Infinite Thank You’s to everyone who helped make HEART OF STEELcity the Best Neighborhood Blog as per the local Best of Blogs contest. (My other blog, Save the Kales! won Best Food Blog. Cheers!)
With so many inspiring people and projects popping up all over, I can hardly keep up and was recently discussing inviting some guest bloggers to help us all know about this ever-growing bounty of Awesome.
For example:
The new SteelStacks building is going to be home for really amazing local entertainment, music and non-music like independent film, comedy and wacky collaborations. (Horror film geeks, you are going to be pleased.)
A new video web series that documents people and indie business all over town!
Art Battles (stay tuned)
Local people getting national television shows – these people are local, still live here, and the shows are being taped here (there at least TWO that I know of right now!)
DIY ethics and organizing are creating new forces to be reckoned with
SO, SO MUCH.
If you’d like to be a contributing writer, or just want to send some info my way, do it early and often! Coming soon, I’ll post a link to all the blogs that won the BEST OF BLOGS contest. We’re all so excited, and we love you too.
“[With this show] we can speak as an artist community through a shared voice, visually through our art.” Loly Reynolds, Director of Community Artists of Bethlehem
We’re getting to the time of year when Bethlehem’s First Fridays are really good. Nice weather means more people, and First Fridays are definitely a “the more the merrier” monthly event.
Kicking off March and what we can all hope is the start of more consistent sunshine is a great show put together by the Community Artists of Bethlehem (CAB). In Unison came to fruition when the folks of CAB and Touchstone Theatre realized their creative brains and resources should merge together. When CAB put out a call to interested artists, the response was large enough that the show now boasts more than three times as many artists as were initially considered.
Loly Reynolds, CAB Director, found inspiration in the pages of a book – the Red Tent by Anita Diamant:
“They sang the words in unison, yet somehow created a web of sounds with their voices. It was like hearing a piece of fabric woven with all the colors of a rainbow. I did not know that such beauty could be formed by the human mouth. I had never heard harmony before.”
Mixed media by Jessica Hoffman
Art will run the gamut from paintings and photography to mixed media and wire sculpture. “You can expect to see pieces that range from extremely disciplined to those that are a bit fringier”, Loly says.
CAB is a grassroots organization that you’ve likely seen at almost all of Bethlehem’s festivals. Loly explains, “The purpose of CAB is to encourage communication between area artists and widen their network to promote exposure to their work and create a positive cultural impact on our wonderful city. Many of these artists are active in the arts community through Blogs, Drink and Draw’s at The Brew Works, local businesses, as well as Lehigh and Moravian graduates”.
This is a FREE event – come enjoy art, friends, food and drink and live music from Jim Thorpe bluegrass band Free Range Folk. (This is exactly the kind of music I’ve really been into in the past year – check them out HERE. They have a song about blueberries! YES!)
INFORMATION:
Friday, March 4 2011
In Unison is at Touchstone Theatre, 321 E. 4th Street Bethlehem (Southside)
!!! FREE ADMISSION!!!
They will serve light refreshments (including wine!)
Art can be purchased at this event
6pm-10pm
Live music performed by Free Range Folk (bluegrass)
*GAS EXPLOSION DONATIONS ACCEPTED! “We are accepting donations to deliver to The Red Cross for relief for the 13th street Gas Explosion victims. Also, we will be collecting, dry goods, clothing, and gift cards for their relief. Please be so kind as to help us in this effort!”
When an event’s online description boasts “Sexy And/Or Funny Ladies That Might Be Single And Willing”, you know it’s going to be good.
Last year, the Valley’s improv troupe The Associated Messkicked off a new angle of comedy by incorporating sketches into their all improv shows. That sold-out event has paved the way for round two, happening this Sunday night.
The All the Single Ladies show will feature an all-female cast, full of improv comedy goodness the AssMess does best along with interjecting sketches including a visit from America’s most loved/hated Alaskan VP candidate and enacting actual worst date stories submitted ahead of time by audience members.
If you need a Valentine’s Date idea and don’t feel like feigning romance over a white tablelcoth, grab your date (or some friends, or heck, get there early and try to pick up a date!) and check this out.
INFORMATION:
Sunday, February 13th
Show Starts at 8:00pm (Doors at 7:30)
Tickets $8, or $5 with student ID
Civic’s Theatre 514
(Across the street from Civic Theatre of Allentown/main theater)
If you weren’t able to make it to the shining, sparkling Lehigh Valley with Love Prom – hosted of course by George Wacker of the locally-famous Lehigh Valley with Love blog and the glamorous-as-a-unicorn-horn Tina Hemmerle of WINK magazine, don’t feel too bad (maybe a little bad, it was truly awesome) – I have a recap!
