Archive: May, 2010

NIGHT WATCH: The Dragonz, "On the Dancefloor"

POSTED: Wednesday, May 12, 2010, 4:59 PM

Filed Under: Music | Night Watch | TV

This is so dorky and unhip, I only feel comfortable posting it in the middle of the night when CritMass editor Molly Eichel is fast asleep and dreaming of Jean Claude Van Damme. It's the first video by The Dragonz, a weird trio of cast members from this year's Survivor: Heroes vs. Villians season. The drummer/singer is a self-styled guru type named Coach who had to be told not to do his homebrew tai chi in front of his tribe because everybody was laughing at him. The singer is Courtney, a fun but ultimately useless waif, Survivor-wise. The guitarist is dumbass puppy JT who actually handed an immunity idol to the show's biggest dickhead/villain for no reason whatsoever. Yes, I still watch the show (online). No, I don't know anybody else who does. Of any age. And: No, I don't think this is a good song.

Posted by Patrick Rapa @ 4:59 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Comcast adds more On Demand movies

POSTED: Tuesday, May 11, 2010, 9:19 PM

Filed Under: Movies | TV

The first and last movie I bought from Comcast On Demand. Yes, I did this out of my own free will. Yes, I immediately regretted the decision.

Ah, Kabletown. You sneaky bastards. The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that Comcast will add more On Demand movies to it's repertoire, bringing the final count to about 11,000, a 450 percent increase. Philly and D.C. get the roll-out first, with the rest of Comcastsylvania getting the upgrade later. We're talking the pay movies here, not the free ones. So expect to pay about $2.99 to $5.99 per title. So, why is this a shifty move? 'Cause Comcast would rather have you pay for their movies then have you stream them online, even from legal sites like Hulu. Brings that whole net neutrality business into a whole different light, don't it? Hey guys! You can't have the same broadband speed as everyone else because you like to watch movies on the Internet ... but, look, you can always pay $5.99 for the Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li!

Nashael

Posted 2011-01-13 07:01:19

you copied my friend >:D

Posted by Molly Eichel @ 9:19 PM Permalink | Post a comment

CONCERT REVIEW: EOTO @ World Cafe Live 5/6

POSTED: Tuesday, May 11, 2010, 8:52 PM

Filed Under: Music | Concert Review Show

Magically in sync EOTO — composed of Jason Hann and Michael Travis, percussionists whose day job is the String Cheese Incident — utilizes the jam band ethos to produce a show that is completely original and improvised. Hann and Travis wasted no time igniting an explosion. It was as though the entire world came alive the moment they started their set: colors, lights, and most importantly, an enamored crowd moved ecstatically to the band's funky electronic concoctions. It was amazing to see them transcend dubstep's darkness and use strong bass drops as a chill, danceable device. Hann, on the the drum machine, never let the beat build up enough to bring you down, but kept you comfortably and steadily grooving. Travis acted as an excited child, glancing up and smiling devilishly at the audience as he tweaked melodies and vocal loops through his array of music makers, including many laptops and keyboards. EOTO played lovingly with the audience, catering their music to our bodies. Seamlessly, they traveled from pristine drum and bass to downright funky psychedelia. Despite this deep connection to the audience, Hann and Travis' obvious fondness for jamming with each other was the centerpiece of the show. They are so magically in sync, it was almost like watching a cosmic, electronic brotherhood live an entire life onstage. The duo's power extends past the dance floor. As I took a breather to sit and watch the show, I felt a deep sense of oneness with the whole production. The light show was phenomenal, changing and sparkling just as quickly as the band's sound. For one of the first times in my life, I felt as though I, the band, and everyone in the room existed solely for this show, this moment, and this music.

Sean McEvoy

Posted 2010-05-12 08:54:20

OMG Mandy Bee sure writes great reviews, right everybody? What a smart person, whoever he is;

Posted 2010-05-12 20:53:52

i agree he must be a professional music reviewer not just anyone can capture the essence of a live music like him!

