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FUEL, where the show is taking place!

Green with Fashion is more than an eco-fashion show spotlighting designers from across the country… it is a charity event conceived out of a senior project assigned at Drexel University. This show not only celebrates great design but provides a wealth of information on environmental issues to the community.

On April 22nd, take the opportunity to be inspired by the works of over 30 designers and boutiques participating in the show. Plus, Drexel students (including a buddy of mine) will have the opportunity to present their own eco-friendly sportswear designs at the event!

Carbon Fund will be donating five tons of carbon offsets to make the event carbon neutral, not-to-mention an addition 15 other sponsors from all over the map are on board for the show. Green with Fashion is to take place in Old City at the F.U.E.L. house, which you may recall is where they filmed the Philly house for MTV’s Real World back when after midnight you could still view music videos.

As an FYI, the fashion show is only getting its word out their by way of the internet and word of mouth. Tickets can only be purchased in advance and their proceeds also go to benefiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. So be sure to log onto their website to make your purchase!

The FUEL House
249-51 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 592-8400
www.fuelcollection.com

At Germantown and Chelten Ave, you’ll discover the beautiful and historic Vernon Park. On Sunday, April 19th, the park will host “A Great Day on the Great Road“.

Hosted from 1:00pm to 4:00pm by Historic Germantown, the afternoon is a celebration of history and community, complete with live music (Philly’s Melange Trio!), food, historic reenactors and family activities. Families can check out papermaking, storytelling, historic kids’ games, and more.

The goal behind Great Day events is for neighboring residents to come together, have a great time and learn more about their historic community. Costumed re-enactor Millicent Sparks will also be present, portraying African-American abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

Let’s hope Germantown suceeds in making this an annual event. Mid April is always a great time to experience the park. 

Historic Germantown
www.ushistory.org/germantown

Lucero, playing at the First Unitarian Church on Friday

FRIDAY

Ape School, Buffalo Stance, The Armchairs
Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N Frankford
Ape School is the latest Philly oldhead to reinvent and drop a late-00s style psych/pop bomb; this is the record release show, go and say you were there. Buffalo Stance is Jamey from the late great Need New Body. 9pm, $10.

Lucero
First Unitarian Church, 22nd and Chestnut
My Brother’s Favorites weekend pick. Alt country rockers somewhere between Springsteen and Uncle Tupelo. 9pm, $14.

SATURDAY

Acid Mothers Temple, Sonic Suicide Squad
Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N Frankford
Contempary 70s heavy psych worship unit most likely to currently own a spaceship, Acid Mothers Temple, with DC upstarts/tour gear support Sonic Suicide Squad. Say hey to Justin Sounds from the Pocket on merch! 9pm, $12.

Art After Dark: Vintage Paris
PMA Perelman Building, 2525 Pennsylvania Avenue
The gigantic annual fundraiser party for education projects at the Museum. If you’re looking for something super fancy for your Saturday, this is it. Info at the link above. 8pm-midnight, $225.

The Little Traitor (dir. Lynn Roth, Israel, 2007, 35mm, 90 mins,
English and Hebrew w/ subtitles)
International House, 3701 Chestnut
Based on “Panther in the Basement” by Amos Oz; an 11 year old Israeli militant befriends a British officer, and his town accuses him of being a traitor. It won the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2008 Palm Beach International Film Festival. 9pm, $12, free for college and high school students.

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Drexel U’s Mechanical Engineering Department is hosting an awesome human powered vehicle race in Fairmount Park April 17 thorugh 19th, with teams competing from 50 colleges and universities around the US.

This is a huge and incredibly cool event, free to watch, and should prove a great way to spend a day with eco friendly transport folks who are part of our future. There are competition categories covering design and presentation, as well as the purely technical and speed aspects, so expect some rigs that look as well as they perform.

Bicycle up to Memorial Hall to watch the speed races, or over to the Mann Music Center for the endurance races. Bring friends… and bring a picnic lunch!

For more info, visit the official website of the race.

At the end of this month, over 200 regional restaurants will participate in Dining Out for Life. No, this doesn’t mean that you dine out every day for the rest of your life (could you imagine?). It’s actually way cooler. Participating restaurants plan to donate 33% of your food bill to HIV and AIDs cure research.

We’re giving you enough time in advance to clear your schedule on Thursday, April 30th so you can make reservations at one of the participating restaurants in the Delaware & Lehigh Valleys. Try one of the restaurants you’ve always wanted to, and have an excuse to go there now! I’m thinking about Trio in Fairmount, Xochitl in Society Hill, or Center City’s El Vez. Or, if I happen to be visiting the fam in Allentown that night, I can even drag them to Melt. There are so many options!

Check out the entire list on the official website. You can even search by location, cuisine or meals served. There’s no excuse not to do this. You have ample time to plan & save, regardless of what county you’re in that night! But if for some reason you can’t go out for a meal on 4/30 you can still donate a few bucks online. Anytime.

So please, go enjoy a nice meal and help fight HIV and AIDS! It’s bound to be a satisfying one.

The Academy of Natural Sciences

The concept of “Going Green” has begun to mutate like a virus and attach its disingenuous connotations to other, more well-meaning concepts. There is no better example of this concept than the buy local movement. Somehow, “Buy Local” became a slogan and now seems lumped in with all the other enviro-fads floating around our ears. But understanding your local environment is a great first step to thinking in a more environmentally friendly way and creating real change.

