December 1st 2017 - Thin Air, The Tangent Project, The Ministry of Inside Things

The Ministry of Inside Things - Consisting of synthesist Chuck van Zyl and electric guitarist Art Cohen, Philadelphia-based The Ministry of Inside Things are considered among the most innovative of US spacemusicians today. Equally influenced by the early groundbreaking music of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and Ash Ra Tempel as well as that of Pink Floyd and The Grateful Dead, their work pushes across a diverse sonic terrain. Based on live improvisation, The Ministry of Inside Things creates electronic realizations that flow from theme to theme, within the context of a composed suite of music. Through use of textures and atmospheres as well as harmony, rhythm and melody, the group transports the listener on an internal aural excursion. The Ministry of Inside Things exist outside the confines of the recording studio and in the realm of the live performance. As MoIT, Art Cohen and Chuck van Zyl continue a tradition of bringing an otherwise methodical studio based art form out into the spontaneity of the performance environment. Their third CD "Ambient Elsewhere" (2008) feels dark and isolated when compared to their two earlier releases. While "Everlasting Moment" (2003) explored the edges, dynamics and tension of space and atmosphere, and "Contact Point" (2006) embraced the more unified themes of cosmic, biospheric and macrocosmic interaction, "Ambient Elsewhere" moves through strange new territory in-between and outside of traditional Spacemusic. Drawn from a range of chilling themes, this album sonifies wintertime, desolate landscapes and the soul's midnight. Moving through the timbral badlands of the empty quarter, "Ambient Elsewhere" offers up a courageous intimacy. Always bringing their own influences and innovation to the music process, MoIT produces a sound that is uniquely individual and personal.

Veteran Spacemusic duo The Tangent Project features the ample talents of synthesist Jeff Coulter and guitarist Harrison McKay. Experimenting with sounds and textures reminiscent of the classics Rubycon and Phaedra their approach incorporates a unique sensibility and outlook. Coulter's sequencer runs, synth pads and melodies all move at different speeds while McKay's processed guitar alternates between emitting atmospheric textures and liquid lead solos. Their realizations are in constant motion, either pushing forward, or churning in stillness, or at some indistinct level in between. Coulter and McKay explore areas of both dark and light. Their music is a culmination of a lifetime worth of experience. They will be performing selections from their most recent album release, Threads.

ThinAirX is Steve Bowman playing electrified clarinet—a regular orchestral clarinet modified with aguitar pickup, and then processed through a chain of guitar pedals. Virtually every sound in a ThinAirX performance originates from the clarinet, then is pitch shifted, modulated, delayed, looped, stacked, warped, and turned upside down. No sequencers, drum machines or backing tracks. No laptop. The result is like nothing you’ve ever heard. It’s electronic music driven by the expressiveness of a wind instrument. Sometimes it sounds like a clarinet. Other times you’d never guess it was anything but a full synth-driven band. ThinAirX is spacemusic with a jam-band sensibility. But not free jams. The pieces are composed, with themes and structure and discernable musical ideas. Not scored note by note but, as with jam bands or jazz, each performance is unique, capturing the energy of the moment. The music ranges from ambient and dreamy to raucous noise. Harmonies from modal to atonal. Melodies from chromatic angularity to singing themes. Sometimes all in the same composition. Steve is a veteran electronic musician, enthralled with all the fantastic sounds that modern circuitry can generate. But it’s electronics grounded in a musical sensibility shaped by a lifetime of listening to string quartets, renaissance masses, Beethoven,  Ives, Subotnick, Stockhausen, Reich, Ligeti, Zappa, Beefheart, “more Grateful Dead shows than I can count” and a degree in Music from Harvard. Before switching to the clarinet Steve played keyboards and synths—you may have heard him perform solo as Thin Air or with Art Cohen as the duo Delicate Monster.

Admission is FREE 

Joy Cutler’s Anatomy Lesson

With both poignancy and humor, ANATOMY LESSON shows how one woman’s experience with chronic illness can be a pathway to creating connections between us all. The show is a medical memoir about Joy Cutler's unwanted genetic inheritance, surviving hemodialysis and what it means to be an organ transplant recipient. And it’s about Joy’s enduring relationship with her young donor who, in losing his life, gave her back her own.

Admission is $15. Purchase advance tickets HERE http://anatomylesson.bpt.me/

Vision Driven Consulting has teamed up with The Rotunda to bring resources and capacity-building workshops to self-producing artists/musicians, arts organization staff, and event curators in all disciplines.

Rotunda Workshops: 6-8pm at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St, Philadelphia); all workshops in the series are FREE and OPEN to the public. Refreshments provided. No sign-up necessary.

2018 Planning (December 4)

Fundraising Basics (January 8)

Taxes for Artists (January 29)

Grant Writing – Beginner (February 12)

Grant Writing – Intermediate (March 12)

Real Budgeting for Real Work (April 9)

Event Planning (May 14)

Marketing (June 11)

Crowdfunding 101 (September 10)

Creating an Artists Statement (September 24)

Setting & Measuring Goals (October 8)

Philadelphia Theatre of the Oppressed UNPACKING RACE5 Tuesdays: Nov 7–Dec 5Each session 6:30–9:00 PMled by Hariprasad Kowtha and Morgan FitzPatrick Andrews

Tuition: $45–$125 sliding scale

Limited space!CLICK HERE to sign up.Worktrade and childcare available upon request.

