Results tagged “atlanta”

Let us say up front that we buy into Virginia Woolf’s theory about women artists: it was/is often lack of opportunity, rather than lack of talent, that keeps the gender imbalance in the classic art canon holding steady. Controversy still abounds as to the placement and display of female artists, particularly whether it matters. If art is good, it is good, right, and will be recognized as such, regardless of gender. Would that it were so. However, in the midst of arguing why women are underrepresented in the artistic pantheons, we can sometimes lose sight of those women who managed to break through those barriers presented by societal and cultural expectations. One is the subject of an exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: Philadelphia native Cecilia Beaux, who was once described by painter William Merritt Chase as “not only the greatest living woman painter, but the best that has ever lived.”

Feeling stifled by the heat and the never-ending Menopause: The Musical run at Society Hill? Take a breath of fresh air with Vagabond Acting Troupe. Vagabond will be presenting its second annual New Works Festival tonight through Friday, featuring three one-acts from playwrights Christine M. Connelly of Chicago (To Ashes), Henry W. Kimmel of Atlanta (Saved On The Day Of Atonement), and Marie Lynch of our fair Philly (Throwing Stones). The evening is rounded off with a performance of Lesley Berkowitz's Boy and Girl, which premiered at the Troupe's first solo works festival this February. Each piece is directed by a member of Vagabond's core ensemble (hi, Editor Jill!), and features some of the ensemble in acting roles.

Fans of straight-ahead, no-nonsense rock 'n roll from bands with talent to burn have had a rough go of it lately. Enter the Kings of Leon, who will bring their unique blend of indie and blues to the Electric Factory tonight. The show is way sold out, but you’re gonna wanna worm your way in, by hook or by crookaigslist.

The Second Coming wasn’t supposed to be like this. On his return to Philadelphia, the Flyers seemed set to dominate the league. Prior to the NHL returning from the 2004-2005 season, Bob Clarke assembled what had appeared to be a sure Cup contender. Former 30-plus goal scorer Mike Knuble was added along with versatile forward Turner Stevenson. The signing of massive and proven defensemen Mike Rathje and Derian Hatcher was announced on the same day in early August ’05. We seemed set for a title run. But, after a somewhat inspired early season, the level of play dropped off dramatically through March and April, prior to the team being absolutely embarrassed by the Buffalo Sabres in a first round playoff loss. Knuble proved to be the only one of those big ’05 additions that has had a lasting impact. Rathje and Hatcher are too slow to be effective in the speedier NHL of today, and Stevenson was lost last season after continuous hip problems (Rathje is currently out indefinitely with Piriformis Syndrome, which is described as condition that causes backside pain). Besides having slow footed defensemen, the Flyers have sorely missed Stevenson as his two way play was invaluable on the penalty kill and in close game situations. Additionally he demonstrated the tireless work effort that this team currently lacks.

We don't know about you, but it's friggin cold out there. Well, not for some of you. It seems as though places that are supposed to be cold are warm and places that are supposed to be warm are cold. Or maybe that's just us. Either way, we're freezing.

How cruel of the Eagles to win on Monday night, pulling us all back into the hunt for the playoffs like that. Why did they have to beat a Panthers team expected to win Super Bowl XLI and take their spot in the playoff ladder? Why couldn’t Jeff Garcia have just embarrassed himself and taught coach Andy Reid a lesson for not opting for A.J. Feely? Why did they have to build our hopes back up, only to disappoint us in heartbreaking fashion?

The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you.

The Phillies are riding high into this weekend’s series with the San Francisco Giants. Showing some of that “fighting” side, the Phils worked themselves up to a .500 record by beating the Atlanta Braves 6-3 last night.

Merial, the makers of Heartguard Plus, recently conducted a survey of their 15 biggest markets, asking folks in each area how good they thought local dog-owners were about picking up after their pooches (don't worry, the respondents included both dog-owners and non-dog-owners alike, for fairness). The cities were then ranked from least to most responsible. The results are as follows:

Aaron Rowand made a big stamp on his first year in Philadelphia last night with a two-run home run in the eighth inning to keep the Phillies winning streak going with a 5-4 win over the Atlanta Braves.

A three-game winning streak? Could it be? We think so. The Phils took one out of three from the terrible Pittsburg Pirates and then won both in a set with the Florida Marlins.

Alright, boys. We love you. We really do, but you’re killing us. You’re 1-6, and while Bobby Abreu’s walk-off home run on Sunday was a nice, sunny spot on the new season, we forget good things fast when you suck it up the first week of the season.