From buying local produce to supporting your neighborhood to simply understanding what might be living just below your sidewalk, thinking locally can help you sort out the problems facing your local ecosystem and understand your place in the solution. The people at the Academy of Natural Sciences are hitting two birds with one stone as they celebrate Earth Day while helping people get a better glimpse at their local environment.

Learn how to test your local stream for bacteria with pollution tests from Academy scientists, then check out the notorious snakehead fish from South Philly. Local fishing techniques will be on display as you can climb aboard a real fish-shocking boat and see how to test crabs for chemicals. The chemists and botanists at the Academy monitor the local environment daily. Be there when they bring their fish tanks and equipment out of the lab and share with visitors how they can be stewards of their local ecosystem.

Earth Day is a great time to take a stand against greenwashing, against the business agenda of “going green.” Learn the tips and tricks of making your environment the best it can be. Then you will really be going green.

Academy of Natural Sciences
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103
www.ansp.org

Sarah Sanford, known around town as an actor, teacher, and member of the renowned Pig Iron Theatre Company, is making her US directorial debut with “Appetite,” a multi-disciplinary work examining our desires to both give in to and control our desires for love, sex, food, and (all-American) consumption.

Sanford co-created the dance/theater feast with the Toronto-based Exchange Rate Collective, and it debuted in Canada last summer to rave reviews and earned Sanford the Best Emerging Director award. Eating competitions and slaughter houses feature prominently in the piece, along with clowning, song, dance, and text (no surprise, given Sanford’s history with Pig Iron and their focus on experimental physical theater). And I heard a rumor about livestock and mating dances”¦

The piece promises to fulfill your appetites for visual, auditory, and mental stimulation. I’m not sure if the audience gets to partake in the sex or the eating, but coming from this crew, I wouldn’t doubt it “” I’ll check with Sanford in my upcoming interview.

Appetite
April 30th “” May 3rd

The Wolf Building
340 North 12th St, Philadelphia, PA
Tickets$15-$20

When I was growing up, I was an avid reader with a taste for books set in earlier eras. I devoured the collected works of Louisa May Alcott as well as the Betsy and Tacy books, by Maud Hart Lovelace (apparently I preferred authors with three names). One of the things that was so wonderful about these books were the exhaustive descriptions of the clothes the female characters wore. No sartorial detail went undocumented and I longed to step into those long dresses instead of my jeans and sweaters. 

Last Saturday, the Philadelphia Museum of Art premiered a new exhibition in the Perelman Building that completely satisfied the little girl in me who still loves all those fashions from bygone eras. Called Shopping in Paris: French Fashion from 1850 – 1925, the exhibit features nearly 25 gowns from the PMA’s fashion collection that are displayed along with era-appropriate accessories. It’s a fascinating exhibition, because it gives one the ability to see clearly the ways in which fashion changed and evolved over a seventy-five year period. It’s also a wonderful opportunity to see up close the artistry that went into each item. 

Last week, I had a chance to visit this exhibit prior to its opening and took a few pictures of the garments. You can find the full slideshow of images here. 

This exhibition will be on display in the Perelman’s Spain gallery now through October 25th, 2009. There is also a complimentary exhibit on display in the Perelman Building Library called Something to Wear: Fashion in Print 1850-1925 that will be on view through the summer. General PMA admission will also cover admission to this exhibition. 

Tom Madeja who brings his New Directions Chamber Brass sextet to this month’s Avant Ascension, Wednesday night at Tritone

Jazz and more… Where I’ll be and where you should be…

TUESDAY 4/14/09
Lucky Thompson & the Budesa Brothers’ Blue Tuesday Open Mic & Jam Session
(Leroy’s) Showcase Lounge, 4912 Baltimore Ave.
Veteran drummer Lucky Thompson has played with greats like Nina Simone and Patti LaBelle during his long career and led jam sessions all over the city (including at Natalie’s Lounge, where he was the music director for more than 10 years). Lucky and brothers Rich Budesa on keys and Rob Budesa on guitar are single-handedly keeping Philly’s great organ trio tradition alive. If you haven’t heard them play at the Showcase, a neighborhood bar with a friendly staff and a welcoming vibe, then you’re missing out on an essential part of Philly’s jazz scene.
8 p.m., FREE

WEDNESDAY 4/15/09
Avant Ascension: New Directions Chamber Brass, The Harmolodic Bastards
Tritone, 1508 South St.
New Directions Chamber Brass is a new sextet (2 trumpets, 2 trombones, vibes, and drums) led by trumpeter Tom Madeja, a member of Bobby Zankel’s Warriors of the Wonderful Sound and Agent Moosehead. The Harmolodic Bastards are led by Bill Zola, who used to play bass with Ornette Coleman’s former guitarist, Bern Nix; Zola now plays guitar, too. As always, the 3rd set of Dan Peterson and Larry Toft’s monthly avant-garde showcase is an open jam
9 p.m., $5

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University City’s Marigold Kitchen already has a reputation for being one of the top BYOB destinations in the city. But now the restaurant and executive chef Erin O’Shea have one more notch to add to their belt.

Bon Appetit’s May issue names MK as one of the “Top 10 Brunch Spots” in the country. They highlight the spot’s southern flair and mention the collard green and mushroom frittata, the Surry sausage and mushroom crepe and, of course, the grits.

In related MK news, April is its “Country Ham” month. Check out the full menu here. What are your top brunch spots in the city?

Article on Bon Appetit via Phoodie

Marigold Kitchen
501 S 45th St, Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 222-3699
www.marigoldkitchenbyob.com