Roberta: Hi everyone, it’s Roberta.

Ryan: And this is Ryan, and this is the Midweek News

Roberta: on Artblog Radio. Let’s get started. Hello, Ryan.

Ryan: Hello, Roberta.

Roberta: How are you today?

Ryan: I am fine and dandy. Yeah, this wind is a little bit hard for me and all the pollen blowing. It’s lovely spring, but it’s difficult also navigating all of that.

I feel like my sinuses are just erupting. Headwinds every day. Yeah. But that’s spring.

Roberta: That is spring. But the flowers have been really pretty. And the cherry blossoms. And the magnolias, magnolias loves magnolia. Just great stuff. Yep. But that wind, I don’t know. And then the temperature today.

Feels like 29 when I got up this morning. Oh, well, yeah. Back to winter. Yeah. At least for this morning.

Ryan: Yeah, for sure.

Roberta: Well, I had an interesting weekend.

Ryan: Yeah.

Roberta: Our daughter came up from Virginia Una. She had gotten us tickets for our birthdays. Steve and I had birthdays in February to go see David Sedaris.

Oh. And she came up because she, part of the gift was that she was going to go with us. I thought it was a perfect gift. It was so nice. And so she was up on Saturday, hung out with some friends, and Saturday night we went off to the Miller Theater, which is part of the Kimmel Center campus, but not in the Kimmel building itself.

Apparently, their campus now spreads across, maybe it always did. I don’t know. Various buildings. So this is on Broad Street between the Academy of Music and the Kimmel. It used to be the Schubert Theater, and now it’s called the Miller Theater 1920s era, grand Old Palace. We were up high in a balcony and gorgeous ceiling with all sorts of faulty raw, you know, plaster up there painted, and, but we had a really good sight line to see, and the acoustics were great.

So that was fun.

Ryan: This weekend we went up towards Hawk Mountain.

Roberta: Oh, I’ve never been.

Ryan: Yeah. It was really lovely. And then we ended up walking a few miles down the Appalachian Trail, which was more difficult than I expected. Good to know. I’m regularly, I’ve walked certain sections of it just in pieces just because we’re in whatever area and we just kind of walk along it and it just seems like hiking trails, like along in the eastern neighborhood.

But this was surprisingly treacherous, rocky terrain, difficult navigation. Really surprised that people can get through it so quickly. Wow. It was really impressive that the current world record or whatever that woman said it in. Apparently no time at all. Just wow. Destroyed the previous record, and I don’t, I don’t know how you do it without losing toes.

And why? Just brutal. Why would there be a record for doing it the fastest? I thought the thing about hiking is that it’s, it slows you down and puts you in this zone with nature. Why would you want to rush through it? Yeah, it’s, it is interesting the number of things that we have records for. Someone just set the Guinness Book of World record for longest distance of doing a split while being carried by two ATVs.

That is the most random thing I can think of to have a Guinness Book of World records for, but it, it must be a new category. I can’t imagine there are many competitors in that category. Yeah. Wow, that is very idiosyncratic. That’s, yeah, I don’t know what we’re doing.

Roberta: Hawk model, random. Did you see hawks?

Ryan: No, we didn’t see any hawks, but we saw quite a few vultures that were just kind of like hanging out in our area which was really pretty. The views were spectacular and it was a bit of a rainy day. So, but it was interesting where we were, was. It had just cleared and so we’re kind of walking through a, a bit of muddy section, but it was fun to be able to be in a higher elevation and being able to see the rain moving off and the clouds and the distant.

Roberta: Isn’t that great? I love that.

Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. We had a really good time. The geology is really interesting. A lot of different rock formations, a lot of different outcroppings, so it was really interesting place to be. Yeah, it was a good time.

Roberta: Yeah. I like my hikes to be flat, like the Schuylkill River Trail is about my.

Hiking speed.

Ryan: Yeah. I don’t mind difficult hikes and I don’t mind like steep or, but the terrain was really treacherous. A lot of rocks that was your path was different stones that were just cut into different shapes. Especially with the rain. It was particularly slippery in sections. It got really dangerous, so.

Wow. But it was, it was a fun experience overall. I think we had a good time.

Roberta: Good. Nobody injured themselves?

Ryan: No. Okay, good. It was all fine. Good. And it was also First Friday, so we went out to a few things. Sean Lugo. Who we have we talked about last week and we’ve interviewed a few times, was in our art market, had a show at Paradigm, so that opening was good.

