🎤 Hip Hop hooray!

Hip Hop Friday

Aug. 11 — If you’re not at The Benz with Bey or celebrating 50 years of Hip Hop around town (more below), Little Five Points will be hosting the first in a series of Patio Parties featuring eclectic music and the People Make the Place awards event at 7 Stages.

☔️ Expect rain through noon today, and then clouds with a high of 88°. The weekend is looking mostly sunny with highs in the mid-90s.

🎙️ The Atlanta Journal-Constitutionhas hired award-winning broadcaster Bill Nigut to co-host “Politically Georgia”with Greg Bluestein, Patricia Murphy, and Tia Mitchell. The show will air weekdays at 10 a.m. on WABE starting this fall.

🗳️ Democrat Susie Greenberg has announced her candidacy for Georgia State House Dist. 53, which covers parts of Buckhead, Sandy Springs, and Roswell. She’ll face incumbent Republican Deborah Silcox.

💰The Georgia Department of Labor withheld more than $105 million in penalties and fees over the last decade rather than turning it over to the state treasury, an internal audit has found.

🌎 The Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel power plants has been endorsed by a crush of environmental advocates in Georgia.

📚 The second issue of Stacks by Rough Draft, our monthly newsletter about books and literary events across metro Atlanta comes out on Sun., Aug. 13. Subscribe for free here.

IN HAWAII

➡ The death toll in the devastating wildfires that have ripped through Maui climbed above 55, while residents and historians come to terms with the loss of homes and historic sites. In the decimated town of Lahaina, a 150-year-old banyan tree remarkably remains standing.

The PBS NewsHour spoke to a local meteorologist about how her family is coping with a disaster that she has to not only report on but live through.

🫶🏽 If you want to help support the victims of the fires, the Hawai’i Community Foundation has set up a Maui Strong Fund.

🕖 Today’s newsletter is ⑤ stories.

• Hip Hop at 50
• Leslie Schilling, dietician and author of ‘Feed Yourself’
• Film Review: ‘Mutant Mayhem’
• The Sports Section
AND
• Top Stories of the Week

Have a good weekend,
Collin, Sammie, & Madison

P.S. This is Madison’s last day as a summer intern with Rough Draft. We’ll miss their enthusiasm and attention to detail in helping us produce our daily newsletters. They are headed back to Ann Arbor for another year at Michigan. Go Blue!

🌿 Passionate about nature? Check out the Friends of Conservation and Sustainability in Georgia online giving circle. Learn about the nonprofits that treat every day like Earth Day as they make a difference for the outdoors in Georgia. Learn more here.
SPONSOR MESSAGE

1. Hip Hop hooray!

🎤 Atlanta is marking the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop with a series of concerts and events around the city.

Tonight, ATL Loves Hip Hop will be held at the Hyatt Centric Buckhead, which will honor Antwan ‘Big Boi’ Patton from Outkast.

On Sunday evening, T.I., Goodie Mob (pictured), EarthGang, Omeretta the Great, and many more will be in concert at Lakewood Amphitheatre, plus there are art events, films, and more music.

On Saturday, the ATL Park Jam at Piedmont Park will feature Hip Hop legend DJ Jelly, WREKing Crew All-Stars, Soul Food Cypher, DJ Prince Charm, as well as an HBCU-style drumline from Xclusive Percussion.

Coming up, the ATL Hip Hop Festival is set for Sept. 2-3 at Old Fourth Ward Skatepark with DJ Scream, DJ Swamp Izzo, Playa Poncho, and more.

Great classes with great instructors; ALL AGES welcome at Abernathy Arts Center
SPONSORED BY ABERNATHY ARTS CENTER

🎨 Kids, teens, and adults of ALL AGES — start your creative journey with Art Sandy Springsat the Abernathy Arts Center. Fall registration is now open on our website.

🗓️ Art classes are offered Tuesday through Saturday, in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings in the Annex building at 254 Johnson Ferry Rd., NW, Sandy Springs, GA 30328.

