215 Festival All-Stars Variety Hour
Tritone
1508 South Street
Fri, 8 p.m, $12
(215) 545-0475
www.215festival.com
Liberate your minds and come to a place where literature meets lyrics, authors are as entertaining as bands and musicians are as clever as novelists. A showcase for both established and rising artists, 215 Festival takes over the whole city, with shows taking place in various bars, auditoriums, theaters and museums. Come mingle with the intellectual all-stars on Friday night, and listen to the music of Les Sans Culottes and DJ Sara Sherr. Integrating the tiniest bit of English into their Fixation Orale disc, Les Sans are a fabulous combination of rock and pop -- a new breed of you-can-jump-up-and-down-to-it-but-still-feel-sophisticated-because-you're-dancing to-a-language-that's-not-English music.
Hyper-Runt
National Products Building
119 Arch Street
Fri, 7 p.m.-10 p.m., free
Sat, 9 p.m.-2 p.m., $10
Tue, 6 p.m.-8 p.m., $5 with student ID
www.inliquid.com/hyper-runt
Perhaps the word "hyper-runt" stirs up intense memories for you, bringing you back to the days when you were a hyperactive little seven year-old and your big brother always referred to you as a little runt. But don't be deterred -- this Hyper-Runt is an art show, dedicated to the constant blending of technology and culture. It emphasizes the drastic changing of our world as we know it, containing 3-D images, contemporary photography, web-art, trippy film clips, computer generated collages and other progressive, if not weird, pieces. Its focus on the bazaar is actually very interesting, as long as you suspend your typical expectations of a gallery exhibit. It's not your average runt.
International Joyce
Annenberg Center lobby
3680 Walnut Street
Mon-Fri,10 a.m.-6 p.m., free
(215) 898-3900
www.pennpresents.org
The story of Irish writer James Joyce is told through this collection of writings and other memorabilia on display at our very own Annenberg Center. 23 panels, all Joyce. That is so typical of him. I remember it was like 1898, no wait, 1899, and James and I had just spent the night together, and he's eating potatoes and drinking lager and he's all like, "Want to hear my newest ideas for a book?" and I'm just like, "You know James, don't you want to talk about me for once?" and he's just like, "Do both of your names start with the same letter and have one syllable each? Yeah, that's what I thought."
47th annual ebony fashion fair: Living it Up
Kimmel Center's Verizon Hall
260 South Broad Street
Sat, 2 p.m., $20 - $40
(215) 790-5800
www.kimmelcenter.org
Nothing is more warming than the pitter patter of little feet, supporting a fragile body less than half your size. The Ebony Fashion Fair showcases the designs of Bob Mackie, Christian LaCroix Hanae Mori, Beaulah Cooly, Fusha and others. The clothes will be worn by the world's thinnest, most beautiful black models. Verizon Hall is the Kimmel Center's acoustically perfect orchestral hall. Surely, the acoustically sound pitter patter of 80-pound models will move you to raptures. So cute! Great ass!
PhotoPlay: Jenny Lynn
The Print Center
1614 Latimer Street
Tue-Sat, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., free
(215) 735-6090
www.printcenter.org
Jenny's at it again. She has gotten especially frisky with this collection of photographs, hand-made collages and 3-D constructions. Seeking to explore the psyche and sensuality through her art, Lynn creates work not unlike what Enya and Usher's music would look like if it were somehow mushed together and turned into something visual. The result? Sexy black man meditating? Think more along the lines of a darkly lit picture of the legs of a woman in black pumps. Photo play indeed. Or should I say, Photo play? You just think about that one for a minute.
Havana: The Revolutionary Moment
Philadelphia Art Alliance
251 South18th St., 2nd Fl.
Tuesdays-Sundays, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., free
(215) 545-4302
www.philartalliance.org
In these never before seen photographs, Burtglinn captures Fidel Castro during his rise to prominence in Cuba, before the Revolution, before the Cuban Missile Crisis, before army canvas green was the "it" color. Yes, before Urban Outfitters. Organized communism has, by most reckonings, lost; capitalism has won. But that brilliantly blase shade of green will far outlive all governments. Green is hip. Castro is old -- and ugly. Paradox? I think not.
