34th Street Magazine

The Art Of The Documentary

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:56:28 -0500

Street chatted with The Art of the Steal director Don Argott and producer Sheena M. Joyce. The couple owns 9.14 Pictures, a production company located in Philadelphia.

Street: You’ve been on tour for a while now. What has the reception been like towards the film?

City Of Brotherly Theft?

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:50:36 -0500

According to Don Argott’s riveting documentary The Art of the Steal, one of the biggest thefts of recent memory was conducted not by masked men with guns, but by Philadelphia’s own elected officials. The film tells the history of Dr. Albert Barnes (a Penn graduate) and his prestigious art collection, home to hundreds of original paintings by masters such as Matisse, Renoir, Cezanne and Van Gogh.

Written In The Stars

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:43:13 -0500

Roman Polanski has directed yet another cinematic success with The Ghost Writer, a political thriller — and adaptation of Robert Harris’s book of the same name — that acutely delves into the lives of its high-powered characters, isolated from their country and the rest of the world on a secluded, bleak and wintry Massachusetts island compound.

Ego Of The Week: Maura Goldstein

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:18:19 -0500

Junior Maura Goldstein, Penn’s resident locally grown foodie, is trying to revamp Penn students’ eating habits through FarmEcology and PennGreen. This eco-friendly superstar is moving mountains and canoeing through life.

Street: What don’t most people know about you?

Maura Goldstein: Despite my last name and institution of choice, I’m just your average shiksa.

Street: There are two types of people at Penn, those who___ and those who___?

Toasts & Roasts

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:13:52 -0500

This weekend was super gay. No, we don’t mean happy, we mean homosexual. Toasts to that.

So, Penn won some bid to host the first ever IvyQ conference — an intellectual, Ivy League gathering of the gays, if you will. Oh, and apparently it was this past weekend. Though most of you probs didn’t know about it, we toast all that inter-ivy hooking up that happened at the conference-inspired parties — Twinks and Drinks, anyone?

Overheard: 2.25.10

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:10:31 -0500

Chatting in Williams Cafe:

Girl: If I e-mail a deaf person, do I have to write everything in ASL? [Ed. Note: ASL = American Sign Language]

Hitting on a chick at Smoke’s:

Dude: Yeah, but I got all of the charges dropped, so I’m cool.

Word On The Street

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:08:43 -0500

ChatRoulette is completely insane.

When you press play and your web cam turns on, you enter a land of utter and complete crackpot madness. And I love it.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about — hello slow news day DP centerpiece — ChatRoulette is a web site where you video chat with a random stranger anywhere in the world. You can see them and they can see you. Don’t like what you see? Press next and you’ll get another stranger. Strangers can next you too. It is simultaneously demoralizing and totally thrilling.

True Life

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:06:05 -0500

I want to leave my mark on the world. And frequently I do, with a chisel tip paint pen. There’s no bigger rush than scrawling my tag on a clean-painted surface, staking my claim on mailboxes and traffic signs right under the noses of oblivious passers-by. My name is all over Philadelphia, declaring, “I was here.” The streets belong to us and it’s our prerogative to leave some evidence of our existence. Thus, I like to think of what I do as a service to the community, a gesture of populist re-appropriation. But there are some — like the po-po — who call it a criminal act.

Know Your Noodle

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:59:00 -0500

Getting your Asian noodles straight can be difficult, and menus are often unhelpful. When you don’t know what you’ve ordered, you may spend the meal eyeing your neighbor’s lo mein enviously, pushing around your own undesired plate of thick noodles (or vice versa). We here at Street sympathize, so we’ve put together a basic guide on some of the most popular noodles to help clear things up.

Wheat Noodles

Masterpiece Noodle

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:53:25 -0500

Food tatses best when it's fresh, even better when you can watch it be made.

Such is the case at Nanzhou Hand Drawn Noodle House, a small restaurant on Race St. in Chinatown. The noodles are hand-drawn in the small kitchen in the back, and the chef shows no hesitation in demonstrating how he takes what looks like a raw loaf of bread, pulls, twists, stretches, flips, rotates only to draw perfect, spaghetti-like noodles.

