In The News

Temple librarian calls for more strategic social media use in academia

Library Journal Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Temple University Associate University Librarian Steven Bell writes about academic libraries' strategic use of social media in Library Journal.

In more recent years our social media behavior is changing. Rather than simply establishing a presence and hoping students will notice, we're developing strategies for making the best use of our time in social networks. I've taken note of some academic libraries that have social media teams that plan out approaches for different media, recognizing they have unique qualities and that one strategy for all of them may not work.

At my library, a group has worked this spring to establish a more concrete social media plan, and they just recently issued guidelines for coordinating our strategies and establishing a core of social media journalists within the library.

Original source: Library Journal
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Philly and Phaedra: Opera Company scores 'artistic coup' with American premiere

The New York Times Tuesday, June 07, 2011

The New York Times realizes a rich artistic landscape in Philadelphia that came alive at the Friday opening of the Opera Company of Philadelphia's "Phaedra" American premiere.

And in the Perelman Theater, an intimate space at the Kimmel Center, just steps away from the Philadelphia Orchestra's dimly regarded home at Verizon Hall, the Opera Company of Philadelphia has scored a substantial artistic coup with the American premiere of "Phaedra," a compelling 2007 opera by Hans Werner Henze. Part of the company's growing contemporary chamber-opera initiative, a new production directed by Robert B. Driver, opened on Friday night.

That this opera, an 80-minute setting of a German libretto by Christian Lehnert, exists at all is something of a miracle. Mr. Henze had announced that his previous opera, "L'Upupa," or "The Hoopoe, and the Triumph of Filial Love" (2003), would be his last. Then, having completed most of the first act of "Phaedra" in 2005, Mr. Henze, already ailing, fell into a two-month coma, from which his recovery was uncertain.

Original source: The New York Times
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NYC's High Line paves way for Reading Viaduct, other parks in the sky

The New York Times Tuesday, May 24, 2011

University of Pennsylvania urbanism professor Witold Rybczynski writes about New York City's elevated park, the High Line II, and talks about Philly's proposed Reading Viaduct park in a New York Times op-ed.

THE second section of the High Line, the park built atop an abandoned elevated rail trestle on the west side of Manhattan, is scheduled to open next month. Like a movie sequel, High Line II will have some things that are the same -- more of those neat high-tech concrete planks underfoot and "peel-up" benches -- as well as some things that are different: a "woodland flyover" of dense vegetation; a lawn; and a dramatic glass cutout exposing traffic on the street below. Food carts and something called a wine porch are promised, as well as a Renzo Piano-designed restaurant.

The second phase will undoubtedly receive as much news media hoopla and public enthusiasm as the first, which opened in 2009. But its designers want it to be even more, a model for a new sort of town planning, dubbed "landscape urbanism." Indeed, High Line-type projects are being discussed for Chicago (the Bloomingdale Trail), Philadelphia (the Reading Viaduct), Jersey City (the Sixth Street Embankment) and St. Louis (the Iron Horse Trestle).

Source: The New York Times
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Philly filmmaker's debut opens wide thanks to AMC distribution deal

The Huffington Post Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Philly native Sean Kirkpatrick wins a movie contest for his low budget debut Cost of a Soul and gets a 50-theater distribution deal, according to the Huffington Post.

Sean Kirkpatrick's debut film Cost of a Soul is a heavy, dark drama about how crime and drugs make life difficult for two veterans (Chris Kerson, Will Blagrove) returning to north Philadelphia from Iraq. For the 28-year-old rookie director, however, fortune appears to smiling.

The micro-budgeted film opens May 20 on 50 AMC Theatre screens around the United States because Cost of a Soul won Rogue/Relativity Media's Big Break Movie Contest.

Source: The Huffington Post
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Comcast and DreamIt fund minority entrepreneurs

TechCrunch Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Comcast Interactive Capital and DreamIt Ventures partner to provide business development to minority owned initiatives, according to TechCrunch.

Comcast Interactive Capital, the venture capital arm of the media giant, has partnered with Philadelphia based venture fund and startup accelerator Dreamit Ventures to provide seed funding, training, mentoring and other benefits to minority-led startups through DreamIt's accelerator program.

The new $350,000 fund will give five minority-led startups for its Fall Philadelphia 2011 program a extra infusion of capital on top of the funding DreamIt provides for its class of startups. For Comcast Interactive Capital, this is the first investment initiative from the $20 million fund that was created as part of the acquisition of NBC Universal. The $20 million fund will be used to invest in other minority led startups and initiatives (outside of DreamIt), mainly in the technology sector.

