Archive: April, 2010

Philadelphia Film Society adds Banksy movie to Spring Preview

POSTED: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 11:51 PM

Filed Under: Movies Film Fest

The Philadelphia Film Society launches their Spring Preview on Friday, but that hasn't stopped them from adding Exit Through the Gift Shop, a doc about enigmatic British guerrilla artist Banksy. The movie will screen Sat., April 10 at 1 p.m., and open theatrically on Fri., April 23. As with the rest of the fest, Exit is free; tickets can be reserved at filmadelphia.org. Check out the trailer above, and pick up the paper on Thursday for more info about the Spring Preview. RELATED >> BREAKING: Philadelphia Film Society announces spring film fest line-up

Exit Through the Gift Shop, Sat., April 10, 1 p.m., free, Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St., filmadelphia.org.

Posted by Molly Eichel @ 11:51 PM Permalink | Post a comment

LIT REVIEW: A Philosophy of Evil

POSTED: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 9:00 PM

Filed Under: Arts Books

Dalkey Archive, 312 pp., $14.95, April 6

Wallflowers frontman Jakob Dylan gently opens his solo debut, Seeing Things, with a reality-check: "It's hard to admit, but it's easy to tell, that evil is alive and well." Norwegian philosopher Lars Svendsen agrees in his 2001 book A Philosophy of Evil, urging people, especially Westerners, to wake up to this fact and do something about it through personal, social and political means. "Evil is a possibility found in all of us, because we are all free, moral beings," writes Svendsen in Kerri A. Pierce's newly translated English edition. He argues that while "evil" is generally pictured in demons and Nazis, we must understand that most forms are much more tangible than that, eventually pointing toward the fact that "evil" is not an abstract principle that disappeared with religious mythology, but a real moral problem in all human beings and societies. "Evil people are not just 'others,' but also ourselves." This work of philosophy begins by tearing down popular religious conceptions of why evil exists. Svendsen argues that explaining evil only serves to defend it, whereas things like genocide and rape must not be rationalized and therefore tolerated — they must be fought. Using the Holocaust as his primary example, but exploring many other real-life historical events, as well, he shows how normal people are capable of extreme evil, suggesting that there is no single source for evil but rather a more complex range of causes. Some do evil to achieve a goal, such as using slave labor to make a profit. Others do evil because they mistakenly believe it is good, exemplified in the Crusades or any other ideological war. The majority of us, however, do evil simply for lack of forethought. Here he says that much evil is the result of stupid and careless actions, while instrumental and ideological evil are allowed to exist because no one thinks to do anything about it — which is itself an evil. On that last point, Svendsen continually drives home the point that when we see evil, we must call it what it is, and that we have a responsibility to work for a better world, while carefully guarding ourselves against creating more evil in the process. Of course, this is easier said than done, but he makes a compelling argument for battling injustice and defending human rights, on both the local and international level. The discussion of where evil comes from is thoughtful and usually convincing (though not always). The train of thought is clear and easy to understand, especially for philosophy, and the language is smooth and readable, especially for a translation. While it is not an end-all study of the subject, A Philosophy of Evil is a valuable contribution, and it serves as a needed reminder and call-to-action for the 21st century.

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

THE CURATOR: DIY belts, patchwork poufs and greening the city, one PSA at a time

POSTED: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 8:04 PM

Filed Under: Arts The Curator

Photo | Constance Mensh/Philadelphia Museum of Art

Virgil Marti at the PMA

Every Tuesday, Critical Mass pokes around the art blog world so you don't have to. —In case you find yourself doing the server shuffle post-graduation day, at least you can do it with a bit of DIY pizazz. Streettalkin hosts Jess Conda and Madi DiStefano, who show you how to create an awesome belt perfect for working in a laid-back restaurant. It can hold everything from a notepad to a lighter — or anything else that keeps you sane. —Friday's opening of new South Philly vertical-gardening shop Urban Jungle makes me want to go for the green. But for those who can't even keep sea monkeys alive, check out PW Style's report on "air plants." These shmancy-looking suckers need very little care — just stick 'em in water once a week. —Design-Phan forgoes the art for the furniture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Picasso exhibit. In the Salon Cubism room, guests can recline on the patchwork pouf (pictured) designed by Philly's Virgil Marti. It looks almost as if the decorating styles of The Housewives of New Jersey were ingested and thrown up together to create something new — and undoubtedly indelible. —What Mayor Nutter's flash-mob PSA lacks in hipness, the city more than makes up for with the recent initiative to clean up Philly's streets. As Green Philly reports, the Unlitter Us campaign has enlisted the help of spoken-word performers to instill pride in the appearance of our not-always-sparkling city. PREVIOUSLY >> THE CURATOR: Enviro-friendly cards, handmade books and Phillies!

