CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

Siri performs in their Odyssey of the Mind

Effervescent Sammi Baker and her partner Nathan Hyer brought their paper Mache puppet “Siri” out to Chestnut Hill Garden Festival to raise funds for “Odyssey of the Mind.” The Plymouth Whitemarsh high school students participate in this extracurricular activity in which school teams compete against each other in creative problem solving and have to keep their builds within a set budget. (Siri appeared in their competition skit.) Their team (which also includes Cooper Smith, Colleen McFillon, Ryan Silverthorn, Michael Krone and Diana Westerfer) placed fifth in the Pennsylvania state finals but that wasn’t quite high enough to entitle them to a trip to the globals this year.

Watch video here.

 

Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival - beautiful!

Living in Princeton U's 1860s President McCosh's House

David Meadow leads a short tour through his home, known to the Princeton NJ community as “the McCosh house” because it was the residence of the James   McCosh, president of Princeton University from 1868 -1888.  

In recent years, the mansion had been divided into two large condominium units and last year, Meadow and his wife Lisa Mirin have taken up residence in the larger side.

Meadow relates that McCosh had built the structure in 1887 as his retirement home. Before it was moved to its present location on Princeton’s main street, Nassau Street, in 1906, it was originally situated on Prospect street, where it had housed a student eating club [the “Quadrangle” of which novelist and Princetonian F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about in “This Side of Paradise.”] 

On Nassau it sat on a large tract of land and its owner in 1980, Architect Robert Hillier sought to tear it down for a townhouse development. The Historical Society and the community waged a battle in the local newspapers to preserve the historical house. Hillier relented, and was able to comply with regulations concerning the housing development by moving the house once again, but this time only 20 feet closer to the street.

Meadow points out the elaborate, original stained glass work, woodwork, and scrollwork in the main entrance area and along the grand stairway to the second floor. 

When the house was moved in 1980, some of the original stucco was uncovered a curious feature was revealed: The year “1888” and McCosh’s initials where McCosh presumably had scratched them into the wet stucco.

Watch video interview and tour here.

Esherick designed library stool for her Mom

Carol Isard talks about a library stool created by the renowned wood sculptor and furniture maker Wharton Esherick. Esherick made the stool for Isard's mother, a friend and patron, who used it to retrieve things from a tall closet in her home. Watch video interview here.

They photograph street sounds

Nathea Lee, Anthony Dean and  Monica Lyons-Jones (above with a self-portrait) are photographers who, together, form the Philadelphia Street Sounds Collective.  Dean likes how the lighting and weather on the street is always changing.  A postal worker by day, he often shoots at nighttime and is also an avid documenter of the vibrant Philadelphia jazz scene about which he has authored two books. Lee’s photography reflects her loves; she captures the details in flowers, iconic Philadelphia architecture, ballet shoes and more. Jones shoots images reflecting the seasons, feelings and things important to her. A former teacher, she hopes to show how important reading is through photographs of people doing it, such as her portrait of a young girl quietly absorbed in a book. The threesome exhibited and discussed their work in the upstairs of a restaurant/bar in Fairmount as part of the annual fall Philadelphia Open Studios Tours (POST).

Watch video here

Paintings inspired by neurons

Kirsten Fischler captures neuronal imagery in her paintings. She has been inspired by her partner, a neuropathologist. Neurons are nerve cells that communicate information electrically/chemically with other cells. In her artist’s conception neurons are the “essence that occurs inside the mind that helps develop the mind” or “the spark that makes the mind happen.” Philadelphia Open Studio Tours, Francisville. Watch video interview here.

Grandpa tattoed on her arm

>> MIKAELA JENSON ROSEMAN (MJR): You want me to tell you the story of my tattoos?  Okay. So my left arm is pretty much a dedication to my grandfather. I have this one up here  which is a line drawing of him. He served in World War II so that’s why I have the Purple Heart in there ‘cause he received one of those awards. He passed away in 2001 and then I got this one to memorialize him which is a biblical passage.

>> CLOSE UP: DO YOU KNOW IT BY HEART?

I know the passage but to be honest with you I don’t know any more the verse.

>> CU: “SEE UPON THE PALMS OF MY HAND, I HAVE CARVED YOUR NAME.” WHAT DO YOU RECALL ABOUT THAT PASSAGE?

I actually first heard about it in a class I was taking at Temple. I was a religion minor. And when I heard it I thought that it  was a very good, a really good quote for a memorial tattoo. And I sort have always moderately considered adding more to my arm, like more pictures of my grandfather. He did a lot of stained glass work when he was still alive and I have a lot of that left. So I wanted to have some of those pictures maybe added.   A lot of my tattoos I’d say aside from these ones are not – not that they have no point but they’re not as personally, I think, angled. And so I’ve sort of decided that since this is my arm obviously closer to my heart that I’ll have that dedicated for him.

