Philadelphia City Paper, January 22nd, 2015 by Philadelphia City Paper

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#ReclaimMLKPHL postscript // Bell Curve Juniper Commons // ‘Body of an American’ citypaper.net

2 0 1 4 k e y s t o n e p r e s s a w a r d w i n n e r — b e s t b i g w e e k ly i n pa

by a.d. amorosi

Wish Upon a Star Legendary singer Peggy King pLots her comeback at 84.

@citypaper

| January 22 - January 28, 2015 | issue #1514

LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO

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Associate Publisher Jennifer Clark Editor in Chief Lillian Swanson Senior Editor Patrick Rapa Arts & Culture Editor Mikala Jamison Food Editor Caroline Russock Senior Staff Writers Daniel Denvir, Emily Guendelsberger Copy Chief Carolyn Wyman Contributors Sam Adams, Dotun Akintoye, A.D. Amorosi, Rodney Anonymous, Mary Armstrong, Meg Augustin, Bryan Bierman, Shaun Brady, Peter Burwasser, Mark Cofta, Alison Dell, Adam Erace, David Anthony Fox, Caitlin Goodman, K. Ross Hoffman, Jon Hurdle, Deni Kasrel, Alli Katz, Gary M. Kramer, Drew Lazor, Gair â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dev 79â&#x20AC;? Marking, Robert McCormick, Andrew Milner, Annette Monnier, John Morrison, Michael Pelusi, Natalie Pompilio, Sameer Rao, Jim Saksa, Elliott Sharp, Marc Snitzer, Tom Tomorrow, John Vettese, Nikki Volpicelli, Brian Wilensky, Julie Zeglen Editorial Interns Lauren Haber, Ryan Hughes, Owen Lyman-Schmidt, Kelan Lyons, Sam Yeoman Production Director Michael Polimeno Senior Designer Brenna Adams Designer & Social Media Director Jenni Betz Contributing Photographers Jessica Kourkounis, Charles Mostoller, Hillary Petrozziello, Maria Pouchnikova, Neal Santos, Mark Stehle Contributing Illustrators Ryan Casey, Don Haring Jr., Joel Kimmel, Cameron K. Lewis, Thomas Pitilli, Matthew Smith Human Resources Ron Scully (ext. 210) U.S. Circulation Director Joseph Lauletta (ext. 239) Account Managers Colette Alexandre (ext. 250), Nick Cavanaugh (ext. 260), Amanda Gambier (ext. 228), Sharon MacWilliams (ext. 262) Classified Advertising Sales Alexis Pierce (ext. 234) Editor Emeritus Bruce Schimmel 22

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Philadelphia - A new report has just been released which reveals 7 costly mistakes that most homeowners make when selling their home, and a 9 Step System that can help you sell your home fast and for the most amount of money. This industry report shows clearly how the traditional ways of selling homes have become increasingly less and less effective in today's market. The fact of the matter is that fully three quarters of homesellers don't get what they want for their homes and become disillusioned and - worse - financially disadvantaged when they put their homes on the market. As this report uncovers, most homesellers make 7 deadly mistakes that cost them literally thousands of

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J a n u a r y 2 2 - J a n u a r y 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 | C i t y Pa P e r . n e t

Bruce Schimmel founded City Paper in a Germantown storefront in 1981. Local philanthropist Milton L. Rock purchased the paper in 1996 and published it until August 2014 when Metro US became the paperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s third owner. citypaper.net

30 South 15th Street, Fourteenth Floor, Phila., PA 19102. 215-735-8444, Tip Line 215-735-8444 ext. 241, Listings Fax 215-875-1800, Advertising Fax 215-735-8535, Subscriptions 215-735-8444 ext. 235 Philadelphia City Paper is published and distributed every Thursday in Philadelphia, Montgomery, Chester, Bucks & Delaware Counties, in South Jersey and in Northern Delaware. Philadelphia City Paper is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased from our main office at $1 per copy. No person may, without prior written permission from Philadelphia City Paper, take more than one copy of each issue. Pennsylvania law prohibits any person from inserting printed material of any kind into any newspaper without the consent of the owner or publisher. Contents copyright ÂŠ 2015, Philadelphia City Paper. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Philadelphia City Paper assumes no obligation (other than cancellation of charges for actual space occupied) for accidental errors in advertising, but will be glad to furnish a signed letter to the buying public. 55

contents Cover story, see p. 6

Naked City ...................................................................................3 A&E ...............................................................................................10 22

Movies.........................................................................................14 26

Events..........................................................................................16 34

Food ..............................................................................................21 Cover PhotograPh by maria PouChnikova design by brenna adams

naked

the

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thebellcurve

city

CP’s Quality-o-Life-o-Meter

[0]

F ormer Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is still strongly considering running for president, according to his strategist, John Brabender. It was the worst of surnames, it was the best of surnames.

[ - 1]

S ixers teammates and longtime friends Nerlens Noel and Michael Carter-Williams are rumored to be feuding. They deny the rumor, saying that, like most fans, they did not even recognize those names. 22

[ - 2]

Two brothers from Montgomery County are charged with stealing $500,000 worth of sewer grates and selling them for scrap. Do you want an alligator infestation? Because that’s how you get alligator infestations.

[ + 2] Camden begins its year-and-a-half process

of tearing down abandoned houses, which they say are “crime factories.” And there goes Camden’s last thriving industry.

[0]

Philly’s major league bocce program announces plans to play its game at Dilworth Park. OK, but we’re gonna call you a bunch of bro posers unless every team has a 70-year-old guy named Sal on its roster. A TV and dirt-bike riders from Philadel- phia were allegedly part of a group that disrupted traffic in Miami. Serious question: Do you guys make the 19-hour drive down 95 on your little big wheels, or do you ship them?

[ - 1]

The pope’s announced visit for September is disrupting plans for couples who were planning weddings around the same time. “Same-sex weddings I hope,” quips the pope, who’s maybe not as enlightened as we all like to pretend.

[0]

A fter two years of planning, the giant $9.5 million digital billboard on the Lit Brothers building at Seventh and Market is activated. “And I think it really classes up the joint,” says local pigeon. “By the way, I eat garbage and shit where I sleep.”

This week’s total: -2 | The year so far: +6

Takin’ iT To The sTreeTs: on Martin Luther king Day, mass protest was on the agenda as well as the traditional day of service. hillary petrozziello

[ opinion ]

