Inside: Duubu, a sleek ne w Kor ean Inside: restaurrant, raises the bar. restaur P H I L A D E L P H I A
MAY AY 20 20,, 2015 2 015 MAY 14 - M ISSUE #1563
B Y E M I LY G U E N D E L S B E R G E R
T H E What C roleR will race O SplayS inOpicking V Philly’s E Rnext mayor? VOTE
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IN THIS ISSUE … p. 12
Octavia’s Dream
KINDRED SPIRITS
VISUAL ARTIST G. Farrel Kellum’s “Urban Aesthetics” exhibit, which opens Friday, draws on hip-hop influences and so much more. In the sculpture Octavia’s Dream, he says he drew inspiration from science fiction writer Octavia’s Butler’s best-known book, Kindred. In it, a black modern-day woman travels through time to the antebellum South. Kellum sees parallels in his own work, “where time collapses, where the ancient becomes the future.” Listen to his other insights in a conversation with Cassie Owens in West Philly PHL.
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THE BELL CURVE -1
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A thief breaks into a Port Richmond hair salon and steals money and hair products. Police say they’re looking for somebody who’s wealthy with fabulous hair. They didn’t even mention personality.
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Singer-songwriter Josh Groban accuses the Kimmel Center of price gouging and moves his concert to the Tower Theater. “Oh, that’s just our suck tax,” says Kimmel. “You suck, Groban.”
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Comcast announces it is sponsoring Taylor Swift’s upcoming world tour. Swift praises the company’s long history of price gouging.
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According to drugabuse.com, Philly band Disco Biscuits’ annual Camp Bisco near Scranton is one of the most popular music festivals for users of weed, Molly, mescaline and other illegal drugs. Experts attribute this to the fact that everybody in the band gets a solo, even the guy who plays synths.
—Mark Cofta
RAMBO
more picks on p. 23
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Philadelphia ranks third on a list of the “unfriendliest” cities in America, according to a poll of the readers of Travel + Leisure magazine. It’s possible the readers of Travel + Leisure magazine are just in a bad mood because they and their mothers all have syphilis and, furthermore, smell like shit all the time.
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A great white shark called Mary Lee is once again swimming along the Jersey Shore, say scientists. “There’s nothing to worry about,” said one researcher. “Unless she develops a taste for that d-bag Adam Levine haircut. Then may God have mercy on Seaside Heights.”
LEON BRIDGES Like Nick Waterhouse and Amy Winehouse, Leon Bridges offers a reminder that classics are still being written and any age can feel like a golden one. It’s been awhile since this brand of gut-wrenching soul singing has bludgeoned me over the head the way “Coming Home” and “Better Man” have, and I can’t imagine a better, more intimate setting to see them played live than ye olde Ortlieb’s jazzhaus, with its red-light vibe. 5/15, Ortlieb’s, ortliebslounge.ticketfly. com. —Nikki Volpicelli
QUICK PICKS
THE INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS ASTONISHING LUCRATIVE AND POTENTIALLY COMPLETELY TRUE ADVENTURES OF BARRY SEAL FringeArts favorite Thaddeus Phillips (Red-Eye to Havre de Grace) shares his newest creation, about Alder “Barry” Seal, the most infamous drug smuggler in U.S. history. DJ Mario Cotto and installation artist Jeff Becker join Phillips for this sequel to a large-scale international production, Alias Ellis MacKenzie, premiering at the September FringeArts Festival. Phillips was inspired to create this cinematic, sonic and dramatic portrait after playing Seal in a 2013 MundoFox TV show, Alias El Mexicano. 5/1416, FringeArts, FringeArts.com.
Actor Jeremy Piven is among several hundred passengers stranded at Philadelphia International Airport for seven hours, and he tweets that they are being held “hostage.” “On the upside,” wrote Piven. “Everybody here promises they will try to see the Entourage movie if they can, if they have time.”
JORDAN VANCE
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The Sixers unveil a new team logo. It will double as team captain.
CULT FILMS FROM THE QUEER UNDERGROUND
Sins of the Fleshapoids
In the lead-up to its new queer sci-fi show, I Promised Myself to Live Faster, Pig Iron Theatre Company is hosting this double feature of ‘60s experimental cinema. Both films share the outrageous aesthetic of the show’s spiritual inspiration, the Charles Ludlam-era RidiculousTheatrical Company. Mike Kuchar’s classic Sins of the Fleshapoids depicts a garish underground apocalypse, while Jose Rodriguez Soltero’s Lupe is a vivid burlesque biopic of “Mexican Spitfire” Lupe Velez. 5/14, International House, ihousephilly.org.—Shaun Brady
LISSA GOTWALS
THIS WEEK ’S TOTAL: 0 // THE YEAR SO FAR: +10
OUR WEEKLY QUALITY-OF-LIFE-O-METER
DORTHIA COTTRELL As the frontwoman for Richmond doom metallers Windhand, Dorthia Cottrell’s voice is a powerful, gut-hollowing howl. On her own, Cottrell strips away the sludgy steamroller force in favor of ghostly acoustic Americana. As opposed as they may be on the sonic spectrum, the two genres dwell in similar dark shadows, and on both types of songs, Cottrell summons equally controlled moods of loss and longing. 5/18, Kung Fu Necktie, kungfunecktie.com. —Shaun Brady MAC MCCAUGHAN Superchunk’s pre-Replacements slot last Saturday was defined by Mac’s legs-akimbo rock star leaps, and you might see one or two of those when he drops by for this solo show six days later. But his new solo record Non-Believers (Merge), generally speaking, should give way to a quieter, thinkier musical experience befitting the intimate setting. 5/15, Underground Arts, undergroundarts. org. —Patrick Rapa
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THENAKEDCITY
NEWS // OPINION // POLITICS
REMAINS OF THAT DAY: On the day of the destruction, May 13, 1985, a police officer faces the shell of what were once middle-class homes in West Philadelphia. In the confrontation, 11 people at the MOVE house died, including five children, and 61 rowhomes were destroyed.
