THE WAGNER
Ever walked down off campus around Montgomery and 17th and wondered what that beautiful, big, old building is?
Its name is the Wagner Free Institute of Science. Frozen in time, the collection hasn’t been updated since the 1940s, and the whole place smells like old wood (in the best way).
The downstairs has a library and an enormous lecture hall where Wagner used to give free lectures to community members and scholars alike who took an interest in the natural sciences.
The upstairs is an enormous exhibit hall with cases upon cases of found species. Identified by handwritten cards detailing species information, the museum is stuffed with shells, rocks, starfish, crustaceans, insects, birds, snakes (and even a human skeleton).
The collection is impressive, and even if you don’t consider yourself a “nature person,” some of the specimens were so beautiful it was like walking through an art gallery. The one downside is that you’re not allowed to take pictures, so you have to go see it for yourself.
It’s fun, it’s close, it’s free, and you can spend as much or as little time as you want (I went with on a class field trip, and none of us were ready to leave after half an hour). Take an afternoon and check it out- worst case scenario, you can still get Rita’s on the way home.
Do Something Awesome
Dear Readers,
There’s something urgent that I want to tell you about. It’s so cool that I’m letting you know about it before I actually do it myself.
As I was browsing through City Paper this weekend I noticed ad for “Delicacy,” a French film from 2011 featuring Audrey Tautou (who I happen to have an enormous lady-crush on). I immediately googled it, and found out that the movie is playing at the Ritz 5, a fabulous movie theater that I consistently forget about. Ritz 5 is one of several Landmark theaters in Philadelphia. Landmark is the “largest theatre chain dedicated to exhibiting and marketing independent film” in the nation.
Students with ID get in for $7.25 any time except Saturdays & Holidays. Read as: students get in cheaper than they will to pretty much any other movie, even at matinee hours.
In addition to “Delicacy”, the Philadelphia theaters are featuring critically acclaimed films that you may have heard of including “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” “The Artist,” and “Coriolanus”.
The moral of this short story? If you’ve been wanting to expand your horizons, and want to sit in a cool theater on one of our hot spring days, check out the Landmark Theaters.
You’re welcome,
Tori
P.S. This is a great date idea. It’s cheaper than a normal movie and you get to seem cultured. Double win.
My Boots Were Not Made For As Much Walking As I Did On Saturday
This Saturday, my friend was visiting from UCLA, so we decided to brave the precariously grey weather and hoof it across the city.
We walked from my dorm at 13th and Cecil all the way to Penn’s Landing, weaving through a variety of neighborhoods and wandering somewhat aimlessly with the vague goal in mind of eventually getting to one of my favorite stores, AKA Music, (located right across from Christ Church). If you haven’t been there, AKA is an enormous warehouse that has a huge variety of vinyl, CDs, and posters. )As someone with a nearly diagnosable decorating addiction, the latter is my favorite aspect). Along the way we stopped at Wawa (truly the happiest place on earth) and picnicked in Independence Park (a hilarious place to tourist watch) before continuing toward the water.
After the music store, we headed toward Old City, which is so architecturally adorable that it (almost) excuses the exorbitant prices they charge in their vintage stores by making window shopping enjoyable on its own. After a string of super-expensive shops (what I call “grown up stores”) we found a spot that does bulk vintage, meaning they had several boxes of old t-shirts, that my friend got absorbed in browsing through for 15 minutes. He said it was like real-life internet surfing- he just kept picking things up, seeing if they were funny, and then putting them down until I dragged him away.
The rest of the afternoon was spent walking to City Hall, then back to the vintage store where I left the posters I had bought at the music store, then back to City Hall again to catch the subway back to Temple in the hope of saving my feet. The day was mellow, inexpensive, and entertaining- just walking around Philly and exploring was enough to occupy ourselves, which, for poor (& or cheap) college students living in the city, is a pretty comforting thing to know as we head into warmer weather.
Because Sunshine is Free…
Greetings!
