Fri., Nov. 21, 8 p.m., pay-what-you-wish benefit performance (includes dessert), with The Soldier & the Phoenix by the Shoddy Puppet Co., Studio 34, 4522 Baltimore Ave., 267-909-2633, puppetuprising.org

Not all puppets have googly eyes, Muppet-like faces and a hand up their bottoms. In theater company Missoula Oblongata's production of The Last Hurrah of the Clementines, puppets are eggs, paintings and fortune cookies, so long as they have personality.

"In the last moment of the show, an egg leaves someone's hand and flies off," says curator Morgan Andrews. "It moves and thinks on its own. That's a puppet."

It's surely a stretch from Jim Henson, but so is the rest of Missoula Oblongata's production. The plot resembles a disjointed dream: The Clementines, a married couple, live together in a tent. Mr. Clementine spends his days throwing eggs into outer space, while Mrs. Clementine sharpens knives, studies math and regrets never playing professional sports. When a former athlete visits the couple, Mrs. Clementine is forced to confront her unrealized goals.

As if that wasn't bemusing enough, the setting also changes spontaneously and different actors play the same character. When you get down to it, though, the avant-garde puppet show is less obtuse than it sounds.

"It's about Mr. and Mrs. Clementine, and their mutual interest in fortune cookies, math and science," says Andrews. "Basically, it's a love story."

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If you can follow directions, this season's opening performance from the Susan Hess Modern Dance Co. sounds simple enough. For 48 Hours, four choreographers will assign each other a list of five directives that they need to incorporate into a dance of their own creation. Anything is game, including movement, costumes, props, visual images, music and specific interaction.

The catch: They'll receive their instructions only two days before they are to produce and perform the routine on Saturday evening.

The project was conceived in 2005 by Susan Hess alumna Devynn Emory, who will direct the performance. The choreographers — Meg Foley, Erin Foreman-Murray, Jumatatu Poe and Olive Prince — are part of the company's residency program and may perform the routines themselves or use their dancers, depending on their interpretation of the given elements.

"The main goal of the project is to challenge us to not be so precious with our preferred processes and aesthetic," says Foley, who has danced in the project before but is choreographing for the first time. "At first it feels paralyzing, but then amazingly freeing. It's a problem-solving exercise, so we are just flexing our choreographic muscles in a way we don't normally get to do."

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For all those nights that a DJ saved her life, photographer and bartender Jonene Taddei is returning the favor. In September, Taddei helped organize Philly's finest past and present DJs for a super-size photo shoot (more than 150 turntable junkies showed up) in Fairmount Park.

"I've always surrounded myself [with] people who love music as much as me. DJ Excel is a good friend, and one day we were shooting and came up with the idea," she says.

Combining her connections with DJ Jazzy Jeff's phonebook, the sign-up list started flowing with names like DJ Drama, ?uestlove, Too Tuff, Cash Money and DJ AM. (Unfortunately, a few days earlier, AM was in a plane accident and unable to make it, but he was there in spirit via DJ AM shirts that everyone wore for one of the pics.)

With a smile, Taddei says, "Philly DJs don't get the attention they deserve. Philly is known for their DJs. Some of the best in the country come out of here, so why not take a picture of them, right?"

At Friday's gallery exhibit, Taddei will be showcasing her photos from that historic day as well as pics from this year's VH1 Hip-Hop Honors award show. Fellow photographer and 18-year camera vet Snapkracker will also be exhibiting work, including shots of local ladies Taragirl and Patty Crash. Atmosphere after-gallery grooves for the evening will be provided by Steven Bloodbath and Brendan Bring 'Em.

Says Taddei, "DJs have kept me smiling for years through their music — I gave them a chance to smile back through my camera."

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Aware of television's tendency to encourage passive consumption, the video artists in "Another Tomorrow" emphasize the possibilities of film with surprising simplicity. In Erwin Wurm's Memory (pictured), the artist stands in boxer shorts and socks, pouring liquid sideways. "He engages in these small exercises that seem impossible, but it's precisely on that account that they create incredulity in the viewer," says Aaron Levy, executive director of the Slought Foundation.

