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Old News: 1999 1998
Stefan's News
(2000 version)

December

Did you hear about all the airports in New York getting closed by that New Year's Eve snow storm? Of course you know I went home through NYC for the holidays, right? Well on that great check-list of things to do once in your life, I've completed the get stranded overnight at an airport by a snowstorm. On the plus side there were blankets, cots, nice people, TV, and free internet access.

Cast Away, the new Tom Hanks movie was nice but nothing really exciting. The survival island plotline was good, but the love story plotline was too brief.

Quills a movie about the Marquis De Sade's incarceration in a asylum was weak. The acting was great, but the story was really weak. And no sex! How can you have a movie with the Marquis De Sade and not have sex? It's basically the director's insight into the mental health profession, human nature, and the power of the inquisition.

My favorite cello player, Diana Obscura performed with her band, Aphelion at Eyedrum on the 22nd. They were very enjoyable, but the basement of a small gallery was not a particularly good venue. Paul Mercer of The Changelings and American Dream also performed. I understand Paul's show better now too. Ghosts is a series of compositions inspired from a collection of old instruments. His haunting scores are thematic and he hopes that the ghosts themselves will make an appearance. Spooky.

KICK-ASS FUN! Wow, was that fun. Four bands rocked the Echo Lounge until 2am for an incredible night of Grrl power. 99X and New Castle Brown Ale gave away shirts and CDs while Born To Please, Puddin', 6X, and Catfight! kept the house a Rockin'! There were Christmas outfits, songs, and risqué humor for all. [a review will come in January]

I can't believe I went out on a Wednesday again! But how can you resist seeing Pinkeye and the Helgas at the Star Bar? It was way fun. American Plastics also played. Read my review here

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas was good. There was some childish stuff for the kiddies, but enough adult stuff to keep me interested too. They were also very respectful to the original which made me very happy.

Dralion posterI got a last minute invite to Dralion, the latest presentation from Cirque Du Soleil, when Jill's hubby Russ got sent away on business. Sorry Russ, but it was a way cool show. It's a circus, but no real animals, just acrobats and jugglers and clowns. It's more spectacle than anything else, but it's still an exciting ride. You know it's live too, because we saw a couple of accidents. Like when the acrobats were trying to jump through these rings: mostly they made it, but one took a hard fall. The safety wires were distracting too. My favourite part was the clown show recap.

6X played the E.A.R.L. with The Telepathics and Puddin'. It ran way too late, but I had fun and made it home alive.

November

Jennifer Daniels finally won the shoot-out at Eddie's Attic on Fri. Nov 24. She beat out Christopher Williams (whom I thought was also excellent) and eighteen other singers for the $1000 dollar prize. Read the Creative Loafing article - Joys in the Attic by Gregory Nicoll

In the tradition of bands named after deadly diseases (i.e Anthrax), Pinkeye brought their unique form of "Skin-Punk" to the Star Bar. They're still pretty rough, and need more practice, but it was still a good show.

The 6th Day was good. Lots of action and an interesting story made it fun, although the plot was a little simple and it followed a too familiar formula.

Sometimes you see a movie and think a character is strange. Then you go home, look in the mirror, and ask, "Do I do that?" Almost Famous was a good movie: but I don't feel too good right now. I'm asking myself some uncomfortable questions.

Sat. Nov 4 - Dido put on a great show at the Variety Playhouse. The crowd was very white and very 20 to 30 something which even attracted a comment from the singer. Her mix of acoustic and synth pop was really nice to hear and the audience was not disappointed when she played her hits, "Here With You", "Thank You", "Hunter" and introduced some new material. A girl behind me was broadcasting the show on her cell-phone.

The 6X Thunder Bomb CD release party at the Star Community Bar in L5P was awesome! Pretty Vacant amazed the crowd making it very hard for local favorite Catfight! to follow up. But it was Ann's last show and emotions were high: eventually bringing tears to her bandmates eyes. 6X came on at 12:30 and great fun continued until the wee tiny hours.