ANNIVERSARY
BY CASSIE OWENS
MOVE AT 30: WHERE THE STORY STOPPED
AT YOUTH UNITED for Change’s office in Kensington, high school students start to drift in for their late afternoon chapter meeting. Eventually, nine will show up for a weekly program teaching them the ways of community organizing. I’m a stranger in their midst, and explain that I’m a reporter who’s come to hear their thoughts on the MOVE bombing, in light of its 30th anniversary on May 13. “I’ve never heard of it,” says Naisha Soto, 17. “Same here,” says Jeffrey Williams, 18. Hezekiah Mack, 19, says he learned about MOVE “about two minutes ago,” when he pulled chapter organizer Saeda ClarkWashington aside to ask what I would be
talking about. Benny Ramos, 17, had heard about the bombing, but doesn’t have the details down, and asks to know more. Only Naseem Bey, 16, could speak about what had happened, because his father told him about it last year. So, eight of the nine students at the YUC meeting on May 6 did not know about the radical group that had lived at 6221 Osage Ave. in the Cobbs Creek section of West Philadelphia. They were not aware that following a standoff with police, Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor called for MOVE’s home base to be bombed, and a small fire that started as a result was allowed to burn out of control. Nor did they know
that 11 people died at the MOVE house, including five children, and that 61 rowhomes were destroyed. The students’ lack of awareness about MOVE didn’t surprise me. Although there appear to be no studies on the topic, I’ve realized from talking informally to teenagers and young adults, that what happened on that dreadful day in May 1985 largely has not been passed down. “It’s crazy that this is first time I’m hearing about this,” Mack says. “I should have heard about this somewhere else, or before. My parents or something. They never told me nothing like this.” Julie Odell, an English professor at the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP), teaches about the MOVE bombing in her research-writing course. This past February, CCP’s Law and Society Week spotlighted the bombing and its aftermath and her students led a panel discussion. “People don’t like to talk about it. Adults that were around that time — it’s difficult, it’s sad,” Odell explains. “When we were putting things together for Law and Society Week, it was hard to find a lot of faculty who wanted to get involved because I don’t think people necessarily want to remember it.” She agrees there seems to be a knowledge gap between the generations on MOVE. “Students over 40 tend to know, but anyone under 40 really does not know,” says Odell. “It’s kind of amazing.” The events leading up to May 13, 1985, the deaths that ensued, and the commission that examined the decisions that were made that day aren’t included in the Philadelphia School District’s curriculum. No one has ever complained formally about that, according to District spokeswoman Raven Hill, who added in an email that teachers are in no way “prohibit[ed] from using this event to supplement their instruction.” Also noteworthy is that MOVE, as a 2005 Inquirer article noted, doesn’t have the same place in history (and therefore the national memory) as the L.A. riots that erupted after the beating of Rodney King, the Waco siege
and the Oklahoma City bombing, all of which involved more fatalities. Jason Osder’s 2013 award-winning documentary Let the Fire Burn has helped spread the lessons about MOVE, and it was screened repeatedly at Law and Society Week. Osder says a primary question behind the film was: “How does something go from current events to history, or fail to?” “If [a historical event] doesn’t get that status in 30 years, I think it’s really drifting away,” says Osder. “At the 30-year mark, you’re at a tipping point of losing the people that remember it.” This, perhaps, is why the knowledge gap is so troubling. The elders who don’t want to talk about the bombing are holding back perspectives that could illuminate this exceptionally complex series of events. Clark-Washington advises her students to ask their grandparents for the details. And it was Clark-Washington who briefly spoke about the troubling lack of awareness of the MOVE bombing at the #PhillyisBaltimore demonstration two weeks ago. She did this while introducing Naisha, who had been asked to read a poem she had written to the crowd as her fellow student organizers stood beside her. When Clark-Washington tells the students at the chapter meeting that a 30th anniversary
‘People don’t like to talk about it. Adults that were around at the time — it’s diff icult’ rally, organized by Ramona Africa, will be taking place on May 13, many of them expressed interest in attending. The event’s press release serves as a call for justice: “Nobody ever went to prison for this atrocity except the lone adult survivor of this massacre, Ramona Africa. The MOVE family refuses to let this infamous day in Philadelphia history, this vicious murder of our family, be forgotten.” Clark-Washington asks the students: “So, do y’all feel that it’s intentional that y’all haven’t learned about that piece of organizing in Philadelphia?” “It’s got to be,” responds Yaaseen Nixon, 16. “Well, why?” she asks him. “There’s no way we could ask and they’d be like, ‘Oh, we forgot to tell y’all,’” Yaaseen
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continued f rom p. 4
MOVE AT 30: WHERE THE STORY STOPPED
MEMORY INTERRUPTED: Though older adults remember the day that Philly police dropped an explosive device on the roof of the MOVE house, starting a fatal fire that destroyed a neighborhood, a reporter finds informal evidence that the story largely has not been passed down.
tells her. Clark-Washington later leaves the circle, so that the students will examine the topic themselves. They do, but they mostly have a lot questions. The number of houses was hard to make sense of, so I pull up a photo of the block after the blaze on my iPhone. “Oh, my gosh! That’s the real picture?” Annisa Washington, 16, asks. “That is terrible.” “Daaaaamn. Yo, that’s crazy,” says Yaaseen. Christine Ellis, 17, who stops eating her water ice for a minute: “All that in there? That’s a shame.” “Sixty-one houses?” Naisha asks again. “That’s like a whole town. …They really didn’t think of the other people.” They wonder aloud to each other why it happened. “It’s all about power in situations like that. … I guess
they [MOVE members] were powerful, and they just wanted to get rid of them.” Naisha figures. This suggestion prompts An nisa to reflect, “You know, you just got to keep going. This can’t stop us. Now, you know, we got to really educate youth on this. Not stop right here, right now and be depressed about it. Actually do something about it.” (editorial@citypaper.net)
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THE CROSSOVER VOTE What role will race play in picking Philly’s next mayor? B Y E M I LY G U E N DE L SB E RG E R
got heavy into a conversation with a friend about the next mayor of Philadelphia at a party a few weeks ago. I was mostly just excited to have someone to talk to about the primary race that’s been dismissed by much of the media and most of my acquaintances as sort of boring. After doing a few hours of research on the leading candidates, their issues and their backers, my friend said she preferred Anthony Williams to Jim Kenney, if it were going to come down to one of the two. (She dismissed Lynne Abraham and all other candidates as having no chance, though she did like Nelson Diaz.) Overall, she said, her concerns about Kenney’s strong ties to “Johnny Doc” and the unions outweighed her concerns about Williams’ strong ties to charter-school proponents who had given so much money toward getting him elected. (It almost goes without saying that, in a city as heavily Democratic as Philly, Tuesday’s primary is much more competitive than the general election in November — Philly’s last Republican mayor was first elected during World War II.) We’d been presumably boring everyone around us with an enthusiastic detour into municipal pensions for a while when she said something that stuck with me: “Honestly?” She shrugged. “I also just don’t think a white guy should be mayor of Philadelphia.”
F
or nearly 15 years, that’s also been the opinion of Philadelphia’s electorate. Conventional wisdom holds that running for mayor in Philadelphia boils down to second-grade math: When there’s one viable white candidate and two viable Black candidates, the white guy wins — see Ed Rendell, who won the primary with 49 percent of the vote in 1991. When there’s one viable Black candidate and two viable white candidates — in this case, Anthony Williams and Jim Kenney and Lynne Abraham, respectively — the Black guy wins. I usually don’t put much stock in conventional wisdom, but I was very interested in how it might intersect with the city’s huge demographic shift over the past few decades. When Rendell won in 1991, 51 percent of registered Democrats self-identified as white, while 34 percent identified as Black. Today, 51 percent self-identified as Black, and only 33 percent as white. Michael Nutter won the 2007 Democratic primary with 36.6 percent of the vote, with about equal support from voters of different races — he won 37 percent of votes in majority-white wards and 35 percent of the vote in majority-Black wards. By contrast, his predecessor, John Street, was elected with 32 percent of the vote, dominating majority-Black wards but pulling only single-digit percentages in the wards of the far Northeast, where more than 95 percent of voters are white. Nutter’s victory was hailed by many as a sign that the city had moved beyond heavy racial splits in city elections. But it doesn’t follow that, because white voters were willing to support a Black candidate, the converse is also true — that Black voters will be equally willing to support a white
JIM KENNEY
A N T HON Y W I L L IA M S D OU G OL I V E R
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candidate. It seems obvious that the situations are very different. The real question is: How different? To find out, I tracked down the ward-by-ward self-identified voter racial demographics and primary returns from the past four open mayoral primaries. Not an easy task, since two of the city’s tallies were a stack of photocopies of handwritten results. I found a surprisingly direct correlation between a ward’s percentage of white voters and the percentage of votes from that ward that go to white candidates. (You can see infographics about this and the rest of my unwieldy math online at citypaper.net/mayor2015.) And I found that historically, Black voters have been less willing to support white candidates than the other way around. Some white mayoral candidates have managed to get a bit of support in wards where more than half the voters self-identify as Black — Rendell established the high-water mark in 1991, managing to pull an average of 22 percent in majority-Black wards with the help of an endorsement from state Sen. Hardy Williams, a trailblazing Black politician and father of current candidate Anthony Williams. Back in 1983, Wilson Goode got crucial cross-racial support from the same several liberal, majority-white wards like Chestnut Hill, Center City and Fairmount that went heavily for Nutter in 2007. Goode won a majority (i.e., not just the most, but more than half the total) of votes in eight majority-white wards; Nutter, seven. In contrast, since 1983, not one white mayoral primary candidate has managed to win a majority in a ward where more than half the voters are Black. Philadelphia has changed a lot in recent years. But have historical voting patterns changed enough for Kenney to have a realistic chance?