We Always Pack

sarahbethmckay — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:47:44 -0500

I imagine he sits in a wood-paneled university library, the kind with bronze statues and painted portraits, thumbing crumbly pages, sipping spiced coffee. My brother, the writer, guarding the privileged thoughts in his head and sharing only those he sees fit to spare.

He always packs more books than clothes; four t-shirts for a five-day vacation, one pair of torn jeans. But he never reads all the books, he just likes the options, I think.

“Which one are you going to read first?” I asked before last summer’s trip.

Pho King Around

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:47:28 -0500

The “Four Amigos” behind the noodles talk to Street about Disney World, MSG and the perfect $5 pot of Pho.

Street: When did the idea for Pho King arise? Is there a story behind its origin?

From The Editor: 2.25.10

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:44:56 -0500

Ah, the mid-semester crunch: the week or so before Spring Break when professors refuse to acknowledge the demands of other classes, TAs are overwhelmed to the point of becoming useless and Penn students become notably hermitic.

Wait, Hahahaha, Make That Face Again

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:37:20 -0500

Oh my god, that was so crazy. No, seriously, when you do that with your nose you look exactly like a ferret. Like, a baby ferret or a regular one. Can you imagine if you were a ferret? I would be like, “Ew my roommate is a ferret and she scurries over my feet basically every second.” Do you think there’s like, an alternate universe where everyone has a ferret for a roommate? How do they even make money to pay the rent? Do they just eat like all the food in the fridge even if it has someone’s name on it? Wait, they better not have!

Intersections and Intersections

sarahbethmckay — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:36:13 -0500

“I don’t go to clubs much.”

She hadn’t asked him anything; clubs are loud.

“What?”

“Sorry… never mind.”

He wasn’t trying to talk to her. But now he’s noticed her. A small, WASP-y girl. She looks like everyone in his family, like his little sister with straighter, blonder hair. She’s with a few friends — a brunette one, a curly one, a dyed one. But she looks different. She fills her top more. She smiles easier, looks better.

This Week In...

sarahbethmckay — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:29:54 -0500

MUSIC

Tonight : Wild Beasts, Johnny Brenda’s, $10, 21+

Looking to get ahead of the curve on the next Pitchfork megastars? Wild Beasts’ star is rising pretty damn fast, and for good reason; it’s not that often that you can find a vocalist that pulls off a combination of yodeling, falsetto wailing and singing with skill and panache.

Tonight: St. Vincent, First Unitarian Church, $10, All Ages

It's A Small World After All

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:28:29 -0500

It’s easy to forget that there is a whole musical world out there full of artists who are taking their own traditional styles and fashioning them into contemporary masterpieces that challenge our preconceptions of what music is, has been and will be. Sure, we’ve given it a name — you’ll find many of these artists dumped in the “World Music” bin at any record store, but that’s the very reason we’ve forgotten about them. Some greats have managed to make their way into the mainstream musical lexicon — Ali Farka Touré, Tito Puente, Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

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Picasso And The Avant-Garde In Philadelphia

sarahbethmckay — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:25:55 -0500

It is all too easy to buy into the one-dimensional cult of genius that surrounds the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso and is propagated by art historians, intellectuals and sometimes, the artist himself. Blinded by hero worship, many shows and retrospectives of his work tend to read as compulsory efforts to represent his megalithic talent. But “Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris,” on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through April, works hard to debunk the myth of Picasso as a singular genius.

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It's Already Happening

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:24:15 -0500

Belgian indie rock vet Dieter Sermeus has seen it all, from the heyday of punk to the early 90s lo-fi haze. His newest group’s most recent release, Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight, is the opposite of any past lo-fi he may have been involved in. Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen is a disarmingly tidy record — it sounds like it was recorded in a vacuum.

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We're Going Green

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:21:28 -0500

A collaboration between DJ Green Lantern, the former DJ for Eminem’s Shady Records, and Styles P of The LOX, The Green Ghost Project sounds exactly like what it is: a bunch of talented guys coming together to make hip-hop they themselves would actually listen to. And we can’t complain about that.

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One Track Mind

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:20:00 -0500

Damon Albarn’s non-Blur work has always been notable for its effortlessly vibrant way of flirting with a diverse range of genres and styles. This colorful auditory explosion is jarringly absent from “Stylo,” the new single from the Albarn-helmed cartoon-band Gorillaz.