Slought brought the work from the Neue Galerie Graz in Austria to highlight the youngest video artists in Europe as well as the institution's role in incubating emerging artists. Intentionally, the work featured is not distinctly Austrian, although most of the pieces are playfully provocative. In Pressure on the Balls, Franz Kapfer wears what looks like an enormous black strap-on, but is recognizable to an Austrian as a doorstop.

For the exhibit, the Slought building, a former bank with a functional vault, will be transformed into a dark, cinematic space, and the videos will be screened at individual stations by monitor or projection.

The curator, Günther Holler-Schuster, and Christa Steinle, director of the Neue Galerie, will both speak at the opening.

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It's been decades since they were in kindergarten, but the artists involved in "What's Mine Is Yours" still dig the buddy system. In this collaborative effort, Rey Akdogan, Kabir Carter, the Mercury Twins, Bjorn Kjelltoft, Shana Moulton and vydavy sindikat (all hailing from New York by way of three different continents) come together for an exploration of artistic alliances.

Within the six installations, the lines of authorship and participant are blurred. There is no clear centerpiece of this show. Instead, each group's very different artwork stands next to another with only a thin string of visible connection. On one end of the gallery, a video titled Public Gathering Project is projected against an entire wall. It's a lengthy shot of an eclectic group of people assembling outside; the camera sometimes remaining out of focus for large periods of time. At the far end of the room, the largest of the show's pieces, Cloud City, is an entire community of structures and models, including a miniature library and an unfinished brick town hall. Around them are giant puffy opaque clouds, gathered and inviting. One is big enough to fit several people inside, which the artists encourage.

To fully appreciate this collaboration, stop by the First Friday opening reception to catch performances by the Mercury Twins and Kabir Carter, whose piece, Overexcited Recaptures, uses sound-based art generated by exhibition viewers.

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Whether you've got a closet full of Louboutins or swear by Old Navy two-for-$5 flops, you're in an intimate, long-term relationship with shoes. Not that you have much of a choice if you want to live in Philadelphia, land of melting asphalt and never-ending February, of Monday morning Khyber sidewalk goo and the Berks stop.

"They're something we can't escape. You can't not wear shoes in modern-day society," says Clare Sauro, curator of Drexel's historic costume collection. "But people are a lot more playful with shoes. It's the area of our wardrobes where we allow ourselves a bit of fun." "Rest Your Feet," an exhibit presented by Drexel's Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design, takes a look at our evolving and peculiar relationship with footwear, from high-fashion pumps to '70s ski boots to faux sneaks. Included will be Roger Vivier, Salvatore Ferragamo, Prada and Christian Lacroix designs from the Drexel collection, the Art Museum and — we can't believe they've been hiding this on Race Street — the Temple School of Podiatry's Shoe Museum.

In addition to shoes, the show will feature 10 design-forward chairs, which you and your feet might be more interested in if you trumped around in metal-spiked, 1950s Delman Venetian pumps.

Sauro, who in her former position as assistant curator of accessories at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology oversaw more than 4,000 hats, has some favorites after spending the past couple of months surrounded by shoes. A pair of silver-and-black silk vintage Ferragamos are a definite prize, but it's a pair of ankle boots by Sorosis Trademark Luxuries that get her excited. Gold with intricate glass beadwork and fasteners, they were made in ...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2008/10/23/just-do-it-4 http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2008/10/23/just-do-it-4 Through Nov. 23, Art Star, 623 N. Second St., 215-238-1557, artstarphilly.com

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At first, "Lost, Picking Flowers" is nothing terribly special. Cute, no doubt, but the charming woodland creatures (owls, especially) have been done. Spend enough time in Kathleen Lolley's world, however, and things get interesting. Tails are suddenly devilish, the warm autumn tones become foreboding and everyone's eyes look more cautious than precious.

In the show's title acrylic-on-wood piece (pictured), a red caped girl sits at the base of a tree with an armful of flowers, the breeze blowing hair across her solemn face and petals into the air. Birdlike creatures peek out above, but judging from the size of their eyes, they are much larger than her. Another painting, Surprise Friends #2, initially seems overly sweet, with bumblebees checking in on a pod full of baby owls. But the bees do look a little more angry than curious, and the owls don't seem quite at home in this strange nest. A group of less-cuddly critters hitches a ride on panicked sparrows in Little Demons, and the star of Midnight Rendezvous is a close cousin of the flying monkey and/or vampire bat. Either way.