T
he correlation starts in 1983, when the longunderrepresented Black community united to thrust Philadelphia’s first Black mayor, Wilson Goode, into office over former Mayor Frank Rizzo, much despised by much of the Black community for his harsh policing tactics. The primary was deeply racially divided. Goode inspired a massive wave of voter turnout in majority-Black wards. That urgency was mirrored in majoritywhite wards, which turned out for Rizzo with nearly equal fervor. The total primary voter turnout in 1983 was more than double what it’s been in the few decades immediately before and after. Goode made little headway in Rizzo’s home turf of South Philadelphia, getting less than 10 percent of the vote in three of its four majority-white wards in the Democratic primary. And in the general election, “two-thirds of Philadelphia whites … split their tickets to avoid voting for Goode,” reported the Washington Post — that is, white Democrats voted for a white Republican rather than a Black Democrat. “In South Philadelphia, where the Italian, Irish and Polish communities are, resistance was particularly high,” said the Post. That’s why this year’s primary has been so interesting — lifelong South Philadelphian Kenney has been getting a lot of endorsements and quasi-endorsements from Black politicians. A Daily News article on Kenney’s prospects with Black voters last month opened: “White. Irish Catholic. Mummer. The future voice of Black Philadelphia. Strange as it might sound — and look — that’s precisely the message that state Rep. Dwight Evans and other African-American political leaders in Northwest Philadelphia sent to voters
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yesterday when they publicly backed Kenney for mayor,” citing his record on stop-and-frisk and leading the efforts to decriminalize marijuana. If you’re not super familiar with Philly politics, a good shorthand for thinking about it is this: Imagine a country ruled by five powerful, ambitious families, a la Game of Thrones. Three of the families are Black — West, North and Northwest Philly — and two are white — South Philly and the Northeast. (A sixth Latino family is quickly establishing itself, but at the moment is hamstrung by family issues to rival the Lannisters.) The three Black families may squabble among themselves, but an entire family breaking away to support a candidate from South Philly is unprecedented. “This is historic,” wrote veteran political reporter Dave Davies at Newsworks.org of the so-called Northwest Coalition’s endorsement of Kenney. “I’ve been covering Philadelphia mayoral elections since 1983, and not once in those 32 years can I remember a white mayoral candidate running against a well-known Black candidate in a competitive primary getting multiple endorsements from African-American elected officials.” Many Black leaders found the Daily News’ headline, “Is Kenney the future voice of Black Philadelphia?” irksome. “My reaction to that newsflash, of course, was that it was far too early to have any elected officials give away the African-American community’s political birthright,” wrote A. Bruce Crawley in an acid Philadelphia Tribune opinion piece. So did lawyer George Burrell, one of the two Black candidates who ran against Rendell in 1991. (If you’re
CONTINUED ON P. 10 P HOTO S B Y M A R K ST E H L E
M I LTON ST R E E T
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THE CROSSOVER VOTE CONTINUED FROM P. 9
Jim Kenne y
still thinking Game of Thrones, he and Williams are both Northerners.) At a campaign event for Williams, Burrell publicly shamed the Northwest Coalition for breaking away to endorse Kenney. The civil-rights pioneers who first united the city’s Black voters to elect Goode, Burrell said, “would be rolling over in their graves” at the idea that respected African-American politicians “would turn over the mayor’s office voluntarily ... to a community other than our own.” That last phrase opens a recent Williams television ad, too: “This is what Jim Kenney once said about policing our community,” then resurrecting a quote Kenney made to the Inquirer in 1997 opposing civilian oversight of policing. In 1983, the idea of a united, unbroken rank of “our community” was the crucial element in overcoming the odds and electing the city’s first Black mayor. The idea’s not dying easy.
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Anthony Wi l liams
few polls have shown Kenney as the frontrunner, but they’ve all been either linked to his campaign and/or have a margin of error or undecided voter count so high that they’re the numerical equivalent of a shrug. They also didn’t address what I’d been mulling over since my friend mentioned that she just didn’t think a white guy should be mayor of Philadelphia: How might the huge changes in Philly’s racial demographics interact with the slower-to-change racial voting trends established in 1983 with the victory of Wilson Goode? And what could that mean for future mayoral candidates, of any race? I took my Excel sheets of all those handwritten voting results for the four open primaries that involved candidates of more than one race — 1983, 1991, 1999 and 2007 — and the self-reported voter demographic data for those years and 2015. Ward by ward, I checked the sets against each other to see how much the ratios of white and Black voters in each ward lined up with the way that ward’s votes were distributed between white and Black candidates in each primary. Then I took how much the ratios lined up for each year and each ward and applied those numbers to the ward’s current demographics and projected turnout — numerically asking the question, “What would have happened in these four races if the candidates had the exact same ratio of cross-racial support, but the city had the racial demographics and voter-turnout patterns of modern-day Philly?” The numbers answered: Goode absolutely destroys Rizzo, by more than 125,000 votes. And instead of Mayor Ed Rendell by a landslide, it’s Mayor Lucien Blackwell by a nose. What about if I went back through the data for all four primaries, cherry-picking the years where white candidates had done the best? I did it, ward by ward, year by year. But, still — even then, the best possible vote total for white candidates was still less than the worst possible overall total for Black candidates. It was, frankly, kind of astonishing. However, I’m not a professional pollster, so last week I asked Anna Greenberg, head of polling for the Kenney campaign, what she made of my array of spreadsheets. Greenberg, of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, used
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to teach public opinion and survey research methodology at Harvard, and was the lead pollster for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Tom Wolf, among many others. Greenberg, understandably, given that it’s so close to the primary, tells me that she doesn’t have time to do a deep dive on my numbers. She also can’t comment on Kenney specifically, because, though she’s working for him, she’s not a spokesperson. She was, however, willing to speak about past mayoral campaigns she’s worked on — specifically Rahm Emanuel’s in Chicago and de Blasio’s in New York — where a white candidate won with the support of a multiracial coalition of voters. Even assuming for the sake of argument that my numbers are completely accurate, she says, they don’t necessarily mean anything. “The past is the past,” says Greenberg. There have only been four major contested mayoral primaries in Philly that involved candidates of more than one race — far too few to predict how a fifth might shake out. If you give the past too much weight, she says, “you’re assuming that the candidates and the campaigns don’t matter, and that the past is an absolute predicate for the future — and I just don’t accept that assumption,” she says. “Everything I’ve seen in this race, and in previous mayoral races, suggests that there’s huge openness to cross-racial voting, particularly with the right kind of white candidate. “You can say it’s because Rahm was Obama’s chief of staff,
or it’s because Bill de Blasio has an African-American wife,” says Greenberg, but she thinks the common trait that helped them attract cross-racial voters is a good record of advocating for issues that affect African-American communities. “Bill de Blasio, obviously there’s his long history on police reform — he was attacking stop-and-frisk long before other people,” Greenberg says. Later, then, “the way they reached out and communicated with the community was seen as — and was — authentic,” says Greenberg. “It’s not like any old white candidate can get cross-racial and -ethnic votes. You have to have an actual connection, and authentically understand and care about the issues.” And assumptions are upended all the time, she says. “For example, there was certainly the assumption when Rahm ran for mayor the first time in 2011 that, with Carol Moseley Braun and other African-American candidates, that Rahm would win with white votes and that the Black candidates would split the Black vote. But, actually, Rahm won a majority of the Black vote, right?” And that’s certainly possible in Philly, too, she says. “It’s true that Philly’s more polarized than Chicago and New York, for a bunch of reasons — including the nature of white voters in Philly — but it’s not nearly as polarized as people think it is,” Greenberg says. We’ll find out shortly. (emilyg@citypaper.net, @emilygee)
‘EVERYTHING I’VE SEEN IN THIS RACE, AND IN PREVIOUS MAYORAL RACES, SUGGESTS THAT THERE’S HUGE OPENNESS TO CROSS-RACIAL VOTING, PARTICULARLY WITH THE RIGHT KIND OF WHITE CANDIDATE.’
