Wine Enthusiasts Fund Student Opportunities at PAFA

This past Saturday, I covered Bacchanal, a wine festival and auction that raises scholarship money for  Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) here in Philly.

There's something about PAFA events and auctions. When I covered the lighting of their Claes Oldenburg sculpture, my wife/photographer bid on a decorative shovel used in the groundbreaking of Lenfest Plaza, where the sculpture is.It's hanging in our guest bedroom. And when the music stopped at the end of Bacchanal, and the wine had been enjoyed, and the story for the Weekly Press had been flushed out, I found myself being handed a double magnum sized bottle of merlot (Columbia Vineyard) that I had to lug back to the car because the wife "just had to go home with something from the auction."

Good thing she didn't just have to go home with one of the bottles of wine or trips to Italy that went for tens of thousands of dollars.

Even better thing she didn't just have to go home with a guy who needed someone to take on a newly acquired trip to Italy.

My story for the Weekly Press focuses on an artist, Sasha Diehl, a PAFA student who receives some of that Bacchanal bucks. That scholarship money allows her to create with some of the best art instructors in the U.S.

To read the Weekly Press story, click here.

You can also learn more about Sasha's love of art, and see some of her work, and get an idea of what Bacchanal is all about by watching the videos below.

Global Abilities Helps Disabled in Developing Countries


Last Saturday, I spent some time with AJ Nanayakkara at the Global Abilities fundraiser at World cafe Live in Philly. He and his wife Kelly started Global Abilities to help those with disabilities in developing countries.

AJ Nanayakkara and his wife Kelly Fisher

AJ has been in a wheelchair for 17 years, the result of a spinal cord injury received when practicing karate flips with his martial arts partner. But AJ says he's fortunate to be living in America with his disability because of the resources available to help him and others live happy, productive lives.

Not the case, says AJ, in countries like Sri Lanka, where AJ lived till he was 10 years old. Sri Lanka is the first focus of Global Abilities.

I interviewed AJ for a piece that ran in the Weekly Press Wednesday. You can read it here.

Want to learn more about Global Abilities? Go to GlobalAbilities.org


Sri Lanka is so tiny it would hide in the frayed fold of a map. You'd mistake it for a cluster of dirt on a globe that squeaks when you spin it.

It's a little island off the southern tip of India and between 1983 (when AJ and his famikly left) and 2009 a brutal, bloody civil war left 70,000 dead and thousands of others with disabilities--the same people  who AJ and Kelly are now trying to help. It has a population of 21.3 million.

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Gets New Plaza & Claes Oldenburg Sculpture

Good to be back on assignment.

It's been a while since I worked on a story.

On Saturday, October 3, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia celebrated their new courtyard, Lenfest Plaza, and their new outdoor sculpture Paint Torch by Claes Oldenburg, which is a 50 foot paint brush standing on its end with its bristles pointing towards the sky.

There was sone slight rain, but it didn't dampen the spirits of the hundreds of art lovers who came to see the new plaza and the new sculpture.



Claes Oldenburg (right)

 
After the lighting there was a dinner at the Academy at which I got to interview Mr. Oldenburg.Each table had a blank canvas and various materials (crayons, markers, paint, feathers) to get the creative juices flowing at each table. The wife and I had blast with our table-mates, 2 PAFA Alum. You can see our masterpiece to the right.



Our Masterpiece

The wife also walked away with a new piece of art, a commemorative shovel from the groundbreaking of Lenfest Plaza designed by artist Jessica Sasha, that was being auctioned off.

Get down to PAFA. See Paint Torch...



and whatever other pieces will be displayed (on a temporary basis) at Lenfest Plaza.

In the meantime, you can read my Weekly Press Story here, or watch the video below.

(Photos by K. R. O'Connor & A.N. O'Connor)





Classic Wooden Boats Displayed at Independence Seaport Museum

This past weekend, I ventured down to the Independence Seaport Museum to see the boats from the Antique & Classic Boat Society.

Their local chapter was exhibiting some of their beautiful old mahogany motorboats at the museum for the first time.

Too bad it was so hot outside. A lot of people missed out on seeing some true pieces of Americana.

I covered the show for the Center City Weekly Press and you can read the story here.

You can also check out the video and see some pictures of the boats and learn about them--and the Antique & Classic Boat Society--from the members themselves.

Met a great guy (hey, you wear hawaiian shirts and surf you're great in my book) named Sean Null who makes wooden kayaks, canoes--and this is what got me--surfboards. He had a few boards on display. I'm a surfer, and had always wanted a wooden board. You can check out Sean's woodworking at WoodWaterCrafts.com. His stuff is for sale.

(Photos and video by K. O'Connor)

Bernard Hopkins Recognized by Philly Mayor Michael Nutter; B-Hop Takes Swipe at McNabb...again

On Wednesday, June 1, under a blazing hot noon-day sun, Philadelphia Mayor, Michael Nutter, recognized Philly's own Bernard "The "Executioner" Hopkins for beating Jean Pascal two weeks ago and bcoming the oldest boxer in history to win a world title.

They held this little ceremony, funnily enough, right next to the Rocky Statue outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Rocky is a made-up character, a leg-breaker for a bookie who gets a second chance at a boxing career and makes good. People in this town love him.

Hopkins' real life mirrors Rocky's. Hopkins went to jail for robbing people, discovered boxing behind bars and decided to spend his life behind the ropes and made good. People in this town hate him.

The crowd to witness this pat-on-the-back by Nutter was sparse. It should have been packed.

Don't ever believe the hype you hear about Philly lovin' the blue-collar underdog who gets a second chance. They only love it on film...and dare I say, when the neck in the blue collar is white.

Since the Weekly Press came out today, you may or may not see more about this in next week's edition.

I hope someday this town erects a Hopkins statue.


Here's some footage of Nutter and Hopkins from the ceremony.

Also, you'll find below an isolated clip of Hopkins cutting into former Eagles Quarterback Donovan McNabb to close his remearks today.

81st Radnor Hunt Races

On Saturday, May 21, the 81st Annual Radnor Hunt Races were held in Malvern, Pa.

This is one of the events I always look forward to covering. Thundering horses leaping over fences and jumps. Crowds cheering like crazy. Old men writing down odds on white boards and taking bets.

It's like the racing scene in the Quiet Man.

Just a short piece in the Weekly Press. Click here to read it. For some reason, they chopped off the ending. Ah, editors...whattayagonnado? This will make sense if you read the story:

The first horse my wife picked one...
...as did the second.

Proving that you should listen to your wife over a screaming man on the sidewalk.

Maybe I'll see you--wearing a big hat or some pastel colored shorts--at next year's Radnor Hunt Races.

Race Street Pier, Philly's Newest Park Opens

This was a fun one.

Last Wednesday, May 11, Philly got a new park on the waterfront, the Race Street Pier

Amen.

The Philly waterfront has been in need of something like this for decades. The park is beautiful and poeple are already enjoying it.

I got a sneak-peek of the new park at a fundraiser held there for arts programming on the waterfront. Great food, hooch, entertainment...

...and the breeze of a clear and warm night blowing through the blades of green grass and the limbs of the trees and over a running Delaware River.

You can read the story I wrote for the Weekly Press.

You can also check out the video. You'll notice that the intro does not take place in the ol' Pen & Lens study. I had to do this one on the fly and this greenhouse was the quietest place I could find and  make deadline.

(Pictures and video by A.N. O'Connor and Kerry O'Connor Music by 61 North)