Philadelphia City Paper | Shaun Brady

Shooting the Breeze With Children's TV Legend Dear Old Captain Noahnew

For 27 years, Captain Noah and His Magical Ark was a Philly institution, greeting bleary-eyed, pajama-clad children over sugary cereal. The Ark has been in drydock now for 14 years and will soon be on display, along with puppets, props and costumes, when the new Please Touch Museum opens next month.

Philadelphia City Paper | Shaun Brady | 09-16-2008 | Art

Tags: Philadelphia, TV, visual arts, museums, children's TV

Life Goes On 'I Served the King of England'new

In many ways, Menzel's latest serves as a bookend to that early masterpiece, Closely Watched Trains, beginning with another wide-eyed youth on another train platform, his personal desires consuming his entire attention as the Nazis march in just offscreen.

Philadelphia City Paper | Shaun Brady | 09-09-2008 | Reviews

Tags: I Served the King of England, Jiri Menzel

Bassist Todd Sickafoose Walks the Line Between Pitchfork and 'Down Beat'new

Despite his years leading jazz units, first in his native California and more recently in his adopted home of Brooklyn, Sickafoose is best known as Ani DiFranco's regular bassist, and also tours with folk-jazz violinist Jenny Scheinman.

Philadelphia City Paper | Shaun Brady | 09-02-2008 | Profiles & Interviews

Tags: jazz, Cryptogramophone, Tiny Resistors, Todd Sickafoose

Darby Crash Gets a Biopic as Ragged as He Wasnew

What We Do is Secret is told in a combination of narrative and faux-doc pieces, which becomes something of a patchwork, with the talking-head segments a jarring shift from the gritty punk milieu.

Philadelphia City Paper | Shaun Brady | 09-02-2008 | Reviews

Tags: biopic, Darby Crash, Rodger Grossman, The Germs, What We Do is Secret

Steve Coogan Suffers the Slings and Arrows of Being a Dopey Shakespeare Hopefulnew

Coogan spends the film in a tug-of-war with the script; he's forced into some blatantly obvious humor, from the broad commercial parodies to the endless mangling of his character's consonant-heavy name. But he also maximizes the thinly veiled rage burbling under Marschz's veneer of undying optimism.

Philadelphia City Paper | Shaun Brady | 08-26-2008 | Reviews

Tags: Andrew Fleming, Steve Coogan, Hamlet 2

'Bottle Shock's Randall Miller and Jody Savin Pour It Onnew

The wine story at the core of Bottle Shock details the moment at which the wine business changed, turning the Napa Valley from a farm town to a tourist mecca.

Philadelphia City Paper | Shaun Brady | 07-31-2008 | Profiles & Interviews

Tags: wine, Randall Miller, Napa Valley, California wines, Judgment of Paris, Bottle Shock

Inaugural Philadelphia Independent Film Festival Programs Honest-to-goodness Indie Filmsnew

Coming as it does in between April's behemoth Philadelphia Film Festival and July's ever-expanding Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, the Independent Film Fest has to be looked at as David next to a pair of well-established Goliaths.

Philadelphia City Paper | Shaun Brady | 07-01-2008 | Movies

Tags: Philadelphia, film festivals, Nerdcore for Life, Philadelphia Independent Film Festival, This is My Cheesesteak

Preachy Politics Spoil Thomas McCarthy's Otherwise-quiet Character Studynew

For his sophomore effort McCarthy has burdened his slight character drama with a capital-M Message, which weighs down even the most intimately observed character moments.

Philadelphia City Paper | Shaun Brady | 04-29-2008 | Reviews

Tags: comedy, The Visitor, Thomas McCarthy, Drama, Danai Gurira, Haaz Sleiman, Hiam Abbass, Richard Jenkins

Morgan Spurlock Talks About His Hunt for the World's Most Wanted Mannew

"I expected to go find him," Spurlock insists, fending off any suggestion that his hunt for Osama bin Laden was a mere pretense. "I had a 50/50 shot, right?"

Philadelphia City Paper | Shaun Brady | 04-21-2008 | Profiles & Interviews

Tags: Morgan Spurlock, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?

Interpreting the Mad Dreams of Fire Museum Recordsnew

"All the music on the label shares a spirit of sonic inquiry, and often times elements that to my mind are psychedelic, as overused as that term has become. I suppose I'm referring to the altered and intensified sensory perception meaning of that word."

Philadelphia City Paper | Shaun Brady | 04-21-2008 | Music

Tags: museum, fire, records