple of checks from doing stand-up? It was good. I’ve never really been a materialistic person. I’ve never really been caught up on it. I like nice stuff, but I’ve been able to adjust without it. That’s why I think my comedy has been so good. I have relied on that when I didn’t have nuthin’. A guy with money can’t outdo me around the ladies. I’mma walk out of there broke with all the girls because I’mma crack the jokes and give something your money can’t buy, baby! That’s what a lot of kids and people have to do. They gotta rely on what God gave them and use it to the fullest. Talent replaces everything. I don’t care what it is. Even in your profession- journalism. That’s a God-given talent ‘cuz you’re able to pull stuff outta people like us. It’s almost therapeutic. For real. You make people say stuff they wouldn’t normally. Actors and stuff, they don’t open up to everybody. But in interviews, they say things they don’t normally say. I know I do. It’s therapeutic. I’ve heard that doing comedy is therapeutic too. How has your approach to the stage changed over the years? I know exactly what I want out of it now. At first, it was like, “What do I want?” Now I want to make my fans happy and I want to walk away successful. I want people to be able to say, “I liked the way he set that up. I liked how he broke it down.” Details are important to me now. I’m more into what I’m doing as opposed to just going out there freestylin’. I like to know what I’m doing and how to attack. Will there be a Mike Epps television show? Oh yeah. I’m working on a TV show right now, a sitcom that’s gonna be really, really funny about my life. I’mma change my regular life, so that life I’m playing on TV will be my past. The life you see me in right now will be my past when I get the TV show. What’s the timetable for that? About in another two years. And what about the movie with Ice Cube, Janky Promoters? It ain’t comin’ out yet. You’ll get another interview for it.

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Home of the $199 Per Year Gym Membership ��

�� Head Instructor ‘Pan American Champion’ Master Roan ‘Jucao’ Carneiro

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�� continued from page 20 �� THE RED SWILL – BRUTAL BLISS (Self-Released) Stylistic chameleons ��

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VARIOUS ARTISTS – ART OF FIELD RECORDING VOLUME II (Dust-To-Digital) Second verse, just as great as the first �� PG 21 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

In Full Bloom RACHEL WEISZ PREPARES FOR

FIM INTERVIEW

A VERY GOOD YEAR

BY BRET LOVE

ESTKNOWN FOR HER WORK IN serious dramatic films such as Swept From the Sea, Enemy At The Gates and The Constant Gardener (for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar), Rachel Weisz has always seemed to possess an elegance and maturity beyond her years. Despite being engaged to director Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain, Requiem For A Dream), she’s largely avoided the harsh glare of fame’s spotlight and acknowledges an affinity for the more mysterious allure of classic Hollywood icons such as Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn and Ava Gardner. Unfortunately, there’s a fine line between serious and stuffy, between mysterious and unapproachable, and the 37-year-old actress has occasionally been accused of crossing it in the past. Which explains why it’s such an unexpected delight to see her at the Toronto Film Festival promoting The Brothers Bloom, in which she plays against type as gleefully eccentric heiress Penelope Stamp. In person, the notoriously publicity shy actress comes across as more lighthearted and playful, animated and engaging, with a boisterous laugh you might not expect to come from such a sexy, diminutive frame. Written and directed by up ‘n’ coming indie auteur Rian Johnson (Brick), the film tells the story of a pair of con men (Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody) who decide their last grift will involve bilking Weisz’s character out of millions of dollars during a romantic adventure that takes them around the world. But don’t let the title fool you: Originally called Penelope (before Cristina Ricci’s film of the same name beat them to the punch), the unabashedly quirky film is carried on the strength of Weisz’s charmingly effervescent spirit, and she’s clearly having a blast in a role that shatters any preconceived notions audiences may have of who she is as an actress. “I’ve really wanted to do a comedy for a long time,” she admits when asked what attracted her to the image-changing role, “and I think Penelope was what I’d been waiting for. I’m not imaginative enough to dream her up myself, but I was really looking for someone who kind of had that screwball flavor.” The character– a loveable agoraphobe severely lacking in interpersonal skills after spending endless hours alone in her family’s massive mansion– required Weisz to master (or at least appear to) a broad range of hobbies to capture the spiritual essence of a try-anything-once sort of woman who only fully blossoms after being coaxed into leaving the security of her comfort zone. “We had a two-week rehearsal period in which I had to learn how to simulate being able to play piano, banjo, guitar, juggle, ride a unicycle, skateboard,” Weisz recalls with a beaming smile, clearly proud of her effort. “I’d never ridden a skateboard in my life, but Adrien Brody is really good at it, so we were in the parking lot outside the place where we were filming and he was helping me learn how to do it. It’s actually really dangerous if you’ve never been on one before! “The thing I really had to learn to do from beginning to end was the card trick, which was so hard it took me about a month to learn. I also had to learn to rap, and since Brody’s from Queens he’s deep into hip-hop. I’m from north London and I’m not into hip-hop, and I remember this priceless look on his face when I butchered one of the classic rap songs,” she adds PG 22 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

