Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Things To Do In Philly, 9/7/11 Edition

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Dante Bucci, as shot by E!

Are there many things to do in Philly this week? Hell yes. Have you seen the Fringe Guide, or perhaps the City Paper’s capsule reviews of shows?

Well, I’m not here to talk about all of that. Unlike my comic book coverage, when it comes to Philly I only mention shows I’d consider attending myself – and, in the case of this lineup, I’m really going to try to attend them all!

Let’s go!

Thursday, 9/8
Who: Filmstar, featuring your author and the lovely E
Details: 8p, $10, North Star Bar, 2639 Poplar St., Philly
Why? We are fresh off of two killer rehearsals, and our set features a brand new song and a slew of fan favorites. Northstar Bar is one of the biggest local venues in the city, and comes equipped with great beer and food. Also, we’re sharing the bill with Mean, Secret Music, and Kyle Andrews – a Chicago-based artist whose music has been featured on Grey’s Anatomy and national commercial campaigns. Expect us to hit the stage 10pm or later.

Friday, 9/9
Who: Dante Bucci, Victoria Spaeth, and Andrea Nardello
Details: 10p, $10, Tin Angel, 20 S. 2nd St., Philly
Why? This is more of a “why not,” as I am madly in love with all three of these artists. Dante is the most notable hang drummer in the country, luring millions of YouTube viewers with his entrancing melodies. Victoria Spaeth is a fiercely independent songwriter who graduated from playing covers to open mics to fronting her own rock band, unspooling her fantastic and increasingly-muscular urban folk. Andrea Nardello straddles rowdy barroom acoustic-rock and twinkling folk in every set, and is on-the-record as liking the way I shake my ass when I play “Hyperbole” ;)

Gina and a monochromatic Wes in The Gray Area. This is a real photo - no digital trickery involved! Photo by Jason Colflesh.

Friday 9/9 through Sunday 9/11
What: The Gray Area, an original Fringe play produced by Gina!
Details: 8pm F/S & 3pm S/S, $15, The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut, Philly
Why? Ocelot on a Leash presents a second run of their original Fringe production Gray Area, featuring short Twilight Zone inspired plays produced completely in monochrome.

Wednesday 9/7 through Sunday 9/11
What: Checkers, an original one-man Fringe show
Details: various times, $15, The Fleisher Art Memorial Sanctuary, 719 Catharine Street, Philly
Why? A peculiar one-man show that liberates a single moony romantic from his original absurdist play to start in his own farce. See my write-up from last week for the fuller details.

Monday 9/12 through Friday 9/16
What: Water Bears in Space
Details: 7pm, $10, Circle of Hope, Broad & Washington, 1125 South Broad Street, Philly
Why? You know how you sometimes miss a show and then hear such ridiculously over-the-top fantastic things about it that you wish you could be Cher and turn back time? For me, that show was Rails, a collaboratively created show from PuppeTyranny featuring half a cast of humans and half of puppets. The company and concept are back for Water Bears in Space, along with outstanding reviews and the absolutely magnetic local starlet Kate Black-Reagan, who I guarantee you will fall in love with immediately. Don’t miss this – I definitely won’t!

Tuesday, 9/13
What: Notorious F.O.L.K.
Details: 8-11p, FREE, Triumph Brewery, 117 Chestnut , Philly
Why? Enjoy the beers at my favorite Philly micro-brewery while an impressive array of Philly acoustic artists cover Notorious B.I.G. songs, folkstyle. Seriously.

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That’s my lineup for the next week, and if I have to miss more than one I will spend all subsequent nights crying myself to sleep. What are your hot picks for things to do in the City of Brotherly love in the next nine days?

30 for 30 Project, 1987: “Alone” – Heart

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Allow me to explain how Heart’s 80’s power-ballad “Alone” is the best possible illustration of why this project is such a positive endeavor for me.

