Arts and Culture : In The News

South Philly bred Noah Beresin and Chidera Anamege, who met as Drexel University freshmen last year, get solid grades on their latest EP The Preview from HipHopDX.

Like many cross-genre duos, pinpointing your sound can be a daunting task, one that DXnext alumni Chiddy Bang seemed quite capable of pinning. When producer Noah "Xaphoon Jones" Beresin and rapper Chidera "Chiddy" Anemage joined forces at Drexel University and recorded their first mixtape The Swelly Express at school, it was a mishmash of sounds that somehow collectively fit. Rarely can anyone take MGMT and Tom Waits samples and still call it "Hip Hop" and mean it, but they did. After the mixtape sparked 100,000 in downloads and the group inked a world record deal with EMI, their recording budget clearly went up, but sadly their uniqueness went down. The Preview, an eight-track EP reflects the transition from using pots and pans to drum samples, pulling the raw talent that these two offered just a year ago.

That isn't to say this short EP is bad. It's actually quite good, with the introductory "The Good Life" serving as an excellent entrance into the project. Pharrell co-produced it with signature Neptunes swooshes and synths that fit the band so well that they could join the ranks of Star Trak (then again if they did that their album would never drop).

Original source: HipHopDX
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Philly theater guru Thaddeus Phillips brings Nikola Tesla to life in one-man show called Capsule 33, meant to spark ideas about sustainability, reports The (Colorado Springs) Gazette.

Few performers on the international theater circuit light up with the kind of alternative current that Phillips does. The '94 Colorado College graduate approaches each theatrical challenge like an off-center inventor.

Take "Capsule 33," a one-man show (created with his wife, Tatiana Mallarino) about a Serbian astrophysicist who becomes the last holdout in an odd Tokyo tower targeted for demolition. The play is about sustainability and the things, people and ideas we throw away.

"The whole show's sustainable," Phillips, 38, says with a mad glint in his eye, stalking around his set wearing a towel, a pipe wedged in his mouth. "We don't plug into the power grid at all. Everything is powered on those two little generators."

Original source: The (Colorado Springs) Gazette
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The Opera Company of Philadelphia has taken another innovative step, partnering with two other groups on a world-premiere libretto that tackles polygamy, reports The Washington Post

(Hot young composer Nico) Muhly will oversee the premiere of another new opera, "Dark Sisters," which will have its world premiere in New York in November, 2011, courtesy of Gotham Chamber Opera, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, and the Music-Theatre Group.

This venture is partly possible because Muhly is tremendously prolific; not many composers can turn out two new operas fast enough to see world premieres in June and November of the same year. But however the opera itself pans out, it's already an exciting example of the possibilities of collaboration, and the way that smaller companies have the flexibility of scheduling and programming to get a jump on bigger ones. Get your tickets now.

Original source: The Washington Post
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Beauty and style editor Ysolt Usigan goes on a whirlwind tour of our city, dispelling the New York elitist notion that we're its "sixth borough," reports The Huffington Post.

When it came to partying, two speakeasies, and I was had! Once defined as "an establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages" in the '20s and '30s, I discovered two venues with that feel nestled in Philadelphia's Penn Center neighborhood. First stop: the sexy Ranstead Room. With entrances through El Rey's kitchen and outside on the street (just look for the door marked with double Rs), I had cocktails with names so complicated I can't even remember them. Even though it was quite dim inside, the naked ladies gracing the walls were hard to miss. The venue is hot, to say the least.

From vintage shops to lux salons, even vast department stores with plenty of preppy and chic options to boot, there's no question--Philly knows style. I picked the best time to visit the city, too, with the Philadelphia Collection 2010 series underway. From September 23 to October 2, the city's many boutiques, stylists, designers and modeling agencies were hosting various independently produced events.

Original source: The Huffington Post
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Philadelphia-based rapper/producer Dice Raw, a member of The Roots, has launched a new music company called R&S Music Group, reports All Hip Hop.

