Archive: April, 2010

PRINTED MATTER: Arts + Entertainment, April 1

POSTED: Thursday, April 1, 2010, 11:23 PM

Filed Under: Printed Matter

Neal Santos

Here's what you'll miss if you don't pick up a City Paper this week: FEATURES!

Carolyn Huckabay dishes the scoop in her First Friday Focus. Check out Old City's Clay Studio, The Souvenir Shop and The ESP Project and more.
Molly Eichel takes a hit off what PUFF is smoking, and lets you know about their new outside-the-box screening series at the Piazza. Director of programming Josh Goldbloom says, "How can we put this city back on the map? When distributors roll out a film in different cities, we want to be on that list."
A.D. Amorosi talks wordy with Poets around Philadelphia. Focusing on CA Conrad who says, "I've been pushed into the mini-mainstream like a diseased guppy in a shark tank ... Sharks don't want to don't want to even taste the diseased guppy, so I swim among their shit and surprise them by barfing on their teeth."
Need a good read? We got ya review right here.
Phils' opening day is a scant four days away, so speed read through these baseball books.
Emily Currier goes up 'ter Twin Peaks by way of Mike Smash's new art-show themed on the cult TV classic. Dessert-alert: "Under the Double R Diner's insignia, you'll be able to pick up a cup of damn good coffee (served black, to Agent Cooper's taste) and samples of pie made by local bakers and grandmas alike."
Noir writers Duane Swierczynski and Dennis Tafoya are none more black.

REVIEWS!

Sam Adams dives into the Marco Bellcchio's Vincere, about Benito Mussolini's first wife who he had put in an asylum to keep her quiet about their marriage.
Mark Cofta reviews Nagle Jackon's first professionally-produced work, At This Evening's Performance and Philadelphia Theatre Co.'s Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins.
Movie Shorts on Clash of the Titans, Formosa Betrayed, The Last Song and The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Album reviews of Slow Club, Circadian Rhythms, Dum Dum Girls and Evelyn Evelyn.

COLUMNS!

J. Edward Keyes sings it out for Erykah Badu's latest.
Justin Bauer goes headlong into disaster in Shelf Life.

Posted by Tom Tiballi @ 11:23 PM Permalink | Post a comment

TRAILER!: The Expendables

POSTED: Thursday, April 1, 2010, 9:25 PM

Filed Under: Movies trailer!

Drool.

How can you not be excited about this return to '80s-style actioners, starring the classic (Stallone and Lundgren together again!) and the comparative newbies (Statham, Li), plus former Eagle Terry Crews who is just not in enough movies (has anyone caught his BET reality show The Family Crews?!)? Plus, dig the Schwazenegger and Willis cameo! I'm pumped, but I'm hoping this is more True Lies than First Blood Part II. Still, I mourn JCVD's lack of involvement. As any long time City Paper reader knows, JCVD just makes everything better. Oh, god, August 13 just can't come soon enough. RELATED >> NOW SEE THIS: The 160 Greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger Quotes of All Time

Lindsey

Posted 2010-04-05 18:26:20

Terry Crews is one of my favorite T.V. dads, right up there with Sandy Cohen and Keith Mars.