We know, we know. It seems the only time Phillial rears its enviously sexy head is to censure wild and wacky local sex politics. Our editor has already told us to go sit spreadeagle in a corner. We think he’s playing “Bad Cop” in this dungeon.

Benergy? Is that like Joe-mentum or Bennifer?

Just as fans were coming to terms with the Phils missing the playoffs, they switched to Fox and saw that their next big hope, the Philadelphia Eagles, were quickly on their way to a mediocre 2 - 2 start to their season. The Eagles, who followed up a tough opening night loss to Atlanta with two wins over the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders, went down quickly to the Kansas City Chiefs, who pounced on them early and built up a 17 - 0 lead. A Sheldon Brown interception return for a touchdown sparked the team, but a missed extra point and a kickoff return by Chiefs return man Dante Hall for a touchdown quickly deflated them.

A Michael Tucker RBI single and a Shane Victorino three-run homerun lifted the Phillies to a 4 - 0 win over the Atlanta Braves yesterday. The Houston Astros beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2 - 1, to maintain their two game lead over the Phillies.

It's happened a few times this season: Charlie Manuel makes a bad move. Bill Dancy makes an even worse move. An Ed Wade acquisition, like David Bell or Michael Tucker (better yet, David Bell AND Michael Tucker), hits into a key double play.

Jimmy Rollins extended his league-leading hit streak last night against the Atlanta Braves, but that was about the only thing that went right for the Phillies. The Fightin's lost 4 - 1 against the Braves last night in Atlanta, leaving them two games behind the Houston Astros, who beat up on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Both teams have 11 games left this season. The Marlins, sitting in third place in the Wild Card race, lost to the New York Mets in 12 innings and now find themselves three games back of the Astros.

The Houston Astros lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates last night, 7 - 0 at PNC Park. No no, this isn't suddenly Pittsburghist. We're interested in this game because the Astros were sitting a game and a half ahead of the Phillies heading into last night's action. After the loss, the Astros find themselves only one game ahead of the Phillies, sure to make the eventual Phillies collapse that much more heartbreaking.

The Phillies entered their weekend series against the Marlins hoping to take one game from the Marlins. Two games seemed to be asking a lot since the Phillies faced the two Marlins aces, Dontrelle Willis and Josh Beckett, on Saturday and Sunday.

There's nothing better than kicking back at a Phillies game and making a nice Tomas Perez pie joke, or really any joke about any of the Phillies bench players. Except maybe Shane Victorino. Maybe. But Ramon Martinez was able to fire a shot back last night in the form of a grand slam that helped the suddenly surging Phillies defeat the Atlanta Braves last night, 12-4.

It was inside-out last night in Philadelphia as the Phillies stepped up big in an important game while the Eagles shrivelled up and fumbled their way to a 14-10 loss to the Atlanta Falcons last night. The Eagles were slow out of the gate, allowing the Falcons to ring up 14 quick points. This might have been due to the Eagles first blunder of the evening, which happened before kickoff. Jeremiah Trotter got into a shoving match with Falcons cornerback Kevin Mathis during team warmups. The two players were ejected from the game for throwing punches, even though Trotter didn't actually throw a punch. Still, he retaliated to Mathis' taunts and was thrown from the game, taking away a key component of the Eagles' defense.

Even though the Eagles are starting their season tonight, we're going to annoy you for a moment with some Phillies news. After some heartbreaking losses to the Astros, the Phillies came roaring back by taking 2 games out of 3 from the Florida Marlins over the weekend. The wins pulled the Phils to a game and a half behind the wild card leading Astros and a game behind the second place Marlins.

The Philadelphia Eagles begin their 2005 campaign to Super Bowl XL tonight in Atlanta. The game is a rematch of last season's NFC Championship game, which the Eagles won over the Falcons in order to get to Super Bowl XXXIX.

Much maligned Phillies third baseman has been able to stave off the critics a bit this week. The other night, Bell's two-RBI single helped the Phillies to a much-needed win over the Mets. Last night, Bell stepped up with the bases loaded and two out and hit a grand slam, launching the Phils to a 7-1 win over the Washington Nationals. The win left the Phillies four games behind the NL East leading Atlanta Braves. The Phillies sit one-half game over the Houston Astros in the National League Wild Card chase.

The Sixers, in the wake of re-signing free agents Kyle Korver and Willie Green, finally sealed the deal with their top priority, center Samuel Dalembert. The six-year deal will reportedly pay Dalembert something in the range of $60 to $80 million dollars. Dalembert is regarded by many as a project still in the works, but one that has already paid great dividends. Dalembert still needs to work hard on his offensive game, but on the defensive end, he's already become one of the league's best shot blockers. We're just hoping he becomes a little something more than an eloquent Dikembe Mutombo.