Posted by Mandy Bee @ 8:52 PM Permalink | Post a comment

THE CURATOR: Bill Gates, paper art and loving the vag

POSTED: Tuesday, May 11, 2010, 7:35 PM

Hudson Beach Glass

From Gail Cunningham's Plumage

Every Tuesday, Critical Mass pokes around the blog world so you don't have to. — Philly's premier paparazzo, Hughe Dillon, offers some outstanding photographs from Bill Gates recent acceptance of the prestigious Franklin Institute Award. In response, says Steve Jobs, "Uh, iPad." — As a child Gail Cunningham must have been the polar opposite of that kid who ate glue in the corner. Wielding a pair of scissors and a single sheet of paper, Cunningham crafts wondrous works of art. Her new collection, Plumage, is on display at Hudson Beach Glass (26. S. Strawberry St.) until the end of May. Uwishunu features a picture of a piece from the collection in which a flock of birds forms a couch. If that's not an obvious comment on the state of our economy, I don't know what is. — Philly's foremost fine art is seen on the street, and Phawker's Jeff Deeney has a slide show of recent graffiti to prove it. Deeney also touches on the impact of the infiltrating New York and Connecticut artists who tag in fiercely loyal West Philly neighborhoods. Which just makes me think of that kid in the graffiti episode of Cold Case. Death by spray paint does not sound fun. — The Fightins has a priceless photo from Jamie Moyer's shutout last Friday, but it's not a picture of the old man flingin' fast and hard. Instead, it's a little shutout shoutout to the enjoyment of female anatomy. Puke, tazing and now vaginas? You stay classy, Philadelphia.

Posted by Kristen Humbert @ 7:35 PM Permalink | Post a comment

CONCERT REVIEW: T.J. Kong and the Atomic Bomb, The Chimeras, Grandchildren @ Johnny Brendas, 5/7

POSTED: Monday, May 10, 2010, 10:37 PM

Filed Under: Critical Mass

Photo | John Vettese

The walls were shakin' with a chorus of moans

Let's play a game of Band to Get the Most People Dancing Wins. At their CD release show on Friday, local punkabillies T.J. Kong and the Atomic Bomb had whole of Johnny Brendas' fricking moving. Now, we could point to the free-flowing Dogfish Aprihop or Yards Tavern Spruce. The trio of shithammered ladies gyrating wildly in front of the stage, shrieking the words to every damn song from Kong's new full-length Idiots. Maybe their uninhibited enthusiasm made the rest of the crowd more comfortable with the whole Let's Jump Around idea — at one point Needles Jones, standing near me at stage left, conceded "I can't remember the last time I saw the girls go this crazy." But what was the driving force behind it all? The slammin', amped up bluegrass spitting offstage. Dan Bruskewicz's gravely, throaty vocals. Mosh-tempo washtub jams like "Helena Handbasket." Kong got the people dancing. They win.

Photo | John Vettese

Photo | John Vettese

Photo | John Vettese

Photo | John Vettese

Photo | John Vettese

Photo | John Vettese

Photo | John Vettese

The competition was solid all around. Preceding Kong, West Philly faves The Chimeras turned in a tight, tidy set of literate psych rock tunes — their last for a few months, since bassist Adam Cooper is taking a summer sabbatical to study in India.

Photo | John Vettese

Guitarist Dan Ferry proved to be an animated stage presence that played off Il Shim Pearlman's drum hits with dramatic gesture; swinging low to the stage, arching backwards, shoving his guitar toward the ceiling. By contrast, Matt Turnbull was much more stoic, but the most vocally together, the fiercely concentrating performer of the bunch. The crowd easily doubled over the course of their early set, and by the resounding string bends that close "Leigh," the first flicker of the body movin' chaos we saw later began to emerge.

Photo | John Vettese

Photo | John Vettese

Photo | John Vettese

Wrapping up the night were Grandchildren, the most obviously danceable band on the bill. But by the time they went on, folks were wiped out from all the dancing they'd done already. So they swayed in place and zoned out, letting their minds be blown by the intricate tapestry of sounds and beats playing out before them.