On Tuesday nights this fall we bring back our popular series on race and interrupting racism.  Over the course of five weeks we'll excavate this topic through exercises, discussions, and techniques from the Theatre of the Oppressed, and equip participants with things to read and do between sessions. Our aim is to unlearn systemic racism we’ve been taught throughout our lives, to heal from racial privilege and oppression, and to offer starting points for structural and personal change for ourselves, our communities, and our world. 

The Fall 2017 Unpacking Race Series is open to anyone who can attend all five sessions. Tuition is sliding scale: $45-$125, payable at the first session. Click here to sign up. You can also email "tophilly@gmail.com" or leave a message at 267-282-1057. Those interested in worktrade or childcare, please contact us by October 7.

Philadelphia Theatre of the Oppressed has run the Unpacking Race curriculum for Widener University, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, the Philadelphia Theatre Company, Action Reconciliation Service for Peace, Circle of Hope, and at the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference, as well as several times as a public workshop in Philadelphia.

Tuition: $45–$125 sliding scaleLimited space!CLICK HERE to sign up.Worktrade and childcare available upon request.

The Holiday Art Fair: Center for Creative Works and Friends is a combination art sale, concert, and fashion show, a fun evening of exciting new art.

The Sale features talented artists from CCW and local Philadelphia artists and artisans. Shop for comics, t shirts, drawings, paintings, ceramics, clothing, prints, and much more! 

Artist vendors include:Anna McGlynnDog-PastaE.RegaJulia SallamackLeks KamihiraKen McNelisLydia ThompsonMary T. BevlockNick NormanScott PorcelliThomas LampionTim EadsVinetta MillerWendy Moreno

Programming also includes live musical performances from CCW musicians with Pop! Pop! Pop! Records, and a fashion show of one-of-a-kind clothing and bags created through Allies in Art, a collaborative project between Tim Eads and three CCW artists: Mary T. Bevlock, Jacob Berger, and Lydia Thompson.

With performances by:

Bert HarrisCassie FlanaganDan CelanoDoug HirlingerKymberly KrapinskiOlubunmi OjoPaul GiessTamisha WilliamsTimothy O'DonovanTricia Holuband Pop! Pop! Pop! Records

Stop by to do your holiday shopping, enjoy some great music, meet the artists, learn more about our program, and see some great new fashions!

Sale runs from 4pm to 9pm.

Fashion show begins at 6pm.

Musical performances begin at 7pm.

!!!!!!FREE ADMISSION!!!!!!!!

Philadelphia Science Fiction Society

General Meeting, December 8, 2017, Social gathering at 7:30pm, Meeting at 8pm, Panel discussion at 9pm 

Roberta RogowRoberta Rogow is a long-time Fan, best known as a Filker. In 2013 she was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame. She has also won prizes as a Costumer, and has published several Media Fanzines. Roberta's historical mysteries include a series in which The Reverend Mr. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) teams up with Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle, and another set in post-Civil War New York City. Her latest book is a mystery set in a Universe best described as “Last of the Mohicans meets Arabian Nights, with a Spanish accent”. In 2008 Roberta retired from a 37-year career as a Children's Librarian in public libraries in New Jersey. She is a widow, with two daughters and one delightful grandson

All are welcome to attend the meeting or just come for the panel. Admission is FREE 

You are Invited to A Christmas ProgramSponsored byRedeemer Tabernacle Baptist Church Youth and Guests

3:00p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Shameka ColemanNissa Webb Deacon Anthony RobinsonMissionary LaVern Allen Pastor Denise Twyman 

We are asking everyone to bring a friend

Lite Snacks/BeveragesAdmission is $10. RSVP: LaVern Allen lavern19146@yahoo.com (215-870-3917)

Find unique holiday gifts by 70 local makers. Quality handmade jewelry, ceramics, knitted accessories, clothing, prints, original art, stationery, home wares, children’s' items, soaps, candles, holiday items and more... 

Check out all the vendors here: http://gowestcraftfest.wixsite.com/home/vendors-1

Admission to the event is free and open to the public!

11th - 13th, Workshop keynotes, presentations, demos and performances at U.Penn, Drexel U. and ICA, from 9:30 - 18:00 11th, Evening concert #1 at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts 13th, Evening concert #2 at The Rotunda

Improtech Paris - Philly (ikPP)

gathers scholars, technologists, musicians, makers, around the idea of musical improvisation with digital intelligence (IDI), taking notice of the emergence and development of this new creative field. ikPP creates a link between the european and american research and creation scenes through the symbolic matching of two of their more eminent emblems, Paris and Philadelphia, just as it did a few years ago with Paris and New York.