Anne Rice 11-1-00 new friends the really long line

Wed. Nov 1 - Anne Rice, was in town signing copies of Merrick at the Media Play. I was lucky enough to leave work early and be tenth in line. By 6pm the line wrapped through the store and down the street. I was out by 6:15 but an estimated 6,000 others had a slightly longer wait.

October

Annie Leibovitz

World famous photographer Annie Leibovitz was in town to sign her latest book, Women. I only waited in line for an hour, which wasn't too bad. She seemed very pleasant and the book has some great pictures.

Saturday Oct. 28, 6X put on a fun but short show in the parking lot outside Criminal Records to promote their new CD - Thunder Bomb. I have a photo credit: check it out!

Jennifer Daniels played the Borders Books on Cobb Parkway but a head-cold made her cut it short.

The 28th Annual Stone Mountain Highland Festival was great kilted fun.

The American Shakespeare Tavern's performance of Doctor Faustus wasn't great. Their interpretation only had one act, with two actors, which I found tiresome. The play was hard to understand and their speaking was hard to understand at times too. The set was interesting, but that's the only plus I could see.

Paul Mercer did a performance/exhibition at the Nomenclature Museum. It was an interesting gothic music type event attended by a few vampires. The place was decorated for Halloween by Cheryl with offerings and candles and old pictures: quite cool. Damon Young assisted with mixing the music.

Saturday, October 14 - The Love in Song (Paul McCartney Tribute CD) release party at the E.A.R.L with Catfight! was good music and good fun. The cake was a real sweet bonus. I really enjoyed The Cashmen and The Lizardmen. Jennifer of Catfight! was upset when she blew the amp. I thought their set was too shot, but I still enjoyed their show. Published by Demagogue Productions

Amanda Jones played a great show at the Metropolitan Pizza Bar in Buckhead. They were asked to play a few covers and it was great! Teresa broke into several screaming guitar riffs during Wild Thing that drove the crowd wild. Kristen really got into the Hole song, pounding the drums like a maniac. It ran really late, but everyone seemed to have fun. Several band friends showed up too, which was nice (Ali, Jim, & Chris) The place was small, but the sound was really good. The pizza was really good too and the beer selection is fine.

Chili-girls from Kicks 101.5FM21st Annual Miller Lite Chili Cook Off at Stone Mountain park was great! There were over 300 chili recipes to sample and free Pepsid AC as a chaser. The people were really fun and the music was very enjoyable. I think the girls (shown at left) from Kicks 101.5 were demonstrating the proper attitude and outstanding Southern Pride. Read my review and see more pictures.
Diana Obscura - Golden
Russell Whiting sculpture and Diana Obscura

A last minute E-mail from Diana Obscura had me racing to Buckhead for the Russell Whiting opening being held at the Trinity Gallery. His steel and wood sculptures were not really my style and way out of my budget. Still, it was fun. Diana sang and played her cello as background music, which was lovely. She was wearing bodypaint - Cool! The little kids loved it too! [see a review in January]

September

Jennifer Daniels and Diane Durrett played an AWESOME show at Eddie's Attic. Jennifer was in the zone while Diane was just having too much fun.

The Who concert Sept. 28 at Philips Arena was outstanding!! Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle were really exciting. I was also impressed by Zack Starkey on the drums. It took me several attempts to find someone to join me, but it turned out alright in the end.

The girls of Catfight! played Cinefest (Georgia State University) before the midnight showing of Switchblade Sisters. The movie sucked, but the band was way cool. The audience really liked it too and Jen sold lots of T-shirts and CDs.

I went to Japanfest 2000 at Stone Mountain State Park. It was nice but not really much to see. I did see a lot of cool Koi fish and some interesting origami though. A nice girl wrote this for me, if you speak Japanese maybe you can tell me what it says? click here to see

Amanda Jones put on a nice show at the Echo Lounge. It was my first time seeing the "new girl", Jessica. She played well, but she needs to get up to the mic more and join in the fun. Teresa said something about one of their songs being used in a TV series, I have to get the details on that. There were some sound and light problems, but that's typical for the Echo Lounge these hot summer days - it was still a good show.

