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Archive: June, 2012
PhilaMOCA, which we've been noting has gotten their shit seriously together over the last few years since they took the old mausoleum at 12th and Spring Garden over from Diplo, just announced the details of the big David Lynch celebration we mentioned in CP's summer guide a few weeks back:
On Friday, [July] 13, the Philadelphia Mausoleum of Contemporary Art will host ERASERHOOD FOREVER, an art show/celebration held in honor of the building’s new Eraserhead mural (south-side exterior).
The neighborhood north of Center City that houses PhilaMOCA is often referred to by a variety of names: Callowhill, the Loft District, West Poplar. But for many Philadelphians it will always be known as the Eraserhood, an affectionate nod to the area’s presence in Eraserhead as well as the greater impact that the environment had on the career of director David Lynch. Disturbing yet humorous, dangerous yet comforting…these are the contradictory words often associated with Lynch’s work and are easily applied to PhilaMOCA as well.
There will also be live music and Lynch-themed burlesque and sketch comedy, which sound so weird that we'd probably even consider paying to see burlesque and sketch comedy. (j/k!)
View galleryRashad Corey Productions brought glitz and glamour to Old City Friday with Stomp the Runway. This benefit for Women Against Abuse showcased fashions from a variety of Philly designers and served as a fitting tribute to late runway model Vanessa “Ms. Banks” Watson, who was murdered by her boyfriend in February. Here’s a peek at the head-turning style and attire that was on display.
(michael.blancato@citypaper.net) (@mikeblancato)
Photos by Kate Hennessey
Saturday, the Norris Square Neighborhood Project (NSNP) held its annual Festival de Bambulaé, a Puerto Rican celebration and fundraiser in the community's vibrant garden space. NSNP supports local Latino youth through areas such as the arts and community involvment. The neighborhood's inspirational effort permeated all aspects of the event, from the paper flowers to the pork roast to the homegrown mint in the mojitos.
The Porch at 30th Street Station continues to use their $120,000 of Knight grant money (!) to attempt to draw people to hang out in a place that's traditionally the realm of travelers, cars angrily trying to get onto 76 and honking Bolt Buses. The latest effort: a pop-up beer garden July 12-14 and free mini-golf for the month of July. They have a pretty entertainingly thorough list of rules already up, apparently in anticipation of a horde of mini-golf loving barbarians. These include:
All participants must use the club and ball provided.
Don't push your way through the course. Please be patient and wait your turn.
No whacking balls.
Mini-golf is a family game, so players should refrain from using foul language.
Anyone who does not follow the rules posted about will be made to leave the course.
Knowing Philly, it's not like their apparent expectations are out of line, but it's still kind of funny. (And who brings their own ball and club to mini-golf?)
Image by bill78704 via Flickr Creative Commons.
The jogger's haven along the Manayunk canal known as the tow path will be graced for the next six weeks by a twisting mass of tubes, over 50 feet in total. The art installation Escaped Infrastructure at Canal View Park (4430 Main Street) was created by Lucy Begg and Robert Gay of the Austin-based design firm THOUGHTBARN and funded by the Manayunk Development Corporation and the Mural Arts Program. As people pass by, motion sensors activate a series of hidden pumps to send the waters of the canal through the tubes, which LED lights will set aglow by night, and splashing out the other end, adding some life and movement to the still (and occasionally sickly green) waters.
Though Philadelphia’s burgeoning gallery scene provides many opportunities to check out work from adult photographers around the world, rarely is the younger set given a chance to shine. Last week, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center (full disclosure: I used to volunteer there) unveiled its annual Teen Photo Exhibition, a two-week showcase for six up-and-coming local photographers. Every Wednesday afternoon since October, the teenage artists came in to take lessons, borrow equipment and learn from other photography exhibits around town. With a notable influence of street photography, the exhibition provides a valuable firsthand look into the lives of Philadelphia youth in 2012.
June 14-30, free. 1400 N. American St., Ste. 103, 215-232-5678, philaphotoarts.org.