Five years after its first iteration in New-York the ImproTech workshop - festival formula is back again to see the technological, aesthetical, and sociological evolutions that happened since the last gathering. The meeting place in Philadelphia seems a natural destination, for its unique improvised music scene and history, and its perpetual enchantment with so many ever floating historical musical figures.

The ImproTech Paris - Philly workshop will take place at the University of Pennsylvania from Dec. 11 to Dec. 13 2017, with two evening concerts at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (dec. 11th) and The Rotunda (dec. 13th), and social events at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA).

Scholars, students, musicians, makers will come from many places in europe and the US to talk about their work, demo, teach and perform. ikPP will flourish on the explosive encounter of prominent research labs and scholars, well established musical figures of Jazz and contemporary music, and the young avant-garde / underground scene of Philadelphia and surroundings. 

The ImproTech Series

In 2004 was held at ircam, during the 1st Sound and Music Computing Conference, a workshop on Improvisation and the Computer, that gathered the cream of musicians and researchers operating in the field. The event was a great success and it had a strong impact on the public, the musical scene - and on Ircam as well, by introducing there, for the first time at the highest level, improvisation as a major research topic and a respected field of investigation. Above all, it was a wonderful opportunity to share an exceptional artistic and scientific moment. A trace of this moment is the DVD Contact that captures the performance by David Wessel and Roscoe Mitchell, a founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. In 2012, the idea of renewing the experience came up, this time in NYC, where many of the former participants came from, emerged more than once in passionate discussions about the present state of Improvisation involving digital technologies and media. The ImproTech Paris - NYC 2012 workshop was dedicated to the exploration of contemporary bounds between musical improvisation and intelligent digital technologies. Gathering researchers and artists from both research & creation scenes, it favored the idea of using digital intelligence as a source of inspired and sophisticated creation, in a complex, creative interaction of machines with live musicians, as opposed to mere decorative electonic effects. With such venues as NYU, Columbia University and The Roulette concert hall, IK Paris-NY featured improvisation world stars s.a. Geri Allen, Steve Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell, Vijay Iyer or Bernard Lubat.

Now is the time five years later to renew with the ImproTech workshop - festival formula, and measure the technological, aesthetical, and sociological evolutions since the last gathering. The meeting place is this time in Philadelphia which seems a natural destination after NYC, for its unique improvised music scene and history, and its perpetual enchantment with the ever floating figures of e.g. Coltrane, Sun Ra, or McCoy Tyner. ImproTech Paris - Philly will take place at the University of Pennsylvania from Dec. 11 to Dec. 13 2017, with concerts at The Rotunda and the Annenberg Center, and musical events at the ICA. Scholars, students, musicians, makers will come from many places in europe and the US to talk about their work, demo, teach and perform. IK Paris-Philly will flourish on the explosive encounter of prominent research labs and scholars, well established musical figures of Jazz and contemporary music, and the young avant-garde / underground scene of Philadelphia and surroundings. 

DEC 13 EVENING CONCERT AT THE ROTUNDAMoor Mother, Madam Data, Mental Jewelry (voice, clarinet & electronics) Dafna Naphtali (voice & live-processing) Sarah Belle Reid, Ashley Tini (trumpet & live electronics, vibraphone) Georges Bloch, Rémi Fox (ImproteK system, Saxophone) Max Eilbacher (electronics) Charles Kely Zana-Rotsy, Marc Chemillier (guitar, djazz system) Bhob Rainey (electronics) Lance Simmons, Ada Babar (electronics, prepared guitar)   Adam Vidiksis (floor tom, computer processing): Hyperdyne John Mallia (percussion & electronics): Husk, with Aura Scott Deal (vibraphone & electronics): Goldstream Variations Admission is FREE

Check out the full line up for Dc 11-13 HERE: http://ikparisphilly.ircam.fr

Andrew’s Video Vault at The Rotunda

FREE Screenings Continuous From 8 PMon the Second THURSDAY of Every Month!Since 2004, Andrew’s Video Vault is a free, once-a-month screening series at The Rotunda in West Philadelphia programed by film director and educator Andrew Repasky McElhinney.  Andrew’s Video Vault programs original, obscure, neglected, marginalized and commercial unavailable video media. It connects the West Philly neighborhood to the University of Pennsylvania community and fosters a multicultural examination of motion pictures in a relaxed, educational setting.

This program is made possible through the generous support of the Cinema Studies Program and The Rotunda at the University of Pennsylvania. 

VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

DECEMBER 14 – DIABOLICAL FRENCH DRAMAUnder The Sun of Satan [Sous le soleil de Satan] (1976 / 97 minutes)Gerard Depardieu stars in Maurice Pialat’s film about the nature of evil, where a particularly zealous priest in the French countryside becomes tempted by the devil and is obsessed with saving a young murderess (Sandrine Bonnaire) who has killed one of her lovers. The Devil, Probably [Le diable, probablement] (1977 / 95 minutes)Robert Bresson’s penultimate film follows the attempts of a suicidal young man (Antoine Monnier) to find some meaning or value in society by immersing himself in religion, politics, and even psychology, all for nought.Guest Host and Curator: Samm Deighan