EVERYONE HOPES THAT THEY’RE GOING TO BE SUCCESSFUL AND GET TO DO THE KIND OF PROJECTS THAT THEY REALLY BELIEVE IN. OFTENTIMES WHEN YOU’RE YOUNGER YOU TAKE WORK TO PAY THE RENT, AND YOU DON’T REALLY GET TO CHOOSE MUCH. with an uproarious laugh. “It was a lot of stuff to learn.” While such an eclectic role may seem to have come out of nowhere to the casual observer, her background suggests that Penelope is actually a lot closer to the real Rachel Weisz than many of the other roles she has played over the course of her 14-year film career. Born in London in 1971 to an Austrian psychoanalyst mother and a Hungarian inventor father, Weisz started out as a teenage model before studying acting during her college years at Cambridge University. “I started a theatre company called Talking Tongues there that was just myself and another girl as the performers, and then there was a director. It was very avant-garde, experimental, physical theatre,” she recalls fondly, “and we used to write our own plays through improvisation and take them to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. We’d run around giving out flyers and begging people to come see our show, and we actually won a few awards there.” After winning the festival’s Guardian Award for their take on playwright Neville Shouthall’s “Washbag,” Weisz went on to star in a stage revival of Noel Coward’s “Design For Living” that left the London Critics’ Circle declaring her

the year’s Most Promising Newcomer in 1994. But even after she started getting cast in films such as Stealing Beauty and Chain Reaction, the free-spirited twentysomething made time for the same sort of worldly adventures that help Penelope Stamp’s spirit come alive in The Brothers Bloom. “I went on some really great road trips,” she recalls. “I drove with a girlfriend of mine from New Orleans to New York, and got completely stuck in Memphis for two weeks because we fell in love with the city. About 8 years ago I went on another adventure with the same girlfriend– my friend Mel– driving from Mozambique to Cape Town, basically all along the eastern edge of South Africa. We didn’t realize that the Zulu land doesn’t really have paved roads, and we didn’t have a spare tire for this terrible rental car we had. We were just praying the whole time! But it was a very exciting trip.” Equally exciting was her career as an actress, which began to catch fire with her role as Brendan Fraser’s love interest, Evelyn, in 1999’s The Mummy and 2001’s The Mummy Returns. Though widely dismissed by critics as crowd-pleasing fluff, the films’ international box office success led Weisz to high-profile turns

opposite Hugh Grant in About A Boy, opposite Paul Rudd in The Shape of Things, and opposite Keanu Reeves in Constantine. By the time she’d reached her Oscar-winning role in The Constant Gardener and her gripping performance in Aronofsky’s The Fountain, Weisz had earned a reputation for portraying women of incredible spirit and intelligence. Still, she bristles slightly at the suggestion that she’s especially attracted to strong characters. “I have this weird thing when people ask if I like to play strong women because it makes me think of weightlifters,” she counters with a laugh. “I don’t really know what it means! I don’t think anyone asks men if they like playing powerful men, do you know what I mean? I totally understand why the question is asked, but I think I’m more attracted to interesting women than strong women. I’m happy to play any character that interests me, even if they’re unintelligence and unspirited, as long as they have an interesting story. It’s all about finding a story that grabs you.” And Weisz has apparently been finding plenty of stories that grab her lately, as The Brothers Bloom is just the first of many films the actress has scheduled for release in the coming year. In Agora, a historical epic set in 300 AD from director Alejandro Amenábar (The Others), she plays a woman in Alexandria named Hypatia who was a philosopher and astronomer. In the socio-politically charged Luna she portrays another true-life character, environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill, who lived up in a redwood for two years and eight days to save the tree and raise awareness about the plight of redwoods in America. But first up is director Peter Jackson’s adaptation of the adored bestseller The Lovely Bones, in which Weisz co-stars opposite Mark Wahlberg as the parents of a murdered girl who watches the effects of her tragic death on her family from Heaven. Asked about the pressures of tackling a story with such a massive and devoted following, Weisz admits that she constantly referred back to the book during the shooting process. “For something like Penelope, there was zero research to do, because where do you find people like her?” she asks with a laugh. “But with The Lovely Bones I had the book with me on the set and I went back to it over and over and over again. It’s just fuel for your imagination, to get that poetry inside of you. Telling stories like that is what makes me impassioned.” From her blossoming career and her fruitful relationship with Aronofsky (who was also at the Toronto Film Festival touting his critically acclaimed new film, The Wrestler) to their three-year-old son, Henry, Rachel Weisz seems to have a lot to be impassioned about these days. And while one could argue that, at age 37, she’s just getting started, the London native seems remarkably content with where she is right now. “Everyone hopes that they’re going to be successful and get to do the kind of projects that they really believe in,” she says as our interview draws to a close. “Oftentimes when you’re younger you take work to pay the rent, and you don’t really get to choose much. Back [in the early stages of my career], I was just so happy to be working. There are so many actors out of work that, right at that point, I was just thrilled to have a job. But I’m in a position now, which is incredibly lucky, where I can pick and choose a little more. That’s a tremendous luxury!”

MUSIC INTERVIEW

Consumption Is Not Creation STEADY AS SHE GOES MC Lars On Making It (As Opposed To Faking It)

BY JOHN B. MOORE

T’S NOT HARD TO IMAGINE MC Lars, one of nerdcore’s most famous ambassadors, lip syncing to Weird Al songs as a youngster. It was a bit of idol worship then, when the twentysomething rapper found himself recording with the accordion-totting parody king last year. Weird Al is just one of well over a dozen or so guests who stopped by to share the mic with MC Lars for his latest This Gigantic Robot Kills. The record, his ninth if you throw in the numerous EPs he’s released, is exactly what people have come to expect from the California born and bred MC: witty swipes at celebrity, hipsters and trends. MC Lars (born Andrew Robert Nielsen), spoke with InSite recently about the European fans, his new album and the chances that he may someday record with Raffi. How was SXSW this year? Was this your first time performing there? This year SXSW was really exciting. In a turbulent time for the economy and independent music scene, it was great to see so many amazing and talented performers sticking to their guns and putting on great shows. I met some of my favorite rappers and did two showcases with my friends in the nerdcore hip-hop scene. It was my fourth time attending the festival and my third time performing at it. My favorite acts this year were Forrest Day, Sage Francis, MC Frontalot, Jesse Dangerously and 3OH!3. What a line up! You’re about to head to England for a tour. Have you found that audiences in Europe are act any different than US audiences? European audiences react quite differently. I studied at Oxford as a sophomore at Stanford and met a lot of people in the local indie rock scene. It was at this time that electronic hip-hop like the Streets and Dizzee Rascal and I was doing electro hip-hop stuff around this time, so what I was doing kind of caught on with the local scene there. Since then, I’ve toured Europe over 10 times, and because England is so much smaller than the US, word gets around more quickly. Fans their embrace the American bands and it’s an awesome time. Hip-hop and punk were born in the U.S. but England made them both a little fresher and stranger. Can you explain the story behind your new album’s title, This Gigantic Robot Kills? Wesley Willis was an outsider artist from Chicago who suffered from schizophrenia. He used his music as a way to deal with his mental and emotional stress and drew amazing pictures of the Chicago skyline from memory. When I met him at CMJ in 2000, I gave him two copies of my burnt CDs and he was encouraging about the stuff I was doing on my own. He told me his next record was going