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Under The Radar

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:15:38 -0500

K-Os has always been one of those artists on the brink of success. Maybe it’s his Canadian heritage that’s holding him back; his smooth hip-hop has swiftly flown under the musical radar for nearly all of his 17-year career. However, his 2002 single “Superstarr Part Zero” deserves to be heard. Drawing his beat from Soho’s old-school dance track “Hot Music,” K-Os shows us sampling at its best: the beat’s piano and drum swagger meshes perfectly with his soulful hook and fast-paced rhymes. The scratching and rich backing vocals don’t hurt either.

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Climbing The North Face

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:11:31 -0500

For a film based on the well-known attempt by a set of climbers to scale the north face of the Eiger in 1936, the German-made thriller North Face perfects the art of the cliffhanger (literally) — even for an audience aware of the ultimate historical outcome.

From the moment the main characters Toni Kurz (Benno Furmann) and Andi Hintertoisser (Florian Lukas) — two Nazi soldiers who prefer pitons over pistols — approach the deathly Eiger, director Philipp Stolzl crafts the story of the climber’s ascent with visual and emotional precision.

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We Both Do

sarahbethmckay — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:08:54 -0500

John stepped out into the cold evening and sat down on the apartment building steps. The chilly concrete seemed to cut right through his thin khakis, but he only felt the sting from a distance. He lifted his glass to eye level and admired the whiskey’s amber glow against the overcast sky. A mass of clouds had rolled in that afternoon, a dense yellowish-grey curtain that promised snow overnight. He shivered a little and set his drink down on the steps, but the glass hit the concrete harder than he meant it to, with a loud clink. His left hand curled tighter around his cell phone, waiting.

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Forgotten By The Academy

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:03:58 -0500

Each year as Oscar nominations are announced, worthy candidates are inevitably left off the nominations shortlist. Most of the time, these contenders are soon forgotten, but we decided to highlight our favorites that didn’t quite make the cut.

BEST PICTURE

Broken Embraces
The latest from Spanish visionary Pedro Almodovar features a typically offbeat plot and another fantastic performance from his muse, Penelope Cruz. Why, then, did it fail to snag one of this race’s top spots, or even a Best Foreign Film nod?

Moon

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Defibrillator: "Heavenly Creatures" (1994)

rayajalabi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:01:48 -0500

The name Peter Jackson is synonymous with fantasy, thanks to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but this has not always been the case. One of Jackson’s earliest films, Heavenly Creatures, exhibits his familiar talents in a much more subdued and disturbing manner.

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Island Dream Team

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:55:01 -0500

Street caught up with legends Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio and Sir Ben Kingsley to discuss their new film, Shutter Island

Street: How did you approach this film, and what drew you to the material?

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Overheard: 2.18.10

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:53:20 -0500

Standing alone outside of Huntsman:

Girl: So I see that nobody cares about me.

Outside of Starbucks:

Dude: Damn, why didn’t I wear a jacket today? My nips are so hard.

Word On The Street

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:50:03 -0500

When I tell people that I’m from Buffalo, NY I get two inaccurate responses: “that’s cool!” and “it’s cold there.” These people have never lived in Buffalo because it is neither cool nor cold. Let’s clarify: it’s economically depressed and snowy. In fact, if you knew anything about weather patterns you would know Buffalo does not get cold enough and that’s why it gets annual snow dumpings. Here’s a brief lesson: Buffalo sits on Lake Erie. Wind blows across the lake creating our infamous ‘lake effect’ blizzards.

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True Life

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:48:29 -0500

Since my graduation in December, I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been asked, “So, what do you DO now, exactly?”

I’ve come up with a pretty standard answer. I tell them that I work at a restaurant (true), that I volunteer downtown (also true), that I spend a considerable time at the gym (miraculously true, especially considering the fact that I’m not paying for my membership) and that I’ve been catching up on my leisure reading (entirely false). For some, that answer suffices and life moves on. But others get more philosophical asking how I feel about it all.