Let’s all give a standing ovation to the fact that nearly two thousand dollars was raised to fight against Multiple Sclerosis. A second standing ovation for all of the folks that selflessly donated time and talents! (Among them Molly’s Bar and Grille, Eskandalo! Hair and Jordan White/Kinetic Blu for singing better than any of us.)
Wait to stand up and clap until you’re done scrolling through this post, obviously.
We all got extra lucky since the whole night was documented in a number of ways, from photos to a live web stream at the event to this video by Matt and Sarah of the “Yearbook Committee”. This video has quickly become my favorite thing on the earth.
If anyone asked what the people are like in the Valley, show them this.
Post Sputnik, you will always be our prom dates in spirit. Your amazingly wonderful (and super-fast… seriously, how do you do it?) editing lingers in our hearts long after our wrist corsages have wilted.
And don’t forget about the excellent photography by Chris Elston “Class Clown” (watch the video! watch it again!) – which reminds me, if you ATTENDED the prom and had your portraits taken, GO HERE to view/buy some. Now! And if you weren’t there, go HERE so you can see how much fun we had and come next time (or spy on your ex, whatever). Oh, and if you can lend me a few hundred bucks so I can buy them all, that would be so kind of you!
Don’t miss the night’s candid shots by roaming photographer Matt of Lightly Salted Productions. Wow, see how much fun being neighbors and friends can be!? Note that all the below shots are from this guy! He worked so we could drink beers and watch cute girls jump out of a silver cake. You took one for the team, Matt!
I keep thinking about the moment when I looked across the crowded space full of people happy to be alive and out and meeting each other, and George leaned in and said to me, “Can you believe this? It’s so great… and Tina and I just kind of put this together. Can you imagine what we can do next time with all of our powers combined….?”
And he gave that plotting-evil grin he likes so much. Except “next time” won’t be evil at all. It will be like Captain Planet, and when we put our hands together “for our powers combined”, the Steelmills will shoot fireworks.
Events like this paint a brightly colored picture of the (lehigh valley with) LOVE we all share for shaping this city into a place that is not only accessible, but welcoming to progressive new ideas. Start thinking about which potential prom dates will have to fight over you next year!
Take a break from netflix and allow your couch to lose the you-shaped indentation. Tonight, enjoy your movie in the company of community members who are likely just as cool as you if they are going, too.
The fine folks of the annual Southside Film Festival have a decidedly unpretentious, open-to-all film club. Every third thursday of the month at saliva-inducing *Victory Firehouse the film club chooses a movie that isn’t getting mainstream attention, and isn’t showing at local independent cinema. And check this out: It’s FREE.
Ahem. FREEEEEEE!!!!!!!!
As per the website, “Each third Thursday of the month, the SSFI presents a socially conscious film that merits viewing and discussion. Our purpose is to give venue to pertinent and well-crafted documentary films that unfortunately do not have a market in mainstream cinema.”
TONIGHT’s film is The Visioneers directed by Jared Drake.
“First time feature filmmaker Jared Drake makes his directorial debut with this quirky black comedy set in the near future, and concerning a curious spike in cases of spontaneous human combustion. The Jeffers Corporation is the largest business in the history of mankind, and they got that way thanks to their strict philosophy of happiness through mindless productivity. But when people begin literally exploding due to unhappiness, Jeffers Corporation Level Three TUNT George Washington Winsterhammerman (Zach Galifianakis) begins to fear that his time will come sooner rather than later.
George lives a comfortable yet completely uneventful life, and when he starts having dreams in which he’s the first President of the United States, his doctor informs him that they could be signs of impending explosion. Later, as the dreams become more frequent and his co-workers continue to detonate, George is prompted to reevaluate his mundane existence. Judy Greer, Missi Pyle, and James LeGros co-star in an existential black comedy featuring music by Tim DeLaughter of the Polyphonic Spree.”
Did you see that? Zack Galifianakis AND the Polyphonic Spree in the same film. It’ll be like that crazy Fionna Apple video but dare I say, better and with more political commentary?
BE THERE OR BE SQUARE.
INFORMATION:
FREE Admission
Victory Firehouse, 205 Webster Street (Behind the Hard Bean Cafe)
Doors at 6:45, Film Starts 7:15
Stay afterward for discussion! And meeting friends!
GO HERE for directions, general info and a schedule of upcoming films
*A note about the Victory Firehouse – When I first passed this place, I literally pulled to the side of the road and got out of the car to try and figure out what it was. A house? No. An actual functioning firehouse? I didn’t think. A bar? WHAT IS IT?
The use of corrugated steel an bold primary colors make this a modern architecture lover’s wet dream, right here in ol’ Bethlehem. I have formulated a plan to take it over and establish my residence there if whatever it is they do doesn’t work out. But hopefully it will so they can keep showing films.