DemanDing the Dream The movement took a big step in reclaiming the image of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from a Hallmark stupor. By Daniel Denvir

onday’s mass protests helped restore the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. to his militant roots and away from an annual holiday that for many had become a threeday weekend brought to you by a sepia-toned and content-bereft “dream.” King, the Black Lives Matter movement reminds us, did not become a polarizing icon because he picked up litter or painted hallways (all laudable activities), but because he acted forcefully against segregation, economic inequality and the war in Vietnam. Protesters began their rally at the headquarters of Philadelphia’s beleaguered School District calling for fair school funding, real police oversight, an end to stop-and-frisk and for raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Students, ministers, imams, maintenance men, teachers and postal workers filled Broad Street with signs calling for labor rights and protesting police violence. One lawyer held a sign reading “Indict the system;” her colleague’s, proclaiming “The system is guilty,” optimistically prejudged the outcome. It’s not so much a matter that King left “unfinished business” but that in many ways, for many Black americans stuck on the economic margins, things have arguably gotten worse. a Black

child inspired by Barack Obama is perhaps more likely than ever to dream of becoming the president of a country that will systemically impel him toward prison from day one. On Friday, the uCLa Civil rights Project found that the number of “intensely segregated schools” in Pennsylvania, “where over 90 percent of students are minorities, have more than doubled in the past two decades.” It is a form of “double segregation” — 85 percent of students attending those racially segregated schools are poor. Former Gov. Tom Corbett’s massive budget cuts, alongside unfettered charter school expansion, no doubt pushed schools into crisis. But the basic problem is much deeper. Despite the pervasive talk that american public education is in crisis, the truth is that rich and middle-class districts often excel while poor and downwardly mobile districts everywhere have long struggled to deliver even a secondclass education. anger at Corbett over this issue no doubt played a role in his defeat last november. But that anger has not yet been sufficiently organized, as the city’s dismal voter turnout makes clear. now, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf must deal with republican legislators, hostile to raising taxes on the rich and on natural gas companies, who are energized by expanded majorities and as indifferent to the

Diverse faCes of the MarCh at citypaper.net/ blogs

>>> continued on page 4

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| P h i l a d e l P h i a C i t y Pa P e r |

HILLARy PETROzzIELLO

arents of 17 percent of all students at Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences have opted their children out of controversial standardized tests, according to a statement from teacher and parent activists. In recent years, tests like the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) have played an increasingly large role in judging not only student academic achievement but also whether teachers and schools have made the grade — or are deemed failures. “It makes the children very nervous and it doesn’t assess their intellectual ability,” says Heidey Contrera, the mother of eighth grader natalie Contrera. Her daughter is still working to master the English language after moving from the Dominican Republic in 2011. In Philadelphia and throughout the country, parents and teachers have complained that standardized testing has dominated too much of the curriculum, squeezing out time for non-tested subjects like art, music and civics. But Amy Roat, a Feltonville teacher and Caucus of Working Educators leader, says that parents are not being informed of their options. “It is important for parents in Pennsylvania and Feltonville to know they have a RIGHT to opt-out their child from standardized tests,” she writes in an email to City Paper. “This information is not welldisseminated. Opt-out is an important action for parents to consider, especially if their child has an IEP [Individualized Education Program] or they are an ESOL [English for Speakers of Other Languages] student.” Roat says that 90 parents at the middle school have signed letters affirming that standardized testing is against their “religious and/or philosophical beliefs” and that they were opting out of it. As of press time, district spokesperson Fernando Gallard says that Feltonville’s principal has not yet received any letters, but he did relay information that a “staff member” may be circulating letters, particularly among ESOL and special education students, urging them to opt out. Gallard says that might be a problem, although he is not sure if it would violate any District rules. (daniel.denvir@citypaper.net)

E M I Ly G u E n D E L S B E R G E R

By Daniel Denvir

HILLARy PETROzzIELLO

a challenge to testing

[ the naked city ]

E M I Ly G u E n D E L S B E R G E R

[ schools ]

✚ Demanding the Dream <<< continued from page 3

plight of Philly students as ever. Monday’s protest might sow the seeds of a movement that could remake school funding into a pressing moral question instead of a matter of counting Republican and Democratic votes in Harrisburg. Legislators opposed to funding education might find opposition less tenable if their offices are occupied by students, parents, teachers and religious leaders. Only a movement that is larger and more militant than what we have witnessed over the past four years will save Philly public schools. That the protest yesterday fell far short of the 10,000-person turnout that organizers had predicted shows that city remains fragmented and largely unorganized — a lot of on-the-ground work remains to be done. “One day the South will recognize its real heroes,” King wrote in 1963 while locked up in a Birmingham jail, including “the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience’ sake.” More might now be willing to go to jail for justice. But far too many are already imprisoned in what has over the last three decades become the largest prison system on earth. The very same government that so profoundly fails students is more than happy to incarcerate: More than 2.2 million Americans were behind bars as of 2013, and nearly seven million under some form of corrections control. “If current trends continue, one of every three black American males born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can one of every six Latino males — compared to one of every 17 white males,” the Sentencing Project found in 2013. The evils that hundreds of thousands protested during the civil

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rights era — economic marginalization, segregation and war — remain the watchwords of American public policy. Money is redistributed from workers to their bosses, the Black and Latino poor are hyper-segregated in ghettos and taxpayer dollars are diverted away from health or education to the military. A prison state the size and scope of which King could never have imagined has been erected to warehouse the refuse of a system that has proven adaptable and resilient. Detractors who say that Black Lives Matter lacks focus should consider the civil rights movement’s broad demand for jobs, freedom and peace. Today’s movement has expanded its reach and taken a huge step in ensuring its longevity in reclaiming King from his posthumous Hallmark stupor. Philly activists will win if they, like King and our own militant hell-raiser, Cecil B. Moore, grow their numbers and refuse to budge. Monday might be the first Martin Luther King Day of many to follow that goes beyond a day of service or leisure. (daniel.denvir@citypaper.net,@DanielDenvir)

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THE QUEEN: Personal tragedy chased hit-making torch singer Peggy King from the spotlight 13 years ago. Now with Philly’s All-Star Jazz Trio behind her, she’s back to belting it out.

Wish Upon a Star LEGENDARY SINGER PEGGY KING PLOTS HER COMEBACK AT 84. 6 | P H I L A D E L P H I A C I T Y PA P E R |

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BY A.D. AMOROSI

PHOTO BY MARIA POUCHNIKOVA

On Friday nights, on the second floor of Chestnut Street’s Square on Square, some traditions are observed and some are ignored. During its ongoing residence there, Philadelphia’s All-Star Jazz Trio — pianist Andy Kahn, bassist Bruce Kaminsky and drummer Bruce Klauber — tend to the classic union of Chinese food and live jazz. These Philly cats tuck into jazz standards like champs, with verve, innovation and ease. They’re diamond cutters, but they don’t take themselves too seriously. Each Square gig starts with the sounding of a gong. “Hey, it’s a Chinese restaurant,” says Kahn smiling. After an instrumental intro, the pianist introduces a “surprise guest,” though her presence has become a regular thing on these nights. Long-retired vocal legend Peggy King, 84, enters and sits before the trio. Handsomely dressed in black, with an expensive red silk scarf around her neck and a well-coiffed mop of strawberry blond hair framing her face, she sings “While We’re Young” in the same sweet, soft alto that made her famous as “pretty, perky Peggy King” — the toast of 1950s television, stage and album sides. “Only now,” she’ll say later, “I sound like a woman, not so much that little girl.” Unlike the old days, when talented players were often swapped in and out of the shadows of the singing stars, this band is not a backing unit. All-Star Jazz Trio is very much King’s full-time collaborative equal. “We are a foursome,” she says of her partners, after they’ve played an inventively subtle and brisk rhumba below her dulcet tones. That’s where tradition goes out the win-

