So, finally, I have a podcast. And I’m talking about the thing that started with Philthy Art: online art marketing for artists. Ch-ch-check it out:
Also, I return to Philadelphia, after my year of exploring, in the beginning of October. Watch for more events here at Philthy Art and get in touch if you have any thoughts or ideas.
Yours,
Nina
What do we need from each other?
I have been letting a deeper rythm sink in since I left that rapid hiccuping energy of Philly. It was what I needed. Sometimes the lull is too deep and I get restless. But the importance of place cannot be underestimated in the search for our own personal meaning, and the importance of place should not be overestimated in the search for community. With the internet, this joyous, strange, possibly dangerous tool that I offer almost all of waking hours to (besides the beach hours) I work, talk, share, create, think, speak, and help shape and shade the world.
It can be difficult to gauge how much my work online has shaped and shaded anything, but then again, how do we create the metrics of influence anyway? How do we measure if what we pour our hours into can echo out farther than the ends of our noses? I don’t know. Certainly, only time can tell what ripples are superficial and which ripples run deep and far. And since these truths remain hidden in the time being, I try to use a different measure to gauge my work: my daily happiness. If I am engaged and joyful in my daily work, then I consider myself ahead of the game, and ahead of where I could be.
But in being a conduit, a bullhorn to the world, a marketer/cheerleader/web 2.0 nerd like myself has to think strategically and methodically about how to take an idea, a piece of art, a service for artists, and make it ring. The process reminds me of the process of writing a short story. I must think through what I am attempting to portray, but I must not look at it too directly, too soberly. I must leave a window of accident, inspiration, and irrational belief open. Like the myriad possible flows of a short story, a marketing plan is fluid, dynamic, and by no means a perfect science. We can speak our words to the world, but will they listen? And how do we know that they should?
I believe in supporting artists, whether beginners or world-changing masters. I feel good when I help an artist talk about what they are trying to create. Our government, our politics, our society, our businesses put art in all its forms on the shelf. I want to be one of those people who push it back into the room, set it in the center of the table, or at least right next to the good china.
We’ve been singing the praises of The Cox since her opening at E’s on Passyunk nine months ago. She’s a very talented artist for who 2007 has been a banner year: from illustrating the cover of the Philadelphia Film Festival film guide to designing the cover of Eric Hutchinson’s CD (just before Perez Hilton skyrocketed him to iTunes fame), and just generally being the most fabulous person in South Philly.
She currently has a show of her work at the Lift Cafe in Philadelphia.
And we have her wonderful illustration “Reach” on our wall of fame.
But news that makes us happiest is that now you can enjoy her Zooey Deschanel-like dead pan (and strangely soothing) delivery while she teaches you how to draw a race car at About.com.
These reasons, and so many more are why we honor Rachel J. Cox with the second-ever Philthy Spirit Award.
Send her your congratulations, check out her website, and get some of her work while it’s still affordable.
Arms, by Nina Alvarez
Outside the fire station on Broad St. in Philadelphia.
Italian Day Parade, by Nina Alvarez
Night on the Delaware, by Nina Alvarez
Apartmental Shift, by Nina Alvarez
Grey November Philadelphia sky becomes architectural between the puzzle pieces of buildings that look like they once fit together, like the continents. A pole in the street offers a sense of the smallness we feel looking up at these huge shapes.
November Moonstone Readings
At Robin’s Bookstore
108 S. 13th Street, Philadelphia, 267-735-9600,www.robinsbookstore.com,
Robin’s Website
Books & Events for Independent Minds from Philadelphia’s Oldest Independent Bookstore
Free and open to Everyone
Sunday, November 11, 6pm - Group Event
Anne Elizabeth Moore
author of Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity ($15.95 New Press)
What happens when the very tools that the artists and activists have used to build word of mouth are co-opted by corporate America?
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/111107_6.html
Monday, November 12, 6pm - Fiction
Don Devine
author of Jane: A Flight to Freedom ($14.95 Cold River Books)
Jane follows the adventures of a young woman on the Underground Railroad and explores the attitudes and actions of people in both the North and the South.
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/111207.html
Tuesday, November 13, 6pm - Non-Fiction
Paul Buhle
co-author of A Dangerous Woman: the Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman ($17.95 New Press)
There is probably no one in the world that knows more about the history of American radicalism than Paul Buhle. A former member of Students for a Democratic Society and a disciple of CLR James, Buhle founded the journal Radical America as well as the Oral History of the American Left archive at New York University.
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/111307.html
Wednesday, November 14, 6pm - Non-Fiction
Stephen L. Gibson
author of A Secret of the Universe: A Story of Love, Loss, and the Discovery of an Eternal Truth ($26.95 Truth-Driven Strategies)
This is the story of two high-school pals from the Midwest for whom a personal tragedy sets in motion a journey of inquiry that spans a lifetime of cruel and glorious twists, and culminates in an astonishing discovery.
