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Archive: April, 2010
Filed Under: Printed Matter
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| Photo | Bruce Walsh |
| K.R. Wood and Jebney Lewis at Nexus Foundation |
- Not technically in the A&E section is Patrick Rapa's stellar piece on U.S. Girls, helmed by Powelton Village-dwelling lo-fi songstress Meghan Remy, who very recently got bipedal on stage.
- Molly Eichel and her staff of critics tackle the Philadelphia Film Society's free mini-fest, happening this weekend at Prince Music Theater. She's got reviews of eight out of 11 films, including The Joneses, Looking for Eric and The Square. Did we mention this is free?
- Bruce Walsh makes sense of a complicated concept for visual art: Jebney Lewis and co.'s "Bifurcation, Hysteresis, Catastrophe," opening tonight at Nexus Foundation. Basically it's sculpture about math about global warming, but it's also much more than that.
- M.J. Fine does it again — this week she Reconsiders Jakob Dylan of Wallflowers fame. Luckily, the younger Dylan isn't just mooching off his dad's fame.
- Robin Rice Re:Views a show at the University City Arts League: Abstractionist Emil Baumann, whose paintings have earned him the title "outsider artist," though Robin doesn't necessarily agree.
- Sam Adams snacks on Mid-August Lunch for this week's Flick Pick, calling it both an "evanescent pleasure" and "almost purposefully slight."
- Did we mention we reviewed eight out of 11 PFS mini-fest films?
- Molly Eichel gives Doors documentary When You're Strange its due, shouting out the skill of director Tom DiCillo but wishing he let his subjects do their own talking (the still-alive ones, anyway).
- Movie Shorts on Date Night, The Eclipse and The Greatest
- Kaleidoscope quick hits on The African Queen, Theatre Horizon's Fat Pig, Pi Lam's Human Barbecue and Justified
- Arts Picks on Azuka Theatre's Nerve and People's Light's Stretch (A Fantasia)
- Music Picks on Baby Dee, Paper Bird, Aloha, tUnE-yArDs, Univox, Philly Gumbo, Rocky Votolato and Jotto
- The Agenda is full of goodies this week, too, including Icepack, a feature on quilting superstar Kaffe Fassett, a ton of Picks, DJ Nights, and Felicia D'Ambrosio's twice-monthly fashion column, Shopping Spree.
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| colinchristian.com |
Reminds me of Salvador Dali's "Geopoliticus" actually!
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| Bloomsbury, 304 pp., $25, March 17 |
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| phillyncrowd.com |
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| kmsoehnlein.com |
Filed Under: TV
Doesn't that just make you all warm and fuzzy inside? The Broad Street Bullies premieres on HBO at Tue., May 4 at 10 p.m.
Other showtimes, from the press release:
May 4 (2:35 a.m.), 8 (11:00 a.m. ET only/10:30 a.m. PT only/3:20 a.m. PT only), 10 (8:30 a.m., 7:00 p.m.), 12 (noon), 20 (6:00 p.m., 4:20 a.m.), 23 (9:00 a.m., 11:00 p.m.) and 25 (8:00 p.m.)
Yeah, I am hyped!
Filed Under: TV Idol Hands
We like American Idol. Too Much.
Tommy Button: First off, why should I give a shit about what the other contestants have to say about each other? Spare me the Idol circle jerk, I want to hear some dirt. All that yada yada yada was obviously to make up for the lack of a guest mentor. If you gotta throw in 30 minutes of filler at least make it good.
Molly Eichel: But look Tommy! They're all besties! They have drum circles at the house then Lee Dewyze and Andrew Garcia go make passionately love to each other while Siobhan Magnus prays to Zardos or a pack of Cheetos or whatever. Knowing that the theme was the songs of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Randy predicted that the night was going to be fulls of highs and lows. Instead, it was full of so-so performances and motherfucking bagpipes. Let's start with the lows because, hell, they're funnier. Like Aaron Kelly who committed hara-kiri with "The Long and Winding Road." At least that was just a metaphor and they didn't have to wipe all of his guts off the stage. That would have made the show even longer.
TB: I'm getting really fucking tired of the confused kid. Every week seems like a shot in the dark, like he doesn't know what the fuck he's doing but hoping somebody likes it.