My sincerest apologies for the recent lack of content- I was traveling over spring break and then ended up with strep throat (that I’m almost sure I picked up from breathing that recycled airplane air). The good news is that I’m back and that the weather here in Philly is absolutely gorgeous. This means that I get to suggest two of my favorite activities in the world that are 100% free and guaranteed to make you feel more culturally stimulated and more connected to the city.
1) Wander. Between the biting cold and vicious winds, being outside for more than 45 seconds can be physically painful during the winter (well, maybe not so much this winter, but you know what I mean). Now that the sun is shining and things have begun to bloom, there’s no better time to explore Philadelphia. Take the subway to a stop you’ve never been to before (read as: take a subway South to somewhere you’ve never been before) and see what you find. Some of my favorite spots in town are ones that I’ve encountered by chance, whether they’re coffee shops, restaurants, or thrift stores. Tackle a different neighborhood every time- Old City (will never be prettier than it is during the Spring), South Philly (is more than just South Street), Rittenhouse Square etc. Whatever you’ve been “meaning to check out” but haven’t gotten around to- get to it now! (The best part about this is that you can grab a friend, a group, or just your iPod, and don’t need to worry about looking weird one way or the other).
2) Wissahickon Park. Despite my deep love for the city, I’m often torn by my comparable love for the outdoors. Wissahickon Park is a 1,800-acre wooded gorge that features excellent running trails, spots for grilling, a creek (yes, you can play in it), a path (for the romantic walkers among us), and a bunch of really old statues and buildings hidden throughout it. I’ve been going to Wissahickon to trail run (and rock climb, and bike ride) with my Dad since I was a wee child, and it’s easily one of my favorite places in the area. Nowhere else do I feel so encompassed by nature, and so disconnected from the outside world. Added bonus: there are highway/road bridges that run over certain parts so even though you get a nice juxtaposition of gratified infrastructure to accompany the trees, that’s pretty much the only “outside world” interference that you’ll get. I enter my favorite trails in Manayunk, which is an easy bus ride away from campus.
The moral of the story is that sunshine is free, and there’s nothing us college kids love more than free stuff, so take advantage of it.
Note: (If exploring isn’t your thing, never fear, I’ll have a specific, destination-oriented PEX activity for you later this weekend).
Time Stands Still
On Saturday, February 25, at 7:25pm, my friend Leah and I got onto the regional rail from Temple University toward Doylestown to see a play. 30 minutes later, we got off at Ambler station. Had we not taken a wrong turn first, it would have only taken us 2 minutes to reach our destination, Act 2 Playhouse.
We went inside and were immediately handed the two tickets that had been left for me at will call. We were about ten minutes late, but the show had started promptly and everyone was already seated and engaged as we were shown to our row. The theater seats 130, and it was sold out (mostly with adults over 40). Instead of making us climb over everyone, the entire row scooted down so that we could have the end seats and didn’t even glare. I was already impressed.
After shuffling around getting my coat and over-stuffed bag situated, I finally focused on the stage, and was sucked in almost immediately. First of all, the set was awesome. Set up like the inside of an apartment that was decorated by grown-up hipsters (who, instead of thinking they’re too cool to care about material objects actually don’t care and just happened to end up with an assortment of furniture from Ikea and the Middle East). My favorite touch was that the kitchen sink had running water. (The “rain” that actually left the window panes wet was a close second).
Time Stands Still is a Broadway play that is making its Philadelphia debut at Act II Playhouse before moving on to the People’s Light and Theater Company in Malvern later this Spring.
The story follows a middle-aged couple who were brought together by their shared experience as journalists in war zones. After the woman is almost blown to pieces in the Middle East and the man has a meltdown after seeing other people blown to pieces one too many times, they are forced to re-evaluate their careers and decide if documenting suffering is what will ultimately make them happiest, or if they want a more conventional life. I won’t give it away, but I will say that the story is woven together beautifully, and that the mixture of anger, angst, tenderness, and humor feels effortless and makes the two hours fly by.