dow. It’s a gently improvisational dance when King sings with the All-Star Trio. “Nice way of putting it,” Klauber says after the set. “Though we take a backseat to Peggy when we’re accompanying her, as any professionals would, we do not lose our identity musically or personally throughout our program.” During their playful set — when the boys aren’t mugging and she isn’t telling stories about being one of the last contract players at MGM film studios and dissing Columbia Records’ onetime boss Mitch Miller — King and the trio perform an angularly vampy “Born to Be Blue” and a noir-jazzy “Cry Me a River” with supple strength and youthful vigor. “Though all of us ham it up, individually and collectively, we still make some damn good music,” says Klauber. Like Tony Bennett, she’s one of the last of the Great American Songbook standard-bearers — a saloon singer without the booze, a torch song traditionalist with a high flame underneath. In her day, King was a hit-making A-list performer and a household name. “I didn’t think I’d ever do this again with any regularity,” says King. Right now her professional dance card is booked: She’s working on her first album since 1985, gearing up for a show at the Sellersville Theater (her biggest gig since meeting up with the All-Star Trio in 2013) and hyping a recently released compilation of past hits called Make Yourself Comfortable (Jasmine). You can call it a comeback. King gave singing a rest after a pair of heavy heartaches: the 1994 death of her beloved husband, Samuel Rudofker (the philanthropist/chairman of Philadelphia formal wear clothier After Six), and the 2000 suicide of her firstborn, Jonathan. “I’m not a woman to burden others with

my problems, but these things took a long time to move past. That pain will never leave. But, now that I’m here with these guys in the trio, I’ll never stop singing.”

eggy King has always thought of herself as lucky, even if life hasn’t been as easy as one would imagine for someone so pretty and perky. “No matter what, I’m the luckiest girl In the world. I had a very, very, very lovely life, in opposition to a very difficult early life.” King grew up poor in Greensburg in western Pennsylvania — “abject poverty, hungry, cold” — in a broom-closet apartment without a bathroom. “I didn’t have one until I sang professionally and hit the road,” she says. “My big dream was to buy my parents a house with a bathroom.” She brings up a subject she’s rarely discussed: Not only did her mother and aunts grow up in an orphanage, but King was herself adopted within her family. “My mother Margaret’s baby sister, my Aunt Gladys, got pregnant as soon as she got out of the orphanage. No one told her how not to. Girls used to think that they were bleeding to death when they had their periods. They knew nothing about sex.” Rather than put the baby up for adoption, young marrieds Margaret and Floyd King adopted Peggy. “I did come to realize — and early, as I started singing at age 4 — that I had my birth mother Aunt Gladys’ voice, a sweet and powerful one at that.” King tells a humorous story about when her dad was a volunteer fireman and the department held a benefit. “I wandered out from the kitchen and started singing ‘Oh Johnny’ with the little orchestra. My mom told me that I was singing ‘with gestures,’” she laughs. “I was swinging

my hips. The audience was excited. I connected with that.” The three Kings moved to the Cleveland, Ohio area when Peggy was 10, and the pre-teen took advantage of her musical self-awareness. She acted in every theater musical in high school and by age 17 was singing on the radio by day and at the Cleveland Hotel nightclub by night. In 1950, she was discovered by renowned big band boss Charlie Spivak (she later also sang withRalph Flanagan and his band), who hired King away from her first steady jobs. “The money part was scary, losing that revenue, and my parents were terrified that their little girl was touring with 20 men in a bus.” Things became a little more stable when King auditioned for, and won, a spot singing for jazz great Mel Tormé, who was starting his own television show on CBS, one of the first live and in-color programs. The Red Norvo Trio and comedienne Kaye Ballard were among its stars. “I think I got it because I was petite and Mel was just 5’4”,” she says giggling. The Mel Tormé Show only lasted nine months — it was a ratings disaster, as the CBS color system was not viewable on standard black-and-white sets — but King’s profile was nonetheless boosted, and she began a relationship with topnotch New York City nightclubs such as the Blue Angel. That’s where she met legendary MGM musical producer (Singin’ in the Rain, Gigi) Arthur Freed. “He was a big weird man, but he offered me a film contract and said I could be another Judy Garland, so …” So, off she went to Hollywood in 1952. Things didn’t quite work out with Freed (“I was expected to come to his office every day at 5 p.m. and refused. I wasn’t going

to sleep with him.”) but, under contract at the end of the studio system, King still wound up in MGM’s The Bad and the Beautiful. She befriended Debbie Reynolds and Bing Crosby. Crosby helped her land another major television gig, on The George Gobel Show, in 1955. “I’m certain it was Bing who put me in front of Gobel,” she says. “Bing and Lou Costello [of the Abbott & Costello comedy team, who put King in one of their movies] watched over me.” During her time on The George Gobel Show, she made the cover of TV Guide and was nominated for an Emmy. Right before the Gobel hit though, there was Mitch Miller — the head of Columbia Records — who, after hearing King do a series of radio jingles, including a thenfamous Hunt’s Tomato Sauce ad, signed her to a contract. For the uninitiated, Miller is known for doing as much bad as good for music, promoting white bread singers like Frankie Laine and belittling stars like Frank Sinatra by making them do novelty songs and hokey stuff, like sing with barking dogs. King agrees that “Mitch brought a lot of junk to the biz.” King recounts her own Mitch Miller horror story on stage at Square on Square: Songwriter Arthur Hamilton tapped King to sing his smoky standard “Cry Me a River,” but Miller said no, and all over one word. “Mitch told me that the word ‘plebeian’ would never be on any Columbia label product and refused to let me record it.” Since then, Julie London, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand and Joe Cocker have each recorded memorable versions of “Cry Me a River.” Luckily, King had best-selling albums for the label, such as 1955’s Girl Meets • CONTINUED ON P. 8

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Boy and 1956’s Wish Upon a Star, and was named “Best New Singer” of 1955-56 by both Billboard and DownBeat. “The way she interprets a song, telling a story, personalizing each song. Those albums are classic,” says Mary Ellen Desmond, Philadelphia jazz chanteuse and University of the Arts School of Music professor who’ll host a workshop with King and the All-Star Trio in February. “I love her phrasing and delivery.” In the late 1950s, life was good for King the songbird. Yet, as a woman plugging away since her teens, bouncing between gigs and coasts, she found that stardom was losing its luster. “I was starting to realize I didn’t have a life. I thought maybe I should get one. Then I met Sam.” “Sam” was Sam Rudofker, the Philadelphia men’s formal wear magnate of After Six, who happened to be at Mr. Kelly’s in Chicago during King’s jazz dates there in 1960. By then, King’s contract with Columbia had ended and she was able to swing as she did in the past, and do the subtly sultrier material she couldn’t under Miller’s control. (She wasn’t averse to jazzier, saucier stuff; check out 1959’s Lazy Afternoon and 2009’s The Navy Swings, a collection of tracks she recorded in the late ’50s with then-paramour André Previn.) “I did something when I met Sam I never did before — asked him if there was anything special that he wanted to hear.” It was love at first sight. After their first date, King knew she was going to quit the business and marry him. She did so in 1961, moved to Philly, and became the toast of local social circles with her charitable singing gigs for the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Philadelphia Boys Choir, Settlement Music School and such. The couple had two children — a son,

Jonathan, a daughter, Suzy — and all-butadopted the Boys Choir’s Justin Hopkins, an African-American youth whose vocal largesse and winning ways wowed King. She produced industrial films and commercials for her husband’s company.

