The classic Japanese film Sansho – The Bailiff will screen at the International House (3701 Chestnut St.) tonight as part of the Cherry Blossom Festival. All proceeds will be donated to the Philadelphia- Japan Disaster Relief Fund.

Here is a description of the 1954 film from the International House website:

“When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave traders. Under Kenji Mizoguchi’s dazzling direction, this classic Japanese story became one of cinema’s greatest masterpieces: a monumental, empathetic expression of human resilience in the face of evil.”

Tickets are $8 for general admission, $6 for students/seniors and $5 for Internationalist members.

All of the funds raised in the Philadelphia-Japan Disaster Relief Fund will go directly to the Japanese Red Cross Society in Japan.

Mariposa Food Co-op has a new tool in its quest to raise money for its move to a new (and much larger) building in the fall. The co-op has opened an account on the fundraising site IndieGoGo.com, where individuals can securely contribute any amount.

The co-op hopes to raise $10,000 toward its move costs on the site, which will be bundled together with other fundraising ventures – from member and institutional loans to brunches – to cover the estimated $2.2 million purchase and rehab of the new building at 4824 Baltimore Ave.

Kia Gregory wrote a story for the Philadelphia Inquirer that we think everyone can relate to: The first hints of spring and the draw of water ice.

She profiles Morrone’s Water Ice, a West Philly institution at 63rd and Race. The store has been there since 1925.

One father, Rodney Mason, told Gregory: “Water ice drives my kids crazy.”

We noticed that the water ice cart was out at Clark Park yesterday as well and later in the evening I heard the first ice cream truck song of the season.

Philadelphia Weekly published an important story yesterday about opposition to the proposed rehab of the 52nd Street shopping corridor.

One street vendor, Bashir Postley, was vocal in his opposition to the city’s multimillion plan to “revitalize” the historic shopping strip.

“Let’s call it what it is,” Postley told Philadelphia Weekly. “They gonna take the urban culture out of 52nd Street and make it into a little shopping mall for white people.”

The city’s plan includes the refurbishment of storefronts along 52nd Street.

Many vendors are angry that the city has taken down the custom awnings erected in 1976 to shield shoppers and vendors from the elements. The city has said that it was a necessary first step to determine how much work needed to be done. The city had originally planned to take the awnings down in 2009, but protests from vendors put that move on hold.

West Philly High is getting new laptops today thanks to the hip hop cop.

Daily News Celebrities and Gossip columnist Jenice Armstrong has a great piece today on Charlie Mack Alston, who became well known as the security guard for West Philly natives Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff, and his efforts to replace computers stolen last month from West Philadelphia High School. Two teens, one a student at the school, have pleaded guilty to the theft. Thirty computers, valued at about $1,000 each, were never recovered.

Alston’s plan began soon after he saw reports that the laptops had been stolen.

“It was just on my heart that I wanted to do something,” he told Armstrong.

So he called up his friend Will Smith and together they bought 30 new computers.

Alston will present the computers to the school today.

If you have reveled in telling everyone who cared that the Charles Dickens statue in Clark Park was the only one in the world, these might be the worst of times.

A second Dickens statue, which disappeared some 40 years ago, has been fixed up and placed in Centennial Park in Sydney.

The author famously told his family that he wanted no public commemorations or testimonials. No statues. No buildings named for him. The Little Nell statue, commissioned in the late 19th century garnered accolades in public exhibits until settling into Clark Park in 1901 and there it remains, despite several attempts to move it to more prominent spots in the city.

The Sydney statue shows a contemplative Dickens holding a quill and scroll. The Telegraph newspaper reported last month that the statue was also commissioned in the late 19th century, but was removed in 1972 because of vandalism. Somewhere in transit the head was damaged and the statue was placed into storage until the company housing it went bankrupt.

The statue went missing until Sandra Faulkner, the president of the New South Wales Charles Dickens Society, began a public search for the statue in 2006.

“I received about three calls over the course of a few days from people who didn’t want to give their names but who knew the statue and knew where it was,” she told The Telegraph.

The statue turned up a year later in a private garden about an hour outside of Sydney.

Stonemasons spent the last four years making a new head, quill, scroll and finger for the statue.

The statue was replaced last month just in time for the novelist’s 199th birthday.