FIND YOUR NEXT JOB, BETTER JOB, NEW JOB! ENTRY-LEVEL JOB FAIR Thursday, May 21, 2015 | 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Parkway Central Library
1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103 | 215-686-5436
Featuring opportunites to meet employers and staff from job-training and support agencies Made possible by:
Free tickets available online starting April 20, 2015: freelibrary.org/jobfairs or at the WORKPLACE (2nd floor in the Education, Philosophy, and Religion Department)
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PHIL ADELPHIA CIT Y PAPER // MA Y 14 - MA Y 20, 2015 // C I T Y PA PER . N ET
neighborhood news
WEST PHILLY
HIP-HOP, AND MORE: G. Farrel Kellum is not completely on board with being called a hip-hop visual ar�st, but his new exhibit has been steeped in the genre’s iconography. Kellum says he feels ‘very fortunate to live in a city.’ Photos by Hillary Petrozziello
THE 20-MINUTE INTERVIEW:
Visual Artist G. Farrel Kellum
Staring at one of G. Farrel Kellum’s mixed-media sculptures, the first thing I notice is a 45 r.p.m. of James Brown’s “Caldonia.” My eyes travel up and notice a cutout of a bottle of Armadale vodka (a bottle of Armadale!), another of a Suzuki motorcycle and finally a man in a red sweatsuit, missing his face. Who might that be? “It’s no one,” the 67-year-old, West Philadelphia-bred Kellum says. “I took advantage of the shape — I love the shape. I love the way that he was sitting. It was very much conducive to the narrative that I was trying to put into the piece.” Kellum’s narratives don’t run in a straight line. Instead, he bounces around from topic to topic, cautioning that we’re only really “skimming the surface.” The pieces hanging in his studio are dressed in splatter and marked with curving, unintelligible graffiti-inspired writing. His comfort as a painter is apparent, but his training (at the University of the Arts) was actually in illustration. He’s not 100 percent on board with being called a hip-hop visual artist, and yet “Urban Aesthetics,” an exhibition of his work opening Friday at the University City Arts League, 4226 Spruce St., has been lovingly steeped in the genre’s iconography. City Paper spoke with Kellum, following him from one sculpture to another, as he described inspirations for pieces in his new exhibit. The following conversation has been edited and condensed. City Paper: Urban is becoming a loaded term. What does urban mean in this context? G. Farrel Kellum: Everything has a negative and a positive, without a doubt. The way I look at urban is the great experiences that I had growing up. Just walking around the city, I see mailboxes that have all the graffiti on it. You see all of this stuff that is violated. But as I walk around, this is the artist side of me, or I guess the Buddhist side of me — I’m not a Buddhist, but there’s a part of me that is — I see beauty. … I feel very fortunate to live in a city. To me, these are free art galleries. CP: Was capturing different eras important to you for this show? GFK: Here’s the bottom line: I don’t consider myself necessarily a hip-hop artist — I do a lot
MIXED MEDIA: Artwork created by G. Farrel Kellum at his studio near Ninth and Spring Garden streets.
of different things. But I’m passionate about the influence that hip-hop has in my work. I love my jazz. I love my classical music. I love my R&B, the blues. But here’s this hip-hop that’s — all of a sudden — its light was really shining. Really, it permeated. It was able to flow into these other disciplines that I felt comfortable with over the years. CP: Which themes did you work on before this? GFK: I did a series called Flashs from a Disfigured Heritage. That was a lot of African masks broken up into pieces. It sounds really ugly, and the message is sad, but there’s still this power within the image. After that series, that’s when I really started focusing on the middle passage to the urban contemporary — how hip-hop changed the world I see around me. Look at this piece right here. If you look closely, [there are] prehistoric palimpsests — African palimpsests— there. This is written language in Africa before we were dragged [to America]. It’s all hidden. They pop out, ghost-like, here and there. Then if you look closely, somewhere along the line there’s binary code. Then you have [graffiti] hits. CP: These examples you pointed out, is this how you hear hip-hop music? GFK: Yes. Yes. Yes. CP: Why does history matter so much to you as an artist? GFK: It’s inseparable. It’s breaking away from a dualistic way of looking at things. It’s getting away from a dogma that there’s no connection. —Cassie Owens The Urban Aesthe�cs show opens Friday at the University City Arts League, 4226 Spruce St., and runs through June 27.
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ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT
HEAR ME OUT: Rebekah Sharp and Dane Eissler in Azuka Theatre’s Speech and Debate. JOHANNA AUSTIN/AUSTINART.ORG
CURTAIN CALL
BY DAVID FOX AND MARK COFTA
GETTING REALLY REAL
Speech and Debate by Azuka Theatre and brownsville song (b-side for tray) by Philadelphia Theatre Company both refuse to sugarcoat their themes. SPEECH AND DEBATE, BY AZUKA THEATRE Speech and Debate is about hookups — online and in-person — between gay older men and teenage boys: not exactly a hot topic for popular entertainment. And when we do see it, almost inevitably it’s cloaked in deepest earnestness. If, for example, this were a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode, Mariska Hargitay would look stricken, ominous music would swell and there would be sirens and tears. That’s not how it works in Stephen Kar-
am’s remarkable play, which is noteworthy above all for its almost cheerful insouciance. I doubt you’ll laugh harder — or, perhaps, flush more deeply — than during its opening scene, an on-screen messaging session, accompanied rather grandly by Aaron Copeland’s“Fanfare for the Common Man.” (Maybe it’s all more common than we’d like to think?) In Speech and Debate, two high school boys and a girl unite forces to out a couple of creepy older guys in their town (Salem, Ore.) who are respected authority figures
ARTS // MUSIC // THEATER // BOOKS
by day and gay predators by night. Let’s leave it at that. To say more would spoil Karam’s wonderful, surprising storytelling. I’ll say only that part of it involves a musical version of The Crucible. (If that doesn’t make you want to see the show, nothing will.) Among the many pleasures of Speech and Debate is how it captures youth-speak. There’s not a hint of condescension here, and Karam gets every charming, cringe-worthy detail exactly right. That Diwata, the girl, would be a musical theater geek who disdains mass popularity, even as she wears a Wicked T-shirt … well, it’s spot-on. Yet, for all its surface lightheartedness, there is both seriousness and pathos in Speech and Debate, which summons the iconic image of Abraham Lincoln in ways that are satiric but also admiring. It’s a short play and a small one — 100 minutes, four characters — but Karam is no lightweight. Azuka’s production, under Kevin Glaccum’s sure-handed direction, captures the play’s energy and verve, though sometimes the touching moments could register more deeply. Among the four gifted young actors, Dane Eissler (playing Solomon, the most serious of the group) is pretty much perfection. Zoe Richards, cast as a teacher and a reporter, is too young, but does a nice job capturing the characters. As the other teens, Rebekah Sharp (Diwata) and Bryan Black (Howie, the most ebullient) often nail it, but occasionally seem to be working too hard.There’s no need, since they’re ideal for the roles. One of the great things about this production is that the three actors don’t have to pretend to be young — they really are. —David Fox Through May 24, Azuka Theatre at Studio X, 1340 S. 13th St., 215-563-1100, azukatheatre.org.
BROWNSVILLE SONG (B-SIDE FOR TRAY), BY PHILADELPHIA THEATRE COMPANY Though it premiered at last year’s Humana Festival of New American Plays, Kimber Lee’s brownsville song (b-side for tray) feels like it was written for right now. Ferguson, Baltimore and the renewed interest in countless other meaningless deaths of young Black men echo in this prescient Brooklyn-based drama. We know from the beginning that Tray (Curtiss Cook Jr., in a masterfully natural performance) dies; Lee’s script jumps forward and backward in time to tell his story. The ambitious teen — student, boxer, Starbucks
employee, applying for college scholarships — lives happily, but near poverty, with “Grams” Lena (Catrina Ganey) and young half-sister Devine (Kaatje Welsh). Philadelphia actor Anthony Martinez-Briggs plays a brief yet vital role as Tray’s streetwise friend Junior. Devine’s mother Merrell (SungYun Cho, in a performance wrought with regret, shame and determination), Tray’s father’s widow and a recovering addict, tentatively re-enters their lives. She tutors Tray to write honest, unconventional scholarship application essays while he becomes her uneasy Starbucks boss. Her travails show how long and difficult the struggle against prejudice can be; years ago, her Chinese family rejected her Black husband and stepson and her mixed-race baby, trig-
‘Among the many pleasures of Speech and Debate is how it captures youth-speak.’ gering her self-destruction. Tray’s imminent death hangs over everything we experience, but its suddenness and lack of meaning — it’s a wrong-place, wrong-time tragedy — still shocks, especially when details of his father’s similar demise are revealed. Lee balances Tray’s idealistic goals with his life’s bleak realities, and manages to eke some hope from the devastation his death causes. What lingers afterward is Tray’s youthful energy and persistent optimism — as when he recalls the luxuries of one night in a motel with Merrell and his father — and the sadness of knowing that his new connection with Merrell will be cut short. PTC’s co-production with New Haven, Conn.’s Long Wharf Theatre, directed by Eric Ting, features Scott Bradley’s gritty under-therails set, which extends into the audience, lit with fluorescent realism by Russell Champa, with street sounds (omnipresent sirens and car stereos’ thumping bass) by Ryan Rumery. brownsville song’s world may seem alien to PTC’s audience — the street language, thicker and more raw than TV dare portray, might test some people’s patience at first — but the powerful emotions of loss and recovery are universal. —Mark Cofta Through May 31, Philadelphia Theatre Company at Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St., 215-9850420, philadelphiatheatrecompany.org.
