REWIND 2014: The Year In Questions And Answers

If armies run on their stomachs, blogs run on their big fucking mouths. We’re no exception. But we’d like to think that, on a good day, we put all that hot air to good use when interrogating visiting dignitaries in advance of their triumphant arrival into the City Of Brotherly Love. We’ve never pretended to have all the answers but we do know all the right questions. And we’ve never settled for easy answers to hard questions. Sometimes feelings get hurt and sometimes new connections are made. Sometimes painful truths emerge and sometimes we actually learn something. And sometimes we […]

ARTSY: For They Shall Inherit The Earth

Photo by LEE JEFFRIES LIGHT BOX: In 2008, accountant and amateur photographer Lee Jeffries was in London to run a marathon. On the day before the race, Jeffries thought he would wander the city to take pictures. Near Leicester Square, he trained his 5D camera with a long, 70-200 lens on a young, homeless woman who was huddled in a sleeping bag among Chinese food containers. “She spotted me and started shouting, drawing the attention of passersby,” Jeffries says. “I could have just walked away in an embarrassed state, or I could have gone over and apologized to her.” He […]

ARTSY: Q&A w/ Photographer Jessica Kourkounis

CLICK TO ENLARGE Jessica Kourkounis [pictured, below right, with chicken) is a Philadelphia-based photographer specializing in documentary, editorial and portraiture work. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Time, The Art Economist and ESPN The Magazine. Her brother plays drums on many of the albums in your collection. Presumably. PHAWKER: How did you get interested in photography? What was the ‘Eureka!’ moment when you decided that this is what you wanted to do with your life? JESSICA KOURKOUNIS: I’ve been interested in photography for so long I honestly can’t even remember […]

I SEE A DARKNESS: Twin Peaks 24 Years After

EDITOR’S NOTE: This originally posted on September 23rd, 2011. BY MIKE WALSH Like millions of Americans, I was fanatical about Twin Peaks when the show originally aired on ABC in 1990. I rearranged my schedule, so I could be home to watch it. I recorded it on VHS tape when I couldn’t. I debated the identity of Laura Palmer’s murderer with friends and strangers. I had dreams about Bob, the malevolent demon that haunts the show. So when Netflix made Twin Peaks available for streaming recently, I immediately added it to my queue. I started watching in August and every […]

BEING THERE: David Lynch @ PAFA

David Lynch, PAFA press conference, 11:02 am, by JONATHAN VALANIA PAFA: In 1967 as an advanced painting student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia (PAFA), David Lynch made a hybrid work of art that brought together painting, sculpture, sound, film, and installation. Six Men Getting Sick (1967) expanded Lynch’s practice and opened him up to the possibilities of filmmaking. He went on to become internationally renowned as a film director but never stopped working as a visual artist. Lynch has maintained a devoted studio practice, developing a parallel body of painting, prints, photography, and drawing that […]

ARTSY: There Goes The Eraserhood

David Lynch and Jack Fisk in Philadelphia 1967 by C.K. WILLIAMS NEW YORK TIMES: Mr. Fisk persuaded his friend to join him at Pennsylvania Academy in January 1966. “At the academy, everybody I met was a serious painter,” Mr. Lynch said. “I was just starting to find something of my own. It was really inspiring.” He lived with Mr. Fisk north of the academy in a desolate, industrial area, where he would watch bodies being carried into the city morgue from a window. “I met the night watchman from the morgue at Pop’s Diner, who invited me over,” Mr. Lynch […]

ENDORSEMENT: N.A. Poe For City Council

Photo by LAUREN M. WAKSMAN Folks, we got trouble right here in Philadelphia. Trouble with a capital “T.” And that rhymes with “C” and that stands for CORRUPTION. All the major institutions in this city are wretched hives of patronage hires, hacks and shady backroom deals. There is zero accountability for the police, the unions, the politicians and don’t even get us started on the PPA. There is just one candidate running for City Council that aims to do something about it. His name is N. A. Poe and he is running on a platform of pulling back the curtains […]

LISTEN: The Flaming Side Of The Moon

THE FLAMING LIPS  new digital release, FLAMING SIDE OF THE MOON is live now in digital form. Designed as an immersive companion piece to the original 1973 album, DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, listeners are encouraged to listen to the new LIPS album while listening to DARK SIDE at the same time. FLAMING SIDE OF THE MOON was also carefully crafted to sync up perfectly with the 1939 film, THE WIZARD OF OZ. For ideal listening conditions, fans are encouraged to seek out the original Alan Parsons’ engineered quadraphonic LP mix of DARK SIDE, but it will work with the album on any format. Available now through all participating digital outlets. […]

ARTSY: John Cougar’s Paintings Hurt So Good

  VANITY FAIR: Champion of the heartland, Farm Aid founder, and accomplished Americana musician, John Mellencamp has been covertly pulling double-duty as a visual artist for more than 20 years. But with his first art museum exhibition at Youngstown, Ohio’s Butler Institute of American Art in progress, the spotlight is now shining brightly on 40 of his original oil paintings. Inspired largely by German artists Max Beckmann and Otto Dix, Mellencamp’s work is emotional and progressive, in keeping with his award-winning music. For Mellencamp, who began his painting career by training with the Art Students League in New York in […]