"We are all about the preservation of good music and culture while also trying to be innovative with technology and the web," Dice Raw told AllHipHop.com. "We want to open the doors to up and coming artists and provide a credible platform of digital distribution without them having to sell their life to a record company."

R&S is currently working with local producers Khari Mateen and Rick Friedrich, who have produced tracks for a variety of local artists, including The Roots and Jill Scott.

Dice Raw will be performing new material next weekend near the campus of the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware, when he hits the Mojo On Main for an exclusive performance on Thursday (October 28th).

Original source: All Hip Hop
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The new home of the Barnes Foundation along the Ben Franklin Parkway is both challenging and controversial, and the Wall Street Journal's hard-hat tour reveals a new take on classic art.

Tod Williams, of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects in New York, pointed out the siting of key features: a three-story garden that will interrupt the art galleries; a long, low water feature near the visitor entrance; a cantilevered light court connecting the galleries with an L-shaped building containing a caf�, gift shop, auditorium and other amenities.

Another innovation is a small second-floor gallery that will house Matisse's famous 1905-06 painting "The Joy of Life," currently in a stairwell and difficult to see. "It was not [handicapped] accessible," Mr. Williams said, "so we were able to break the rules. There were not too many opportunities, but that was one of them."

Decisions on interior details are still being made. Using a full-scale model, Mr. Williams said, "We are investigating changing the color of the wood, we're investigating changing the color of the fabric, we're investigating whether to use the exact moldings that they used. We're investigating the floor. One of the things that may be controversial is detailing that is more contemporary."

Original souce: Wall Street Journal
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Leadership of the National Museum of American Jewish History earned CNN's attention with its decision to remain open on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath, but do its best to avoid financial transactions, which are among those things the religion forbids on that day.

"We chose to embrace this as a teachable moment that reflects not only the tradition itself but also the tensions that are at the core of the American Jewish experience," Rosenzweig told CNN Sunday night.

"We're a Jewish institution, but we're not a religious institution," (Museum president Michael) Rosenzweig said. "We want to be sensitive to Jewish tradition but we also recognized that a significant number of visitors will be non-Jewish."

Though the museum will open on Saturdays, tickets will be available only online and at sites outside the museum, which are yet to be determined, Rosenzweig said.

Original source: CNN
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Edge Boston, part of a network of LGBT news/entertainment online publications, gives Mayor Michael Nutter and Philadelphia big props for being one of the largest cities in the country to fly the rainbow flag at a government building, City Hall.

And when mayoral LGBT liaison Gloria Casarez approached Nutter with the idea, he was more than eager to make it a reality. She added the event became especially symbolic after the recent number of LGBT teen suicides.

"There's been a lot of conversation around the five or six young men who have taken their lives as a result of harassment and bullying," Casarez told EDGE. "We in Philadelphia have violence and bullying as well, but I don't want the message to get lost that we're especially concerned about violence against trans people. We've seen some recent cases of violence right on the streets of Philadelphia. As much as we're celebrating LGBT History Month, we have to be focus on the business of assuring that people report crime and that when they report it we're funneling them through the proper channels."

Original source: Edge Boston
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The Wall Street Journal breaks down the movie madness in Philadelphia, where the 19th annual Philadelphia Film Festival kicked off last week with a visit from Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky.

Festival organizers were clearly hoping to open the festival with a bang and overshadow the confusion over Philly's cinematic scene that sprouted two years ago. Originally, TLA Entertainment and the Philadelphia Film Society (PFS) sponsored the Festival. In late 2008, creative differences arose between PFS founder Ray Murray and PFS members. There were also arguments over how to approach fundraising.

According to Claire Kohler, the director of production of Philadelphia Cinema Alliance, when the "personality clashes" and differences became "pronounced," Murray and TLA formed the Philadelphia Cinema Alliance (PCA), a competing organization that would also produce its own film festival called CineFest. In short, PFS puts on the Philadelphia Film Festival, which runs in the fall, and PCA puts on CineFest, which took a break in 2010 but which will run in spring 2011.