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Battle of the Food Carts

sarahbethmckay — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:41:18 -0500

Constantly on the run, we Penn students enjoy the convenience of food trucks on campus. With an abundance of offerings, the real question remains: which one to choose? If you have a hankering for falafel, tacos or a breakfast sandwich, follow this guide to food cart eats.

From The Editor: 2.18.10

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:38:58 -0500

Most of my friends don’t know where the Charles Addams Fine Arts Hall is.

“It’s the glass and brick building on 36th and Walnut,” I attempt to explain.

“Annenberg?”

“No. Right across from the Bookstore.”

“Oh, the new building. I’m so glad that stupid boardwalk is finally gone.”

And so on and so on. It’s really frustrating. Eventually, I give up: “It’s the building with the creepy hand gate.” And pretty much everyone knows where the creepy hand gate is.

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Deluge Of Rouge

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:21:20 -0500

At Penn, weekends are more than just a reprieve from a stressful week of classes, midterms and the like. For many, they start on Thursdays and are filled with busy days and boozy nights. As such, weekend brunches do double duty as a time to recap said nights while feeling productive (well, socially at least) during the day.

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Food Happenings

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:20:24 -0500

Blackfish BYOB is offering complimentary wine on Fridays, 5 — 6:30 p.m. and after 9 p.m.

Tickets for the Brewer’s Plate (Mar. 14, Penn Museum), an annual celebration of local restaurants and brews, are on sale for $55 a person until Feb. 28th.

Take advantage of the last (for now) all-you-can-eat sushi at Pod (Feb. 23, $25).

Xochitl will reopen Feb. 22 with a new chef (Lucio Palazzo, who earned his chops at Percy Street BBQ and Zahav) and a new menu.

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Defibrillator: "Taxi Driver" (1976)

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:09:11 -0500

A few years ago, I watched Raging Bull on a whim. Having finally appreciated a movie not starring Will Ferrell, I vowed to make my way through the rest of Martin Scorsese’s greatest hits. Next up was Taxi Driver. Needless to say, I was not prepared for the emotional and mental punch to the gut that this masterpiece served up.

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This Week In...

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:05:26 -0500

MUSIC

Thursday, 2/18: Mission of Burma with Sleeper Agent, First Unitarian Church, $16, All Ages

Mission of Burma is one of the most important bands of the past 20 years, and once you hear them play, you’ll immediately know why. Their classic punk sound is so true to form thanks to the fact that they peaked in the early 80s and took a break until 2002. Make sure they don’t go on another hiatus any time soon by traveling back in time to a show that you and your cool uncle can BOTH enjoy.

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First And Foremost

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:57:13 -0500

Everyone loves telling stories. Whether reliving last weekend’s escapades, reminiscing about high school or repeating the absolutely ridiculous thing a professor said in class this week, this urge to share snapshots of daily life is embraced by Philadelphia’s First Person Arts. Now in its tenth year, First Person Arts is committed to promoting and facilitating the art of the memoir and documentary through a variety of mediums. Everyone has a story to tell — First Person Arts can help you find yours.

Adult Education Courses

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Say Yes

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:51:24 -0500

Yeasayer’s sophomore album Odd Blood is deceptive. The first song, “The Children,” is a pretentiously experimental jumble of robotic noises and creepy, boogeyman vocals. However, the severe anxiety produced by the album’s opening subsides and it’s easy to get lost in the second song. “Ampling Alp” is a fatherly heart-to-heart set to a reggae beat. From there on, the album unravels as an opus that is delightfully cacophonous and intensely enjoyable.

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Say Yes

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:51:24 -0500

Yeasayer’s sophomore album Odd Blood is deceptive. The first song, “The Children,” is a pretentiously experimental jumble of robotic noises and creepy, boogeyman vocals. However, the severe anxiety produced by the album’s opening subsides and it’s easy to get lost in the second song. “Ampling Alp” is a fatherly heart-to-heart set to a reggae beat. From there on, the album unravels as an opus that is delightfully cacophonous and intensely enjoyable.

read more

Say Yes

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:51:24 -0500

Yeasayer’s sophomore album Odd Blood is deceptive. The first song, “The Children,” is a pretentiously experimental jumble of robotic noises and creepy, boogeyman vocals. However, the severe anxiety produced by the album’s opening subsides and it’s easy to get lost in the second song. “Ampling Alp” is a fatherly heart-to-heart set to a reggae beat. From there on, the album unravels as an opus that is delightfully cacophonous and intensely enjoyable.

read more

Blockley Gets Lively

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:47:37 -0500

Located at 38th and Ludlow, the Blockley Pourhouse is one of the newest additions to the campus bar scene. The bar is also half venue — according to the Blockley’s website, the room is organized so that the stage is the “focal point of the room." Acts play in front of the bar, with room for a small dance floor in between. On the sides of the room, there are tables that offer sub-par (but not terrible) views. The sound system is, for the most part, excellent.

