Archive: November, 2010

JUST DO IT: Be a Philly Roller Girl

POSTED: Wednesday, November 10, 2010, 8:46 PM

Filed Under: Just Do It

phillyrollergirls.com

The Philly Roller Girls are looking for a few badass, competent skaters to join their league. You don't have to have previous roller derby experience, just be able to skate confidently on eight wheels — and I'm sure a little pent up aggression wouldn't hurt your chances, either. If you think you have what it takes, head to their tryouts at Millennium Skate World in Camden, N.J. on Sun., Nov. 14 at 11 a.m. sharp. If you have equipment — skates, knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards, helmet — bring it with you. If not, there will be some equipment available. Another thing to keep in mind, they say is, that you're going to sweat and stink more than you ever have, so wear something airy. For more information, send an email to Sunshine Skate. In the meantime, you've gotta come up with an awesome roller girl name. Check out this fun name generator and tell us what you get. I'm going to be Venom Rumble-Buns. Watch out, ladies!

Posted by Josh Middleton @ 8:46 PM Permalink | Post a comment

GET LIT: Win a copy of Oliver Sacks' The Mind's Eye

POSTED: Wednesday, November 10, 2010, 7:00 PM

Knopf, 288 pp., $26.95, Oct. 26

Remember last month's Book Quarterly? It wasn't so long ago that we reviewed Columbia University professor of neurology and psychiatry Oliver Sacks' The Mind's Eye, about folks who go through life without sight, speech or literacy. Tonight, Sacks will give a talk at the Free Library's Central Branch (7:30 p.m., $15, 1901 Vine St., 215-567-4341, freelibrary.org), and in honor of the event we're giving away a copy of his new book. Here's what CP staff writer Holly Otterbein had to say about it back in October:

If the universe snatches a sense from you, it must mean it's stolen one-fifth of your personhood along with it. But in The Mind's Eye, triple-threat neurologist/artist/writer Oliver Sacks assures the young and healthy (for now) that this isn't so. ... Studies show that the auditory parts of the brain in deaf people (or visual parts in the blind) don't atrophy, but instead take on new duties, like a laborer studying IT after his factory is shuttered. ... This spin on aphasia, facial blindness and other inconceivably weird deficiencies is a warm bath for anyone who's currently caring for Bubbe, but Sacks is so committed to a motivational narrative that he doesn't convey the bottomless dread the newly handicapped must feel.

To win a copy, answer the following trivia question:

What 17th-century English poet is said to have composed his best work after losing his eyesight?

E-mail me at carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net for a chance to win!

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay @ 7:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

ICE CUBE: Another brick in your living room

POSTED: Wednesday, November 10, 2010, 6:00 PM

Filed Under: Ice Cubes

Just one day after my review of Roger Waters' The Wall show at the Wells Fargo Center (tix are still left for tomorrow night's show), bricks from a previous Waters gig, at the erstwhile Wachovia Center in 2007, are going up for auction at ComcastSpectacorFoundation.org. While that's a fine Christmas stocking stuffer for the disillusioned classic rocker in the family, the lump of coal comes with the news that the Wells Fargo Complex's oldest member, the Spectrum, is finally coming down on Nov. 23. Sob.

Posted by A.D. Amorosi @ 6:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

GET TIX: Win a pair of tickets to The Laramie Residency

POSTED: Wednesday, November 10, 2010, 4:28 PM

Photo | Michael Lutch

Awesome giveaway today, y'all: The Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents the Tectonic Theater Project's Laramie Residency. Ten years after the murder that inspired The Laramie Project, the New York-based theater troupe went to Laramie, Wyo., to visit the community that was crushed by Matthew Shepard's death. They're performing the original play in repertory with a new piece, The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. Here's a preview of what CP theater critic Mark Cofta says about the shows, which you can read in full in tomorrow's City Paper:

Twelve years ago last month, the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard in the tiny town of Laramie, Wyo., shocked the nation: a gay college student, lured from a bar, beaten, and left to die, draped Christ-like on a fence along a cold country road. His death forced us to examine our culture's hatred and fear of homosexuals. ... Tectonic Theater Project, in residence this week at the Annenberg Center, performs both plays together for the first time anywhere, with pre-show chats and post-show talk backs which are sure to be cathartic.

For this giveaway, we've got a pair of tickets to each set of performances: Set A: Thursday, Nov 11, 7:30 p.m., The Laramie Project Friday, Nov. 12, 8 p.m., The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later Set B: Saturday, Nov. 13, 2 p.m., The Laramie Project Saturday, Nov. 13, 8 p.m., The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later To win tickets, answer the following trivia question:

Who plays director/playwright Moises Kaufman in the 2002 HBO film adaptation of The Laramie Project?

