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Archive: April, 2010
Filed Under: Been There, Done That
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| What we watched |
CH: Carolyn Huckabay HO: Holly Otterbein ME: Molly Eichel
Where We Went: — Joined the First Friday masses (beautiful evening + NCECA Conference in town = no room on the sidewalk) to visit The Clay Studio's exhibit "Of This Century"; they had all four floors of the space open for perusal, including resident artists' studio spaces. Lots and lots of clay everywhere; very long bathroom lines. —CH — Checked out the opening of the Twin Peaks-themed art show at Piranha Betty's. Totally dug the space, clearly obsessed with the theme and loved the pie-tasting but was disappointed in the overall quantity of TP art. Give me more Special Agent Dale Cooper please! —ME What We Listened To: — En route to Easter dinner in Bethlehem, turned on This American Life's "Scenes from a Recession" episode, in which a Chicago couple deals with some pretty harrowing condo-maintenance woes after their developer jumps ship. —CH — After seeing West Phil banjo plucker Joshua Marcus sing elegantly, somehow, about mountaintop removal and other complex environmental issues at Studio 34 last week, I listened to his album Reverse the Charges. Just as elegant, but not quite as lyrically complex. Which is not a bad thing at all. —HO — Goddamn, if "Dog Days are Over" by Florence and Machine (who play the TLA tonight!) isn't one of the best driving-with-the-windows-down song of spring, then I don't know what is.— Attempting to actually watch all 10 Best Picture Oscar contenders (albeit a bit late) this year; Friday night's selection was An Education. Newbie Carey Mulligan is pretty charming with those doe eyes, but I'll always hate Peter Sarsgaard for no good reason. Also, was disappointed by the (spoiler alert!) happy ending. —CH — Watched a flick I've been meaning to see for a while: The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief, a doc about an upscale "host club" in Osaka, Japan. "Host club" basically means a strip club catered to females, except there's tickling and flirting instead of stripping, and then sometimes there's sex. I won't ruin it for you, but finding out what most of the female customers do for a living really shines a light on the sex industry in general. —HO — Some friends rigged up a projector on the roof and we screened Mitchell — starring the one, the only Joe Don Baker — Mystery Science Theater-style. Never a huge MST3K fan, but I have a soft spot for JDB, not to mention Dynasty's Linda Evans as a hooker who can't get enough of our Schlitz-drinking Main Man M (even though he insists on arresting her every time they bang). —ME What We Read: — Caught up with the week's celeb gossip via Entertainment Weekly's Bull's Eye. Anyone know what's going on with Megan Mullaly and Patton Oswalt? I didn't get the joke. —CH — NYT's "Can Animals Be Gay?" asks a big, old, gay question, and accordingly gives a few big, old, gay answers. One of them is a lesson that, no matter how many times you hear it, is hard to swallow — we shouldn't anthropomorphize, because animals are much more than little humans with fur. Thank God for that, right? —HO — Started Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (the Swedish movie adaptation is in theaters now), which is engaging right from the prologue about a mysterious flower shipment. Me thinks I will start eschewing social obligation so I can finish this book. Anyone read it? Does it live up to the hype? —ME So, what'd you do this weekend? Leave your comments below!
I watched Point Break!!!
Had friends in from out of town so media and arts were limited... Watched Jesus Christ Superstar (as per my Holy Week tradition) with a friend who had never seen it (they loved it). Listened to some old classic rock on my Fisher Price record player (you read that correctly), including Who's Next and Led Zeppelin IV. Watched one of the DVDs from Phish's Clifford Ball set and last night watched the fourth installment of The Pacific, which is getting increasingly horrifying.
Nice seeing you for ten seconds at the Twin Peaks art show. Definitely returning to Pirahna Betty's to examine the peeky-boxes and dead Lauras in closer detail without all those Agent Dale Cooper fangirls breathing down my neck. Ahem. Went sans culture until Sunday evening, when Dad commandeered the remote to watch The Pacific. Well-made stuff about the ugly reality of war; I wonder how soldiered survived then and now.
Friday: before first Fridaying at the Clay Studio, i hit AKA and picked up the 12-inch vinyl of the She & Him Volume 2 and the 7-inch Apples in Stereo picture disc (yes, I'm a sucker) of Robert Schneider's song "Stephen, Stephen" as performed on the Colbert Report. Then watched An Education while babysitting for my nephew (who'd already gone to sleep) and thought it was just okay. Saturday: Spent most of the day gardening while listening to the aforementioned She & Him album and the latest Ted Leo & the Pharmacists record (The Brutalist Bricks). Sunday: While driving to Bethlehem for Easter dinner, listened to part of a Radio New Zealand show about Chris Knox and the Stroke compilation benefiting his recovery. Also listened to Seabear's We Built a Fire for the 100th time.
