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Play in the City 2013
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Welcome to the on-line conversation for Play in the City, an Emily Balch Seminar offered in Fall 2013 @ Bryn Mawr College, in which we are addressing the question of how we construct, experience, and learn in the act of play. How is play both structured by the environment in which it occurs, and how might it re-structure that space, unsettling and re-drawing the frame in which it is performed? This is an interestingly different kind of place for writing, and may take some getting used to. The first thing to keep in mind is that it's not a site for "formal writing" or "finished thoughts." It's a place for thoughts-in-progress, for what you're thinking (whether you know it or not) on your way to what you think next. Imagine that you're just talking to some people you've met. This is a "conversation" place, a place to find out what you're thinking yourself, and what other people are thinking. The idea here is that your "thoughts in progress" can help others with their thinking, and theirs can help you with yours. |
Who are you writing for? Primarily for yourself, and for others in our course. But also for the world. This is a "public" forum, so people anywhere on the web might look in. You're writing for yourself, for others in the class, AND for others you might or might not know. So, your thoughts in progress can contribute to the thoughts in progress of LOTS of people. The web is giving increasing reality to the idea that there can actually evolve a world community, and you're part of helping to bring that about. We're glad to have you along, and hope you come to both enjoy and value our shared explorations. Feel free to comment on any post below, or to POST YOUR THOUGHTS HERE.
National Parks
So what caught my attention was
Stop 1: Out of Time - U.S. Parks would close, drying up tourist cash flow
Stop 2: What exactly is gonna happen with the government shut down?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/30/us-usa-fiscal-factbox-idUSBRE98T0KO20130930
Stop 3: I love national parks!
Stop 4: So old city is basically closed?
http://philadelphia.about.com/od/history/tp/top_10_historic_philadelphia.htm
Stop 5: I remember Elfreth’s Alley being mentioned in my Urban Culture and Society class
Stop 6: http://www.elfrethsalley.org/visiting
$5 for a tour. I can swing that. And it's easy to get to with train/subway. I’m going to stop here.
Fun Fun Fun
1. Oh look Congress is shutting down the government...what else is new? Let's see what's affected in Philly...
2. Went here and found a nice little list of 12 things that will be closed. But also a list of 14 things that are open.
3. Clicked on this and noticed that you got to dress up in Supreme Court Robes...sign me up!
4. Noticed that it cost $20...cross me off the list! But there was also information about the neighborhood it was located in.
5. Hey look Old City! What's there? This.
And you can get there via train and subway. An exciting adventure indeed.
U.S. Parks Closing
I have mixed feelings about the Philadelphia Inquirer. The sports section is very well done and very informative regarding sports. I was a bit dissapointed in their media/entertainment section of the city. I found it brief and not very diverse in what Philadelphia has to offer...I felt wanting to know more and yet there wasn't much being advertised. I was expecting to find what makes Philadelphia unique and articles written about places a philly citizen should be on the look out for or check out, but no.
The one thing that caught my attention:
1. U.S. Parks would close due to U.S. government shutdown
2. Shutting down national parks is America's best idea
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131002-national-parks-shutting-down-americas-best-idea/
3. State and National Parks and Forests in Pennsylvania
http://www.visitpa.com/pa/pennsylvania-wilds/outdoor-recreation/state-national-parks-forests#1|5||180,104|||||||||
4. Places to hike and experience nature, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Awbury Arboretum Association, and etc.
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=philadelphia+nature+centers&ie=UTF-8&ei=17lMUomrPMTYyQGDx4GAAg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg
5. Let's get together and enjoy a nice walk on the nature trails and learn about, The Schuylkill Center
http://www.schuylkillcenter.org/
The Fishtown RiverCity Festival
Stop 1: See little post about Fringe Festival. Wonder about other festivals in Philly.
Stop 2: Continue reading newspaper. Read about music in Philly. Think about music festivals in Philly.
Stop 3: Google "Philly music and arts" and get here.
Stop 4: Click "Music" and see the words "free outdoor concerts" and get here.
Stop 5: See what is happening this weekend and get here.
Stop 6: Realize that a band I like is playing. For free. I get here (the official site of the festival).
I kinda hope someone would want to go to this festival with me. It's a little bit out of the way of everything else. To get there, we'd take the train into Market East then take the subway to Girard Station. From there it's a half mile walk. Free music!
(Also, to be quite honest, I would also like to go to the Barnes Foundation quite desperately. If nobody is willing to go out that far with me, I'd gladly go to the Barnes Foundation since it's quite easy and on the Parkway.)
Breadcrumb Trail: Director's Cut with Commentary
Stop 1: Philadelphia Inquirer article about two new NBC and ABC shows that take place in the city (Super Fun Night and the Ironside remake).
