Midweek News, Taji TR7, Odunde, Mountainhead, Benjamin Banneker, Steven Perloff, plus a final wrap up!

Roberta: Hi everyone, it’s Roberta.

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

Roberta: on Artblog Radio. Good morning, Ryan. How are you today?

Ryan: I am well. It’s a beautiful day. It was 72 degrees on the ride in.

Roberta: Yeah. It’s going to be 86, I think, by the end of the day.

Ryan: Smoggy. Smoky too.

Roberta: Yeah. Canadian smoke. Thank you so much.

Ryan: I mean, why don’t they put tariffs on the smoke?

Roberta: Well, I’d rather send it back.

I mean, let’s, if you want to talk about a border wall, let’s have a border wall that keeps smoke out.

Ryan: Giant fan blowing back.

Roberta: A fan.

Ryan: Yes.

Roberta: Wind power.

Ryan: That would be art, right? I mean, a giant fan. 400 feet. See it from space.

Roberta: We need money for that project.

Ryan: You know, I was thinking about the Carl Sagan projects that sent the two satellites out into the nets and they put that golden record.  They were trying to decide how to, you know, which music to put on the record and instructions and how to play it. And can you imagine that’s just like, that’s some out of the box thinking you have to come up with?

Roberta: Well, yes. Yes, I remember the golden record. I mean, to send a record is not out of the box thinking.

Ryan: Yeah.

Roberta: It’s not thinking 50 years into the future when this might be found and you know, it’s antiquated.

Ryan: It’s their best shot As far as like radiation, apparently, because other things would’ve been irradiated.

Roberta: Oh, this was the best choice. Gold.

Ryan: Yeah. Solid gold record. Yeah. It’s an interesting choice.

Roberta: So, let’s get into the news shall we? Just charge ahead?

Ryan: Charge ahead.

Roberta: I have four things this morning and they’re not in any particular order, so I’m just going to blast them out here. Actually, I think I only have. Wait a minute. One, two. What happened to my third thing?

Oh, there it is.

Ryan: I have six if you want to borrow mine. No, actually I have five.

Roberta: Haha, Sorry. Alright. I just couldn’t find them temporarily. Here they are. Okay. All right. First, good friend of Artblog’s, Taji Nahl. Taji Ra’oof Nahl, a multi-talented artist musician, community person is having a screening at Vox Populi in the Black Box Theater on June 13th.

Doors open at seven and the shows are at seven 30 and eight 30 and it’s free. Taji is very interested in Benjamin Banneker, who was a black self-taught scientist and who has been under known and Taji, has been single-handedly restoring him to the historical platform that he should be on.

So I’m not sure if this will be about Banneker, but it says Calculating Banneker Cross Pollination, and there’s multiple artists involved in this, and it should be really…it’s a happening. Taji stages happenings. People come on, they talk, they rap, they play instruments, Taji gets up and talks. They’re really marvelous.

I’ve seen a couple of them and they’ll be captured on video and, you know, I’m glad he keeps on doing them. He is really the real deal. He received a Guggenheim Award last year, 2024, very well deserved. He should get a Pew. He, he, he doesn’t have a Pew Fellowship, but he should. He’s worthy.

Another artist friend of Artblog, Marta Sanchez, emailed that she is in a group show in New York called Vast and Varied Texan Women Painters, a group exhibit at a gallery, Ruiz Healy, which has two locations. One in New York on 79th Street and the other in San Antonio, which is Marta’s hometown.

So I’m very much looking forward to that. It opens June 12th and runs to August 15th. The opening is six to 8:00 PM on the 12th, so I’m going to try to sneak up to New York and see that show.

On June 7th, this Saturday, is the Photo Review Garden Party.

The Photo Review is a colleague publication that has been around a lot longer than Artblog, run by Steven Perloff, a marvelous artist who has helmed the publication for many years. And every year they have a garden party. And this year, June 7th, 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM. It’s sort of a drop in, rain or shine.

