BY LINDSAY HARRIS-FRIEL Absurdism is a lot of things, but in its most classic form, it’s tragicomedy, where characters are lonely, stuck spinning their wheels, unable to move forward and unwilling to go back. The playwrights most credited with creating this trend are Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Arthur Adamov and Harold Pinter. A play in which characters are permanently stuck in pointless or repetitive action — or worse, inaction — absolutely goes against every expectation of good theatre, which is to keep moving forward, to take action against conflict. These plays, if not acted and directed very carefully, […]
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 […]
TONIGHT: Full Metal Jacket Required
Two acclaimed Australian companies descend on the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, now in its final 4 days, this week. Geelong, Australia’s Back to Back Theatre presents the Philadelphia premiere of their Bessie Award-winning small metal objects, which takes place at the 40th Street field on UPenn’s campus. Actors are outfitted with microphones. You are given headphones. From a prominent riser you listen to an intense drama happening somewhere in the crowd. In a public space with pedestrians wandering every which way, only gradually do the actors become distinguishable from the rest of the passersby. small metal objects explores how respect […]
THE INDOORFINS: Gross Clinic Bounce
Created for the Penn Reading Project 2009. FYI, The Indoorfins hail from Lima, Ohio. RELATED: There Ain’t No Starving Artists In The Afterlife: JEFF SELLS EAKINS PAINTING TO WAL-MART FOR $68 MILLION CLAMS; Natives Grow Restless And Unimpressed, Say Deal Shoulda Been Done With Legal Tender, Not Shellfish RELATED: Twinkle-Toed Footloose Dude Challenges Eakins Buyers To A Dance-Off, ‘For Pink Slips, Bitches!’ RELATED: EAKINS STAYS HOME! HOORAY! OUR RICH PEOPLE ARE RICHER THAN THEIR RICH PEOPLE! HOORAY! RELATED: NOW PLAYING: “Gross Clinic” At The Philadelphia Museum Of Art RELATED: PAFA Sells THE CELLO PLAYER To Buy THE GROSS CLINIC; Buyer […]
ARTSY: Get Your Fringe On
BY LINDSAY HARRIS-FRIEL FRINGE CORRESPONDENT The Philadelphia Live Arts and Philly Fringe Festival has been a local institution for long enough, loudly and proudly enough, that we almost take it for granted. In the past 12 years it’s grown from a few blocks in Old City to a festival encompassing the city, all genres of live performance and performers from all over the world. Shows in the past have been so diverse and varied that the word “Fringe” has become synonymous with the strangest and most alienating of performance art. However, the Festival itself is one of the most welcoming […]
BUSTED: What Ever Happened To Annie Leibovitz?
NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Despite being a compulsive perfectionist whose shoots cost a fortune to produce, Leibovitz was very much in demand. People spoke of a fabled “contract for life” from Condé Nast, thought to bring her as much as $5 million annually. (The estimate didn’t seem far-fetched; a decade ago, the Times reported that Condé Nast chairman Si Newhouse had instructed Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter not to “nickel and dime” Leibovitz over the issue of an extra quarter-million dollars in her contract.) She was said to earn a day rate of $250,000 just to set foot in a studio […]
ARTSY: You Say It’s Your Birthday
“EPIC BIRTHDAY” Solo Exhibition: Photographer Ken Penn K E N C R E D I B L E August 15, 2009 through September 15, 2009 Amberella …sugary & sweet… Gallery & Boutique is pleased to present to you the delicious work of photographer Ken Penn… otherwise known as KENCREDIBLE! The Solo Exhibition, “EPIC BIRTHDAY”, opens August 15th, 2009 from 8-11pm to celebrate, most appropriately, the photographers actual birthday and show opening! With fashion photography being a strong focus of his work, Penn has worked with a long list of independent designers and models around the United States, Canada and Europe, […]
Q&A With The Regulars Photographer Sarah Stolfa
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Pretty much everyone in this town knows about The Regulars, Sarah Stolfa’s stunning Bukowski-meets-Caravaggio portraiture of McGlinchey’s patrons, snapped from behind the bar where she earned the dubious distinction of Unfriendliest Bartender In Town. The series won her first place in the New York Times Sunday Magazine’s Photography Contest For College Students, a long-running exhibition at Gallery 339 and an asspocket full of local acclaim and national recognition, including a residency at the Whitney Museum Of American Art in New York. And now Artisan Books has published the series in richly-appointed book form with a snarky-but-snappy essay […]
ARTSY: Calling All Artistes!
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COMING ATTRACTION: Q&A With Sarah Stolfa
GALLERY 339: The Regulars Revisited
TONIGHT: Barfly On The Wall
Sarah Stolfa: The Regulars Revisited Tuesday, July 14, 2009 6:00pm – 8:00pm Gallery 339 339 South 21st St. Philadelphia , PA 19103 215-731-1530 INQUIRER: Place the book in front of McGlinchey’s comically nonchalant owner, Ron Sokol, and bartender Alia Burton, and the missing details are quickly filled in, in eccentrically McGlinchey’s style un-de-referencing: “Look at Artie, ha-ha.” “Trevor, he died.” “Sheldon, that’s my brother.” “Mike’s a trombone player. Meghan, she goes to Temple.” “This one was murdered two months ago.” “This guy was here when Anne Marie worked, he was in love with the Irish girls.” “This guy is a […]
WARNING: Do NOT, Repeat DO NOT, Attempt To Pull The Football Away From This Man Before He Kicks It
THE ARTIST: This is Chuck Brown. He is real and I guess, a monster. For a show at Copro Gallery in Santa Monica, I was invited by Travis Louie to offer a piece for a show titled, ‘MONSTERS?’ I looked at the list of invites and then imagined all of the usual takes on what a monster is thought to be. Perhaps some will be cute, some ugly. I went in another direction. What if I were to paint a realistic version of something usually thought of as cute and benign? For no particular reason and maybe several, I chose […]
ARTSY: No Peace In The Valley
BY GREG ADOMAITIS Tom Hunter no longer has a crew cut. His long red hair — he calls it “civilian camouflage” — and tattoos make him look more like a habitue of the mosh pit at Lollapalooza than a member of the 173rd Airborne Division, where he served as sergeant from 2003 to 2008. He enlisted the day after he graduated from high school. Hunter became interested in documenting the days-in-the-life of his military experience, starting with a disposable camera he found on an army base and eventually upgrading to a pricey Sony DSLR. During his last tour of duty […]