Girls Rock Philly, Philadelphia’s ONLY rock camp for girls, wrapped up the inaugural camp session with a rockin’ showcase over the weekend but not before taking the local press by storm! The first ever camp session was a huge success. Campers kept busy all week long learning about women in music, forming bands, and writing their own music and lyrics, culminating in a live concert performance for their families and peers. Head on over to Philly.com to watch an exclusive video about GRP and hear the girls talk about what rocking out means to them HERE.

Interested in sending your kid next year? UWISHUNU got caught up in the rock n’ roll spirit and dispatched a blogger who spent the day exploring rock life with the girls. Get the inside scoop here: “You Go Girls”. And read more about the unique all-female summer camp in the Philadelphia Inquirer’s feature story HERE.

PS: Who do I have to track down to get a pair of those GRP guitar pick earrings???

Rainpan 43’s machines machines machines machines machines machines machines has got Philadelphia theater-goers buzzing about the imaginative production and fantastical machines. FOX Philadelphia even stopped by the garage to take a closer look. For an inside peek, check out the segment here: myfoxphilly.com.

If you’re in the area, you can still catch what the Philadelphia Inquirer calls “an elaborate goof that’s in gear” through June 17^th at the Alter(ed) Garage! For tickets and more information, visit the official show site.

I grew up in Philadelphia and remember going to The Rosenbach Museum & Library (one of Canary’s newest clients) many, many moons ago on a school trip. To my young eyes, the building itself was sort of magical - the museum is housed in a historic old house in the Rittenhouse district. After reading up on the museum’s current collection, I’ll definitely have to take another look-see. For all of you literary types, the Rosenbach is home to one of the nation’s great collections of rare books and manuscripts and also serves as a research center and library. Somehow, the museum got their hands on some pretty cool personal items belonging to Nathaniel Hawthorne including his copy of Moby Dick (I wonder if he marked any specific passages…) They also have James Joyce’s original manuscript for Ulysses and even Melville’s bookcase.

For the imaginative visual types, the museum boasts a selection of John Tenniel’s original illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Look-Glass. I always found Tenniel’s drawings to be very intricate and full of wonderment. I’m really looking forward to seeing those in the flesh. Also on the illustration side, are over 10,000 drawings and manuscripts by Maurice Sendak. I remember reading his books as a child and loving the drawings. In the Night Kitchen was my favorite and of course, everyone loves Where the Wild Things Are. If you were ever wondering where the wild things actually are, now you know – they’re at the Rosenbach! Now that Canary is working with the museum, I’ll definitely have to check out more of their extensive collection. Oh, and just so you’re in the know, it’s not RosenBACH like the composer but RosenBACK, like well your back.

Lately, Anton Chekhov, the Russian dramatist and doctor famed for his masterful short stories, seems to be popping up all over Philadelphia. Both Villanova University and Arcadia University recently did productions of Chekhov’s play, Three Sisters. Now Pig Iron Theatre Company, the latest addition to Canary’s roster, is gearing up to present the world premiere of their new work, CHEKHOV LIZARDBRAIN, in late March. The play, which draws from the work of Paul D. MacLean (the mind behind the triune brain theory) and Chekhov’s Three Sisters, is a comic mash-up of neuroscience and surrealism. Sounds like the thinking man’s comedy, no?

I remember reading a Chekhov short in a Russian Cinema course a few years ago, but I’ve never read his work extensively. It’s looking like I’ll have to join the Chekhov bandwagon before I get left in the literary dust. Yesterday, I was paging through a January edition of Time Magazine and came across Lev Grossman’s review of J. Peder Zane’s The Top 10, which is basically the ultimate reading list guide created by some of the greatest living authors around. Zane asked the likes of Norman Mailer, Annie Proulx, Michael Chabon and over 100 other celebrated writers to weigh in on their favorites. Time Magazine printed the “all-time, ultimate Top Top 10 list” derived from the lists of all the writers combined and guess who showed up at #9? Anton Chekhov of course, with The Stories of Anton Chekhov. Looks like I’ll have to add him to my reading list for sure. Perhaps he’ll even sneak into my Top 10.