“

’d known of Peggy as far back as the 1960s, as a distant cousin of mine married into her husband Sam’s family,” says Klauber. He and Kahn — who’ve known each other since they were 9 (“We were brazen little fellows,” says Kahn) — co-founded the All-Star Jazz Trio in 1972. Klauber remembers that King did several benefits for the now-shuttered Philly-based Combs College, where he was secretary of the board of trustees, “right around the time she had that comeback in the ’80s.” King returned to performing (including a guest appearance with Peter Nero’s Philadelphia Pops in 1983) and recording with two albums produced by her husband, 1984’s Oh, What a Memory We Made and 1985’s Peggy King Sings Jerome Kern. “Such a lovely life, you know,” she says quietly. Still, she nearly lost her daughter to a serious car accident. Her husband died in 1994. And her son committed suicide in 2000, after a long, difficult battle with drugs and depression. That’s pretty much when the singing stopped. “[Jonathan] was my first, you know, so I was gone for two years after that. I just ate, slept and tried to stay my daughter’s mother. I was in a stupor. It was the only time in my life that I couldn’t sing. I had no voice.” Her solace and comfort, she recalls, came from her protégé, opera star Hopkins. “Peggy selected him from over 50 boys in the choir when he was 8, and mentored him personally,” says Kahn. “Peggy

claims she would never have been able to continue had Justin not moved in with her during the initial mourning period.” Still, for 13 years, King didn’t sing in public.

t wasn’t until King met her next “adopted sons” in the trio, that she found her voice again. The AllStar Jazz Trio was staging its own “comeback,” says Klauber, when they produced a fundraiser for the nonprofit Musicopia at the Ethical Society in June 2013. “I’d been friends with area PR guy Anthony DiFlorio III — Peggy’s archivist — for years and asked if he could bring Peggy to our show.” When Klauber introduced King in the Ethical Society audience, the place went nuts, and she spent a full hour after the show posing for pictures and signing autographs. “This could have been out of some Grade-B movie,” notes Klauber. Kahn recalls King then directed her attention to him, saying she hadn’t heard anyone play the piano that well since she was engaged to André Previn, adding that “she ‘dodged THAT bullet!’” laughs Kahn. “Then she asked us if we’d consider bringing her out of retirement to do a show together.” Kahn brought her into his Rittenhouse Square home studio and came to the conclusion that even after a decade-plus away from music, “she could sing her ass off.”

hat was the beginning of what King terms “a four-way love affair.” Something just clicked, that night for her, and kept clicking as she performed a quartet show with the trio at the Ethical Society that December, a small Chris’ Jazz Café gig in

2014 and as she guests at the Trio’s semiweekly Square on Square residency. And now, there’s the Sellersville show and a new album on the way. Kahn recalls that first phone call, when King asked him, “How do you know I can still sing?” He replied that she had a resonant purity and a distinct clarity in her speaking voice. “It’s gentle, sweet, not hoarse or guttural in any way, something which could easily have occurred naturally to a woman of her age, especially since she hadn’t been rehearsing or singing round the house — both of which she insisted she said she hadn’t done in years,” Kahn says. When it comes to the music, there’s no hand-holding involved. “It took time to build up complete musical trust in terms of knowing that we’ll always be there for her harmonically and rhythmically,” says Klauber, “but she got jazzier as time went on, and the musical chances she takes — because of this trust — are just astounding.” King laughs about having come to the boys in the band with over 40 songs they never played: jazz, pop and show-tune classics that “we own as soon as we perform.” WRTI’s J. Michael Harrison has their salty, post-bop take on “Let’s Fall in Love” in regular rotation. “That’s sweet, since that used to be my big audition song,” she says. “You have to take advantage of every opportunity as soon as you get it, especially now as there’s less time than more. I’ve been ready for this since I could walk and talk.” (a_amorosi@citypaper.net) ✚ Peggy King and the All-Star Jazz Trio perform, Sun., Feb. 1, 2 p.m., $25-$39.50, Sellersville Theater 1894, 24 W. Temple Ave., Sellersville, Pa., 215-257-5808, st94.com.

IT WAS THE ONLY TIME IN MY LIFE THAT I COULDN’T SING. I had no voice. 8 | P H I L A D E L P H I A C I T Y PA P E R |

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a&e

artsmusicmoviesmayhem

soundadvice By Shaun Brady

GuItar HeroIsM “She thought I was gonna be a rock ’n’ roll player.” 55

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➤ Monnette Sudler’S Mother didn’t

always understand her daughter’s passion for the guitar. A gifted classical singer who performed in church, she was suspicious of any music that involved an electric guitar. “My mother didn’t under stand all the capabilities and diversity of guitar music,” Sudler recalls. “As a result, she stunted my growth by hiding the guitar from me because she thought I was gonna be a rock ’n’ roll player.” Though her mom eventually came around, Sud ler’s annual Philadelphia Guitar Summit was at least in part inspired to rebuke that limited concep tion of the instrument’s wideranging potential. In past years Sudler has invited everyone from fusion pioneer Larry Coryell to jazz great Pat Martino, prog metal virtuoso Tosin Abasi and rootsy blues duo Mulebone, to her yearly sixstring gathering at Montgomery County Community College. This weekend’s sixth installment will be headlined by the immensely gifted Beninborn jazz guitarist Lionel Loueke, who has worked with jazz giants Terence Blanchard and Herbie Hancock among others, and incorporates African influences into his playing and singing. Loueke and Sudler will also lead a workshop on “African and Blues Accents.” Also on the bill will be veteran Philly jazz guitar ist Jimmy Bruno and classical guitarist Nikolay Galvishin. Sudler herself will front a multicultural band assembled for the occasion, the PGS World Music Ensemble, which includes Liberian vocalist Princess Fatu Gayflor, percussionist Leonard “Doc” Gibbs, drummer Jerry Blamoh Doe and pedal steel guitarist Dave Doggett. As part of her set, Sudler will be showcasing her flamenco playing for the first time — the latest addition to an arsenal that long ago silenced her mother’s fears. Sudler is equally well versed in jazz and blues playing and supplements her virtuosic and soulful axe work by occasionally switching to bass, percussion or vocals. (@ShaunDBrady)

BEHIND THE PHOTO: (L-R) “Superb actors” Harry Smith and Ian Merrill Peakes speak as each other, overlap lines and assume other roles in The Body of an American.

✚ Sat., Jan. 24, workshop 5 p.m., free; concert 8 p.m.,

$28; Science Center Theater, Montgomery County Community College, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell, Pa., 215-641-6300, mc3.edu/livelyarts. 10 | P h i l a d e l P h i a C i t y Pa P e r |

aleXander iZiliaeV

curtaincall By Mark Cofta

MIND over BoDy ➤ In 1993, Canadian photojournalist Paul Watson took his Pulitzer

Prize-winning photo of a dead american soldier dragged through Mogadishu’s streets. after writer Dan O’Brien heard Watson on nPr’s Fresh Air in 2007, O’Brien wrote The Body of an American. The play’s not about the photo — it receives only a few minutes’ consideration — or about Watson’s book, Where War Lives, which receives only passing mention. O’Brien chose to write about he and Watson’s oddly tentative friendship, which developed in fits and starts primarily through email until they finally met in the arctic Circle. This winner of the 2014 Horton Foote Prize for Outstanding new american Play and other honors lurches and stumbles in director Michael John Garces’ production. Superb actors Ian Merrill Peakes, as Watson, and Harry Smith, as O’Brien, do a great job of making their email exchanges interesting, sitting on a small platform in front of large projection screens showing pixilated maps, generic photos and — too briefly — Watson’s actual work and story specifics. They often overlap lines, speak as each other and assume other roles. We’re told “This Is True” (in big projected letters) and often reminded that Watson feels haunted by that dead soldier, William