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SOUND ADVICE
BY SAM FOX
BRILLIANT BULLSHIT
IN THE WORLD OF SLAM POETRY, “paperclip” refers to a line that sounds profound but is actually nonsense. Sometimes competitors take a break from the actual slam to engage in a “paperclipping” battle to see whose bullshit is the hottest. Kristian Matsson, aka The Tallest Man on Earth, may have never entered one of these battles, but he has emerged as a world paperclipping champ. Critics often take issue with the Man mimicking Bob Dylan, but I take issue with him mimicking poignancy. Though there are a number of sincere, gold nuggets in his catalog, on the whole, his lyrics carry a whiff of emotional and intellectual affectation. (For instance, “I just want to be a part of true” on his new track “Beginners.”) And yet, Matsson’s sly delivery and arrangements make his musings enticing. Dark Bird Is Home (Dead Oceans), his fourth LP, continues along the same path as his previous release, There’s No Leaving Now. He expands upon themes of travel and home with mellower vocals and increasingly elaborate arrangements. More than ever, the Man’s appeal — and sincerity — is less dependent on his overly hyped/critiqued voice and more to do with his instrumentation. He avoids the common pitfall of acoustic singer-songwriters: constructing a “full” sound in the studio by muddling perfectly good — but spare — arrangements. Instead, Mattson’s orchestrations sharpen his impact. He’s a bit of a Renaissance man, and his musicianship shines through on synthesizer, drums, piano, alto horn, banjo, harmonica, pedal steel guitar and, especially, clarinet. Accomplice CJ Camerieri’s brass contributions are a particular treat. (It’s no wonder Camerieri is credited as contributing “magic” in the liner notes.) Key tracks “Sangres,” “Little Nowhere Towns” and “Singers” THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH threaten to convert skeptics like me into believers. (samuelreubenfox@gmail.com) DARK BIRD IS HOME
(Dead Oceans)
Matsson’s first full band Tallest Man on Earth tour stops by the Tower Theater May 16. BY SAMEER RAO
THE AGE OF EROS?
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GREEK MYTHOLOGY PORTRAYED EROS, the god of love, with none of the impishness or immaturity that has characterized most modern depictions of his Roman counterpart, Cupid. Instead, the O.G. Eros had an intimidating capacity for mind control and deep knowledge of human vulnerability. Love and desire weren’t foolish playthings, but powerful forces that could move and destroy worlds. Philly-based R&B/electro/pop singer-songwriter Kate Faust understands these forces with blunt-force clarity, and titling her new selfreleased EP Eros just makes sense. That she spent the past few years teasing fans with cover releases on local blogs (her propulsive take on “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” though not included on this release, is especially noteworthy) and small gigs across the city amplifies Eros’ comparatively roomy and bombastic sound. The EP’s five songs bring the offhand confessionals and sultry certainty of artists like Fiona Apple into the present with lush multi-tempo instrumentals (courtesy of Faust and album co-producer Charlie Patierno) and Faust’s own powerhouse mezzo-soprano vocals. By the time she claims she’s “too scared of a fucked-up future, so take me home and lay me down instead” on closer “Twenty First Century Man,” she’s already laid her vulnerability on the table with “Never Felt So Lonely” and appeals for lovers to be on the “Same Side.” Faust’s communicative prowess embodies how deeply lust intertwines with dread or fear, and Eros is a roller coaster of a record for taking listeners on that journey. And if this is but the EP, then Faust has many more places to take us. (@AManCalledSrao)
C I T Y PA PER . N ET // MA Y 14 - MA Y 20, 2015 // PHIL ADELPHIA CIT Y PAPER
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THIS SUMMER The Clay Studio’s weeklong art camps for kids!
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FILMS ARE GRADED BY CIT Y PAPER CRITICS A-F.
Film events and special screenings.
REPERTORY FILM
BY DREW LAZOR
DOCUMENTARY
FASHION PLATE: The ever colorful Iris Apfel is the subject of Albert Maysles’ final documentary.
IRIS
/ B / Albert and David Maysles were the first documentary filmmakers to regularly list their editors as co-directors, so Albert’s sole credit on what would prove to be the final film released before his death in early March may be more a matter of tribute than a change in method. But there’s a logic to having Maysles’ name second in prominence only to his subject, nonagenarian fashion icon Iris Apfel. Though Maysles is only glimpsed — or, more often, heard — a handful of times, the film is best understood as a duet, a tribute from one indefatigable trailblazer to another. Although Apfel made her living in the fabric trade, she became a legend for her personal style, which favors bold, chunky accessories and owlish glasses.When Iris catches up with her, it’s years after the 2005 show of her collection
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute that took her from being a poorly kept secret to being a genuine sensation. But even as her 90th birthday comes and goes, she never seems to stop moving, doing workshops at department stores to help women break out of their staid stylistic habits, sharing the stage with Tavi Gevinson. In part, it’s who she’s always been, since she saved up 65 cents to buy a brooch at the age of 11 or 12. But it’s also, she allows, a way of keeping alive, or forgetting that, as she quotes a friend, “Everything I have two of, one of them hurts.” The same went for Maysles, who never seemed to be too busy to pick up a camera, whether it was to shoot modernday sharecroppers or Mission of Burma. His masterpieces will always be the movies the brothers made before David’s death in 1987 — Grey Gardens, Gimme Shelter, Salesman and many more — but his boundless generosity and incomparable eye inform every frame he ever shot. —Sam Adams (Ritz at the Bourse)
BRYN MAWR FILM INSTITUTE 824 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr, 610-527-9898, brynmawrfilm.org. Ivan the Terrible (2012, Russia, 135 min.): The fourth Ivan’s complicated reign comes to life in this theatercast of Yuri Grigorovich’s adaptation, performed by the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. Sun., May 17, 1 p.m., $20. Gods (2008, Peru, 120 min.): Spoiled teen siblings struggle to welcome their father’s humble-means fiancée into the family. Part of the film course “Coming of Age in Latin American Cinema.” Mon., May 18, 7:15 p.m., $12. Right at Your Door (2006,U.S., 96 min.): Angelenos react to the horrific news that their city has been targeted in a dirty-bomb attack in this edgy post-9/11 disaster movie. Tue., May 19, 7:15 p.m., $12. King John (2014, Canada, 171 min.): Theatercast of the Bard’s historical drama, starring Tom McCamus as the mercurial English monarch. Wed., May 20, 7 p.m., $20. THE COLONIAL THEATRE 227 Bridge St., Phoenixville, 610-917-1228, thecolonialtheatre.com. Repo Man (1984, U.S., 92 min.): Cult favorite starring Emilio Estevez as a directionless punk rocker who launches a promising career in the dangerous field of auto repossession. Fri., May 15, 9:45 p.m., $9. Random Harvest (1942, U.S., 126 min.): Wartime romance starring Ronald Colman as a veteran whose memories and relationships are erased by an untimely accident. Sun., May 17, 2 p.m., $9. Limited Partnership (2014, U.S., 74 min.): Part of PBS’ “Independent Lens” documentary series, this feature focuses on a pioneering gay couple that sparked the fight for marriage equality in the 1970s. Wed., May 20, 5:30 p.m., free. COUNTY THEATER 20 E. State St., Doylestown, 215-345-6789, countytheater. org. Got This (2015, U.S., TBA): View a rough cut of this indie film, currently being shot in Bucks County, as part of Saturday Afternoon Pictures’ “Behind the Screen” program. Wed., May 20, 7:30 p.m., $10.50. FREE LIBRARY, NORTHEAST BRANCH 2228 Cottman Ave., 215-685-0522, freelibrary.org. A View from the Bridge (1962, U.S., 110 min.): Arthur Miller’s tragic family tale set in 1950s Brooklyn. Sat., May 16, 11 a.m., free. FREE LIBRARY, WYOMING BRANCH 231 E. Wyoming Ave., 215-685-9158, freelibrary.org. Hugo (2011, U.S., 126 min.): Martin Scorcese’s magical family-friendly adventure, about a bright young boy (Asa Butterfield) who lives inside a train station. Sat., May 16, 2 p.m., free.