Source: TechCrunch
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Dandy in D.C.: More love for the Philadelphia Orchestra

Washington Post Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Washington Post trumpets the Philadelphia Orchestra's proving its worth during a Kennedy Center performance on Friday.

Obviously no one expected the orchestra, which filed for bankruptcy protection in April, to take the stage in patched evening wear, with broken bows and dented brass, or to pass the hat at intermission. Members of the staff were, though, wearing buttons saying "Listen with your heart," the slogan of the ongoing fundraising campaign hoping to mitigate a structural deficit of $14.5 million.

Expectations went, if anything, the other way -- on the high side. The Philadelphia Orchestra is a regular guest in Washington, thanks to the Washington Performing Arts Society, whose president, Neale Perl, mentioned in his standard pre-concert remarks that this was the orchestra's 40th WPAS appearance. Those appearances are usually among the season's best orchestra concerts that the Washington audience gets to hear on its home turf.

No fear. Friday's concert was one of the best I've heard from the orchestra in years.

Source: The Washington Post
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NYT picks Philly's top coffee shops

The New York Times Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Oliver Strand names six Philly coffee spots he loves as much as our sports, art and culture, according to the New York Times.

Philadelphia has plenty going for it: the best four-man rotation in baseball, art worth fighting over, a ruin so elegant and haunting it feels like Berlin. It also has superb coffee. Recently, I went on a coffee crawl that took me to a handful of shops where the baristas aren't just tremendously skilled, they're disarmingly sweet-natured. I found an energetic scene thriving outside the gravitational pull of the hometown giant La Colombe Torrefaction.

I was in Philadelphia to check out the local Thursday Night Throwdown --TNT to insiders -- a monthly cappuccino-off where 32 baristas compete for glory (the winner gets his or her initials embroidered on a strip of denim) and a decent-sized kitty (from the entrance fees). The evening was three hours of steaming milk in front of a crowd plied with pizza and beer. A news crew taped the throw-down, maybe because one of the judges was Winston Justice, offensive tackle for the Eagles and co-owner of Elixr Coffee, the host of the contest. Later, a good number of the competitors and spectators adjourned to a dive bar with a drag show -- the $7 cover included a can of beer and a shot of Jim Beam. Fun town.

Source: The New York Times
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A rare find: 1860s Philly baseball tickets

The Berkshire Eagle/Boston.com Tuesday, May 17, 2011

A pair of rare baseball tickets from The Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia turn up at a Massachusetts auction, according to Boston.com.

At a local auction, Colin Twing bid $60 on what he thought were two 19th century railroad tickets, figuring each might be worth that much apiece.

As it turns out, the Pittsfield man acquired a pair of baseball tickets that two researchers are calling rare finds for the national pastime.

Source: Boston.com
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Jazz 'incubator' thrives in Germantown

Jazz Times Tuesday, May 17, 2011

La Rose Nightclub in Germantown welcomes teen musicians who want to play jazz, according to Jazz Times.

The Sunday evening jam sessions led by drummer Rob Henderson and jazz promoter Kim Tucker at the La Rose Jazz Club on Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia for the past two years are the epitome of this playful re-enactment of traditional rites of passage between the young and the old, the neophyte and the old head, the apprentice and the master, the eager and the cautious.

Many of the "young ones" come from Cheltenham High School, University of the Arts, Temple University, and the Kimmel Center and Clef Club youth jazz ensembles. Some of the standouts are 19-year-old saxophonist Dahi Divine; 16-year-old pianist Jordan Williams; 11-year-old drummer Nazir Zbo, the little brother of Philly phenom Justin Faulkner; 17-year-old bassist Bruce Ketterer (whose father drives him in from Reading); drummer Ben Singer; and 17-year-old violinist Ben Sutin, whose band has appeared at Chris' Jazz Caf�, one of the few remaining jazz clubs in Philadelphia. Photographers L. David Hinton and Anthony Dean make it a point to be present to document these early moments of what could be the next generation of young lions.

Source: Jazz Times
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South Jersey robotics team goes international

NJ.com Tuesday, May 17, 2011

NJ.com reports on Salem County's LuNaTecs robotics team, which took top honors at a national competition held at the Liacouras Center, advancing to the international competition.