With all of the snow falling around the East Coast last week, I thought I’d check out PhillyHistory.org for some snowy pictures from Philadelphia’s past. I found this historic photograph of City Hall. Dated 1914, the image captioned “Snowing Like Hell” shows City Hall in the background, looking North from Broad and Walnut Streets, with the snow still coming down hard. I don’t think we’ll see a storm like this anytime soon, with all of the snow melting away now and spring just around the corner. Still, there is more to be found at PhillyHistory.org. If you’re a history buff, photography aficionado or from the Philadelphia area, spend a little time checking out the fascinating historic photographs from the city and surrounding neighborhoods. You can search by neighborhood, address, intersection, place name, year and other keywords. So far, there are over 25,000 images online with more being added each month!

Terry Teachout, theater critic for the Wall Street Journal, wrote in his blog last month about how he chooses the regional theater productions he’ll review each season, and it’s most certainly a good read for anyone involved in regional theater. He writes that he is “the only New York-based drama critic who routinely covers productions all over America.” Although we have seen coverage from publications such as The New York Times for Philadelphia theater, dance and other arts, it is an uphill battle to convince that market that what’s happening an hour and half south is not only worthy of their attention, but truly innovative and influential. Teachout writes, “The time has come for American playgoers—and, no less important, arts editors—to start treating regional theater not as a minor-league branch of Broadway but as an artistically significant entity in and of itself. Take it from a critic who now spends much of his time living out of a suitcase: If you don’t know what’s hot in ‘the stix,’ you don’t know the first thing about theater in 21st-century America.”

With the inaugural Philadelphia New Play Festival in full swing and as I look toward other major festivals later this year like the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe, it’s interesting to think about not only the national media coverage our arts community receives but also the local coverage. With the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News continuing to cut more writers from their newsrooms (something that seems to be happening all over the country), we’ve seen a serious decline in the overall page space reserved for the Arts. Philadelphia events are often relegated to a sidebar, while New York events still get a good deal of page space here, and Shakira’s hips still warrant a half-page.

Yet, Philadelphia has seen a tremendous surge in positive national attention as a city experiencing a renaissance. And why are people moving to Philly from New York, or moving back to Center City from the suburbs (and why can’t I find a parking place to save my life anymore)? Sure, the great restaurants and shopping are part of the reason, but it’s the cultural experience that makes me remember any city I’ve visited and enjoyed.

And it’s not just the big guys like the Kimmel Center and Museum of Art - it’s innovative theater companies, great clubs, an amazing music scene, and young artists who make this city pulse and are the reason I chose to buy a home here. It seems that SOME of our local media is missing it.

As Philadelpia Media Holdings (the company that bought the Inky & DN) struggles to hold on to ad revenues and subscribers, perhaps they’ve forgotten that compelling content might actually sell newspapers too. Why not go beyond the predictable event review, and report on what it’s really like to immerse yourself in this thriving cultural community? Music writers (and a lot of alt. weekly writers) have been doing it for years - getting in the van with the band to get the gritty experience. I’d argue that what goes on behind the curtain in the creation of a new play is just as mysterious and intriguing as what goes on in the recording studio (and I’ve been in both places).

I recently wrote a little post for the City Paper on His Dark Materials and they’ve printed it this week. Enjoy!

His Dark Materials

I think my book club dumped me for going on about a kid’s book. But fans of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy know better than to dismiss it because of its marketing. Thankfully it’s getting less unknown by the minute with the first movie on the way next year, so it’s time to pass it around before Hollywood de-fangs it. Yeah, that’s right. The movie’s going to dumb down a “kid’s” book. I won’t go so far as to call HDM subversive, because frankly Pullman’s retelling of Paradise Lost in a contemporary society that never experienced the Enlightenment is more, well, enlightened that anything else. It’s a fantastic and emotionally honest story that explores the soul, parallel worlds, dark matter, and eventually a war on God.

Mason Wendell
Designer, Canary Promotion + Design/Musician

Here at Canary HQ, Mount Airy, Philadelphia, USA we love the Autumn. That’s pretty much the reason we built our site the way we did; so you can see the leaves turn. The air is crisp and we can start eating hot soup again. If any season feels like home, then this is it.