CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

DJwash5 plays hits of the seventies

David Bernard, also known as "DJ Wash 5", is seen here at Vernon Park in Germantown, talking about his radio concert series featuring hits of the seventies. Watch video here. David/DJwash5 can be found on Facebook here.

Casting Spells at Chestnut Hill's Harry Potter weekend

Megan Amsterdam, right, casts a spell on Katie Blumberh. They were joined by friend Danielle Knauer and had just attended Quidditch tournaments at Chestnut Hill College during the Harry Potter weekend in Chestnut Hill. They are Philadelphia University students and big Harry Potter fans. Watch video here.

Kids dance to Jazz Flute

WHAT WAS IT LIKE HAVING DANCERS PERFORM WITH YOU? Wonderful. We always love to do this for the kids. I’m not doing this to get rich. I enjoy playing at libraries and schools and things like that for young people to perpetuate music. And the energy I get from the kids is wonderful. They interact with the band. Their response is very pure, very honest. It’s a joy to behold to see them dancing like that so I love it. Walter Bell, jazz flutist of the Latin Jazs Unit, Northeast Regional Library, Free Library of Philadelphia. Watch video here.

Philly Roller Girls Jam at 23rd Street Armory

Competing in the Women's Flat Track Derby Association, the Philly Roller Girls jammed their way around the track before an enthusiastic multi-generational crowd at the 23rd Street Armory Saturday Night.

Philly's Independence Dolls took on and over the Wilmington, North Carolina Cape Fear Roller Girls. In the second match, two Philly teams faced off: The Heavy Metal Hookers and the Broad Street Butchers, attired, respectively,with tiger striped shorts and blood-red stained butcher aprons.

Vanessa Jackson, a bartender, aka "Euro Thrasher" of the Hookers doubles as co-head of public relations. Five years ago, a girl working at the bar behind hers invited Jackson to a game; it "blew her mind" - she knew she had to do derby and now "Thrasher" cannot imagine life without it.

"Mercedes Bends" of West Philly and Germany, a student teacher of the German language,  was selling roller derby paraphanalia at the event because her teams, the Britches and nationally 4th ranked travel team Bells weren't on the bill. "Bends" progressed into the sport through a combination roller skate dancing, soccer and karate!  Skater "Gingervitis" introduced her to roller derby and in 2009 she earned best team Jammer and MVP awards.  Her profile quote is "German engineering meets American crash standards."

Watch video here.

Local Actress Pierlisa Chiodo-Steo on her last role and the Oscars

Local actress Pierlisa Chiodo-Steo, who just completed a run at Stagecrafters Theater as Amanda in Noel Coward's "Private Lives" is taking a break before doing some readings in March. Her motivation for acting is to move audiences, make them laugh or cry. She can next be not seen watching the Academy Awards in front of her TV. Watch video here.

Jason Chuong leads Jenks Bucket Drumming Ensemble

  

"So please give a hand for the Jenks Bucket Drumming ensemble!...During the school year I start the kids with learning technique, with learning how to read music, music literacy and at the end of every period I have an enrichment section, lesson. They learn bucket drumming or they learn drum set, improvisation, composition. And basically the kids do bucket drumming. We compose pieces together, we improvise ….. I got an idea from the University of the Arts. I attended the University of the Arts. We started an experimental bucket drumming ensemble there that kind of took off. And now it’s developing all over the city. I have seven ensembles in the city that I started and it’s just taking off! That’s what we do here at Jenks. Each bucket is about two dollars and thirty seven cents. And it’s immediate gratification for the kids. So instead of spending months learning fingering and armature and technique for a saxophone or clarinet, you pick up a pair of sticks and immediately play and you sound OKAY." Philadelhia School District Music teacher with the J.S. Jenks Middle School bucket drumming ensemble at the winter concert.

Watch video here.

