 First Friday Preview
ArtsBeat
Francine Yu
With this first week in February comes First Friday—and this month’s installment is simply chock-full of reasons for you to get outside and brave the Old City chill. Here, then, is a sampling of the monthly event’s most intriguing upcoming highlights:
Larry Becker Gallery will unveil a highly-anticipated slate of fresh works from Delaware minimalist Roy P. Higgins. The show, tantalizingly entitled “Beige Rectangles,” will feature the artist’s signature shapes, varying in shade from the titular beige to a slightly warmer tan. This display, you’ll note, is quite a departure for Becker, whose most recent exhibitions were Samantha Dunn’s memorable “Greyish Squares” and Jordan Lieber’s “Meditations in Ecru: Quadrangles.”
R. Endicott Gallery will be presenting its trenchant table of red wine, sharp cheddar, and organic Whole Foods crackers—a staple of First Fridays since the gallery opened its doors in 2003. In comparison to the offerings of other galleries—notably Artist’s House’s dismal back-room selections of pretzels and seltzer-water—Endicott is truly at the vanguard of First Friday snacking. This sense of clear-eyed, hors d’ourvinary fearlessness more than atones for the gallery’s actual artwork, which is amateurish, sloppy, and painfully gauche.
Synapse Café offers its 114th consecutive display of “Mouldering Failure,” the brilliant installation which for nine thrilling years has anchored 2nd St.’s Gallery Row. Peek in the window at the peeling paint, splintered wood, and yellowed stack of CityPapers, and you’ll encounter a transporting vision of what Synapse’s supervising director, Mark McCormick, calls “a disturbing apparition of dashed hopes and extremely poor business planning.” As always, a First Friday must.
After a five-month layoff, 19-year-old Adrian Tamm brings his garish acrylics to A Piece of Cardboard, just north of the Arden Theatre. If you stop for a moment to glance at his work—which is steeped in the freshman art-student traditions of rabid zombies and half-baked anticapitalism—he’ll eagerly engage you in a discussion of his methods, his beliefs, and why you should pay $85 for one of his delightfully skill-free paintings. If you’re lucky, he’ll even spit at you as you hurry away—a spontaneous piece of performance art that fits perfectly with Tamm’s rough-hewn milieu.
There will, of course, be other attractions, including The Clay Studio’s “You Break it, You Bought it,” PAWS Gallery’s “Cats ‘n’ Cages” and, of course, The Broad and 2nd St. Pamphleteers. But these suggestions, I’m sure, should be more than enough to tide you over until next month. So enjoy—and I’ll see you there!
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Stupid Fiancée of Bad Receiver in Irrelevant Magazine
February 3, 2009 –
Area journalists are thrilled to report the news that Kendra Wilkinson, the stupid fiancée of Hank Baskett, the Eagles’ fourth receiver, appears on the cover of this month’s Playboy, a magazine whose popularity crested during the Ford Administration. “Forget the economy, or Israel, or Obama—this is news,” the Philadelphia Daily News’ Dan Gross enthused yesterday. “With the three of them together, it’s like the holy trinity of pointlessness. It’s so exciting.”
 Brent James, of PhillyMedia.net, agreed. “Kendra Wilkinson, by herself, is almost painfully useless—but when you mix in a fading ‘skin mag’ and a mediocre athlete like Baskett? It’s practically Watergate.” According to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Michael Klein, “Playboy lost $1.3 million last year, Kendra’s a drooling imbecile, and Hank Baskett is, well, Hank Baskett. But still, it’s an important story. Don’t ask me why.”
Wilkinson, whose vapid existence was previously chronicled on E!’s Girls Next Door, explained why Philadelphia’s media should rush to cover the issue. “I think people should know I’m in Playboy because, it’s like, I like having fun, y’know?” she giggled by telephone from Los Angeles. “Plus, me and Hank-y are getting married! Yay!” Gross had similar words. “You might think that people like Hank and Kendra aren’t worth a second of your time, but you’d be wrong—people love reading about this stuff,” he said. “Especially when there are titties involved.”
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