Photo | John Vettese

Grandchildren's Cold Warrior LP — whenever the fuck they get around to releasing it — is stellar, an insanely imaginative addition to Philadelphia's musical canon. But to truly get this band, you need to see them perform it live. Catch them next time, and save your energy till they hit the stage.

Photo | John Vettese

blkfootblaque8

Posted 2010-05-13 17:59:15

The atomic Bomb is just that!

judas

Posted 2010-05-22 12:48:57

worst band ever

Posted by john vettese @ 10:37 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Magnolia picks up Night Catches Us

POSTED: Monday, May 10, 2010, 9:54 PM

Filed Under: Movies

Courtesy of the Sundance Film Festival

Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington from Tanya Hamilton's Night Catches Us.

Variety reports that Magnolia Pictures has picked up Night Catches Us from director Tanya Hamilton (I would link to the article, but Variety just put up this totally dickish paywall so you won't see it anyway). Magnolia is a solid distributor — they just did Mother, and have The Good Heart coming out on Friday and Casino Jack and the United States of Money next week — so expect a Philly release. No word on when that's happening, though. Night Catches Us, which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Fest, features Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker) as an ex-Black Panther who returns to Philadelphia in 1976, after a decade of exile. RELATED >> Director of Philly-set Night Catches Us discusses her film

Posted by Molly Eichel @ 9:54 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Watch movies on the Free Library's site

POSTED: Monday, May 10, 2010, 9:20 PM

Filed Under: Movies

The Free Library alerts us via Tweet that you can download movies from their site for nada. A lot of them are public domain titles — like F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu — but there are some straight up classics (The Bicycle Thief, 8 1/2) and newbies in the stacks like Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead with Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke and a very topless Marisa Tomei (read Shaun Brady's recommended review). So what am I doing tonight? Clearly, watching Ed Wood's Glen or Glenda?

Posted by Molly Eichel @ 9:20 PM Permalink | Post a comment

GET LIT: Win a copy of Jack Rakove's Revolutionaries

POSTED: Monday, May 10, 2010, 8:30 PM

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 496 pp., $30, May 11

Attention all American history nerds/lovers of the HBO miniseries John Adams: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jack Rakove is coming to the National Constitution Center tomorrow night at 6:30 to discuss our country's roots — and its future. (He'll also be Jon Stewart's guest on tonight's Daily Show if you're looking for a sneak peek.) Here's a blurb about his new book, Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America, from the NCC's website:

Rakove tells the stories of the founders before they were fully formed leaders, as individuals whose lives were radically altered by the explosive events of the mid-1770s. They were ordinary men who became extraordinary. Spanning the two crucial decades of the country's birth, from 1773 to 1792, Rakove uses little-known stories of these famous (and not so famous) men to capture — in a way no single biography ever could — the intensely creative period of the republic's founding. From the Boston Tea Party to the First Continental Congress, from Trenton to Valley Forge, from the ratification of the Constitution to the disputes that led to our two-party system, he explores the competing views of politics, war, diplomacy and society that shaped our nation.

To win a copy, answer the following trivia question:

What were the four Intolerable Acts passed by the British parliament in 1774?

E-mail your answers to carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net for a chance to win! Jack Rakove talk, Tue., May 11, 6:30 p.m., free (registration required), National Constitution Center, 525 Arch St., 215.409.6700, constitutioncenter.org.

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay @ 8:30 PM Permalink | Post a comment

SHOWDOWN: Turbo folk micro-orchestras

POSTED: Monday, May 10, 2010, 7:20 PM

Filed Under: Music The Showdown

A concert a day keeps the doctor away.

