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Archive: April, 2010
Boobquake. Love it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51lCoQtg9SI - that's the sketch comedy video about Boobquakes on YouTube :-D
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| Photo | John Flak |
Through May 2, $15-$25, Azuka Theatre at the Latvian Society, 531 N. Seventh St., 215-733-0255, azukatheatre.org.
RELATED >> ARTS PICK: Nerve |
| ortliebsjazzhaus.com |
| R.I.P. Ortlieb's |
I am very sad to hear about the closing of Ortlieb's. just another case of taking the best away from us. The city of Philadelphia is indeed without a form of entertainment that will be sorely missed. WHY CAN'T WE HAVE A PLACE FOR GREAT JAZZ??
Fuck all you haters who use to come in spend no money then complain. Your one of the reasons this place met this fate
Why can't one of these [we've all seen 'em] Rich Guys take a tiny bit of their Huge Disposable Income and re-open this place? What Exactly is the problem that the owners couldn't overcome? Re-do what they Have to, like plumbing or electricity, but WE Philadelphians Need a place like this to keep us uniquely Philadelphia. Please don't gut it, level it and then rebuild it. Keep the singular charm and the Open Mic-Mike/Open Stage nights, turn it into some sort of laid-back Supper Club. This place has it all over Chris's Jazz joint for character, and if you took girls there for dates, they just Knew you were a Man About Town. Let US know if anyone sees Anything happening at Ortleib's. Thanks.
WHY was it closed??
Hey folks ,I was booking music for Ortlieb's before it closed and it was going very well.I would like to continue booking live Jazz,world music,and fusion in philly.I have found another venue to keep things going and it's called the American Pub located on 1500 market st.the Building right in front of the clothespin.I will need some support with people coming out and spending some money on food and drinks to stimulate the situation over there.This thurs at 5:30 Bobby Zankel will be performing with his band and kicking things off right!!!.So close up your laptops and log-out and get your asses down the THE AMERICAN PUB and support your local Jazz Scene!!!! It all starts with the individual.Thank you Philly!!!
Thanks Kevin, you spoiled brat.
so sad. terrible. ortliebs brings great memories, with the music, the musicians & former co-workers when I used to work there & when I came in as a guest. I blame this closing on the owners, esp. kevin who was, from what I heard was a selfish, self-absorbed brat. Former musicians quit booking gigs there after they were treated badly by these owners. FOH employees changed constantly with no consistently (as a musician-friend said, "everytime I come in there's a new person working whom I don't know". Regular guests had stopped coming, they tell me. This event of ortliebs is utterly sad. Ortliebs had that energy--intense, fun, wacky energy that came from guests, musicians & even employees but these owners were not part of this energy. These owners were out of their league w/ owning a renowned club like Ortliebs.
I've been emailing the owner, Kevin, for a while to try to book a gig. He never responded until today, when I received an incredibly hostile, ugly message from him. I didn't know the club had closed until I found this blog post, but given what a nasty person he seems to be, I'm not surprised that the club went downhill. Too bad. I remember playing there in the 90's. It was a nice place back then with a good vibe. Just my opinion.
I really grew up in that place. It is the place where i fell in love with jazz, but Kevin is a total looser. He bought a jazz club and ran off every musician from here to Boston. I'm sad to see that place go but i hope he takes a terrible loss and something as important to him is destroyed because thats what he has done to us.
It's no Ortlieb's, but... My man and I wandered by the Black Angus on South between Front and 2nd last night. Nothing was going on in front, but the owner came out and told us they had jazz in the back and an open bar because they have no liquor license yet. It was a pleasant surprise because the guys playing were really jammin'. It was advertised as "smooth" jazz, which I don't dig, but these guys were no smoothies. They were bebopping and ended with some Hendrix. So don't be fooled by the steakhouse situation in the front -- the jazz in the back is where its at. I suspect that Ortlieb's demise could help this place out with booking good groups. RIP Ortlieb's.
