Search Results
Below are your search results. You can also try a Basic Search.
(11/20/24 3:05am)
Seam Queen is one of Philadelphia’s greatest spectacles. The fashion competition show is a round–robin of the city’s premier fashion designers and nightlife performers. Hosted the last Sunday of every month at Franky Bradley’s, a Gayborhood favorite, it’s undoubtedly bold and queer. During my evening there, I saw everything from a three–piece burlesque reveal to Björk's “It’s Oh So Quiet” to a sequined male exotic dancer’s recreation of Marilyn Monroe’s love affair with JFK. A suite of chess players surrounding the legendary Mz. Peaches in a floor–length ball gown to an egg–shaped dress with a poppable yolk. The clear winner however? None other than Thomas Lauria.
(11/17/24 11:28pm)
A nurse sits in a long, dark corridor with flickering fluorescent lights, consoling themselves over the death of a patient. Another hospital worker slowly walks up to them and sits beside them. The worker breathes down the nurse’s neck and makes their heart go cold. This worker works at every hospital, and sees every patient. Sometimes, they just poke their head into a patient’s room. But, they’re present every time a patient takes their last breath. This mysterious hospital employee is death, itself. Death intertwines with every aspect of a nurse’s life. Nurses constantly work with death–not only protecting patients from it, but when it’s time, easing them into it.
(11/13/24 1:02am)
Dinner in America has had a resurgence of popularity long past its fifteen minutes of online fame, warranting theatrical rereleases two years after its initial release. It’s a deservedly–praised movie with chaotic energy and an unorthodox love story, and though the romanticized clips going viral on TikTok might lure you in, they’re not reflective of the full story.
(10/30/24 4:00am)
Cool lights cast a haunting kaleidoscope of blue and violet, red ropes lay across the paneled floor of the bedroom scene like spilled guts, and garish mirrors amplify the hallucinogenic perception of a possessed object. Winds howl and windows feel like they could be shattered. As the lights dim, my survival instincts viscerally kick in from the cushioned seat of the second row—I fear I’ll be taken by a demon from hell.
(10/30/24 4:00am)
Who else has spent post–midnight hours watching old Saturday Night Live clips instead of studying for that midterm you have in the morning? I bet you’ve watched “Wells for Boys” or “Papyrus”—two of the most viewed SNL sketches of all times. What if I told you they were both written by Julio Torres? Would you even know who that is?
(11/04/24 2:55pm)
A little fire is lit in the courtyard behind Van Pelt.
(11/01/24 2:42pm)
How does a horror film that doesn’t deliver its scares until the last 30 minutes succeed?
(11/01/24 2:29pm)
The poet Cesar Cruz once said: “art should comfort the disturbed.” Likewise, when October arrives at Penn, something disturbs everyone—whether it be midterms season, 50–degree temperatures, or scrambling to find the perfect Halloween costume. Last week, I became victim to all these irksome conditions, so what better way to seek comfort than by observing art? Specifically, in the (quite literal) sanctuary of Iron Gate Theatre, while watching The Mask and Wig Club’s fall production: Legally Bond.
(11/01/24 2:32pm)
For the last few months, I felt like one of the only people left in the damn world who actually got BRAT.
(01/19/25 11:58pm)
The West Philly Tool Library is anything but a “typical” library. With stacks of scrap wood, animal traps, sewing machines, and carpentry tools in an open–door garage, it looks more like a hoarder’s warehouse. When I walk inside through the unlatched garage door, it feels like I am invading someone’s personal workspace.
(10/25/24 5:23am)
Valeria Bonomie Piñerua (C’25) is hilarious. That was a given—she is chair of Bloomers Comedy—but during our conversation in Kelly Writers House, Vale’s colorful recollections of her experiences at Penn brightened my day. I laughed just remembering the interview while writing up this transcript, and seriously, I wish everyone could hear the audio. But Vale’s not just notable for her incredible sense of humor. Throughout her time at Penn, she has found a passion for the humanistic side of public health, aspiring to become an epidemiologist. She says she’s been described as “very HSOC,” a trait she wears proudly.
