DEAR PHAWKER, Hi there, am interested in getting in touch with Aaron Stella, regarding his interview with Arthur Kade. I just had a piece published about him here in Australia and am fascinated by his interview. Mainly because it seems to be that after reading your interview it seems to prove to me that, if it’s entirely possible, this is a REAL person, and not some hoax. Anyway, Aaron, feel free to have a read of this article, if indeed you find this as fascinating and bizzarre as I do. CHRIS DEAL Some Guy From Australia RELATED: Touching The Void […]
ENDANGERED SPECIES: Food Trucks
[Photo by AARON STELLA] DAILY NEWS: Food-cart operators around the city say that they are struggling to make ends meet. They’re caught in a situation where they’re facing higher food prices, lower turnout and an inability to raise prices for fear of losing even more business, they say. “Customers are [coming] sometimes more, or sometimes less,” Aurang Zeb Khan, who runs Zeb’s Lunch, at 7th and Market streets, said last week as he slid grilled chicken onto his griddle, then shredded it. “But because of the ingredients, even if people are [coming] the same, our profits are lower.”Khan, 19, has […]
AMERICAN ASSHOLE: Q&A With Arthur Kade
BY AARON STELLA GAYDAR EDITOR Until my Internet-savvy roommate directed me to arthurkade.com—in particular, a post titled Eulogy — I had no idea who Arthur Kade was. Four sentences into the post, I got the picture: he’s a delusional, narcissistic bag-of-douche, a whore to glamor and slave to fashion, but most of all, an irrepressible and frighteningly charismatic advocate of all the ruinous aforesaid. Upon finishing (no small feat without throwing up a little bit in my mouth) I decided to peruse other posts (Drunk Girls, The Kade Scale, Relationships, etc.), when all the sudden, mid-Kade, I felt the journalist […]
LIVE REVIEW: Philadanco’s Movers & Shakers
BY AARON STELLA There are some works of art, so exquisite and unique, that they warrant a review fitted to their specific abstraction. Such was the case April 30th of my viewing of Philadanco’s 39th annual round of spring performances, “Movers and Shakers”, which consisted of three world premieres and one company premiere performance. And so, I give you something a little different: Red Envelope (World Premiere) The faded beige curtains ascended and the house lights dimmed to total blackness. I glanced at my program before all sources of light were extinguished, catching that the first dance was entitled Red […]
GAYDAR: Dumpsta Players’ Under The Sea
BY AARON STELLA It was bizarro prom night last night at Bob and Barbara’s, when the Dumpsta Players, those madcap mavericks of bar-based drag theater, put on Prom-Trash: Under the Sea. Instead of their unusual brand of kitschy melodrama, which traditionally consists of skits and lip-syncing that parody the current zeitgeist, contestants battled for the title of trashiest prom-queen of 2009—with a little song and dance, courtesy of the DPs, on the side. This year, prospective contestants were encouraged to fashion their starlet alter ego with the sea in mind. Hence, the lineup of decadent divas included such personae like […]
GAYDAR EXTRA: Chickenhawk Of The Sea
Mischief, mayhem, madness, oh my! But it all happens underwater this time. Tonight the Dumpsta Players, those rancorous ruffians of all things retro, are showcasing Prom-Trash: Under the Sea at Bob and Barbara’s tonight. Both ladies and gents are invited to participate. Trashing Disney is encouraged. You’ll be in good company (Ho White, Sleepy Booty, and even an imminently outed Sponge-Bob). And as the name implies, whoever’s the trashiest takes home the crown. Best of all kiddies, entrance to the Prom-Trash: Under the Sea is granted but for a shrimpy $1.99. So why not bask in the glory of the […]
ARTSY: Detritus
“Icarus Ascending” by Jose Gamalinda, part of Detritus, now showing at T-bar BY AARON STELLA The long awaited debut of Jose Gamalinda, emergent artist and veteran bartender at Woody’s for over 18 years, has finally arrived. Now his pieces, which have hitherto remained unexposed to the public, are on display at T-bar (located at 12th and Sansom streets) in a show aptly titled “Detritus.” Gamalinda specializes in collages and reproductions in Bic pen. Most of Gamalinda’s friends, co-workers and fellow art enthusiasts were already familiar with his work. For years, they’ve prodded him to invest the time needed to actualize […]
