So here’s an idea: Get a bunch of smart people in a room together and let them talk about their passions in under seven minutes each. To help, throw in some savvy digital presentations. Oh wait, that is actually happening tonight at Studio 34 (4522 Baltimore Ave.).
Pecha Kucha (say peh-CHAK-cha) is the Japanese word for the sound of conversation. The word has taken on added meaning with nights similar tonight all around the world – a sort of show-and-tell for people with really good ideas. A complete list of presenters, including bios, is here.
The rules are simple: show 20 PowerPoint slides, talk about each one for 20 seconds. The night usually includes a lot of socializing as well.
Philly Beer Week starts today with well over a hundred of venues and more than 30 breweries taking part. A lot of folks are expected to turn up and try hard to prove that Philly is the best beer-drinking city in the land.
What about the left bank? West Philly will be well represented with a good number of participating local pubs. See the full list below. For a complete rundown on events in any neighborhood or with any particular brewery, go to the Philly Beer Week link above and click on “event” and choose.
Two small events are kicking things off tonight in West Philly. Bridgewater’s Pub in 30th Street Station will feature tastings and special prices on a range of Samuel Smith beers from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Also from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., the New Deck Tavern (3408 Sansom St.) will have a “Belgian Blast” with Blue Moon and Hoegaarden pints for $3.50.
We’ll keep you updated on daily events in future posts. Here are a couple of highlights to get you revved up:
• June 5The Philly Cheese Experiment, World Cafe Live ( 3025 Walnut St.), 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. This amateur cooking contest complete with Brooklyn Brewery Beer looks to be savory and sweet. Tickets are $10-$15, which includes a lot of samples.
• June 9Night Market Philadelphia Beer Week Edition, The Blockley Beer Garden (39th and Market Streets), 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. This thing couples two Philly specialities – good beer and killer food trucks.
• June 12Philly Beer Week Music Festival, Dock Street Brewing Co. (50th and Baltimore), 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. This 3rd annual outdoor, all-ages show includes bands, beers and food.
One of the coolest events in West Philly and something many of us have been looking forward to all year is finally here. The first Dollar Stroll of the season is taking place tonight on Baltimore Avenue between 41st and 52nd Streets, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Dollar Stroll means $1 deals on some popular items from local shops, cafes and restaurants (see the full list of participating businesses on the flyer below).
Local food vendors are lining up to showcase what they are good at and to satisfy every taste and preference in food and drink, from vegan to carnivore and fruit juice to beer. We figure that for about $6 bucks you can get dinner, desert, a couple of beers and about a dozen tunes (see below).
Worthy of special mention is that besides $1 deals you’ll be able to pick up a free-download card with an access code to download the “West Philly Mix Tape” featuring tracks by 11 West Philly bands, including West Philadelphia Orchestra. Download cards will be available at many of the participating locations.
And finally, $1 food and drinks are great, but don’t forget to stop by Curio Theatre to pick up tickets to their 2011-12 preview shows. This local gem put up some hugely popular performances this past season.
Puerto Rican vocalist Taína Asili, flamenco dancer April Goltz, and guitarist Gaetano Vaccaro present an intimate and unforgettable performance of Latin American folk and flamenco tonight, at 7:30 p.m. at Crossroads Music (801 S 48th St.).
Taína Asili and April Goltz are former Philadelphians. Goltz took her first flamenco steps at the Arts League in West Philly beginning in 2002.
Before the main event, there will be a short children’s concert, from 6 p.m. to approximately 6:45 p.m. Tickets to this show are $5 for kids, with accompanying grownups free.
The Rita Jones Dance Company will present A Tribute To Billie Holiday concert tonight at 7:30 p.m. at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.). Proceeds from the event will go to Pancreatic Cancer Research program at Jefferson Hospital. General admission tickets: $10.
With its classic tiled roof and soaring, arched windows, The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.) sticks out amid the polished metal and stone that has become the west side of the intersection of 40th and Walnut Streets.
Built in 1911, the one-time Christian Science church turned neighborhood arts and culture venue is 100 years old this year. It’s celebrating with three days of performances by the wonderful Anne-Marie Mulgrew & Dancers Co., which has designed a production specifically for The Rotunda’s sanctuary space.
Most events at The Rotunda are held in a black-box theater in the rear part of the building that once served as a Sunday school when the building was a church. Occasionally, a performance warrants opening the much bigger sanctuary space, which sits under the buildings distinctive round roof.
This description of the performance comes from the dance company’s website:
The program consists of a dozen short theatrical vignettes, dances and art installations inspired by the architecture of the space and the festival theme, Paris in 1911 moving towards 2011. Highlights include video projections on walls juxtaposed with live performance, a 2011 installation inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s notorious Etant Donnes, dancers clinging to doorways and walls, a pew dance, characters such as the lighted-hat lady who drops Kleenexs from the choir loft, a re-imagined version of Mulgrew’s 1992’s Earthborne featuring a woman on a ladder watching a stick dance, carousel like-dances using the fallen chandelier as a
sculpture, unexpected scenarios and audience interaction.
Le Dada explores every nook and cranny of the glorious but decaying cathedral-like space. Le Dada aims to bring new awareness to the building’s architecture and history. The performance commences outside in the courtyard area at the front of the building. The audience is invited to follow the performers around the perimeters of the inside space guided by a MC/Narrator leading to more conventional seating in the round in the 100-year old pews.
Performances on Friday and Saturday begin at 7:11 p.m. Sunday’s performance begins at 3:11 p.m. If you arrive 11 minutes before the show, you can watch a “pre-show” performance outside The Rotunda. There will also be refreshments and discussion in the black-box theater following the show.
Tickets are $15 General Admission, $10 Students/Seniors/DancePass holders. Tickets can be purchased on the PIFA website www.pifa.org, in person at the Kimmel Center Box Office, or by phone at 215-546-PIFA or 215-790-5800.
Below is an interview with The Rotunda’s director, Gina Renzi, about the building and this weekend’s performance.
So here’s an idea: Get a bunch of smart people in a room together and let them talk about their passions in under seven minutes each. To help, throw in some savvy digital presentations. Oh wait, that is actually happening tonight at Studio 34 (4522 Baltimore Ave.).
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