Just imagine how much easier your day would be if you just had one knife to take care of all your killing and goring needs. No more dull blades! No more trying to hack through bone for what seems like hours! Instead, see how fast you can stab a chicken through a leather biker coat and go out and enjoy the rest of your day. Our hilarious friends at Secret Pants have the steely remedy, and it will even cut through a rubber head filled with pennies!
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Another name now synonymous with “lovable underdog” and “Philly” (what is it about this place that invites such hard-earned athletic moral victories?), Vince Papale was a Philly school teacher back in 1976, when then-new head Eagles’ coach Dick Vermeil tried to light a fire under his moribund franchise by announcing he would have an open try-out for anyone who wanted a shot. Not one to back down from a challenge, Papale tried out and made the cut, then, even more impressively, actually made the team, and was voted the captain of special teams, where his bone-jarring hits and unswerving instinct for the ball served him well. All this, plus he endearingly refers to the native football team here as the “Iggles,” which proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt, his Philly bona fides.
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John Faye and Brittany Rotondo were minding their own business back in Philly in 2008 — Faye was already busy as the frontman of IKE — when they first met. But the pair quickly bonded on their shared love of the Beatles and the Ramones and started naturally writing songs together. By 2010, they were doing live gigs together and by 2011, they released their first EP, John & Brittany. Here, playing a live gig at World Café Live, they unleash their tale about bad whiskey devils and the games they play with your head when they get the chance.
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The ‘Philadelphia Sound’ is well-known to fans of soul and R&B. Developed in the early ’70s with artists as diverse as Patti LaBelle, Todd Rundgren, Teddy Pendergrass and David Bowie by megawatt producers Leon Huff and Kenny Gamble, the disco-tinged, string-and-brass sound dominated the airwaves for years, producing a series of classic hits, including “Love Train,” “Me and Mrs. Jones” and “If You Don’t Know Me By Now.” Not one to sit on his estimable laurels, Kenny Gamble has used much of his fame and financial influence to make a difference for Philadelphia schoolkids and the South Philly neighborhood in which he grew up, starting affordable housing units, community centers and a school. Ain’t no stopping us now!
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It sounds a good deal like the opening salvo of a set joke told by an older comedian with a speckled bowtie and a bad comb-over: A bear walks into a bar. Only, in this case, the bear was a grizzly — escaped from a local theater — and the teeth and claw marks were decidedly real. In its frenzy, it managed to maul a horse, a mule and a side of beef before being subdued by authorities and being lead back to the theater by its owner. Sure, Philly still has its problems, but at least residents don’t usually have watch out for grizzly attacks anymore.
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Yeah, yeah, everyone who visits Philly feels the need to run up the steps of the PMA and throw their fists in the air all-Rocky style. But Philly has a host of other iconic films that were shot in its environs: You’ve got Rittenhouse Square from the Eddie Murphy/Dan Aykroyd comedy classic Trading Places; 30th Street Station, where a young boy accidentally stumbles onto a murder in Witness; the tangle of antique shops in the thriller The Sixth Sense; and, naturally, the oppressive loony bin filmed at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys, among many others. But that’s not to suggest the city has been played out, location-wise. Unlike our swaggering big brother up north about 90 miles, a good deal of the city remains pristine and untouched by film cameras, a fact of which the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, would gently like to remind you. You want heavy street scenes? Check. Rolling countryside? Check. Urban decay? Check (unfortunately). Upscale boho? Check. Whatever the project you have in the works, Philly can deliver. Though you might want to re-think shooting on the top of the Art Museum, that’s pretty played out at this point.
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Stuart Greenberg isn’t particularly noteworthy physically: An older gent with a close-cropped moustache and a brush of sandy-brown hair pushed over his head, he could be any guy you’ve ever seen at a South Philly bar, nursing a lager and arguing about the legacy of Wilt Chamberlain. But when you hear what he’s done as the program director for the city’s parks and rec department, and the passion with which he speaks about his wheelchair basketball program, you realize he’s a different kind of cat from what you first supposed. As the lone representative for kids playing wheelchair hoops in the Delaware Valley, he takes his responsibility — and the kids he coaches — very much to heart.