As a journalism student, the heated discussions about the true merit of journalistic work hit home for me in a profound way. My favorite scene in the show, however, was the dinner party discussion about whether seeing a play about world issues and educating oneself is a valuable use of time. It was as though the writers were winking at the audience the entire time, saying, “you’re not off the hook, here- it’s not just the characters who are going to have to think about the tough questions- you’re in this too”.
The acting was well executed and the leads, Susan McKey and Kevin Kelly, looked vaguely reminiscent of Amy Pohler and Jason Bateman, which was entertaining in and of itself.
Overall, I thought the show was very well done, and definitely worth the trip to Ambler. Though my friend and I ended up making our train back to Temple, we were crunched for time at the end of the show, so I would definitely recommend getting tickets for a matinee showing and then making an afternoon of hanging out in Ambler (which is adorable).
Act 2 Playhouse offers discounts in your PEX passport, and Time Stands Still is only running until March 11, so buy your tickets now and go see the show over spring break!
The Zoo!
I drive by the zoo every single time my parents drive me back to school from the burbs (which happens at least once a month because I’m a huge stinkin’ mama’s girl and can’t say no to her pleas for me to come visit for very long). Recently, instead of just nodding at the pretty animal-themed columns holding up the bridge, I actually started registering that they were signaling the presence of a place I hadn’t been in years.
My freshman class took a biology trip to the Philadelphia Zoo in high school, and since then I haven’t managed to make it back. Monday, 2/20, I broke my streak, sucked it up and paid the $14 (a $4 discount for their off-season special) fee to visit some animals. Here’s how it went;
Even though it was a nice day (especially for February), only about half of the animals were on display. This is understandable for the outdoor exhibits (I GUESS putting the animals native to Africa like elephants and giraffes inside COULD be a smart idea, even if it made my experience a little anticlimactic) but why such a large portion of the indoor displays were empty was baffling to me. A snake or a monkey inside a cage, inside a temperature-regulated building shouldn’t have to go elsewhere just because it’s winter, right? Well, wrong.
Despite my disappointment in not being able to see some of my favorite animals, there were still some great highlights.
-The Red Panda, which I was tempted to take home and snuggle with.
-The Gorilla, who took a few minutes to size up the crowd of children with their faces pressed against the glass of his playroom before running to the glass and punching it with both fists and then flying sideways at the last minute. Gorillas are cool because of how graceful they are despite their enormity, but even more impressive because of their tangible awareness and intellect.
-The Galapagos Tortoises which are only exciting for me, because unless you catch them having sex they’re pretty much stationary. (Anything Galapagos related has thrilled me since my trip there, which interestingly also happened during my freshman year of high school).
-The female leopard. Though all of the big cats were obviously spectacular, every time my friends and I play the “if you were an animal, what would you be” game (which is pretty often) the one that I consistently (and that is most frequently assigned to me) is a female leopard, so it was nice to see one in person. Fierce.
Though it was nice not to have to put up with huge crowds, the zoo is ironically one of my favorite places to people watch (I find children to be endlessly amusing) so it turned out not to be a huge benefit.
To conclude, the zoo is awesome. I definitely recommend that you check it out, but that if at all possible you wait a few months until you’re getting more bang for your buck ($4 more for twice the animals isn’t a bad deal).
P.S., don’t drive- parking is insanely expensive and especially if you’re going when it’s more crowded, it’ll be more trouble than it’s worth.
SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE
She did it again, ladies and gentlemen. She said she was going to something, she got really excited about it, and then it fell through. Such is life. Luckily, not doing something still won’t stop me from writing about it, so here’s the deal with Slaughterhouse 5 at Curio theater
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts AKA That Building With The Paint Brush
Here’s the deal: PAFA is really old and really prestigious in the fine art world. Their two buildings at 118-128 N. Broad St. (spitting distance from the Race-Vine subway stop) host a diverse collection of 19th and 20th century art in mediums ranging from sculptures to oil paintings to drawings. I was pretty skeptical about checking this place out, since I’m much more of a contemporary art kind of girl (something about portraits of dudes in wigs just doesn’t quite do it for me), but I decided to go in with an open mind (after all, the $12 fee is waived for Temple students).
