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Archive: July, 2012
All Black Female Pantera Cover Band SEARCHING for MEMBERS. (Philadelphia)
Seeking drummer and guitar player for band.
If interested shoot me an email.
Reclaiming those Confederate-flag guitars! We would like to see this made a reality, and also to mumble something about Dimebag Daria.
Finding fault in Coldplay’s live presentation on Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center — even if you don’t care for the British quartet — is like saying that Disneyland isn’t your cup of tea. You might not be a huge fan of Mickey Mouse or Goofy but roller coaster-ing around in a car-sized replica of their heads can be a hot wayward thrill.
Coldplay didn’t have to amaze their believers beyond expanding loudly upon its diligent clean song-craft. Smooth-shaven Hugh Laurie look-a-like Chris Martin and the faceless trio he plays with use a generically epic surround-sound vibe that shrouds even the leanest melody line with both a Gladiator-like grandeur and a romantic sense of intimacy that makes thousands of people feel cozily at home. Lots of brio through each numbing chorus. Anthemic lyrics that don’t seem to say very much but sound really heroic and universally loving when their words are strung together.
Every Monday, Brittany Thomas rounds up the week's sure-bet live shows. This week: The hiGH fiVE, Cockney Rejects, Black Horse Motel and more.
Thursday: A beautiful menagerie of string instruments including and not limited to banjo, cello, mandolin and guitar are accompanied with carefully constructed harmonies in the Philly Americana band Black Horse Motel. 9 p.m., $8-$10, Milkboy Philadelphia, 1100 Chestnut St., milkboyphilly.com.
Snap out of that summer daze with sunny sing-alongs during Summer Film Series 2012: The Great American Musical. Every Wednesday from July 11-August 1, Philadelphia Theatre Company will screen a classic American musical at 7 p.m. inside the air-conditioned Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard streets). The series kicks off with Funny Girl, chirps along with Bye, Bye Birdie (pictured), rock and rolls with Grease and ends on a high note with Dreamgirls. Tickets are $8 for adults and $4 for children, so bring the whole family. Keep the snacks and refreshments at home though — you can get those at the theater.
When winter hits, birds fly south and humans go to Florida. To explain the human migration, we can look to the warm weather and great deals on flights, but the birds? Scientists have known for years that many species possess the ability to feel the Earth's magnetic poles. Like a sixth sense, the birds seem to gravitate south around the same time every year without the conveniences of complex reasoning or a GPS system. Husband-and-wife team James L. Gould and Carol Grant Gould were so intrigued by this phenomenon, they wrote an entire book on the subject.
Nature's Compass: The Mystery of Animal Navigation explains the science behind many species' sense of direction, from the monarch butterfly to the honey bee. They describe how a deeper understanding of the subject is not only fascinating science but essential to the goal of animal conservation. Both accomplished scholars in their own fields — evolutionary biology and science writing, respectively — the Goulds have published nine previous books on animal behavior. They'll speak tomorrow at the Free Library's Central Branch (1901 Vine St) at 7:30 p.m. The talk is free and open to the public.
Road-tripping across America requires great tenacity and reliable transportation. Walking across America requires steel will and iron legs. Armand Young appears to have both. His journey on foot from San Diego to New York City and back began in April 2007, when he decided to honor those who died during the September 11th attacks by making a pilgrimage to Ground Zero. Along the way, young carried a giant bamboo pole and a purpose: promote human kindness throughout the country. Young's bamboo pole is filled with “thousands upon thousands” of signatures from people who pledge “to commit one act of human kindness within 24 hours.”
The second half of his Human Kindness Walk brought Young through Philadelphia last week. He plans to head west along Route 30, collecting signatures along the way.
Devoted poet/avid concert-goer/nerd-grrrl extraordinaire Jane Cassady’s weekly horoscopes run in this space every Friday.
Cancer (June 22-July 23): Think of how many letters you can send: Strongly worded letters of complaint, love letters, thank you notes that go into lots of detail, letters of apology and amends. Pick five and write them out on paper. Remember stamps?
Leo (July 24-Aug. 23): To the Leo who is apartment hunting—you will have ample closets, a big, clean kitchen, built-in bookshelves, hardwood floors, and a big windows. You’ll live in a quiet neighborhood with lots of trees. You’ll have everything including cheap rent, I promise.
Virgo (Aug. 24-Sept. 23): See Leo. Also, the tests you’ve been preparing for will be a piece of cake. Spend time in coffee shops going over practice tests. Alternate learning with good, long bouts of swimming. Fill up your brain and treat yourself kindly. You can do this.
Libra (Sept. 24-Oct. 21): Today, all of your wishes are coming true, and you are groggily joyful. Sleep as many hours as you want, you’ve earned it. Spend lots of time with paints and books and movies. The stars recommend rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer from a bondage perspective, but that could just be the stars.
Scorpio (Oct. 22-Nov. 22): “Who laughs the most, knows the most, if that laughter is sincere.” (Hafiz) This week, focus even more than usual on the funny. Take Calvin and Hobbes collections to the beach with you. Meditate on the wise teachings of Demetri Martin, who is just as adorable in person. Go only to movie theatres that let you heckle the screen.
Sagittarius (Nov. 23-Dec. 22): Look at the summer schedule and map out your visits. Be sure to spend the most time with the people who make you the most delighted, and the least on obligation.