I saw Space Cowboys and Coyote Ugly and enjoyed them both. Not the greatest movies ever made or anything but fun, interesting twists, and happy endings for all.

I missed the acts I wanted to see at the Historic College Park Festival because of rain and no published schedule, but at least I got to see Caroline Aiken. It was a very small street festival with just a few craft booths.

The Starlight Six Drive-Invasion was really cool! There were a lot more cars than last year and the bands were awesome. Of course the heat was awful, but at least the rain stayed away. Good bands like: Johnny Knox, Catfight!, The Penetrators, and The Woggles. Also a special shout out to my favorite white-haired girl that made a rare daylight appearance! [Look at last year's pix]

The American Shakespeare Tavern's Taming of the Shrew was most enjoyable. The story was the same as the Elisabeth Taylor, Richard Burton movie but the actual lines are a little different.

Highlander IV: Endgame was pretty weak. You know Adrian Paul wanted to make more movies and Christopher Lambert was going to pass the torch, but how? Well, they just ignored the ending of the first movie of course! While they tried to stay consistent with the series there were several, what I would call, errors that spoiled it for me. But Joe Dawson was there and Mythos too, which was cool, but Amanda and Brenda were suspiciously absent. Highlander fans will go see it, once: everyone else will probably pass.

August

The Changelings and Empire 44 put on a really nice show at the Riviera, but it being a late-rainy-Thursday most people didn't show [a review is coming]

The 6X show at the E.A.R.L. Friday Aug. 25 was weak but still fun. They played some new stuff from the forthcoming CD - Tired, Attitude, Smrt, High School, and Blue. The Stimulants were also pretty good.

My annual summer camping trip was not spoiled by torrential rainfall, it was just dampened. It was still fun to see my friends and family. I also played with a tremendous amount of nephews and nieces and other little monsters - which was great!

Das Ich put on an amazingly exciting show at the Riviera Club, a disco on Peachtree St. It was part of the Midnight Madness: Industrial music series and the Goth crowd really got into their sound. It started at 11:40pm and ran until I was very late for work Tuesday morning.
Ratsy's CD release Party at Eddie's Attic was really great and the new CD is rolling on the floor funny. "Flowery Swimsuit" was recorded live and successfully captured all the charm and humor of her regular shows. Her Mom and Dad were there which was really cool. Best of all, she brought her new boytoy and had, get this, positive boy songs! I remembered my BK crown but forgot the Nair - nextime! Ratsy at Eddie's

July

Going to see My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult on a Wednesday night was probably not a smart idea: but I went out to the Masquerade anyway. Grim Faeries opened just after 10, which wasn't too bad, but then Meg Lee Chin came out at 11:30. They were both late and bad. When TKK finally came out at 12:40 (am) several people in the audience were asleep and/or too drunk to pay attention. They played well, but didn't play anything I recognized (I guess 3 CDs isn't enough) so I'm somewhat disappointed. The crowd was pretty cool though, with several excellent outfits and a few excellent dancers.

6X played the the Echo Lounge July 14th with the Titanics and Nutrajets. It was a fun show, but the A/C couldn't keep up making it a little muggy.

It took a week, but I finally finished restoring my computer system after a surprise harddrive failure June 30th. The new harddrive arrived Wednesday and I wanted to finish the DragonCon 2000 site before switching over. So I worked from my Zip drive. You can be sure I'll make better back-ups next time around.

DragonCon Banner 2K

DragonCon is over. It was a lot of fun: I took over 400 pictures. Resizing and uploading all those pictures was a monster, but it's a labor of love since I had so much fun and made so many new friends. Take a look and tell me what you think. [My 2000 review], [Look back at the 1999 review]

The Patriot with Mel Gibson was very good. Nothing romantic about this war movie, just a very exciting look at one man's view of the Revolutionary War. I laughed, I cried, I recommend it highly.

