Global Lens Film Festival, Los Cenzontles, and more!

I'm packing my bags now for a short trip to Chicago-- check back next week for photos from some of Chicago's international neighborhoods!

A few events to look out for in the next few weeks:

--Georgia State University's movie theater, Cinefest, will be hosting The Global Lens Film Festival from Monday, November 2nd- Friday, November 6th. They will be showing movies from around the world, including films from China, Brazil, Macedonia, and Ecuador. It's a great deal, too-- general admission is $3 before 5pm and $5 after 5pm. (All GSU students, faculty, and staff get free admission.) The full schedule is available on the Cinefest website.

--Another Georgia State upcoming event-- Los Cenzontles will be performing at the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, October 31st at 8pm. Los Cenzontles blend traditional Mexican music with aspects of American country, rock, and R&B-- should be a good show! You can check out their Youtube page to get an idea of the music.

--Steve McCurry's work is still on show at Besharat Gallery in Castleberry Hill-- the show runs through November 1. In case you're not familiar with Steve McCurry's work, he is a world-renowned photojournalist with work featured in National Geographic (including the photo of the young Afghan refugee on right). You can also check out photos of the gallery at Architecture Tourist, and read my earlier post about meeting Mr.McCurry.

As always, please feel free to add any information about other upcoming events by leaving a comment below!

Upcoming International Events in Atlanta

Bonsoir a tous!

Just wanted to write a quick post about some of the international events going on over the next few days in Atlanta...I'm also posting a design for a logo/business card/misc (on right) that I've been working on-- feel free to post suggestions for it!

Mexican Art Workshops: FREE workshop to learn how to create traditional Mexican figurines

and ornaments. To pre-register, email ginasteri@gmail.com.

When: Sat, October 24, 11:30am – 1:30pm

Where: No Mas Cantina (Castleberry Hill)

Price: FREE!

Theatre du Reve presents Vive La Fontaine!: Theatre du Reve is Atlanta's French-language theater company. They are presenting "Vive La Fontaine" (in French!) this weekend.

When: Saturday, October 24th at 8pm and October 25th at 3pm

Where: Horizon Theater (Little 5 Points)

Price: $15-25

For more information: Theatre du Reve

Oktoberfest: Enjoy the food, drinks, and music of Germany this weekend at La Petite Auberge (yes, that is a French restaurant!)-- should be a fun time...

When: October 24th, 4:30pm-11pm

Where: Petite Auberge Restaurant

2935 North Druid Hills Rd.
Atlanta, GA 30309

Price: $10

For More Information: Oktoberfest

Georgia Tech French Film Festival is wrapping up next week-- the last film will be shown on Monday.

When: Monday, October 26th, 7pm

Where: Clary Theater (Georgia Tech campus)

More Information: Georgia Tech French Film Festival

Latin American Film Festival at the High Museum of Art-- showing films from across Latin America

When: October 24th- October 31st

Where: High Museum of Art

Price: $6-7

More Information: Latin American Film Festival

Hope you'll be able to attend some of the events! I unfortunately have to work tomorrow , but will try to make it to some of the film screenings.

Atlanta Turkish Festival

I have been fascinated by Turkey ever since I read Stephen Kinzer's book Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds in college, and after attending the Atlanta Turkish Festival yesterday, I am even more intrigued by this country.

The Atlanta Turkish Festival is going on this weekend (October 17th-18th) at the Gwinnett Convention Center. The event is organized by the Istanbul Center and is well worth the trek up to Duluth. If you didn't make it to the festival but are interested in Turkish culture, the Istanbul Center has courses and events throughout the year.

I especially enjoyed the entertainment at the event. Over the four hours or so I was there, I had the opportunity to see

the Mehter Band (the oldest military band in Turkey), traditional folk dances from different regions of Turkey, a puppet show of Whirling Dervishes, the Teachers Chorus from Mardin, Turkey, and a Bosnian Folk Dance performance. I was surprised to learn that Turkish and Bosnian culture shared a lot in common, hence the Bosnian presentations.

It's hard to pick a favorite performance since they were all so unique and featured such talented performers, but I was especially struck by the Teachers Chorus performance. The music was so different from traditional American music; most of it featured complicated time signatures and rhythms not commonly heard in most American music. I'll work on putting some videos up soon.

Of course, no festival would be complete without food! Several Atlanta -based Turkish restaurants had booths at the event; I had lamb shish and Turkish tea-- both delicious!

Here's a full slideshow of the event:

Steve McCurry AND Upcoming Events

I'm heading off to work in a few minutes, but just wanted to put up a quick post about a few interesting things...

First, I had the amazing opportunity to meet and speak with renowned photojournalist Steve McCurry last night-- even if you do not recognize the name, you would probably recognize many of his iconic images from National Geographic, including one of an Afghan Girl with deep green eyes. McCurry has worked as a photojournalist around the world from Afghanistan to India to Myanmar, and has incredible talent for capturing the human spirit through his portraits.

McCurry's work is on display at Besharat Gallery in Castleberry Hill through November 1. Thanks to friends Katherine and Terry for knowing about the art opening and inviting me along! Terry will likely be posting pictures from the evening on his blog, Architecture Tourist, so definitely check them out! Thanks to Katherine, too, for prodding me to go up and speak to Mr.McCurry-- I was a little star-struck and first and needed a little encouragement to fight my way through the cluster of adoring fans to actually speak to him.

A few other international events going on this weekend:

--The Atlanta Turkish Festival will be at the Gwinnett Convention Center on Saturday, Oct 17th and Sunday, October 18th.

--For any francophones or aspiring francophones, come to La Madeleine in Dunwoody for the monthly French conversation breakfast on Saturday morning beginning at 10am!

--The Cumming Greek Festival in Forsyth County on Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 17th-18th).

--Last but not least, the Latin American Film Festival is going on at the High Museum through October 31.

I'll be at the Turkish Festival and French conversation breakfast and will post photos next week!

Atlanta Greek Festival

Opa!

Despite being an Atlanta native, I had never actually attended the Atlanta Greek Festival before this year. It was held a couple weekends ago at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Clairmont Rd. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a cheap fall activity.

My favorite aspect of the event was the FOOD! So much delicious food to choose from! We started off with roasted potatoes and a lamb sandwich (there was even a fire pit where they were roasting a lamb), followed by a BAKLAVA SUNDAE! Brilliant! If you're not familiar with baklava, it's a pastry made of philo dough, honey, and chopped nuts. Hard to go wrong with those ingredients...The baklava sundae was just crushed baklava over vanilla ice cream. Delish!

As if that wasn't enough eating, we decided to follow up with Greek coffee and Loukoumades, doughnut-like fritters with honey and cinnamon (again, hard to go wrong!). Greek coffee is sweet and strong, a little too sweet for my tastes, but it went well with the Loukoumades. Watch out for the coffee grounds at the bottom of the cup!

There was, of course, plenty of entertainment at the event. They had a band (called Alpha-Omega, I believe) on the main stage and everyone was invited to get up and dance. You could definitely tell who was Greek, as the steps looked pretty complicated...I took a couple videos-- will post them later today along with some photos.

If you missed the Atlanta Greek Festival this year, never fear! There will be a Greek festival in Cumming, GA next weekend (October 17-18th): http://www.cumminggreekfestival.com/ . Should be a fun time!