Stop 2: Which TV shows have been set in Philly?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Television_shows_set_in_Philadelphia,_Pennsylvania
Ahh, Wikipedia. Always ready with a list I didn't know existed.
Stop 3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Always_Sunny_in_Philadelphia
Well, I probably didn't need the Wikipedia list to get this one.....
Stop 4: Hey! Rob McElhenney and Sweet Dee really opened a bar in Philly to be like Paddy's Pub! Let's google it!
http://macstavern.com/
Stop 5: I'm going to look at their reviews on Yelp. It's probably just a gimmick-y place where die-hard fans go to spend too much money....
http://www.yelp.com/biz/macs-tavern-philadelphia
Thursday night: Night Market
Sixty Food Trucks will be in Chinatown for an event called NIGHT MARKET...and this is apparently the last one of the season.
"More than 60 of the city's best food trucks and ethnic and regional restaurants, serving up Japanese, French, Mexican, Italian, Venezuelan, Chinese, Southern, Hawaiian, Caribbean, Thai, Taiwanese, Indian, and Korean street foods ...and more.
Plus: More than a dozen local bands, artists, DJs and dragons."
Sounds like fun to me.
Chestnut & Walnut
Chestnut Street
1 I first notice bunch of advertisements and coupon with the newspaper. Macy not only has its own advertising book but even also occupy whole area of some pages in the newspaper. I recognized I even don’t know the shopping area in philly.
2. Then I found the article called “too bean or not to bean”, it really attracts me to explore the café market in this city. To be honest, I never went into any café in Philadelphia except Starbucks. I found Noble would open a new café in Chestnut Street, which caught my attention. It’s the place I first visited when I arrived.
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut_Street_(Philadelphia)
4. Then I searched this street and found there were many different places I could go on this street-
It’s a modern shopping place- even Macy’s is near. (I really want to know those propagandas and sales have any effect on the people in real). http://www.visitphilly.com/itineraries/philadelphia/shopping-in-philadelphia/
It’s a historical place- independence hall http://www.visitphilly.com/history/philadelphia/independence-hall/
It’s a special place- specialty store cafe and restaurant http://www.visitphilly.com/restaurants-dining/philadelphia/di-bruno-bros/
City Hall!
- http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=9268677
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_City_Hall
- http://www.phila.gov/virtualch//index.html
- http://www.phila.gov/virtualch//body_pages/visitorinfo.html
- http://www.phila.gov/virtualch//body_pages/room_directory.html
- http://www.phila.gov/virtualch//body_pages/history.html
Breadcrumbs
1. I started by reading the article "Too Bean Or Not To Bean" in The Inquirer about local coffee shops trying to thrive amongst big buisnesses in an overflowing market.
2. A quick internet search led me to this article about Town Hall Coffee.
3. From that article I clicked a link to an article about the Night Market in Chinatown (which closes tomorrow)
4.I then went to Chinatown's website and under attractions was listed the Kimmel Center
5. After exploring the Kimmel Center's website for a few minutes I went to maps.goggle.com and searched the Kimmel Center to look for places around it.
My five (at least) steps...
1. Finding nothing that interested me (that wasn't a dead end) in the paper, I went to www.philly.com
2. After browsing through many headlines that didn't catch my imagination, I was caught off guard by the ridiculous headline "George Clooney hopes government shutdown ends soon"
3. From that absolutely ridiculous article, I looked around the website at other articles pertaining to the recent government shutdown. I found this one "Merchants near Independence Hall worry about shutdown"
4. From there, I started doing some "googling" about the merchants near independence hall, and the whole Historic Philly area.
5. I read about Pumpkin Fest, http://historicphiladelphia.org/franklin-square/pumpkin-fest-2013/ which sounds super fun! but which is a little more pricey than I'd intended to go.
6. Continuing my search, I read about Franklin Fountain, which a few people have already recomended to me (this is their website) http://www.franklinfountain.com/
My Bread Crumbs
What I took away from The Philadelphia Inquirer:
I thought that the P.I looks like a skinnier, less charasmatic little sister of the New York Times. It does an adequate job (but nothing beyond that) of reporting the news without noticeable bias. It is a bit short on the worldwide news, and leans too much on "shock-value" stories like TWO FACE CHARGES IN HEROIN TRAFFICKING. Other than that, it does well to report local phenomenons that huge newspapers like the NY Times can't do so well.
My Bread Crumb Trail:
1. To Bean or Not to Bean news article about how pretty coffee shops in philadelphia/main line area do.
2. http://www.cbn.com/health/nutrition/reinke_coffeetea.aspx
3. http://www.yelp.com/c/philadelphia/tea
4. http://www.yelp.com/biz/mary-cassatt-tea-room-philadelphia
5. http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-random-tea-room-and-curiosity-shop-philadelphia
Why: I want to try this tea house. I'm an ardent lover of tea and warm drinks (minus coffee. Sorry) and cute pastries. Apparently this place has a dog too. Want to go get a feel for the atmosphere and try their chai. We can work on our essays in there too, or just read a book.