J a n u a r y 2 2 - J a n u a r y 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 | C i t y Pa P e r . n e t

David Cleveland; Watson heard him say, “If you do this, I will own you forever” as he took the photo. We’re told about propaganda’s power, how if we kept all the other events but removed Watson’s photo all would have unfolded differently. But rather than actually exploring these events and issues, we hear the correspondence of two circumspect, distant, depressed guys. It’s fair to wonder why this is a play. When we’re treated to quick impressions of all the people on a plane and a list of all the TV shows in the arctic, all while approaching two hours without intermission, the question becomes urgent. So why is this a play? Because O’Brien wants it to be. Watson avoids him, but O’Brien keeps nagging. Gee, will it ever be finished? It’s hardly a dramatic question for us watching. “I don’t know if this play is going to be any good,” he confesses. Hey, right back at ya. The few minutes when we see Watson deal with the enormity of his photo’s effect — not just on american policy and world events, but on Cleveland’s family, revealed in a few brief yet devastating scenes — almost redeem the evening. now, there’s a play! If only O’Brien had dared a plunge into Watson’s psyche, rather than using his unique and terrible experiences as a framing device for O’Brien’s own self-absorption. (m_cofta@citypaper.net)

Watson feels haunted by that dead soldier.

✚ Through Feb. 1, $25, Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St., 215-546-7824, wilmatheater.org.

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THE STAKES ARE HIGH â&#x20AC;&#x153;A V I B R A N T C R I M E S T O R Y...

CRACKLING-TAUT-OPERATIC.

IT CAPTURES US AND DOESNâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T LET GO.â&#x20AC;?

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BEST FILM OF THE YEAR

BEST ACTOR OSCAR ISAAC

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EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT

STARTS FRIDAY, JANUARY 23

14 | P h i l a d e l P h i a C i t y Pa P e r |

J a n u a r y 2 2 - J a n u a r y 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 | C i t y Pa P e r . n e t

A Most Violent Year

: New A most violeNt yeAr | B you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need to decide whether J.C. Chandorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s A Most Violent Year is a masterpiece: The movie is happy to tell you itself. Like James Gray, Chandor shoots in a shadow-flecked style that might be called mid-â&#x20AC;&#x2122;70s masterwork, but he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t invest it with his own particular understanding of the mode. In spite of cinematographer Bradford youngâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ace Gordon Willis impression, the movie feels as safe as its ambitious heating-oil businessman hero (Oscar Isaac) is reckless. (That preciousness extends to the title, which comes from the fact that 1981, when the movie was set, was the most violent year in new york Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history. The indefinite article adds a touch of the crooked pinky.) That said, A Most Violent Year is plenty enjoyable in more modest ways, as a master-riff rather than a masterpiece. Isaac has his Pacino down pat, and the evocation of the then-undesirable island of Manhattan mixes the proper degrees of disgust and nostalgia. The most canny inversion is envisioning Jessica Chastain, Isaacâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Chanel-draped wife, as the Sonny to his Michael Corleone, rather than his Kay. The daughter of a bona fide gangster, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a loaded gun waiting to go off, practically flicking her cigarette ash in detective David Oyelowoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s face as he searches their house for cooked books and drawling, â&#x20AC;&#x153;This was very disrespectful.â&#x20AC;? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the little touches rather than the drive towards big statements that make Most Violent worth watching. at times you feel youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been here before, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s never a trial to go back.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Sam Adams (wide release)

still AliCe |C+ â&#x20AC;&#x153;I feel like my fucking brain is dying,â&#x20AC;? laments Julianne

Mooreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s linguistics professor, stricken with a rare form of early-onset alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. at some point in richard Glatzer and Wash Westmorelandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s movie, you will feel similarly. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not much to fault in Mooreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performance of a woman whose intellect is gradually fading like chalk in a rainstorm, but Glatzer and Westmoreland are stolid-atbest filmmakers and far worse writers; the closing scene in which one character asks another â&#x20AC;&#x153;Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s it about?â&#x20AC;? may be the clumsiest in the history of recorded drama. alec Baldwin has the thankless and ill-defined role of Mooreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s husband, a high-powered doctor who battens down the hatches rather than facing his wifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s deterioration, but Kristen Stewart invests the part of her youngest daughter with more feeling than it deserves. (With this and Clouds of Sils Maria, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s giving some of her best performances playing not-so-great actresses.) In its most poignant moments, Still Alice hands off the emotional heavy lifting to quotations from Elizabeth Browning and Angels in America, betraying a lack of confidence in Glatzer and Westmorelandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skill to manufacture their own drama that sadly proves entirely well-founded.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;SA (wide release)

: CoNtiNuiNg AmeriCAN sNiper | C Especially in the wake of his unforgettable appearance at the 2012 republican national Convention, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s near impossible to approach a Clint Eastwood movie about the Iraq war without the Hollywood iconâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s politics in mind. But Eastwood the filmmaker has never been one to argue with empty chairs, and in its own narrowly focused way,

American Sniper is the latest in a long line of films in which Eastwood has wrestled with the reality of good but violent men. A bulked-up Bradley Cooper stars as real-life Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who chalked up the most confirmed kills of any sniper in U.S. history during four tours of Iraq. Whether saving his kid brother from schoolyard bullies or enlisting in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Kyle is depicted as having a protective instinct, drilled into him by his no-nonsense father. Through most of the war, his absolute God-and-country confidence feels alien to a war that in reality has offered little in the way of moral certainty. Whether or not Eastwood shares that confidence, he offers little in the tense battle scenes to contradict it; even when Kyle trains his sights on women and children, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no ambiguity as to who are the bad guys in this picture. The directorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interest isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t in questioning the war effort, but in exploring its effect on the men tasked with carrying it out. The film splits its focus between Kyleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experiences in Iraq and his increasing alienation at home, where PTSD takes its toll on his health and his family. For all its valorization of the troops â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and make no mistake, the filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s depiction of the efficiency and camaraderie of soldiers is as nuance-free as a John Wayne flag-raiser, despite some of Kyleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more inflammatory statements â&#x20AC;&#x201D; American Sniper finds the adjustment from battlefield to home front impossibly daunting to navigate. Eastwood himself shares the same difficulty; while many of the battle sequences, particularly a vivid, almost abstract, attack during a sandstorm, are among the directorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best work in years, the repetitive and trite scenes between Cooper and Sienna Miller as Kyleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife quickly grow tiresome, as if Clint is as eager as his subject to get back to the action.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Shaun Brady (wide release)

SELMA | B+ The first-ever theatrical feature about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is not a birth-to-death biopic, but a dissection of a meticulous feat that's never quite earned the historical enshrinement it deserves. In exploring the marches in Alabama â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which took place after the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Nobel Peace Prize, the March on Washington and â&#x20AC;&#x153;I Have a Dreamâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Ava DuVernay imbues King's legacy with newfound nuance, highlighting his skill as a strategist over the public presence that's made him a legend. That's not to say David Oyelowo doesn't crush this

career-defining role â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he nails King's oratory with eerie, goosebump-inducing power â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but it's the machinations of protest, and not the protest itself, that prove most fascinating. Seeking to empower disenfranchised black citizens in the deep South, King called his Southern Christian Leadership Conference into action in 1965, with plans on marching from Selma to Montgomery in support of constitutional voting rights. Granting us a seat at the planning table, DuVernay explores how the events were as tactical as they were political or spiritual, showcasing how King played non-violence against the short fuse of the law to his greatest media-aided advantage. Selma's most noticeable shortcoming, controversial portrayal of LBJ (Tom Wilkinson) be damned, is the lack of development of its secondary characters, all of whom were invaluable to the victory. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Drew Lazor (wide release)