E-mail your answers to carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net, and be sure to let me know which set of tickets, A or B, you prefer. Good luck!

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay @ 4:28 PM Permalink | Post a comment

BOOKISH: Gung-ho about writing (and reading!)

POSTED: Wednesday, November 10, 2010, 3:00 PM

Each Wednesday Critical Mass puts together a rundown of book-centric events that'll keep you "lit" all week long. Wednesday: World-renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks discusses In The Mind's Eye, his latest book on interplay of sight and mind. Tickets to see the live dialogue between Sacks and Drexel English Professor Paula Marantz Cohen are sold out, but simulcast tickets are still fair game. Wed., Nov. 10, 7:30 p.m., $6, Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine St., 215-686-5322. Thursday: Missed Her is Ivan Coyote's fifth short story collection and Butch is a Noun is S. Bear Bergman's debut essay collection. Both writers draw on their homosexual experiences to talk about the pleasures and dangers of a life "outside the gender binary." Thurs., Nov. 11, 8-9:30 p.m., $20, Wiliam Way Community Center, 1315 Spruce St., 215-732-2220 Friday: Award-winning Philadelphia Daily News columnist and black literary activist Solomon Jones recently came out with The Last Confession, a crime novel starring Philadelphia homicide detective Michael Coletti. A cut of the event proceeds will go to Art Sanctuary, a non-profit dedicated to youth and the power of black art. Fri., Nov. 12, 6 p.m., free, Barnes & Noble, Rittenhouse Square,1805 Walnut St., 215-665-0716. Saturday: First Person Arts and the Painted Bride are hosting The Moth and This American Life contributor Elna Baker, who will lead a workshop on how to tell great stories using humor and personal revelation. Sat., Nov. 13, 1-3 p.m., $28-$35, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., 267-402-2055 Sunday: Those of you in the "sandwich generation" caring for young children and old parents will find empathy in 13 Is the New 18 ... And Other Things My Children Taught Me While I Was Having A Nervous Breakdown Being Their Mother, the latest book by award-winning Associated Press writer Beth Harpaz; and Special Exits, a graphic novel by Joyce Farmer chronicling her parents' decline. If you're gung-ho about writing, sign up for the 1:30 p.m. memoir workshop with Harpaz. Sun., Nov. 14, 1:30 p.m., $28-$35, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., 267-402-2055 Monday: NBC News Political Analyst Howard Fineman has a resume so thick only a chainsaw could penetrate it. In addition to his gig at NBC, Fineman is also a senior political editor at Huff Post, former Deputy Washington Bureau Chief at Newsweek Magazine and has had face time with every major presidential candidate since 1984. Name a talk show; he's probably been a guest. His 2008 book on American debate? A bestseller. Catch his talk on Election '10: Did the (New) Media Help or Harm American Democracy? Mon., Nov. 15, 5:30 p.m., free, Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Wk, 215-573-9748 Tuesday: Between 1960 and 1962, Operation Pedro Pan airlifted upwards of 14,000 children from revolutionary Cuba in response to rumors of possible abduction. Among these children was Carlos Eire, Yale professor and National Book Award winner whose new memoir Learning to Die in Miami: Confessions of a Refugee Boy delves deep into his adolescent refugee experience. Tues., Nov. 16, 7:30pm, $7-$15, Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine St., 215-686-5322.

Posted by Daniella Wexler @ 3:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

ICEPACK: Starr, Ansill, Louis and the Wid

POSTED: Tuesday, November 9, 2010, 8:46 PM

Filed Under: Ice Cubes

I believe you mean the Legendary Wid.

â¤ Mouth breathers, last week was yours, what with Corbett and Toomey winning, and McNabb being sidelined for being, well, the same McNabb we had for years. But this week is for the smart elitists amongst us, what with several days of celebrations for the brand-new (the National Museum of American Jewish History's groundbreaking galas) and the longtime (Greater Philadelphia Film Office's 25th anniversary), both featuring marquee-name attendees. Mazel tov. We'll talk later. â¤ You know that I know that you know that Stephen Starr didn't take over Ansill on Bainbridge for an Italian restaurant like he was s'posed to and that namesake chef David Ansill headed to Sansom Street's Ladder 15. On Nov. 16, meat-man Ansill will have a coming-out five-course meal with seafaring Mike Stollenwerk of Lombard Street's fish at L15. â¤ Fun fact learned at Louis CK's Academy of Music gig: Philly saxophonist Max Gast co-wrote and performed the soundtrack for CK's Louie on FX. "We're returning in December to work on season two," says Gast. â¤ Our lady of fabulash design, Bela Shehu, has a new women's line, NINO. "It's looking fantastic," she says. See it yourself at her fashion-studio's sample sale Nov. 18 at 621 Sigel. â¤ Word has it the legendary Dew Inn Diner at Fifth and Girard — the last of the sensational greasy spoon breakfast-erias — is on the market. I'm heading there for toast tomorrow. Bitar's, too (at 10th and Federal), is up for grabs, apparently, but they're looking to relocate. â¤ Two weeks ago, director Scott Johnston and Woodshop Films' Andrew Geller documented the opening of an installation by Philly comic Mike Baldwin — aka The Legendary Wid — at Baltimore's American Visionary Art Museum. Wid's exhibit remains up for a year. Geller got home in time to film Darren Finizio's Nov. 13 Balcony gig as Muscle Factory. Watch this space for an Ice Cube about it. â¤ When improvisational git-boxer Nick Millevoi's Many Arms held a release party last Friday for its CD Missing Time (yay), the gig was a farewell to West Philly's Avant Gentlemen's Lodge (boo). No more shows.