Club 102
Egypt Nighclub
520 N. Columbus Blvd
Sat, 9 p.m-2 a.m., $10
(215) 922-6500
www.egpyt-nightclub.com
102 is for Q102, the radio station. Which means there will be Q102's own DJ RICHIE RICH -- spinning progressive house and dance music on The Main Dance Floor. I don't know what progressive house music is, but that song that is always played at the end of the night in Acapulco, "Dance with the Devil", has a chorus that goes "I can give you house" and I think that is a totally sweet song. Not that I went to Acapulco, but I heard it played at the Theo's Acapulco themed party last spring.
Thursday Drag Nights
Bob & Barbara's Cocktail Lounge
1509 South Street
Thurs, 11 p.m.-1 a.m. , $5
(215) 545-4511
If a chick falls over in heels, it's embarrassing. If a dude falls over in heels, it's death. So come on out and watch guys dance in heels I could never dream of walking in. Also, name dropping is always cool, especially when you name drop something from New York City in Philadelphia. So when you go to Thursday Drag Nights you could say to the bartender, "Hey don't you know Stephi from Lucky Chengs?"
LAUGH YOU SUCKA
Comedian Gary Owen
The Laff House
221 South Street
Fri, 8:30 p.m. and 10:45 p.m., $15 Sat, 7 p.m., 9 p.m., and 11 p.m., $17.50
(215) 440-4242
www.laffhouse.com
Comedian Gary Owen is the only white person ever to host B.E.T.'s Comicview. He earned that honor performing in San Diego's black comedy clubs. His routines celebrate the differences between blacks and whites -- "I don't know what a 'boo' is," he once joked. Indeed, few white guys do. When I first heard it, I was drinking some green tea and watching UPN's The Parkers. Then, Mo'Nique casually slipped "boo" into a greeting to her love interest, Professor Oglevee. When she said it, I spilled the green tea on my lap because I was just so thrown off by it. Now I like to think I understand what "boo" means -- kind of like how I like to think I understand what differential equations mean.
The Academy of Vocal Arts' Award-Winning Singers Compete with Each Other in
Giargiari Bel Canto Competition
Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center
260 South Broad Street
Fri, 7:30 p.m., $25
(215) 735-1685
www.kimmelcenter.org
Imagine if American Idol had a baby with an opera singer. Then this baby grew to be 50-feet tall and ate lions for breakfast. That's what this competition would be like, minus the annoying Ryan Seacrest. The world's best opera singers congregate every year in the Super Bowl of opera, where contestants are judged on singing, bellowing, yodeling and breakdancing. Don't forget about the swimsuit competition!
Donny McCaslin & the John Swana Organ Trio
Chris's Jazz Cafe
1421 Sansom Street
Fri, 9 p.m. - 1 a.m., $10
(215) 568-3131
www.chrisjazzcafe.com
In his 2002 performance at Chris' Jazz Cafe, Philadelphian John Swana nearly upstaged his bandmate (for that particular night), the legendary Randy Brecker. Friday's performance promises to reaffirm Swana's status as a top straight-ahead jazz trumpeter: a "bad cat," a "hip axe-slinger with balloon lungs," a "cool daddy-o with ridiculous chops," a "hipster who really digs on the mini sackbut," a "smokin' player that never, never screws the pooch" -- mind you, these are the idiomatic expressions of the jazz community. In other words, Swana is going to play well. And, again, he never screws the pooch.
Meg Clifton Quintet
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Benjamin Franklin Parkway and 26th St.
Fri, 5 p.m. - 8:45 p.m., $10 regular, $7 students
(215) 684-7506
www.philamuseum.org
Jazz singer Meg Clifton has a classic, reserved timbre. Her renditions of traditional melodies are neither frantic nor note-heavy, as is often the case with younger artists. The Art Museum venue, where the music is free with museum admission, has both beautiful ambiance and fairly sound acoustics. Then, since the event ends at 8:45 p.m., you can juxtapose this culture-rich, pretentious-ivy-league-student experience with the following "college kid" schedule: pre-game at 10, leave for party at 11, come home (or not) at 2:30 and dream sexual dreams about Meg Clifton.
Steel Pulse
Theatre of Living Arts
334 South Street
Thu, 9 p.m., $20.50
(215) 922-1011
www.theateroflivingarts.net
Steel Pulse's "Rollerskates" song (the one that has a heavy background of steel drums) contrasts its flighty reggae melody with its violent lyrics: "I'm gonna get him/ The last thing I do/ Must get a beating/ till he's red and blue." In fact, this song should be the anthem of people who keep their anger bottled inside while having a sunny disposition on the outside. What's the cause of such anger expressed in this classic reggae song? Apparently, a stranger in a flashy car came by and smashed up the guy's radio, silencing the song. Bad move, flashy car man. These rastafarians put a lot of weight on music -- as Bob Marley had said, "One good thing about music, is that when it hits you, you feel no pain."
