"Voices Underground" is an earthwork in Europos Parkas in Lithuania.
 photo, www.patriciagoodrich.com

Patricia Goodrich Enriches Soil with Sound in Cross-Continental Installation


From beneath the soil in Lithuania, voices emanate from artists of various ethnicities and backgrounds. The woman who planted floral bulbs and her exhibit's verbal sound bytes hails from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. During the normal school year, Patricia Goodrich plants ideas in the minds of English and reading students at Lenape Middle School in Doylestown. But it was during her fourteen-month sabbatical that she planted her installation "Voices Underground," in Europos Parkas, an open-air museum in Lithuania. see full text

 

 "… Except to Cop Our Losses …" 
Philadelphia Controller Jonathan A. Saidel on the New Stadia 


"Why should your typical Philadelphian who works 8am to 5pm, who can barely afford to pay his mortgage and his kids' education, have to pay for a sports stadium?" asks Philadelphia Controller, Jonathan A. Saidel. The "Project Cost" of the stadia construction published by the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Corporation is $1,008,900,000 added to which is the city's repayment of a $90 million bond granted from the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development. The PIDC publishes on its website that the "$1 billion two-stadium project which PIDC has managed," is "historic." Mr. Saidel contends that the project is probably "historic" only in that it represents the costliest expenditure on sports which the taxpayers of any American city have ever allowed. see full text

 


"Nickel and Dimed". photo, Mark Garvin.

"We Owe These People" 
Playwright Joan Holden brings "Nickel and Dimed" to PTC 

It wasn't even her idea to begin with.

Yet when San Francisco playwright Joan Holden got a call from Bartlett Sher, artistic director for Seattle's Intiman Theatre, she was struck with a sense of purpose. In the half-dozen months that followed, this sense of purpose would galvanize the politically-minded playwright to action. see full text

 

Garland of Hours: Painting Sound Through Succinct Sessions 
An Interview Upstairs at the Khyber, 2/22/04
 

Amy Domingues sits upstairs at the Khyber, a stomach full of calamari, midway into a night that has begun with three frantic folks on cell phones. Domingues is trying desperately to ensure that merchandise belonging to her and Mary Timony shall be transported from a nook adjacent to the ticket counter at the Knitting Factory in New York City to this Philadelphia venue. Three gifted musicians, their equipment and various sundry items must be carefully schlepped on the East Coast tour, which will hit cities in Ohio, Chicago and then back to DC. see full text

 

A.K.A. GENE SHAY 


Gene Shay is 68. The name on his driver’s license is ‘Ivan Shaner’. When Mr. Shaner wakes up in the morning, he likes to have eggs and sausage and a cup of coffee and chat with his wife Gloria and perhaps read the newspaper. He leaves his home in Wynnewood jumps on Route 76 and drives through West Philadelphia and the UPenn campus to reach his broadcasting chair. But if it is a “non-broadcasting” day, he might see his grandson and granddaughter or chat on the phone with his two daughters Rachel and Elana, or gab with a retail chain about improving their broadcasting copy. see full text

 

  
   "Eutopic Globe", acrylic on canvas. 
     photo, Robyn Schecktor

Robyn Shecktor: In-Kind Abstract Abstraction
 

An obese gray cat preens in a cardboard box marked "Sale $59.99." His massive girth expands from all sides of the box. A giggling 22-year-old Robyn Shecktor sits across from me on her couch in South Philadelphia. Her demeanor changes as she beckons toward the walls. see full text

 

"Can I get a Molotov Cocktail?" 
Psy-Ops at The Fire and in the Studio


If you've noticed the stickers, posters, and street art bearing the warning; "DON'T FALL ASLEEP WITH THE TELEVISION ON," you've already caught a glimpse of local rock band PSY-OPS. In their fantastically energetic performance at The Fire on February 21, PSY-OPS gave the crowd (and a video camera) a good, long look. see full text


Eric Hammer and Sean Adamz of Psy-Ops
photo, Jonathan Kolbe

  

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Mary Timony at the Khyber 
Shattering mythologies is the genesis of rock and roll: old totems are torn down to create new ones. Fierce and feral in a black t-shirt depicting a tiger's head (a feline symbol of metamorphosis), Mary Timony looked every bit the post-punk prodigy ready to shift the shape of music late Sunday night at the Khyber on February 22. see full text 