June

I saw Chicken Run and have to admit, it wasn't up to my expectations. Fans of Wallace and Grommet will probably enjoy it, but almost everyone else will be bored. This is Aardman's first the full length movie and I hope they give him a second chance.

The Catfight!CD Release party with 6X at The Star Community Bar June 9th was a lot of fun but also disappointing. The CDs weren't ready. But we all had a terrific time anyway. The music and people were a lot of fun. It was Jennifer's birthday (22) so there was cake and gifts too.

Jennifer's birthday cake
[L2R: Lara (6X), Gane?, Tim(6X), Jennifer(Catfight!), Katy(Catfight!), Rob(6X)]

Screen on the Green's showing of Casablanca was great. We sat under the stars and ate and drank while seeing this great classic movie with 10,000 close friends. It ran somewhat late though.

The Virginia-Highland's Summerfest was fun as usual. Jennifer Daniels opened to a small crowd which grew as they day progressed. By 5pm, when Caroline Aiken. played, the park was full and the streets really crowded.

I went to the Echo Lounge to see Boss Hog. The Creative Loafing had said some really good things about them and it sounded fun. On the contrary it was quite disappointing. I guess the A/C wasn't working and the bands, and the max capacity audience, had a tough time dealing with the heat. After a couple of hours I couldn't take the crowd, the heat, or the bad music anymore. The 45's, Gunga Din, and Boss Hog all stunk!.

Hi Fidelity was NOT a light comedy but a dark drama/comedy about relationships. There was surprise cameo by Bruce Springstein and I wasn't expecting Catherine Zeta Jones. It was okay, but not great. I was expecting funny not dark.

May

I went to see one of my favourite Shakespearean plays, As You Like it at the Shakespeare Tavern. Although the first half was done a little too dramatically, the second half was very light hearted and fun. I highly recommend it.

Scandanavian girlThe Scandinavian Festival of Atlanta - was interesting: Representing the countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden there was live entertainment, art & crafts, food, music and dance, as well as exhibits on the history and culture of the Nordic countries. I was mostly interested in the food: deserts were plentiful!

Mission Impossible 2 - In this movie, the action is the main character. Tom Cruise is only there for eye candy for the girls. The action is so fast and so heavy that the audience never gets a chance to think about a plot. And oh yeah, it's a love story. Why does Anthony Hopkins have a cameo? The rubber masks, explosions, chases, just keep coming one after another. Great action but not much story.

 

Jsin and the gang from the Secret Room put on a cool Matrixxx party at Deux Plex. Everyone was dressed really cool, even a few dead on look-a-likes from the movie. The music was cool and the place is fun. Too bad the drinks are so outrageous.

11th Annual Marietta Greek Festival at Cobb Civic Center was small but nice. A dozen crafts booths, lot's of food, and some music and dancing was worth the $3 admission.

Frequency with Dennis Quaid has my vote for best film of the year. I thought the story was great, the suspense was great, and the ending was great! Light on special effects, this film actually has a story that captures your attention and your heart. It's probably too slow moving to be a blockbuster, but it's well worth the admission price. This movie is a love story and a family drama hiding in and action adventure. A must see but not necessarily a big screen event (I predict BIG video sales)

Atlanta Celtic Festival - I thought it would be bigger, but it was nice. Some food, some music, and a few crafts made it interesting.

Gladiator - Good! Battlefield Earth - bad

The Women-of-Rock-in-the-Round at Eddie's Attic with Caroline Aiken, Diane Durrett, Doria Roberts, and Donna Hopkins was very good. But it was a week night and they started late, so I missed the end, which makes me really mad. Why can't Rock-Stars start their shows on time? They're being really disrespectful to their audiences.

April

Amanda Jones put on a nice in-store show on April 29th.

Michelle Penn, Red Level Eleven, and 6X played the Earl April 28. If it didn't start so late and the lighting had been better I would have had more fun. I didn't stick around for the last band since I was so tired.

Andy Offutt Irwin put on a really nice show at Eddie's Attic on Fri. April 28th with his band, the Finger Monsters. The place had a good crowd and Aunt Margerite had a few good stories.

