4/14/09 - ATL Film Fest

	MOVIE - Atlanta Film Fest ART - Tongo Hiti -T Vic's- LOCAL - Piedmont Parking
	U.S. - Bo, Bluebeard, Billie Jean FRANCE - U.S. deports -lemonde- WEB - Habachy

MOVIE NEWS - Give me a buzz if any of these Atlanta Film Festival offerings at Landmark sound interesting! (As if the AFF isn't enough, the High is showing French Films this Friday and Saturday -high-)

Sun, 4/19, 12:30 PM - Gone With The Wind (TCM at the Fox)
8:30 PM - Animation Extravaganza

Mon, 4/20, 1:30 PM - Deadland
5:00 PM - Animation Extravaganza 1

Tues, 4/21, 4:30 PM - Killer Movie
9:35 PM - Pink Peach Shorts

Fri, 4/24, 7:15 PM - The Girl from Monaco
9:45 PM - Comedy Shorts

Sat, 4/25, 7:30 PM - Rudo and Cursi

ART NEWS -

Tongo Hiti -T Vic's- Just go...it's the most fun ever...4 hours of lounge, hula, and crooning, all drowning in the High Seas of $5 Mai Tais... ...and hardly any pirates!

Dogwood Festival - Don't forget to celebrate Atlanta's first big festival of the year as it returns to Piedmont Park this Friday through Sunday -dogwood-. Last year's festival was bumped to the Lenox Square parking deck because of the drought; this year, it's back in the Park...and it brought the deck with it!

LOCAL NEWS -

PIEDMONT PARKING - I see the Atlanta Botanical Garden got their parking pass payment scheme from MARTA's Breeze Card; you must first to buy a $5 parking card before being allowed to then purchase fares to load onto the card. The opening of the new parking deck May 2nd coincides with the closing of the old, free, Park Drive surface lot; can't wait to see how the loss of 100+ free parking spots will affect neighborhood street parking!

I like the sound of these announcement from the Midtown SPI-16 Development Review Committee. It looks like Midtown is in for more outdoor dining opportunities:

"Façade and roofing alterations and patio enclosure for new 24-hour diner (former Jocks & Jills space)"

"Ra Sushi – NE corner of Crescent Avenue at 11th Street: Supplemental Zone patio enclosure for outdoor dining and façade alterations for onstreet bar and ventilation"

Water Lilies - Monet from MoMa at the Museum (coming to the High June 6th) -nyt-

U.S. NEWS -

Bo - Seems there's a new dog living in the White House. That beats a (misbehaving, former) President living in the doghouse.

Bluebeard - What to do about the current round of pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia? With 20,000 ocean going vessels afloat at any given time, we can't very well arm every boat. If they don't get a bit part in the next Disney feature with Johnny Depp, I'm all for more archaic methods; flogging, keel-hauling, or AA.

Billy Jean - It seems the planned auction of Michael Jackson memorabilia was called off at the last moment -nyt- -julien's auction- Flipping through the catalog, I didn't see anything REALLY memorable...like a framed copy of an acquittal...or extradition papers from Dubai.

FRANCE NEWS - I didn't find this story on NYT; according to a Human Rights Watch report, a U.S. law allowing deportation of immigrants guilty of a violent crime has had the effect of deporting immigrants guilty of as little as a traffic violation. HRW proposes that the Obama administration "revisit" the law. I already called about this; they are a little busy helping "law-abiding" citizens...like bank CEO's. -lemonde-

French marines captured 11 pirates off the coast of Kenya. Is it okay...pretty please...to deport them? -lemonde-

WEB NEWS - Michael Habachy has revamped his site; check it out!