And he has a talk coming up as well at Paradigm Forest Show. Yeah, there was a, there’s a few interesting shows. Museum of Art and Wood has some interesting things going on. A fun first Friday as well.

Roberta: Good. Sounds like you were busy.

Ryan: Yeah.

Roberta: First Friday and a Saturday or Sunday hike.

Ryan: Yeah, it was a good time.

Roberta: All right.

Ryan: And then we’re coming up to second Thursday is, I don’t know who’s, who’s naming these things.

Roberta: Oh, I just saw one for third. Thursday. Third. Third Thursday National, more Literative. The National Liberty Museum has a third Thursday.

Ryan: Yeah, it’s it’s a tough one.

Roberta: Good. Well, I’m glad you had a good weekend.

And we did. Me too. I had a good weekend. So, shall we get onto the news?

Ryan: Into the news?

Roberta: All right, here we go. I have three events. And an exhibit that I want to talk about briefly and mention they struck my fancy. So the first one is one I’m participating in. It’s called Art and Connection, a community gathering, bridging generations through art and conversation.

And this is something I’m doing with Tamara POC. Proof of Consciousness. Russell, who is another member of the NICE community, Artblog is a N.I.C.E partner with WHYY. So this is an event at the Simpson Fletcher Live Center in West Philadelphia on Master Street 53rd and Master Street. And there are three.

Two lawyers and an activist who will be there speaking about the coming up judicial elections, which are on May 20th, and I’m doing the art portion. So there’ll be an art event to begin with. Hands-on art, making fun stuff, and then talk. And tabling by these three experts who have either run for judgeships or are going to run for judgeships or have been active in other candidacies Thursday, April 10th.

That’s tomorrow four 30 to 6:30 PM in West Philly, and there’s no link to it, but we’ll put the poster somewhere where you can see it. Next, and this is interesting and a really good thing to go to. We all remember University of the Arts. Yeah. So sad. And we mourn the loss of their buildings. Two ventures other than arts, but two of them, or at least two, maybe three, have been saved for arts use.

And two of them are the Hamilton building on the corner of Pine and. Broad and the fur Furse building, which is the attached, attached to Hamilton. Anyway, those were bought, I guess is the phrase, through the auction by Lindsay sco, sco. Don’t know how to pronounce that, and. She is the founder of Scout, which is the organization that created and renovated the Bach building from high school to nothing to fabulous incubator for all kinds of arts activities.

So Lindsay is going to speak on April 23rd at 5:30 PM at the, it’s the Center for Architecture. It used to be called, maybe it’s now called something different. We’ll put the right term in, but. Used to be the Center for Architecture on Art Street. It’s free to go. It would be really nice to hear what Lindsay and her company have in store for these buildings on the old University of the Arts buildings.

I know that when there was discussion about this in the paper a while back, she was talking about mixed use where there would be some apartments, like rental units. Affordable for artists, and then there would be studio space also that would not be live in, and then other Bach building type spaces, I believe.

So. It sounds really good, and I’d love to hear what they’re thinking about next after this. And this also sounds fun to me. There’s the annual Kelly Writer’s House Marathon reading this year they’re reading Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. At the Kelly Writer’s House, that’s April 16th, 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM in person.

And we’ll put a link into that. There are people who have signed up for 10 minute slots to read from the book, and this year the book was chosen in honor of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday. So happy birthday Jean. And I don’t know whether this is captured audio wise. It would be nice if it was, make it into an audio book with all those different people.

Reading would be good. I kind of like that idea. I hope they do that. But I’m not sure. So if you want to go and hear it, go in person. Kelly Writer’s house is on the Penn campus. It’s like 38th and. Locust walk, so that’s fun. Then the exhibit I wanted to talk about was at the Wayne Art Center, which is out in Wayne, pa obviously.

They have their 2025 Regional Juri Spring open exhibition through the end of April. Nearly 200 paintings and other media. All media are, I don’t think there’s video, but there’s photography, mixed media, 3D printing, ceramics drawings from artists around the Mid-Atlantic region, including Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, new New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

And the juror was Christine La Fuente, who is a painter of Luscious, still lives and landscapes represented by gross Mcle Gallery. And listen to this, she reviewed over a thousand slides. One person from 500 artist submissions, so, wow. Massive. Anyway, you might want to go check that out. And that’s it for me.

Those are my, those are my happening things.