Leave Home is, perhaps, the show's centerpiece. A small family of worried birds depart in an egg helicopter, leaving behind their childhood branches and broken shells. Their former host, a still-naked early-spring tree, cradles their unstable nest and sheds giant blue tears.

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Despite the fact that Philly hosts some type of lit festival every weekend or so, few do more than touch on queer writing. So Maleka Fruean of Big Blue Marble Bookstore took matters into her own hands, sending out announcements to local activist groups such as LadyFest Philly in a search for writers of all sorts. The result is this Sunday's Queer Literary Festival, which will feature a diverse mix of poets, fiction writers and creative nonfiction wordsmiths as well as an open mic. The lineup includes West Philly-based erotica writer Joel Nichols; librarian and local poet Gretchen Keer; and Mecca Jamilah Sullivan (pictured), fiction writer and author of the short story "A Strange People."

In addition to providing a forum for queer writers, Fruean is also hoping to draw people out to Mount Airy, Big Blue Marble's culture-rich but sometimes forgotten nook of the city. Says Fruean, "It's like a grown-up West Philly."

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Seth Mushrush has accepted it — he will never be Eddie Van Halen.

Rather than brood about his unrealized rock star dreams, though, the tattoo artist has channeled his love for music into a medium he is more suited for. "Since I can't make it my career, I decided that I wanted to surround myself, literally, with the musicians who inspire me," says Mushrush. He painted a portrait of Jimi Hendrix (pictured), with his mouth blissfully open as he strums the guitar, and hung it on his wall. Then he finished a painting of Angus Young, followed by Muddy Waters, Stevie Nicks, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn and, of course, Eddie Van Halen.

When his classic rock oeuvre was complete, Mushrush sought to share it with others. He asked his fellow tattoo artists to submit pieces to "Rhythm of the Arts," a music-themed exhibit opening at Jinxed this Friday. Apparently, Mushrush isn't an anomaly in the industry: 19 other tattoo artists will display their works at the show. In some paintings, such as Erica Barfield's carefully executed black-and-white portrait of Billie Holiday, the artist's day job is unclear. In others, like Jason Goldberg's painting of a bloody woman or Jay Cooper's watercolor of a guitar-shredding skeleton, it's a tad more obvious.

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The words "chemical" and "heritage" don't usually get us excited — and let's face it, the combination is worse. But the Chemical Heritage Foundation, which opened the doors to its 17,000-square-foot museum and conference center in Old City earlier this month, is definitely worth a visit. Ten years in the making, this $20 million project uses contemporary art, history, current events, artifacts and technology to examine science in our everyday, beaker-phobic lives.

"A museum is a visual place, and we really wanted this one to be captivating," says curator Erin McLeary. "Even if you don't know what something scientific is, you'll find it interesting here." From birth control to computers, explosions to pasteurization, the permanent exhibit conveys the roles science has played — and continues to play — in shaping modernity. The first of the changing exhibits, "Molecules That Matter," takes a look at 10 organic molecules that have influenced the world, including familiar faces such as nylon, DNA and aspirin. "We're not as interested in teaching science as much as we are exploring how it occurs in our world," says McLeary.

If the science doesn't draw you in, the striking renovation of the First National Bank (built in 1865) is worth a look. The large arching windows let in plenty of natural light — a rarity in the museum world — and the eco-friendly construction included wall tiles and floors made from recycled materials. Then, of course, there are our favorite two words: free admission.

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Whether vampires are your seasonal affectation or year-round lifestyle, the Rosenbach's annual Drac Fest gives plenty of reasons to raise hell. Now in its sixth year, the weeklong series of events celebrates the Count and his kin with history lessons as well as chaos and carnage — Spiral Q style, of course.

