Arts and Culture : In The News

Sure, local sports fans get a bad rap, but now, in Vice, comedian Chris Gethard claims Philadelphia is "the scariest place to do comedy." Do you agree?

I’ve had a few rough experiences in Philadelphia. At one live edition of my public access show there, I admittedly antagonized the crowd by titling the show “New York is Better Than Philly.”  I thought These guys are going to be aggressive anyway. They love being aggressive. Let’s have fun with it. The show started with an audience member lighting a copy of my book—which has my face on it—on fire, and throwing it on the stage. My first few minutes of stage time were spent franticly stomping on an image of myself, hoping I wouldn’t be responsible for comedy’s version of the Great White tragedy.

Original source: Vice

The New York Times profiles a crop of young conductors leading major ensembles, including the Philadelphia Orchestra's 37-year-old Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

As the Philadelphia Orchestra emerged from bankruptcy protection, it was no surprise that the ensemble wanted the grinning, charismatic Mr. Nézet-Séguin to be the face of its new era, as potent a symbol as following Mr. Levine with Mr. Nelsons. (A once-favored candidate for the Boston position, Riccardo Chailly, now 60, fell out of the running after heart problems caused him to cancel performances.)

But youth and youthfulness are two different things, and they shouldn’t be confused. Orchestras should not think that hiring a dynamic 20- or 30-something conductor can take the place of planning dynamic contemporary programs. That’s just old wine in new bottles.

Original source: The New York Times
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A legendary Philadelphia boxer sings his way to the big time -- The Rocky musical is heading to Broadway.

The show -- conceived by Sylvester Stallone, who wrote and starred in the original “Rocky” -- had its world premiere opening in Hamburg in November and received positive reviews from German theater critics for its gritty realism and inventively staged boxing sequences...

"The title has very high recognition, so I’m sure tourists will want to see it, but we wouldn’t bring it to New York if we didn’t think it would appeal to traditional theatergoers,” said Mr. Taylor, chief executive officer and producer of Stage Entertainment USA. “I’m aware that ‘Rocky’ might be perceived as an odd choice for a musical, and there will be some raised eyebrows, but I think what people see will not be what they are expecting."

Original source: The New York Times
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The New York Times shines a light on an exhibition of outsider art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Great and Mighty Things: Outsider Art From the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection," celebrates the impending donation of the collection to the museum.

To a man, and a woman, the artists in the Bonovitz collection all made some form of magic whose power and urgency throw down a gauntlet, especially considering much of what passes for contemporary art these days. Sometimes they responded to their everyday surroundings. That’s the case with the shadowy drawings and angular constructions fashioned from soot, spit, string and cardboard with which Castle, who could neither hear nor speak, recorded the rough life on his family’s farm in rural Idaho. It’s also true of the sharp, prancing silhouettes with which Traylor expressed his amusement at the human comedy of African-American life in the South.

The show runs through June 9.

As part of Philly Tech Week, the north-facing wall of the Cira Centre will be transformed into a massive, functional version of the classic arcade game Pong. MTV has the scoop.

Dr. Frank Lee, a teaching professor in Drexel University's College of Engineering and co-founder of the Drexel Game Design Program, is the man behind the event. He'll be turning the building into his own personal game console thanks 1,514 LEDs lights that were installed on the building during its construction in 2005. He's also getting some help from Technically Philly (who founded Philly Tech Week), Brandywine Realty Trust, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Knight Foundation.

"This is something I’ve been envisioning for quite a while," Lee said. "Not only is this something that’s just fun for anyone who’s ever played a video game, but it’s also a uniquely interactive art installation. One of the main goals of this event is to inspire wonder and creativity in anyone who sees it, especially kids."

Original source: MTV
Read the complete story here, and stay tuned for more Philly Tech Week coverage from Flying Kite.

Inspired by the recent news that the rowhome featured in Rocky II is for sale, Yahoo! put together a list of five local properties made famous in film. My personal favorite is the Graduate Hospital house featured in The Sixth Sense.

In the 1999 movie "The Sixth Sense," Haley Joel Osment's character, Cole Sear, saw dead people in his house on the of 2300 block of St. Albans Place in Philadelphia. But this haunted movie house and its surroundings also shined a new light on the City of Brotherly Love. The movie's colorful shots of Logan Circle, Rittenhouse Row, and the St. Albans Place garden block made filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan a hometown hero, who, according to Philly.com, later donated $1.5 million to improve the South Philly area that played such a big role in "The Sixth Sense." Shyamalan recounted his first sight of the red brick block, saying, "It could have been anywhere … It looked like it had been built by immigrant hands. For some reason, I was meant to be here, and we were meant to do this."

The New York Times takes a look at museums dedicated to hometown heros. Some of these folks are now relatively obscure, including South Philly crooner Mario Lanza.

Though millions saw his movies and bought his records (“Be My Love,” “Arrivederci Roma”) in the 1940s and 1950s, Lanza, who died in 1959 at age 38, is virtually unknown to the general public today. On a good day, perhaps 10 or 15 people visit to look at costumes, publicity posters, old photos and other items while his songs play in the background.

