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Arts
In yesterday's Sunday Inquirer, reporter Susan Snyder summarizes the paper's “Assault on Learning” series, detailing the concrete policy achievements they tout as the result of their investigations—surely in preparation for an upcoming Pulitzer submission (due January 25).
Here's what's most troubling: recapping their November article on arming school police officers, the Inquirer papers over or fails to deal with any of the serious criticisms leveled against their reporting by representatives of Mayor Michael Nutter and by City Paper (yours truly--see my point by point take down of the Inquirer's strange trip to meet with gun-toting school cops in Houston):
- The Inquirer failed to report on the city's fairly devastating criticism of their reporting. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison had to write a letter to the editor pointing out that, incredibly, the November article's entire premise was wrong: armed school police are already in schools. "The Inquirer ignored the facts, disregarded my statement that city police have been stationed in schools for more than 30 years, and only once noted that Philadelphia officers are 'assigned' to city schools.” Today, the Inquirer summarized the imbroglio with, “Since then, Nutter and Ramsey have been emphasizing that armed city officers already have a significant presence in the schools and it's been so for decades.”
Bathroom graffiti at West Philly's Satellite Cafe explains Pennsylvania in one map and three words: "youse," "yinz," and "Pennsyltucky." Sadly, the graffiti has been removed since this photograph was taken last week. RIP, oh rare incident of good bathroom graffiti.
The horde of fire-breathers, T-shirt sellers, jewelry slingers and other vendors who famously line Old City's streets every First Friday appears to be on its way out — and headed to Fishtown.
The exodus is in response to a recent crackdown by the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections. A coalition of Old City vendors says that L&I officials approached them during May and June's festivities and told them to pack their bags because they lack vending licenses. One L&I official "said he'd confiscate all our stuff if we didn’t leave," says Clinton Meister, a graphic designer.
John Ireland, a T-shirt vendor, says that when he asked L&I "how to make this legal," he was given the runaround: Even if he did obtain a license, that still might not be enough. A zoning law bars vendors from operating in much of the area between Bainbridge and Vine streets, from the Delaware to the Schuylkill rivers.
L&I spokeswoman Maura Kennedy says the agency is "trying to be more proactive," and is responding to "a number of complaints from the business community" about vendors in Old City.
Larry Becker, co-owner of Larry Becker Contemporary Art, argues that vendors deserve to be ousted: "It's a safety problem. Pedestrians don’t have room to walk on the sidewalk because of [vendors], so they're pushed into the dangerous street."
During June's First Friday, after being kicked out of Old City that very day, Meister and other vendors spontaneously moved to Fishtown's Frankford Avenue — where, he says, "the local businesses and the locals were awesome to us!" Meister then created a Facebook event encouraging vendors and patrons to head to Fishtown’s events in the future.
Meister is bummed about abandoning a decades-long tradition. But, he admits, there's at least one upside: "Parking is way better in Fishtown than in Old City."
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| Harry Byrne |
Here's our "Pic of the litter" â the litter being City Paper's flickr group, submissions to which can be seen as an ever-evolving slideshow on the City Paper Photostream.
So please submit â you might even find your pic in this week's paper, as did this photograph of a guine Philadelphia bald eagle, shot by Harry Byrne on a stroll through the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge by the airport. This eagle is one of three that inhabit the park, Byrne told us.
Keep 'em coming!
Â
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Philadelphia, Philly News Now. Philly News Now said: Photostream: Call for photos and this weekâs âPic of the litterâ: Harry Byrne Hereâs our âPic of the litterâ â ... http://bit.ly/gTcWE3 [...]
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| gaslandthemovie.com |
Filmmaker Josh Fox is in town and will be visiting our own weird, quasi-public venue — The Piazza at Schmidts — for a screening by Rooftop Films and the Philly Underground Film Festival of Fox's documentary, Gasland.
The film is a disturbing — but also, lest you be on the fence, surprisingly entertaining — portrait of the natural gas industry and the method of gas extraction known as hydraulic fracturing or "fracking." It's already a major, major presence in Pennsylvania and whose environmental consequences deserve, at the very least, a level of scrutiny that has been absent so far.
This paper has covered the subject, most recently under our little monikers of "Frack Track" and "Marcellus Shale," Click on the blue for recent articles.
In the meantime, here's a snippet of my recent interview with Fox, in which he describes the strange phenomenon of people coming from around the state to his screenings ... with jugs of contaminated water!
If you like this teaser, just wait: the full interview will be available next week in ... The resurrection of our long-dead podcast!
Here are show details:
Show Details:
Friday, September 3, 2010
Venue: At the Piazza at Schmidts
Address: North Second Street and Germantown Avenue
Directions at: http://www.atthepiazza.com/find-the-piazza.html
Rain: This event will be held rain or shine.