For scholars of the undead, the week kicks off at 6 p.m. Wednesday with a reading and book signing by Leslie Klinger, author of The New Annotated Dracula (W.W. Norton). Having examined the original manuscript and compared it against scientific and encyclopedic evidence from the time period, Klinger takes on Bram Stoker's oft-dismissed claim that his tale of English aristocrats held captive by a Transylvanian recluse is based on historical fact. To complement this, Stoker's research notes and drafts for the novel will be on display, offering vamp-nerds the chance to fact-check for themselves. For the literal children of the night — or maybe those who are just nostalgic over Where the Wild Things Are — a collection of monster artwork from Maurice Sendak's storybooks is on display in the Rosenbach; for the festival, Sendak exhibit curator Patrick Rodgers leads a gallery talk about Sendak's "bogeymen" on Oct. 29.

If haunting the library just isn't your scene, find action among the living when Spiral Q's Dracula Parade rolls through on Oct. 25. Beginning at the Rosenbach and marching north into officeland, the procession resembles a demented Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Watch for bundled-up kids with bat wings, giant Max Schreck heads, wolf men and wary onlookers. As long as the walking garlic cloves make an appearance this year, we'll avoid blood in the streets.

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Smokey eye after smokey eye, tattered fishnets, sharp collarbones and sharper tattoos: There's no mistaking a Dr. Sketchy's exhibit. After one year of saucy drawing, the "anti-art school" — which has featured models from the Peek-A-Boo Revue, Hellcat Girls, Revival Burlesque and Philly Roller Girls — is celebrating with a month's worth of events, including their first gallery show.

Dr. Sketchy's Philly Art Show features work by a wide range of participants (affectionately dubbed "art monkeys") from previous sessions, which are held every third Friday at Fleisher Art Memorial. As everything was created (or at least started) on-site, most of the pieces have a gritty, pleasingly unpolished quality to them. In Michael Ajero's pencil sketch, a wild-haired woman in layers upon layers of fluffy tulle perches delicately on a stool — possibly in pasties or possibly with really fantastic nipples. Straddling a chair, Carol Magnatta's topless woman is wearing knee-high boots and, according to her thought bubble, daydreaming about a crab. Andrea Grigoropol based her painting of a pixie-like girl on drawings she completed at the salon; her muse's perfect ski jump nose and feathery cape were clearly worth the homework. Another of Grigoropol's pieces (pictured) takes an X-ray view of the model, depicting her — or some creature's ...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2008/10/09/just-do-it-3 http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2008/10/09/just-do-it-3 Opening reception Sat., Oct. 11, 6-10 p.m., runs through Oct. 31, FLUXSpace, 3000 N. Hope St., thefluxspace.org

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Coming off the success of Fringe's FLUXTask 2, a live collaboration with Oliver Herring involving hundreds of participants, FLUX now presents a challenging show curated by artist and scholar Thomas Zummer. Interstices features work by Sherry Millner, Leslie Thornton and Carolien Stikker — and when you strip away the layers of discourse Zummer has used to scaffold the artists' work, you find some pretty interesting interpretations of photography.

Millner, whose work is pictured, is basically a collagist, mixing and matching segments of family snapshots and old postcards and then rephotographing them. Filmmaker and Brown prof Thornton's past work has, at times, recalled the narrative photography of Hannah Starkey and the cinematic portraiture of Cindy Sherman. The work of Dutch photographer and filmmaker Stikker provides a fascinating counterpoint: beautifully distorted and color-saturated landscapes. Additionally, some film and projection work from the artists and their collaborators will be on hand.

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Less than a week before its first opening reception, the carpet is just being installed at Goldfish Gallery. The room is vacuous, save for several large watercolors — some as big as 17 feet — by Irene Sfakianos, the local artist and curator who is opening the space.

Sfakianos, speaking candidly as she scurries to and fro with preparations for the inaugural exhibit, appears more frazzled than her work — consisting of ethereal landscapes and reflections of the natural world, burnt sunsets and aqueous abstractions that practically shimmer in dazzlingly stroked watercolors — would suggest.

But the excitement is evident as she speaks about her neighborhood's art scene and the future of her gallery, which will serve as a space for Fishtown painters, sculptors and photographers to show their work in the comfort of their backyard. Sfakianos has a photo exhibition and mixed-media show scheduled for November and December, respectively. Additionally, she plans on taking advantage of the generous wall space by hosting screenings for the growing number of local filmmakers in need of a venue.