Heart is the combination of Ann and Nancy Wilson, and their first two LPs – Dreamboat Annie and Little Queen – are solid gold in my book. Yet, in the early 80s the group faltered with two poorly-received albums, and seemed to be headed for a fade out.

Then they released their biggest hit to date – 1985’s self-titled Heart, and followed it up with the strong Bad Animals in 1987.

What changed? A quick look at the liner notes will tell you. The two lesser successes were written entirely by the Wilsons. The two hits include more outside co-writers, and some songs not written by the band.

Case and point: “Alone” is Heart’s biggest hit, and it was written by Tom Kelly & Billy Steinberg – the major songwriting guns responsible for “Like a Virgin,” “True Colors,” “So Emotional,” and “Eternal Flame,” among other hits.


(Watch me cover “Alone” on YouTube. For more info on my 30 for 30 Project, visit my intro post or view the 30for30 tag.)

(Today’s video features special guest-star E, who can be heard elsewhere as the lead singer of Filmstar, because I could not bear to play this song sans its signature harmony. You can see us both play as Filmstar on Thursday night at North Star Bar around 9:45p, or for free on October 15 at Fergies @ 10pm).  [Read more…] about 30 for 30 Project, 1987: “Alone” – Heart

X-Men Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, 9/6 Edition (plus June 2011)

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Being the Amazon addict that I am, I love it when a package arrives every week … which means I’ll be crying myself to sleep every night this week, because Marvel is not releasing any new X-Collections! Totally lame.

What’s a rabid X-Fan to do? Well, for one, surf my Guide to Collecting X-Men to find an older X-Men collection you’ve missed out on. Not only that; I’m taking this down week to recap the collections from June, which was absolutely packed with juicy X-books to buy!

Also, see below for the paltry three books Marvel has out this week, plus the massive list of their June collections.

June Collection of the Month, Hardcover:
Wolverine and Jubilee: Curse of the Mutants Hardcover
Collects Wolverine & Jubilee #1-4 & Jubilee’s first appearance in Uncanny X-Men #244.

CK Says: Buy it! Last September “Curse of the Mutants” put fan-fav X-sidekick Jubilee through the wringer, but didn’t really deal with the ramifications of the big change in her life. This series does just that with a creepy-yet-comedic mystery exploring Jubilee’s new outlook on the world. Writer Kathryn Immonen strikes the best tone on Wolverine/Jubilee interplay since the 90s. I also love her version of Rockslide’s charming hero-worship and crush on the pair, respectively.

While the mystery gets a bit fuzzy in the middle, by that point you’re hooked by Immonen’s writing and Phil Noto’s crisp, Adam Hughes esque artwork – especially the specific, expressive facial features. With Jubilee playing a leading role in this fall’s X-Men re-launch, this is better required reading than the “Curse” schlock that came before it. (Also available for pre-order as a TPB)

xXx

June Collection of the Month, TPB:
X-Men: Second Coming
Collects Second Coming: Prepare, Second Coming #1-2, Uncanny X-Men #523-525; New Mutants #12-14, X-Men Legacy #235-237, X-Force #26-28. 

CK Says: Buy it! While I was initially a little disappointed with the “Second Coming” crossover, there is no denying that it is the most explosive X-Men event of all time, packed with universe-altering developments. The editorial team has worked out the minor pacing issues from Messiah Complex, and here they effectively intercut between multiple fronts to thrilling effect. If you are a major fan of Rogue, Nightcrawler, Cable, or Hope, all get major panel-time here. (Still available from resellers at reasonable prices as a hardcover – which I’d recommend even more)

xXx

What other collections were out in June that I consider Must-Buys? And, which two lonely TPBs merited a skip? Keep reading to find out.  [Read more…] about X-Men Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, 9/6 Edition (plus June 2011)

Gina’s Bachelorette Adventure, Pt. 5

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Gina models her Level 1 Veil as Bridal Partier Mikki sprays on her first magical rune.

After months of preparation, the day of Gina’s real life video game bachelorette party adventure had finally arrived!

