philly

I took a walk across town to take in some culture last Thursday. Above is Mark di Suvero's "Iroquois" sculpture which lies on a patch of green at 24th St and the Parkway. I wasn't crazy about it when I first saw photos of it after it was initially installed. I still didn't like it after driving by it a few times. But after walking right up to it and walking around it for a bit, I like it some. The lines in the sculpture are pretty heavy handed and aggressive.

I continued my stroll to the new Perelman Building which now houses the Philadelphia Museum of Art's prints, photo, fabric and textiles. My first stop was the Alfred Stieglitz show which had roughly 40 prints of his on display. It had some of his earliest photos: shots of traveling and of his family. It had later works: portraits and portraits of Georgia O'Keefe. It had landscapes of the area around his Lake George, NY home. Stieglitz laid the groundwork for the photography I love today. I thought it was a perfectly fitting first photo show for this new addition to the PMA. Oh how my heart would pitter patter if the following photo exhibitions would include Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and Henri Cartier Bresson. Follow that up with the color of William Eggleston and beyond. I first thought that moving the non "classic" art (everything that isn't bronze, oil, charcoal and ink based) to the Perelman was casting it all aside. But now, I see the Perelman as a really great opportunity to let it really shine. On the intro placard of this show, it stated that the PMA has some 29,000 photos in it's collection; that's a lot of material with which to put together some wonderful shows.

Staying on the first floor, I stepped into the sculpture show: "A Conversation in Three Dimensions: Sculpture from the Collections" which started off with a great 9' tall Picasso bronze sculpture "Man with Sheep" (1944). The description stated that it was a statement on WWII with a calm man holding a struggling sheep. It was initially a man holding a bouquet of flowers in the initial etching, but it transformed into a struggling sheep reflecting the struggles of the time in Europe. An essay on the piece here. The sculpture above is titled "Palette with Wings" and is by Anselm Kiefer. It is made of lead. The description calls attention to the improbability of lead wings leading to flight and the wax wings of Icarus. The center of the sculpture is a gigantic painter's palette which has sprouted a gigantic set of ghastly wings, one of which has a tail of sorts which serves as a second anchor point adding to the structural support of the large and heavy sculpture. It's graceful and harsh at the same time. The welds are rough, the ends of the wings frayed. It stands well alone and in the far corner of the room. Apparently, it hasn't been displayed in awhile.

And here's a look at the skylit galleria. To the right is the entrance to the Perelman. The first opening to the left is where the Stieglitz show is. I put up a flickr set of my walk through the new building. The building has some incredible little details all over the place. The stairwell is lovely.

If you don't have any plans on New Year's Eve day, it's the last day the Perelman will be free to the public through a gigantic donation by Wachovia. I have no idea what admission is starting next year or if the Perelman will also by free on Sundays as the PMA main building is.

The NYT review. The WSJ's review. The Inky's Igna Saffron's take. Brad's walkthrough.

The Writers Guild of America strike of 2007-2008 has had its first victory and the first party from the other side to recognize the writers deserve their share is a guy I've liked for a really long time. This NY Times article reports on David Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company, which owns the rights to "The Late Show With David Letterman" and "The Late, Late Show" [translation: CBS does not own the shows], has reached an agreement with the WGA.

"The Late Show" goes back on the air Wednesday night with it's full staff of writers. That will give them some sort of leg up on the competition: Leno and Kimmel. But that's not what really matters. What "The Late Show" did is an important first step in the process of bringing the rest of the shows back on the air and getting the writers what they deserve. Letterman's a bit of a loose cannon. He's not exactly fond of his management. His last few years on NBC were, um, ugly to say the least. It was sort of like Howard Stern's deteriorating relationship with his people. While this agreement is a positive gesture towards the WGA, it's a huge fuck you middle finger to CBS.

And then there's the RIAA. The fuckers who are, according to this WaPo article, saying that

"when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Copying a song you bought is "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy,' "
-Sony BMG's chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser

The RIAA must be made up entirely of goat sucking douchebags for some bullshit like that come come out of the mouth of the chief of litigation of one of the largest record companies in the world. This recent statement has lead to a shitload of criticism from all angles. The people will win this fight because the argument the RIAA is making is just too absurd.