PHIL ADELPHIA CIT Y PAPER // MA Y 14 - MA Y 20, 2015 // C I T Y PA PER . N ET
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NEW MAD MAX: FURY ROAD // A
Thirty years after fighting his way beyond Thunderdome, Mad Max Rockatansky is back in all his leatherclad, hyperkinetic glory. This time it’s Tom Hardy gloweringly stoically at the onslaught of a punk/S&M gearhead apocalypse instead of Mel Gibson, but more important is the fact “ THERE
ARE FEW BETTER WAYS RIGHT NOW TO SPEND 80 MOVIE MINUTES THAN TO SEE ‘IRIS’”.
that original creator/director George Miller is back in the driver’s seat. Now 70, Miller drops a cinder block onto the accelerator before the title even appears onscreen and doesn’t remove it for the next two hours. The film is essentially one long car chase, amplified to rock opera grandiosity, that makes the Fast & Furious franchise feel like a rushhour traffic jam. While its predecessors are justly renowned for their death-defying stuntwork and frenetic visual style, the digital age has freed Miller to unleash a relentless trash-cinema masterpiece, a baroque symphony of mangled
bodies and exploding steel. His camera hurtles through the desert air like one more piece of vehicular debris, its every spiral capturing another gallery of end-times grotesqueries filigreed with
absurdist humor. Hardy acquits himself ably as the hero whose power lies less in action than in resigned, stubborn survival, but this
time out Max shares if not cedes the lead to Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa, a one-armed warrior out to deliver the local tyrant’s imprisoned harem to a matriarchal promised land. Miller thus turns in a bar-raising action film that subverts the very testosterone-fueled pretenders that it’s already handily outpaced.—Shaun Brady (wide release)
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BY ALL MEANS CELEBRATE ALBERT MAYSLES BY SEEING ‘IRIS’” . – KENNETH TURAN, LOS ANGELES TIMES
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ROCK/POP
EVENTS
C I T Y PA PER . N ET // MA Y 14 - MA Y 20, 2015 // PHIL ADELPHIA CIT Y PAPER
: MAY 14 - MAY 20 :
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GET OUT THERE
SURFER BLOOD
1000 PALMS is Surfer Blood’s third full-length and first since signing with Joyful Noise, the Indianapolis-based indie label with a roster that includes Lou Barlow and Why? “I Can’t Explain” is the first single, and it’s got the clear coat of clean, Florida boy charm and heavy reverb that made us fall in love with 2010’s Astro Coast. As you may have heard, the group’s guitarist, Thomas Fekete, went public with his struggle with cancer recently, starting a GoFundMe that’s already raised more than $73,000 for his still-large surgery bill. —Nikki Volpicelli
thursday
5.14
MEMPHIS $20-$95 // Through July 12, Walnut Street Theatre, 825 Walnut St., 215-574-3550, walnutstreettheatre.org. THEATER The Walnut’s production of this 2010 Tony Award-winning musical — written by Joe DiPietro, who penned last year’s Walnut Studio hit I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, and Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan — features Christopher Sutton as one of the first 1950s DJs to play Black music on mainstream radio. The score evokes the exciting sounds of Chuck Berry, The Temptations and the period’s great Black girl groups. —Mark Cofta
LET THE DOG SEE THE RABBIT $15-$20 // Through May 21, Lightning Rod Special at The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St., lightningrodspecial.com. THEATER Lightning Rod Special (formerly the Groundswell Theater) bills itself as “a raucous and contemplative physical theater
company” with artistic roots in the Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training and the Headlong Performance Institute, among other influences. They’re building on their FringeArts hits Hackles and Go Long Big Softie with an ambitious new piece created by a 13-actor ensemble and lead artist Mason Rosenthal, investigating the myriad ways that humans — nature’s protectors, but also its most dangerous threat — view non-human animals. —Mark Cofta
DAVID TORN $20 // Thu., May 14, 8 p.m., Philadelphia Art Alliance, 251 S. 18th St., arsnovaworkshop.com. JAZZ/ROCK As a producer,
David Torn serves as a bridge between the pop and experimental worlds, working with adventurous artists from David Bowie and Madonna to Tim Berne and Dave Douglas. As a composer/guitarist, the strange atmospherics that swathe his productions come to the fore, becoming immersive sonic landscapes ripe for exploration. He’s celebrating the release of his new ECM
BLOOD BROTHERS: $12-$14 // Thu., May 14, 8:30 p.m., with Turbo Fruits, Boot & Saddle, 1131 S. Broad St., 267-639-4528, bootandsaddlephilly.com. album, only sky, with his first U.S. solo tour in nearly 20 years. —Shaun Brady
f riday
5.15 PIFFARO
$15-$40 // Fri., May 15, 8 p.m., Trinity Center for Urban Life, 2212 Spruce St.; Sat., May 16, 8 p.m., Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Ave.; 215-235-8469, piffaro.org.
whose bold experiments with chromatic harmony and expressive melody can sound as fresh as the dawn. His vocal music will be the highlight of concerts this weekend by splendid Renaissance ensemble Piffaro that will also feature guest Renaissance choir Laughing Bird. —Peter Burwasser
LINA ALLEMANO’S TITANIUM RIOT
CLASSICAL Hearing music
$7-$10 // Fri., May 15, 8 p.m., The First Banana, 2152 E. Dauphin St., museumf ire.com/events.