They hold them in various locations, sometimes outside, sometimes inside. This one is at the Fairmount Rowing Association House on Boathouse Row. Tickets $75 or up. There are various levels above $75 and a limited number of $40 artist tickets are available upon inquiry. 215/891-0214, info@photoreview.org.

They’re having special guests this year. It’s a time for photographers, collectors, and curators to come together over their passion, which is photography. All old, old school photography, digital photography, any kind of photography. So this year the special and guests are Peter Barberie, Amanda Bock, and Molly Kalkstein, photography curators from the PMA; also Amy Gillette, who’s a new associate curator at Woodmere, along with Amy Faracci, also of Woodmere. Steven Perloff himself will be there. He encourages everybody to bring books to sign. A lot of photographers turn their photographs into books.

Bring them, if you want to sign them and sell them, there’ll be tables for that. They’ll also have books for sale and bring photos that you want to, like real world photos, not just on your phone, but bring prints of your photos and share them with people and get feedback. It’s about conversation and community.

That would be a wonderful thing to do if you’re a, a photo buff.

Then looking forward to August, Grizzly. Grizzly has this year something they’ve done every year. For many years, maybe as many as 10 years, I don’t know, Hot August Nights open video call. So they have an open video call now. They will be running videos in August, which is really hot in their little windowless gallery on the second floor of 319 N. 11th St. Applications due July 4. No application fee. More here.

I’ve attended some of these Hot August Nights and it’s a wonderful array of videos. It’s five minute videos, and it’s juried. And so they’ll jury in the ones they want to show. And the theme this year is memory and material. How do we carry memory, not just in our minds, but in our bodies, gestures and the objects we leave behind?

I encourage anybody making videos out there to participate in their open call. And that’s the end of it for me.

Ryan: Nice.

Roberta: Over to you, Ryan.

Ryan: So there are a lot of events happening this week. June is going to be jam packed. Just in general on the calendar. This is the first week of June, so it’s going to be first Friday. So already going to have new openings and things happening there. Ma Long with First Friday on June 5th is Old City Eats. They have a block party and they’re going to have a lot of different foodies restaurants.

Lot of different options out there. A lot of people expected there. June 5th, from five to nine. That’s all in Old City. 200 block of Market, Second to Third street. You’ll find all of that happening. All of that area’s changing a lot. They’re redoing the road, so the vibe is changing in a nice way. Slowing down…

Roberta: Like second Street or Market?

Ryan: Market street. Yeah. Yeah, so it’s nice. They put a little street diet on there, so it’s slowed the street down a little bit. Pretty walkable, feeling nice and solid. There is an event happening at Hamilton Hall, the U Arts Building.

Its the UArts diaspora, in combination with Scout, who did the Bok redo. They are presenting, Releasing Grief and Reclaiming Power. They are having an open house at Hamilton Hall on June 7th from 4 pm to 6 pm. Artblog friend Black Hippie Art will be therem Urban Seek and Nicki Powerhouse.

So it’ll be music events, spoken word poetry. It’ll be an event for a couple hours. It is free to the public and it is all about the future of not just a UArts celebration of what it was and remembrance of what it was, but also a ritual of healing and what’s to come of that space going forward.

Roberta: I want to say there’s probably interactive art making too. Black Hippie Art does a lot of art making projects, and Urban Seek also does art making projects, so that might be fun. And isn’t that part of the…I think there’s a whole weekend of open houses at that building.

Ryan: There’s going to be, there’s so many different things happening.

It’s hard to select like the Odunde Street Festival. This is 50th year, so that’s when they shut down South Street from basically Broad Street all the way to the Schuylkill river. And they also have events, so this is 50 years for them, so they run all day. So it’s like 10:00 AM is their first thing and they run to like 1:00 AM.

They have events all week too. They have yoga and speakers and performances, and then they have the big street festival on Sunday.

Roberta: Where’s the stuff that’s not on Sunday?

Ryan: Most of it is in that neighborhood. There is some different events. There’s a speaker series that’s happening at the Penn Museum, there’s some yoga that’s happening and nearby, some on Lombard and someone Catherine, but in a lot of that neighborhood.