to be called “This Gigantic Robot Kills,” and remembered me when I saw him a few years later in San Francisco. He died shortly thereafter and this album is a tribute to him. It was a challenge navigating between diﬀerent labels and managers in creating this record, funding most of the production on my own with diﬀerent producers across the country. The Gigantic Robot is both the music industry and my music - so let’s give props to ironic conundrums. I love the song “Hipster Girl”. Were you thinking of anyone in particular when you wrote it? Thanks dude. The girl on the track was the exgirlfriend of a singer from a popular Long Island indie rock band. She was a good friend of mine, but the song isn’t necessarily about her. I lived in Williamsburg for a year and wrote the song about the crews of people who hung out at McCarren Park Pool for the free shows and PBRs. Brooklyn is the nexus of hipster girl - and the girls there are fantastic and beautiful, but often hilarious parodies of themselves. The character on that track is an amalgam and the concept is a tribute to Zappa’s “Valley Girl”.

and Cubase - my punk band was doing shows on the Monterey Peninsula, and as a joke, I’d open for them with my laptop, a la Atom & His Package. When I got to college, KZSU (my college’s station) had the oldest hip-hop show on the West Coast, the Drum. They had a gigantic wall of hip-hop vinyl and I’d spend the weekends studying and listening to the old-school jams. That’s when I realized that hip-hop and punk were pretty similar and it would be my job to connect them. Nowadays I listen to mainly indie hiphop but love it when dudes NEW SINGLE like P.O.S. fuse everything.

THE “GUITAR HERO HERO” IS A CRY TO KIDS TO UNPLUG THEIR VIDEO GAMES AND START REAL BANDS AND PLAY REAL SHOWS. CONSUMPTION IS NOT CREATION! MAKE A DIFFERENCE, THE TIME IS NOW, AND NEVER IN THE HISTORY OF MUSIC HAS THE DIY APPROACH PAID OFF SO RICHLY.

Growing up did you tend to listen to more hip hop or punk? How about now? Growing up I was a “Weird Al”/Nirvana/Marilyn Manson/Nine Inch Nails mainstream 90s rock guy. I got into the Oﬀspring and saw a show they did in Santa Cruz where Jello Biafra came out and sang some Dead Kennedys songs with them. That was when I was in 8th grade, and around this time I was learning guitar so I started a punk band. I learned how to record on a four-track and then started doing beat-making stuﬀ on my computer with Rebirth

Can you tell me about some of the guests you had on this new record? “Weird Al” Yankovich has always been a huge inspiration to be and he hit me up in 2006 because he’d heard about me. He played accordion on my song “True Player for Real” and one of the highlights of the recording process was being on the phone with him as he played diﬀerent triads on his accordion and asked me how he wanted me to have him play them. To think that “Weird Al” was looking to me for music direction was a highlight of my career! Pierre from Simple Plan and Gabe from Cobra Starship were friends I made playing shows in the UK. Suburban Legends and the Aquabats were ska friends of mine I toured with in the U.S., and I wrote the title track with my friend Joe from Patent Pending. Wheatus I became friends with through Bowling for Soup, and I’d been fans of them since I was in high school. The hip-hop guests are friends from the “nerdcore scene”, except for K.Flay, who I went to college with and was the subject of a love song on the Graduate. She helped me craft some of my rhymes and beats. Mike Kennedy from Vision of Disorder was my roommate

in Brooklyn. Yes, this album has more guests than a Dre record - but it was fun conducting an e-mail orchestra of parts. Anyone you’ve always wanted to record with? I’d die a happy man if KRS-One would collab with me. That would be incredible. I met Jello Biafra at a Leftover Crack show and would love to work with him too - homeboy’s insane and brilliant. Del tha Funkee Homosapien and I met on the set of some commercials we did for G4 and have been talking about hooking some stuff up. I’m also doing a whole concept record with my boy Jesse Dangerously... and YTCracker and I always have hot stuff brewing. I’m working on a children’s record too, so if Raffi wanted to sing a hook, that would be bananas (as in banana phones). You started your own label, Horris records, awhile ago. Ever thought about signing other bands? I’m signed to Crappy Records, which is an imprint under Oglio, and funded a lot of the production for TGRK under Horris. Crappy Records is Jaret from Bowling for Soup’s new label, and they have been doing great stuff for me. They are good friends of mine who have taken me out on many tours. Horris is my production company, and of course I still want to hook up my friends and get them distribution, but in the meantime I’m proud to be part of the Crappy family, even though the music we put out is the antithesis of the name. Listening to anything interesting lately? Q-Tip’s new record flipped my wig, Amadou & Mariam are a fantastic “world music” act, and 3OH!3 rocked the hell out of everyone in the indie/ hip-hop/electro/Warped Tour community. Jesse Dangerously’s albums are fantastic. Aesias Finale are an ill production team out of Alabama who rock and have been making hot beats for me. Have you set up summer tour plans yet? I’m doing a two month US tour with K.Flay and YTCracker and some shows with Jesse Dangerously. I’ll probably head back to the UK after that and then start to work on the new record. My homeboy MC Chris and I are touring together later this year too - he’s hilarious and the kids freaking love him. Anything else you want to add? Jello Biafra said “Don’t hate the media, become the media”. That’s the key to what I’m doing don’t consume, create. Sure Myspace is littered with ways to “promote yourself” but spend the time making music, not networking with bands that spend more time networking than creating. The new single “Guitar Hero Hero” is a cry to kids to unplug their video games and start real bands and play real shows. Consumption is not creation! Make a difference, the time is now, and never in the history of music has the DIY approach paid off so richly. PG 23 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

