AS A BONUS TO OUR “WEIRD PEOPLE PROBLEMS” FRINGE RUN:
CAMP WOODS SKETCH COMEDY PRESENTS A SPECIAL DAVID LYNCH THEMED SKETCH SHOW LAMPOONING THE WORK OF KOOKY DIRECTOR, DAVID LYNCH! FEATURING NONE OTHER THEN SECRET PANTS!!!!!

$12 – Tickets: http://livearts-fringe.ticketleap.com/weird-people-problems/

 

All Performances:

Tuesday, September 18, 2012, 9:00PM – 10:00PM
A special DAVID LYNCH themed show!!!
https://www.facebook.com/events/423087251066744/

(via THE DAVID LYNCH SHOW by Camp Woods & Secret Pants at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival – 9/18 [as part of “Weird People Problems”])

In response to continued pounding from construction down the hall in my office building, my print of the image above just jumped off the wall, narrowly missing beaming me on the head on the way down.

Just another day in the Eraserhood, I guess. Maybe I should have been recording the sounds of this building for my own movie soundtrack all this time…

(via The Beat on Brat)

“I lost the best actress award to Lynn Redgrave, which isawesome!” says Madi Distefano, of her 2004 Barrymore Award nomination for Popsicle’s Departure, 1989. That show was also nominated for outstanding new play at that year’s Barrymores, but got even greater plaudits when it moved to the Edinburgh Fringe: best solo show.

Madi, the founder and artistic director of Brat Productions, described her one-woman show better than I ever could, when we spoke last week: ” Popsicle Departure 1989 is a tall tale shaggy dog monologue about a 19-year-old punk rock chick who lives in a warehouse and has a lame temp job and a crystal meth problem. Her boyfriend is a slacker guitarist South Boston boy. It goes back and forth between the two of them and they’re headed towards collision; she’s planning something, he’s planning something else, and a train wreck kind of thing ensues.”

“It’s beautiful,” says Jess Conda, who’s stage-managed numerous productions of the show. “I’ve done that show with Madi at least five or six times—all the Philly mounts, a run in New York City, the run in Edinburgh that won all the awards, and a run with her in Glascow. I probably have it memorized too.”

Jess, who is now the assistant artistic director of Brat, will be a bit distracted from Madi’s remount ofPopsicle at this year’s Philly Fringe. Paired with Popsicle is Jess’s first original show, Eternal Glamnation, and together, they are known as Brat RockPile. Previews done, they take the stage in full RAWK mode tomorrow, and for he rest of Philly Fringe. Be forewarned: the RockPile description reads, “CAUTION: THESE SHOWS FEATURE SEX, DRUGS, FLESH, STROBE LIGHTS, LOUD ROCK, PROFANITY, AND ALIEN ABDUCTIONS.” And so it goes in the Eraserhood.

Brat RockPile: Popsicle’s Departure, 1989 & Eternal Glamnation continues its run September 17, 19-22, 25 and 26 at Underground Arts, 1200 Callowhill Street. Times vary, $15 to $35 for both shows.

Full story after the jump: two brats are better than one. And GWAR!!!

(photo via 27 by New Paradise Laboratories Tickets in Philadelphia, PA, United States)

In Nirvana, Everything is Fine

On August 7 I cited an advertisement for an ice cream parlor as evidence that. “yes, we are still the town that broke David Lynch. …and don’t you ever presume to think otherwise.” In my defense, it really was an exceptional example of the viral advertisement that succeeds by being so strange that it almost repels, without (hopefully) quite crossing the line and causing true revulsion.

I really should have known better, though. After all the time I have spent involved as a patron, volunteer, and staff member at Live Arts and Philly Fringe, I really should have remembered there were far more deeply weird, deeply thoughtful forces at play in this city than just Little Baby’s Ice Cream.

So yes, we are still the town that broke David Lynch. The name of the force that brought this reality home to me on Saturday night is New Paradise Laboratories. The specific project is called 27.

Imagine the Radiator Lady kicks her way out of her little stage behind the wall, grabs a Stratocaster, drops a pair, and starts wailing Nirvana lyrics in Jim Morrison’s voice. Imagine, in fact, that this new icon actually is Jim Morrison, and that he is joined by Janice Joplin, Amy Winehouse, and the real Curt Cobain — all somehow mysteriously trapped in their own circles within some confusing nether world.

Into the role of the hapless Henry Spencer, substitute an equally hapless 27-year-old woman who isn’t quite sure what just happened, and definitely isn’t ready to face what happens next.

Well, you really just have to see it to believe it. Only one performance remaining, Sun, September 16 2012, 4:00PM – 5:30PM. If you already made it past the age of 27. go see it. You’ll remember how hard it was.

[It looks like Philly isn’t the only city where the lobby is on for an underground park based on abandoned rail infrastructure.]

New Yorkers can get their first peek at the technology required to construct a proposed park in an underground abandoned trolley station. A year ago (almost to the day). the Lowline project teased the imaginations of New Yorkers and dazzled park lovers everywhere by releasing dreamy renderings of a lush park paradise-to-be in a most unlikely place: below ground. And not just below ground, but below Delancey Street, one of the most disparaged and dangerous stretches of asphalt in the whole city for a pleasant pedestrian stroll.

(via 1 | The Lowline, New York’s Revolutionary Underground Park, Says Let There Be Light | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation)

Appeal of digital billboard conversion permit at 1113 Vine St. continued until 2013 | PlanPhilly: Planning Philadelphia’s Future

Appeal of digital billboard conversion permit at 1113 Vine St. continued until 2013 | PlanPhilly: Planning Philadelphia’s Future

(via Spring Garden Street Greenway)

Is this the future of Spring Garden Street? After attending my first meeting of the Callowhill Neighborhood Association, I have to admit I am hopeful.

The Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) is working with many partners, from the City of Philadelphia to every neighborhood group along Spring Garden. But a new Spring Garden Street Greenway will only happen if:

  1. The planning and design process shows we can meet some pretty lofty goals
  2. You stay involved, support our work and help us move it forward!

Philadelphia trade unions that have kept the Goldtex construction site under siege for the last six months agreed to end their protest after Rep. Bob Brady convened talks last week at the Sheet Metal Workers union hall, developer Michael Pestronk confirmed yesterday.

The Goldtex entrance at 12th and Wood Streets was virtually deserted Monday, for the first time since angry union protesters began gathering there in March in an organized effort to block deliveries and prevent Pestronk’s company from converting the 12-story factory building into rental apartments. Pestronk is trying to break with Philadelphia tradition by employing a mix of union and nonunion workers.

According to his account, the unions agreed during Brady’s peace parley Thursday to drop their demand that he use a fully unionized workforce. In exchange for calling off the protest, Pestronk said that his company, Post Brothers, had promised to encourage its subcontractors to include more card-carrying union members in their crews.

(Full story: Brady negotiates deal to stop union protests at Goldtex construction site)