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In this week's cover story, CP editor Emily Guendelsberger writes about Lentil, a French bulldog born with a severely cleft palate who became an Internet sensation. His life-threatening deformity demands the full attention of sleep-deprived "Foster Mom" Lindsay Condefer but also makes for one undeniably adorable pooch. During a visit with the two, Guendelsberger shot video of Lentil doing nothing of significance, but does that matter? Puppy!
Local filmmaker/screenwriter/actor (he gets taken out by Nucky in an upcoming Boardwalk Empire!) David Kushner sent me this funny video he shot at North Shore Beach Club and a few other spots around Philly. Heads up: This video features Hasidic Jews dancing in shiny gold thongs, so your boss may not be thrilled about you blasting it at work.
Happy Hanukkah!
We ventured to South Street to find out what horror-movie moments still manage to make grown men and women mess their drawers. When we asked locals about their all-time favorite villain, there was a reigning champion. Can you guess who it is? No, it's not Sandy!
Have faves of your own? Let us know in the comments or tweet us @citypaper with the hashtag #cpscarymovies.
Philadelphia City Paper: Talking Horror Cinema on South Street from Christian Sarkis Graham on Vimeo.
The get the full experience, watch this on a giant concave screen.
Philly singer-songwriter Karen Gross assembled a crazy-talented group of local songstresses for Saturday night's Girls Rock Philly Unplugged show at Tin Angel. The three featured performers were Suzie Brown, Kharisma McIlwaine (who did a spot-on version of Minnie Riperton's "Loving You" — high notes and all) and dreamy harpist Gillian Grassie. Here's a video of the evening's closing number, Carole King's "You've Got a Friend."
Here's a vid from this week's Lunctime Concert Series, a free show in Center City that happens once a week at noon through August 29 (see complete schedule here). This time around, rockabilly outfit Gas Money performed at 1500 Centre Square on Market St. While most attendees were on their lunch break, I talked to quite a few who were straight-up ditching work to enjoy the beautiful day and catch some live tunes.
Emily Flake's Lulu Eightball comic — animated!
LuLu Eightball Series: What Does Your Bank Have to Offer from Dawn Fidrick on Vimeo.
I went to karaoke at West Tavern (1440 Callowhill St.) this Saturday and was knocked out by this lady's version of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face." Do it, sister!
Exactly two weeks ago, Boston couple Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan uploaded their cover of "Look At Me Now" by Chris Brown. After about a week, it got three million views, spurring Ellen to bring them on her show. If you haven't seen it by now, the vid is an alarmingly clutch rendition of high-speed rap — originally spat by Brown, Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne — by a cute (and hilariously expressive) white girl from Boston, with her fiance on keys and background vocals.
Not all of their covers are hip-hop, they do a great rendition of "Forget You" by Cee Lo Green, as well as a cover of "Misery" that, quite frankly, should embarrass Maroon 5. They even have some originals, which, I have to admit, are less interesting than their karaoke-on-steroids. But original music shows that this duo is actually serious about pop music, and going on Ellen is generally a good tipping point. I'm expecting that it won't be long before you're staring at these guys on a shelf in a mainstream music store near you.
I recently had the good fortune to hear what may be mankind’s greatest achievement thus far: “Friday,” by 13-year-old prodigy Rebecca Black. I must have been late on this, because according to YouTube, 29,874,430 people viewed the video before I did. Given that that’s a significant proportion of the US population, I think it’s fair to say that “Friday” has become a cultural touchstone.
That is no surprise. Black conveys a universal human emotion, celebrated for centuries: the desire for an end to labor. In so doing, she is working in a literary tradition that dates back to Genesis, in which God punished Adam by forcing his descendants to work for survival. Black encapsulates this theme in a single word, “Friday,” which in much of Western culture heralds the coming of a period of rest, or in the singer’s words, “fun, fun, fun, fun.” In short: “Everybody’s looking forward to the weekend, weekend.”
But before reaching that period, Black, and indeed all of us, have a series of hurdles to overcome. In the “Friday” allegory, those struggles are represented by an early rise — 7 a.m. — as well as the compulsion to “be fresh,” “go downstairs,” and “get to the bus stop.” All the while, we are “seein’ everything,” but must grapple with the notion that “the time is goin’/ Tickin’ on and on.”
Fortunately, as Joseph Campbell observed in his “heroic cycle,” such quests typically have “helper” figures. Black is not without this assistance: “I see my friends,” she tells us as a group of underage drivers approach. That poses another pre-Sabbath dilemma, one we’ve all faced: is it better to be “kickin’ in the front seat” or “sittin’ in the back seat”? The urgency of the question is clear: “Gotta make my mind up,” Black points out.
Within three-quarters of an hour, Black and her friends are “cruisin’ so fast,” physically manifesting their desire for “time to fly.” It is a study in futility, however: the unavoidable reality is that speeding towards school will only result in having to spend more time there. But the rest of the stanza offers reassurance: “Fun, fun, think about fun,” the singer entreats her friends. “You know what it is,” she reminds them: “I got this, you got this.” She then establishes a frame of reference: While “yesterday was Thursday,” “today is Friday,” and that means that “we, we, we so excited.” Yet the weekend can’t last: though “tomorrow is Saturday,” still, “Sunday comes afterwards.”
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