Girl with Voldemort's blaze on her forehead on opening night of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows

I NOTICE THAT YOU HAVE THE MARK OF HARRY POTTER. Yes, I do. WHY? Well the movie’s opening tonight and my father gave me these round glasses and all my friends thought I look like Harry Potter so they put a scar on my head and I’ll think about going to see the movie tonight. CAN I SEE THE GLASSES? [puts on glasses] TONIGHT’S THE OPENING NIGHT? Yes. AND WHAT’S THE NAME OF THE MOVIE? I truly don’t know. All I know is that it’s the first part of the last movie. AND YOU’RE A HARRY POTTER FAN? Yeah. WHY? My sister read all the books and I kind of got drawn to it. That’s probably why. HAVE YOU READ THE BOOKS, TOO? No I’ve only seen the movies. HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT ANYTHING THAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN IN THIS MOVIE? I hear it’s really gory.

Larissa Noble Maldonado of Lafayette Hill, seen here with the mark of Voldemort on her forehead, given to her by friends at school who think she looks like Harry Potter, at Diamond Spa in Chestnut Hill, where she accompanied her aunt Sue.

 

Video interview here

Jo D-Maggie-O wins most creative at NW Equestrian Costumed Horse Halloween Contest

SO HOW DID MAGGIE, “D-MAGGIE-O”, GET HER NUMBER “5”? Joe DiMaggio was number 5 because he was fifth in the batting order for the New York Yankees and they were the first team to start using the numbers regularly for their players. IS THAT NUMBER RETIRED NOW? I think it is. And we have Marilyn Monroe with us today because Joe DiMaggio married Marilyn and they were married for just a short while, under a year. And after two hundred and thirty some days she filed for divorce for mental cruelty. But here’s the interesting thing. She goes on to lead a life of fame and fortune but of course it comes to a very sad end. After she dies, Joe DiMaggio arranges her funeral, keeps all the paparazzi away and then after the funeral, he proceeds for the next twenty years to send red roses to her grave every week. Isn’t that wild? So that’s why we have Joe and Marilyn united today. AND THE HORSE? The horse is Maggie and today she’s ‘Jo D-Maggie-O.’” Sue Land, in background,with Maggie and Marissa Hall,Northwestern Equestrian Facility, Philadelphia. Watch video here.

Andrea Shumsky, as Marilyn Monroe, with Maggie.

Richard Morais' Hundred Foot Journey

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT READING YOUR BOOK ALOUD? “As you can see I’m a bit of a ham and authors love talking about themselves. Nothing gives them more pleasure. I actually always wanted to be an actor so I realized early enough on that I wasn’t a stable enough person to be an actor because it’s a very unstable life and the ragged edges of my personality would be magnified in that situation so I decided to be a writer… The next time I went down to Bombay, there was an actor who introduced me and I was sort of inspired by his presence to put on an Indian accent and so I went home and I called my wife up and I said, “Yeah I think it went pretty well. I read in an Indian accent” And she said, “Tell me you didn’t.” [Audience laughter] And the reason I say this is that the way I’m reading it now is the way I hear it. One of the great things about fiction writing is for a little while you can pretend you’re not who you are. You can pretend you’re someone else in the world. And that is the great joy and liberation of fiction writing.” Richard Morais, author, The Hundred Foot Journey. Watch video and Morais reading aloud from book in Indian accent here.

Time between screams down black hole

This is an illustration from a kids’ course on black holes. I’m teaching black holes in elementary school now and some kid did an illustration of a guy falling in. What happens when you fall into a black hole is that you slow down or you seem to slow down. This is your first scream, second scream, third, fourth, fifth, and it’s taking more and more time between each scream . . .So we think we understand something about time . We think we know something about quantum mechanics and we have no idea how to fit the two together. John Ashmead, “Time and Quantum Mechanics.” From his blog entry of July 11, 2010:"Spoke at noon yesterday (July 10th, 2010) at the Chestnut Hill Book Festival; in spite of heavy rain a nice crowd. This was my Balticon Time & Quantum Mechanics talk, adjusted for a general (rather than a science fictional) audience. I covered over a hundred years of physics in less than an hour — a lot — but the audience survived & even seemed to prosper, asking some good questions!"Click here to see video excerpt from talk and 9 second interview.