that is half a millennium old can offer stunning revelations, including suggesting the old saw that there is really nothing new in art. Consider the work of one Cipriano de Rore, a Franco-Flemish composer who toiled in the first half of the 16th century, and
JAZZ Toronto-based trumpeter Lina Allemano has a gift for shaping sound; her free improvisations are less about blistering noise than contours and contrasts. She has some unique materials to play with in Titanium Riot, her electro-acoustic quartet that teams her own
sound in three-horn sextet arrangements, a lineup he’ll reprise at Chris’ on Friday. On the album, unexpected covers of The Band and Frank Zappa sit comfortably alongside his own smart, unassuming originals. —Shaun Brady
manipulated horn with analog synth, electric bass and drums. —Shaun Brady
TOM TALLITSCH
$15 // Fri., May 15, 8 and 10 p.m., Chris’ Jazz Café, 1421 Sansom St., 215-5683131, chrisjazzcafe.com. JAZZ Tenor saxophonist Tom Tallitsch possesses a warm, singing tone and a knack for melodic fluidity in both his writing and his soloing. On his latest, All Together Now (Posi-Tone), Tallitsch couches that
BRONCHO
$10 // Fri., May 15, 9 p.m., with Strange Faces and Palmas, Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-7399684, johnnybrendas.com. ROCK/POP Broncho made a hit song from “doo doo” with “Class Historian,” an insistently catchy, new wave-inspired single on last year’s Just Enough Hip to Be Woman. You could say this was the group’s breakthrough, which led to last month’s slew of European dates with The Districts, and a Stateside tour with
PHIL ADELPHIA CIT Y PAPER // MA Y 14 - MA Y 20, 2015 // C I T Y PA PER . N ET
its season with Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimondâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clever musical about a 9-year-old leukemia patient who loses her hair and embarks on a magical quest to regain it. Barrymore Award-winner Kate Galvin directs. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Mark Cofta
The Growlers. Now, the groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s touching down in Philly to play with Palmas (ex-Locals), the vintagesounding surf rock fivesome thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s currently busy working out their summer debut in a studio near you. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Nikki Volpicelli
EAST INDIA YOUTH $10-$12 // Fri., May 15, 8:30 p.m., with Skeleton Lipstick, Boot & Saddle, 1131 S. Broad St., 267-639-4528, bootandsaddlephilly.com. POP/ELECTRONIC
Fledgling electronic art-pop auteur William Doyle wears his influences and his ambition on his sleeve, making plain his veneration for the greats â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Eno, Wyatt, Bowie, Tennant & Lowe, etc. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and casting himself in their impeccably tasteful, exultantly English lineage. His heartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a cagier matter. Culture of Volume (XL) follows last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mercury Prize-nominated debut with a more songoriented approach, but still
MARINE ANDRIEUX
JARET FARRETUSCO
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veers from industrial technoise workouts to shimmery dance-pop to lush, darkly romantic O.M.D.-ish synth balladry â&#x20AC;&#x201D; all of it tantalizingly close to convincing. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;K. Ross Hoffman
saturday
5.16
DANI GIRL
$25 // Sat-Sun., May 16-17, 11th Hour Theatre Company at The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 267-987-9865, 11thhourtheatrecompany.org. THEATER The Next Step Concert Series â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 11th Hour Theatre Companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s robust collection of rehearsed singings of contemporary musicals â&#x20AC;&#x201D; concludes
HEARTWOOD MUSIC FESTIVAL
$10-$15 // Sat., May 16, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Awbury Arboretum, 1 Awbury Rd., pfs.org. FOLK/FEST â&#x20AC;&#x153;Awbury is practically in our backyard!â&#x20AC;? exclaims Philadelphia Folksong Society prez Lisa Schwartz when asked why the brand new Heartwood Festival is launching at the Germantown arboretum. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is like putting out the welcome mat for the big backyard. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in the city but you wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know it!â&#x20AC;? The Society is bringing the cream of the local music crop â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Full Frontal Folk (harmony), No Good Sister (harmony and original songs), RUNA (Celtic) and Norman Taylor (blues) to single out a few. Bring the kids; there will be activities and entertainment aimed especially at them. And bring the appetite because the food trucks will be there, surrounded by artisan crafts. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Mary Armstrong
sunday
5.17 LA GIARA
$25 // Sun., May 17, 4 p.m., International House, 3701 Chestnut St., 215387-5125, ihousephilly.org, lagiaramusic.com. MUSIC/THEATER Privately everyone believes their family saga would make a great feature film, but composer and lyricist Patricia King Haddad proves it by sculpting this â&#x20AC;&#x153;musical drama in concertâ&#x20AC;? from scraps of stories her mother shared over the years. Philly queen
of storytellers Charlotte Blake Alston is the narrator, spinning the tale from Sicily to South Philly to Colorado between songs that range from pop to opera and more. Haddad herself reigns over the piano, beaming as the family curse of La Giara â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the water jug her grandfather impatiently shattered back in Sicily â&#x20AC;&#x201D; appears to be well lifted. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Mary Armstrong
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tuesday
PSYCH/SPACE ROCK
rhythms of vintage ’70s Krautrock. They’ve also enlisted wily Frankfurt knob-twiddler Uwe Schmidt (aka Atom™ and, in his more Latin-leaning moments, Señor Coconut), who used one of Kraftwerk’s old Korgs to further woozy up the trio’s creepy-yet-comforting swamp-dub grooves. —K. Ross Hoffman
These guys may be Chilean, but they are unabashed Germanophiles, a fixation which, in the case of the four lengthy, lysergic meanders comprising their third
$25 // Tue., May 19, 8 p.m., TLA, 334 South St., 215922-1011, livenation.com.
album, III (Sacred Bones), extends beyond the umlaut and their well-honed handle on the rigidly rubbery
ROCK/POP Bobby Gillespie’s got a curious résumé: He went from playing drums for Jesus & Mary Chain to singing lead for Primal Scream. Despite both groups just having Austin’s Psych Fest on the same stage on the same day, they’re pretty much pop opposites. But if you liked JMC’s ’85 breakout Psychocandy, you might like 1991’s Screamadelica — Primal Scream’s third full-length and first to receive proper
5.19
FÖLLAKZOID
$12 // Tue., May 19, 9 p.m., with Blues Control and Writhing Squares, Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215739-9684, johnnybrendas.com.
PRIMAL SCREAM
shock and awe thanks to its still weird merger of house, techno and tripped out, jam band-leaning guitar riffs. —Nikki Volpicelli
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C I T Y PA PER . N ET // MA Y 14 - MA Y 20, 2015 // PHIL ADELPHIA CIT Y PAPER
REVIEWS // OPENIN GS // LISTIN GS // RECIPES
SET TABLE: The full spread at Dubu includes L.A. kalbi, soondubu and a serious selection of side dishes. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA
DUBU // 1333 W. Cheltenham Ave., Elkins Park, 215-782-3828, thedubu.com // Open daily, 10:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m.
OPENING
BY CAROLINE RUSSOCK
HOT POT
Soondubu specialist Dubu is a sleek new addition to the Korean dining scene. WHETHER YOU’RE IN THE MARKET for freshly made mandoo, take-out kimchi stew, a flat of persimmons or a rejuvenating face mask, the More Shopping Center, located just north of the city border in Elkins Park, is the go-to spot for all things Korean. Anchored by H Mart, a well-stocked Korean supermarket with one of the best
food courts in town on the second floor, the already incredible dining scene at this mini mall got even better as of May 1. In an adjacent building across the parking lot, three new dining destinations recently opened, including Sang Kee, the beloved Chinatown Peking duck mini chain. Also new is Caffebene, a Korean coffee-shop
27
chain serving fruit-topped waffles, gelato and frappes. But the real star of More owner Yongsik Choi’s shopping center expansion is Dubu, an elegant addition to the city’s Korean dining scene. Dubu sets itself apart from Olney Korean barbecue spots on first glance. The dark, wood-paneled dining room is warm and minimal, moodily lit and modern. On a wall near the entrance there’s a brushstroke-accented mural depicting the process of making tofu, the primary ingredient in Dubu’s signature dish, soondubu jjigae, a spicy tofu stew served in a stone pot. General manager Steven Lee explains that Dubu is looking to bring the Korean dining experience to a wider audience. After working in New York, Lee came to Philadelphia and found that the Korean options didn’t measure up to those in Koreatowns in Manhattan and Queens. Aside from a refined design, Dubu is distinguished a menu that focuses not only on Korean staples like bibimbap and handmade mandoo, but also an array of vegetable-based dishes for those looking for healthier options. There are vegetarian and vegan options all over the menu — bowls of bubbling soondubu with tofu and mushrooms, meatless dolsot bibimbap and pan-fried jap chae noodles, minus the beef. Even the kimchi, typically fermented with some sort of seafood, is available vegetarian. “Korean people think that kimchi is the essential stuff,” Lee says. At Dubu there are two varieties of kimchi, one that’s been fermented and used as an ingredient in soondubu and one that’s mixed fresh daily with briny oysters folded in, as part of the banchan spread — a selection of side dishes that completes the meal. The concept of banchan is a novel one to many non-Korean diners. “Americans think that banchan is an appetizer or free stuff, but whatever they want to think is totally fine with us,” Lee explains. The small dishes that land on your table soon after you arrive are meant to complement the meal, and Lee is extremely proud of the spread at Dubu. He explains that the restaurant has