Here’s what I saw (and loved):
- Gorgeous marble sculptures with perfect movement in the fabric of their draped togas
- A Georgia O’Keefe painting (a nice surprise)
- Pieces so old that the paint was cracking (I’m mentioning this as an awesome fun fact rather than a judgmental comment).
- Lots of extremely realistic landscapes and portraits
- One huge room full of stunning African-American art
- A cell-phone guided tour led by Hennessy Youngman, a gangster rapper, and
- Informational signs written by art critic Nathanial Snerpus. (To give you an idea, the first line of his explanation on “Why Fruit?” are chosen for still life paintings was, “Because they’re still, silly”).
What I learned:
- Children in art are almost always creepy. Children in sculptures with big wide eyes and rolls of baby fat are particularly unsettling.
- I can appreciate realistic art best when it’s a landscape painted on a huge canvas and looks out at some sort of vista, so that I feel like if I were there, that’s the angle I would be viewing it from. Before today, I had never been able to appreciate realistic art, but it was amazing to walk around the room of landscapes and feel like I was being transported between seasons and locations every time I took a step to the left.
- I don’t care about portraits unless they are of people wearing particularly fabulous clothing (which some of the ladies featured definitely were).
I definitely recommend taking a trip to PAFA if you have an hour or two available. It’s free, it’s close, and it’s a good size (big enough to have something for everyone, but small enough to be able to get through) for a quick trip.
NOTE: PAFA currently has an exhibition featuring the work of Henry Ossawa Tanner, who was admittedly quite talented, but not at all to my taste, so I’m not going to waste your time tip-toeing around compliments and my real opinion. If you’re into religiously themed work, go check it out. If not, don’t run too fast.
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- “Cupid in a Wine Glass,” Abraham Woodside
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- “Strawberries and Cherries,” Margaretta Angelica Pearle
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- “Pittsburgh,” Louis Lozomick
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- “Philadelphia,” Hugh Breckenridge
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- “Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos,” John Vanderlyn
Philadelphia Arts Alliance
Where: The Philadelphia Arts Alliance is located at 251 South 18th Street, aka right across from Rittenhouse Square Park. It’s a quick walk from the Broad Street Line, and particularly beautiful at this time of the year when Christmas decorations are just starting to go up.
Cost: $5 for adults, $3 for students, FREE with your PEX passport.
When: Tuesday-Sunday, 11 am- 5pm (I went at around 1:30 on a Thursday)
Who (would like it): This particular exhibit is great for all types of people. Because it’s interactive and fantastical, it was a hit with the kids who we saw there (adorable), as well as each of the people in my group, whose art experience ranged from full-blown Tyler student to a friend who was just open to trying something new.
What: The current exhibit showing at the PAA is called “Let Me Tell You About A Dream I Had,” an installation created by Miss Rockaway Armada that embodies the adage that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. PAA is all about innovative contemporary art that inspires “dynamic interaction between audiences and artists,” which this exhibit definitely accomplishes. The best way that I can describe it is to tell you to picture that obligatory scene in every movie where someone does acid and ends up at a crazy bohemian circus (when I said this to my friends they didn’t seem to get it, so maybe this only happens in the movies I watch- if so, click the link and see what I’m talking about). It’s a multi-media art environment, so you can touch things, play around, watch a movie, listen to music, go behind the creepy curtain etc. The PAA is basically a really large, beautiful house, with lots of open space that has been transformed into another world.
How (I felt about it): If you couldn’t tell from the descriptions above, I fell head-over-heels in love with this exhibit. Of all the art installations I’ve seen in my life, this one ties for first place (with Black Acid Co-Op by Deitch). Maybe I just have a thing for Please-Touch-Museum-On-A-Drug-Trip experiences, but based on the reactions of my friends, I know I’m not making up how phenomenal this is. The materials are all ordinary things that come together to be something extraordinary. It’s only here until December 30, so get there ASAP.