Student Recitals
Field Concert Hall at The Curtis Institute of Music
1726 Locust Street
Beginning Oct. 11, most Mon, Wed and Fri, 8 p.m., free
(215) 893-5252
www.curtis.edu
As an Asian-American, my mother stuck with the stereotype and forced me into the world of piano and violin. Man, did I hate to practice. Now you can imagine my dismay when learning that kids actually went to school for music. Why weren't they sitting on a couch, spending 30 minutes doing absolute shit in order to put off their homework? Instead, they're throwing solo and ensemble concerts for the general Philadelphia public. What's next, students of Curtis Institute of Music? Are you going to find a cure for cancer and have dinner with Nelson Mandela?
Cake
Trocadero Theatre
1003 Arch Street
Sat, 8 p.m., $30
(215) 922-5483
www.thetroc.com
"He's going the distance, / He's going for speed. / She's all alone..." sang Cake, in the popular hit, "The Distance." The song was, of course, a sprawling extended metaphor for sexual desire. Even tonight, as I look across a crowded room and meet the soft blue eyes of some new vixen, I begin to hear that familiar guitar riff, and instantly, I know it's time. "Come with me," I call to the vixen. "Cake is playing with Northern State on Saturday. Yes, Cake -- the band that fused hip-hop, funk, country and rock, to create the most definitive statement of the postmodern in all of pop rock."
the Arabian Nights
Arden Theatre
40 North 2nd St.
Thu-Sat, 8 p.m., various times for other days, $10-$40
(215) 922-1122
www.ardentheatre.org
Feast your eyes on some culture and possibly a little flesh. This Arden Theatre production boasts sex, comedy, treachery and last but not least -- belly dancing. The play is Tony Award-winner Mary Zimmerman's adaptation of The Book of a Thousand Nights and One. I don't know what all that means, but if you have the cash why not grab some New Delhi, head downtown and cross your fingers to see some earthly delights.
Gemini, The Musical
Prince Music Theater
100 S Broad Street # 650
Thu- Sat. 8 p.m., Tues-Wed. 7 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m., $38
(215) 569-9700
www.princemusictheater.org
Gemini is the story of a Harvard kid Francis Geminiani, home for the summer in 1970's South Philly and what happens when two of his waspy friends show up for a surprise visit. If you have yet to venture out of Penn's campus into the neighborhood that is South Philly, let me just say this: stereotypes are not always wrong. Adapted from the Broadway hit "South Philadelphia", this musical promises, if nothing else, some genuine laughter.
George Orwell's 1984
Philadelphia Arts Bank Theater at the University of the Arts
601 South Broad Street
Thu-Sat, 8:00 p.m., $6 for students
(215) 545-0590
www.uarts.edu
The Philadelphia Arts Bank Theater is putting on a production of Orwell's classic book, 1984. I remember when my ninth grade English teacher made me read this book. One time, she was sitting on a stool and reading a particular passage out of the book in front of the class. Just as she was two minutes into it, we heard a loud "CRACK," and the stool had broken and she was on the floor. Sad times, indeed.
Philadelphia Theatre Co.'s Trumbo
Plays & Theater Theater
1714 Delancey Street
Tue-Sun, various times, $30-$35
(215) 985-0420
www.phillytheatreco.com
Trumbo is about a writer in the '40s who was thrown in jail as one of the infamous "Hollywood Ten" for standing up to the House Un-American Activities Committee. It is not a hybrid of Donald Trump and Dumbo. Can you imagine that though? The Don says "You're Fired" and then performs circus tricks by flying around the boardroom with his oversized ears. Amazing.
Women in Love
The Living End Theatre Company
Second Stage at the Adrienne
2030 Sansom Street
Wed- Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m., $20
(215) 413-7155
www.theatrealliance.org
Based on the D.H. Lawrence novel with the same title, Women in Love tells the story of two sisters and their love interests living in early 20th Century England. If you're sighing and thinking that you've heard that crap before, keep in mind that this novel was considered groundbreaking for its time. It questioned the sanctity of women (oh, no!) and treated women as sexual equals, WHOOP WHOOP! Not like that's anything new at Penn per say, since most of the TEP kids tend to resemble the SDT chicks anyway. This version of the play is the world premier of a new adaptation, so it might be actually worth checking out.