Amanda Jones appeared on the Jenny Jones Show April 20th. They did a really great job and I hope it pans out for them. You can check out a clip from the show right here.

The Genitorturers brought their shock-rock show to the Masquerade April 20th. It was somewhat tamer than usual and started really really late. Maybe that explains the poor turn out.

Another excellent TV show has been cancelled. Sports Night was quietly left off the schedule. I was late coming to the show and I hate sports but the characters and plots really grabbed me. I'm sorry to see ABC couldn't nurture it a little more. TV Guide called it, "The Best Show You're Not Watching"

The weatherman screwed up and predicted rain on on beautiful sunny day: So we, and everyone else in Atlanta, spent the day at the Zoo. Of course I saw the pandas and the elephants but the turtles were the highlight of the trip. Want to see my panda pictures?

Keeping the Faith was a really lovely romantic comedy.

A last minute invite had me watching the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus until the wee hours. While the regular bawdiness was fun, especially the X-rated fireplay and plate balancing, I was especially impressed with Una the rope dancer. She did excellent gymnastic type acrobatics while suspended from a hoop 20 feet above the stage and later just a strait piece of rope. Her strength, agility, and skill were really outstanding.

Amanda Jones put on a nice in-store show on April 8th. I got to meet Lisa, the new guitar play, which was nice. They're doing a series of in-store shows to boost their visibility. Visit MediaPlay.com

March

It should come as no surprise to learn that Grapevine has been unceremoniously cancelled. Without any formal announcement CBS just removed it from the schedule and has started running reruns of other shows instead. While I'm disappointed, I'm not surprised. The new writers and actors failed to capture the charm of the old show and the new situation was very weak. They spent too much time on the regulars and not enough time on the subject.

Methods of Mayhem with Tommy Lee performed at the Masquerade - I was disappointed

Farewell Pop - March 26, 2000.

Once again, Jennifer Daniels put on a truly entertaining show at the Borders Books in The Avenue shopping center. She played several new songs and everyone seemed to have a great time.

 
Don Henry at Eddie's attic 3/22/2000Don Henry put on a really nice show at Eddie's Attic on March 22nd. He and Deborah Holland were very entertaining and a pleasure to watch. I'd heard of Don through Barbara Bailey Hutchison who sings and has recorded his song: Into a Mall.. He's written several other hits including a few for Kathy Mattea like B.F.D. and Harley. Deborah Holland was pretty cool too, especial after a few cordials.

Fantasm 2K, small science fiction convention took place over the weekend with interesting contests and lots of parties. I got a few pictures. [click here for the gallery]

6X put on a great show at The Earl on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately the opening acts not only sucked, but ran long, thereby chasing away the audience.

The Donnas, from California, put on a great show at the Echo Lounge March 11th. The place was at MAX capacity, as at least 500 people crammed the small venue: We couldn't move! But people tried to bounce and dance anyway because the music was so much fun. The Plus 1's, from Oakland, California, and the Smugglers, from Vancouver Canada, opened. It was real old-fashioned Rock and Roll with heavy guitars and screaming vocals. What a blast!

Amanda Jones at the Red Light Cafe was quite unusual. Half the band bagged the show leaving just Teresa (the lead singer)and Kristen (the drummer) to perform. They made a good effort, but the poor acoustics didn't help. Teresa performed a couple of new songs and I look forward to hearing them again with the rest of the band. They took the stage at 10:30, really late for a school night, and most people had already left, but there were still about 50 people who got to enjoy their show. I was disappointed because I brought a King cake to celebrate Vicki and Carrie's birthdays and they didn't showup.

MacBeth at the Shakespeare Tavern was pretty good. The renovation added a lot of seats and every seat has a pretty good view. MacBeth is not a happy play, and Lady MacBeth is being played by a mouse, but otherwise we enjoyed it. The battle scenes take place all over, even in the balcony - so be prepared. It's plays through April 30th

I watched the Atlanta Thrashers get slaughtered 4:2 by the St. Louis Blues. At least traffic was light for the Thursday night game.