Of course until Oct. 3, Sfakianos is basically living in the soon-to-be-completed gallery in anticipation of the opening night exhibit. In addition to her own work, the show will feature ceramics by Justin McDonald, minimalist sculptures by Robert Aiosa and Schuyler Blanchard, and an entire wall of electroplating, metallic work and jewelry by Rebecca Pulver.

With a name like Goldfish Gallery, it shouldn't be long before people catch on, but it wasn't always that charming. "We wanted [a name] that is Fishtown-ish," says Sfakianos. "I was saying 'How about Trout? No, Fish Sticks.'"

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If Anton Szandor LaVey (1930-1997) hadn't gone to church on Sundays, he may have never founded Satanism. As a young adult, LaVey banged out hymns on an organ at both Christian churches and burlesque shows — and noticed something. The same people who ate the flesh of Christ during the day were also the ones who ogled naked ladies at night.

"This made him more cynical, and eventually gave him an affinity for the darker side of life," says David Williams, owner of Germ Books.

On Friday, Germ will honor LaVey's fall into evil by hosting "Open the Gates," an exhibition of works by seven members of the Church of Satan. And it's not all skulls and upside-down crosses. Priestess Stephanie Crabe examines the darker side of real estate in her photographs, which portray seedy motels and the sexual deviants who inhabit them. In the Rev. Jack Malebranche's painting of an open-mouthed gorilla, titled The Beast of Man, he conveys the Satanist tenet that all humans are vicious animals.

The exhibit also features the works of traditional, pentagram-wearing Satanists, such as curator Jason Leach. His sculptures of horned creatures and skeletons reflect upon his debauched youth. "I was a heavy metal kid who loved the skull," he says.

Maybe Black Sabbath really is to blame.

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In 1999, in the ninth grade, Sheena Allen's friend showed her a hand-drawn comic zine she had found while browsing the stacks at Doylestown's Siren Records. "There's someone who thinks just like I do," she thought. And then: "I could make one of these."

Now in its sixth year, Philly Zine Fest hosts 30-odd zinesters who acted on the same idea. The pre-Livejournal network of writers mailing well-concealed dollar bills in exchange for zines will gather at the Rotunda to sell publications and handmade crafts. They'll be joined by small-press distributors, including local Parcell Press, and Food Not Bombs.

Zine Fest wants you to join the self-published conversation. Allen, one of this year's organizers, has scheduled five free half-hour workshops for people at all levels of experience. "One of the things I remember was thinking, 'How do I do it? How do I put it through a photocopier?'" she says. One workshop will explain publishing basics such as page layout; for the pros, another will discuss reaching a more mainstream audience. Other workshops will teach you how to take your work to the next level with block printing, hand sewing and "magical consciousness."

According to Allen, there is more style and polish today than in the Fest's early years. "For some zinesters, it doesn't matter — all they want is to put their thoughts onto photocopied paper. It's funny to see the serious, I-want-to-be-in-a-magazine people and then to go back to that."

The supportive network of DIY-ers and the satisfaction of making and receiving permanent — and frequently personal — art objects are what make zine culture so magnetic for those who have for years been chronicling and photocopying the stories of their lives. Among the distributors will be Taryn Hipp o...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2008/09/25/just-do-it-3 http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2008/09/25/just-do-it-3 Fri., Sept. 26, 9 p.m.-2 a.m., $10, Johnny Brenda's, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-739-9684, nexusphiladelphia.org

Nick Cassway wants to kick it old-school. "I'm hoping that there will be some kind of shift back to homegrown radio where you can feel a strong connection to your broadcaster," he says. His gallery, NEXUS, will try to do just that with its next venture, a two-month "freeform experimental radio" project with the gallery as a makeshift station starting in December.

On tap so far for special programming: Matthew Pruden's on-air séance; Jeb Lewis' "requiem" for North Philly's industrial history; and William "bilwa" Costa's improvised score using transistor radios, effects pedals and the gallery's natural resonance. Other folks will be spinning records, doing call-in shows and performing theater pieces, while Maria Moller is planning a Philly-oriented takeoff on NPR's "This American Life." More than 40 people have signed on — including artist Jody Sweitzer and poets CAConrad and Frank Sherlock — and NEXUS is still looking for participants to fill any dead air.