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| Running Press, 336 pp., $24.95, March 9 |
Coming out less than a year after Harry Kalas died in a Washington broadcast booth, Harry the K is anything but a hagiography. Phillies beat writer Randy Miller expounds upon Kalas' "lifelong addictions — alcohol, cigarettes and carousing"; his taking up with eventual second wife Eileen while still married to his first; and the disintegration of his friendship with colleague Chris Wheeler. The biography also details Harry's declining health in his final months;he'd already suffered a"'silent' heart attack" months before calling the last pitch of the 2008 World Series. ... In the end, loyal fans would rather remember Harry for kinder moments — like providing personalized voice-overs for fans' answering machines — and acts of generosity.To win a copy, answer this trivia question:
In what year was Harry Kalas inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame?
E-mail carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net for a chance to win; and check back this afternoon for another sports-related giveaway.
Filed Under: Critical Mass
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| bloggingpojectrunway.com |
| Anthony, Emilio, Jay, Johnathon, Maya, Seth Aaron |
Workroom Maya looks at herself in the mirror Door number two closes Seth Aaron looks up, confused Close up of Maya's work station, tidy and unmanned
Um, ok. After this, TG entered the room with Maya, who had an announcement. She's leaving the show, dun, dun, dun. Maya said she just didn't feel ready for everything that was happening, she's not up for the competition, and so on. The curious part about her departure wasn't so much the fact that it was happening, but it was the way in which she was telling her fellow stitchers. It was very calm, very scripted and entirely too drama-free to even enjoy. This cold bitch didn't even shed a tear. It gets crazier. After the remaining five returned from Mood they were once again greeted by Timmy, who informed them of yet another change in plans. Seeing as the great Gods of ProjRun had fully expected six designers instead of five, they needed to make an adjustment. Tim was bringing a designer back. Door number three swung open to reveal the designer we knew would be back in our lives: Anthony, Queen Bee of Atlanta. Rejoice, friends, it's an Easter miracle. Then it was down to business for everyone. The challenge was almost lost in the revolving door of nonsense. What was it, even? Oh, right: design a red carpet look for Heidi Klum. Adding a pinch of excitement to this episode was part one of the elimination twist: guest judge Jessica Alba. Oh, well, why the hell didn't they just design a look for her? Poor, pale little Jonathan went to work making a rich cut-away pattern that he claimed took about eight hours. When Heidi accompanied Tim to check out the designers' progress she hated it, and suggested he make something, er, swirlier. She wanted something entirely different from what Sweet J had already begun. This lead to him starting a new dress that sucked, and then another. That's three dresses total. The final result was a beige micro-mini that looked stapled in the front. He used black and coral sashes that were well draped in that back but, again, that whole stapley look in the front wasn't working. The dress was Johnny's last, and he was the loser of this challenge. It was a hell of a week to go out, though. Mila made something, too. It was ugly. Moving on. Jay made a corseted dress with a ruffled skirt that enhanced the model's barely there ass and hips. The judges were disappointed at best. Seth Aaron went with a vampy black full length gown. It was mediocre with its Seth Aaron signature hardware studding the simple details. Emilio made an elegant but dreadfully simple mermaid cut gown. What made the design sleek was his brownish gold sequin fabric. It was sexy and smooth, even if it was safe. But what do you know, Emilio wins again. It's becoming an issue. Thankfully, Emilio's ego wasn't allowed to bloat to the size of Manhattan just yet. There was one more twist in the mix: two winners. Seeing that all the aforementioned designs were sub-par, that leaves Anthony, with his classic black and white floor length gown, fitted at the top with yards and yards of solid black and white fabric swishing from the hips down. He made a piece that Ms. Alba liked so much she asked if he would allow her to wear it. Without hesitation Anthony obliged, and the motor mouth from the deep south was back in the game.A Sunny Day in Glasgow was one of the first bands I ever booked in college. I didn't really know the city yet, but hearing Scribble Mural Comic Journal, the band's debut album, gave me reason enough. Their combination of gorgeous ambient textures and beautifully dissonant harmonies didn't really sound like anything else I'd heard. Best of all — they were from here! The band I saw at Kung Fu Necktie last night is still called A Sunny Day in Glasgow and they're still from Philly, but that's nearly where the similarities end. The Homophones played first, were the perfect opening band: fun, irreverent, engaging and altogether uninterested in the seriousness that a band usually needs to get really famous or whatever. They didn't seem serious, but they sure took their irreverence seriously. They danced a lot and popped balloons and even sang a song about David Foster Wallace. Arc in Round, who played second, sounded very little like the Disco Inferno song after which they presumably dubbed themselves last year. They've got a beautiful web presence — lots of vibrant colors and patterns — which makes me think shoegaze and ambient, but on stage, they actually sounded a bit proggy. I kept thinking about Tool, possibly because of frontman Jeff Zeigler's shaved head, but also because the band does have a little bit of prog metal in them. Then it was time for Sunny. At this point lead songwriter Ben Daniels is the band's only "original member." It's a testament to Daniels' considerable abilities as a bandleader that with all the lineup changes, the band's overall aesthetic isn't really all that different. The singing might be most impressive. New vocalists Annie Fredrickson and Jen Goma stay true to the band's earlier vocal sound, which, after all, is what made their music stand out in the first place. They've mellowed a bit — their new songs are lighter, more upbeat, maybe more digestible, without abandoning that ever present dissonance (is there any other band with harmonies like these?). It's a welcome development: staying true to their roots even as they get closer and closer to writing that perfect, three-minute pop song — a direction I never even realized the band might take. There were a few songs last night that sounded surprisingly close to power pop. Were they new songs? Were they songs from their second album Ashes Grammar or their recent Nitetime Rainbows EP sped up so much that I couldn't recognize them? I'm not sure, but they sounded fantastic. And, how about one last difference? The new singers dance more.