Very interesting ! I came in to Ortlieb's one night and has the rudest experience with the 'doorman'. I love jazz---but I don't care to be treated like dirt. Goes to show---like any other business, if you want to run a successful jazz club you have to treat the customers and the musicians well. Rather than acting like you are doing them a favor. Duhhh
I can't believe Ortlieb's closed! I haven't been there since the beginning of April. I go every once in a while. I overheard people talking about the closure. I actually argued- they did NOT. I just can't believe it. So sorry that the new owners couldn't get their act together!
weird, their website is still up and running
Mickey Roker told me about Ortliebs closing about a month ago. After what I heard in there the last time I set foot inside I'm not surprized. Actually the place started to decline a while before Pete sold. The musicians were always the same and they got boring and the quality of music wasn't that great anymore. Not what jazz is all about. I loved the place though. The staff was just the greatest, especially Peggy who was run out by the new owners. I was in the place six nights a Week when Pete was there. the few guys who actually worked there should be extremely grateful to him for what he did for them but they didn't treat him that way at all at the time. In closing, I think that if there were music police, whoever booked music in there towards the end should be put in jail and made to listen to his acts 24/7 for the rest of his life. There really has been no place to hear jazz in town for some time now. Chris' is jive and a waste of time so RIP Ortliebs.
I agree. The one time I went in there the owner was trying to play crappy sax along with the other musicians and I requested 12 bar blues during a break and he just turned away from me. spoiled brat.
So sad. I loved Ortlieb's so much. Some really great memories there.
Filed Under: Music The Showdown
Monday: The shy, lovesick Casiotone for the Painfully Alone will be hitting the stage with a full band and horn sections. Typically known for keyboard and drumbeat sounds, tonight CFTPA adds some umph to the songs with the help of Magical Beautiful. Read my interview with CFTPA leader Owen Ashworth first, though. With Magical Beautiful and Light Pollution, 9 p.m., $10, Johnny Brenda's, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-739-9684.
Tuesday: Taylor Hollingsworth isn't easy to pin down against one genre. He's without a doubt southern blues with his twangy six string and spoons rattling on the knees. But he's got this punk rock aesthetic to him, too. And that voice! Southern drawl mixed with nasally nerdiness. With Winston's Dog, Funkslaw and Disgruntled Sherpa Project, 8 p.m., $8, M Room, 15 W. Girard Ave., 215-739-5577.
Wednesday: Badass guitar slinger Kaki King will be belting it out at the TLA. It could just be a gender and genre thing, but she's been compared to St. Vincent, Neko Case and Laura Veirs. What puts King in a league of her own, though, is her experimental guitar manipulation.With Steph Hayes, 8 p.m., $18, TLA, 334 South St., 215-922-1011.
Thursday: If you want some dancey, poppy indie sounds cut with tambourines, samples and (I think) the side of a glockenspiel being played with a bow, then it's Body Language that you're after. And when the songs aren't off-the-walls-make-out-on-the-dance-floor, they're a mellow let's-make-out-in-the-grocery-store-parking-lot. Either way, it's cute and dirty. With City Rain, 8 p.m., $10, Kung Fu Necktie, 1250 N. Front St., 215-291-4919.
Friday: Vampire Hands live up to their spooky but kooky title. They have low-crawling bass lines, chilling choruses and drums and cymbals that sneak into the frame to later crash and startle. They're catchy, though, and almost every song sounds like an anthem in disguise. A really good disguise. With Daughters of the Sun and Far Out Fangtooth, 9 p.m., $5 - $10, Danger Danger Gallery, 5013 Baltimore Ave.
Saturday: So Monica reminds most of us of the '90s, specifically "The Boy is Mine," her banging duet with Brandy. But Mon's got herself a new album out this year, aptly titled Still Standing, as if we had forgotten about her. She's still got that velvety R&B voice and she's still got those feel good love songs. Luckily for us, she's still touring, too.
At 8 p.m., $30 - $40, House of Blues, 801 Boardwalk Ave., Atlantic City, 609-236-2583.
Sunday: Tonight check out local faves Reading Rainbow. They're lo-fi crunch guitars and girl-boy vocals are always pleasurable. Plus openers, Soft Landing — a darling, percussion heavy indie project of three Brooklynites, two of which are former members of Beirut — will have their first Philly show. With Soft Landing and Icy Demons, 7 p.m., $10, Little Berlin, 119
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 stalk on the regular. We here at Coveted HQ are in our 20s, which means we're smack-dab in the middle of the longest season of our lives: wedding season. We've gone to a dozen weddings in the past three years, and our friends are showing no signs of stopping with the love-and-marriage stuff. If you're like us (broke) and don't want to completely cheese off your loved ones, pick something small (both in price and size) from the registry du jour, and wrap it up all nice with one of these pretty tea towels. Less waste, more gift; less money, more thought. Works every time.