Original source: Wall Street Journal
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The Associated Press profiles David Borgenicht and the indie publishing outfit he founded, Quirk Books, which is expanding its niche with a hybrid mashup genre combining classics with horror and kitsch.

Quirk, an independent publisher that started with a series of tongue-in-cheek guides for surviving highly unlikely misfortunes, has established the hybrid "mashup" genre bending of out-of-copyright classics and horror-fied kitsch.

"It has in a way become kind of a modern, or a postmodern, classic," said Quirk president and founder David Borgenicht, whose 15-person staff works in an inconspicuous building on a cobblestone-paved side street in Philadelphia's Old City neighborhood. "That wasn't at all our intent. It was simply too crazy not to publish."
 
Original source: Associated Press
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The travel section at Ireland's Herald.ie is high on Philadelphia for a variety of reasons, imploring the Irish to visit for our safe downtown, good eats and arts and culture.

It's puzzling why Philly isn't on most Irish people's radar. It's more historic than Boston, as Irish as Chicago, 30pc cheaper to live in than New York and has a food culture to match San Francisco.

The city centre proper, (known as Center City) is thriving, unlike many US urban areas. Sections of 15th Street are hubs of restaurants and nightlife, while the area's aptly titled Avenue of the Arts is the local equivalent of London's West End or New York's Broadway theatre districts. The best bit? It feels perfectly safe to walk around, by day or night (don't try this at home, kids).

Original source: Herald.ie
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Composer Jennifer Higdon and violinist Hilary Hahn, who were teacher and student, respectively, at Curtis Institute of Music, are collaborating in a big way, reports PBS.

Jennifer Higdon came to Curtis in 1994 as a teacher. She and Hahn actually crossed paths in a course on 20th century music. She's now one of the most widely-commissioned and performed contemporary composers.

But Higdon was no child prodigy. She grew up in a small town in Eastern Tennessee, taught herself the flute at 15, old age by Curtis standards, and didn't begin studying composition until college. At home, she says, it was all rock 'n' roll and bluegrass.

Now 30, Hilary Hahn first came here, already a gifted player, at age 10, and studied with renowned violinist and teacher Jascha Brodsky.

Original source: PBS
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The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts is hosting seven Career Development Program Fellows from the Center for Emerging Visual Artists in Philadelphia, reports the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Their work represents a small cross-section of the 21 artists awarded a career development fellowship, a two-year program that gives participating artists an opportunity to experience a full exhibition schedule, receive career counseling and mentorship, teach in the community and participate in numerous professional development opportunities.

"This exhibition exchange is part of an ongoing collaboration by CFEVA and PF/PCA created in order to strengthen the artistic dialogue between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia," Welch says.

The title of the show, "Context Ingeminate," attempts to "marry the passive and the active, the viewer and the creator," Welch says, which it does flawlessly thanks to engaging works like Yoon's "Structure of Shadow."

Original source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
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The St. Louis Post-Dispatch travel section mentions booing Santa Claus but quickly moves on, digging deeper than most national media last week to reveal the insider's view of Philadelphia.

Once you get beyond the fighting fa�ade, Philadelphia is a city of tiny secret gardens, a diverse art and theater scene, a crazy diverse food/pub scene and a thousand walkable historical monuments and museums. Also, it's cheap as can be. You've got to work to spend $15 on a martini.

I moved here six years ago from St. Louis. The things I loved about St. Louis are the same things I love about Philadelphia--people are friendly, the streets have the same names (you copycats!) and there's no need to go to any chain restaurant ever.

Original source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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Members of the Norfolk Arts Commission visited Philadelphia last week to get a close-up look at some of the thousands of works of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Programs, reports The Hour.

"I was blown away by how these community murals in Philadelphia brightened the neighborhoods. It's inspiring to hear the stories of how these murals got made, and how it brought the community together," Becker said. "This is how to revitalize neighborhoods and instill a sense of pride, something I see Norwalk needs help with."

Launched in 1984 to combat graffiti, the city of Philadelphia Mural Arts Programs now bills itself as the largest public art program in the United States.

Original source: The Hour
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