Posted by A.D. Amorosi @ 8:46 PM Permalink | Post a comment

CURATOR: Philly #3 on ugliest people list

POSTED: Tuesday, November 9, 2010, 7:28 PM

Every Tuesday, Critical Mass pokes around the blog world so you don't have to.

- Geekadelphia snuck in a few questions with Philly filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan at the Philly Film Festival's 10th anniversary showing of Unbreakable. One three minute interview = enough time for at least one Shyamalan style plot twist. - Here's a fan submitted video via Mad Decent catching a high school marching band covering Major Lazer's "Pon De Floor." Not bad. - Philebrity fills us in on Travel and Leisure's rankings of US cities, and there's good and bad news: the good news is that we're #4 in the country for pizza, but on the flipside, we're #3 for most unattractive people. Fuck you! - And finally, here's a new video from Philly up-and-coming dreamy pop group Sweet Lights. Nice and warm for cold November.

Posted by Sean Kearney @ 7:28 PM Permalink | Post a comment

ICE CUBE: Roger Waters' The Wall @ Wells Fargo Center, 11/8

POSTED: Tuesday, November 9, 2010, 5:37 PM

Filed Under: Ice Cubes Concert Review

Photo | Scott Weiner

Roger Waters performs at the Wells Fargo Center Nov. 8.

If epic paranoia over monster themes such as megalomania, mother fixation, loneliness, television, the warring industrial complex and the uselessness of fans and celebrity, accompanied by the sounds of unsettling bombast, is what you seek as entertainment, there's a bridge I can sell you. Or rather, a wall — The Wall, Roger Waters' semi-autobiographical 1979 magnum opus that he's brought to Philadelphia for three nights at the Wells Fargo Center starting last night. Hurry up. Though tickets sold out quickly when the shows were first posted last spring, additional seats have been added for tonight (Nov. 9) and Thursday (Nov. 11). Where arena rock is concerned, Pink Floyd — Waters' own until 1983 when he left the band — wrote the book on it, what with scenic tours for Animals and the original Wall show. But 30 years after its original road show-envisioning and technology has turned The Wall from a manic puppet show (Gerald Scharfe's "mother" and "teacher" are still a big part of the new Wall) with big rickety bricks into a mega-watt beyond-Broadway production — one rife with Cirque-du-helicopter light effects, stunningly fluid projections and rapid fire sloganeering, a slowly erecting/engulfing 36-foot-wall that could be stood atop ("Comfortably Numb" proved best for that job and co-lead vocalist Robbie Wyckoff), ruminatively stared through ("Goodbye Cruel World") and used for pop-up tableaux and generally dwarfing the gangly 67-year-old Waters. Waters, in turn, made the wall itself into a character weary with the futility of warring factions through the doo-wop-ing "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 1)." As hundreds of photos of deceased veterans appeared on its bricks representing the loss we all have, Waters' own emotional distress of having lost his father in World War II comes through like a primal scream. The majestic "Bring the Boys Home" makes the bricks into a waling wall as Waters' creaking voice pleads for connection to those lost. Connection is the name of Waters' game throughout as he stresses, in his highest hard pitch voice, a yearning to get through to his sole remaining parent. Only this time Waters' primarily acoustic "Mother" is accompanied by Waters doing a live double-track duet with footage of himself, black-and-white yet, filmed during a 1980 Earls Court show. "Poor, miserable little Roger," he calls the on-screen visage as the live Waters winces in pain. It's hard to believe that such dissection of personal mythology has been made — once and again — into rabid anthems like the anti-authoritarian "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2," performed here with a dancing choir of children wearing shirts that read "Fear Builds Walls." Or that spare tracks of disillusionment ("One of My Turns") and spite ("In the Flesh?") would warrant fireworks and rousing fans. But such is the force of personality behind Waters' forlorn tale that the positive aspects of The Wall — to say nothing of the epic potency of its melodies — have made themselves clear. Leonard Cohen once sang (on "Anthem") these lines: "Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That's how the light gets in." I'm guessing Waters finally found the crack in The Wall.