COVER FEATURE

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404-526-9366 www.sae-atl.com Continuing the tradition established in 1976, SAE Atlanta educates students for careers in the entertainment industry with the focus of hands-on training. Students gain invaluable experience working on real-world projects every day. SAE Atlanta currently offers two programs: SAE's Audio Technology Program, where students can earn an Associate of Science Degree (unique to SAE Atlanta) or an SAE Diploma. Students have access to over 30 studios and workstations while studying at SAE Atlanta. Included are analog and digital mix-down stations by Mackie and Yamaha, FX stations, and Apple computers throughout to complete digital editing, Pro Tools, sampling, and remix exercises. To round off the educational experience the facility boasts both the SSL 4000G+ and NEVE VR60 analog consoles. All graduates are provided job placement assistance and are eligible to become members of SAE's international Alumni Association. Financial assistance is available for those who quality and both full and part time classes are available. For more information please contact our Admissions Department at 404-526-9366 or visit our web site at www.sae-atl.com. SAE Atlanta is located at 215 Peachtree Street Suite 300, Atlanta GA 30303.

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Students looking for a more personal approach to education may find the answer at Argosy University, Atlanta. This leading institution offers a variety of degree programs that focus on the human side of success alongside professional competence. All graduate and undergraduate programs (there are 48 nationwide, across 19 Argosy University campuses in 12 states) emphasize interpersonal skills as well as academic learning. And all are taught by practicing professionals who bring toplevel, real-world experience-and clear-eyed realism-into the classroom. So students graduate with both a solid foundation of knowledge, and the power to put it to work. Argosy University, Atlanta is located in the city of Sandy Springs, at 980 Hammond Drive, Suite 100. Argosy University offers graduate and undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Business, and graduate degrees in Education and Counseling. Programs feature dynamic curricula delivered in flexible class formats that make it easy to pursue a degree while meeting family and professional demands. Students choose from day and evening courses, on campus or online. Argosy University accepts students yearround on a rolling admissions basis, depending on availability of required courses. There's also a wide range of financial aid options for students who qualify. Applications and additional information are available online at argosy.edu/Atlanta or by contacting the campus at 1-800-377-0617.

Recharging Your Jobsearch BY ROGER PRESSWOOD ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR ALUMNI CAREER SERVICES GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY

In these difficult economic times of high unemployment, it's easy for your job search to become stalled and frustrating. Simply doing the "normal" job search is not enough in these competitive times to land you a job. If you're not generating the amount of leads and interviews you would like, it's time to revaluate your job search strategy. Here is a comprehensive strategy that covers the six critical areas of the job search. Implement each of these to give you the extra knowledge and motivation to recharge your job search. PREPARATION: Success in any area of life stems from preparation and organization. Have you set yourself up to succeed, or fail? Do you have a planned strategy to search for a position, or are you haphazardly searching. Set up specific times during the day and a set number of hours that you will dedicate to your job search. Give yourself some structure and stick to it! Spending an hour on the internet is what everyone else is doing. RESUME: Has anyone in your industry reviewed your resume? Industry professionals know what makes your resume competitive, so call upon those resources. You can also have your resume reviewed by a resume professional, but nothing beats a person already working in your industry. CONNECTING: Are you connecting with anyone, or sitting behind the computer? Today's positions are being spread word of mouth more than ever, so you have to be connected and actively networking where people

recognize your face if you hope to separate yourself from the herd of candidates. Also remember to join industry associations and volunteer on committees. INTERVIEWING: What you are saying that's different that the last 10 candidates? You'd better have a minimum of 3 personal and unique "value-adds" along with some actual success stories and accomplishments that you can confidently state will bring success to the organization if you want to be considered a top candidate by the interviewer. PERSISTENCE: If you don't get a call in a week, do you give up sending out resumes? Are you networking once a month and saying it doesn't work? Those are the things unemployed people do. If you want a job in this economy, you must be persistent and not let discouragement overtake your desire to succeed. Know your goal and never give up. THE "LIKEABILITY" FACTOR: I'm amazed by how many people who are looking for work do it with a look of despair or dissatisfaction on their faces. How can you expect to be networked or hired if you are not positive and likeable? People hire people they like! If you don't have a positive attitude that you are conveying to others, you will remain unemployed because there are too many competitive candidates to hire a person who is not likeable. A smile is the most underrated job tactic.

. . . X T I E S N E WHMES TO IGNORANCE IS CO

DEFINITELY NOT BLISS

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MUSIC INTERVIEW

Back to the Bases with Little White Lies

BY JOHN B. MOORE

HOUGH THEY DIDN’T TECHNICALLY breakup, fans would be forgiven for thinking Fastball had called it quits after 2004’s Keep Your Wig On, arguably the band’s best album to date. Though Fastball has been keeping pretty quiet, the members have been busy putting in time with other bands and working on solo projects as well as catching up with families and just trying to live normal lives. Half a decade after putting the tour bus in storage, the Austin-based band is back with Little White Lies, their ﬁfth full length. The record is, in the tradition of their early albums, straight ahead rock. Guitarist Miles Zuniga and bassist/singer Tony Scalzo spoke with us recently about the hiatus, the new album and really bad baseball porn.