(11/08/24 1:27am)
Bows. Kisses. Hearts. Repeat. There's no other way to describe every other visitor of the Wells Fargo Center on the evening of Oct. 8, when child–actress–turned–superstar Sabrina Carpenter returned home to Philly. As the stadium gradually filled with Carpenter's fans sporting pre–ordered merchandised t–shirts or sparkling corsets, singer Amaarae prepared the audience for the evening show. Performing with just one dancer and a small group of musicians, she played 13 songs that leaned more toward TikTok–core than the light, girly pop of the event’s headliner. Still, hearing Travis Scott's “FE!N” at Carpenter’s concert was a pleasant surprise.
(11/12/24 3:00am)
“Thank god it’s Friday” is a phrase I was saying a lot this past weekend. Sure, Fridays are great because the weekend is coming, people can go out and socialize, and I get to have my chicken–over–rice from a halal cart as a reward for making it through the week. However, this Friday was extra special—we were blessed with the debut album Glorious from Memphis rapper GloRilla, featuring the hit single “TGIF." Her most recent mixtape, Ehhthang Ehhthang, was released earlier this year, and the new direction her music has taken in just six months is remarkable.
(11/17/24 11:27pm)
From high–end furniture to animation, to minimalist design and interior aesthetics, Japanese influence can be found all over the West. But that wasn’t always the case.
(11/08/24 5:19pm)
Although TikTok is known for its niche circles, one of the up–and–coming sides contains a particularly curious duo: a giant bowl of tteokbokki and a discussion of the violent crimes of the world’s most infamous serial killers. If your little heart desires further mind–numbing content to drown out a turbulent midterm season, switch tabs to YouTube for an ASMR–whispered rendition of a murder case that is tagged “very disturbing!!!” to lull you to sleep. As absurd as it sounds, this is what’s come to define the Internet’s evolving true–crime scene.
(11/22/24 4:28am)
Have you experienced “eusexua”? That is the sensation FKA Twigs is striving to evoke in The Eleven, a performance art show she debuted at Sotheby’s in September 2024. It marks the English singer, actress, and dancer’s first foray into the fine art world.
(10/25/24 12:16am)
If the name didn’t clue you in, this place is a bit excessive. It occupies the shell of an enormous former bank, a fact made blindingly evident by a private dining room downstairs being housed in a fully preserved vault, three-foot-thick door included and Del Frisco branded. And the food within maintains this luxurious allure steadfastly. Chilled seafood appetizers (and the contextually odd but nevertheless delicious cheesesteak dumplings) pave the way to what I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for, the steak. Don’t get caught up in the appetizers; as someone who’s been enchanted by their siren’s song, you don’t want to find yourself caught in the rocks of a full stomach and ¾ of a steak still on your plate. These chops are also not skimpy in their servings - aside from the 12 oz Filet Mignon (the health food of steaks)- you’ll find that cuts start from 16 oz (a pound, for you international students) and keep going. Straggling alternative dishes litter the menu, but best pay them no mind. If your parents will really let you indulge in the dining habits of a gilded age robber baron, then the berries and cream or chocolate mousse cake of the desserts section will certainly help you achieve this. While outstanding steakhouses stud the Center City landscape, nothing lets your parents whisk you out of a Houston Hall haze like Del Frisco’s.
(01/16/25 2:52am)
What started in Taiwan as a simple combination of local desserts, milk tea, and fen yuan, has evolved into a global phenomenon: boba. At Penn, it’s a quick pick–me–up before class, a coffee chat accessory, and even a savvy marketing ploy down Locust Walk. Most recently, it’s been touted as trendy, sugary, its contents unknown, and definitely, decidedly, no longer "ethnical". This is the perspective of two white Canadian entrepreneurs on an episode of Dragon’s Den, when they pitched their brand Bobba, a take on Taiwanese boba, to the panel of dragons.
(01/17/25 12:04am)
On my tenth birthday, I received ownership of my first Apple product: a sixth–generation iPod Touch. Having spent months co–filming videos for my friends’ social media accounts, I yearned for a device to create my own portfolios. Immediately after activating this device, I proceeded to download every social networking app I knew of: Snapchat, Vine, Musical.ly, X, YouTube, and Instagram. I viewed all these applications as essential towards launching my content creation journey, ignoring the excessive storage my “SM!” folder consumed.
(12/05/24 3:57am)
Picture a packed club, maybe a wild night in the basement of some indistinct fraternity. The lights flicker with the pounding of scattered footsteps. There’s almost no space to breathe—just a crush of people and movement, all blending together in air thick with the heat of too many people crammed into too small a space.