A quote from one of the exhibit rooms:
“Papa Beutrino: He chased his dreams and was never paralyzed by fear of what may lay in the path ahead. His boldness and bravery inspired me and many from our crew. Crossing the Atlantic on a raft made of scraps was only one of his great feats. He just did his thing.
Tori Gets Lawlz-y at ComedySportz
Unprofessional title? Keepin’ it.
Anyway, as you may have gathered, I finally got to go to ComedySportz, a PEX activity that I’ve been super excited about for a while now. I know that this is longer than my typical post, but know that I’m not wasting your time, I just really really liked it.
I was planning to go the weekend before Thanksgiving, then couldn’t. I meant to go last weekend, but I was in a tryptophan coma and missed it. After lots of shuffling around, I got all the pieces to fit together- I had a friend, a ticket waiting for me at will call (thank you, Don!), walking directions and a subway token and finally got to check out the 7:30 pm show (there’s also one at 10 pm) at the Adrienne theater on 20th and Sansom Streets.
Essentially, ComedySportz is what the Olympic event in improv would look like. No obscenity (or you get shamed and have to sit with a brown bag on your head for a few minutes), no bad puns, and 100% improv-ed material. The teams are red (Jersey turnpikes) versus blue (Philadelphia Amish) are are made up of four players each.
The show consists of a series of improv games, some of which are judged by applause from the audience, others by pre-chosen audience judges and the rest by the referee (who, to give you an idea of the seriousness of the game, gave a point to the blue team when they asked for it, and took two away when a red player hugged him too enthusiastically).
At the very beginning, Referee Sean told us, “This isn’t television, this is Theater. I can see you,” which set the tone for the entire evening. Audience participation is crucial, and ComedySportz is serious about their commitment to theater as an art form. From clapping to chiming in topics, to actually getting up on stage, the audience is treated as a living element of the show. When a huge group of people with reserved tickets walked in 10 minutes late, they were welcomed by everyone on stage and in the audience. The atmosphere is light and silly and the energy of the crowd is a huge factor in the kind of experience you have. Read as: go with a huge group of really fun friends that you know you’ll have a blast with.
Because it’s bound to be different every time, I won’t bother explaining which games they played or how they went, but I will tell you about the players. Each team member had a ton of personality and though you could definitely tell that it was the first show of the night and that they were warming up, each one had something inherently hilarious about them. For instance, one player had a contagious laugh that made me giggle every time I heard it. It was also evident that everyone had a theater background, if not for their stage presence then for their awesome singing voices that came out during random parts of games. You know those people that sing along to the radio and demolish the high notes without thinking about it? ComedySportz is where those guys go to thrive.
Singing–> music–> sounds–> this is the part where I tell you about my moment of stardom.
Whenever people in a show ask for audience volunteers, I always raise my hand because I assume I won’t get picked. Well, ladies and gentleman guess who got brought up on stage tonight? This girl, of course. The game was for the actors to create a scene involving two honeymooners in Alaska who get their room crashed by a random old guy. My job was the provide hilarious sound effects. When I say you get out what you put in, this is a perfect example. Before I went up, I was really enjoying myself but after I put myself out there and got a supportive, positive response from the audience and the players alike, I liked it even more. Because really, who doesn’t like being clapped for?
This is where I will put the picture of me with all the players, assuming I can get my hands on it. For the time being, enjoy this gem of me eating a lime.
ComedySportz performs every Saturday night at 7:30 pm and again at 10 pm. Because they are extremely conscious of keeping it PG during these performances (so feel free to bring your 5th grader cousin when she visits), they have recently added a raunchier version called The Blue Show, which happens on the last Friday of every month during the 10 pm show. As an enthusiastic potty-mouth, I’ll definitely be checking this out later this month.
Tickets are $12 for students with ID, but $10 for Temple students who bring their handy-dandy PEX passport. Read as: great deal.
Thanks again to Don who was kind enough to accommodate my ever-shifting schedule, to the players and of course the friend I coerced into coming with me.