It’s been ﬁve years since the last record. What have all of you been doing during that time? Miles Zuniga: We’ve all been busy making music in one form or another. I put out two records with my other band the Small Stars. They’re kind of cabaret/ glam/juke joint music. Tony Scalzo: I’ve been writing and recording some solo material. I’ve also been writing with other songwriters, like Kathy Valentine from The GoGo’s and Jaret Riddick from Bowling For Soup. In fact, one of our tunes will be featured on the next Bowling For Soup CD due out in the fall. I’ve also been focusing on my family, my kids. Did you all know you were going to record again

after Keep Your Wig O,n or did you ever consider ending the band? Tony: I think we all assumed we would get productive again at some point. Miles: I actually quit the band way back in 2002 or something. I ended up coming back. We never know what’s going to happen next but it feels like we’ve got some momentum going right now.

What can you tell me about the new record Little White Lies? Miles: It’s our best album. Tony: Little White Lies was written with Ben Margulies who wrote most of Mariah Carrey’s debut album. I know it sounds weird, but the guy has a great feel for hooks and I think Little White Lies has a few of those. It kind of started with the disco bass line and then melodies came. Miles sewed it all together and wrote great lyrics. We just dug it right away. When did you start writing the songs that made it on the new record? Miles: We started writing the record about two years ago. We did major surgery on some of the songs. Usually I try to screw the song up and Tony tries to keep it in place. That push/pull produces our best stuﬀ. Tony: A couple songs are old: “How Did I Get Here” was written over four years ago! Most are new, like within the past 12 months. Any songs that you’re particularly proud of? Tony: I’m proud of all of ‘em. Miles: I love “Soul Radio.” That one was a real bugbear. It was a more up tempo Big Star/Tom Petty thing. When I was listening back to the piano track I

thought, “What would that sound like backwards?” That took the song in an entirely different direction and we ended up rewriting and rerecording the whole thing. You guys have been together more than 15 years - a lifetime for a lot of bands recording now. How have you managed to stay together for so long? Miles: It still feels new to me. I feel like we’re just now becoming a really good live band. As long as it’s interesting and we have new places to go, I’ll keep doing it. Tony: Well, we take a lot of breaks! Have your musical influences changed much since starting the band? Tony: My musical influences haven’t changed much, but I utilize them more. Miles: As a pimply-faced kid, I grew up on Classic Rock and Heavy Metal. Later on I got more and more into jazz and stuff like Doug Sahm and Mexican conjunto music, just rootsier stuff. I like different rhythms. Rock music can be so square. Something I’ve always wanted to ask: is the band really named after a porno? Miles: Yeah. Our old sound guy had it on VHS. It’s like Bull Durham, but the lead guy didn’t look much like Tim Robbins. More like Kevin Costner with a mullet. It didn’t have much of a plot. Do you plan to do much touring behind the new record? Miles: Yeah, although I have a love/hate relationship with touring. I love playing the shows, but I hate getting there! PG 27 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

MUSIC INTERVIEW

�� RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS KEEP WORKIN’ FOR A LIVIN’

BY JOHN B. MOORE

F ACCOLADES AND WORD OF mouth were currency, Austin’s Riverboat Gamblers would be millionaires many times over by now. The group has been packing clubs across the country for the past half decade. Their last record, To the Confusion of Our Enemies, ended up on a slew of Best of Lists in 2006 and earned the band a slot on a number of high profile tours. Nearly two years after their last release, the band is back with a new record. Frontman Mike Wiebe spoke with us recently about a few lineup changes, playing next to the rodeo and why he can’t quit his day job just yet. The last time I spoke with you, you were still working at a diner in Texas. Have you guys been able to quit your day jobs? We haven’t quite quit day jobs yet. But in these days with this economy even Bill Gates is picking up a shift at the local diner now and then. I might could live off of music alone but I like gadgets and equipment and sushi too much. It takes grindin’ to be a king. What has changed for you guys since the last record? A new president for one. But that was after recording. Since the last record came out we toured the states and Canada many times over. Got to meet idols. Had our lives fall apart and rebuild. I mean, I don’t wanna be too dramatic, but I really feel like a different person. I still have the same values.... but, so much has happened and a lot of it on a level that I can’t quite verbalize. What can you tell me about the new album? The new album is called Underneath the Owl. It was recorded in LA at the Hobby Shop with Andrew Murdock. The writing process on this one was pretty different than the last few. The past few records were pretty much me and Fadi (el-Assad, guitar) coming in with songs and then everyone else putting flourishes and garnishes on top. This one was an entirely group effort. Everyone brought stuff in. Songs were taken apart and reassembled and rearranged again. It took longer to write and we tried to take more chances. We wanted to keep progressing and make a record that stood apart while fitting within the discography. I had more fun writing this record and felt more accomplished at the end. There was some stressful stuff going on for us personally at the time. I think the record reflects that as well. Do you think your sound has change much since the first record? Our sound has changed dramatically since the first record. It’s been years and years so it should change in my opinion. We changed sonically from the first album to the second and with each record we have tried to stretch out and do something new. I kinda feel like this new one goes in some darker places. We used a lot of different equipment this time. Lots of combo amps, which we had never really used before. Lots of reverb on this one. We also tried to use less effect on the vocals. We had a lot of songs that I think were really good that didn’t end up making it onto the album. We never start out thinking “this album is going to sound like …” We just PG 28 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

wrote and wrote and then edited and let the record shape itself. There are a couple tracks that didn’t make the album because they didn’t flow in the theme of the record, but we are still feeling them and playing them live. There was lots of head scratching and debating on what songs should go where. Any lineup changes in the band since To the Confusion of Our Enemies? We actually didn’t have an official drummer for Confusion. Dave Brozowski came in and did the record. We knew from the start that he couldn’t do it full time. Afterwards we pretty much spent the entire year and a half to two years trying out drummers on the road because we had to keep touring. We couldn’t sit back and see how it felt. And it is a really delicate thing meshing with a band and personally and musically. And on top of all that financially...So then we brought

It seems like you’ve been on tour non-stop since the last record came out. Did you have much time off to write and record for the new CD? We had.... Well we went out with Strike in Feb 08. And we had a few songs that were early versions of what is on the record. So we got home in March and wrote five days a week or so until July between the occasional show and side projects and whatever it is we do..... Oh yeah... We had those Toadies shows too so we got to test out new material on that run. We would sort of bang stuff out with two or three of us in different configurations and then all meet as a full band and work stuff out. Ian’s (MacDougall, guitar) gotten good at recording his own demos and he just gave us a CD early on and some stuff came from that. In fact there is still a lot of stuff on those that needs to get revisited. But

Do you guys still dig being on the road? I still really enjoy being on the road. Of course there are bad days and all, but its invigorating work to me to try and put on a great show every night and deal with the hundreds of other things one has to deal with when touring. There are a few things I am striving to make better and it’s been really good having some time off lately. But I really want to go out there again lately.

things were getting tweaked until the last minute.

