CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

Chef sculpts Ice New Year's Eve

I’m done with all the major cuts. It’s all the way through. Now it’s kind of add feature to the snowflake and know that I only have two feet that it’s standing on. This is going to be the tricky part to get all the detail in. We’ll finish the pedestal and we’ll call it a night. ARE YOU WORKING FROM A PATTERN? I am. All my templates I start with a paper pattern. That’s only one-dimensional. You get into the three-dimensional when you start cutting. HOW DID YOU GET INTO IT? I’m a chef by trade so this is part of my education.  You practice with every piece. Every one is very different. They all have their own kind of temperament, their own characteristics. WHAT’S THE TEMPERAMENT OF THIS ONE? This one is a little tougher, it is getting a little colder so it’s a little bit more of a fight than the “2012.” The “2012” cut like butter, it was a little earlier in the evening, this one’s a little tougher which is Okay.

Chef Tim Harris, First Night celebration, Carlisle, PA. [BYSTANDERS: What’s the best thing about ice cutting? Chainsaw!]

Watch video here.

A popular attraction at the 2012 First Night Carlilse celebration were the"Steppinwoofs" a group of ladies and their pet dogs who dance in choreographed routines: see video clip here.

 

Daughter and dog wait for running Mom

Morgan DeVries of Marlton, New Jersey and her dog, Guiness. Guiness usually runs as a partner in the races, but not this hot July day, where he is waiting patiently for Mom, Shelly, who was competing in the Montgomery County Child Advocacy Project sponsored "Run for the Hill of It" on July 30, 2011 on Forbidden Drive, Wissahickon Valley. 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.

Readers are leaders: Chestnut Hill Book Festival 2011

Somewhere I saw, a long time ago, a button or bumper sticker that said "Readers are Leaders" And I think that's really true- that people who read find out details about the world and have things to talk about. And it's much more effective to be in the world with other humans when you have things to talk about.

We have a rule in our household that if there's a book that's been turned into a movie, you have to read the book first- the Harry Potter movies... there's been a lot of kids books that they've taken and changed around and made them into movies and it's been pretty funny. Because they change them! But I always insist that my kids read the books first. Of course we have to do that ourselves, mind our own rules. So my husband and I had to read "The Lord of the Rings" when that coming out as a movie a while back. We had to read them again. I had read them in high school It was actually work!

Being at this book festival, people are walking by and they're talking about books which is so much fun. And there were some women here earlier at my table and they were talking about kids books that were turned into movies, "The Hunger Games" and how excited they are about that. And we started talking about the books that we love, as adults but they also might be kids books. And then we started talking about the books that are narrated, that are read on tape or CD. And one of the leader-readers, it's so obvious, is Barack Obama, You know he got a grammy award for reading his own book aloud?.. That poor guy has such a job!

Laura Richlin, Chestnut Hill Book Festival 

Watch video interview here.

Bocce Club's July 4th at the Water Tower

 

At the Philadelphia Water Tower Recreation Center in Chestnut Hill, a magician named John brought Anna and "Jimmy the Paleontologist" up on the stage as audience volunteers. July 4th Independence Day celebration produced by the Bocce Club.

Live brine shrimp, Chuck Connelly and friends at Chestnut Hill Gallery

Artist Chuck Connelly curates the [stunning] Chestnut Hill Gallery show that just opened featuring his oil paintings, the projected light work of Ted Victoria, the lamps and gears of Harry Anderson and the salt print nudes of Hal Hirshorn. Featured in the video collage [CLICK HERE] of the artists' reception are Connelly, Victoria, Anderson and Owner-Gallery Director Joseph Borelli.

Tasting like a lion

Guests sample six different concoctions to understand how animals taste. Cats don't taste sweet so a sweet substance was tasted followed by a sweet blocker followed by another draft of the same sweet substance- which tasted like not worth eating or drinking! At the Philadelphia Science Festival event at Rembrandt's Restaurant produced by the Philadelphia Zoo and Monell Center where they study the sense of taste. Watch video here.

Body odors signal threat?

Amy Gordon,left, a first year grad student who works at the Monell Center, welcomed guests to a Philadelphia Science Festival program on how animals, smell and taste at Rembrandt's Restaurant and Bar. Gordon studies how humans communicate with body odor, especially how a stranger's body odor may influence threatening visual stimuli from the stranger. Fairmount neighborhood, Philadelphia.Watch video here.

Speed dating model also matches investors and caregivers with nannies

Founder John Samson, left, and his partner Dan Gill run SpeedDateUSA.com, a company with national reach, that hosts events for people with similar interests, from romantic to social and business as well. Samson says speed dating was popular in New York City and Europe when he moved to Philadephia a few years ago and saw an opportunity to start a business here. The ten to fifteen guests who sign up for an event meet one on one with each other for 6 minutes before rotating to another guest. What started as a service for lonely hearts now uses a similar concept, speed networking, to bring together investors looking to network with one another and even caregivers looking for nannies. Interviewed near Dan's office outside the old Solaris on Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill.  Watch video here.

Soil Kitchen tilts at windmills

Dan and his father, Chilean born Francisco Allende, read alternatingly in English and Spanish from Miguel Cervantes' "Don Quixote" in front of the legendary knight errant's statute at 2nd and Girard. Quixote was the inspiration for the "Soilkitchen" public art project coinciding with the Environmental Protection Agency's national brownfields conference in Philadelphia in April. At the street level gathering and exhibition space on the south side of Girard, Soil Kitchen lab assistants test samples of soil collected from around the city to assess the health of the soil for farming while volunteers dish out free soup. In the photo foreground, project artist Amy Franceschini takes a pause from taking photos to listen to the reading. Watch video here and visit http://soilkitchen.org