SPARE PARTS | BWhile the profile of Selma has been boosted by the â&#x20AC;&#x153;divine timingâ&#x20AC;? of its release (Oprahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s words), a much smaller movie has also found its vein along the sociopolitical zeitgeist. It wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t win any awards, inspire any lofty op-eds or birth any red-carpet stars, but Spare Parts tells a story bigger than the creative sacrifices required to spread it. A 2005 Wired article by Joshua Davis uncovered events too improbable to be fake: Four Arizona teenagers, all of them undocumented immigrants, rode a tiny amount of cash and a ton of ingenuity into a victory over top-tier universities in an underwater robotics competition. While it serves as the head and the heart, the earnest dynamic of the group â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the born leader (Carlos PenaVega), the gear head (JosĂŠ JuliĂĄn), the genius (David Del Rio), the muscle (J.R. Villarreal) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; comes off war-movie predictable. And director Sean McNamara, whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s made his bones on the Disney Channel circuit, kiddifies his moves, pumping air into proceedings that are too often dark and desperate. But whatever compromises were required to get these kids on the big screen â&#x20AC;&#x201D; lumping the clubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s two advisors into one character, played by a marketable Latino star like George Lopez; painful product placement, shoveling praise on a certain fast-food chain known for targeting minorities â&#x20AC;&#x201D; were worth it overall. As we sprint toward an election year, everyone will be talking about immigration, and stories like this help us remember that when weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re arguing about the issue, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re arguing about real people.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;DL (wide release)

: REPERToRy fiLM THE CoLoNiAL THEATRE 227 Bridge St., Phoenixville, 610-9171228, thecolonialtheatre.com. Looney Tunes (U.S., 60 min.): A collection of classic â&#x20AC;&#x2122;toons from the Warner Brothers vaults. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all, folks. Sat., Jan. 24, 2 p.m., $5. Vincent and Theo (1990, U.K., 138 min.): Robert Altman biopic chronicling the relationship between Vincent van Gogh (Tim Roth) and his art-dealing brother (Paul Rhys). Sun., Jan. 25, 2 p.m., $9.

CoUNTy THEATER 20 E. State St., Doylestown, 215-3481878, countytheater.org. The Lego Movie (2014, U.S., 100 min.): Will Arnett has earned his rightful place in the â&#x20AC;&#x153;who was the best Batman?â&#x20AC;? discussion. Sat., Jan. 24, 10:30 a.m., $4.

fREE LiBRARy, CHESTNUT HiLL BRANCH 8711 Germantown Ave., 215-6859290, freelibrary.org. Death on the Railroad (2013, U.S., 60 min.): Part of PBSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Secrets of the Dead series, this documentary examines the suspicious deaths of 57 Irish rail workers as they laid tracks in West Chester in 1832. Followed by a discussion led by Bill Watson, who first uncovered the mystery. Wed., Jan. 28, 7:30 p.m., free.

iNTERNATioNAL HoUSE 3701 Chestnut St., 215-387-5125, ihousephilly.org. The Ruling Class (1972, U.K., 154 min.): Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the notoriously absurd, darkly comic, societyskewering quasi-musical you never knew you needed starring Peter Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Toole. Thu., Jan. 22, 7 p.m., $9. Corruption of the Damned (1965, U.S., 55 min.), Eclipse of the Sun Virgin (1967, U.S., 15 min.), and Knocturne (1968, U.S., 10 min.): A triple-title celebration of the prolific underground filmmaker George Kuchar. Hosted by Anthology Film Archives curator Andrew Lampert, who recently edited The George Kuchar Reader. Fri., Jan. 23, 7 p.m., $9. The Iron Giant (1999, U.S., 86 min.): Held the â&#x20AC;&#x153;saddest robot movieâ&#x20AC;? title for years, but that was before the Transformers that has Mark Wahlberg as an engineering genius came out. Sat., Jan. 24, 2 p.m., $5. Stray Dogs (2013, Taiwan/France, 138 min.): The latest masterpiece from the beloved Malaysian-Chinese director Tsai Ming-liang (Vive Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Amour), one of those guys you pretend to know about when talking to your one film-school friend. Sat., Jan. 24, 7 p.m., $9. Rebel (2013, U.S., 75 min.): This historical doc tells of the mysterious Loreta Velazquez,

who fought in live combat in the Civil War and ended up spying for the Union. Director MarĂa Agui Carter will be in attendance. Tue., Jan. 27, 7 p.m., $5-$10.

NATioNAL LiBERTy MUSEUM 321 Chestnut St., 215-925-2800, libertymuseum.org. The Orphan Trains (1995, U.S., 60 min.): This installment of the PBS series American Experience focuses on the Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Aid Society, responsible for transporting numerous orphans from big cities to the rural Midwest via train in the mid-to-late 19th century. The screening will be followed by a discussion; RSVP at orphantrainsdocumentary.eventbrite. com. Mon., Jan. 26, 7 p.m., free.

PHiLAMoCA 531 N. 12th St., 267-519-9651, philamoca.org. Hardcore Devo Live! (2014, U.S., 100 min.): Concert doc featuring Mark Mothersbaugh and crew performing music from their wildly experimental, pre-â&#x20AC;?Whip Itâ&#x20AC;? phase. Thu., Jan. 22, 8 p.m., $10.

PfS THEATER AT THE RoXy 2023 Sansom St., 267-639-9508, filmadelphia.org/roxy. Rise of the Tigers (2014, U.S., 39 min.) and Surviving Kensington (2014, U.S., 13 min.): The Filmadelphia showcase highlights two local offerings for January â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Max Pulcini and Matthew Albasiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feature on the Kensington Tigers football team; and Mo Scarpelli and Jeffrey Stockbridgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bleak look at drug abuse in the River Wards neighborhood. Tue., Jan. 27, 7:30 p.m., free.

[ movie shorts ]

PHiLADELPHiA CiTy iNSTiTUTE 1905 Locust St., 215-685-6621, freelibrary.org. You Will Be My Son (2011, France, 102 min.): Niels Arestrup plays a dickhead vintner who treats his feeble, long-suffering son like shit. Will make you resent your horrible dad/crave a big glug of red. Wed., Jan. 28, 2 p.m., free.

RiTZ AT THE BoURSE 400 Ranstead St., 215-440-1181, landmarktheatres.com. The Neverending Story (1984, Germany, 107 min.): Remember those childhood nightmares you had about Gâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;mork the Wolf eating you? Would you like to revisit those terrifying thoughts now that youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a functioning adult? THE NOTHING GROWS STRONGER! Fri., Jan. 23, midnight, $10.