Posted by Molly Eichel @ 9:25 PM Permalink | Post a comment

ART PHAG: Coming out party, finding a mate and a tasty beer dinner

POSTED: Thursday, April 1, 2010, 7:53 PM

Filed Under: LGBTQ Art Phag

mshowtv.com

Every Thursday, we give you this week's LGBTQ to-do list. — If you're like me, coming out of the closet was a breeze because you were merely confirming what everyone knew all along. But to some (ahem, Ricky Martin) the experience may have been a bit more trifling. On Fri., April 2 at 8 p.m. and Sat. April 3 at 4 p.m. at the William Way Center (1315 Spruce St., 215-732-2220) high school students from The Attic Youth Center will share their coming out stories in a performance called "I Do Exist." Young people of all ages and sexual orientations will relive their experiences through movement, poetry and monologue, hoping to find the freedom they were seeking all along and to proudly announce to the world that they're here and they're queer. The cost of admission is sliding scale, ranging from $5 to $10. All money made benefits the Bryson Institute of the Attic Youth Center. — The coming of spring marks the arrival of tweeting birds, cherry blossoms in bloom and most importantly, a surge of hotties hitting the street after a long winter's hibernation. If you're looking to snatch one of them up for a steamy summer romance, you may want to pop over to the William Way Center (1315 Spruce St., 215-732-2220) on Sat., April 3 at 3 p.m. for an informative session called Especially for Singles: The MBTI Roadmap to Successful Relationships. Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, organizational experts Carolyn T. Thompson and Ellen Greenberg will lay out personal dating advice from how you should approach relationships to what type of mate you should be looking out for. The advice could be extremely helpful, but get ready to pay handsomely for it. The admission is $75 for members and $100 for non. — If you're a fan of local suds you may want to make your reservations now for the Victory Beer Dinner at terra (243 S. Camac St., 215-545-1102) on Tue., April 6. For $55, a different Victory beer will be paired with each plate in the five-course meal that includes everything from popcorn crab tempura to pan seared tilefish and braised leg of rabbit to grilled banana nut bread. I love terra because of its dark and romantic, almost Parisian feel. It could be the perfect place to pick up that MBTI compatible, but if not you'll at least eat and drink enough to last a few days. There are two sittings, one at 6 p.m. and one at 9 p.m. You can check the full menu. Bon appetit!

Art

Posted 2010-04-08 00:30:20

Thank for sharing good and useful information.  This information is very valuable.

regards.
http://www.collect-art.com/Sarah-Jane-Szikora_work

Posted by Josh Middleton @ 7:53 PM Permalink | Post a comment

LIT REVIEW: LOOK! It's Jesus!

POSTED: Thursday, April 1, 2010, 7:00 PM

Chronicle, 96 pp., $12.95, Feb. 10

The miraculous can happen to normal people all the time. Or so says LOOK! It's Jesus! Amazing Holy Visions in Everyday Life, a colorful new book from Harry and Sandra Choron. In vivid pages, these North Jersey writers document 62 accounts of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and more appearing in tortillas, windows, wood grain, sandwiches and even the clouds. Living in a cynical generation, most of us will snicker through these pages, though it was incredibly difficult for this reviewer to tell if the authors were sincere or not. Do they really see something supernatural in a chip shaped like the Pope's hat, or are they making fun of the family that found it? This question remains the real mystery behind the book, even more intriguing than how an image of Christ's mother could have appeared in a lava lamp and froze that way. Some other images, particularly ones found in wood grain, seem like a bit of a stretch. I had to look at several of them for a long time before seeing what the finder claimed to see, though many others are quite astonishing. My favorite images are the so-called "Jesus and Mary Stone" and the "Buddha Beehive," both toward the end of the book. The former is a colorful rock with incredibly convincing images of Mary holding the baby Jesus that apparently formed naturally in the stone. This is perhaps the most baffling in the whole book. The beehive is exactly what it sounds like: a small bees' nest shaped exactly like Buddha sitting down. What's more spectacular is that the bees made their home in the middle of a Buddhist monastery in Minnesota. Could the monk be right who said, "The Buddha is trying to tell everybody to seek peace in their lives"? Here, as throughout the book, the authors leave it up to the reader to determine how they respond. On that note, one man says the image of Jesus' face burned into his frying pan restored his faith, while a pastor says his Jesus-shaped cheese curl is not miraculous, just kind of a cool reminder about seeing God in the world. It could be said that this book is a study of "folk religion," looking into how spirituality affects people's everyday lives in unexpected ways.