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- The Heated Teacup in Raspberry, $11, The Heated on Etsy
- Fern Tea Towel, $18, Madder Root on Cosa Verde, h/t Modish
- Gourmet Flour Sack Towel, $14, The House of Bouton on Etsy
Filed Under: Arts
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| Courtesy of Rocket Cat |
| Fairey and his mural |
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| Courtesy of MM Partners |
I agree, it also looks nearly exactly like the one he just did in New York on Wednesday that I talked about on my blog. I guess Philly always gets the left overs. :( <3
Fairey was also down at Awesome Dudes printing at 6 and Reed.
Were these two murals paid for, in part or in whole, with public monies (city/state/federal grants)?
Filed Under: Been There, Done That
CH: Carolyn Huckabay PR: Patrick Rapa ME: Molly Eichel
What We Saw:
—Relived the awkwardest of years on Friday night by going to see my high school's production of The Wiz, which my own class performed in the, cough, late '90s. (I spent my formative years geeking out in the orchestra pit while my theater-nerd friends took center stage.) Inspired to either a) pick up the ol' French horn again; b) Netflix the Michael Jackson-Diana Ross version; or c) never watch a high school musical again, ever ever. —CH
What We Listened To:
—Quasi was awesome on Friday. Check back later for photos! —PR
What We Read:
—Flipped through an article in The New York Times' Sunday mag about tweeting about Lost. The piece, "Lost in Translation: Microblogging Lost," had a few fair points to make — that this "spectacle of state-of-the-art, real-time crowd-sourcing" will eventually be over and then all the blog-happy Losties will have to find something else to do with their time — but I think the takeaway here is that the article would have worked better as a quick blog post. Too much style, not enough substance. —CH
—Like C. Hucks, I was less-than-impressed with this NYTimes article about how casting agents are now rejecting actresses who have had plastic surgery because they look fake. I've read the same story on several movie-business blogs before (big ups to Deadline.com and Thompson on Hollywood), and was frankly much more interested in the gender inequity when it comes to plastic surgery, which was briefly mentioned by largely ignored. Silver lining: The piece led to awfulplasticsurgery.com, which I spent far too long perusing and saying "Oh gross!" to. —ME
What We Watched:
—I'm only a little ashamed of how much I love TLC's wedding gown show Say Yes to the Dress. But I love seeing how terrible other peoples' tastes are. (Hey Former Pageant Queen, the sheer — yes, sheer — corseted knee-length number did not have sex appeal. Unless you count sexiness in terms of how much you look like a turn-of-the-century French prostitute crossed with a Jersey Shore cast member.) —ME
—Possibly inspired by Sam Adams' excellent interview with David Milch or my horror at the fact that most of my friends hadn't seen it, I holed up with a group, a case of Lion's Head and the first season of Deadwood. I spent most of the trying to my control my tween-girl-on-Justin-Bieber-style freak out because I knew what was coming. If you haven't watched it, you're wasting your life. It's Shakespeare in the lawless Old West. Except they say cocksucker a lot more than the Bard would dare in such plain words. Me thinks my infatuation with Ian McShane (aka Al Swearengen) is on the rise again, calling for a screening of Personal Top Fave Movie Sexy Beast. —ME
—I forgot Best in Show was based on Philly's Mayflower dog show (although, it clearly wasn't shot here). Glad I didn't forget how goddamn funny Fred "And to think that in some countries these dogs are eaten" Willard is as announcer Buck Laughlin. —ME
What We Learned:
—Act on vintage! After a month of coveting an ivory knee-length flower-print dress with an empire waist and an uneven hem from Vintage Connection (701 St. 9th St.), I finally got a wedding invitation that gave me an excuse to drop some cash on it. Of course, it had been sold that morning to someone who is going to look fabulous in it. Tear. —ME
Saw Hot Chip at TLA last night and they killeeeddddd it. They are amazing live. Openers Memory Tapes were good too
Saw Titus Andronicus in Jersey on Saturday. All around fantastic show!! My body is still sore from rockin' out so hard. Even Jersey was a blast to be in, caps and all. I was not-so-secretly hoping for The Boss to appear on stage at any minute, but unfortunately that night the Springsteen references had to be enough. Re-watched part of the first season of Veronica Mars and realized once again why it was my favorite show. Veronica and Logan, siiiiggghh. It doesn't seem to be as big of a hit with the bf as The O.C. was though.
So did anyone go to Shad Fest? Anyone?
Spent a truly joyous Saturday morning with Mr. Martino's chef-owner Maria Farnese, ostensibly to learn more about her handmade bicycle-friendly bags, but really just being vocally amazed at all of the artistic, conscious and talented people that surround us in South Philly. Definitely culture.