You’ve been doing this a few years now have you guys been surprised at all about how the music business works? I don’t know that anything surprises me anymore about the industry. I don’t really understand it but I am kind of learning how to pimp it (to use the parlance of the times). The thing is, is that we are not making cookie cutter music. This can make for a harder road when you look at the amount of successful derivative bands as opposed to successful original bands is pretty skewed. A lot of people want essentially the same shit they have heard before. They want stuff that has an easy genre to label on it. We don’t really fit into that. It’s poppy and sometimes garage-y and sometimes punk and sometimes whatever any other genre. I am not at all saying that we have reinvented the wheel; I just think that we have never tried to do the same thing musically or to fit into any scene. We are lucky and have had some success at it and that is really great. But we gotta keep grindin’ and keep hustlin’.

How was it touring with The Toadies? Touring with the Toadies was fun. It was just a little tour that gave us days off to go home in the middle...so bonus We played some pretty out of the way places to big crowds in towns that most bands don’t go to. I will say, however, that Odessa, Texas was truly some redneck shit. We played a stage right next to a rodeo arena. We got heckled by some idiots at the front of the stage and I was able to shame them in front of everyone. The staff of the place was great though. Some had gold plated side arms. Afterwards

Anything else you want to add? Go grab the new single from our Web site. It’s called a “Choppy Yet Sincere Apology”. It is a free download along with a B-side. Put it on your iPod and give it to your friends. Our gift to you. We just shot a video for the song, so be on the lookout for that as well. The new record is called Underneath the Owl. It comes out in early March. We’ll be touring the world and elsewhere starting in late February so keep an eye, ear, nose and throat out for us. We’ll be coming to your town or one worth driving to.

SINCE THE LAST RECORD CAME OUT WE...GOT TO MEET IDOLS. HAD OUR LIVES FALL APART AND REBUILD. I MEAN, I DON’T WANNA BE TOO DRAMATIC, BUT I REALLY FEEL LIKE A DIFFERENT PERSON. I STILL HAVE THE SAME VALUES.... BUT, SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED AND A LOT OF IT ON A LEVEL THAT I CAN’T QUITE VERBALIZE. in Eric Green and it was one of those things that clicked in the way we were looking for. But at the end of Eric’s first tour, Pat (Lilard, bass) decided he was done with the road. He was an original guy so it took us awhile to regroup and decide what to do. We took it really easy. We made no touring plans. We tried out guys and told them “hey, we are trying out guys after you no matter how good you do”. Rob (Marchant) was the first guy we tried out, but we played shows with two other guys and tried out at least six other people. We did the Strike Anywhere tour last year with Rob and then we looked at each other and said.... “Wow, this can really work”.

we shot pellet guns with the Toadies. Todd Lewis carries an arsenal of pellet guns. So cool!

Leaving the Nest

This second time around the NBA Playoffs, young Atlanta Hawks Josh Smith and Al Horford know what to expect

BY DEMARCO WILLIAMS

HILE, STATISTICALLY, THE Atlanta Hawks are one of the NBA’s youngest teams –The starting lineup of Al Horford, Josh Smith, Marvin Williams, Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson averages 24.8 years of age- they aren’t acting like it. Of course, last season’s epic first-round match-up with Boston has something to do with the maturity. But so too does a 47-35 regular season that proved to everyone the ballyhooed postseason run was no fluke. After a tough Game 2 home loss in the first-round battle with the Dwyane Wade-led Miami Heat, two of the most important Hawks, Smith and Horford, tell INsite what it’s like growing up before the basketball world. On being confident in the playoffs Josh Smith: It’s real important. But I think that nobody is antsy and thinking doubt in our minds. We’ve been through the lows this season. We just gotta bounce back. On the Hawks postseason free-throw woes JS: Yeah, but missing free throws didn’t make us loss the [April 22] game. It was the defensive eﬀort early on, us not being able to share the ball on the oﬀensive end. Al Horford: Yeah, it’s important to be focused at the free-throw line. But, I mean, we gotta look at it defensively. Giving up 108 points, that’s not us.

JOSH SMITH On being too comfortable in front of the home crowd JS: We just didn’t play with a sense of urgency. They attacked us more so than us attacking them. They were more physical than us. We shied away from the contact. I feel as though we played too selfish out there on the court. We aren’t passing the ball, getting everyone involved. No one communicates on the defensive

Jadakiss and Tell

A NY hip hop icon, Jadakiss has seen it all and done most of it too. Here’s his story. BY DEMARCO WILLIAMS