Posted by Kristen Humbert @ 8:04 PM Permalink | Post a comment

GET LIT: Win a copy of Maile Chapman's Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto

POSTED: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 6:29 PM

Graywolf, 256 pp., $23, Mar. 30

This afternoon's Book Quarterly Trivia Week giveaway, Maile Chapman's debut novel, Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto, is nothing if not a mouthful. Here's Katherine Hill's take on the book, which appeared in Thursday's Book Quarterly reviews section:

Maile Chapman's debut novel makes a great case for commanding titles. Your Presence Is Requested at Suvanto — yikes! The very words induce a chill, but at the same time beckon the reader in, deep into the snowy Finnish countryside, to Suvanto, an early-20th-century convalescent hospital, where Finnish and American women rest their troubled bodies and minds. No surprise, all is not well at Suvanto. The patients can be difficult, and often inscrutable, as they band together against their caretakers, unsettling even Sunny Taylor, the consummate nurse, who has escaped troubles of her own in America. With the arrival of a particularly unruly patient named Julia, and an American gynecologist harboring progressive ambitions, the atmosphere of Suvanto, already laden with institutional anxiety, becomes almost impossible to control. "One danger of constant observation," Chapman writes ominously, "is that all the world, even tragedy, comes to seem anecdotal." In our post-feminist times, we tend to romanticize women's liberation or else ignore it altogether, but Chapman's eerie (if at times aloof) novel reminds us of the personal pains endured on that road to progress — and the roaring silence of the female body just before it found its voice.

To win a copy, answer the following trivia question:

What famous novelist is quoted as saying Maile Chapman is one of his "favorite writers"?

E-mail your answers to carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net, and don't forget to check back to Critical Mass tomorrow for Book Quarterly Trivia Week's grand finale.

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay @ 6:29 PM Permalink | Post a comment

THEATER REVIEW: Some Assembly Required @ Society Hill Playhouse, 4/3

POSTED: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 4:00 PM

Filed Under: Arts Theater

Photo | G. DeCandia

Some Assembly Required begins and ends in darkness. Even as the lights rise, there is little clarity to be found here; it's an observation that isn't so much a criticism as a word of advice to future attendees. This BCKSEET Productions world premiere delves beyond a sterile depiction of mental illness, and instead portrays the protagonists' point of view through a fragmented multimedia narrative. While billed as a "meta-musical," the play's original songs are used more as transitions between scenes than as spontaneous emotional outbursts. Video projections provide a limited mirror into the outside world, and a live six-piece band compromises the living backdrop.

Photo | John Michael Szczepaniak-Gillece

Katherine, our unhinged heroine, seems less crazy than just plain worn-out by the world. She describes the trauma of too many mustard choices at the grocery store and the pointlessness of washing her hair when she'll just have to wash it again the next day. Kate Brennan's (also the playwright and composer, pictured, above) depiction of Katherine drips in dry humor, giving the character lucidity — which conflicts with the play's insistence on her supposed insanity. Her most compelling emotions are portrayed through song, amplified by Brennan's impressive vocals. As her brother (or not?) Auggie, Josh Totora (pictured) is a high-energy, multi-instrumental foil. That is, until the plot further deconstructs and roles reverse. Throw in a jibberish language and some visits to doctors and therapists to get an involved collage of mental illness and an ill health-care system. While occasionally heavy-handed (some melodramatic jazz ditties, a banal video projection of names of various prescriptions), there is heart revealed through the musical numbers including "Why Did I Bother to Love You At All?" and "Baggage." As long as you're willing to go along for the ride, Some Assembly Required is both an entertaining and thought-provoking trip.

Posted by Emily Currier @ 4:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

GET LIT: Win a copy of Peter Carey's Parrot & Olivier in America

POSTED: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 3:03 PM

Filed Under: Arts Books

Knopf, 400 pp., $26.95, April 20

Book Quarterly Trivia Week continues this morning with Australian-turned-New Yorker Peter Carey's Parrot & Olivier in America. In anticipation of Carey's talk at the Free Library on April 29, we're giving away a copy to one lucky reader. Here's what our resident lit critic, Justin Bauer, had to say about Carey's new work:

His latest is a thick, meaty period piece, inspired by Alexis de Tocqueville's 1831 tour of the United States. It spices dry Jacksonian history with period-appropriate picaresque. And, as the title hints, it's a buddy comedy, complete with a mismatched toffee-nosed master and wily servant groping toward mutual respect and affection in the strange, egalitarian atmosphere of frontier America.The pitfalls of this premise are all too obvious. ... The alternating-chapter master-servant pattern the book follows means we sometimes spend time with effete and self-deluding aristocrat Olivier that we would rather pass with Parrot, the sharp artist and forger sent to keep tabs on His Nibs. Despite these challenges, Carey's skill wins out — both by presenting Tocqueville's trenchant observations on the American character with a contemporary credit-crunch hindsight, and by managing his characters' reconciliation so deftly that history recedes into the background.

