[Associated Press: Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick offered himself as a cautionary tale of what can happen when someone is a follower instead of a leader.] INQUIRER: The appearance before freshman at the Nueva Esperanza Academy in the city’s Feltonville section came as the Eagles are circulating a draft plan to animal rights groups that calls for an immediate, widespread campaign to combat animal abuse in Philadelphia. MORE
EARLY WORD: The Sound Of Young America Live!
The always excellent Sound Of Young America, heard locally on WHYY Fridays at 9PM, will be taping a show here in Philadelphia (featuring The Spinto Band, graphic novelist extraordinaire Charles Burns, comedian Kent Haines, and Robert Hicks, the director of the Mutter Museum) as part of the Fringe Festival. Look for our Q&A with TSOYA host Jessie Thorn, aka America’s Radio Sweetheart, coming soon to a Phawker near you! Wed. 9/16 10:00 PM Mainstage at the Adrienne 2030 Sansom Street Wheelchair Accessible $15.00 *This handsome poster is available for sale HERE, proceeds will help defray TSOYA Live travel costs.
FRINGE REVIEW: Meet The Burps
BY LINDSAY HARRIS-FRIEL FRINGE CORRESPONDENT Describing Armageddon at the Mushroom Village as the performance of a mask and physical theatre ensemble, using mythic themes to show a story about how foolish pride can bring about the end of the world would be pretentious and distancing. Instead, let’s just say that what we have here is a funny, satirical look at a famous cartoon. Meet The Burps. The Burps are a simple, happy tribe of green, humanoid creatures with white hats and clothes and bulging eyes. Their life is perfect, full of singing and dancing, until the undercurrents of their […]
FRINGE REVIEW: The Hear Again Radio Project
BY LINDSAY HARRIS-FRIEL FRINGE CORRESPONDENT Aspire Arts keeps it simple and sets the bar high with The Hear Again Radio Project. In this show, they take drama from before video killed the radio star and present it live, with a Foley artist onstage setting the scene with live sound effects. Seems pretty easy, right? Then, director Darin Dunston picks up this concept and takes it to the next level. The visual elements of The Hear Again Radio Project are as smooth and elegant as a silk robe slipping from the shoulders of Rita Hayworth. Michael Leon’s set comprised of Asian […]
NAKED CITY: 400 Bikers Go Lady Godiva
[Photo by WOJOPHOTO] INQUIRER: More than double the hoped-for 200 turned out to bike the four-mile course. One guy wore a hockey mask, another a birthday-party hat. It seemed like everybody had a tattoo or a piercing. As hundreds of cyclists gathered along the Schuylkill, the excitement built, people yelling impromptu cheers or ringing their bicycle bells. But as time dragged on, with people waiting for the scheduled 6:30 p.m. start, the energy seemed to sag. A booming cheer went up when the riders at the front of the queue began moving forward, onto a route that would take them […]
RAWK TAWK: Q&A With Chairlift’s Aaron Pfenning
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Time was when licensing your songs for commercials was the kiss of death credibility-wise. All that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, also known as the early ’90s. Then along came a series of stylish Volkswagen ads featuring choice cuts from the likes of Spiritualized and Nick Drake and suddenly the script was flipped. These days some of the best music can be heard in television commercials, artists get paid handsomely and their music spreads far and wide beyond the craggy walls of the indie ghetto, opening up further opportunities and vastly […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Zombie! The Musical
BY LINDSAY HARRIS-FRIEL FRINGE CORRESPONDENT Some Fringe shows are just plain fun, and others make you think. Zombie the musical combines the best of both worlds. Gather up your friends, get yourself all hyped up on sugar, and head out to Plays and Players, the nearly hundred-year-old grand dame of Philadelphia’s theatres. Have a drink at Quig’s Pub on the third floor, and then settle in to the weathered and well-loved auditorium. It’s all part of the experience. Don’t mind the plastic sheets you might see in the first few rows; these are for your comfort and convenience, should you […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Felon Fiercely’s Open Mic Night
BY LINDSAY HARRIS-FRIEL FRINGE CORRESPONDENT If comedy and rock and roll are your drugs, this show is the hard stuff. As you enter the cozy venue upstairs at O’Neals, earplugs are available for your use, but you won’t need them. Though Felon Fiercely is backed with a full PA, using a Fender strat, a bass, a drum set, and the power of three vocalists, their musicianship and sound design are careful enough that you’ll be blown away by the content, not the volume. John Felon and Joe Fiercely are a couple of miscreant musicians who have been sentenced to the […]
TONITE: Get Naked
INQUIRER: Most bicyclists prefer skintight attire, but a group tomorrow is going to take it one step further. It’s planning a mass ride in the nude. Organizers said they expected at least 200 people in various states of undress to bike a four-mile course through Center City. The route is being kept under wraps. It won’t be divulged until Saturday night. And then, only cyclists who sign up at phillynakedbikeride.org will get the location of the gathering point by e-mail. “It’s kind of an experiment,” said Clifford Greer, 30, the lead organizer. “It’s really a totally amazing thing, and unlike […]
TONITE: Justice May Be Blind But She Is Not Deaf
The Gonzales Contata, a Philly Fringe show by composer Melissa Dunphy that will run this weekend, is a choral work with libretto taken directly from the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Buzz about the show has gone viral with write ups in The Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post and earlier this week Rachel Maddow devoted an entire segment to the production on The Rachel Maddow Show. Kudos for making the show’s official website a dead-on parody of the Drudge Report. (Show times and venue info after the jump) [TRMS: La Cantata inspired by disgraced […]
SEPTA GIRL: Poppin’ Wheelies
BY PHILLYGRRL Wheelies. That’s what some people on my morning bus call folks in wheelchairs. Usually it’s said in a negative context. Like, “Damn them wheelies, if another one gets on the bus, I’m going to be late.” Because you see, in order for someone in a wheelchair to get from the sidewalk to the inside of the bus, the driver first has to lower the bus and then lower a platform a ramp. Once the person is in the bus, the driver must then flip up one of the chairs and strap the wheelchair in place. It can take […]
FRINGE REVIEW: Welcome To Yuba City
Welcome to Yuba City Pig Iron Theatre Company Theater, 75 minutes BY LINDSAY HARRIS-FRIEL FRINGE CORRESPONDENT Damn you, Pig Iron. You magnificent bastards have done it again; created theatre so joyfully compelling it takes everyone who sees it far outside their selves and turns every theatre artist outside your realm emerald green with envy. Come on down to Yuba City. You’ll travel down a stretch of highway so lonely you’re grateful for the broken fluorescent sign with an arrow pointing the way to the diner, and the glaring streetlamp bordering the parking lot. Set designer Mimi Lien and lighting designer James […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]