Like just about anyone else whose knowledge of musicals is made up of parodies that have been done on The Simpsons, I have also been captivated by Les Miserables. In fact, my story begins shortly after meeting my wife. On one not-so-very-long car trip, as I remember, she put it disc 1 of the [...]

Unless you are an absolutely huge fan of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or The Colbert Report, you may have no idea who David Javerbaum is. He’s the former head writer and current Executive Producer of TDS and was one of the author’s of a book that I would consider required reading for [...]

Since it has more to do with city government policy and the leadership role of the mayor, I posted an item about the continuing saga of the historic (and endangered) Boyd Theater over on the It’s Our City blog - a place where we are continuing the civic discussion started by The Next Mayor project.
The [...]

Libby Rosof, proprietor of artblog, took a little field trip - literally - to Morris Arboretum to check out Papaver Rubrum Giganteum, by sculptor Gary G. Miller. Papver Rubrum, if I remember my Latin correctly (or, more accurately, if I can use Google correctly) means Red Poppy. In this case a gigantic red [...]

If you’re like me, you’ve probably never been to the Arctic. (Oh wait, I did have a layover in the Anchorage airport but I don’t think that counts.)
You have probably never gotten to experience the majesty of 100 foot high, sheer glacier walls or seen a polar bear in its rapidly dwindling natural habitat.
Most likely, [...]

In what I hope becomes a regular feature of WHYY News, Shai Ben-Yaacov presents a profile of a local Olympic athlete who will be competing in this summer’s Olympic Games in China.
The piece is everything that good audio should be: descriptive, great use of natural sound, insightful interviewing. You can hear the horse snort [...]

I have been out of pocket for the last week due to an unplanned vacation (aka jury duty) so I have not had a chance to review some of the work coming from the Arts and Culture desk at WHYY News.
Yesterday, Arts and Culture reporter Alex Schmidt did a follow-up of sorts to a feature [...]

Preparation continues for the soon-to-be-opened Please Touch Museum in its new space in Fairmount Park’s Memorial Hall.
WHYY Arts and Culture reporter Alex Schmidt visited the new site with construction going full speed and got a sneak preview of this amazing space.
The centerpiece of the new building is a giant replica of the Statue of Liberty’s [...]

I’m a little behind in posting on The Sixth Square but I wanted to point out that WHYY’s Arts and Culture reporter Alex Schmidt had a great piece about Cinco de Mayo on 90.9 FM on Monday.
Schmidt went talk to some folks in Philadelphia’s Mexican immigrant community to get the real scoop on Cinco de [...]