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/111407.html
Wednesday November 14, 6pm - Non-Fiction
Shaun Powell
author of Souled Out? How Blacks Are Winning and Losing in Sports ($22.95 Human Kinetics)
Souled Out? is absolutely must reading for anyone sincerely interested in developments at the interface of race, sport and society. In this regard, the book clearly portrays where we are as a society and where we are headed as a nation relative to these issues.
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/111407.html
Thursday, November 15, 6pm - Memoir
Walking in the Footsteps of a Stone Giant
by Iron Thunderhorse presented by Tom Big Warrior
Tom “Big Warrior” Watts, Lenape Historykeeper, Founder Red Heart Warriors Society, friend of Chief Iron Thunderhorse, Quinnipiac Renapi, Medicine Chief of Red Heart Warrior Society. Iron is a political prisoner/POW incarcerated in Texas who has been struggling for American Indian spiritual rights inside the Texas prison system for more than 30 years.
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/111507.html
Thursday, November 15, 6pm - Poetry Workshop
The Life of a Poet Workshop with Leonard Gontarek
4 sessions for $50. Contact: Leonard Gontarek gontarek9@earthlink.net, 215-808-9507
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/gontarek.html
Friday, November 16, 6pm - Non-Fiction
Ken Lamberton and Richard Shelton
authors of Crossing the Yard: Thirty Years as a Prison Volunteer ($17.95 University of Arizona Press) and Time of Grace: Thoughts on Nature, Family, and the Politics of Crime and Punishment (17.95 University of Arizona Press)
Richard Shelton’s Crossing the Yard: Thirty Years as a Prison Volunteer is a one-of-a-kind account of the triumphs and heartbreaks, successes and failures of establishing creative writing programs within the Arizona prison system. Through his
writing workshops, Richard Shelton touched many lives - including Ken Lamberton’s Time of Grace: Thoughts on Nature, Family, and the Politics of Crime and Punishment. A former science teacher, Lamberton attended Richard Shelton’s writing workshops while serving a twelve-year sentence and there learned to write with candor about his life and his incarceration.
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/111607.html
Saturday, November 17, 2pm - Fiction
Tom Tancin
author of Man in the Moon ($12.99 Destifire Books)
A small college town terrorized by the murder of college couples calls on the services of Detective Lindsey Scott.
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/111707.html
Monday November 19, 6pm - Non-Fiction
Sensei Anthony Stultz
author of Free Your Mind ($10.95 iuniverse)
“Through transcending Buddhist terminologies, Sensei Stultz reveals significant insight into our egos and sources of unhappiness. Readers will benefit on several levels through the analysis and practices taught in this work.” -Rev. Alfred Bloom, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Buddhism, University of Hawaii.
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/111707.html
Tuesday, November 20, 6pm - Poetry
Women’s Ink Presents:Philadelphia Sunny aka Sylina
Sharing poetry from her debut CD Sometimes the Sun Shines at Night
Hosted by Karima Wadud, Open reading to follow.
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/112007.html
Tuesday, November 27, 6pm - Poetry
Moonstone Poetry Series Presents:
Dan Collins and Jim Mancinelli
Dan Collins has been a performing poet with the grassroots collective Compassionately Stoneground Books. Jim Mancinelli is a Philadelphia poet, schooled in the alleyways of South Philly, listening to Italian folk tales, looking at people upside-down, and freed by a beat with a beat.
Hosted by Justin Vitiello, Open Reading to follow
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/112707.html
Wednesday November 28, 6pm - Reading
Dr. Niama L. J. Williams
Dr. Niama L. J. Williams is a poet, essayist, memoirist and adjunct professor of English with a Leeway Foundation grant, inclusion in an NAACP Image award nominated anthology Check the Rhyme, and participation in a Sable Lit Mag/Arvon Foundation writing workshop.
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/112807.html
Thursday November 29, 6pm - Jazz
Harrison Ridley Jr. on Max Roach: Percussionist, Composer, Activist
Harrison will discuss who Max was influenced by and who he influenced; his relationship to the Black Arts Movement; his influential recordings; the Max Roach- Clifford connection; and a rare interview with Dizzy and Max.
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/112907.html
Thursday, November 29, 6pm - Poetry Workshop
The Life of a Poet Workshop with Leonard Gontarek
4 sessions for $50. Contact: Leonard Gontarek gontarek9@earthlink.net, 215-808-9507
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/gontarek.html
Friday, November 30, 6:30pm - Photography
Michael Grecco
author of Naked Ambition: A Rated Guide to the X Industry ($40.00 Rock Out Books)
A fine-art book that offers an unabashed peek under the silken covers of the multi-billion dollar pornography industry, the Adult Video News Awards in Las Vegas.
For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/113007.html
Photography, drawing, and painting by Nina Alvarez