Watched "It's Complicated" with Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin on Saturday morning. Meryl makes Steve chocolate-filled croissants to fulfill a certain need brought on by a certain substance. Would you really wait hours to eat something if you had the munchies? @ME- also watched a few episodes of "Say Yes to the Dress" because I'm in awe of these girls who run the gamut from gawdy to so plain they may as well wear a sundress and save $2550. And the ones that bring their fiancees astound me.
Yep Carolyn, I hit Shadfest on Saturday. Also: Quasi on Friday. Bowled a couple games at North Bowl on Saturday. The aforementioned Shadfest. Dangerous Ponies at Pterodactyl on Saturday. Black Landlord on Saturday. Coffee on Sunday. All bike, all the time, all over the place.
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| photo | thorprecords.com — not sure where they got it |
| Murphy's Law: When you dress like a Nazi at a Philly punk show, anything that can go wrong, will. |
Glass smashed and a footrace ensued. The three victims barely made it 50 yards before the angry crowd set upon them. One Nazi was caught right in the middle of 2nd street as punches, kicks, bottles, boots and blows rained down upon his prone and turtled body. He could be heard crying for help all up and down the block. The other two were caught nearby and beaten severely as more weapons appeared. By now the bustling crowds of Olde City hipsters was aware of some kind of ruckus and nearby bouncers from other clubs stepped in to intervene. They pretty much saved the lives of the heavily outnumbered Nazis.Yeah, the whole article was written that way. Somebody pasted it onto BCO, so you can read it there. Called the Khyber, nobody there right now was on duty Friday night. I've got an inquiry out to Murphy's Law, so I'll try to get you an update on this. My question is: Were you there, and if so, what actually happened?
It happened the way it was written... Actually, it was much more on the cinematic side if you were lucky enough to witness the onslaught. lol... What a great f*in night... 'The Nazi Army Has Been Defeated'.... lol....
As A White Power skin myself,the commies will only attack when they outnumber us 10-3 or in this case 50-3. Time for a White Revolution! www.natallnews.com www.resistance.com 304-653-4600
I knew of the bands before GTA4 LCHC, and I've not seen anything like this at shows I was at, but I heard of Exodus encouraging such things when posers showed up at their California gigs!
I was there. If you want to know what went down, from a neutral perspective just let me know.
Jimmy Gestapo Is NOT A NAZI! I wasn't even there. I met the man and he is a decent hard working person. THE MAN IS NOT A NAZI! Go to any Murphy's Law show and you can see for yourself!
Nash Edgerton makes an auspicious feature film debut with The Square, a gleefully nasty neo-noir about Ray (David Roberts) a married man hoping to run away with his lover Carla (Claire van der Boom) and the bag of money she has stolen from her husband, Smithy (Anthony Hayes). Of course, nothing goes as planned. Edgerton met with City Paper to talk about his film, and how he, well, planned it. City Paper: You started your career in film as a stunt man. Can you discuss how you got into that profession? Nash Edgerton: I don't know, it just kinda happened. Me, my brother Joel [who co-wrote and has a part in The Square] and my friends started making films on the weekends to try to put new stuff in our show reels to try to get work as stuntmen and as actors. This whole interest in filmmaking was born because we really enjoyed the process of what we were doing more so than what the intention of it was for. We got the bug, and kept making films. I still do stunts. CP: Was directing always your goal? How did working in front of the camera prepare you to direct films? NE: When I was a kid, my dad had a video camera and my brother and I would play around with it in the backyard, always making stuff. We never thought of it as a job, or a career. We filmed ourselves jumping off the roof of the house. When I went away to school, I had to decide what I was going to do and I went to university and studied electrical engineering — because I was good in math and science — and it seemed like the right thing to do. But it felt like school again, and as much as I was good at it, I did not, could not, imagine myself of being an electrical engineer. I got the idea one night to be a stunt man. CP: Are you fearless? NE: I find it challenging. I don't know... It was this lightbulb moment. I was at a high school formal with this girl I'd met. Her best friend's partner was telling some story, and he said the word "stunt" in a sentence, and I thought, that's what I'm going to do — I'm going to be a stuntman. I went home, looked up stunt in the phone book, found an agency that represented stuntman, and called it. I came in at a good time when a lot of very big films were coming to Australia. [e.g., The Matrix]. That became my focus for a long time, and through that, I became interested in filmmaking at the same time. I taught myself how to edit. I like working on films, the collaborative nature of it, the nomadic nature of it. CP: Your brother Joel has been quite successful as an actor, appearing in everything from Kinky Boots to Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Is there any sibling rivalry between you? NE: No. I love my brother; we get on really well. We used to fight