Welcome to the Atelier
Album of the Day: Thursday August 28, 2025
Bill Evans
Portrait in Jazz (1960)
Portrait in Jazz is the fifth studio album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans as a leader, released in 1960.
Come Rain or Come Shine
Autumn Leaves
Witchcraft
When I Fall in Love
Peri's Scope
What Is This Thing Called Love?
Spring Is Here
Someday My Prince Will Come
Blue in Green
Feature Presentation: Thursday August 28, 2025
Valley of the Dolls
(1967)
Valley of the Dolls is about three women who come to New York City looking for success, and instead end up finding pills, booze, and more bad men than you’d meet at a precinct Christmas party. Anne becomes a model, Neely a Broadway star, and Jennifer… well, she mostly becomes a victim of every producer with a checkbook and a smirk. They all rise to fame, only to tumble down faster than a drunk off a fire escape. Neely gets hooked on ‘dolls’ - that’s what they call pills, not the kind you buy at a toy store - reds, greens, and blues. Anne loses herself in heartbreak. And Jennifer’s story is so bleak you’ll want to call a hotline by the end. Valley of the Dolls isn’t about glamour or success, it’s about how quickly the spotlight can burn you out faster than a blunt at a Cypress Hill concert. To put it simply: if you’re dreaming of Hollywood, bring sunglasses, a strong liver, and maybe a good lawyer. And remember - when they say it’s show business, the ‘business’ part usually means you’re going to get taken to the cleaners.
Directed by Mark Robson
Written by Jacqueline Susann, Helen Deutsch, Dorothy Kingsley
Staring
Barbara Parkins as Anne Welles
Patty Duke as Neely O'Hara
Paul Burke as Lyon Burke
Midnight Movie: Saturday August 23, 2025
Tales from the Hood
1995
What we have here is not your ordinary trip to the morgue—though, to be fair, most morgues don’t come with a smooth-talking funeral director offering story time. Tales From the Hood is four cautionary tales, wrapped up in one coffin, and if you’re squeamish about blood, violence, or politicians getting what’s coming to them, you might want to stick to Sesame Street. First, a crooked cop learns that planting evidence and using excessive force can come back to haunt you - literally. Then, a boy with crayons discovers monsters don’t just live under the bed; sometimes they sit at the dinner table. After that, a violent gangster gets sentenced to the worst rehabilitation program in history - though it does come with free electroshock treatments. And finally, a racist politician finds out that running against equality and civil rights is a dangerous platform… especially when hundreds of vengeful dolls are part of the electorate. In the end, the three thugs who came looking for drugs in the funeral home realize they’re not in for a deal - they’re in for judgment. And the funeral director? He’s not your friendly neighborhood undertaker - he’s running a much hotter business down below. Tales From the Hood is part horror, part social lesson, and part advertisement for why you should always treat people with decency. Also, why you should never accept a tour of a funeral home from a man who laughs that much at his own jokes.
Directed by Rusty Cundieff
Written by Rusty Cundieff, Darin Scott
Staring
Clarence Williams III as Mr. Simms
Joe Torry as Stack
De'aundre Bonds as Ball
Drink me: Thursty Thursday August 28, 2025
They’re Coming To Get You Barbara
Muddled berries and blended whiskey
blended whiskey, sweet vermouth, muddled blackberries, cranberry juice, and bitters
Alchemy: Sunday August 23, 2025
Escape Plan Roasted Red Pepper Ragu Sauce
Alright, here’s the situation: A roasted red pepper ragu sauce, bright, smoky, and slightly sweet - the kind of sauce that makes spaghetti feel like it’s in on a secret. Now, normally I use it on pasta, maybe a garlic bread or two. But it can also double as a tactical culinary device.
If you have prison escape plans, or other highly sensitive documents, definitely classified, and the guards were closing in faster than a speeding lunch cart - smothered the papers in the ragu. They disappeared under a glorious layer of sauce, tomato and red pepper hiding everything like a professional. One bite, and suddenly the plans will be in your stomach, safe from prying eyes, allowing you to get back to undercover work for Police Squad.
Alchemy: Saturday August 16, 2025
Curly’s S’more Ice Cream Sandwiches
The perfect ice cream desert to go with your late summer cookout. Ira and Barry agree, whether it’s franks and beans or grilled sea bass and asparagus - this is the ice cream to pair. Woof!
Book of the Month: August 2025
The Daily Bugle, November 5, 1982 — Special Edition
"MUTANTS IN THE CROSSHAIRS”
TRUTH BEHIND Stryker’s CRUSADE
By Eddie Brock, Daily Bugle Staff Writer
In a chilling display of zealotry masked as faith, Reverend William Stryker—former military man turned televangelist—stands at the center of a rising wave of anti-mutant violence. Under the banner of his so-called “ministry,” Stryker has unleashed a campaign that’s part sermon, part witch hunt, and entirely dangerous.
Sources confirm that Stryker’s private forces—armed, trained, and disturbingly devout—were behind a series of coordinated abductions and attacks on known mutant civilians. His goal? Nothing short of genocide, carried out under the guise of "divine cleansing." This isn't a fringe movement…
X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills
by Chris Claremont, Paul Smith, Brent Anderson, Frank Miller