Capricorn (Dec. 23-Jan. 20): Soon, I’m coming to visit you! We’ll write jillions of stanzas in our notebooks, putting stickers on the best parts. We’ll eat pie and snuggle children. I really can’t wait.
Aquarius (Jan. 21-Feb. 19): This week, stand up for yourself, even if it is painful, even if it leads to some loss. Look at the people, the rumors, the dramas that hold you back and give them the what-for. Yes, we know, the stars should do this, too. Don’t let anyone take anything away from you. You are worth all the happiness and freedom in the world.
Pisces (Feb. 20-March 20): To the Pisces in a long distance relationship: May her visits be long. May her texts be chock full of effusiveness and affection and glitter. May you have the place in her life that you’ve always wanted. A happy home. Open arms. Providence.
Aries (March 21-April 18): This week in your life as a video game, you are Mario Kart. If you feel like you’re careening, bouncing over mushrooms, skidding past barky chain-link dogs, occasionally being pulled from the drink by a helpful cloud guy with a fishing pole, don’t worry, things will calm down a bit next week. Next week’ll be Tetris.
Taurus (April 19-May 18): I’ve got writer’s block for Taurus, so please send your requests. Thanks!
Gemini (May 19-June 21): Take a trip to your local produce market, a farmers’ market if you have one nearby. Fruit has always symbolized well-being to the stars, and this week will be like strawberry-blueberry shortcake for you, Gemini!
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Philadelphians came out in droves for the annual party on the parkway yesterday. The celebration was the culmination of ten days of Welcome America concerts and events. There was sweat, there was music, there was fun, and there was more sweat. We took some photos.
Inside Butch Cordora’s Washington Square West studio, the local conceptual artist shows me the large, yet-to-be-framed mugshots that now comprise his latest exhibition, "Hot and Busted."
Cordora searched thousands of photographs (2,219 to be exact) on the websites of correctional facilities across the country until he found subjects meeting his aesthetic specifications: “Piercing eyes, square jaws — that kind of soap-opera beautiful, like 'Oh my God, you’re so hot.'” Oh, and they’re all Caucasian.
“I had wanted white guys on purpose,” Cordora explains. When browsing the different websites, he focused on the areas of the country where there would be a larger selection of light-skinned beauts. It would be “too easy,” he says, to add African-Americans, a race he notes is all too often associated with crime and punishment in the U.S. “For the white, straight, handsome male,” however, “the world is their oyster.” These are the kind of faces that HHo
One of the men resembles a young Brad Pitt, with a firm jaw and a faint smile. Some, however, have a more haggard appearance. One looks up with tourmented eyes from a head angle that’s reminiscent of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode III. With tousled hair and pallid skin, his beauty hovers just beneath the surface of obvious strain.
These photographs seem more mysterious and profound than the pop art-y paintings of Cordora’s last show, “Absolution Lab,” and his popular 2010 calendar “Straight and Butch” in which he posed nude with an assortment of naked heterosexual men.
The inspiration for “Hot and Busted” stems from Cordora’s visits to a friend in jail. Though the man in question will not be featured, Cordora claims his mugshot is equally captivating. “You look at him, you’d think he has the world by the balls,” says the artist. However, after 2 DUIs and a house arrest broken on account of soy-related cooking, Cordora’s friend was locked up for six months. The artist visited him every week, and “I just became fascinated – with jail, with the booking process, with the whole idea of taking your freedoms away.” Each mugshot in the show reflects the emasculation and defeat up to the point at which the photograph is taken, explains the artist. Each portrait is therefore not only a face but also a depiction of the harrowing experience of arrest that recalls the mistakes of his friend. “Hot and Busted” is about this push and pull between an attractive face and a crushing experience.
But who are these Luciferan adonises, the focus of the show?
Cordora refuses to reveal names or origins, and he’d prefer you guess their crimes – the list includes everything from armed robbery to failure to possess a saltwater fishing license. Similarly, these convicts and would-be convicts have no idea that their likenesses are being blown up to two feet by two feet and hung on a gallery wall. Questions of morality and legality tossed to the wayside, Cordora cares only that the viewer share his fascination with prison and the contradiction embodied by its most beautiful.
opening reception Fri., July 6, 6 p.m., through Sept. 2, Ven and Vaida Gallery, 18 S. Third St., 215-592-4099, venandvaida.com.
In attempting to make sense of the atrocities committed during the German holocaust, there are some figures that are often forgotten from the list of who to blame. Aside from military personnel working under Nazi orders, the party enlisted a range of physicians, psychiatrists and other “medical” specialists to develop racial health policies such as the mass sterilization of anyone determined “diseased.” These health professionals effectively medicated the racist doctrine of the party, bringing the evils of fascism into local doctors' offices and using the human body as an experimental site for furthering the Nazi agenda.
A current display at the Free Library's Central Branch (1901 Vine St.) focuses on the intersection of Nazi Party doctrine and medical theory during the holocaust. Titled "Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race," the exhibit is part of a traveling program from D.C.'s United States Holocaust Memorial, and Sunday marks its final day in town. The subject matter isn't for the faint of heart (and not recommended for children under 11), but the exhibit fills an important place in our understanding of an incredibly dark period of human history. By chronicling the connection between medical practice and socio-political doctrine, viewers come away with a deeper sense of the power of “official” science in justifying hate. The exhibit is on view for free until 5 p.m. Sunday in the library's second-floor gallery.
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