But when will the big heavy hitters come out in support of the people getting sued? The millionaires to take on the legal fees. The millionaire artists who are now free from their record label shackles. The titians of industry who can make a difference. I read one blog post calling for Steve Jobs to get off his ass and take a stand. His most popular product relies on people making use of digital music files on portable players transferred via a computer (that's 2 "illegal" copies). That would be nice. I'd cheer his black turtleneck and jeans wearing ass along the way.

Those big names with the most to lose may very well jump on board after the crucial battle is won and will be remembered after the fact as the ones who pushed it all over the top. I hope that they're remembered for getting on board and doing some of the work to get to the summit.

A few interesting sights while I was in NYC this past weekend. Starting with Christmas Trees being sold outside of a Duane Reade around 90th/Broadway. DR is like CVS/Rite Aid.

A really cool interior of a wine store around 90th/Broadway. I didn't catch the name of it. See that wooden "roof"? I guess it's just dead space in between that and the 3rd floor of that building. It was the coolest wine store I've ever been in.

Like many wine stores, the libations were divvy'd up by region. These regions were demarcated with carved wooden signs including the shapes of each region. Classy.

A closeup of one of the nice wall lamps in the wine store.

I spied an OLPC in the wild at a Starbucks around 90th/Broadway. I know that there's at least one floating around in Philly.

This is one of the racks inside Best Cellars in the Upper West Side. After I snapped a few frames, I was told by the British lady behind the counter that the design was patented and that I was not to take any more photos. I smirked. I later said to my brother in law that any designer worth their salt wouldn't need a photo of the place to re-create it. Just about as stupid as not allowing photography on the Ben Franklin Bridge (or any other bridge/tunnel/whathaveyou) for "securty" reasons.

A bunch of light bulbs thumbtacked into the wall of my brother in law's father's house. His dad calls it the Museum of Futility. It's a pretty neat place with tons of junk that I wanted to paw through for hours. To give you some scale, the thin halogen bar bulb at bottom-center is the one that you'd put in one of your standard fire hazard, open top, dimming lamps.

A Stereo Realist camera. This was on a shelf next to the light bulbs in the Museum. What a cool piece of work. It produced a stereo 3D image.

Christmas 2007 was nice. I made the trip back up to NY for a few days and relaxed for a couple days at my sister and brother in law's place and then for a couple nights at my parents' house. I ate a ton of home cooking which was deeelicious. That's the Christmas spread above with my grandma and my uncle. Christmas for my family happens on Christmas Eve as my brother's family celebrates Christmas Day with my sister in law's family.

After dinner, we waited a couple of hours for my dad to get home from work. My nephew got restless and had to whip out his Game Boy Advance to pass the time. My niece was feisty and fickle. All smiles one second and then playfully batting her little paws the next.

I put up a set of shots on flickr here of the night. I hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas, Festivus, Chanukkah…

I joined about 250 Philadelphians at Dilworth Plaza on the west side of City Hall for Homeless Memorial Day. Approximately 70 people who died on the streets in the last year were remembered.

There was a young drum troop playing right when I got there. I didn't catch their name.

Alicia Christian of Dignity Housing with some welcoming remarks.

The colors were posted by the Philadelphia Veterans Multi-Service and Education Center Color Guard. Approximately 25% of Philadelphia's homeless are veterans.

Sam Santiago, of Project H.O.M.E., said some words on homelessness which claims thousands of lives each year. The United States, which is often called the richest/best/most advanced nation in the world, should not have the numbers on the street that it does.

A wiiide shot of the colors in front of City Hall at dusk.

Taps was played, beautifully, during the roll call.

With each name called, a volunteer walked with a placard and formed concentric circles in front of the stage.

Sadly, I think I recognized a handful of names called out. I wasn't on a full name basis with all those I met last year, but some sounded more familiar than I would've liked to have heard called out that night.

As daylight waned and the longest night of the year started, candles of remembrance were lit by all. That's the Masonic Temple in the background.

Lynn Collins, of Project H.O.M.E., performed a praise dance remembering those who died and praising those who made it through and all those who have helped along the way.