when we were kids, but we stopped that when we were 10 or 11. At some point, we just became really good friends. Like everyone, we still argue and stuff, but I feel like we have skills that complement each other, but it's never a competition. I know he is a better actor and writer than I am, and he finds more interest in that than I do. We learn off each other. CP: You gave him a part in the film as Billy the arsonist. But other than a Spider-reference cameo, you don't appear in this film. Was that because you were directing? NE: I didn't think I was right for any of the roles. I wanted to concentrate on directing. If it feels right for me, I'll do it, but my interest in acting is more... I find acting challenging, and I'm interested in it because I find it challenging, whereas my brother has a real passion for it. That's not to say I wouldn't appear in something else—as long as it is the right thing. CP: David Roberts, the actor who plays Ray, isn't a conventionally handsome hero. What prompted you to cast him? NE: I set out to cast an ordinary looking guy, a relatively unknown actor. And I think because I did that, it took longer to get the film up. But I knew if I could do it with a guy like that, it would be more engaging, and intense, because you didn't know what he was going to do. If I cast someone typically a hero, and everything works out for him, that's what you think was going to happen, or if I cast someone who usually plays bad guys, you think, he has the potential for evil and is going to do bad things. I wanted to cast an ordinary looking guy. I wanted to set the film in a realistic tone. CP: What other decisions did you make? NE: I didn't want to do action for the sake of action. CP: Or sex for the sake of sex, for that matter... NE: I wanted to play against the convention that the femme fatale is all sexy and [their relationship] is all based on sex. It's set in real life, and in real life, people aren't black and white. It's not like his wife is a nag and he's trying to get away from her for that reason, it's that they have fallen out of love with one another. Carla and Smithy — Smithy is not a wife beater. He's not overtly bad to her, they just don't communicate. He's a little bit controlling, but it's not sort of hyper-real. I wanted to start in the middle of the affair. It's not all about hot steamy love affair it's just like these are two strangers who found each other, and have a connection, and they try to get away. Any affair is going to get mundane, and the sex is not going to be like this spectacular thing and I just wanted it to feel real. CP: Do you think the characters deserve their fates? NE: YEAH! Totally! My films are very much about karma, whether I like it or not. All the characters are gray. Every little thing [the characters] do kind of affects other people, and that's what happens in our lives. We do stuff that affects other people. CP: What kind of problems did you have on the production? NE: I'm pretty good at figuring out what I need to get. CP: Your mathematic skills at work! NE: [Laughs]. Yeah, I came from making short films with no budget, so I'm realistic about what I can achieve with the amount of money I have. No major problems, just weather and time—the odd thing goes wrong here or there—but it was relatively smooth. CP: Everything was contained—your economy is to show as much as you can while revealing as little as possible. Was what your secret to constructing the film? NE: It was totally like a jigsaw puzzle. I like to be treated intelligently when I watch a film, so I like to do the same thing. I like to make the audience feel part of the movie, in terms of the way it's shot, and how the characters are experiencing what they are experiencing. All the clues are in the film, but I didn't want to bonk people on the head with it. As long as it's in the frame of what's being said or talked about...[you] learn it as the characters are learning it. That to me, made it feel more tense. In terms of being economical, I did my homework, and figured out how I was going to shoot it. Especially the more complicated scenes, like when Carla first sees the bag of money. I wanted there to be tension pretty early on...I planned that out and figured it out with a video camera. I did that for a lot of the scenes. I can't draw, I can't do storyboards, so that was my visual, moving storyboard. CP: What is your personal stamp on this film? What makes this a Nash Edgerton film? NE: The way I shoot things. The way I reveal stuff is all very me. I definitely guided the script in to the shape I wanted it to be. We changed scenes—took things out, moved things around—I don't know. People who see my shorts think it's always me. CP: You have a Hitchcockian cameo. Is there an in-joke you have in your films? NE: There's a reference to Spider in the film—in the hospital. I always reference something. Me and my friends, there's something we try to put in everything we make... A word. CP: Will you tell me what is it? NE: [He says, off the record]. It's a nickname of something from something that happened years ago. We always put it in there. You can see it at the start of Spider. In Square it's harder to spot. It's in a bit of graffiti. © 2010 Gary M. Kramer
Filed Under: Kaleidoscopic | TV
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| L-R: Martin Starr, Ryan Hansen, Lizzy Caplan, Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Jane Lynch |
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