Ryan: So, as I had mentioned, this is the second week of April, so second Thursday is happening in and around crane arts area. Is there a name for that? Is there a name for that region, neighborhood? Not yet. We call that yet. Not yet. We need a good name. So, I mean,

Roberta: it has been called Old with an Eon at Kensington, which is really lame, I think.

Yeah.

Ryan: Because it’s all new.

Roberta: Well now it is. Yeah. Truly.

Ryan: So, yeah, we need a, we need a better name for that in Iran. ’cause obviously it’s expand. I think at one point Crane Arts was the anchor. It probably still would be recognized as the anchor, but there’s so many different new galleries there. New venues are happening with Ray there, and so many shops in that.

Commonwealth moved over there. There’s a few other galleries. There’s new galleries coming up, foreman Arts, arts coming up. Forget Foreman Arts. So there’s a lot of different things that are happening in that area and it needs a new name. And yeah. So anyway, second Thursday is happening. There are a lot of openings up.

The openings are up on ArtblogConnect. Feel free to take a look at those on the calendar. I wanted to mention a few that were not on. On that list, April 17th. The soapbox is a community print shop and zine library in West Philadelphia is having a hands-on make your own short story comic. Artblog loves comics.

We’d love to, you know, promote those types of things. There is a cost to it, but it’s a three hour session and you walk away with your book, so it could be a lot of fun. If you’ve ever needed some sort of outlet, wanted to have a community and build stuff with other people, this is Thursday, April 17th, from six to 9:00 PM at the Soapbox Community Print Shop in Zine Library in West Philly.

It’s 4,700 consisting Avenue. And we have links on, on Artblog for that.

Roberta: That sounds marvelous.

Ryan: It should be fun, right?

Roberta: I, I want to go to that.

Ryan: Yeah. Wow. I think those things are a lot of fun. Plus come out with your prints. And your book. I mean, so I think it would be a lot of fun.

Roberta: Does it say, what kind of print?

Is it like Zo prints or,

Ryan: I’m not sure. I think they’re open to a, a variety of what it is exactly. We’ll have links into it in the. The show notes as well. You get get into it and see more specifically and ask any more specific questions right to them as well. And something I recently heard about is Art Battle.

You heard about Art Battle. You heard

Roberta: of Art Battle? I have to take on Bridget that, yeah.

Ryan: A battle. I think it’s, you know, it has to do with the reality TV type of audience where it’s live drawing and you’re competing and then the audience boats.

Roberta: Oh, this is an old idea. I idea heard this. It’s an old idea.

Ryan: Yeah.

Roberta: Forever.

Ryan: Yeah. But they’re, they have it back and apparently they have it in several cities and they added battle to the word, so then it becomes more of a drinking game. But anyway, if that sounds fun to you, it’s going to be at April 25th at 6:00 PM at Spin Philly, which is two 11 South 15th Street.

And if that’s your jam or you just need to get out and want to do something at a. Fun hip location. That’ll be a fun evening.

Roberta: So wait, do you come and try to compete? Is it open? How’s the competition? How’s the battle taking place? How are the battle lines drawn?

Ryan: Yeah, so I think you have to, if you want to do it, you have to apply in advance.

They already have their artists set up and arranged, and I think most of them are permanently found on Instagram. Those kind of artists. And so you’ll see a lot of their work, but they’ll do live drawing and then you compete against. It’s one-on-one, I think, and then it kind of, there’s a bit of a playoff round until the end

Roberta: March Madness, except it’s April,

Ryan: but in late April.

Yes.

Roberta: Bracketology

Ryan: Bracketology indeed. Again, Artbattle Philadelphia. We’ll have links for that as well. And then another one I wanted to to shout out was Tech Owl. Tech Owl is part of the Institute on Disabilities at the College of Education at Temple. It stands for technology for our whole lives.

This is both about accessibility, but also about exploring adaptive technologies, imaginative sculpture, and object making. I think there is a lot with accessibility that we’ve taken for granted as it’s moved into our lives and we just e. We, we don’t even consider it. And we, if we lost it, we would notice even those who, who don’t necessarily benefit the most from these changes in our, in our society and our culture.

But I wanted to say there are some interesting things happening. There is this event happening at the, the tech owl event space, which is right over off of Cecil B and just off of Broad and Third. In 13th. But it looks like a really inter interesting show. It’s the open space workshop. A lot of movements, we’ll have links for it.