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Philly native singer/songwriter Ryan Tennis has a lilting voice and the manner of someone who’s got a good story to tell. All good since, in his body of work, including last year’s LP Goodbye to the Ground, the hunky musician focuses on many of the standard topics of the genre: longing, finding hope in too-small slivers, lamenting love affairs, and the suffering of the human condition. Which isn’t to say he can’t also be uplifting, at least from the passion of his musical conviction. Check out this live clip from The Clubhouse and you’ll get a sense of the energy and intensity of his performance.
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Geechee Girl Rice Café (6825 Germantown Ave.) is a labor of love for the Erwin sisters: Valerie is the chef; Alethia is Dining Room Manager; Michelene deals with the catering business; Lisa does the marketing and writes the newsletter and Alexandria pitches in with financial organization. While Valerie gets most of the pub, as principle owner and chef, this joint is a family affair through and through. The delicious results, which include a far-reaching menu that travels equally soulfully through Senegal (Senegalese Chicken Yassa) and the American South (Carolina Pulled Pork) have certainly proved a point every parent wants to endow their children with: If everyone works together, amazing things can be achieved.
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Sure, historians still fiercely debate whether or not Betsy Ross actually designed the ol’ Red, White and Blue, but did you know that George Washington was also at least partially responsible? The adorable kids of Great Moments In Philadelphia History are back, and they want to set the record straight about our alleged founding seamstress. According to the kids, Washington’s proposed concepts for the flag were a wee bit too 10-year-old-boy for Betsy’s taste, which is sort of too bad, in a way. Every country can have stately stars and stripes, after all, but how many other country’s flags can boast of having a bunch of dinosaurs on them?
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The world’s first clone baby is a happy little guy, filled with joy and wonder and the hatred of all Jews. Yes, the cutie pie is a chip off the old der Führer. Sketch comedy group Secret Pants displays their dementedly comic vision, imagining the little bundle of joy that could be the leader of the Fourth Reich. Or not. After all, despite his genetic dispositions, young Adolph might still grow up to be a harmless florist, or architect, or friendly sewage maintenance supervisor. That is, unless they pair him with a clone of another vaunted Nazi high-ranking officer, and why would they go and do a thing like that?
As if the Mütter Museum weren’t creepy enough with its macabre collection of malformed skeletons and diseased organs, now we have another reason to fear the place: Robert Hicks, director of the museum, has an interest in other peculiarities of human condition, namely vampirism. Along with Kathy Hass from the Rosenbach Museum down the street, Dr. Hicks explores the literary tradition of human blood-suckers. Included in the impressive holdings at the Rosenbach, are Bram Stoker’s original notes for the novel that inspired a host of flicks, a sugary breakfast cereal, a beloved and helpful “Sesame Street” character, and, more recently, a thousand lousy TV shows, Dracula. But that’s not all. Expect other chilling explorations of the blood-drinking variety. And all that’s before Dr. Hicks takes the skulls out.
Perhaps no movie in American history is more closely associated with a city than Rocky is to Philadelphia (okay, okay, Manhattan and Chinatown probably figure into the mix there, but still…). John G. Avildsen’s 1975 classic, featuring Sly Stallone as a lovable but dense pug getting an unexpected shot at greatness, and Talia Shire as his wallflower paramour, uses the rousing nature of sport and an unforgettably uplifting score to frame an underdog story for the ages. In all the years since its release (and the unfortunate avalanche of sequels, prequels and spin offs), however, it’s never been quite as cute as in this recap, staged by a squad of adorable youngsters as part of the ongoing Great Moments in Philadelphia History series.
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In the age of smart phones boasting HD video cameras, live music clips of your favorite bands are ubiquitous. The immediacy is a big plus, but every once in a while, it’s nice to get away from the shaky-cam, low-angle stuff that dominates the genre. The pulsating guitar pop, Candlebox-like stylings of Dive, captured expertly by the pros at World Café Live more than gets the job done. As singer/songwriter Jon Sitar exhorts the crowd to wake up, he and his Northern Jersey band mates make with the guitar hooks on “Fall Away,” and you don’t even have to deal with shrill voices singing along with all the lyrics.
On the surface, the idea of holding a talk show on a bus doesn’t sound like a great idea: There’s the noise of the engine, the constant jostling, and cramped vinyl seats with high backs, likely covered in gum and dried loogies (at least where we went to school). As it happens, though, the trio of personable hosts that form The Street Team get to do their interviews not on a school bus but a sleek, state-of-the-art tour bus, which makes all the difference in the world. Here, the stunning Nikki Jean talks to Bryce and Steve, the two funny boys behind Secret Pants. All aboard!