On July 26, 2000, Phillies pitcher Curt Schilling (now the most-expensive set-up man around while he rehabs his ankle injury) was traded to the fesity Arizona Diamondbacks after winning 102 games in a Phillies uniform, including one in the 1993 World Series. Schilling was upset in Philly, he wanted out and the rest is history. The Phillies may not see a pitcher that good for 25 years. He’s up there with Steve Carlton and Robin Roberts as the best to ever pitch in Philly. The Phillies received what at the time seemed like a steal. They got pitching prospect Nelson Figueroa, solid veteran Omar Daal, power-hitting first round draft pick Travis Lee, and another prospect, hard-throwing 22 year old Vicente Padilla, who was striking out a batter an inning with the D-Backs. He was praised for his competitiveness by manager Buck Showalter, who did not want to part with him. The only thing the Phillies have to show from that trade five years later, aside from the everlasting hysteria from “The Bowa Years,” is Vicente Padilla. Although he represented Philadelphia in the 2002 All-Star Game, he was fighting to stay in the big leagues as he pitched against the Pirates in Pittsburgh last night. While Schilling has won 2 World Series, the Phillies have lost with, as Chris Mustazza affectionately calls him, “Sure-to-lose” Padilla. We all love Vicente, though; we do want him to do well. We know he’s the same pitcher Showalter praised, taking losses out on himself. It has taken a great toll on his confidence to pitch as bad as he has been pitching. But Padilla helped the Phils last night to come within four and a half games of the NL wild card leading Atlanta Braves.

Un-freaking-believable. That’s all that can be said about tonight’s heartbreaking loss to the Atlanta Braves. Never before were the Phillies’ relief pitching needs as apparent as they were tonight. Robinson Tejeda had another sterling start, as he led the Phils through 6 shutout innings with only two hits surrendered. This kid is on fire. He hasn’t allowed a run in three of his five starts. No one expected Tejeda to come up this big when he filled the void left by the injured Randy Wolf. It really looked like the Phils were going to take this one. It actually took more effort to lose this game than it would have to win it. The loss can be chalked up to horrific relief pitching. The blame can be divided amongst Rheal Cormier, Ryan Madson, Ugueth Urbina, and Billy Wagner. All of them contributed to the Braves coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the final innings to win 4-3. The Phils’ runs were scored by a 3-run homer from young prospect Ryan Howard. Howard will continue to play for the Phils while Jim Thome is on the DL. So what do the Phils do now? Do thet need to make some trades by the deadline and pick up better starting and relief pitching? Do we really want Ed Wade to pull the trigger on such a decision? Who would the Phils trade – Howard, Wagner, Burrell, Utley? These are all questions that will need to be answered in the near future. Here’s what I think they should do: in true Philadelphia tradition, the Phils need to trade some of their most valuable prospects for a washed-up player who used to be good. The Phils need to offer this player a big-money deal for a long time-period. Also, whoever the Phils trade should promptly become a spectacular player – ala Scott Rolen. Might I suggest Ryan Howard for Mike Piazza at 10 million a year for 7 years?

Today, all of us suffering from the heartbreak of watching the Phillies come off of a 12-1 homestand in early June only to plummet to last place in the NL East were dealt a very small dose of relief as Brett Myers and the Phils shut down the Altanta Braves to escape last place. Could this be the beginning of the next great Philadelphia winning streak? Probably not. The Phils really needed a win today and Brett Myers came up big for our struggling home team. Myers pitched a stellar game, where he gave up no runs and only one hit going into the ninth inning. It looked like he would pitch a complete one-hitter. Unfortunately for Myers, he struggled in the ninth, giving up 3 runs. Fortunately for the Phils, Billy Wagner was able to close the game. Myers was even able to contribute to the scoring with an RBI single in the fourth. Other Phillies’ runs came from a 3-run homer by David Bell, a solo homerun from Pat Burrell, and an RBI single by Jason Micheals. Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox said of Myers, "That's one of the best jobs against us all year. He was absolutely dynamite." Dynamite, indeed, Bobby. May you receive many more poundings like this one from Brett Myers. The only way the Phillies could avoid being demolished this season would be to have more pitching performances like Myers’ today. Maybe seeing today’s performance in contrast to yesterday’s shelling of Vicente Padilla will inspire the Phillies to make some big moves for starting pitchers before the trade deadline. Even with this pitching clinic that Myers put on today, this writer refuses to get his hopes up. Too many times have the Phils looked like they were going to pull themselves together only to fall short. We'll see what happens tomorrow as Robinson Tejada takes on the Braves' Jorge Sosa at 8:05pm.