And then, like I said, this, there’s a conversation at Penn Museum and we’ll have links to their goings on. I found their website a little confusing. But I think frankly because there is so much happening.

Roberta: Yeah. I wasn’t aware that there was more going on around the day, I thought it was only the procession. I know about the procession to the river, and then they, I believe, make a gift of fruit. And vegetables to the river. Is that part of it?

Ryan: Yeah. So this is the 50th year, so imagine a lot and, and that’s going to be a lot of people just by itself. I, I don’t know where all these people are going, but it’s quite a bit.

Roberta: So, car Alert people, don’t take your car anywhere near South Street…

Ryan: Or Old City. Old City will be closed because of their street festival. South Street will be closed because of its festival. Rittenhouse is having their art show this weekend. So Rittenhouse is going to be a madhouse. So yeah, don’t drive this weekend.

Save your sanity. There so much. Yeah. Rittenhouse is having their show, I think the early setup is happening tomorrow and then it’s from Friday through the weekend. The art show is a little bit funny because the sidewalks are kind of funky right there. But if the weather is nice, it’s a beautiful park, a beautiful time to get out, and that’ll be running during daylight hours as well.

There is another show. Next Fab is over on American St., where a lot of that new construction just up just north of Crane Arts in that area. On June 12th, they are having a show, and I’ve never seen a show there, so that’s why I wanted to make a note of it. It’s called Surviving In Silence Out Loud.

It’s an art exhibit showcasing the work of Monique Disu Casey. It is June 12th from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. It looked like a fairly intense show, so definitely take a look at the info. Basically how to deal with like sexual assault and, and surviving it and thriving after, which is powerful but also intense.

So yeah, definitely just a change of mood from those festivals.

One other festival yet again. The Dollar Stroll will be on Baltimore Avenue again this weekend because why not put everything on this weekend, I guess. I guess everyone got permits for this weekend anyway, so this one’s actually Thursday, June 5th, so coming up very soon and there will be another one in the fall in September, on Thursday, September 4th.

So stay tuned for that. This is something in the neighborhood of 250 vendors. $1, $3 and $5, whatever is there that they’re offering. So a lot of fun, a little shopping. If you’re looking for something, it’s a good time to go wandering and finding, find something unique.

Roberta: Yeah. And food too, I think.

Ryan: Yeah. There’ll be all those food vendors yeah, that should be a good time. We’ll have a, we’ll have a listing of those things. They have a semi list, a formalized list, and then they have a map of where everything’s going to be set up. I don’t think it’s going to shut down Baltimore, but it’s certainly going to slow it down.

So West Philly will be closed. South Street will be closed, all the city will be closed. Rittenhouse will be a crawl. So enjoy your weekend everyone.

Roberta: This should be beautiful time to explore Germantown, don’t you think?

Ryan: Yeah. Or Septa. Come on, SEPTA. Hang in there. Yeah. So that’s my seven. It was so hard to do three this week. And, those are the bigger events that people may have already heard about, but I know some of them I had not heard about. But there are smaller shows too. Take a look at Artblog Connect. Most things that we hear about end up on the calendar. If not, you can add yours on the calendar still. So. That’s a lot.

Roberta: Yeah, it’s good. I mean, it’s been a tough time for a lot of people. To go out and celebrate outdoors would be great.

What’s the weather report for the weekend, Ryan?

Ryan: Let’s see. The weather looks like potential rain Saturday and Sunday, but. 86, 78, 79, something like that. 86. 86 on Friday. Yeah.

Roberta: How much rain are we expecting?

Ryan: Yeah, not much. Almost nothing.

Roberta: All right.

Ryan: So

Roberta: just bring an umbrella and you’ll be fine.

Ryan: Yeah. Should be a good time. Help cut the heat a little bit.

Roberta: Yeah.

Ryan: Getting close to summer. It’s coming up. Couple, three more weeks.

Roberta: Let’s talk about summer.

