Last night I finally got a chance to attend the 38th-annual Atlanta Film Festival, a week-long event where  buzzy independent films, shorts and movie projects are screened at Atlanta's oldest operating cinema, the Plaza Theatre. I missed quite a few showings I really wanted to see (potty training a toddler makes your social life crappy in more ways than one), but catching the photo-documentary Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People made up for everything I didn't get to see. Here's why you too should see this really cool project when it comes to your town.

It's simple, if you have discipline, three hours to spare, a few kitchen tools and a bunch of ingredients.

Today is the annual semi-holiday when everybody goes WorldStarHipHop and watches men injure themselves for money, more money, and the chance to kiss a carved glass football. I'm just as guilty as you for letting that dominate all. But I heard bad news, and it sucks. So let's pause just long enough to say some good words before we go back into celebrating American brutality in the name of competitive "sport."

Here's a rumor that would certainly be sucktastic if it turns out to be true. Art, Beats & Lyrics, the annual traveling show that started in Atlanta and now includes several other major U.S. cities (NY, LA, DC, … St. Louis?), will end after this 2013 show. Without having spoken to my friend Jabari Graham, a promoter who started the show six years ago with Atlanta artist Dubelyoo, I can't confirm it, but I hope that it's either a wickedly clever promotional play or a vicious lie. Either way, at least it looks like we'll have something new from the same team. Yae-yaeeee!

Anyway, here are some pics of amazing art created by ATL residents, throngs of people enjoying free Gentleman Jack cocktails, and two music legends--DJ Quik and Teddy Riley--performing live.

A couple months ago I got to attend a listening party for the new Goodie Mob album, Age Against The Machine, at Tree Sound Studios in the suburbs of Atlanta. Also in attendance were a few handfuls of ATL's elite hip-hop journalists who like me have been around since the '90s, when The Dungeon Family ruled The South and the music was full of black magic.

Fast-forward to 2013, and Cee-Lo Green is a certified celebrity and household name, thanks to his universally popular hit "Crazy" as half of Gnarls Barkley, his equally successful single "F*ck You", and his role as a judge on the televised music competition The Voice. Cee-Lo allegedly started off as an original member of OutKast along with Andre 3000 and Big Boi, before being placed in a four-man rap outfit and being instantly recognized as a standout talent among fellow GM members Khujo, T-Mo, and Big Gipp. His hyper-conscious street sense, inimitable voice, gospelicious singing ability, and bulky, bald-headed, "Trill"-tattooed appearance made him unique to say the very least.

LaFace Records released Goodie Mob's first album, Soul Food, in 1995, and the critical response was immediately and overwhelmingly positive, along with the reception from an adoring public very curious of what these crazy sonic southerners were doing. The album sold over 500k units and was certified gold within a year, which back then was unequivocally considered a success. Next came Still Standing, which almost everyone considered to be artistically separate yet equally as good as their debut. Although the album was also certified gold, it was considered a commercial disappointment to many that expected heftier sales now that they were established and adored. Full disclosure: I'm a former employee of LaFace Records, and as someone that worked for the company before and after Still Standing was released, I recall plenty of blame and speculation as to why it didn't reach platinum (over a million sold) status, from L.A. Reid's absence during the album's rollout -- he was taking a summer course at Harvard as part of the process of being groomed to replace Clive Davis at Arista Records -- to the absence of a commercially viable crossover hit, and even a possible issue with the song "Fly Away", in which member Khujo wholeheartedly rejected homosexuality and invited gays to invite themselves elsewhere than near himself.

What came next was World Party, which one might have assumed before hearing it was a reference to global politics, since Goodie was always very vocal about the inequality, poverty, and the lack of proud and positive influences available in the slums of America.  Yeah, but no. World Party was quite simply a reference to the decision from the group, or at least certain members, that it was time to abandon the more hard-core elements of their message and to take a break for the sake of good times. You know, don't worry -- be happy. Ironically, no one was with their third album, and it marked the beginning of Cee-Lo's distanced relationship with the rest of the Mob. Coincidentally, it was not long after the release of World Party that LaFace Records closed and L.A. ascended to the presidency of the record company that funded and distributed his own label's music.

Several projects followed, including two Arista album releases from Cee-Lo, Big Gipp's Mutant Mindframe, One Monkey Don't Stop No Show (essentially a Goodie-minus-Cee-Lo album), 'Lo's "Crazy"-spawning album with Danger Mouse, Khujo and T-Mo releasing an album under the moniker The Lumberjacks (Goodie's original name before the inclusion of Gipp and Cee-Lo), and Cee-Lo's most recent LP, The Lady Killer, which set him up for renewed popularity via "F*ck You" and made him legitimately and unarguably famous.

Now, here we are in the first week of the release of Age Against The Machine, a new album that clearly recognizes Cee-Lo's status but marks an assumed return to where he began, including the rest of the Mob. And the result is a somewhat-unfamiliar voyage into territory where growth is apparent, chemistry is evident but sometimes strained, and the core message still in existence albeit in a friendlier package for those unfamiliar with their revolutionary and rebellious origins.

But is it good? Read more and find out after the jump, and feel free to listen along to the streaming album at Amazon.

Photo Credit: Lisa Jack for Time

Today's POTUS press conference is below, pulled from The Blaze.

Thank you and much respect due to President Barack Obama for answering the call. May the national conversation continue until cultural understanding, tolerance, and respect are achieved. That probably means forever, but that just makes it ongoing change we can believe in.

Or actually, if we're going to use correct English, "change in which we can believe."

Hire me, Obama. You'll not only keep doing good things under my critical advisement, you'll also never have a grammatical error in a campaign slogan again, ever. Not that you're running for anything again anyway, but still, hire me anyway.  Just sayin'.