Posted by A.D. Amorosi @ 5:37 PM Permalink | Post a comment

ICE CUBE: The List, or: A sausage party with a side of Sweet Dee?

POSTED: Monday, November 8, 2010, 9:00 PM

Filed Under: Ice Cubes

In last week's Icepack, I mentioned that the Greater Philadelphia Film Office (GPFO) and Sharon Pinkenson would be celebrating their 25th anniversary this coming weekend with two — count 'em, two! — parties, both featuring a celeb guest list. There's a private home jawn on Friday somewhere within Philly city limits honoring Gov. Ed Rendell's longtime efforts on behalf of the GPFO that'll welcome supposedly RSVP-ed guests such as Terrence Howard, Lee Daniels, David Morse and M. Night Shyamalan (who all live in the region); Jonathan Demme and Tony Danza (who've worked here); and the Safe crew, including Boaz Yakin, Lawrence Bender and Jason Statham (who're currently filming here).

The Sunday late-afternoon event at the new Sun Center Studios in Aston, Pa., that honors more than 500 of the area's film and television professionals will so far welcome Danny DeVito — who'll host the 2010 Shoot in Philadelphia Awards Press Conference to announce the 2010 Shoot in Philadelphia Screenwriting Competition winner — as well as DeVito's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-stars Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson. More next week.

Glorp

Posted 2010-11-08 22:27:46

Do people really still use the word "jawn"?

Posted by A.D. Amorosi @ 9:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Doggy Style: Pup Show @ Please Touch Museum

POSTED: Monday, November 8, 2010, 9:00 PM

Filed Under: Critical Mass

In light of the National Dog Show being held this month at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center (November 20-21), the Kennel Club of Philadelphia is hosting an event at the Please Touch Museum on Tue., Nov. 9 at 10 a.m. There will be well bred dogs performing agility stunts and a local company, What A Good Dog Inc, will also be at the Museum working with a group of preschoolers from Jenkintown to teach them how to properly handle and train dogs of all shapes and sizes. Several of the six newly registered breeds, approved by the American Kennel Club will also be making their debut at the 2010 National Dog Show. The Boykin Spaniel (pictured left) is a hunting dog with lots of energy. A friend of mine had a Boykin Spaniel for a pet. Her name was Mollie and she was adorable with long soft hair. Mollie is the only dog I've ever known who actually fetched the newspaper for the family before breakfast. Then there's the Cane Corso (pictured center), no doubt that neighbor of yours who works-out five hours a day has a Cane-Corso. These dogs are very affectionate and smart but they require lots of exercise. They have an extremely athletic boxers body. The Leonberger (pictured right), a large breed from Germany, makes a great companion or family dog but they need a lot of training due to their large size. The Icelandic Sheepdog is finally being added as well. It's strange that this breed dates back to 800 A.D. and is thought to be one of the oldest dog-breeds, but it's just now being registered. Perhaps it has something to do with the high-pitched yelp it lets out whenever a squirrel runs through the yard. The Bluetick Coonhound isn't called so because it attracts blue ticks, I promise. It has a bluish coat with odd patterns that look a bit like ticks or marks. Blueticks are athletic and they look like they could chase down a rabbit in ten yards. The same goes for the Redbone Coonhound. They have the classic tattletale noses that could point out the exact hiding space of a wild turkey from a mile away. If you're like me you probably watch the National Dog Show on Thanksgiving because you get a kick out of all the different breedsâ the hilarious, the tiny, the huge, the unfortunate and unbelievable things dog breeders will do to their pooches.

Posted by Admin @ 9:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Q&A with SHARI SOLANIS: "The goal isn't pornography"
What we're trying to do this weekend
ICE CUBE: In Memoriam: Joe Tartaglia
Coming soon to Philly: Two cockamamie movie promotion schemes
SEXY TIME Q&A: I've never had an orgasm during sex with a man — and I'm 30!
Q&A with Tony Goldwyn: "Life is gray, and relationships are, too"
CONCERT REVIEW: Primus (3D & quadraphonic sound) @ The Tower 10/17
PHILLY LOVE NOTES: An ode to Spruce Street
CONCERT REVIEW & PHOTOS: James Blake @ TLA 5/11
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: The Archbishop meets the Geator, the Mayor goes suit shopping, Le Bec Fin fin.

About this blog

Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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