The Southside Film Institute screens films every third Thursday of the month. Tomorrow, July 15th, they are screening Gasland by filmmaker Josh Fox.
A description for Gasland:
“The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a “Saudia Arabia of natural gas” just beneath us. But is fracking safe?
When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown.”
Josh Fox will be present after the screening for a Q & A session.
Sometimes it’s like a modern-day game of Clue. (“Lady Gaga, In Your Creepy Neighbor’s Garage, with a Dolphin”.) Sometimes it’s like Japanese monster films with sexually awkward teenagers. It’s taught me about the history of the slinky, the diaper, and ketchup.
The Associated Mess is a roundup of the areas most clever actors and comedians that successfully perform improv comedy every week in various Valley locations. Imagine Who’s Line is it Anyway? sans Wayne Brady, instead featuring local bartenders or your kid’s substitute teacher.
(I had the opportunity recently to see the infamous Chicagoan Second City improv tour – all wonderfully talented people, though I am not exaggerating when I say on any given night, the Associated Mess is just as good.)
This weekend, The Mess is adding something new to their repitoire of shenanigans, by offering a sketch comedy show just in time for independence day: Amurica The Beautiful (to be said in full George Bush accent). This show will include modern (hilarious) interpretations of historical events and “what-if’s”.
Artistic Director Josh Neth and Managing Director Ryan Hill tell us about the tough job of being funny on cue.
“I’ve been really inspired lately to see other young people bringing things to the valley. It’s almost like a changing of the guard or a generational shift is taking place and everyone’s getting comfortable with a new way of seeing and doing things.” – Sarah Fulton
The Lehigh Valley has a lot of festivals. A LOT. But never before have we been some to something quite like this. The ALLENTOWN FREAK OUT Fringe Fest is the first of it’s kind in our area (another nod to the way young people are getting out and changing the scene of the whole Valley!).
What makes this fest different is the key word “fringe”. FREAK OUT is a true art festival, bringing in acts and artists that don’t quite fit into the Art Festivals held on Main Street. Among the acts are fire performers, burlesque shows (one of them by “conjoined twins”), improv comedy, a lot of live music, special gallery exhibits, drum circles, and film screenings.
PHEW. Read on to see how two Allentown residents are about to turn the Valley’s arts culture on it’s head, and let their freak flags fly.
Like supporting DIY events? How about sassy crafters?
Then hit the ATM and get up early, because tomorrow (Saturday, June 12) is the Indie Made Market! Here you can purchase some of the swankiest wares from local crafters, and take part in workshops that let you take some items you made!
Artists include (but certainly not limited to):
Diane Podolsky and her original etchings and linocut prints;
LEFTZ recycled and upcycled eco-friendly unique plushies;
Marilla1918 for stationary and jewelry;
and Crinoline with felted bacteria-inspired craftiness (als0: pirates, owls and mustaches).
Some excellent points to mention about the market:
This year, the market is celebrating WWKiP Day (World Wide Knit in Public Day) and asking knitters in the area to bring a chair and join us for knitting circles.
They will have knitting lessons, fiber demonstrations and the Baum School of Art will show you how to make your own knitting needles.
Jim Steager and Jasper Springs will be performing at 12:30 and SunSets North at 3:00
They will have a raffle to benefit the Baum School of Art Scholarship fund.
Get there early! If you’re one of the first 50 through the door, you get a FREE SWAG BAG with all sorts of crafty goodies inside, like buttons, postcards, soap, stickers, coupons and MORE!
WHAT DO I DO, WHERE DO I GO!?
Saturday, June 12, Ice Rink on Illick’s Mill Road, Bethlehem PA
10:00am – 5:00pm
$3 (1 dollar off if you participate in the public knitting circle!)
“There is just something about music that transcends race, sex, culture, ethnicity, language and who knows, maybe even humanity itself.” – DJ Sweetlife
When Eric Swanson used to think of DJs, he had a misconception that some people still believe – that DJs are “human ipods” without giving music too much thought and without needing any kind of talent. But exposure to DJing proved to be an art of supplying people with a way to embrace their feelings that move from one’s ear to their body had changed. This changed not only his concept of music and how it effects people, but his passion too.
Eric Swanson is DJ Sweetlife , the man with the power to not simply play music, but create an atmosphere that gives people the opportunity to get into themselves and have a great time. Music can instantly transform an environment, and Sweetlife has tapped into what makes people embrace the moment. Some people go to galleries to look at paintings – Sweetlife is almost a human gallery, exposing people to the art of music.
Read on to see how nice guys don’t finish last – they are just getting the party started.
(*DJ Sweetlife will be spinning TONIGHT at The Drink ‘N Draw on South Side Bethlehem. Details Below.)
local Best of Blogs contest. (My other blog, Save the Kales! won Best Food Blog. Cheers!)
HEART OF STEELcity 