CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

She advocates to free an Orca at CH Garden Fest

Lolita is an orca “killer” whale who has been performing at the Miami Seaquarium (http://miamiseaquarium.com/Shows/Killer-Whale-and-Dolphin) since 1970 and Gigi Glendinning is the founder of 22reasons.org (http://22reasons.org), an organization that teaches “compassion and reverence for all animals” who believes Lolita deserves a rehabilitative retirement where she has round-the-clock veterinary care and the opportunity to return to the sea.

Glendinning was out advocating at a booth at the Chestnut Hill Garden Festival on Sunday with a niece costumed as a killer whale.  Kids were invited to paint a life size illustration of a killer whale on a huge tarp on the ground.  22Reasons and  several similarly missioned organizations are mounting a petition drive and urging parents to NOT buy tickets to shows like Lolita’s where animals are forced to perform.  It sends a contradictory message to children, Glendinning maintains, to attempt to instill respect for these animals while simultaneously mistreating them.

According to Glendinning, Lolita was illegally captured and is being illegally contained in a concrete pool so small her tail touches the bottom and where, as a member of an exceptionally intelligent and social species, she is deprived of necessary social contact and subject to many confinement-related afflictions.

She presented your correspondent with a copy of the book, “Death at Sea World: Shamu and the Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity” by  David Kirby  (St Martins Press 2012) about killer whales in the marine park industry, their advocates and the brutal and sometimes lethal attacks on  trainers over the years, attributed to captivity-related aggressiveness of the orcas. Watch video interview here.

Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival - beautiful!

The Mount Seniors' Fun Day for Charity

With glittery facial make up and sporting their school’s purple and gold colors, Mount Saint Joseph Academy seniors Cassidy Peikin (left) and Michelle Handy took a lunch break at Bruno’s from the school’s annual Charity Day festivities. It’s a day of fun, the girls say, and the seniors get to dress up crazily. The day’s celebration features a talent show including skits by teachers, singing and Irish dancing which Handy performed in the morning and demonstrated in the accompanying video. This year’s donations will benefit the Make a Wish Foundation and the Chron’s and Colitis Foundation. Upon graduation Peikin plans to pursue social work and Handy, to become a therapist. Watch video here.

Nativity re-enacted

In Bethlehem, because there was no room at the inn, in a barn Mary had just given birth to a baby boy named Jesus, weighing in at 8 pounds 2 ounces. Wise men guided by the north star brought gifts of gold incense and myrrh. Baby Jesus was wrapped in white linen and in this reenactment of the nativity scene by members of the Conshohocken PA Methodist Church, wore earmuffs because of the cold. Watch video here.

Horses, handlers costume up for Halloween

Northwestern Stables in Chestnut Hill hosts an annual haunted horses halloween parade. The first parade is for kids and the second is for adults. Both handlers and horses are costumed and parade for prizes in the categories of  scariest, most creative, funniest and best in show. Shown here are scenes from the adult parade and Kristen,  the 2009 Best in Show for her zebra horse ("zorse") Oxford, talking about her disappointing finish with Oxford as a dinosaur from "Land of the Lost"in this year's parade.

Watch slideshow here.

Watch video here.

Fighting the dark arts on and off the quidditch pitch

October 26th through October 28th marked Harry Potter Weekend in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia.

As part of the festivities 16 college quidditch teams competed in the 3rd Annual Philadelphia Brother Love Cup at Chestnut Hill College. In an initial match, it appeared that "The Hex" of the Ithaca Community team got trounced by "Those Guys" out of...where?

A young woman at one of the many tables on the college green sold muffins to support the Harry Potter Alliance, "an army of fans, activists, nerdfighters, teenagers, wizards and muggles dedicated to fighting for social justice with the greatest weapon we have-- love." The poster at her table bears a quote from J.K. Rowling's commencement address at Harvard University on June 5, 2008: "We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better." Watch video here.

 

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.

York Pa. County Fair - Fun Times!