The Lanza Institute is one of countless small shrines in the hometowns or the adopted towns of native sons and daughters who went away to become famous, though some of the stars are barely remembered today. These museums are mostly special for their focus and usually reflect an undying care for their subjects by true keepers of the faith.

Original source: The New York Times
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A travel writer from the Telegraph (UK) came to Philadelphia for the museums and the history, and fell instead for its walkable, understated charm.

Dizzy with images, I felt ready for more trivial pursuits. Like shopping, along elegant Walnut Street and Rittenhouse Row; exploring the independent boutiques and galleries of 3rd Street in the Old Town; trawling the renowned vintage shops of Fabric Row and shops of Antiques Row; and sampling Amish farm produce at Reading Terminal Market.

Compact and human in scale, friendly in atmosphere, Philadelphia is a city made for walkers, divided into contrasting neighbourhoods and dissected by the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, whose banks sport the boat houses of the city's six proud universities, prettily illuminated at night (a scene popularised by the paintings of Thomas Eakins).

Original Source: Telegraph (UK)
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An Oscar statue's three-week pre-awards tour will make a stop in the City of Brotherly Love on February 6. Locals have extra reason to be excited for the big show this year, with Philly-centric Silver Linings Playbook garnering multiple Academy Award nods.

Follow @OscarRoadTrip on Twitter and tweet using #OscarRoadTrip to let us know where you’d like to see us bring Oscar. Or, if you’re old school, you can also shoot us an email to let us know where we should go next.

Original source: Oscar Road Trip
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On January 28, the world celebrated 200 years since the publication of Jane Austen's classic Pride & Prejudice, and the Free Library of Philadelphia played its part. They hosted an all-day event featuring lectures, film screenings and "pop-up" theatrical performances of scenes from the novel.

"The enthusiasm and inventiveness that we’re seeing now has everything to do with what’s happened in the decades since that bicentennial in 1975," Ms. Wells said by e-mail. "The beloved 1995 mini-series adaptation of 'Pride and Prejudice,' for sure, but also the influence of the Jane Austen Society of North America (founded in 1979) and of course the Internet and social media. So many people of all ages, nationalities, and walks of life now self-identify as Austen fans and are out and proud about that. They love, love, love 'P&P' and are overjoyed at any opportunity to celebrate and share that love."

Original source: The New York Times
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Lonely Planet put together a list of the top U.S. travel desinations for 2013. Our fair city clocked in at number four.

Forget the cheesesteaks and tri-corner hat, Philadelphia is becoming known as an art capital. In addition to the world renowned Philadelphia Museum of Art, the formerly remote the Barnes Foundation, a once private collection of Matisse, Renoir and Cézanne, has a new central location. And it’s not just the big museums – Philly’s gallery scene is exploding with new venues like the Icebox garnering international attention and turning the Northern Liberties and Fishtown neighborhoods into the new hot arts hub. First Fridays, the monthly gallery open house, long a tradition in Old City, has expanded to the refurbished Loft District, where the party goes on in a host of new bars, clubs and live music venues.

Original Source: LonelyPlanet.com
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A writer from the New York Times spends "36 Hours" in Philadelphia, hitting up the Philadelphia History Museum, Johnny Brenda's, 13th Street and one particularly spicy spot: 

Across the Schuylkill in University City, the newest location of the locally beloved Han Dynasty (3711 Market Street; 215-222-3711; handynasty.net) has a wide-open dining room with modern lines, rough-hewn wood and a kitschy cocktail list. Bucket-size drinks like the Scorpion Bowl and Singapore Sling are $5 during happy hour. But the food is the real attraction. Plates come one after the other in family-style portions — dan dan noodles ($7.95), double-cooked fish ($17.95) and spicy, crispy cucumbers ($6.95), each rated 1 to 10 on Han’s hot-or-not index.

Original source: The New York Times
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Wallpaper chats with Fabric Workshop and Museum artist-in-residence Daniel Arsham about his new exhibit "Reach Ruin." The show runs through March 15, 2013.

"Much of the work goes back to an experience that I had 20 years ago: a very strong storm in Miami, where I grew up, where I watched the demolition of architecture and the reformation of space in a very quick and violent way. It has always been something that is prevalent in my work but I have never explored it directly. There are a lot of works in this show that relate directly to that, such as the reformation of shuttered or broken materials back into objects."

Original source: Wallpaper
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Tom Marchetty and his team are creating a mecca for creative types in the old Collingswood Theater in Collingswood, NJ. When complete, "The Factory" will feature tools for woodworking, jewelry-making, ceramics, metalworking and other DIY ventures. Locals can either rent studio space or pay a monthly rate to use the over $200,000 worth of equiptment.

"So I started thinking, what if I put all of this equipment into a location for people that don’t have a garage or basement? They don’t have a place to build and create, and now they can come here and actually make their dreams into reality.
“That’s why I call it The Factory," [Marchetty] said. "We produce and make whatever we want. Anything you want to make or build, you can do it here.” 

Original Source: CollingswoodPatch
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