To win a copy, answer the following trivia question:

For what two novels has Peter Carey won the Booker Prize?

E-mail your answers to carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net for a chance to win; and check back to Critical Mass this afternoon for more fiction giveaways.

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay @ 3:03 PM Permalink | Post a comment

ICE CUBE: Cooper and De Niro's co-star and boxing with the woman who bedded Bullock's hubby

POSTED: Monday, April 5, 2010, 9:52 PM

Filed Under: Ice Cubes


Friel	McGee

Who cares if De Niro and Bradley Cooper (sorry, Brad you don't get one-name recognition yet. The Hangover wasn't all you) will eat at Union Trust and DelFrisco's while filming Neil Burger's new Dark Fields in a few weeks? The Hollywood Reporter let the cat out of the bag that the beautiful breath of fresh air that is Anna Friel (Land Of The Lost, Pushing Daisies) is in negotiations to co-star. Bob DeNiro: No. We're looking at her.

On the downside of girls-on-film-in-Philly, two weeks ago TMZ's television show mentioned that the Celebrity Boxing Federation (Phily expat Damon Feldman's company) was looking at Michelle "Bombshell" McGee, the tattooed bitch who slept with Nazi poseur Jesse James [aka, the (former?) Mr. Sandra Bullock] to do an event. It's still on, but not L.A. as assumed: It'll be May 7 at Club Polaris (460 N. Ninth St., that's the Starlight Ballroom to you R5-hanging hipsters). McGee will ref the bout between porn babe Gina Lynn and Hailey Glassman, ex-gal-pal of Jon Gosselin. Lynn and Glassman will be at South Philly Bar & Grille (1235 E. Passyunk Ave.) on April 7 if you want to meet them, which ... why? I'm hearing that McGee and Feldman will probably be in Philly together on May 4 or 5 before the duo head to a Howard Stern satellite radio show appearance.

Oy.

Want more gossip? Check out Icepack online at citypaper.net/icepack.

Posted by A.D. Amorosi @ 9:52 PM Permalink | Post a comment

THE SHOWDOWN: They might use voodoo, black magic and hacksaws to murder you

POSTED: Monday, April 5, 2010, 8:43 PM

Filed Under: Music The Showdown

A concert a day keeps the doctor away.

Monday: Florence and the Machine doesn't take it laying down. She's got a powerhouse voice, but she isn't afraid to let the creep in an wash over her vocals. It's part romantic pop, part dark electronica. With Holy Hail, 8 p.m., $20, TLA, 334 South St., 215-922-1011. Tuesday: If David Garza were a fusion dish he would be an aquired taste, similar to the music he makes. He brings together Latin vibes, pop, French, Spanglish, electronic and an organic twang. It's a mouthful. With Shwa Losben and Nick Howard, 7:30 p.m., $15, World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-222-1400. Wednesday: Philly locals Papyrus Like You have spent enough time down the shore to let the salty air affect their heads. It's down tempo jam band music minus the everything-is-happy vibe. Instead they take a more realist, albeit funny, look at life with lyrics such as, "I know you're not a lifeguard, you're just a Jersey girl down for the weekend." At 8 p.m., $8, Khyber, 56 S. 2nd St., 215-238-5888. Thursday: Music producer and Martin Bisi may not be as memorable as some of the bands he worked with (Sonic Youth, Herbie Hancock, Lydia Lunch, and White Zombie) but he's just as delightfully curious as all of them. There's lots of droning with talking/singing lyrics over top. With Notekillers, Yeah Clementines, and Empty Shapes, 9 p.m., $10, The M Room, 15 W. Girard Ave., 215-739-5577. Friday: Danger Danger hosts a band tonight that doesn't sound like what you'd expect to hear at the gallery house venue: Dinosaur Feathers. They're too polished in their sound, too pop sounding to be in a basement. Drawing influence from Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer and even a touch of Animal Collective, they make a giant (and sweet) sound that can't be kept under wraps for much longer. With Conversations with Enemies, Shark and Sunny and the Kid, $5 -$10, Danger Danger Gallery, 5013 Baltimore Ave. Saturday: Philly's finest hip hoppers Jedi Mind Tricks might use voodoo, black magic, and hacksaws to murder you, but it's worth the risk. Dark doesn't even begin to describe these guys, who use eerie beats to emphasize the violent, cannibalistic lyrics. At 9 p.m., $17, The Note, 142 E. Market St., West Chester, 800-594-8499. Sunday: Why not catch some intense metal on a lovely Sunday evening? Weedeater will be at the Khyber tonight, bleeding ears dry. With bass, drums and an apocalyptic death growl and grunting lyrics that you can actually understand what else could you need? With Black Tusk, Gates of Slumber and Struck by Lightning, 8 p.m., $12 - $14, Khyber, 56 S. 2nd. St., 215-238-5888.