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Defibrillator: "Sixteen Going On Seventeen," Sound Of Music (1965)

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:41:30 -0500

I was 16, going on 17 when I truly recognized the mesmerizing quality of Liesl and her merry troup of curtain-wearing siblings.

It was most certainly not the first time I had seen The Sound Of Music. In fact, I’d watched it approximately five times a year since the age of three. But there was something so intrinsically different about hearing the lyrics of “Sixteen Going On Seventeen” at the exact moment I turned 16.

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Dubstep Takes On The World

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:38:44 -0500

Once again, the Brits have beaten us to the punch with the next music craze: meet dubstep. This phenomenon, one that you don’t even know you’ve heard of, began in South London’s underground dance scene almost ten years ago. Since then, dubstep has been maturing outside the eye of the mainstream, only recently infiltrating the world of popular music.

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R.I.P. Music Television

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:34:08 -0500

When I was a not-so-rebellious preteen, MTV was the coolest. My dad introduced me to The Real World and Spring Break, but it was the music videos that really got me. As an aspiring music snob and wannabe aesthete, music videos were the perfect marriage of sound and sight.

Back then, bands couldn’t get away with not releasing videos. Fast forward ten years and the only recent-ish video I can recall is “Single Ladies.” Simply put, MTV hasn’t been “music television” for a while. So it makes sense that last week MTV finally announced a logo change.

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The Worst Deja Vu

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:31:09 -0500

This is going to sound harsh, but we are exhausted. We are exhausted by the lack of rhythm and blues in today’s supposed R&B, churned out by a revolving door of producers who seem to have forgotten how to make a three-minute song original. Usher’s Raymond vs. Raymond is the perfect example of this problem.

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Inside The Artist's Studio

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:20:28 -0500

Entering the studio, afternoon light pours through windows spanning two walls. Caroline Harrison hurries to the back corner of the room and emerges from behind easels and canvases with several damp watercolor paintings. An open window during the blizzard got them wet, but Caroline explains they aren’t too important — just landscapes and some portraits from the summer in Italy. She carefully lays them out on the floor to dry.

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Toasts & Roasts

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:13:06 -0500

Penn girls aren’t known for their saucy antics. Maybe it was the all that V-day lovin’ or snow day cabin fever, but this week Penn ladies were naughtier than ever. Up top, ladies!

Once again the Vagina Monologuers put on a scandalous performance. No, we’re not referring to all that talk about orgasms, pussy and pubes but rather the “wardrobe malfunction” during both shows. Yes, both shows. For those seated in the nosebleed section, there was definite nipple action.

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An Interview With Louisa Roeder

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:05:54 -0500

One half of the force behind Guy French, this former Tabard – who graduated in 2006 with a degree in Art History and a minor in French and Fine Arts – offers sage advice for Penn fashionistas.

Street: What inspired you to get into fashion? Was that your original career plan?

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French Dressing

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:37:01 -0500

Ladies, picture this: It’s May 2010 and Penn has just ousted you from the warm security of its bubble. You’re joining the ranks of serious society and the Uggs and leggings you’ve grown accustomed to won’t impress anyone in the office.

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Ego Of The Week: Arthur Gardner Smith

rayajalabi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:24:14 -0500

It’s February, and you know what that means! Seniors are running rampant, eager to fill their Feb Club cards and claim a spot on the holy plaque at Smokes. Helming this crusade is Class of 2010 President Arthur Gardner Smith, a Milwaukee native majoring in finance and minoring in having an awesome senior year. Did we mention he’s having an awesome senior year? Because he's having an awesome senior year.

Street: What don’t most people know about you?

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