TAVERN oN CAMAC 243 S. Camac St., 215-545-0900, tavernoncamac.com. Capital Games (2013, U.S., 97 min.): Two co-workers who hate each other vie for the same promotion at a competitive L.A. advertising firm. Then they do it. Life is complicated. Part of the qFLIX Philadelphia LGBTQ film festival. Fri., Jan. 23, 7 p.m., free.

citypaper.net/events

ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR

A film by

two days, one

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STARTS FRIDAY, JAN 23

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne LANDMARK THEATRES

RITZ AT THE BOURSE (215) 440-1181 400 RANSTEAD ST â&#x20AC;˘ PHILADELPHIA

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events listings@citypaper.net | january 22 - january 28

[ with fame came a mounting claim for the evermore ]

THEY LOOK SO REAL: Turquoise Jeep plays Union Transfer tonight.

Events is our selective guide to what’s going on in the city this week. For comprehensive event listings, visit citypaper.net/events. iF yOu Want tO Be liSted: Submit information by email (listings@ citypaper.net) or enter it yourself at citypaper.net/submit-event with the following details: date, time, address of venue, telephone number and admission price. Incomplete submissions will not be considered, and listings information will not be accepted over the phone.

1.22

thursday [ music/parody ]

Turquoise Jeep $15 | Thu., Jan. 22, 8 p.m., with Kosha Dillz and W.C. Lindsay, Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St., 215-232-2100, utphilly.com. Independent hip-hop crew Turquoise Jeep first appeared in 2009 with the single “Stretchy Pants” and cemented their spoof status the next year 16 | P h i l a d e l P h i a C i t y Pa P e r |

with “Lemme Smang It.” Their breathtakingly stupid lyricism is pure genius, as are their shameless dance moves. Expect consummate performances and ample opportunities for audience participation. —Sam Fox

[ theater ]

A Life in The TheATre

$30-$45 | Through Feb. 1, Walnut Street Theatre Independence Studio on 3, 825 Walnut St., 215-5743550, walnutstreettheatre.org. The Walnut Street Theatre’s fifth annual national touring show is a seldom-seen early David Mamet behind-the-scenes comedy. robert (Bill Van Horn, who also directs) tutors young John (Davy raphaely) in stagecraft while they share a dressing room and perform together. Mamet’s 1977 play is overshadowed by Pulitzer Prize-winner Glengarry Glen Ross and many other dramatic successes, but charmingly explores backstage life. —Mark Cofta

[ theater ]

CLoser $15-$25 | Through Feb. 7, Luna Theater, 620 S. Eighth St., 215-704-0033, lunatheater.org. Luna Theater’s “Season of Seduction” continues with relationship exploration Closer, about four people and their various couplings, breakups and betrayals over several years. British playwright Patrick Marber’s 1997 hit includes chatroom seductions, secret pasts and complicated layers of truth. Director Gregory Scott Campbell’s strong cast features Joshua L. Browns, Sam Henderson, Gina Martino and Kirsten Quinn. —Mark Cofta

[ classical ]

phiLAdeLphiA orChesTrA

— P.O. boss yannick nézetSéguin’s homage to the lusty world of Slavic romanticism — is now about at midpoint, and in a concert that includes saccharine gobs of rachmaninoff, there will also be an intriguing anglo incursion. Mark-anthony Turnage is a British composer obsessed with jazz, Miles Davis in particular. His new piano concerto will receive its american debut at the hands of the dazzling Marc-andré Hamelin. —Peter Burwasser

1.23 friday

[ house ]

KöLsCh

$35-$95 | Thu.-Fri., Jan. 22-23, 8 p.m., Kimmel Center, 300 S. Broad St., 215-893-1999, philorch.org.

$8-$10 | Fri., Jan. 23, 9 p.m., with JDH and Dave P, Dolphin Tavern, 1539 S. Broad St., 215-278-7950, dolphinphilly.com.

The St. Petersburg Festival

rune reilly Kölsch hails not

J a n u a r y 2 2 - J a n u a r y 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 | C i t y Pa P e r . n e t

from Köln — though his label, Kompakt, is there — but from Denmark’s autonomous hippie “freetown” of Christiania, where he may have learned something about utopian visions. 1977 (released in 2013 but titled, T-Swift/FlyLostyle, after his birth year) was a master class in warmly enveloping, straightforwardbut-not-simplistic house, unafraid of sentimentality. Last month’s mix for the Balance series accomplished similar things in slightly whooshier fashion, imbued (via the likes of radiohead, Caribou and Coldplay) with an almost hymnlike serenity and a bigtent populism that transcends his counter-cultural roots. —K. Ross Hoffman

Sansom St., 215-568-3131, chrisjazzcafe.com.

[ jazz ]

$9 | Fri., Jan. 23, 7 p.m., International House, 3701 Chestnut St., 215-387-5125, ihousephilly.org.

ALexAnder/swAnA/ MCKennA sexTeT $20-$25 | Fri.-Sat., Jan. 23-24, 8 and 10 p.m., Chris’ Jazz Café, 1421

Chris’ Jazz Café doesn’t have a house band, but if it did it would look a lot that the group that will convene this weekend. Saxophonist Larry McKenna, trumpeter John Swana and pianist neil Podgurski, whose trio will comprise the rhythm section, are all local favorites, while saxophonist Eric alexander has been a regular guest at the club for more than a decade. They’re all coming together to pay tribute to former Chris’ co-owner andy Touchstone, who passed away suddenly last October. —Shaun Brady

[ film ]

reMeMbering george KuChAr

at the time of his death in 2011, George Kuchar had amassed

c i t y pa p e r . n e t | J a n u a r y 2 2 - J a n u a r y 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 | p h i l a d e l p h i a c i t y pa p e r |

thegrumpylibrarian Caitlin Goodman tells you what to read

rhythmic and sensually grooving than its psychedelic earlier output, the one-two punch of Dancers and Grammar shows how Hiss Golden Messenger maintains its silken, rustic roots. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;A.D. Amorosi

[ spiritual ]

Keystone sacred Harp convention Free | Sat., Jan. 24, 10 a.m.; Sun., Jan. 25, 9:30 a.m.; The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St., 215 573-3234, therotunda.org.

â?¤ Margaret atwood, Catâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Eye â?¤ Kazuo IshIguro, Never Let Me Go â&#x153;&#x2013; elIzabeth strout, Olive Kitteridge â&#x17E;¤ First: youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re incorrect about Olive Kitteridge; it is a near-perfect book and you are lucky the Grumpy Librarian is professionally obligated to not just suggest you take up TV. So take a look at Joan Didionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s A Book of Common Prayer, which includes some â&#x20AC;&#x153;playfulnessâ&#x20AC;? about time and memory and identity and is very thoughtful and full of gut-punch phrasings, like Atwoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book. It doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the kind of â&#x20AC;&#x153;SURPRISE, WEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;RE CLONESâ&#x20AC;? (uh, spoiler alert) revelation on which Ishiguro basically hangs his narrative, but it does bring about that sense of slightly out-of-focus world-building. The GL likes Ian McEwanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Atonement too (oh, shush, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good), and it shares Ishiguroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quiet, English, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t-spill-your-tea kind of suspense. And since you did such a good job of reading women (you know how the GL feels about that bugbear), a bonus tip: Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t swap in McEwanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sweet Tooth, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s basically the M. Night Shyamalanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The Happening of McEwanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work. (grumpylibrarian@citypaper.net) Send the Grumpy Librarian two books you like and one you hate and sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll tell you what to read.

