The infamous Spike Lee is going to be in town this weekend, and the opportunity to hear this film legend speak should not be missed. Lee will MC the evening at the Kimmel Center, which will give a retrospective of his film career to the accompaniment of Terence Blanchard's Quintet and a 20-piece orchestra. The event is Saturday night in Verizon Hall at 8 pm, and tickets can be purchased at http://www.kimmelcenter.org/.
Now it's that time of year again (that's right, thesis time), and Culture Vulture has been a bit lax in her reports the past two weeks. But to recap on the Philadelphia Film Festival, Mrs. Radcliffe's Revolution was hilarious. It followed a communist British family that defected to East Germany in the 1960s and didn't get quite what they expected. Richie Ashburn: A Life was also very satisfying, but in a completely different way. I can't tell you how many people I told I was going to see the Richie Ashburn documentary who responded with, "Who's Richie Ashburn?" What is this city coming to! Ashburn was one of the Whiz Kids that took the Phillies to the World Series in 1950, and this centerfielder stayed in his adopted city announcing at the stadium with Harry until he passed away. His biggest achievment: everyone in Philadelphia loved him his whole career. I can't think of any other Philadelphia player who can claim the same. The film was thorough, and both moving and funny. It's definitely worth checking out if you have any interest in the Phillies.
Finally, Culture Vulture had the immense opportunity (thank you, thank you, thank you, David!) to attend The Colbert Report live on Steven Colbert's first stint in Philadelphia. It was definitely worth all the waiting in line with - dare I say it - Penn students. Steven (we are on a first name basis now) had a question and answer session before the show where members of the audience were allowed to ask anything. One guy through away his questions on "Do you prefer French or Ranch dressing?" Obviously a Penn student.
If you'll notice, Steven is giving the thumbs up sarcastically while he wears the Penn sweatership. In the next photo in the series he is lighting the sweatshirt on fire.Steven had Benjamin Franklin on his show, who ate Doritos as a shout-out to Steven's sponsor. Incidentally, the man who plays Ben believes he really is the founding father. You still can't help but love him, though. Mayor Nutter also made an appearance, and actually held his own against Colbert when discussing gun control. And Chris Matthews came on and would not confirm or deny his intention to run for Specter's seat in Congress. My favorite moment, however, was when Colbert sang The Star-Spangled Banner in harmony with John Legend. They even switched parts halfway through. Oh, Steven, why can't you stay in Philadelphia forever?
