CLOSE UP Video Interviews

Q: WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUT CHESTNUT HILL? A:I think everything, truthfully. I miss it, something terrible. Miriam Monahan, Fort Washington Estates.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH ALL THOSE INSTRUMENTS? “I’m delivering them; they were broken.  They were fixed at our shop and I’m bringing them back to the music teacher. WHAT SHOP IS THAT? Music and Arts Center. We do most of the repairs for a lot of the Philly schools. AND WHAT KIND OF INSTRUMENTS DO YOU HAVE THERE? I’ve got six clarinets, a flute and an alto sax. DO YOU PLAY? I play the trumpet myself, yeah.” Mike Franchetti, outside J.S. Jenks School.

WHAT KIND OF WORK WOULD YOU DO IF YOU COULD GET SOME WORK? Carpentry, sheet rock, cooking. COULD YOU DO THAT WITH THE WHEEL CHAIR? Yes, sir. I help my sister some time with Thanksgiving. WHAT DO YOU COOK UP? Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, potato salad, baked macaroni, biscuits. I’LL TELL YOU WHAT, WHEN YOU OPEN UP A RESTAURANT, I’LL BE THERE!, Gerald Stokes,16th and JFK Boulevard.

WHAT IS CAPOEIRA ABOUT? “ Capoeira is an art from Brazil. It’s a martial art. It’s combined with dance and more recently acrobatics. There’s a huge history behind it. It goes back a really long way to slavery in Brazil.” Kayla Ankeny, Philadelphia ASCAB Capoeira, Philadelphia University campus.

WHY DO YOU PAINT PEOPLE? “My classical training at the Academy was very figure oriented and I’ve always admired figure painters and the more I’ve painted from the figure, the more I’ve been drawn into using faces and figures as the means of expressing what’s inside… The reason that I paint is beauty and color and shapes. And it’s really as simple as that.” Eleanor Day, Mount Airy, Philadelphia Open Studio Tours.