Ryan: Yeah.

Roberta: I hear you’re going on a trip.

Ryan: Yeah.

Roberta: Last summer you told us all about your trip when you were en route.

Ryan: Yeah, I phoned it in last year.

Roberta: Yeah. It was exciting.

Ryan: Yeah, so last year we did the out west, where we went to, how many states was it? 13. 13 states. Three times zones. 13 states. This year we’re doing one new time zone. We’re going to Canada, we’re doing three provinces. We’re going further north than the kids have ever been, so that’s very exciting.

Roberta: Okay, so talk about the new time zone because we’re in Eastern, what, what is east of Eastern time?

Ryan: Atlantic time.

Roberta: Oh

Ryan: yeah.

Roberta: So that’s for the parts of Canada that stick out into the Atlantic farther than the US sticks out.

Ryan: Right.

Roberta: Very interesting.

Ryan: Yeah. And then Newfoundland and what’s the other one?

What’s the dog name?

Roberta: Halifax?

Ryan: No, the dog’s name? Yeah, there’s a dog pro. I can remember. I always think of it as, I associate it as rough. Rough. I don’t know. No, it’s not coming to me. Sorry. Canadians, I’m sure you’re like screaming, I know this one. But they also are connected to it. There’s some llittle isand that France owns, but it’s on a different time zone, so it’s part of Greenland’s time zone.

So there’s a Greenland time zone next after Atlantic.

Roberta: Is that the old Acadia, the little land that the French people that I guess got kicked out.

Ryan: Labrador! That’s it. The Labrador. Thanks, brain.

Roberta: A dog name, yes, you’re right. Is that the name of the island that France owns?

Ryan: No. I don’t, it’s just a small island.

I was just looking through the map of Canada and I didn’t even realize there was some French owned. I didn’t know that. Well, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon , just off of Newfoundland and it has a different time zone. Even it’s like west of…

Roberta: because of its position being east?

Ryan: West. Guess it’s unclear.

Roberta: Or because it belongs to France.

Ryan: I think France, because France owns it or whatever.

Roberta: That’s so weird.

Ryan: Claims it.

Roberta: Mm.

Ryan: So they put it with the Greenland time zone, so it’s closer to France. I don’t know.

Roberta: Are you going to go there?

Ryan: No, no, no. Oh, we’re not. We’re only going to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island Should be a good time.

Roberta: And this is with your kids?

Ryan: This is with my kids. And we’re going to camp the whole time.

Roberta: Oh boy.

Ryan: yeah, it should be lovely and hopefully warm enough, but it won’t be too warm yet. It’ll still just be second half of June. So not crazy warm and hopefully not too buggy. I don’t know how buggy it gets up there.

We’ll find out because like when I, because I went to high school in Minnesota and so we’d go out in June. It was just like, oh, dear Lord.

Roberta: Horse flies

Ryan: Right. And mosquitoes, and it just, it makes it really uncomfortable.

Roberta: Yes.

Ryan: Ruins your time so,

Roberta: Well, how close are you going to be to the ocean? You get ocean breezes and it should be better.

Ryan: Pretty much, we’re going to be all along the water a lot of the time, so. It’s a lot of rain jackets, so I, I assume it’ll be fine, but yeah, it’s hard to predict. The weather could go, hopefully. Nice. Yeah. Hopefully the nicest time of the year, so

Roberta: Good…I started watching a very bad movie.

Ryan: Oh,

Roberta: on HBO. It’s called Mountainhead.

Ryan: Oh,

Roberta: I want to tell everybody not to watch it. Please.

Ryan: I also started watching that same movie, and I would like to also say the same thing.

Roberta: All right. we’re in unity here.

Ryan:  Actually, I actually texted someone and I said, what am I watching? What is this thing that you said I should watch?

It’s terrible.

Roberta: It’s really badly written,,,

Ryan: It’s terribly written. It’s like, it sounds like the worst. The worst AI copying Aaron Sorkin. You could possibly do. Like, ask AI to make Aaron Sorkin sound terrible and make it all about tech bros. Make us a show. And they said, go. Yes, and it was done in five minutes.

