MOVIES
‘Hunger Games’ sequel to film here
Apparently there is something to those rumored sightings of “The Hunger Games” stars Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson around Atlanta. Speculative reports that the blockbuster’s sequel “Catching Fire” will film in the metro area were confirmed Monday by Georgia Department of Economic Development commissioner Chris Cummiskey. Updating a group of legislators on how the state’s film business has grown with bigger projects and bigger stars, Cummiskey spilled that “Catching Fire” “is going to be our biggest number ever.” Perhaps realizing he’d let a very large cat out of the bag, Cummiskey said he thought the news “is now public information. If not, oops! They can fire me.” HOWARD POUSNER

ARTS
Panel discussion opens ‘Defiance’ series on Wednesday
“Celebrating Defiance,” a nine-part, Anti-Defamation League-sponsored cultural series exploring artistry created in the face of Holocaust horrors, opens at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the William …

Continue reading Culture notes: It’s official, ‘Hunger Games’ sequel to film here; panel discussion opens Holocaust series on Wednesday »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

The sometimes-noisy negotiations for a new Atlanta Symphony Orchestra collective bargaining agreement that began in March will continue even past the deadline for a new contract that passed quietly at midnight Saturday.

The ASO posted the following announcement on its Web site today:

“While the current contract between the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Federation of Musicians expired on August 25, 2012, both parties are continuing to work towards a solution. Negotiations are ongoing.

“We have some serious budget issues to address but we are all striving for the same thing — a thriving music community.”

Here’s is a link to our story detailing the issues beteen the ASO administration and its 93 musicians that appeared in Saturday’s AJC:
www.ajc.com/news/symphony-faces-labor-deadline-1505785.html

Check ajc.com later today for an update.

Continue reading No deal between ASO and its musicians but talks continue »

ARTS
ADL launches series on culture of ‘Defiance’
The Anti-Defamation League will present “Celebrating Defiance,” a series of nine concerts, exhibitions, lectures and film screenings exploring the work of composers, visual artists, writers and poets who used their art to chronicle and transcend the dire circumstances of their lives under the Nazi regime.

The events kick off Aug. 29 at the William Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum, with a panel of artists discussing the role of art in illuminating tragedy, and continue through Nov. 5 with a lecture and concert at the Kennesaw State University School of Music. The Breman also opens the exhibit “Theresienstadt Remembered” on Aug. 29, featuring items that survived the Terezín Concentration Camp such as art glass, personal letters and documents (on view through Oct. 26).

The series centerpiece is an Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performance on Oct. 11 of “Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín,” a multimedia concert …

Continue reading Culture notes: Anti-Defamation League launches series on art of ‘Defiance’; Out on Film highlights announced »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

Folk Fest, the 19th annual folk art show-and-sale, at North Atlanta Trade Center, ended last weekend, but there are several other notable folk-related doings coming up this fall …

• The Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia near Helen will host its fourth annual Folk Pottery Show and Sale on Sept. 1, the same day it opens an exhibit of work by Georgia’s best-known potter, Lanier Meaders.

The show and sale, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., will celebrate the Hewell family of Gillsville, seven generations of which have produced wares for more than 150 years, with demonstrations and special exhibits. For the first time, the event will include potters not included in the museum’s permanent collection, some of whom are academically trained North Georgia ceramic artists working outside the folk art realm.

The Meaders exhibit, “Another Look at Lanier,” focuses on utilitarian pieces (including churns and syrup jugs) rather than the face jugs that for which …

Continue reading Culture notes: 3 folksy events coming up this fall; 5,000 pieces of pottery to pick from in Watkinsville »

By Bo Emerson
bemerson@ajc.com

For the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, it never rains but it pours.

On top of money troubles and bitter ongoing contract negotiations, the ASO has provoked a nasty public backlash when it was reported that the orchestra disinvited choruses from Lassiter and Walton high schools from the ASO’s holiday programs because the choirs weren’t “diverse enough.”

Websites lit up with negative responses.

“The ASO has just lost my business,” posted Linda McMichael, mother of a Cobb County high schooler. “They should be sued for racism.”

Earlier this week, Stanley Romanstein, president and CEO of the ASO, told Channel 2 Action News, “We want the stages of the Atlanta Symphony, whether here, Verizon, or Chastain, to reflect the diversity of Atlanta.”