N MAY 22, JASON “JADAKISS” PHILLIPS turns 34. Yep, I know. He’s getting up there. Hell, me too. My memory’s so cloudy these days I can only vaguely recall nervously walking into an Atlanta-area Holiday Inn lobby back in ’96 to interview a trio of hard-talking, babyfaced rappers who called themselves The LOX.I only remember that much because the night was such a big deal in my career. They were my first interview subject ever for this magazine. When I mention the personal milestone to Jada during a recent conversation, the new Roc-A-Fella signee doesn’t brush it off like some celebrities might. “So, we’re like distant family then,” he says in his raspy way. Yeah, I guess we kinda are. Like a cousin, I’ve hurt in the past with Jada during the rough times of poor album sales, rumors of a LOX split and the death ofKiss’ mentor Biggie Smalls. But thankfully, we’ve also shared some highs over the years- none more deserving than the acclaim my man’s been getting the last few weeks for his super new CD, The Last Kiss. During our reunion, we chat about creating the album, making hip hop better and being the ideal Jadakiss fan. When you look across the hip hop landscape, are you pleased with what you see? I’m cool with where hip hop is, but I’m not cool when I look at the radio. You gotta go on You Tube and your [personal] archive to please yourself. The radio and the videos ain’t really what’s poppin’ right now. How would you describe what you hear on the radio and see on TV? Shaky. Confusing. I think some people are taking the art for granted. Hip hop is a culture that shouldn’t be tampered with. It should be expanded. We’re here to maximize our opportunities,

but we ain’t here… Hip hop stems from break-dancing and block parties out in the park and a DJ with two turntables, a mixer and two MCs battling, going back and forth. We can’t switch it. We can’t be ignorant about it. But at the same time, we can’t make the shit too far out, know what I mean? Along those same lines, I have to ask, with your album cover and Ne-Yo-featured first single, are we seeing a new Jada? Nah, nah. Not at all. That Ne-Yo song is for the ladies, whether we like it or not. Before they go get their hair and nails done, they’re gonna stop and cop the album. They cop the album before they go and get dressed for that night. You gotta cater to the ladies no matter how you look at it- no matter how gangsta you are or what you portray. I sat there and listened to hardcore albums with the ladies and they said, “Damn,I wish he had one song on there for the ladies.” I just tried to throw a couple of joints on there. Def Jam just wanted to go with that first, since it was Ne-Yo.I couldn’t complain ‘cuz that’s how you keep getting them to spend the money, you know what I mean? I’m an artist. I understand the demographics of the game. If you start complaining early, they cut the money off. So,I had to let them rock with that. It was a free look and it brains off when I perform my ladies segment. It works out as a win-win for me. I ain’t changin’ though. That might be good ‘cuz you gotta cop the album in case you think I changed. For that Kiss you wanna hear, that album is definitely that. There definitely aren’t no more songs like the Ne-Yo song [on The Last Kass], but there are some songs for the ladies. That ain’t what the core of the album is. The core of the album is that Jada shit- them good lyrics, them good beats. Hearing me with the Ghost and Rae. Hearing me with Styles P. Hearing me with Sheek. Hearing me with Nas. Hearing me with Weezy. Hearing me with Jeezy. Hearing me going off. That’s what it’s about.

end and we have lapses on defense. We can’t have that. It’s very critical. Every game is very critical. AH: In the past, at home, we were really good and we’re able to come back and get wins. We just kept waiting and waiting, but in the playoffs you can’t do that. On keeping emotions in check JS: It’s a little frustrating. But I knew that

SPORTS NEWS this game was going to be a little physical and it probably wasn’t going to be a lot of fouls called. I was a little frustrated but I kept my head in the game and stayed focused and tried to do what it took for my team to win. We just weren’t able to get the win tonight. On making game-to-game adjustments JS: They threw a new play at us today. We wasn’t able to react in time and it kinda burnt us. I think we let [Daequan] Cook get his confidence early. He was a three-point [contest] winning shooter. Whenever he gets his confidence going, you’re in for a game. AH: We were a little careless with the ball. We have to come down and run and offense and make them defend and take good shots. That’s the biggest key. That’s some of the things that we’re gonna look at. On defending Dwyane Wade JS: He was determined. He was more aggressive on offense. When he’s playing like that, he’s a hard guy to stop. It’s hard to beat him. He got himself into it and he got his teammates involved. Everything was clicking on their side. AH: He made some tough shots. You gotta give him credit. As we talked about earlier in the week, he was a Finals MVP. We know what he’s capable of. He just showed us how good of a player he is. On playing road games JS: We’re good. It is what it is. We lost this game, but we still feel confident. As long as we feel confident, I’m not worried about anything. We just gotta play with a sense of urgency. We gotta play with a sense of urgency like we played in Game 1. We gotta get at them defensively and we gotta share the ball offensively. As long as we share the ball offensively, I think everything else on the court clicks.

MUSIC INTERVIEW What does it take to be a Jada fan? Not too much. If you’re a Jada fan or a D-Block or a LOX fan, you understand that it ain’t so much about the glamour and glitz. It’s about having a good time being you. Just being original and doing what you wanna do, you know what I mean? You might be at a big party with Wesley Snipes, Diddy, Hove,Nas and me. You might be standing in the corner opposed to sitting in the VIP, poppin’ bottles, minglin’ and dumpin’ ashes of cigars. We can have the same amount of fun as them by just standing by the stairwell or sumthin’. Just being regular is our type of fans, whatever you describe regular as. We not gonna hop outta Phantoms. We’re not gonna have the big, Slick Rick jewelry. We might have a nice watch or a cross on or sumthin’. We don’t overdo it. People that just be doin’ them is our kind of fans. [Those who] hope for the best and expect the worst is our type of fan. Jada, when were you the happiest- now or back in the day with The LOX? I’m happiest every day that I wake up. I got a lot of money opposed to whatever you might think. I gotta be happy off that. My finances are almost equivalent to somebody that’s sold three or five million records. At the same time, with the respect that I got and being able to buy my moms cars when she wants them, you gotta take it for that. I come from nuthin’. To have a lil’ bit is a damn good blessing. What’s the future for D-Block looking like? We got the compilation, NoSecurity, coming. After that, we got The LOX album coming at the end of the summer, in September.