In a whirlwind day at the York County Fair in York, PA, I did several video interviews and videoed some events, as we wound our way about the fairgrounds. In roughly chronological order we encountered:

• For more than 50 years these model circus builders, certified circus enthusiasts, have been practicing their craft of creating miniature, animated models of actual circuses like the 1954 Ringling Brothers Circus
• A pigeon breeder has long enjoyed what he calls a relaxing hobby and is hoping that the "roller" he is entering into competition will have the requisite silky feathers, firm feel, pretty eyes and overall good looks to take home a prize
• The "Procrastinators" are a troupe of three drummers,out of San Diego who wander the fairgrounds and stage impromptu performances using common objects like water cooler bottles and kitchen pans. They enliven their act acrobatic flairs and frequent dashes of humor. They work for gotdrummers.com, a larger outfit which dispatches drummers across the country for a variety of gigs.
• A friend of the owner watches over a pregnant sow, scheduled to give birth the next day at the live animal birthing center
• A sheep gets meticulously sheared and primped by its owners friends, getting ready to be judged.
• In a tent is the Amercian Steam Engine Society's antique farm machines show. One large vehicle is a "manure spreader" by Chuck Cusimano of Glen Rock, PA. for politicians. At the front over a mounted toilet is a sign which reads "For BiPartican input only- For Politicians Use Only". Other signs aboard the tractor lampoon politicians like the one with a cartoon of the Democrats' donkey and the Republicans' elephant and the words, "Sure you can trust us, Just ask an American Indian." The Society's 55th annual "Steamorama" runs October 4th through 7th, 2012 in York.
• Stan from the Christian Farmers Outreach insists that Christ loves me and cajoles me to accept, as a gift, a wooden back scratcher made in China
• In the men's room, two men who describe their work as "self contracting" are stationed at either end and pop up from their chairs to proffer a dry paper towel as soon as someone has finished washing their hands. In between times one will sing and other spray wipe the urinals.
• A muscular tout carries a hand made poster saying "WHATYA BENCH?" and offering $100 prizes as he snakes his way through the fair, trying to lure people to the staging area where a hunk with a microphone cajoles bystanders to benchpress a 225lb barbell or lift a 500 pound barbell with car tires at either end.

Japanese guitarist plays gentle instrumentals

Watch video here.

WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT?  It’s like appreciation for this country. [referring to another song he played but not appearing in this video] My intuition, my intuitionish  expression. I cannot explain well so that’s why I play. IS SOME OF YOUR MUSIC JAPANESE INSPIRED? Yes. Like the third song I played, “Takibi,” bonfire, it’s inspiration from my grandparents. HOW DID THEY INSPIRE YOU? My childhood. When I recall my childhood. That scenery made me write that song. The bonfire and the smoke going up in the sky. YOU GREW UP IN KYOTO? I’m from Kyoto, a very traditional city. But somehow I picked up a five-string banjo because my Dad was a crazy guy. And he brought me a banjo one day and asked me to play it. A new instrument for me. I didn’t know how to do it so I was just playing around with it. Yeah, that’s the story.

Guitarist/composer Hiroya Tsukamoto at the Walk a Crooked Mile Bookstore concert series, Mount Airy Philadelphia.

Gypsy jazz writer skirmishes

Sherry Canary, of the musical group “Hot Club Canaries” takes DJango Reinhardt songs and puts lyrics to them. And she writes her own songs in the gypsy jazz idiom. She does a lot of collaborating as a member of an Internet group FAWM February Album Writing month., http://fawm.org Members compose 14 songs in 28 days and listen and comment on each other’s work. Participants include all kinds of composers from housewives to professionals. Canary also participates in “skirmishes” - writers have only one hour to write the music, the lyrics, produce it and get it online. Watch video interview and singing here. In another video, Canary sings her composition satirizing the world's dictators, "Coffee with Gadaffi." The Hot Club Canaries perform at the Mermaid Inn on Thursday May 10, 2012