Steps
- http://www.philly.com
- http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g60795-Philadelphia_Pennsylvania-Vacations.html
- http://wikitravel.org/en/Philadelphia
- https://www.google.com/#newwindow=1&q=Philadelphia+weather&revid=1305973735
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia
- http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/22550
（I can get there by Septa, Market East Station）
Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site
Try to follow the breadcrumbs. It may be confusing!
1)https://www.google.com/search?q=ufology+in+philadelphia&oq=ufology+in+philadelphia&aqs=chrome..69i57.4948j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=ufology+philadelphia
2)https://www.facebook.com/PhiladelphiaUfoMeetupGroup/info
3)http://www.meetup.com/ufos-61/messages/boards/thread/10980161
4)http://www.history.com/shows/ufo-hunters/videos/the-philadelphia-experiment
5)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Experiment
6)http://www.navyyard.org/history
7)http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/02/22/top-historic-ships-near-philadelphia/
8)http://www.phillyseaport.org/visitor-information
9)http://www.ushistory.org/tour/
10)https://www.google.com/search?q=Edgar+Allan+Poe+National+Historic+Site+Philadelphia%2C+PA&oq=edgar+allan+p&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0j69i57j5.3676j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
If the government is still shutdown by this weekend, I won't be able to go. Still, I'm crossing my fingers!
Andre Cadere
Andre Cadere was a Polish-born artist that made his mark on the French art world in the mid-70s. He was famous for creating and carrying around long striped rods. Rather than putting his works in shows, he bore them around and became part of the work himself. Walking around, thouseands of people probably saw his artwork, far more than the work of other artists stuck within the normal means of presentation. He stirred up some trouble when he took his rod into the shows of other artists, but he retained his positive fame for his interactive, performance-like art pieces.
Automatism
Automatism is a type of art that comes from completely random thoughts. It can be written, drawn or painted and just means that the art was done in a sort of "spur-of-the-moment" type of way. Some artists believe that just letting themselves create without any plan they can reach a new level of creativity. The name "automatism" was appropriated by surrealists from physiology and refers to actions and processes that are involuntary and not under concious control. "Action painting" is a type of automatism art that Jackson Pollock regularly used.
For more information go to: http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10947
Automatic Drawing by Jean (Hans) Arp
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik used technology as an art form, and has often been called the godfather/grandfather/George Washington of video art.
One of his exhibits was made of 52 TVs that were each covered by an aquarium filled with water and fish that swam around in front of what was appearing on the TVs. Another piece he did was "TV Buddha," in which a sculpture of a seated Bhudda who watched humself on a closed circuit television.
For more infomation, go to: http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jan/31/local/me-paik31
The guy and his cambell's cans.
Andy Warhol is known for taking play to the next level. He loved being bold and distinct and making his thoughts visual. His art represented his playfulness with the media and his choice of colors. Some of his art became contradicting, but to him it just meant being free and letting his take be known and that people were paying attention to his art and acknowledging it.
Ten Minutes on Giacomo Balla
Giacomo Balla was a futurist painter who lived from 1897-1958. The futurist movement was one based on, frankly, movement, and the idea that paintings culd be more than static images. He and his contemporaries tried to express velocity in an object by using planes of color to realistically or abstractly create a work that was more than a still life. It was a very progressive movement that gave birth to thousands of painting and sculptures that challenged the idea that a motionless canvas must contain a motionless subject.
The Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash
http://uploads8.wikipaintings.org/images/giacomo-balla/dynamism-of-a-dog-on-a-leash-1912.jpg
The Street Light—Study of Light
http://uploads1.wikipaintings.org/images/giacomo-balla/street-light-1909.jpg
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/50455/Giacomo-Balla
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/862
Exquisite Corpse
The exquisite corpse was a parlor game in which people would work together to write a story. There were several versions of exquisite corpse each of which having different rules; for some, each person would write one word and then fold the paper so that the next person could not see the word they wrote. In other games, people would write lines, and cover half of the line before the next person began writing. The surrealist movement eventually adopted the exquisite corpse game. Surrealists worked together to create pieces of art that they believed were exploring the subconscious and collective unconscious.
On another note, I watched the movie "The Exquisite Corpse Project." It was much longer than the ten minutes we were supposed to spend doing research so I won't write about it. Check out the trailer if this sounds interesting to you, and if you watch the movie, I'd love to chat about it.
information: http://exquisitecorpse.com/definition/About.html
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1256
image: http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1256
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