Posted by Julia West @ 8:43 PM Permalink | Post a comment

GET LIT: Win a copy of The Eastern Stars

POSTED: Monday, April 5, 2010, 6:56 PM

Filed Under: Arts Books

Riverhead, 288 pp., $25.95, April 15

Book Quarterly Trivia Week continues with yet another baseball book to get you through Opening Day. We're giving away a copy of Mark Kurlansky's The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de MacorÃs. Here's what City Paper's editor in chief/baseball fan in chief, Brian Howard, had to say about it:

No author has ever been more at home writing about fish than Mark Kurlansky (Cod, Salt). Not that the skill comes in handy in a book ostensibly about the transformative effects of baseball on tiny San Pedro de MacorÃs (aka "The Cradle of Shortstops"). The book's examination of Dominican history — from pre-colonial through the bloody Trujillo dictatorship to the present — is enlightening. But the baseball sections of The Eastern Stars — particularly those driven by reportage — are composed with what could graciously be described as an elementary understanding of the game. (That the book's appendix of San Pedro major leaguers is riddled with errors further torpedoes its bona fides.) Kurlansky doesn't seem to know what kind of book he wanted to write — a history, a sociological tract, a bio — and ultimately fails to deliver on the promise of the subtitle. He concludes with the lure of MLB money, which is just the starting point for this discussion.

To win a copy, answer the following trivia question:

As Mark Kurlansky explained in Salt: A World History, where does the idiom "red herring" come from?

E-mail your answers to carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net. There's still time to answer our Harry the K trivia question; or check back tomorrow for more BQTW giveaways.

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay @ 6:56 PM Permalink | Post a comment

COVETED: Take a look, it's in a book!

POSTED: Monday, April 5, 2010, 5:30 PM

Filed Under: Arts | Shopping | Books | Coveted | Fashion What We Heart

Collectors of pretty things, take note: Every Friday Monday, we're rounding up a what's-what of what we [heart], culled from the scores of design blogs, artist sites and Etsy treasuries we can't help but stalk on the regular.

In honor of the City Paper's Book Quarterly, which hit the stands on Thursday, we're dedicating this week's Coveted to all things bookish. First up: Penguin Classics was wise to hire designer Coralie Bickford-Smith, who's created an ever-growing set of brightly colored, cloth-covered works of literature, from Pride and Prejudice (not the and Zombies variety) and The Odyssey to Alice in Wonderland and Treasure Island. They're even more gorgeous in person, and make for excellent, inexpensive gifts. Best of all, a handful of them are now available on Amazon. The only problem is that we want all of them, not just one. (Side note: Bickford-Smith also headed up a Boys' Adventure series — pictured, above — shouted out at Design Work Life.) $13.60 ($20 at Anthropologie), Amazon, spied first at designspongeonline.com. We'd be remiss not to include The Black Spot Books in a book-centric shopping column, since a) its creator, Margaux Kent, is a Fishtowner; b) we've written about her in our DIY holiday gift guide; and c) her work is simply exquisite — even if you're not that into reading. We're not saying we can afford this one-of-a-kind, antique "books for the neck" piece, constructed of about 10 tiny leather-bound books. But single-book versions are much more manageable, and just as lovely. $325, The Black Spot Books via Etsy. For those of you who'd rather write your own stories — or grocery lists, for that matter — we came across an eclectic collection of handmade notebooks on Portland, Ore.-based Habit of Art's site. We're particularly digging The Black Apple's critter-heavy three-pack notebook series (think girls and squirrels, whales and giant owls), all of which come printed with a cute little poem on the back: "A notebook is meant for thinking thoughts/ For making notes, for jotting jots./ So don't be stingy with the pages/ Or you'll have an empty notebook for ages!" $10, The Black Apple via Etsy, spied first at Habit of Art. PREVIOUSLY >> COVETED: Bunnies, you are so hot right now

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay @ 5:30 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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

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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