CLOSE UP Video Interviews

​Performing and visual artist Karla Milugo from Brooklyn and beyond is taking an artist hiatus in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. In the month she is planning to spend here, Milugo is doing art and exploring the Philly environs. Your interviewer encountered her wearing a large, crafted camera apparatus at the Germantown Kitchen Garden urban farm oasis where a potluck picnic and concert was taking place. The camera is also a balloon pumping station and Milugo entertains kids by blowing up balloons and drawing their likeness on them. Milugo also spoke of her Preacher Faith Faucet  person and her book divination projects and  she indulged your interviewer by demonstrating her whistling prowess and singer creds. As the sun was setting the lively salsa band Combo Melaza rocked the crowd including Milugo who videoed while she salsa-ed.

Moviegoers attending the Chestnut Hill Film Group’s inaugural screening of the season this Tuesday evening were delighted by the artful musical accompaniment of veteran keyboardist Don Kinnear. Kinnear improvised as he watched, for the first time, two silent short films chosen by Jay Schwartz (founder of the Secret Cinema) and employed the operatic style of playing and interweaving themes assigned to different characters for the silent main feature he had seen before, W.C. Fields’ 1926 “It’s the Old Army Game.” With his electronic keyboard and a laptop loaded with a digital version of the Wurlitzer organ of the Virginia Theater in Champaign, Illinois  he reproduced the music, sounds and special effects (“toy counter”) the original audiences  in the 1920s may have experienced. Watch video interview here.

I NOTICE THAT YOU HAVE THE MARK OF HARRY POTTER. Yes, I do. WHY? Well the movie’s opening tonight and my father gave me these round glasses and all my friends thought I look like Harry Potter so they put a scar on my head and I’ll think about going to see the movie tonight. CAN I SEE THE GLASSES? [puts on glasses] TONIGHT’S THE OPENING NIGHT? Yes. AND WHAT’S THE NAME OF THE MOVIE? I truly don’t know. All I know is that it’s the first part of the last movie. AND YOU’RE A HARRY POTTER FAN? Yeah. WHY? My sister read all the books and I kind of got drawn to it. That’s probably why. HAVE YOU READ THE BOOKS, TOO? No I’ve only seen the movies. HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT ANYTHING THAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN IN THIS MOVIE? I hear it’s really gory.

Larissa Noble Maldonado of Lafayette Hill, seen here with the mark of Voldemort on her forehead, given to her by friends at school who think she looks like Harry Potter, at Diamond Spa in Chestnut Hill, where she accompanied her aunt Sue.

Video interview here

SO HOW DID MAGGIE, “D-MAGGIE-O”, GET HER NUMBER “5”? Joe DiMaggio was number 5 because he was fifth in the batting order for the New York Yankees and they were the first team to start using the numbers regularly for their players. IS THAT NUMBER RETIRED NOW? I think it is. And we have Marilyn Monroe with us today because Joe DiMaggio married Marilyn and they were married for just a short while, under a year. And after two hundred and thirty some days she filed for divorce for mental cruelty. But here’s the interesting thing. She goes on to lead a life of fame and fortune but of course it comes to a very sad end. After she dies, Joe DiMaggio arranges her funeral, keeps all the paparazzi away and then after the funeral, he proceeds for the next twenty years to send red roses to her grave every week. Isn’t that wild? So that’s why we have Joe and Marilyn united today. AND THE HORSE? The horse is Maggie and today she’s ‘Jo D-Maggie-O.’” Sue Land, in background,with Maggie and Marissa Hall,Northwestern Equestrian Facility, Philadelphia. Watch video here.

Andrea Shumsky, as Marilyn Monroe, with Maggie.