ME: Even he didn't like that performance, unlike Tim Urban. That self-satisfied shmuck. Too bad his version of "All My Lovin'" didn't suck as much as I wanted it to. But, as Veronica Sawyer once said, "If you were happy every day of your life, you wouldn't be a human being; you'd be a game show host."
TB: With that crazed smile, I'm surprised Tim didn't want to sing "Helter Skelter." We all know how I feel about Tim and it's getting hard to find new ways to make fun of him every week. I'll admit this was not as terrible as I'm used to from Tim, but I guess that's why Randy gave him his own genre known as 'Tim.' But even on his best night, Tim's performance was the musical equivalent to a spinal tap.
ME: If Tim was a spinal tap, Siobhan was a shit sandwich.
TB: I broke my nose Saturday night but that didn't stop me from face-palming throughout Siobhan's entire performance.
ME: I liked that she showed another side of her vocally, and I didn't hate it at first but on second listen, she took the urgency out of "Across the Universe." And her dress was a mix of coked-up Scarlett O'Hara and Tinkerbell. Tinker Belle. You know who surprised me, though? Katie Stevens pulling it out with "Let it Be." She just graduated from the high school musical.
TB: What a vote slut. Whoring herself out for prom at standard text messaging rates... This was probably her bet ever, though. But hey, even Vivian Ward had the fairy tale. The surprise for me was Andrew Garcia. I genuinely liked that performance of "Can't Buy Me Love," cornballish or no. I think Andy does well with these revamped oldies. He just needs to slap his trademark on those songs. Well, I guess he should first find a better trademark than big ass glasses.
ME: I agree, the vocals weren't great but he's the type of performer that doesn't need to be a great singer. Like a Mexican Taylor Swift. I hated on the horns and background vocals — they unnecessarily aged him — but he's a good little novelty. The judges also said Big Mike was too theatrical but so is "Eleanor Rigby." It was totally over the top and totally enjoyable.
TB: Mike's performing family was known as "The Lynche mob?" I guess if Big Mike doesn't have a problem with it, I shouldn't... The head of the Lynch mob blew a box or two last night. Probably not my favorite because "Eleanor Rigby" has been played to death and sampled to oblivion so much that there isn't much anyone can do with it that's fresh.
ME: The good thing about soul — Big Mike's genre of choice, as of now — is that the throwback thing comes back every now and again. Not so much for Casey James because his chosen genre — bluesy rock — doesn't. While I've been ragging on Casey for sounding stale, like singers who don't exist anymore, he finally sounded contemporary with "Jealous Guy." But I thought this was excellent, probably my favorite performance of the evening. And he sounded like Bob Seger! Hey Casey! I love Seger!
TB: YES! I was totally thinking Bob Seger that whole performance!
ME: Silver Bullet! Of course, Crystal was also great. They call her Mama Sox, which is nowhere near as good as Powersox. "Come Together" is a pretty weird song as it is and she amped up the soul while retaining its slinkiness. Have my Danny Gokey babies, P. Sox.
TB: A fucking didgeridoo? Jesus, Powersox, how do you even manage to fit your gigantic balls through the door? I love it when big risks pay off. But big risks failing can also be awesome. See Lee Dewyze.
ME: Oh. God. Oh. God. Lee Dewyze tries to one-up Crystal with the indignant, asthmatic pig known as bagpipes on "Hey Jude." Everything was going fun and smooth until that shit show, when I completely forgot Lee was onstage. Yo, Lee, Liverpool is not in Scottland. Both the Scotch and Liverpudlians will kick your limey ass for thinking otherwise.
TB: There are two places where bagpipes are acceptable: Scotland and cop funerals.
ME: American Idol, thankfully, is neither.
I'm so glad you mentioned the Seger-ness of Casey James this week. That's exactly what I was thinking the whole time. How bad do you want him to do "Night Moves" now??? And they both have (had) awesome hair! Now Casey, just go ahead and grow and awesome stache already!
i heard a lot of ac/dc rock blocks this weekend (my favorite kind) and they make excellent use of the bagpipes in it's a long way to the top (if you wanna rock n roll). next time you want to try something different dewyze, ask yourself if you are as badass as ac/dc is. the answer is no. and therefore, bagpipes are also a no.