February

Grapevine Monday nights - CBS - 8:30 EST. The first episode of the new version was pretty bad. It' didn't have any of the original charm but the second episode was greatly improved. I'm going to stick with it for a while: heck it will probably get cancelled again anyway. See the official site here and also check out my Grapevine review

Pitch-black was not very good. Too much reliance on nonexistent suspense and special effects and not enough action or plot.

Skiing President's weekend was really great. I went to Colorado and visited my old Air Force buddy Jim and his wife Dawn. We skied Breckenridge, Loveland, and Keystone and didn't hurt anyone besides ourselves. Even though it was the busiest ski weekend of the year, the places weren't too crowded and we didn't wait long in the lift lines. But I did get altitude sickness my first day and have consumed a whole bottle of aspirin since for my sore muscles. But it was worth it!

Margaret Cho put on a really funny performance at the Roxy Feb 11. We really enjoyed it. Almost all the the material was original and more risqué than her cable specials. Her analysis of her TV series and personal life was very personal and silenced the room at times, but her humor and ability to poke fun at life's ridiculousness brought out the humor in everything. Her audience and jokes were, not exactly a cross section of Americana: but almost singular in it's content - but I still enjoyed it. The highlights were; "The princess cruise", "No strait man has visible ab muscles", quoting her mother's answering machine messages, and "Hi, My name is Gwen..." (a very traumatic experience)

Donna Hopkins

Donna Hopkins and friends played to a packed audience at Fuzzy's Place. The music was great, the food was great, and I even ran into Mike and Sandy (I work with Mike). Donna plays there often, so check the schedule. I especially like her version of The Talking Head's "Burning Down the House".

The band is: Rikki Fargo on drums, Cindy Adler on bass, Kenny Head on keys, Nick Longo on alto sax, and John Longo on tenor sax. (Donna has a thing going with the drummer)

Jennifer Danielsand Jeff Neal put on a nice show Feb 4th at the Borders Books on Cobb Parkway. Jeff's aunt and uncle were there too. A couple of my friends even showed up for the delightful show.(Visit her site)

The Clash Tribute Party at the Echo Lounge was very popular. The place was packed on a weeknight. 6X's set was very short and I didn't stay much into the Rent Boys set. But there were lot's of giveaways and everyone had fun.

January

We had some horrible icing conditions and I missed a couple of shows because of it: Catfight! and the Changelings. But it just wasn't worth the risk. There were lots of accidents on the roads.

I checked out new venue, called Fuzzy's place. It's a small, cramped, loud bar with excellent Cajun food. Tak Attack was playing a Rock/Blues kind of sound. Parking can be rough but the place ain't too bad.

Caroline Aiken, Diane Durrett, and Donna Hopkins put on a really nice show at Eddie's Attic Fri. Jan 14th called Women-of-Rock. They did an in-the-round thing where they took turns playing. It was really nice and friendly as they each sang harmony and backup guitar for each other. My only complaint is that the show was too short.

Amanda Jones - appeared at at the Red Light Cafe later Fri. Jan 14th and I'm glad I got to see the show. It was more acoustic than usual because they were short a members, but Teresa, Vicki, and Kristen played a very enjoyable set. It's really nice to see Kristen back with the band too. She played with a lot of gusto. I hope someday the Red Light fixes their sound system - that 60 cycle hum is really distracting.

Tammy Fowler (site in work) put on a really nice show at Eddie's Attic Jan. 8th. It was my first time seeing Steven Forbert and from the reaction of the crowd he must have been great. But ,not being a fan or knowing his material, I was not really impressed.

I saw the Atlanta Thrashers beat the Washington Capitals on the 7th at Philips Arena. Dwight had an extra ticket so off we went. The arena is nice, and all the seats have good views, but I thought the hype about the arena went too far. Atlanta won 3:1, so we had a good time.

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Last updated 25 Oct. 201
© 2012 Stefan Oestreicher
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