CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

We Freecycle recycle bookcase

Amy Hsu came by our house in her car to pick up a tall bookcase. She had seen my post on the popular Northwest Philly Freecycle website, where people give and get things –for free!  

I had trash-picked the sturdy bookcase just a couple days before but then realized I could not use it as planned.   Hsu says her husband may use it for his beer brewing containers and supplies.  Hsu is an enthusiast of the free online exchange. Through notices on the website she recently gave away a couch and a chair and dug up a plant from an offeror’s yard. She likes when she gets “repeats” like the woman who had given her cinderblocks who, thinking of her grandkids, responded to Hsu's offer of stuffed animals.

NW Philly Freecycle, a moderated website, was launched in 2004 by Meenal Raval and the Mount Airy Greening Network (MAGNET) as an offshoot of the citywide Philly Freecycle. It boasts over 5000 members and in April alone hosted 610 posts, a combination of “Offer”, “Wanted”, “Taken” and “Curb Alerts” for all kinds of household items imaginable.

Watch video here.

Reacts to hate crime verdict

Angie Brown and a friend react to the 30 day jail time imposed on the defendant in the notorious New Jersey spycam case. Watch here.  "[Dharun]Ravi, 20, of Plainsboro, N.J., was found guilty by a Middlesex County jury in March of bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, and hindering prosecution for using his laptop to secretly live-stream an intimate encounter between his Rutgers roommate, Tyler Clementi, and another man two years ago"from Philly.com

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

Nayus, battles dragon priest

“Nayus, son of Hamuka. You wish me to talk into your box, yes? There’s a man in there. He captures the moment as though it was real for all the world to see. He comes to the festival to partake in such beautiful festivities. Look at the lovely, lovely lasses as they play their music. Nayus likes to  do such… Nayus is actually from a place called Tamriel. Yes, for you see he was transported here. Oh yes, my name is Nayus, apologies yes. Nayus, son of Hamuka is my name. I am from a place called Tamriel. A lot of people don’t understand what Tamriel is.  Maybe you have actually heard of Skyrim, yes? No, you have not heard of Skyrim? It is a place really popular among these people, they understand. Nayus, on his last trip, he encountered, how you say, the dragon priest, yes. And the battle raged on for hours on end. And finally, Nayus finally got the upper hand on the dragon priest and the dragon priest got weak and tired and ripped open a portal and sent Nayus through the portal and here is in this realm amongst all the lovely young women and lasses and lads. And now I am here but I really wish to return to my home even though, like I said, the lasses are truly beautiful. Yes, that is who- Nayus…” Nayus, son of Hamuka, of Tamriel of Skyrim, in the realm of the Japanese Sakura Festival, Fairmount Park Horticultural Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Watch video here.

Take Flourtown Bakery QR code to Facebook page

Flourtown Bakery just started a Facebook page announcing its specialties like Flag Day cakes, Father’s day shirt cakes and strawberry shortcakes. On a sign at the checkout counter announcing the Facebook page is a QR code (a unique, small black and white checkered square) Customers  can scan  the pattern with their smartphones to jump  to and follow the Bakery on Facebook. Beth Alio, Flourtown Bakery, Montgomery County, PA. Watch video here.

Springtime for lovers

Suzanne Poncen talks about how she met Dan Jessen, not pictured, on Match.com at a party in Germantown. Watch video here

 

Julia Staico of Chestnut Hill, a stylist at the Hair Cuttery in Flourtown, is in love. 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.

Sam Lit broadcasts live from avenue on HyLit radio

Sam Lit, son of legendary Philadelphia radio host Hy Lit, broadcasts live from Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia on Internet radio station hylitradio.com

Watch video here.

WHHY and the federal funding cut to NPR - CEO Bill Marrazzo

WHHY President and CEO Bill Marrazzo doesn't diminish the importance of the federal grants to public radio but points out that federal dollars consitute only a small portion of the station's radio stream. WHYY relies  primarily  on the support of thousands of indidvual radio listeners, TV viewers and website visitors and also on sponsorships by corporations and foundations. Watch video interview here.

Gadfly, Radio Host Ed Feldman writing book, interviewing candidates

SO ED, WHY AREN’T YOU TORMENTING CHESTNUT HILL ANY MORE? I got tired of it. I tire easy and I thought other neighborhoods need to be tormented a little bit, too so I didn’t want to concentrate all my efforts in one place. Besides, I think I’ve proved my point. After the attorney general investigated and fined the Chestnut Hill Community Association, it kind of seemed a natural ending of things. Certainly it will be in the book I’m writing…. I have an Internet radio show that airs Monday through Friday, 9 to 10 am called “Morning Feed.” It’s on Gtwon Radio dot com. And right now I’m interviewing all the city council candidates in district 8. This morning, April 5th, I broke some news about an allegation of extortion by one of the candidates against another.” Ed Feldman, radio host at WHYY Voter Forum, Commodore Barry Club, Mount Airy, Philadelphia. Watch video interview here.