Some of the songs in the songbook are more than 200 years old, but anyone attending the 17th annual convention this weekend will find the musical tradition, known as shape-note singing, very much alive. Four-part harmonies are sung facing inward in a â&#x20AC;&#x153;hollow squareâ&#x20AC;? with no room for audience members, and no need for them. The unique notation, in which shapes are added to the note heads, gave the music its name and was designed to help non-musicians read the music. These days itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more likely the robust and welcoming spirit that gets newcomers of all ages and spiritual affiliations singing along. Expect to be moved by the walls of a cappella sound being produced. also expect a phenomenal potluck lunch. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Owen Lyman-Schmidt

[ events ]

[ rock/pop ]

suburban Living $7-$10 | Sat., Jan. 24, 9 p.m., with Purples, Illinois and Spirit Haus, Bourbon & Branch, 705 N. Second St., 215-238-0660, bourbonandbranchphilly.com. This will be a night of Philadelphia rockers doing what they do best, including a headlining performance by synth-pop act Suburban Living, celebrating the release of their self-titled debut LP. Support comes from Purples, Spirit Haus and the beloved but rarely seen Illinois. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Sarah Heizenroth

[ music/food ]

W/n W/n grand opening MusicaL bruncHes Free music, brunch is payas-you-go | Sat.-Sun., Jan. 24-25, 9 a.m., W/N W/N Coffeebar, 931 Spring Garden St., winwincoffeebar.com. Enjoy some tunes as you enjoy your breakfast foods at this new worker-owned coffee shop and bar. Saturday will feature ambient drone artist Krazileec. Sunday takes a whimsical turn with sister duo Magda Meringue. The name of their first album is Scream in Your Face, but their sound is less Bikini

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Kill and more like nellie McKay singing harmonies with herself in a watery cave. Just like a coffee shop-bar combo, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something here for everyone. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Owen Lyman-Schmidt

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[ rap ]

tuesday

Riff Raff

[ pop ]

$22.50 | Wed., Jan. 28, 9 p.m., with Swizzymack and Baked Life, The Trocadero, 1003 Arch St., 215-922-6888, thetroc.com.

Zola Jesus

$17 | Tue., Jan. 27, 8:30 p.m., Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St., 215-232-2100, utphilly.com.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;I thought fear brought me closer to the truth,â&#x20AC;? sings nika Danilova midway through 2014â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Taiga (Mute) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which may explain some things about the art-Gothery and foreboding that so dominated her past oeuvre, and why this, her fifth album as Zola Jesus, pushes so emphatically past it. There are break beats, there are brass chorales, there is some serious affirmation and emotional empowerment. Pop goes the ego. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;K. Ross Hoffman

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[ events ]

If riff raff didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exist, Mad Decent, who signed the Houston rapper/freakazoid to an eightalbum deal (two down, as of last summerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Neon Icon) may have had to invent him â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he shares head homeboy Diploâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gonzo maximalism and tireless hustle, but with a gleeful absurdism that the globe-trotting label boss could only dream of producing.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;K. Ross Hoffman

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foodanddrink

pintsighs Caroline Russock on dive bars

PHiLaDiUm taVern PHILADIUM TAVERN | 1631 Packer Ave., 215-271-5220

Smoking: No Jukebox/Entertainment: TouchTunes, vintage video poker in the back and a big, green Pennsylvania Lottery machine Bathrooms: Classic gold-swirled South Philly sink and a weird two-toilet situation without a dividing wall Head Count/Tab: Two people, $26.50 before tip: Two screwdrivers, two Heinekens and a roast pork sandwich

BROAD STREET TIME MACHINE: Wine coolers and French onion soup are on the menu at Juniper Commons. neal SantOS

➤ Situated juSt two blocks away from the

[ review ]

crab fries and big-screen mecca of South Philly sports watching, Philadium Tavern seems more than comfortable existing in the shadow of Chickie’s and Pete’s. Open since 1978, there’s something about Philadium that feels more wholesome than most corner bars in South Philly. This could have something to do with the two middle-aged bartenders’ Philadium-embroidered polo shirts and shorts, resulting in a vibe more like PE teacher than barkeep. There’s also the cozy fireplace in the back, past the U-shaped bar and a full and far-ranging menu. Sitting at the bar early on a Sunday evening, people are certainly here for football and Yuenglings, but they’re also here to eat. The placemat menus at Philadium list everything from peppers and eggs to seafood platters and liverwurst sandwiches. Their drippy roast pork served on a kaiser roll with slowbraised broccoli rabe and ultra sharp provolone is a serious contender. “Another free meal at Mom’s tonight?” one of the bartenders asks a regular who is wearing a U.S. Navy aviation jacket and nursing his third Miller Lite. “Nah, but I made tilapia last night,” he replies before launching into the middle-aged dude dinner talk that only happens in South Philly. (caroline@citypaper.net)

Commons Denominator Kevin Sbraga’s latest, Juniper Commons, courts the mainstream diner. By Adam Erace JUniper cOMMOnS | 521 S. Broad St., 267-417-5210, sbragadin-

ing.com/juniper-commons. Lunch: Mon.-Fri., 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Dinner: Sun.-Thu., 5-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 5-11 p.m. Brunch: Sat.-Sun., 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Appetizers, $7-$12; entrees, $15-$38.

read plates waited patiently on my table at Kevin Sbraga’s new restaurant, Juniper Commons. The silverware stood in line, the napkin folded just so. a votive candle burned in an amber glass ashtray, the kind you would have found in my great-aunt Lucy’s Ellsworth Street basement, stacked with the melamine platters and macaroni bowls in a pantry hidden behind a wall of chattering beaded curtains. Cocktails came. The drink, The Pretty young Thing, blushed with sous-vide raspberries, housemade ginger juice and one of Juniper Commons’ 70 gins. another gin, this one redolent of roasted pears, mingled with vanilla and chardonnay in a new-school wine cooler. Tom Pittakas, JC’s GM and beverage director, carbonates the cooler in cute logo-frosted bottles, caps them, chills them and sells them under the menu header Move Over Zima. This tastes a lot better than that: slightly fizzy, floral and oaky, with a little kick of

gin on the finish. If they were available in six-packs, I’d stock my fictional beach house with them this summer. Till then, I’ll have to head up Broad to the ground floor of South Star Lofts, a 5,300-square-foot sprawl Sbraga leased shortly after opening the Fat Ham. all three of the Top Chef’s restaurants share a landlord, and it took a lot of convincing by said landlord to open a place here. “It took a lot of time to develop a plan that fit a space this big,” Sbraga says. So why does Juniper Commons feel like it was slapped together over a long weekend? For me, a big part of the answer is the ’80s-inspired concept. Sure, there were some technical successes, and the space of plaid upholstery, newspaper murals and Olivia newton-John posters creates a fun, nottaking-itself-too-seriously spirit. But it’s hard to understand why a chef of Sbraga’s level would choose to spend his talents recreating wedge salads and fettuccine alfredo. “We’re not trying to be progressive or create something new,” says Sbraga. “We want to give people a flashback of the past, but do it better than it was done in the past.” Which I can respect. But with that goal in mind, Sbraga lieutenant Greg Garbacz is working on a thin margin of error: If you’re going to serve a menu of classics, the execution has to be flawless, the food so delicious that it makes traditional — even boring — stuff feel exciting. I found that in the soups, at least. Served in a traditional brown