WHAT WAS YOUR RLEATIONSHIP WITH HIM THAT YOU’D…

He was wonderful. He was born in 1907. His name was Albert  Furman Jensen and he passed away in 2001.  He had a very lucky, nice passing I think. And I just remember being really close with him growing up.  So I remember being a kid, he had white hair, his nickname was “Whitey.” Even when he was a kid he had white hair. I just remember combing his hair at their house in Upper Darby when I was a little girl. He got Alzheimer’s later in life and he would have lucid moments as well. And so he always knew who I was, even when he was …Alzheimer’s. I remember one day I tried to microwave a  thing of peanut butter And it had the wrapper on it still. It burst into flames in the microwave.  And my 89 year old grandfather at the time sprinted through the house to get to the kitchen to put it out.  So you know I have all these varied distinct memories of him, all really positive ones and even though it’s been a while, I was twelve. Yeah, I was eleven or twelve when he passed away. Now I’m twenty-five but I still think about him all the time.   

Here’s the only picture that I have in my wallet.  And this is the one that I always considered getting a portrait of him

So I have these puzzle pieces that I have on my arm that are meant  to be for me and my best friend who I’ve known since I was four. I have “Love” and “Peace” on my wrist because those are ideals I’d like to live by contrary to how it usually goes. I have a fish on my neck because I was very interested in marine biology. And then on my back which you really won’t be able to see. I have wings on my back and a William Blake quote in between them that says “Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained," which is a quote from his piece, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”

>> CU; DO YOU EVER WORRY THAT YOU’LL FALL OUT OF LOVE WITH SOMETHING YOU’VE TATTOOED ON?

 

No. Never. I haven’t so far. You know some of my tattoos, on the back of my neck up here I have this little heart which has no sentimental meaning whatsoever- it was something I got because I was in New York City and I wanted a tattoo in New York City and I picked it off of the wall and I really don’t regret any of them at all. I still like them.  You know for me it’s either that I remember something that happened when I got it or for the ones that  like actually do mean something more personal to me, you know like in ten years I’m not going to decide all of a sudden that I don’t like my grandfather anymore, you know?

Dances midst sculpture: Philly Fringe

     

Watch video here. Ellie Goudie-Averill of Stone Depot Dance Lab performs structured and improvisational dances amidst art installations in the warehouse space of Pieri Creations in the  Frankford section of Philadelphia. She talks about how a poetry workshop by Philly poet C.A. Conrad inspired her to write dance instructions for her "Serpent" piece for her part of the bill of "Make it, Break it, Rebuild it," a series of dance performances for the Philadephia Live Arts/Fringe Festival. Averill narrates her first of two dances with a large, branch braided shield-like object, Averill talking about how it's hard to go to sleep with the television on and how 60 some percent of people aged 20 to 37 get their news primarily from Jon Stewart.

"Experimental movement artist Zornitsa Stoyanova. Often times theatrical, her collaborations explore non linear stories, movement invention, spoken word, and object installation." From the Philadelphia Live Arts Fringe Festival 2012 program description. When we walked into this performance, Stoyonova, dressed in large inflated, translucent plastic bags including one over her head was making fine and deliberate movements, sometimes just with her hands which drew our focus, trying to elicit meaning or purpose to their transformation. Watch video interview here.

Chestnut Hill mural is artist's romp-l'oeil of Wissahickon Valley

I ask mural artist Ann Norththrup to take a break and hold up her paint-spattered hands. We chat about the watercolor she painted of the Wissahickon Park that she and her crew of helpers are now installing on the wall of Bredenbeck's Bakery, the first mural in Chestnut Hill, Northwest Philadelphia. Watch video here.

Video transcript below

Milica in the Hat

Milica's cousin Alex posing with a hat

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Watch video here.

[Guests mingling and trying on Milica’s hats]

>>Milica Schiavio:  My hats are very nature inspired. I love being outdoors so I try to use a lot of organic elements. I definitely went through a fruit phase. I used plastic apples, plastic pears. This one right here for example, is mounted on a suede headband and it’s packing material, egg cartons and all sorts of green elements.

[Guests trying on hats]

>>CLOSEUP: And where would someone wear a hat like this?

>>Milica: They would wear them to the Radnor Hunt races, the Devon Horse show, different horse shows. I won first place at Radnor Hunt two years ago, second place last year. We’ll see what happens this year.

>>CLOSEUP: So the horses compete and the hats compete too?

>>Milica: Yeah, they do in the chapeau contest. It’s fun. I love to make people smile. I think women have a really good time when they wear my hats.  People approach them, talk to them…. That’s a fascinator. So it’s Styrofoam in the middle with paper and just acorns and green moss.

[Trying on hats, posing for camera]

>>Milica: The name of my website is  Milica in the Hat Millinery dot com and it’s milicainthehat.com. You can also go to my Facebook page where there’s a lot more photos. 

Milica's neice looks at one of Milica's fascinators