help is always good. Everybody could use help- Barack, Jordan, LeBron, Kobe, Shaq. Everybody needs a lil’ bit of help. Was Jay-Z’s suggestion just that you needed more diversity? Nah, you know. We’re tryin’ to make classics here, so let’s just trim some of the fat off of it and make sure it’s a solid joint. I was cool with him ‘cuz I was thinkin’ maybe I got too many songs. How the games go is that sometimes you make songs for your next album before you make the next album. As long as you have extra, you’ll give some to the internet, some can be sold to soundtracks. It’s always better to have more than less. He was like, “I think you should do two more songs.” That ended up being three more songs. So, now the batch is even crazier to select from. Give me two or three of your solo joints or LOX songs that really exemplify you. “By YourSide” off the last album. “We Gonna Make It” and “Money, Power, Respect” [off LOX albums]. They all really complement our career. We’re out for money, power and respect. We basically got two out of the three. We’re working on more money. We got the power and the respect. The chant that we sing to ourselves, in the mirror, in the huddle and after the prayer is, We Gonna Make It. Us comin’ together and still bein’ together and not lettin’ nuthin’ break us up- by your side. With those three things always in light and in my head, they can’t stop me- which is my new single out! It’s all connected.

Yeah, I was gonna ask about another LOX album. I know you get tired of addressing it, right? I’mma be hurt when they stop asking me. That’s why we gotta get that to you before they stop asking. What are you most happy about with this new album? Being able to do me. Not that they didn’t let me do me on the other ones. But the sense of freedom that I had was crazy. I was almost able to do the whole thing without having to tweak nuthin’. But right at the last minute, Hove came in and [had me] go back in with Swizz [Beatz]. I got a joint from Khaled and another Pharrell joint. It was good. Some advice and some extra

PG 29 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

SPORTS NEWS

FANATIC BY DEMARCO WILLIAMS “If she goes on to her livelihood as a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and has the kind of success and impact in whatever industry she chooses, whether it’s for the time she plays professional to anything else she chooses to do in life, and then decides to make a contribution back to the program to help other student-athletes who have been a part of the legacy she’s left behind, that’s terrific,” -OKLAHO MA AD JOE CASTIGLIONE, after record-shattering Sooner senior Courtney Paris was unable to back her guarantee of bringing a national title to the school “I don’t really mind it. I don’t plan on being irrelevant. I’ve been very blessed, and I plan on making an impact right away. I’ve been blessed with the ability to do it, and I’m looking forward to doing it.” –SOUTH CAROLINA KICKER RYAN SUCCOP, after earning the title of “Mr. Irrelevant” for being the last pick (256th to be exact) of the ’09 NFL Draft

A Monthly Sports Must-See TV Wrap-up Top 5 Games This Month

lected was Spencer Adkins in the sixth round by Atlanta… But on the flip side, the UConn Huskies had a record four players taken in the first two rounds. NBA PLAYOFFS TIDBITS: Detroit, Atlanta and Houston are the only teams not to have a player in the top 20 in scoring after the first week of action… Through the first four games, the Philly/Orlando series is the only one where every game’s been decided by single digits… Portland-area bloggers are screaming for Greg Oden and Steve Blake’s heads… In Cleveland’s sweep of downtrodden Detroit, LeBron James joined Oscar Robertson and Larry Bird as the only players to ever average 30 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in a postseason series… Why isn’t anyone really talking about the well-rounded Denver Nuggets as serious contenders?

Josh Freeman

“I’d take me over them. I feel like I’m the better QB, but they’re getting more of the hype. But I’ve got the rest of my career to prove that I’m the best guy.” –KANSAS STATE QB JOSH FREEMAN, after the more-heralded Matthew Stafford (No. 1 pick) and Mark Sanchez (No. 5) were selected before he got the call at No. 17 by Tampa Bay OTHER DRAFT TIDBITS: While Stafford and Sanchez were stealing headlines, passing peers John Parker Wilson (Alabama), Graham Harrell (Texas Tech) and Chase Daniels (Missouri) weren’t selected by anyone… LSU receiver Demetrius Boyd was selected 225th by San Diego. Boyd was critically injured in a car accident on April 19… Miami’s 14-year streak of having a player drafted in the first round came to an end. The first Hurricane se-

Last season’s WORLD SERIES participants, Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, were a combined 17-20 at press time. Two of last season’s worst teams, Seattle and Pittsburgh, were a combined 23-14. Yep, ‘09 already has the makings of one of those topsy-turvy years.

And finally… Madden NFL 10 video game drops August 10. For the first time in the 21-year history of the iconic title, two players, Pittsburgh’s Troy Polamalu and Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald, will be on the cover… Speaking of Arizona receivers, Anquan Boldin’s younger bro, D.J. Boldin, went undrafted but has already signed a free-agent contract with the Detroit Lions… MLB.com’s list of the top veteran free agents waiting on the phone to ring: 1) Pedro Martinez 2) Ben Sheets 3) Paul Byrd 4) Jim Edmonds 5) Frank Thomas…John Tavares, the likely top pick of the June NHL Entry Draft, is also an excellent lacrosse player. His uncle, John Tavares, is the all-time leading scorer in the National Lacrosse League.

$10

1 2 3

NBA Conference Finals (Late May, TBD, ESPN/ABC/TNT)

The Players Championship (May 9-10, TBD, NBC)

LA Dodgers vs. Cubs Chicago (May 31, 8:05PM, ESPN)

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just skip all the formalities and jump right to a Cavs/Lakers ﬁnal?

NHL Conference Finals (Late May, TBD, Versus)

Some folks don’t even have Versus, but those who do will love watching Detroit and Boston skate around the competition.

French Open (May 24-June 7, TBD, Tennis Channel/NBC)

Rafael Nadal really (he won in ’05), really (’06 too), really (and ’07) really (and ’08) likes this tournament.

In this wide-open golf season, anybody has a chance of winning the top prize here, including ’08 champ Sergio Garcia.

These two, who’ll duke it out all summer for a spot in the National League’s upper echelon, get to swinging.

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www.usedmagazines.com PG 30 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

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PG 31 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2009

We Take Fres h Serio us ly

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