MOSES(ES) In his newest work, renowned choreographer Reggie Wilson examines the multiple iterations of Moses, secular and religious, as well as Moses’s mythical place in people’s imaginations. How do we lead and why do we follow? Moses(es) questions leadership and our many relationships to Moses. The story of Moses and the stories of migration ancient and modern are forever intertwined—and their effects on belief, culture, and body language are present throughout the world. Wilson turns these effects into stunning physical expression and an intense sensory experience. Wilson draws from the ritual and body languages of the blues and slave and spiritual […]

Artwork by ONTHENICKEL FRESH AIR Lots of listeners read all kinds of messages into The Beatle’s White Album, but nothing compares to the album’s impact on Charles Manson. He heard it as a message to him and his followers — known as “The Family” — that the world was on the verge of an apocalyptic race war in which blacks would rise up against their white oppressors and enslave them. This battle would be set off by an event called Helter Skelter, after the eponymous Beatles song, and Manson planned to lead his followers into the desert, where they would […]

  David Koechner is in theaters, on television, online, in your dreams and soon-to-be on-stage at The Trocadero Saturday, January 11th, 2014 as part of a nine city comedy tour. The veteran actor, improviser and comic – best known for his role as Champ Kind in “Anchorman” and “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” – is bringing his unique style of stand-up to Philadelphia on Saturday, January 11. The comedy tour is titled “David Koechner: Together Again” because Koechner brings to his shows not just jokes and storytelling, but a whole lineup of unique characters that he’s developed over the years. […]

  VICE: Sick of taking responsibility for the shitty things that have happened to you in your life? Help is on the way, in the virginal and strangely vacant form of three Bible-thumping teenage exorcists from Phoenix, Arizona. Eighteen-year-old Brynne Larson and her friends Tess and Savannah Sherkenback (18 and 21, respectively) claim to be able to confront the demons lurking inside traumatized people and draw them out using nothing more than a crucifix and a few choice words. But are these teenage exorcists really empowered by the Almighty, or merely by Brynne’s father, a failed televangelist named Reverend Bob? […]

Photo by ANDY PHILLIPSON Leo What happens when the laws of gravity suddenly change? An ordinary man’s world becomes unhinged in this gleeful combination of circus and theater arts, a gravity-defying performance of exceptional acrobatic talents and optical illusions. Limitless worlds are created out of confined spaces thanks to ingeniously projected video animations. Pictures drawn in chalk come to life and morph into new scenery and landscapes. The audience wonders what’s real and what’s projected—and which way is up—as reality becomes delightfully skewed along Leo’s highly imaginative journey. LEO won several major awards at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. For all […]

Artwork by ANTSANDMOTHS SPIN: In an interview earlier this week on CBC Radio 2‘s Strombo Show, as Pitchforkpoints out, frontman Josh Homme aired some criticism about Jay Z and the rapper’s recent Made in America festival. QOTSA performed at the Philadelphia-based fest (indeed, they were one of the 15 Best Things We Saw at Made in America Festival 2013), and Homme sounds none too pleased with the experience. “That guy’s a kook, you know,” he said of Jay Z. “He has his security frisking the bands on the way in.” Homme added that he warned security his band wouldn’t perform […]

  Robbie Folks is widely regarded by those who monitor such things as one of the most gifted songwriters to ever ply the trade. While it is true he started off a honky tonk smartass, it quickly became evident that Robbie was a monster talent and some of his early Bloodshot albums have been rightly elevated to the status of “classic” and serve as their own Greatest Hits collections. Seriously. It is a damning condemnation of our world’s musical taste that he has not been elevated to the ranks of the multi-faceted giants of songwriting like Nick Lowe and Dave […]

This was MY song of the summer. Let’s face it, the cops had this glam-rock burlesque comin’. Saint Rich play First Unitarian on 10/7 with Wild Belle. You lucky ducks.

  NEW YORK TIMES: Clearly, there is a moral principle at work in the actions of the leakers, whistle-blowers and hacktivists and those who support them. I would also argue that that moral principle has been clearly articulated, and it may just save us from a dystopian future. In “Eichmann in Jerusalem,” one of the most poignant and important works of 20th-century philosophy, Hannah Arendt made an observation about what she called “the banality of evil.” One interpretation of this holds that it was not an observation about what a regular guy Adolf Eichmann seemed to be, but rather a […]