CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

Maya at Astronomy Night

Awbury Arboretum on Friday night, April 26,2013 was one of many venues set up throughout the city for stargazing as part of the 10 day Philadelphia Science Festival. A few dozen or so people showed  up at the Arboretum in Germantown. Teenager  Maya Anderson came to just hang out with her family and, as a choir student at Settlement Music School,  sang impromptu from some of her repertoire.    Katie Virtue, a meteorologist and volunteer with the Franklin Institute was on hand to guide visitors to the celestial sights. Some astronomy enthusiasts brought powerful telescopes and lines formed at these for viewing the four moons of Jupiter on this clear, cool spring night.  Video story here. And here is Maya "Piping down the valleys wild" from Songs of Innocence by William Blake.

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.

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

Treephilly gives away 2000 trees

The Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department is giving away two thousand trees this fall at 8 events across the city through its Treephilly organization to residents for planting in their own yards. All the ten different sapling varieties are native to the region and were chosen for their varying sizes and preferences for sun or  shade, wet or dry, according to Erica Smith Fichman, manager of the program. The goal, she says,is to increase the city's tree canopy for summer shadefor and for the known beneficial effects of trees on air and water quality. Joe Presley, a first time tree planter, was at the Hunting Park Avenue recreation center pick-up event and hoped he had understood a planting demonstration well to give the eastern redbud he had selected a good start in his mother-in-law's as yet, treeless yard. 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.

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