Posted by Eric Pettersson @ 7:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

IDOL HANDS: American Idol, Clash of the WTF

POSTED: Thursday, April 1, 2010, 6:20 PM

Filed Under: Music | TV Idol Hands

We like American Idol. Too much. Tommy Button: What the fuck was that, American Idol? And I'm not talking about Didi. No shit that was going to happen. Molly Eichel: Heavy sigh, Didi Benami. You weren't going to win but you don't deserve a fate such as this. TB: This is what I'm talking about: 1) Everything having to do with Clash of the Titans. Except Sam Worthington. ME: Goddamnit, that movie was even good. Although, Idol is King of Product Placement (COCA COLA COCA COLA COCA COLA) so it wasn't unexpected. Also, if anyone was going to take down the Kraken, I would put my money on Aaron Kelly. TB: 2) NO GROUP PERFORMANCE?! ME: I'm not with you on that. Those are always excruciating. TB: 3) Ruben Studdard, the velvet teddy bear, and a man bearing the namesake of maybe one of the greatest sandwiches ever announced that he's gone vegan. ME: There is nothing more evil in this world than vegans. Nothing. Offended? Bring it. TB: Usher's crazy A Clockwork Orange/robot performance with Will.i.am running around in hammer pants. ME: That song is bangin', though. And I really enjoyed the line about boobies. TB: The uncomfortable amount of Seacrest/Simon fighting. I totally understand why Simon wants to leave now. ME: I'm gonna chock that up to Seacrest knowing that his super crush, Didi Benami, was going home. TB: Diddy Dirty Money sending little children everywhere into epileptic shock with his foam at the mouth strobe show. (Although it looked pretty cool in my apartment.) ME: What do you think Biggie (R.I.P.) would have thought of American Idol? TB: And finally,Tim Urban is still safe. What. The. Fuck. ME: Indeed.

Posted by Molly Eichel @ 6:20 PM Permalink | Post a comment

NOW SEE THIS: The Spinning Leaves practice session

POSTED: Thursday, April 1, 2010, 5:30 PM

Filed Under: Music | Now See This Philly Bands

Watch Barbara Gettes and Michael Baker of The Spinning Leaves at a practice session with members of the West Philly Orchestra, taken by our own video wiz Neal Santos. Like what you hear? The Spinning Leaves hit Johnny Brenda's tomorrow with Oso and Toy Soldiers.

The Spinning Leaves, Fri., April 2, 9:30 p.m., $10, with Oso & Toy Soldiers, Johnny Brenda's, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-739-9684.

Posted by Molly Eichel @ 5:30 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Director of Philly-set Night Catches Us discusses her film

POSTED: Thursday, April 1, 2010, 4:45 PM

Filed Under: Movies Film Fest

Director Tanya Hamilton discusses her locally-set/shot film Night Catches Us on The New York Times' Arts Beat as part of a series of pieces of films in the New Directors/New Films festival. Set in 1976, Night Catches Us stars Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker) who returns to Philadelphia after a decade in exile and reunites with former flame Pat (Kerry Washington), but the Black Panthers and a cop put a kink in their happiness. It premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival to solid reviews. Unfortunately, the Times is greedy with their videos and won't let me embed. The rest of the series is worth watching, as well. RELATED >> Philadelphia to own Sundance once more?

Posted by Molly Eichel @ 4:45 PM Permalink | Post a comment

INTERVIEW with BC CAMPLIGHT: "I just in the past month remembered the piano has never let me down."