7:30 PM: Doors Open
8:00 PM: Live Music
8:30 PM: Film Begins
10:30 PM: After Party
This is a free show. For more information, please visit: http://www.rooftopfilms.com/2010/schedule/52-gasland
There are certain things you can no longer afford to ignore. In the movie Gasland, Josh Fox awakens you to more than a few of these â and hopes you'll spread the word to everyone you know. http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2010/09/gasland-light-my-water-on-fire%E2%80%A6/
[...] in Damascus, Pa. on zoning regulations — as well as the recent screening in Philadelphia of the "controversial Gasland movie," a documentary by filmmaker Josh Fox on the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, the process used to [...]
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| Mitchell Leff |
| Well played, Mayor's Press Office well played. |
You've won this round, Mayor's Press Office.
Today, the aforementioned office announced a new, giant pool of photographs a lot of really nice ones, actually taken by photography students Mitchell Leff and Kait Privitera of the mayor and members of his administration.
It's all very well and good, but in doing so, they have seriously hampered a two-year CP tradition born out of the relative paucity of official images of His Honor Mayor Michael Nutter on the city's website of simply posting, and reposting again, the same few inscrutable images we've come to love.
Like this one:
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Or this one:
Thanks a lot, guys.
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City Papers annual writing contest was a smashing success like three months ago. And, back then, we were all excited to put on a big ol reading with the winners and the judges and then... yeah, there were all these blizzards. So, let's try this again. Next Wednesday at the Tin Angel, you and me are gonna have words.
Heres the line-up:
- Fiction Winner Jessica Penzias, Death By Oboe
- Poetry Winner Sean Webb, The Bridge
- Fiction Judge Elise Juska, author of One for Sorrow, Two for Joy
- Poetry Judge Thomas Devaney, critic and author of A Series of Small Boxes
- and me, your host
Wednesday, March 31, 7:30 p.m., FREE!, at The Tin Angel at Serrano, 20 S. Second St, 215-928-0978, tinangel.com.
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City Paper's annual writing contest was a smashing success! Some 400 writers submitted their work! We were floored. So we thought we'd celebrate with a live reading by the winners and judges. Should be lots of fun.
Here's the line-up:
- Fiction Winner Jessica Penzias, "Death By Oboeâ
- Poetry Winner Sean Webb, "The Bridgeâ
- Fiction Judge Elise Juska, author of One for Sorrow, Two for Joy
- Poetry Judge Thomas Devaney, critic and author of A Series of Small Boxes
- and me, your host
Wednesday, Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m., FREE!, at The Tin Angel at Serrano, 20 S. Second St, 215-928-0978, tinangel.com.
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Says GPCA chief operating officer Tom Kaiden in a press release, "Peggyâs energy, connection, and courage inspired everyone she touched. I am at a loss for words to describe our sorrow at her passing. She was a great leader, and we will humbly carry on her mission of ensuring that arts and culture remain at the core of what defines Greater Philadelphia as a region and what binds us together as a community.â
A powerful advocate for the arts, Amsterdam successfully fought against a 2009 proposal to tax Philly residents on theater, dance and other cultural events, and has been a driving force in our city's burgeoning arts scene for the past decade. According to an obituary in today's Inquirer, Amsterdam "doubled the [Cultural Alliance's] membership to 385 arts and cultural nonprofits and greatly expanded its reach to the broader community" since she came to the organization in 2000.
Amsterdam's legacy in Philadelphia is far-reaching, according to a GPCA press release: Not only did she help re-establish the city's Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy in 2008, but also "prevented the elimination of Philadelphia's cultural funding in 2004," and launched marketing initiative Engage 2020, which we wrote about here.
In 2007, Amsterdam wrote an op-ed column in the City Paper, asking voters to consider the arts when they vote for a new mayor. She said:
The value of the arts and culture sector goes far beyond its economic impact, of course. At their best, the arts are shared experiences that bind our community every bit as much as a sports championship. As a city, we are stronger because of the cultural organizations in our neighborhoods. They are neighbors in every sense of the word — building housing, offering safe haven and celebrating community.
For all these reasons, the Cultural Alliance believes that if the region is to continue its upward trajectory, city and civic leaders must be convinced to actively embrace the cultural sector as they address the critical issues facing Greater Philadelphia.
If Philly's thriving arts community is any indication, Amsterdam's legacy is as long-lasting as our debt to her.
For information on memorial services, visit philaculture.org.
[...] you haven’t seen it yet, go read Arts Editor Carolyn Huckabay’s obit for Peggy Amsterdam, the president of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, who died on Saturday. Amsterdam was a [...]
My oftimes professional conference roomie and confidante. My fellow traveller in the worlds of 50s single life. My fellow warrior in support of arts and culture. I will miss you.
[...] New Years Resolutions?• Do the Logomotion: Technically Philly throws down the design gauntlet• In Memoriam: Peggy Amsterdam, 1949-2009• Under the Tables: Buried clause would have favored one casino over another• Readers [...]
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| Bus Stop in Germany |
Over on Publisher's Clearinghouse, Paul Curci, the publisher of City Paper, talks about the upcoming replacement for the city's bus shelters.
There are many possibilities floating in the wind, including this swing set bus stop in Germany.
So head on over and have a look and let us know your thoughts.
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