But I, I think that looks like a really interesting show. The Tech Owl Open Space is the event and they have Oh, go temple Deep events that are happening. That’s good. One is already passed. The next one is April 17th from 10:00 AM till noon, and then the next one is April 28th, and then a couple more in May.

And the last one in this series is in June, and I’ll have links to that calendar online as well. It’s free and open to the public. I’ll have a link to just register because Space is Limited and Tech Owls Community space is at 1392. Cecil B. More right next to Insomnia Cookies. So basically brought in CCB.

Roberta: Well, meanwhile, I read about John Fry was inaugurated as the new president of Temple. Too much fanfare and people are loving that. He’s already brought in several million dollars from this and that donors and which is what his forte is. Fundraising and the client. Media school, I believe it’s called, it’s journalism.

And film and television, et cetera, which they’re known for. And they do a really good job. And we’ve had a, a wonderful student from that program here on Artblog one time, one year. They’re building a new building, so John Fry also likes to build buildings, which he has done on the Drexel campus and he did for Penn before that.

So they’re building the, a new Klein media. Building on the west abroad. So they’re expanding the campus. I mean, Penn has done this too, and so has Drexel just expanding out into the community and calling it a gateway to the rest of Temple Center or Temple University campus. So that’s great. And it’s going to have, oh, a big theater and.

You know, film screening center and all that kind of stuff. It sounds really good.

Ryan: There you go. And those are my three. But I also wanted to mention Clay Studio has a bunch of different opportunities that are happening right now as well. And I think that those could be really interesting to have applications for residents and art.

The resident artist program is coming up due April 11th. This is last minute. Have you thought about it? Your time is up. The, they’re also doing radical Americana that’s coming up as well. That’s an artist program. So there’s a couple opportunities at Clay Studio that I, that I noticed and I wanted to mention as well.

So those are my, my events and my opportunities for the week.

Roberta: Well, let’s end on David Sedaris, which was a really upbeat EV event. It was a sold out show on all ages. Mostly skewed a little old, but there were some youngsters there too. I mean, not teenagers, but you know, 20 somethings and wildly receptive. I mean, this was not this, these were lovers of David Sedaris, so he was in a good place.

He walks out on the stage, swishes out onto the stage I should say. And wearing this pink looked like a skirt. And this white looked like a blouse with some hanging down thingies that looked like they might’ve been tied but weren’t tied into bows. And then a jacket on top of that. And he syed around and fancy shoes with little socks.

And he said that his skirt was actually culottes. And I thought, wow, I didn’t know he was a fashionista. Huh? There you go. Among other things, but he looked darling and he carried it off very well. And I did not know this either, but apparently he likes to schmooze with people in the book signing line.

And gets into conversations with some of them if they are of interest to him, especially writers, other writers. And he picks someone out of that conversation that he has and. Says you want to be my opening act. And so I didn’t know he had an opening act, but he had an opening act and this was a writer from Hartford, Connecticut, young African American woman, and she was.

Dynamite, huh? She was the best warmup act ever. She had people laughing and hooting and it was all you know about herself. Like he’s all about himself, right? It’s all about him. Yeah. He talks about his family, but it’s really all about him. And she was the same way, but, and also had the same lightness of touch and humor.

Yeah, it was just a great night. The warmup lasted very short. It seemed to just blow on. In and, and blow on out very quickly. And then he came back on stage in his culottes and continued and he was reading from stuff that was manuscripts that he said was not in a book form yet. So this is brand new material.

Ryan: Wow. That sounds great.

Roberta: It was good.

Ryan: Yeah. I recently this American Life had some interesting stuff of his recently as well.

Roberta: That’s where I know him from first. Yeah. Initially back before podcast when it was on the radio. Radio, right. And I would listen to my car or on my, in my boombox. I had a nice big boombox at home that had really, it was a radio shack boombox.

Wow. You should see this thing. It’s classic. It doesn’t work anymore, but it had really good reception and really good sound. So David Sedaris. Wow. Yeah, he’s great.

Ryan: RIP. Radio Shack.

Roberta: Yes. Yeah. Very sad. I mean, I’m not a techie person. Not a nerd person, but yeah. RIP Radio Shack. Yeah.

All right. Okay, well, let’s go out on that notes. Call for action. Call for action, new radical change. Okay, Ryan, Roberta signing off everybody. Thanks for listening. Come back next time

Ryan: And this is Ryan, and this has been Artblog’s, Midweek News. We’ll see you next time. Bye bye. And cut.

Roberta: And cut. Alright.