Filed Under: TV
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Cecilia B. (24) was doing a lot of poppin' when we caught up with her: She was poppin' out of the hair salon with her freshly did 'do, poppin' a pose for the camera like the model she is and damn, look at how that face pops out of the photo. She looks like a Beyoncé Barbie, but you probably won't find a Mattel doll on the shelf with 11 tattoos like this hot biscuit. Check out how much she has happening on that one little hand. We love the charm bracelet tattoo, we're okat with the multi-colored pastel nails but we can easily do without that gaudy chunk of 50-cent machine bling.
There are two types of springtime park dwellers in this world: Those who get dressed up for it. And those who don't give a wad. We've got both specimens below:
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In her floral print, vintage dress and oversized red shades from Wilbur Vintage (716 S. Fourth St.), Lucy E. (31) was outshining the rest of her posse lounging in Washington Square Park. This funkified employee of Anthropologie says her biggest fashion influence is the science of color. We're no scientists but we'll do our best to figure out this formula: gladiator sandals + vibrant feather earrings to the second power/Olivia Newton-John leggings to the infinity and a milligram of choppy hipster hair = the inspiration she hoped for plus a little Björk in the beaker.
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You may not look at Michael K. and Nancy W. and think of them as a pair of trendy trailblazers, but there's no question that exercise gear deserves a place among our spring street fashion line-up. We found these two taking a breather from an afternoon jog in Old City. Michael didn't have a lot to say about his get-up but Nancy says she likes to buy workout duds at Lululemon. She also says she works for an unidentified fashion house but the most fashionable accessory she had on this day was that striking City Paper lounging on the blanket next to her. Nice choice, girl.
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Sarah H. stood out like a sore thumb when we saw her sightseeing with her all-American, cornbread-fed family. What drew our attention initially were the lace skirt and that two-toned hair, but on closer inspection we liked the finer details, such as the gaggle of family heirloom necklaces and the more-than-gently used Velveteen Rabbit doppelganger on her back. She's had this backpack since she was wee baby (which wasn't all that long ago). We weren't the only ones to take notice of Sarah. As we were chatting, a carload of guys drove by hooting like a bunch of horny owls — much to the chagrin of her mortified father. Get a grip, you pervs, she's only 15.
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| Knopf, 396 pp., $28.95, March 2 |
The Man Who Ate His Boots follows three main trends, and one harsh reality, of the British pursuit for a shortcut to Asia through the chilly waters north of Canada: the search for a quick and profitable circumspection of Spanish Central and South America in the 17th and 18th centuries; the tacit realization that ice would keep the passage closed to viable commercial traffic; the incorporation of the search into British national character following their defeat of Napoleon in the early 18th century; and finally, people getting trapped and eating other people. Peppered into these thematic bases are lengthy explanations of the politics, people and logistics involved in the main push north between 1818 and 1850. While these give invaluable insight, they are slow interludes between the much more harrowing adventures of John Ross, Edward Parry and the man with the boot in his mouth, John Franklin.To win a copy, answer this trivia question:
In what year was explorer John Franklin knighted?
E-mail your answers to carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net for a chance to win. Thanks for playing! |
| Courtesy of Wagner Free Institute of Science |
"Who killed Cock Robin? I, said the Sparrow, with my bow and arrow, I killed Cock Robin."
The collection was part of a museum devoted to taxidermy and now is dispersed. It drew many collectors, tourists, so everybody knew about it — at least everybody in England. That particular case was the centerpiece of the museum. CP: Why is it so important that we document this? It's not something that normally draws a wide interest. PM: What many people don't realize is that taxidermy is an important part of social history as well as natural history. Later on in life, it became steadily more important to me because this has been out of fashion for quite a while now. With all of these specimens out there, things get lost, thrown away, ruined. We're in danger of losing the whole thing. My hobby interest is in trying to document the whole history of it, so we don't lose it all. Other people go to cricket matches or baseball matches or visit museums, why can't I do taxidermy?Wed., April 7, 5:30-7 p.m., $5-$8 suggested donation, Wagner Free Institute of Science, 1700 W. Montgomery Ave., 215-763-6529.
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