But contacted Friday afternoon, Romanstein said he was referring to the eclectic programming offered by the ASO. The symphony has previously performed with the like of ZZ Topp and Dolly Parton.

“My comment was taken …

Continue reading It’s a blue Christmas for ASO in flap over holiday programming »

THEATER
‘Book of Mormon’ booked for Atlanta
While an exact date has not been determined, “The Book of Mormon” will be coming to Atlanta as a part of the Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Atlanta 2013-2014 season, the presenter is announcing today exclusively in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The irreverent comedy from “South Park’s” Trey Parker and Matt Stone and “Avenue Q” co-creator Robert Lopez won nine Tony Awards this year, including best musical. Broadway in Atlanta said that renewing subscribers of the 2012-13 season will be guaranteed seats to the Atlanta premiere; single tickets should go on sale roughly six weeks to two months prior to opening. Information: www.broadwayinatlanta.com. HOWARD POUSNER

Continue reading ‘Book of Mormon” coming to Atlanta in 2013-14 »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra musicians have offered to cut their compensation by 11 percent to help balance the organization’s annual budget, but there is a catch: They want the ASO leadership and staff to take an equal cut.

Facing a deadline of midnight Aug. 25 to reach agreement with ASO management on a new collective bargaining agreement, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players Committee (ASOPA) met with management representatives on Wednesday. In a statement released Wednesday evening, the players said they submitted a broad-ranging proposal that would be sufficient to cover the orchestra’s projected shortfalls for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons.

“We have offered to reduce the size of the orchestra, reduce the individual compensation of musicians, reduce the number of work weeks and share health care costs with management,” players association president and cellist Daniel Laufer said in the statement. But the offer hinged on management …

Continue reading Updated with Friday’s story: Atlanta Symphony musicians ask administration to share in salary cuts »

Book Review
Fiction
“Gone Girl”
By Gillian Flynn, Crown Publishing Group, 432 pages, $25.

By Gina Webb

Relationships can be murder — for any number of reasons.

In “Gone Girl, ” Gillian Flynn’s devilishly clever he said/she said thriller, even the best marriage is tested when the wife goes missing and the husband finds himself at the center of a murder investigation.

Amy Dunne and her husband, Nick, were the perfect couple. Amy, a beautiful, brainy writer of questionnaires for women’s magazines, met Nick, a “gorgeous … uncomplicated” pop-culture writer, in New York City in the early 1990s. She fell in love with his ability to make her happy; he adored “the girl of the big laugh and the easy ways.”

Each year on their anniversary the “happiest couple on the block” take part in a treasure hunt, a whimsical, sentimental quest devised by Amy that requires Nick to answer a series of questions based on the highlights of their romantic past. He rarely gets any of the answers right, but …

Continue reading Book review: ‘Gone Girl’ By Gillian Flynn »

ARTS
Free Cobb Energy sampler
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre will host an open house of sorts 1-4 p.m. Aug. 19 and 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Aug. 20 to promote the seasons of its three resident presenters, Atlanta Ballet, the Atlanta Opera and Gas South Broadway Series. All three will extend special subscription offers at the Access the Arts event, where patrons can “test drive” potential seats, learn about an upcoming Jazz Roots concert series, enter giveaways and partake of food and drink. Free. 770-916-2800, www.cobbenergycentre.com. HOWARD POUSNER

Continue reading Check out Cobb Energy’s arts offerings on Aug. 19-20 »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

VISUAL ART
New directors at university museums

• Elizabeth H. Peterson will begin work as Oglethorpe University Museum of Art’s director on Aug. 15. Peterson is the former director of the Julian Akus Art Gallery at Eastern Connecticut State University. She succeeds Lloyd Nick, who founded the OU museum and retired this summer after directing it for 28 years.

“Paper Chase,” an exhibit from the Atlanta Collage Society, runs through Saturday at the Oglethorpe museum. 4484 Peachtree Road N.E., Atlanta. 404-364-8555, museum.oglethorpe.edu.

• Daniel White has been named director of the Mason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art at Piedmont College in northeast Georgia. A ceramics artist who worked since 2005 as a preparator at the Birmingham (Ala.) Museum of Art, White started in July at the Piedmont museum, which opened last fall in a removed 1916 storefront in downtown Demorest.

The museum was founded with a permanent collection of more than 120 American …

Continue reading Culture notes: New university museum leaders at Oglethorpe, Piedmont; ASO honors late singer Kopleff; ex-Atlantan’s DVD out »