Sister Mary Scullion, one of the co-founders of Project H.O.M.E., spoke after the dance starting off the "HEAL" portion of the night. She offered words of inspiration for all those in attendance and for those who have tirelessly been working to keep on doing so. She, along with others, was featured in last month's Philadelphia Magazine's Good. issue.

The Salvation Army was present providing hot coffee to everyone.

I stupidly forgot my notebook on the way out the door so no notes to report. Sorry. But consider the 17 photos above my 17,000 word story. Unfortunately, I didn't see a story in the Inquirer nor the Daily News. But The Next American City was there. A full listing of coverage from across the country as this was a national event can be found here: other coverage.

I'll head over to Arch Street United Methodist Church in the next hour or so to work at the Grace Cafe which I mentioned in this post.

Back in NY for Christmas. I had a long ride up on the Chinatown bus. It took 3 hours instead of the normal 2. I can't get over how loud the drivers are all the time. They squawk away at an incredible decibel level. I was almost halfway to the back of the bus and it was crystal clear. I slept most of the way up through. I woke up just in time for the bus to get off the highway and take one of those long shortcuts to the Holland Tunnel.

Now, I'm sitting in my sister and brother-in-law's apartment typing away while watching Little Miss Sunshine [I love this movie] on HBO HD on their gigantic plasma screen TV. I had a slice and a half of delicious pizza :).

My sister just got a new laptop, a 17" MacBookPro Apparently, her work reimbursed her 60% of the cost - bitchin. She's not the most computer savvy person out there. I spent a few hours upgrading the OS (she had the Leopard DVD, but hadn't installed it as she thought it was already on there), transferring photos and music from her old laptop (the one in the foreground, mine's in the middle) and generally showing her how it worked. She was particularly amazed at Front Row and the remote she didn't know she had. Also on the IT list was moving their wireless router to a higher location (it was almost on the floor); now it's spotty on the other side of their apartment instead of completely dead.

Unfortunately, it's supposed to pour all day Sunday so no walking around town for me. Maybe a trip to Best Buy with my brother-in-law to help him pick out a portable DVD player for himself. If we do go, it'll surely be a madhouse with it being just a few days until Christmas.

I lugged the biggest duffel bag I had up on the bus. I'm only staying a few days, but I had to have enough room for all the presents. Shopping wasn't too bad, it was almost completely stress free actually. I hope everyone likes their presents. I'll find out soon enough.

YouTube link

IN GOD'S NAME, a CBS primetime special produced in association with the acclaimed French filmmakers Jules and Gedeon Naudet ("9/11"), will explore the complex questions of our time through the intimate thoughts and beliefs of 12 of the world's most influential spiritual leaders.

This looks like a very interesting documentary which will ask 12 religious leaders from all around the globe about killing in God's name. Oddly, nobody from South America was in the trailer, I wonder why. It airs Sunday night on CBS at 9p. The trailer states that the 12 leaders have combined, approximately 5 billion followers.

The film is by Gedeon and Jules Naudet, brothers who were filming a documentary on the NYFD when 9/11 happened. They were caught in the middle of it all and each thought the other may have died. As a result of that day, they created this film in search of answers. Primarily, "Where was God that day?"

The big guns in the film in alphabetical order:
• Alexei II, Patriarch of Moscow and head of the Russian Orthodox Church
• Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi), a Hindu spiritual leader
• Pope Benedict XVI, head of the Roman Catholic Church
• The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso), spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists
• Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, a prominent Shi'ite Muslim leader
• Bishop Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and President of the Lutheran World Federation
• Michihisa Kitashirakawa, Jingu Daiguji (High Priest) of the Shinto Grand Shrine of Ise
• Yona Metzger, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel
• Dr. Frank Page, President of the Southern Baptist Convention
• Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, Sheikh of Al-Azhar and a prominent Sunni Muslim leader
• Joginder Singh Vedanti, Jathedar of the Akal Takht, the Sikhs' highest authority
• Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Church of England

via State of the Art

In a couple of hours I'll be heading over to the Arch Street United Methodist Church to start my 4 month shift at Grace Cafe, an overnight homeless shelter. I'll be there every Wednesday night for a few hours serving some grub, talking a little and keeping the peace a bit too. I volunteered the same amount last year and it was a wonderful time. I learned a lot about the city throughout my time downstairs at the church.