a dedicated banchan specialist, Mrs. Yisoon Cho, who has 20 years of experience. “She’s always here, always preparing different things, so the banchan is always changing.” Aside from oyster-studded kimchi, Mrs. Cho puts out something rarely seen in Philadelphia: yellow croaker. The palm-sized whole fish has been marinated in lemon and salt then crisply deep fried. Some of Mrs. Cho’s other standouts include fried tofu with a spicy chile-sesame sauce and a gorgeous take on potato salad. Lee says Dubu’s banchan selection is getting high marks, especially from older Korean patrons, customers with a serious penchant for authenticity who prefer even their restaurant meals to have a taste of home. If you’re in the market for something a little meatier, Dubu does barbecue, serving all of the staples like galbi and bulgogi. “We don’t have tabletop barbecue, which is good, because you miss the cooking experiences, but you don’t smell when you get out of the restaurant,” Lee says. With a full liquor license, there’s a decent selection of wine and beer, but drinks-wise, soju, a boozy but crisp rice wine, is the way to go. It’s served chilled in 375 milliliter bottles with shot glasses. For now, it’s only available by the bottle, but come summer Dubu is planning on rolling out a menu of soju cocktails
The restaurant has a dedicated banchan specialist, Mrs. Yisoon Cho, who has 20 years of experience. and fruit-infused soju. Just a few weeks in, Lee sees lots of potential in Dubu, saying that if the feedback is good and the patrons are there, he’s going to look into another location, probably near Chinatown. (caroline@citypaper.net, @carolinerussock)
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PHIL ADELPHIA CIT Y PAPER // MA Y 14 - MA Y 20, 2015 // C I T Y PA PER . N ET
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AMUSE BOUCHE
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LOS JIMENEZ // 2654 S. Sixth St., 267-773-8440. You can’t swing a piñata bat in this town without hitting a Styrofoam plate of al pastor. Over the past 20 years, there’s been such an influx of immigrants from the Mexican state of Puebla, where these tacos are a specialty, they’re practically a specialty of South Philly as well. Pork and pineapple are the essentials, and according to chef Justino Jimenez, legit al pastor must be cooked on a vertical spit. That’s the traditional way in Puebla, where his ancestors adopted the custom from the Lebanese immigrants who brought shawarma to central Mexico. “Here [the majority of taquerias] cook the meat on the plancha, which changes the flavor,” Jimenez laments. Not so at his 15-seat, cash-only restaurant, Los Jimenez Mexican Cocina, which opened in April on a stretch of Oregon Avenue you wouldn’t travel down unless you were going to Tony Luke’s or the PPA impound lot. Step inside this humble storefront, and just behind the counter, you can see the brick-red pork butt spinning slowly on the spit, its pineapple crown releasing sweet, tangy fruit juice that bastes the meat beneath. I ordered some and watched Jimenez with a sharp, short knife and a few deft flicks of his wrist, shave the pork right off the spit onto three San Roman corn tortillas below. By the time a cheerful cashier passed me a plate of the cilantro-and-onion-flecked tacos (along with a cup of cucumber-lime agua fresca — amazing), I was drooling. But the spit can be finicky. The pineapple was the strongest, most magnified flavor of the fruit I’ve experienced in an al pastor — it tasted like it had been sous-vide in its own juices — but the shavings of pork were crispy and dry, requiring a thorough drench in Jimenez’s cool salsa verde to rehydrate. For Jimenez, who grew up on his father’s farm in Puebla, moved to Philly in 2000 and spent the last three years working for Marc Vetri, this restaurant is the culmination of a dream. He actually turned down a promotion at Vetri to set off on his own. I saw plenty of that pedigree in the suadero tacos, which arrived cradling cured and braised beef shoulder and belly, a spot-on balance of succulent and crispy. The quesadillas were fantastic as well, their filling of sautéed onion and squash blossom glued together with gooey Oaxaca cheese. It was too bad about the al pastor. From the looks of the slim column of pork rotating on the spit, I may have been getting to the end of the cut. Guess I’ll just have to give them another try. (aerace.citypaper@gmail.com, @adamerace)
C I T Y PA PER . N ET // MA Y 14 - MA Y 20, 2015 // PHIL ADELPHIA CIT Y PAPER
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PUBLIC NOTICES AIRLINE CAREERS begin here-Get hands on training as FAA certified Aviation Technician. Financial Aid for qualified students. Job placement assistance. CALL Aviation Institute of Maintenance 888-8349715. ALL AREAS ROOMATES.COM Lonely? bored? Broke? Find the perfect roommate to complement your personality and lifestyle at Roomates.com! ALL AREAS ROOMATES.COM Lonely? bored? Broke? Find the perfect roommate to complement your personality and lifestyle at Roomates.com! PREGNANT? THINKING OF ADOPTION? Talk with caring agency specializing in matching Birthmothers with Families Nationwide. LIVING EXPENSES PAID. Call 24/7 Abby’s One True Gift Adoptions. 866-413-6293. Void in Illinois/ New Mexico/Indiana.
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SAWMILLS SAWMILLS from only $4397.00 MAKE MONEY & SAVE MONEY with your own bandmill-Cut lumber any dimension. In stock ready to ship. FREE Info & DVD: www.NorwoodSawmills. com/300N 1-800-578-1363 Ext. 300N. START YOUR HUMANITARIAN CAREER! Change the lives of others while creating a sustainable future. 1, 6, 9, 18 month programs available. Apply today! www.OneWorldCenter.org 269591-0518 info@oneworldcenter.org TRUCK MECHANIC/WELDER This is a mechanic position playing a critical role in our growing repair services of heavy duty refuse equipment, including various makes/models of sweepers, boom trucks, and refuse equipment. Mechanics perform a variety of duties related to the repair of heavy truck bodies and trucks with focus on complete chassis, body and hydraulic equipment repairs. Technicians are responsible for diagnosing operational problems and making repairs on the trucks and hydraulic equipment. In addition to great jobs, we offer great benefits: Positive work environment Aggressive market based pay Employer Paid Medical, Dental, Vision & Life Insurance 401(k) with Company Match Paid Time Off & Paid Holidays Send Resumes to hr@mawaste.com or fax to 866-723-5250 IMMEDIATE OPENINGS $500.00 hiring bonus offered WERNER ENTERPRISES IS HIRING! Dedicated, Regional, & OTR opportunities! Need your CDL? 4 wk training avail! Don’t wait, call today to get started! 866-494-8633
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LEARNING CURVE DIRECTORY EDUCATION MEDICAL BILLING TRAINEES NEEDED! Train to become a Medical Office Assistant! NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED! Online training gets you job ready! HS Diploma/GED & PC Internet needed! 1-888-424-9412.
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GARAGE SALES HUGE MULTI YARD SALE 5/16 HUGE multi yard sale.5/16 8am-2pm Raindate 5/17. Antiques,vintage,housewares..tons of stuff. 368 Cross Keys Rd. Sicklerville,NJ 08081
FOR SALE CARNIVAL OF COLLECTABLES Over 100 Antique & Arts Dealers under one roof!Vintage Clothing, Mid Century, Furniture, Linens, Jewelry. OPEN Tues-Sun. 368 Cross Keys Rd., Sicklerville,NJ 08081 DISH TV Starting at $19.99/month (for 12 mos.) SAVE! Regular Price $34.99. Ask About FREE SAME DAY Installation! CALL Now! 888-992-1957
LAND/ LOTS FOR SALE LAND FOR SALE Spectacular 3 to 22 acre lots with deepwater access – Located in an exclusive development on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Amenities include community pier, boat ramp, paved roads and private sandy beach. May remind you of the Jersey Shore from days long past. Great climate, boating, fishing, clamming and National Seashore beaches nearby. Absolute buy of a lifetime, recent FDIC bank failure makes these 25 lots available at a fraction of their original price. Priced at only $55,000 to $124,000. For info call (757)4422171, e-mail: oceanlandtrust@yahoo. com, pictures on website: http://Wibiti. com/5KQN
VACATION/ SEASONAL RENTAL VACATION RENTALS OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND. Best selection of affordable rentals. Full/ partial weeks. Call for FREE brochure. Open daily. Holiday Resort Services. 1-800638-2102. Online reservations: www. holidayoc.com
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PHIL ADELPHIA CIT Y PAPER // MA Y 14 - MA Y 20, 2015 // C I T Y PA PER . N ET