GAYDAR: My Life In The Ghost Of Bush
BY AARON STELLA Welcome back to another long awaited edition of GAYDAR! Let’s do a little recap on the parts of my crazy so-called life I have shared thus far: My family had extricated themselves from a crazy Christian cult in Augusta, GA, and have fled to Alabama to wait out the imminent apocalyptic storm of Y2K. We were, disappointed, to say the least, with the grand finale. Fast forward to 2003, I no longer live with my family. My homosexuality being one of the many reasons. My friend Andrew’s family has taken me in, and I’ve just heard word […]
THEATER REVIEW: Top Five Reasons To See Scorched
1. Wading into the Silence For the last five years of her life, Lebanese revolutionary and civil war survivor Nawal hasn’t uttered a word, not even to her twin children, Simone and Janine. They are exasperated and dumbfounded by their mother’s perpetual reticence. It isn’t until Janine obtains a box of cassette tapes containing 500 recorded hours of her mother’s silence that she is impelled to quest for her mother’s origins in her native land, and thus, the origins of her quietude. Simone eventually follows. Simone and Janine soon discover the horrific yet beautiful circumstances that precipitated the silence. In […]
REVIEW: Golden Girls Gone Wild
BY AARON STELLA GAYDAR EDITOR The G-Girls were out in full force Thursday at Bob and Barbara’s. The devilishly mischievous drag troupe, The Dumpsta Players, thought that it was about time to pay an homage to the girls who put the gold in the golden years: the Golden Girls, in “Golden Girls Gone Wild!” The Dumpsta Players are Philly’s most notorious drag troupe, infamous for their shameless satire and lampooning of the joys and ills of modern society and pop culture (not to mention that the grist of politics is usually within hacking range of their trash picked hatchet). As […]
GAYDAR: Golden Showers Make Nice Flowers
Madcap drag troupe The Dumpsta Players, are back this month with a geriatric extravaganza. This time around, it’s all about the gold—the golden years to be exact—and who better can throw their sassy wisdom and eye-sore pastel clothing around than the Floridian foursome: The Golden Girls, in, “Golden Girls Gone Wild!” Times are hard. The girls’ roof needs a-fixin’ but they don’t have the dough. They should’ve probably cut back on the cheesecake, huh. But since that’s not going to happen, the girls are forced to whore themselves out into the cheap and easy world of reality TV. Rose sets […]
GAYDAR: Five Reasons Why Rent Must Die
1. Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp Have Nothing Better To Do The main attraction of this particular production of RENT is original cast members Adam Pascal as AIDS-infected guitarist Roger Davis and Anthony Rapp as filmmaker Mark Cohen. For avid RENT fans, it’s a trip down memory lane. For everyone else, it’s men at work. Paschal and Rapp perform with grace and ease, no doubt inspiring the same sense of awe they did during RENT’s first production, perhaps even more so. Whatever. Sitting in the audience, I couldn’t help but think… 2. 1996 Just Called And They Want Their Hip […]
THEATER: Five Reasons To See Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire At The Walnut St. Theater
1. Blanche DuBois is the first lady of the American stage. Whereas the motion picture of Tennessee William’s A Street Car Named Desire draws attention to Brando’s gritty portrayal of Stanely Kolwalski, it seems as though Williams intended Blanche Dubois, played with gravitational pull by Susan Riley Stevens, to hold center stage for playhouse productions. The production was all of three hours long, which can be demanding even for the most ardent theater-lovers, but Stevens entertained, intrigued and beguiled effortlessly for the entire production, and could have done so longer. And this was no small feat. Stevens delivered more than […]