I meant to write a big post last year after it was all over, but I got wrapped up in long hours at the day job and I didn't get around to it. So many thoughts running through my head, but one that sticks out is via an email I got from a fellow volunteer and good friend about one guest who died since last year. She was hit by a car. Erika was always cheery bopping around with her headphones on. She was about 19. She caused her share of trouble at the Cafe, but so did most people. She spent a couple weeks in jail, I believe for prostitution. I'm gonna miss her smile this year.

My first night at the Cafe last year I met Ricky. Ricky is deaf and has been on the streets for at least 8 years if I'm remembering his story correctly. He reads lips remarkably well and speaks without too much difficulty. Ricky had just been released from the hospital. He was hit by a cab. The cab sped off. I ran into Ricky a few times on the street after the Cafe closed, but I haven't seen him in a long time. I hope that he's found a stable home. If not, I hope to see his face. I hope that I don't hear a sad story of why Ricky won't be at the Cafe this year.

I know of at least 2 people who got off the streets during my time at the shelter. I know Mike is still living on his own. I hope that Eugene is too.

I have a feeling that most of the people won't remember me, but that's okay, I'll remember them. I'm looking forward to catching up with some people. I'm not sure if the people I worked with at the Cafe last year will be back; I hope so. I hope the stories I hear will be happier than sad.

Tomorrow, there will be a Homeless Memorial Day ceremony at City Hall's Dilworth Plaza (west side). From Philly IMC's Aaron Couch:

Why: Many of you noted this summer when I reported that, after a decrease in the late 90s, homelessness is again on the rise in Philly.

Thursday is a day to reflect on the over 60 persons who died homeless on the streets of this City and recommit ourselves to creating a city where people sleep on the street because they don't have a better place to go.

I'll be there. If you have a sec on your way home after work, the ceremony will be going on until 5.30p.

If anyone's interested in volunteering in any capacity - by no means does it take a weekly commitment to be involved - please contact Rev. Joyce Wilson at the bottom of this page.

Above is a shot of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia's Tree of Knowledge at the Chester County courthouse. To the left of the frame is a nativity scene (minus Baby Jeebus until Christmas) and in front of the courthouse is a 4' tall bronze plaque of the Ten Commandments. You can read about why it's there in this PW cover story by Steven Wells. The photos in the story are taken by yours truly :)
Nikon D200; Tokina 12-24mm f/4 @ 12mm, f/4; 1/10 sec; ISO400; 3600°K; SB800 @ 1/2 power by tree just out of frame with CTO filter.

A closeup of some of the decorations on the Tree of Knowledge. There were all kinds of religion-related laminated book covers adorning the lovely 20'+ tree ranging from the Bible and the Koran to Infidel and Does God Exist. It was a cold night and it only got colder as more people showed up, about 30 in all I'd say.
Nikon D200; Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17mm, f/4; 1/60 sec; ISO200; 3600°K; SB800 on-camera with CTO filter.

And here's Margaret Downey, current President of the FSGP. She's moving on to the Atheist Alliance International next year.
Nikon D200; Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17mm, f/4; 1/60 sec; SB800 + sync cord & diffuser cap held as high as I can get it above my left shoulder.

It's quite an interesting story. I learned quite a bit during my ride to/fro the ceremony at the courthouse with Wells. I know at least one person who's also celebrating the holiday season with a Tree of Knowledge.

Downey and the Tree have received a good amount of attention recently. You can read about it on The Raw Story and watch this YouTube video of her FauxNews appearance the day after the tree went up.

Let me preface anyone watching this video by warning you that this is FauxNews morning TV meaning that the FauxNews hosts are even less informed than the rest of the gang and their FauxPriest (complete with Irish accent) is HI-lariously intolerant of things encroaching on his holy time.

And be sure to check out what I think is a new addition, the Snapshot, this week starring Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. New staff photog Michael Persico is filling in the [literally] big shoes of Jeff Fusco quite nicely. I'm jealous he got to go see the show. I didn't end up going last week as Lady's parents were in town and as the nor'easter rolled into New England, her mom needed me to fill in and take photos of her presentation since her colleague was snowed in.

After three years, I finally got my butt over to Wanamaker's to see their Christmas display. It's quite a sight.

A few more shots in this flickr set.