And then HBO said, let’s just film it.

Roberta: With a bunch of named stars. Yeah, and the premise is that these tech bros are hiding out on a mountaintop, having a little tête a tête, and they love each other, hate each other, compete with each other, and they’re destroying the world literally. With some deep fake things that they put out in the world that everybody then believes, even though they know they may be deep fakes, and so countries are toppling right and left.

It’s such a ridiculous premise, and the writing is dreadful.

Ryan: Yeah, dreadful. Yeah.

Roberta: It’s embarrassing.

Ryan: It really is bad.

Roberta: The characters are so poorly drawn, and they’re just inconsistent and incoherent. It would’ve been better as a cartoon. They should have made it as an animated.

Ryan: I don’t think the story has any salvageable qualities that would make the format improve it at all.

It wasn’t funny. It wasn’t con, you couldn’t connect to the characters. They didn’t resonate. You didn’t love or hate any of them.

Roberta: Oh, you hated them all!

Ryan: they were so

Roberta: self-involved.

Ryan: Not even that incongruous to anything you’ve ever experienced.

Roberta: Immoral, just totally, yeah. off the charts.

Ryan: Yeah. I don’t know what they were thinking. Apparently I was told that the person who did Succession. Did this, I watched the first episode of Succession. I thought, this is not for me. And that was the most I got into it. But then I’m also the person that watched Game of Thrones and watched the first episode, and I thought, I didn’t realize how pornographic it was.

I’m like, I, I had no idea this is what this was. Well, of course, everyone’s watching it. CineMax. That makes sense anyway.

Roberta: Yes. So, alright, we’ll go out on, don’t watch Mountainhead, it’s on HBO Max.

Ryan: Yeah. But we did recommend the Peewee Herman show. Oh yes. Which is still available. Yes. And so definitely.

Take a look at that.

Roberta: Yes, definitely. And is that also on Max?

Ryan: Exactly.

Roberta: So you, you know, you got to mix it up, I guess they mix it up.

Ryan: Yeah.

Roberta: Because audiences like what they like and hate what they hate. And

Ryan: have you read any reviews about the show other than your own personal opinion?

Roberta: The Mountainhead? No.

Ryan: No. Yeah, I think WHYY praised it if, because I was searching for it and I think one of my search results came back like WHYY thought it was pretty great. And why you should watch it too. Yeah, that’ll, I’ll look it up. And if I can find that, let’s see. Mountain Head. I’m going to do it right now.

Oh, I guess it was just NPR saying it is a very funny nightmare fuel for an age of billionaires.

Roberta: I’m so done with millionaires and billionaires. Come on. Are we…

Ryan: praising them?

Roberta: No! And fascinated? No! they’re not fascinating people.

Ryan: They’re not fascinating people. They’re self-indulgent artists.

Roberta: We just need artists, not billionaires.

Moment of silence for the death of our country…Okay. Fight on everybody. Fight on.

Ryan: Make art about it.

Roberta: Yes, absolutely.

Ryan: So we gave you what a dozen things to do, couple things not to do. This is a pretty solid episode, so

Roberta: Good advice. I guess we’re signing off. Are we signing off this episode?

Ryan: We, yeah, I think so.

Roberta: Ryan, it’s been such a pleasure. Such a pleasure.

Ryan: A pleasure.

Roberta: But don’t ever say, we’re never doing this again.

Ryan: Yeah, right. Never say never. Yeah.

Roberta: We’re not saying never. No. So you can just keep your eyes and ears open for maybe more in the future.

Ryan: Yeah, that sounds great.

Roberta: Okay, Ryan. Always a pleasure.

Ryan: Roberta. Always a pleasure.

Roberta: Thank you so much. Thanks everybody for listening. It’s Roberta saying bye-bye.

Ryan: This is Ryan. And this has been the final installment of Artblog’s Midweek News. Thanks for listening, everyone. Bye-bye.