Peer-to-Peer

Experienced live, their mix of spooky Goth organs, hippie drum circles and Katrina Ford's eerily compelling vocals is both hypnotic and blissful. The image is somewhat incongruous: a saxophonist, sitting cross-legged in colorful robes, accompanied by a violinist and mridangam player. A self-described "smile delivery service," in the past year she's won over toddlers, teenagers and thirtysomethings, adoring Asians, enthusiastic Germans, rowdy Utahns and impassive New Yorkers.
That beautiful school is exemplified by the Moscow Quartet, who will present a wonderful program of Haydn, Beethoven and (late) compatriot Shostakovich in one of their regular visits to our fair city. Raekwon's gritty, obscene rhyming style tips its hat to modern New York street rap while still appealing to the old heads. The leader of the wise-ass avant-pop-jazz quartet Sex Mob, Bernstein has a deep knowledge and sly versatility that manifest in his own band playing swing with a punk sneer, or covering the Beatles a la Nawlins or deconstructing gypsy jazz, all in the course of a single set. It is a bit curious that an instrument as expressive as the cello has not been accorded more concerto treatment, recent times have been more favorable for the cello, and in any case, there is one indisputable masterpiece in the format.

More humane farming is great, he writes, but why does it go without saying that we should eat meat at all? According to Vicki Solot, executive director of First Person Arts, Hartman will try calling in from prison to answer audience questions on Sunday, but if the jail's on lockdown, it may not work. The book explores the unique experience of growing up black and gay below the Mason-Dixon and suggests the Southern mind-set may be broader than some think. In-demand puppeteer Aaron Cromie directs, combining professional actors, Drexel students and bunraku puppetry in what should be a unique theatrical — but not holiday! — experience. "We may tell lies, but we tell smaller lies to get at bigger truths," says Bonanno of the duo's notorious hoaxes.