PSEG, DuPont and Boeing sponsored FIRST robotics Team 316, the LuNaTeCs from Salem County, along with 55 other high school robotics teams from across the country as they competed in the FIRST Robotics Philadelphia Regional Competition on April 8 and 9 at the Liacouras Center at Temple University here.

After two days of stiff competition, the LuNaTeCs, along with 23 other teams, advanced out of the qualifying rounds and into the quarterfinal matches. Perhaps many did not expect Team 316 to do too well since they were ranked 23rd coming out of the qualifying rounds so it was no wonder that such a shocked hush fell on the packed stadium when the LuNaTeC's alliance beat the No. 1 and No. 2 seeded teams.

Source: NJ.com
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Step away from the bottle, baby

Fox News Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Temple researchers find that prolonged bottle feeding may increase risk of obesity, reports Fox News.

Babies who are still drinking from a bottle after the age of one are more likely to become obese, U.S. researchers said today.

A study of almost 7,000 children by scientists at Temple University in Philadelphia found that those who were still being put to bed with a bottle of milk at age two were 30 percent more likely to be obese at age five.

Source: Fox News
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NYT goes off beaten path to Germantown for history, trolley and veggie burgers

The New York Times Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The New York Times takes a tourist's road less traveled into Northwest Philly, where visitors get a heaping helping of Philly's quirks and charms in Germantown.

The No. 23 city bus running along the cobblestones is still known as the "trolley,"and you can take it to visit the house where a young Benjamin Franklin stopped for advice on books or to other homes where Revolutionary War battles left powder marks and bloodstains. George Washington slept here, a lot, and decades later so did runaway slaves at a well-preserved stop on the Underground Railroad. There's also a homey lunch spot known for its veggie burger.

Historic sites in Philadelphia (and restaurants that serve veggie burgers) may not seem so notable, but visitors don't often make it to Germantown Avenue, where the trolley runs, preferring instead to brave the crowds at Independence Hall and the National Constitution Center in Center City.

Source: The New York Times
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Goodbye to Center City's video Beaux

The Millions Tuesday, May 10, 2011

When Center City's Beaux Arts Video closes its doors for good, a former customer says a long goodbye, according to The Millions.

At first glance, Beaux Arts Video didn't look like much. A cramped storefront on Tenth and Spruce Streets in Philadelphia, it was a few hundred square feet of worn carpet, handmade shelves, and ceilings that dripped when it rained. The front of the shop, bright and neatly kept, was devoted to new releases; a larger, scruffier section, down a short flight of steps, held the rest of its aging stock, VHS to DVD, classics to pure dreck.

Despite its shortcomings, Beaux Arts managed a modest greatness. Its overstuffed racks spoke like an ardent fan who loved Tootsie, Marty, and Zardoz pretty much equally. When my wife and I moved to Philadelphia in the summer of 2001, we found ourselves there most nights, our eyes aglaze with choice. Kirsten browsed upstairs, moving slowly from row to row; I poked around downstairs, searching for something weird: Delicatessen, Logan's Run, maybe A Boy and His Dog.

Source: The Millions
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Cigna marks 52 percent profit in Q1

The Associated Press Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Philadelphia based insurance giant Cigna Corp. exceeded first-quarter expectations due to lowered medical claims and increased international business, according to The Associated Press.

Cigna Corp.'s first-quarter net income jumped 52 percent as medical claims fell, the international business grew again, and it raised its 2011 profit forecast like other big health insurers that also beat expectations for the quarter.

The Philadelphia company said Thursday earnings in health care, its largest segment, climbed 47 percent, and premiums and fees from its international business rose 32 percent, fueled in part by the purchase of the Belgian company Vanbreda International last year.

Source: The Associated Press
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Rail Bait: Amtrak Gets $450M to Run Nation's Fastest Trains Between Philly, NY

Bloomberg Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Trains running at 160 miles per hour, and eventually those running up to 220 mph, are expected to increase capacity and improve trip times in the Northeast Corridor between Philadelphia and New York thanks to $450 million awarded to Amtrak from the U.S. Department of Transportation, reports Bloomberg.

Trains between New York and Philadelphia will run as fast as 160 mph, Al Engel, Amtrak's vice president for high-speed rail, said in an interview. Speeds on that segment will increase in three to five years, LaHood said on MSNBC today.

The U.S. expects Amtrak's ridership to rise this year, LaHood said on Bloomberg Television today.

High-speed rail projects will create thousands of U.S. jobs, LaHood said.

Original source: Bloomberg
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