Want to participate? E-mail Costa at bilwa@nexusphiladelphia.org. Just want to support the effort? Go to the Fun Razor at Johnny Brenda's, which will be hosted by Doogie Horner of the Ministry of Jokes and feature performances by Pink Skull, Gemini Wolf, Persona, D*Star of the Free*Stars and DJ Royal T. Additionally, from 9 to 10 p.m., Jennie Thwing, J. Makary, Cassway and others will present video art.

"We wanted to make NEXUS radio kind of like a time machine in that the radio broadcast would be very localized and made by people from the area," says Cassway. "We also wanted it to be purely analog and not have an Internet stream. You will either have to be here in the local environment, or you miss out." Stay tuned, Philly, to see where to find NEXUS radio on the dial.

Good things come to those who brave College Day on the Parkway. Coinciding with Campus Philly's annual massive traffic jam, Canvas Clash will bring together six teams of artists in Love Park to compose pieces based on changes they believe would uplift Philadelphia.

"Right now, our city faces serious challenges that reflect national problems, and people everywhere are ready for change," says Chris Anderson of Freshout Media, which is organizing the event. "We wanted to use Canvas Clash as a creative platform for artists to express their ideas and to shine light on important issues that need attention." The artists will use their own untraditional canvases, which can be anything from broken mirrors to old car parts to scraps of wood.

After four hours of art and live music by acts such as the Hustle and the Popo, the end pieces will be revealed while DJ crew IllVibe Collective spins some hip-hop and R&B. Says Anderson, "This event won't solve all of the problems we face, but hopefully it will encourage more people to consider them more earnestly through an unexpected lens."

There's a certain cloak of intrigue and intimidation surrounding the world of art collecting. But this Sunday at the Crane Arts Building, artist collective InLiquid will provide some enlightenment at their Collectors' Preview Session.

"We wanted to demystify the process," says Joan Smith, associate director of InLiquid. "To show people that there's a low middle ground of really good artists that are selling."

InLiquid decided to offer the panel discussion after having many young people who were interested in art express a desire to learn more about how to go about collecting it.

Karen Davis, event curator and president of the Arts & Business Council, will guide attendees through an afternoon of brunch, drinks and discussions with a diverse panel consisting of Jeffrey Fuller, the senior appraiser of Fuller's Fine Art Auctions; art collector Lis Kalogris; local artist and art dealer Shelly Spector; and Liz Spungen, executive director of the Print Center. "The main thing we want to address is the idea that it's important to support living artists," says Smith.

Some of these "living artists" (including Amze Emmons, whose "Imperial Periphery" is pictured) have work up for sale in the InLiquid silent auction, which will open for a preview night on Wed., Sept. 24 at Crane Arts.

About 10 years ago, Columbia University math and physics prof Brian Greene was poised to follow Stephen Hawking's lead, taking impossibly complicated physics concepts and making them at least approach accessibility for a wider audience, thereby reaching superstardom. That didn't quite pan out; let's face it, Greene's an amiable, charismatic guy who navigates the "cool in a nerdy sorta way" tightrope, but nobody can touch Hawking for backstory. The guy could've written about tax law and he would have achieved celebrity. Besides, Greene's specialty is string theory, and everyone who's even paid glancing attention knows that string theory is a mindfuck of a supreme order. C'mon, 26 dimensional-space? You try and illustrate that with a friendly cartoon dog.

Still, Greene continues to fight the good fight, bringing brain-freezing concepts to the masses as gently as possible. His latest, Icarus at the Edge of Time (Alfred A. Knopf, $19.95), eases off the controversial superstring stuff and sticks with basic space-time physics, weaving a sci-fi fable out of concepts familiar to any Hawking reader — or Star Trek viewer, for that matter. Icarus could be considered a children's book for the gifted set or a coffee table tome perfect for your next Clone Wars viewing party. Chip Kidd's understated design has a central black circle gradually consuming gorgeous images from the Hubble, while Greene's Aesop-by-way-of-Asimov text illustrates some basic ramifications of Einstein's theories, with more than a little science club fantasizing tossed in for good measure.