After-school classes (ages 6-16) are available in drawing, painting, and mixed media. Adult class offerings include painting, drawing, fibers, calligraphy, and more!

☎️ Please call (404) 343-6692 or email us for more information.

2. In conversation with Leslie Schilling, dietician and author of ‘Feed Yourself’

VIA SIDE DISH | A WEEKLY NEWSLETTER ABOUT DINING (SUBSCRIBE HERE)

📖 In many ways, Leslie Schilling has been writing her newest book for years.

Schilling is a dietitian specializing in disordered eating, sports nutrition, and family nutrition. While she practices an anti-diet approach with her clients now, that wasn’t always the case.

With the release of “Feed Yourself: Step Away From the Lies of Diet Culture and into Your Divine Design,” Schilling debunks the ways that diet culture permeates our culture, and even interrogates the way her own beliefs about weight and health have radically changed since she began her career.

➡ Read the Q&A with Schilling here.

3. ‘Mutant Mayhem’ is a reference-heavy good time

WEEKLY FILM REVIEW | BY SAMMIE PURCELL

🍿 When you live in a sewer, random bits of pop culture picked up here and there might be the only things you really have to define yourself by. And when it comes to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, those references might be the thing that helps them save the world. The question is – are they the right ones?

From director Jeff Rowe with a script he co-wrote with Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Dan Hernandez, and Benji Samit, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” is a fun, uniquely styled reboot of the beloved franchise, complete with four charming lead performances that beautifully bring the turtles to life.

But as the film flew by in a rush of references, I couldn’t help but wonder if they were the right references. Were the children in my screening laughing at mentions of “Hey Arnold,” jokey uses of Ice-T songs, or other ‘90s and early 2000s pop culture references? Or did the fact that the loudest laughs in the theater seemed to be coming from the adults mean the kids were a little bit lost?

➡️ Read Sammie’s full review here.

🍿 Stay in the picture with Scene by Rough Draft, our weekly newsletter about Georgia’s film industry. Movie reviews, profiles, what’s filming where, plus more. Directed by Sammie Purcell. Subscribe for free.

*Photo via Creature Comforts Brewing Company*

4. Spain, Sweden advance; Falcons begin pre-season

THE SPORTS SECTION | A WEEKLY FEATURE

⚽ For the first time in the tournament’s history, a Women’s World Cup quarterfinal does not include the US Women’s National Team, which was eliminated in a heartbreaking shootout last Friday.

➡ Early this morning, Sweden eliminated Japan, meaning it’s now guaranteed that there will be a first-time champion. The Swedes will face Spain, who beat the Netherlands in last night’s first quarterfinal match.

The betting favorite is England, who plays Colombia tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. ET. Australia and France play in the other quarterfinal tomorrow at 3 a.m. ET. TV: FOX.

💸 ESPN announced the launch of ESPN BET, a partnership and rebrand with PENN Entertainment. The move has drawn widespread criticism for the perceived conflict of interest between ESPN’s reporting and this new area of intense interest.

⚾ The Braves lost to the Pirates yesterday, but Matt Olson’s 40th home run of the season put him in rare company. With the best record in baseball, they remain 9.5 games ahead of Philadelphia in the NL East and look to get back on track with a weekend series in Queens versus the Mets, including a Saturday doubleheader. The series begins tonight at 7:10 p.m. TV: BSS.

💰 The Georgia High School Association is considering allowing athletes to participate in NIL deals. Athletes would be allowed to license their names and likeness.

🏈 The Falcons’ preseason begins tonight at 7 p.m. versus Miami. They have been working with the Dolphins in joint practices in South Florida since Tuesday and will wrap it up with the game tonight. TV: FOX 5.

🍺 UGA mascot Hairy Dawg joined Creature Comforts CEO Chris Herron at Ladybird yesterday to announce a new partnership between the Athens-based brewery and The University of Georgia Athletic Department (above). Creature Comforts is now “the official craft beer of University of Georgia athletics.”