Mary Timony. photo, www.iheartny.com


A Modern Girl's Guide to Philadelphia II  
 

Slinking into the dim haze, she shifts from foot to foot, denim-clad with a pocket full of quarters or one dollar bills. The following list details the places where that sum could lead to an extensive night of drunken debauchery-- and perhaps, even some excess pocket change in certain cases. see full text

 

Restaurant Review: Valley Green Inn 

On a snowy night, my wife and I exited the street lights of Chestnut Hill. As if dashing through a stage curtain into a backstage of rustic darkness, we delved into Fairmount Park. We were most hungry. From Springfield Avenue, we bore right at a fork and descended the ramp of Valley Green Road that curled along a stony ridge. We drove in low gear with brights ablaze, traffic lights now replaced by the purple fluorescence of snowfall.  see full text

 

  
   Philadelphia Academy of Music
    photo, PAM

Sing Out, Please 
A Review of OCP's Production of "Don Carlo" 
by Lara Otis

I am a new, "rabid opera fan." The Opera Company of Philadelphia and the Academy of Music itself have captivated me. The latter is a friendly-looking landmark, a red brick edifice resembling a market house, which welcomes the pedestrian as she passes its corner on Broad and Locust Streets. So, what could be better than having a ticket to "Don Carlo," which ran here through February 15th? see full text

 

PROSE

The City That's at Your Back 
Transmettez mes Remerciements à Philadelphia 


This is Steven I have to write to tell you all about what a wonderful time I am havin in Philadelphia. I have to tell the years since I have left home have been very enlightening, some have been good but many have been bad, some have been easy, but very many have been difficult.  see full text

 

"HiNgE" is the 'Bess' at Promoting the Arts!


Marilyn Bess, Publisher of "HiNgE," knows firsthand the challenges faced by the emerging local artist. Before founding "HiNgE," an online arts quarterly and resource for galleries, readings and events, Bess was employed at a menial 9-to-5.

"I used to work in medical publishing, and knew all these creative, talented people, also medical editors, who just hated it," she recalls. see full text

 


Mickey Roker
photo, Bernhard Castiglioni

Mickey Roker 
The Voltan of Ortlieb's Jazzhaus 


"I have practiced hard to be able to play with greats like Mickey Roker," said trumpet player John Swana.

In 1932, Granville 'Mickey' Roker was born in Miami, Florida. His mother Willie Mae Roker shared a small house in a poor section of the city with her son and brother Walter James Bowe. Mr. Roker's father, Granville Roker Sr., never lived with them.

"We came up so poor back then that it must've been God that got us by," said Mr. Roker. see full text

 

New Yorker Cats Can't Resist 
Eric Alexander at Chris' Jazz Cafe


The first Friday evening of February was a sopping-wet, freezing Philadelphia drag. The wind promised to blow street signs off of Samson Street. The windows of Chris' Jazz Café were opaque with steam. Bebop, mixed with swing, flooded the doorway. The patron pays twelve dollars to a bouncer who is bigger than the piano at Ortlieb's Jazzhaus. And she notices that a live quintet is pumping as heavy as a subway train but suddenly as light as a ghost. see full text

 

The End of Spontaneity?  
The Café Izmir Era
 

At the intersection of 9th and Bainbridge Streets sits a Turkish-inspired crossroads, flanked by the stained glass works and signs advertising coffee, teas, and wraps. Sounds of reggae records resound, the gentle scratches emanating from channels as patrons sit on couches surrounding the wood-burning fireplace. In the lounge, cigarette smoke melds with raspberry and apple flavors as the hookahs spark and bubble. see full text


Cafe Izmir's Gallery director Michael Hughes. photo, Bonnie MacAllister.

 

Documentary Exposes Deception Behind Iraq War
by Melanie Boston 

True to its history of providing fare for the left-leaning community of northwestern Philadelphia, the Unitarian Society of Germantown sponsored three showings of the Robert Greenwald documentary, "Uncovered: the Whole Truth About the Iraq War," on February 8, 15 and 22. see full text

 

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