Filed Under: Now See This | TV
Erstwhile Philly boys Tim and Eric are prolific outside of their batshit Adult Swim show Tim and Eric Awesome Show Good Job!, carving a niche for themselves as music video directors (Eric, Major Lazer's "Pon de Floor" is good, but not nearly as good as this) and vodka pitchmen. Old Spice, who did those bitchin' Bruce Campbell ads, has snatched them up to now direct a series of commercials starringformer Eagle/actor in the upcoming Expendables/my completely unexplainable celeb crush Terry Crews. God, I would have loved to been on the set for this shoot.
Unlike other Tim and Eric-directed commercials, this one doesn't neuter their trademark out there humor.
Via Videogum
h/t Tommy Button
The National Conference on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) is in town this week, which means two things: One, there are roughly 6,000 extra First Friday meanderers in town this weekend; and two, pretty much every single gallery in the Philadelphia area's using the opportunity to showcase ceramic arts. (It also means we get to write headlines like "Clay Achin'." Sorry.) I gave you the rundown in this week's paper (which is excerpted below); visit theclaystudio.org for a full list of exhibits, including one curated by City Paper's very own visual art critic, Robin Rice. Happy hopping!
THE CLAY STUDIO >> "Of This Century: Residents, Fellows and Select Guest Artists of the Clay Studio, 2000-2010" celebrates a decade worth of extraordinary work by decorated artists both homegrown and international. Ceramics' inevitable dichotomy of delicacy and substance is represented in unusual ways here, from a porcelain fawn with a rocket on its back (pictured) to a floating pool toy made of sturdy, unpuncturable earthenware. Opening reception Fri., April 2, 5-9 p.m., free, through May 4, Clay Studio, 137-139 N. Second St., 215-925-3453, theclaystudio.org.
BRIDGETTE MAYER GALLERY >> How do you create a sphere from a cube? For artist Steve Tobin, the answer is simple: Blow it up. His "Explosive Relationships" solo exhibit is the culmination of "14 years, over 20,000 explosions and 300,000-plus pounds of clay," a lifetime of experiments which seek to expand the possibilities of the clay form. Opening reception Fri., April 2, 6-8:30 p.m., free, through May 1, Bridgette Mayer Gallery, 709 Walnut St., 215-413-8893, bridgettemayergallery.com.
ART STAR >> While the Clay Studio looks at painstakingly crafted, unique works of art, "The Souvenir Shop" takes the opposite tack. The crappy, mass-produced tchotchkes we bring back from vacation serve as fodder for an exhibit that explores our nostalgic relationship with junk. Curated by Kyan Bishop, Kate Hardy and Joanie Turbek, the show itself is an overstuffed warehouse of sorts, teeming with examples of the ordinary keepsakes that bring back extraordinary memories. Opening reception Fri., April 2, 6-9 p.m., free, through April 25, Art Star, 623 N. Second St., 215-238-1557, artstarphilly.com
RELATED >> First Friday Focus, April 1, 2010
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| Knopf, 288 pp., $25.95, April 6 |
Filed Under: Weekend Omnibus
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| Minotaur, 245 pp., $13.99, March 30 |
Dennis Tafoya: You've written nonfiction books, you write Cable and a bunch of other comic series for Marvel, and now Expiration Date looks to stretch out of the crime genre to science fiction — would you like to try other genres? Duane Swierczynski: Definitely. I think of my novels and comics as a big pot of soup. The main ingredient, for lack of a better term, is "thriller" — in other words, stories where bad stuff happens to interesting people. Sometimes I'll add heavy does of espionage, sometimes it's horror, often it's black comedy. In Expiration Date, it's a big shaker full of sci-fi. But I can't help coming back to Philly, even with the stranger stories.To win a copy of Expiration Date, answer this trivia question:
Duane and his brother Gregg's parents were big fans of what '70s rock group?
E-mail your best guess to carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net for a chance to win! RELATED >> Noir Town: Two Philadelphia Crime Novelists Shoot It Out [UPDATE, 1:40 p.m.]: Congratulations to CritMass reader Edward for correctly identifying the band that inspired the Swierczynski kids' names — The Allman Brothers. |
| Photo | Patrick Rapa |
| Elise Juska |
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| Photo | Patrick Rapa |
| Sean Webb |
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| Photo | Patrick Rapa |
| Jessica Penzias |
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| Photo | Patrick Rapa |
| Thomas Devaney |
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