Monday: Happy hour isn't strictly for Fridays. Tonight get an earful of cool jazz at the Happy Hour Jazz Jam Session with Orrin Evans and Friends. World Cafe's website says, "instrumentalists and singers are welcome to join in." This could get weird. From 5:30 - 7 p.m., $5, World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-222-1400. Tuesday: Scranton band Blinded Passenger plucks some familiar strings with their Americana-style indie rock. Instrumentally the songs vary from mammoth, cymbal-crashing gusts to plunky piano pop ditties. But the almost talking storytelling lyrics that crop up in most of the songs drawn influence from the like of Bright Eyes, Elliot Smith and Hold Steady. At 8 p.m., $8, The Khyber, 56 S. 2nd St., 215-238-5888. Wednesday: Gregory and the Hawk make songs that feel like precious little gifts. With teensy-tiny and sweet lady vocals, the acoustic group is so adorable you can't help but smile when hearing the far away sounding recordings. Unless, of course, you are a cold stone. With Dan Malloy, 8 p.m., $10, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 215-563-3980. Thursday: With songs about new shoes and perusing the zoo, sung in a strained guttural man-growl, it's kinda hard to take Prizzy Prizzy Please all that serious. That's okay, because sometimes you have to get down with a band that has a goofy name and goofier lyrics. Tonight is one of those nights. With Pat Jordache and Secret Mountains, 8 p.m., $5 - $10, Danger Danger Gallery, 5013 Baltimore Ave. Friday: Speaking of silly names, the Buzzcocks are in town tonight. The punkers who began over 30 years ago are back to sing about orgasms, severe sexual tension and unrequited lust. With The Dollyrots and Moon Women, 9 p.m., $21.50 - $24, The Trocadero, 1003 Arch St., 215-922-5483. Saturday: Laura Marling's name keeps coming up more and more as of late. The alt-folk darling — at least vocally — follows in Feist's footprints with her timid but clearly rich and velvety voice. This 20-year-old is clearly well beyond her years. With Smoke Fairies and Pete Roe, 8:30 p.m., $15, Johnny Brenda's, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-739-9684. Sunday: French band Vialka describe themselves as a "turbo folk micro-orchestra." The term at first is intriguing, though unclear. But as you listen to the duo, you realize there isn't a better way to describe the musical weirdos. With Hermit Thrushes, Circadian Rhythms and the Devil's Horns Kill the Matador, 9 p.m., $10, Johnny Brenda's, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-739-9684.

Posted by Julia West @ 7:20 PM Permalink | Post a comment

COVETED: How Bazaar, how Bazaar

POSTED: Monday, May 10, 2010, 6:20 PM

Filed Under: Shopping Coveted

Collectors of pretty things, take note: Every 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. The Art Star Craft Bazaar is this weekend (eee!), so we've been scrolling through the massive vendor list, drooling over this and that. Here are some covetables* we can't wait to see in person.

Applause woodcut, $200, by Just A Jar
Morisco Three necklace, $59, by Olaria Studio
Pear Girl Resting Doll Notecard Set, $9, by Bubbledog

Reversible Obi belt, $38, by Holland Cox
Hand-in-Hand/Pinch rings, by Joanna Nealey
White onesie with red spider, $10, by Dot & Irma

Invincible Spring print, $27, by Spread the Love
Pottery by Tasha McKelvey
Men's Skullopus hoodie, $45, by Spaghetti Kiss

*We have no idea whether these particular items will actually be for sale this weekend; but here's to hoping. PREVIOUSLY >> COVETED: Random rainy roundup

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay @ 6:20 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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PHILLY LOVE NOTES: An ode to Spruce Street
Q&A with SHARI SOLANIS: "The goal isn't pornography"
ICE CUBE: In Memoriam: Joe Tartaglia
CONCERT REVIEW & PHOTOS: James Blake @ TLA 5/11
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
Q&A with Tony Goldwyn: "Life is gray, and relationships are, too"
CONCERT REVIEW: Primus (3D & quadraphonic sound) @ The Tower 10/17
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: The Archbishop meets the Geator, the Mayor goes suit shopping, Le Bec Fin fin.

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

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