Results tagged “worldwar”

Yesterday's ran a rather long piece called "How Do You Prove You're a Jew?", and while it may seem an unconventional topic for a manners column, I'd like to expound a bit upon it. Have no fear: even if you don't have the time or the inclination to read the original Gershom Gorenberg essay, I'm only using it as a jumping-off point for this column, and I promise not to allude to anything that would only be understood if you did read it.

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets.

When Richard Kelly's film Southland Tales was originally screened at Cannes, the buzz was extraordinarily negative. The word was that the movie was a great big mess - ridiculous and nonsensical. I didn't want to believe it. I really enjoyed Kelly's amazing indie/romance/sci-fi flick Donnie Darko. I thought maybe people were reacting to Southland Tales the way that some had reacted to The Fountain: they were confused by it because they hadn't looked hard enough...

"Officers from the State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement in Philadelphia conducted a special underage drinking detail in the Lincoln Financial Field parking lot" before the Temple-Penn State football game Saturday and arrested 31 underage tailgaters, as well as one more for presenting false identification. City police were trying to break up a dispute between two rival groups of young men in Gray's Ferry Saturday night when the young men opened fire on...

It's not exactly the kind of album that's going to get you up on your feet and dancing, but Force of Light, the most recent release from Barbez (a band led by New York guitarist/composer Dan Kaufman) is definitely an interesting and haunting piece of music, and we wanted to mention it here, since the band will be playing a free event called Diaspora Kristallnacht at the Rotunda this weekend with Philly's own Oscuro Quintet. Diaspora Kristallnacht is part of the Diaspora Series and its purpose is to highlight music written in the prison camps of World War II. Force of Light fits this theme because it's based on the work of the celebrated poet Paul Celan, a Romanian Jew who spent nearly two years in the camps and lost his parents there. The effect of these experiences is always present in Celan's poetry - sometimes explicitly, sometimes implicitly. Force of Light is a series of lengthy, contemplative, moving orchestral pieces - a few instrumental, but most accompanied by readings of Celan's work by Scottish playwright and poet (and former girlfriend of Kaufman) Fiona Templeton. The music has a strange and intriguing feeling of the fantastic and the dream-like about it. Quite a variety of instruments come into play, including electric, nylon-string, and lap steel guitar; theremin; vibes; marimba; clarinets; bass; drums; cello; and violins. As we said, it's not exactly a fun, upbeat kind of album, but it is an effective and beautiful one.

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets.

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week.

The best of the internet, chopped into tiny bits and grilled for your enjoyment.

This week’s quote comes from the play , by John Guare. The character Ouisa is relating that it’s hard to intentionally avoid thinking of a topic – just like when someone tells you not to think of elephants, and all you can think of is "elephants, elephants, elephants!" Now, on with the listings!

Here it is, a week late, a lyric from the actual song “White Christmas.” (We never did get our shopping done, though. This year we’re celebrating Chanukah, for convenience.) Now, on with the listings!

We kinda like Michael Penn. There are many reasons, but the first one in our mind is that video for "Try." You know the one - one-take, down the hallway, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The song was on the Boogie Nights soundtrack and we've had a little crush on Penn ever since.

Continue reading "Frugal in Philly - Im Cabaret, au Cabaret, to Cabaret"