Standing in front of a group of people and sharing a personal story is enough to make most people fidget and perspire, if not run straight out of the room. What makes Shot Tower's (542 Christian St.) monthly "Tell Me a Story" event so appealing is that it's decidedly a neighborhood jawn. Casual and supportive, Shot Tower's cozy-coffee-shop ambience works to lessen that desire to flee. This month's edition gets an added dose of chillout vibes with a collaboration from the 2012 So Low festival, a ten-day offering of mostly solo “low-stress and low-maintenence” experimental art.
Tomorrow's (7 p.m., free) storytelling will honor the festival's theme of "Down and Dirty," featuring a range of takes on down and/or dirty stories from local storytellers like Jaime Fountaine and Todd Marrone. As always, Hillary Rea hosts the show, bringing a loveable dose of humor to her conviction that storytelling isn't strictly for kids.
(nina@citypaper.net) (@willboctopus)
Philadelphians are, by now, used to the disrupting presence of outdoor art. Claes Oldenburg’s giant clothespin and the larger-than-life game pieces of Daniel Martinez, Renee Petropoulis and Roger White adorn the nucleus of Center City, and murals and mosaics pepper urban blocks in all directions.
The upcoming "Out of Bounds" exhibition at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education explores this fascination with open-air art, placing work originally meant for an indoor studio in an outdoor space.
Participating artist Ana B. Hernanadez hopes the installations will "provoke viewers to consider more closely spaces they may overlook in their everyday life," inviting a more diverse audience that includes those who may not seek art in traditional settings. Hernanadez's Wart is composed of over a hundred satin and rope modules that reference a foreign body rooting around a host, a concept of growth and colonization she believes would lose its humor and spontaneity in an indoor gallery.
Scott Pellet's Somerset highlights the themes of "post-industrial decay, reclamation of nature and the maintenance of the balance." The outdoor work highlights the dichotomy of nature and progress. Pellet notes his own work is about "seeing natural patterns and systems as metphors for our social and economic construction, our policies and ultimately the successes and failures within the 'eco-systems' we create."
The exhibition, a collaboration with the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, also features works by other current and past CFEVA Career Develoment Program fellows Susan Benarcik, Booke Hine, Darla Jackson, Mami Kato and Caleb Nussear. And best of all — just like the city's downtown public art — there is no entrance fee.
Through Sept. 2, free, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, 8480 Hagys Mill Road, 215-482-7300, schuylkillcenter.org.
Don’t let the name fool you. Scala & Kolacny Brothers isn't a cough drop or a produce company but a 
Belgian women's choir conducted by Stijn Kolacny, whose soaring sonic soliloquies are arranged and accompanied by pianist Steven Kolacny. Together, the brothers and the lasses make some of the most heavenly frightening music this side of the Gyoto Monks.
Of their eleven albums, little of the material is their own. Instead, their haunting coo and unified sinister grandeur comes from the compositional songbook of artists that range from The Police to Kylie Minogue. But it's an ethereally sweet-and-strange version of the Radiohead’s “Creep” that put Scala & Kolacny Brothers on the map when David Fincher used it for the trailers of The Social Network. Since that time, the song has appeared on The Simpsons twice and has had other cuts run through TV shows like Sons Of Anarchy and Desperate Housewives. Lately, the Bros PBS special Live from Bruges became a hit of the cash-raising season. Give till it hurts — Scala & Kolacny Brothers makes it easy.
Sun. June 17, 8 p.m., $25-$35, Keswick Theater, 291 N Keswick Ave., Glenside, 215-572-7650, keswicktheater.com.
If fans were pissed at Mogwai for canceling two recent Philly gigs, they were probably biting their tongues when the group finally hit Union Transfer on Tuesday night. The Scottish post-rock legends were on their A-game, playing songs that spanned two decades worth of work, including some of their deepest forays into instrumental metal that’ll make your ears bleed with delight.
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