Actually, it wasn’t the day that arrived, but the day before, which brought with it fellow bridal party member Kelly and her partner Gudrun. They pulled up to my house on a beautiful sunny day to put the finishing touches on Gina’s party.

Kelly brought two suitcases into my house – one with her traveling gear, and one packed with supplies for the party. There were her insane 8-bit pins, special puff-painted hats for the chemistry dance, and more. She had even made a lovely fluffy white veil for Gina to wear at the beginning of the day, when we would lure her into a false sense of complacency that her bridal party would be quite normal and not an insane reality show crossed with The Legend of Zelda.

As Kelly finished unpacking, two curious items emerged from her suitcase. One was a headband with a lightning bolt affixed to it. The other was a yet-to-be-assembled hat bearing two feathered wings.

“I know we talked about making Gina wear silly things,” Kelly confessed, “and I started thinking about all the power-ups Mario collects. I thought we could give her these to replace the veil.”

I nodded, gears spinning inside of my brain.

“Kelly…”

I’m not sure that Kelly knows me well enough to see the crazy emerging in my eyes when I come up with a complicated new idea to make something harder, but I think E spotted it from across the room.

“…you know how Gina has to defeat a “boss encounter” at the end of every stage in the city?”

“Yes.”

“Well, what if when she defeats the challenge she wins a new hat… a new piece of armor… a new piece of SPECIAL BRIDAL ARMOR…”

“Yes!” Kelly exclaimed, making clear the special brand of insanity she shares with both Gina and I, “and she’ll get special powers! The hat with wings will give her flight!”

I wield the exceptionally large Game Master version of the instruction book to explain the final encounter of the first stage of Gina’s Adventure.

“Yes! … Except, how exactly do we make Gina fly?”

“I have no idea.”

“Yeah, me neither. Well, do you at least have enough ridiculous pieces of armor for every stage?”

Kelly inventoried her items. The fluffy veil. The winged hat. The lightning bolt headband. A labcoat, to be bedazzled.

“We’re only short one,” Kelly reported, “plus I want to make her a sort of punk rock veil to wear at the end of the day.”

Both of our gears now spinning, we headed out to take Gudrun on a tour of suburban shopping meccas in order to gather the final elements of the adventure: tulle for a punk veil, a massive roll of paper to construct banners, and one more piece of bridal armor. Oh, and beer.

When we found a purple tulle and tiny black flowers for the punk veil plus a fuzzy rainbow boa at Joanne Fabrics it all clicked in my head. When we returned to the house I left Kelly downstairs to craft and ran up to my office to draft the instruction booklet… [Read more…] about Gina’s Bachelorette Adventure, Pt. 5

30 for 30 Project, 1986: “You Can Call Me Al” – Paul Simon

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Here is my beef with music made for kids: it is usually unnecessary.

We’ve established I was obsessed with “Thriller” at three and tumbling 4 ya at four. And, as the article about me in the new issue of Jump Philly points out, I was jamming out to Jem in the back seat at five – but Jem wasn’t exactly The Wiggles, if you catch my drift. It was more like Katy Perry, sans the self-hatred and misogyny.

Case and point: “You Can Call Me Al,” from Paul Simon’s seminal Graceland. As I child I was obsessed with it, as well as with “Me & Julio” from his debut.


(Watch me cover “You Can Call Me Al” on YouTube. For more info on my 30 for 30 Project, visit my intro post or view the 30for30 tag.)

The song is a little silly and repetitive. It has lyrics like “roly-poly little bat-faced girl” that delighted me as a child. It also told a story, with its setting painted in vibrant swaths of words … some of them big words, like “redemption,” “allegations,” and “architecture.”

I say, who needs Kidz Bop when you have Paul Simon?

(I was in a real crisis on my 1986 pick, as both my alternates were pretty difficult tunes that I’d rather track against a click (and thus remain top secret). Luckily, I realized “Al” saw its original release from Graceland in ’86, even though it primarily charted in 1987. Ass = saved.)