POSTED: Thursday, April 1, 2010, 3:30 PM

Filed Under: Music | Philly Bands Show

photo | bccamplight.net

We've been big fans of Brian Christinzio — better known as BC Camplight — at City Paper for years. (For us, it started with his music video diary back in 2004. And who can forget the time we put him on our cover? We can't.) The dude's a pop rock genius. His shows are always memorable, sometimes even crazy dance throwdowns, always a good time. His show on Saturday at Johnny Brenda's? Definitely recommended. When we heard he was taking off for the UK again, we got a little worried and hit him up for the lowdown. City Paper: So you're kinda moving to England for awhile? Why? For how long? Brian Christinzio: Well. I wouldn't say moving. Just a long visit. I've been trying to get back to the UK for an extended stay since my last long tour in '08. I just have a better support system there as far as... well... people paying for my shit to get made. Living in Fishtown is great but if I don't get out and be productive I'll probably need a new liver by the time I'm 35. CP: Do the Brits just get you? BC: The Brits get me I guess. It's a whole other ball game there. In England I can even pass as handsome. CP: What have you been up to musically? BC: I've lived a ton since my last record. It was tough getting the spark back. But through a couple loves lost and getting life's boot to the face a couple times I've remembered something critical. I'm not supposed to be trying to find things to make me happy. That never works for me. I've tried to replace the thrill and satisfaction of creating music with normal life things... girlfriends, responsibility, ya know... normal stuff. I just in the past month remembered the piano has never let me down and have since been super siked to put everything back into what I'm good at. So that's why I'm taking off for a bit. That and the IRS is after me. CP: Your last Philly gig for awhile is this Saturday at JB's, what've you got planned? BC: I'm a bit worried about this show. I never get nervous but people that come to the shows have come to expect this huge Barnum & Bailey rock show and it's going to be different this time. Just me, a piano and my wonderful drummer and actual handsome man, Mike Kennedy. We're trying something different. I think it's going to be a ton of fun. I'm going to play Van Halen's eruption on piano... with one hand. I'm not kidding. There will be some surprises. So come out people. I guarantee a legendary time. (Not a guarantee.)

BC Camplight, Sat., April 3, 9 p.m., $10, with The Swimmers and Le Fits, Johnny Brenda's, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 877-435-9849.

Posted by Patrick Rapa @ 3:30 PM Permalink | Post a comment

GET LIT: Book Quarterly Trivia Week!

POSTED: Thursday, April 1, 2010, 2:00 PM

Filed Under: Arts Books

Good morning, fellow lit nerds! If you picked up a copy of this week's City Paper, you may have noticed that, in conjunction with our overstuffed edition of the Book Quarterly, we're launching yet another Book Quarterly Trivia Week here on Critical Mass. We're giving away copies of the books reviewed in the pages of CP all week long, and all you gotta do is answer some questions. Let's get started.

Spiegel & Grau, 224 pp., $24, April 13

We're kicking off BQ Trivia Week with Beatrice and Virgil, Yann Martel's first novel since his critically acclaimed Life of Pi. Martel will give a talk during the upcoming Free Library Festival (Sat., April 17, 4 p.m., free, 1901 Vine St., 215-567-4341, freelibrary.org). Sez the Library's Web site, Martel once again uses animals "to discuss the human condition — in this case, the limitations of language in understanding and describing the horrors of the Holocaust." Which means we can forgive the guy for getting a little meta at the get-go. We gave Martel a shout-out in this week's Kaleidoscope — er, Biblioscope:

After Life of Pi, Yann Martel got real famous, real quick. He even received a handwritten thank-you letter from Barack Obama. Where do you go from there? Martel's new book, Beatrice and Virgil, starts with a writer whose first novel made him real famous, real quick. Sigh. But add a creepy taxidermist who asks our protagonist to help him pen a Holocaust parable about a donkey and a howler monkey, and Martel saves himself from semi-autobiographical fantasyland and delivers another downright remarkable fable.

We've got two copies to give away. To win, answer the following trivia question:

Life of Pi's main character has an unusual name. What was he named after?

E-mail your answers to carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net; winners will be notified via e-mail. Stay tuned to Critical Mass more BQ Trivia!

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay @ 2:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

« PREVIOUS | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

Q&A with SHARI SOLANIS: "The goal isn't pornography"
SEXY TIME Q&A: I've never had an orgasm during sex with a man — and I'm 30!
NOW SEE THIS: Transit cop arrests marijuana activist for alleged disorderly conduct.
CONCERT REVIEW: Primus (3D & quadraphonic sound) @ The Tower 10/17
What we're trying to do this weekend
Q&A with Tony Goldwyn: "Life is gray, and relationships are, too"
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Indian fare rules, Dunder Mifflin lives on, Tom Jones is a god
Bradley Cooper promises he's not an asshole
Q&A with Goon’s Seann William Scott
CITY PAPER WRITING CONTEST 2013: Send stories! Send poetry!

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.

Follow Critical Mass editors Patrick Rapa and Emily Guendelsberger on Twitter:

@mission2denmark | @emilygee

Search this blog:

Topics:

Blog archives:

May
April
March

February
January

Past Archives: