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  • Angelo Cataldi is back talking about the Eagles, mostly because of his former WIP producer

    Angelo Cataldi is back talking about the Eagles, mostly because of his former WIP producer

    Angelo Cataldi is back. Sort of.

    The former morning show host, who retired in February 2023 after more than three decades with 94.1 WIP, is back this season offering his opinions about the Eagles on the newly launched BirdBrains podcast for OnPattison, hosted by longtime Birds reporter Derrick Gunn and ex-97.5 The Fanatic host and former Daily News reporter Bob Cooney.

    It’s not a regular thing — he appeared after Week 1 and plans to join the show about once a month, depending how angry the Eagles make him. And the only reason he agreed to it was because of the involvement of his former producer, Joe Weachter, who was all but forced to retire from WIP in 2025.

    “I wanted to do right by him, so I said I would do the first one and sprinkle a couple more in during the course of the season,” Cataldi said, bristling at the idea of being locked into a regular gig talking about Philly sports.

    “I’m too old for that crap. I did it for so long,” Cataldi said. “People really need to hear me anymore? I don’t think so.”

    In a way, he never left. After retiring he wrote columns a few times a week he shares on his website, shades of his previous career as a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist with The Inquirer. He’s also made appearances on a handful of podcasts, and even stoked controversy by harshly criticizing longtime NBC Sports Philadelphia reporter Reuben Frank.

    Angelo Cataldi and Tom Brookshier during WIP’s morning show in 1991.

    He still has strong and sometimes head-scratching opinions — Jalen Hurts is underrated, Nick Sirianni is overrated (“Love Hurts, hate Sirianni, I’m done.”), and Andy Reid is a fraud — but what’s changed in retirement is the need to spew them to the largest audience possible. Cataldi credits the therapy he received from Philly sports psychologist Joel Fish after sliding into a retirement-induced depression with shaping his newfound perspective.

    “He said, ‘Look up at the scoreboard. The game is over. You won. Now just enjoy every day you have left,’” Cataldi said. “It connected with me and totally changed the way I looked at competition, scrounging for more listeners and trying to get more people to read my stuff.”

    That also meant shedding “Radio Guy,” which is what his wife, Gail, dubbed his loud and cantankerous on-air persona. Off the air, he remains a self-described “shy nerd from Providence” who turned his dream of becoming a TV critic into The TV Show, a weekly podcast he’s co-hosted for more than three years alongside longtime WIP co-host Rhea Hughes and Philadelphia comedian Jay Black.

    “The radio guy now may not be dead, but he’s on life support,” Cataldi said. “I get defibrillated like maybe 10 times a year, and the rest of the time he’s going away slowly … I’m just trying to be a regular human being for whatever time I have left.”

    Current WIP morning show hosts Joe DeCamara (left) and Jon Ritchie.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

    As for the state of sports talk radio in Philly, Cataldi doesn’t have an opinion, because he doesn’t listen. Not even to his former show, which still features Hughes alongside Joe DeCamara and former Eagles fullback Jon Ritchie.

    Jalen ‘Jedi’ Hurts

    Has Jalen Hurts become the Luke Skywalker of Philadelphia?Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

    Cataldi’s tenure on WIP included a number of WIP callers who turned into household names among Philly sports fans — “Big Rube” Harley, “Arson Arnie,” “Cowboy Dave,” “Eagles Shirley,” Levi in Overbrook Park.

    It’s a trend that continues, for better or worse. On WIP’s midday show Tuesday, it was Mark in Jersey who stole the show by offering a cosmic analogy to Hurts’ evolution into a more complete quarterback, a “2.0 version” which carried the Eagles to a 2-0 start.

    “You’re looking at a man that has now achieved Jedi status,” Mark said, immediately catching the attention of co-host and former Eagles defender Hugh Douglas.

    “Oh, talk to me,” Douglas shot back.

    “Early on, in Star Wars one, Mark Hamill … He was good, up and coming, but he had Han Solo, Chewbacca. He had like a team around him,” Mark said. “By the time Return of the Jedi showed up, and he want to Jabba’s cave with that hoodie on, he was the man. He could do everything”

    In Mark’s analogy, new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion has been Hurts’ Yoda, offering him an Empire Strikes Back level of training. There’s also Jabba the Hutt, the loud villain helpfully played in Week 2 by Tennessee Titans defender and Hurts trash talker Jeffery Simmons.

    “He told Jabba, ‘Look man, you’d better give up Han Solo and Chewbacca. Bring them to me, or I’m going to burn this whole place down,” Mark continued. “Jabba laughed … and [Hurts] burned the place down.”

    “Love the analogy,” co-host Joe Giglio said. “That one of the better ones we’ve had.”

    Quick hits

    Is the NFL media world ready for even more Kelce?Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
  • A treasure trove of jewelry awaits at the Woodmere Art Museum’s underground galleries

    A treasure trove of jewelry awaits at the Woodmere Art Museum’s underground galleries

    Each time Theophilus Annor descends the stairs nestled underneath Frances M. Maguire Hall’s grand first-floor banister and into Woodmere’s Jewelry Vault, he’s humbled and proud.

    The 26-year-old metalsmith, 3D printer wiz, and graduate of Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture has a significant amount of bling on permanent display in the vault, which comprises the Woodmere Art Museum’s three underground galleries dedicated to baubles fashioned by Philadelphia’s most celebrated jewelry artisans.

    Theophilus Annor explains the loyalty symbol from Ghana that forms a theme in his artistic jewelry work as he poses next to “Hairpiece,” 2025, on display at the Jewelry Vault of the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill, on Aug. 27, 2026.Bastiaan Slabbers / For The Inquirer

    Holding On is a gold-plated brass ring Annor, one of the youngest artists featured in the vault, fashioned into the Ghanaian Adinkra symbol for loyalty. It sits in the vault’s center display case with its rose gold gemstone sparkling in conversation with more than a dozen other pieces from artisans Richard Reinhardt, Wesley Emmons, Henri David, and Doug Bucci, Annor’s teacher and mentor at Tyler.

    Each ring in the showcase is delicately planted between the middle finger and thumb of a silicone hand Annor cast from an alginate mold of his own. The lines in the 14 gray palms and shape of each nail bed clutching the trinkets mirror Annor’s lithe ebony hands. The young artist’s hands literally uphold the masterpieces of the artists who came before him.

    Theophilus Annor’s work features the Agyendewura Adinkra symbol, a loyalty symbol from Ghana that forms a theme in his artistic jewelry work as he poses next to “Holding On,” 2024, gold and multifaceted gemstones, on display at the Vault of the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill, on Aug. 27, 2026.Bastiaan Slabbers / For The Inquirer

    “Of that I’m so honored,” he said, sitting on a bench on Maguire Hall’s porch. Above him is one of five window grills he designed with Philadelphia blacksmith John Rais.

    Rais created the decorative wrought iron while Annor scaled another Adinkra symbol up to life-size with a bronze, metallic finish.

    He made the ornamentation on a 3D printer, and it took several days to print each of them.

    Woodmere purchased its four-story Victorian mansion home from the Sisters of St. Joseph in 2021. In 2022, the Maguire Foundation gave the museum $10 million in honor of its late matriarch, Frances M. Maguire. Through a capital campaign, Woodmere’s executive director William R. Valerio raised a total of $28 million to purchase, renovate, and create an endowment for Maguire Hall.

    Last October, the 14-gallery space opened, Annor’s touch dispersed throughout, “reminding visitors of the diversity of Philadelphia artists on display here at Woodmere,” Valerio said.

    Theophilus Annor’s work features the Agyendewura Adinkra symbol, a loyalty symbol from Ghana that forms a theme in his artistic jewelry work, as he poses next to “Commissioned,” the collaboration between artists John Rais and himself, at the Jewelry Vault of the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill, on Aug. 27, 2026.Bastiaan Slabbers / For The Inquirer

    “My work is next to that of so many amazing artists,” Annor said. “And I’m so excited to be a part of the legacy.”

    As part of Maguire Hall and the vault’s first birthday, Woodmere will host a jewelry trunk show on Oct. 22.

    The 1,000-square-foot vault was conceived to serve as a showcase of Philadelphia artisans and pay homage to the city’s history of jewelry arts. It’s less about engagement rings and more about engagement with the community of Philadelphia artists and their patrons.

    To the right of the entrance, a vitrine beams with exquisite Gilded Age accessories: a J.E. Caldwell sapphire-and-diamond ring twinkles next to a Bailey, Banks & Biddle topaz brooch.

    Jewelry on display in the vault at the Woodmere Art Museum Maguire Hall in Chestnut Hill on Aug. 27, 2026.Bastiaan Slabbers / For The Inquirer

    These brands were featured in the 1876 Centennial as part of its jewelry arts exhibition, which catapulted their popularity. And within the year, Philadelphians’ interest in the jewelry arts led to the opening of the University of the Arts, home of one of the country’s first jewelry arts programs. The university helped Philadelphia become an industry leader in the jewelry arts during the 20th century, Valerio said.

    Of course, many of the vault’s showpieces celebrate the beauty and drama of all that is jewel-encrusted.

    A Henri David installation gives enchanted forest vibes, taking up the entire back wall of the first gallery. A cloak sewn together from thousands of iridescent feathers from the tails of French roosters is centered next to faux greenery. David’s nature-inspired frippery glistens: a 14-carat yellow-and-gold stingray brooch, a diamond-and-pearl dragonfly brooch, and a druzy agate flower brooch with a pretty black fresh freshwater pearl affixed to its center.

    In the Henri David case, the Philly-based jeweler’s fantastical work takes up the entire back case of the vault in Woodmere’s Maguire Hall.Elizabeth Wellington

    Jewelry innovation is a focus of the vault, too.

    Across from the ring case is Bucci’s insightful Shroud, a continuous sheet of polylactic acid and cubic zirconia installed into the floor. But Shroud is more than a thin layer of ivory glitz under a glass case that resembles a tomb. It’s a 3D-print installation generated from 30 days of Bucci’s blood glucose data. Bucci is a Type 1 diabetic who wears an around-the-clock insulin monitor. Each day is a vertical slice of Bucci’s metabolic history, brilliant evidence of his lived experience.

    “The funny thing is that we were really just figuring out what to do with the hole in the ground,” Bucci said. “What we came up with was inspired by beauty, inspired by architecture, and the unseen. It’s like the game of Operation where you have that look inside.”

    View of the 3D-printed “Islet I, White a sectional” (Neck Piece) by Doug Bucci, on display in the vault at the Woodmere Art Museum Maguire Hall in Chestnut Hill, on Aug. 27, 2026.Bastiaan Slabbers / For The Inquirer

    Islet — Bucci’s most well-known work that includes a necklace, a ring, and a bracelet — also resides in the vault. Each one of the links in the necklace is a honeycomb-patterned tube that is printed as one piece and interlinked, creating an unbroken chain. Bucci was the first jewelry artisan to manipulate a 3D printer to do that.

    Islet shares gallery space with a purple polyester resin and sterling silver torque, or metal collar, by Stanley Lechtzin, who founded Tyler’s jewelry program in 1962 and served as its head through 2018.

    Lechtzin is considered the grandfather of computer-aided design in the jewelry industry, the first to use a 3D printer to design and produce jewelry. He also developed electroforming, a process that makes big, chunky jewelry light. (It’s why bamboo door-knocker earrings look heavy but are actually light.)

    “Lechtzin is truly an innovator in the design field,” Bucci said. “He is one of my educators, mentors, and heroes. So for my work to stand along his and with my students’ is one of the most important moments of my career.”

    The vault houses the ostentatious and the kitschy. Brooches made from found art and resin by Maximal Art’s John Wind and Hilary Jay are placed next to brooches, cuffs, pendants, and pleated gowns by the late fashion and accessories designer Mary McFadden.

    McFadden — who died two years ago at 84 — made an undisclosed donation to the vault and gave Woodmere several pieces of clothing and jewelry to exhibit. One of the vault’s galleries is named for her.

    Theophilus Annor’s jewelry artwork centers the loyalty symbol from Ghana, as seen here in his “Hairpiece,” 2025, on display at the Vault of the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill on Aug. 27, 2026.Bastiaan Slabbers / For The Inquirer

    The vault’s permanent exhibit comes full circle, ending with a glass cabinet filled with hair adornments. It’s called the Crown Case. In this glass cabinet is a laurel crown symbolizing power, sanctity, and celebration designed by McFadden, a wedding tiara by Reinhardt, and a knotted red-and-yellow hair piece by Annor.

    The piece, Annor said, explores the historical significance of knots used in Ghana as ladders during the African slave trade.

    “I am from Ghana, but a lot of my thoughts and experiences as a jewelry maker are here in Philly,” Annor said. “At Woodmere I’m able to blend traditional and contemporary art and honor my heritage.”

    The Woodmere Art Museum’s Frances M. Maguire Hall is located at 9001 Germantown Ave. The Jewelry Trunk Show will be held Oct. 22 from 1 to 5 p.m. at Charles Knox Smith Hall at 9201 Germantown Ave.

  • The first Ronald McDonald House, a space for care and comfort, was established in West Philadelphia

    The first Ronald McDonald House, a space for care and comfort, was established in West Philadelphia

    Watching parents struggle to pay for lodging and food as their children underwent treatment for cancer in the early 1970s broke the heart of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia oncology director Audrey E. Evans.

    Evans, a British pediatric oncologist, wanted to do something to make the families comfortable during this terrible time. When she found a four-story, seven-bedroom house in West Philadelphia, she envisioned a space where beleaguered parents could stay, eat, and rest during the tough days and tougher decisions ahead of them.

    She just needed $34,000 to buy it.

    The Ronald McDonald House No. 1 was created by Alana Sxmone in a pop art, ’70s-inspired comic style to capture warmth and optimism. It features cofounders Audrey E. Evans and Jim Murray surrounded by families helped by the Ronald McDonald House.Alana Sxmone for Colibrí Workshop

    In 1974, on the other side of town, at North Philadelphia’s St. Christopher’s Hospital, Eagles tight end and wide receiver Fred Hill’s 7-year-old daughter, Kim, was fighting — and beating — acute lymphatic leukemia.

    Hill wanted to make a difference for families with sick children. With the help of the team’s then-general manager Jim Murray, he formed the fundraising nonprofit Eagles Fly for Leukemia. Together, Hill and Murray approached Kim’s doctor, Lawrence Naiman, who suggested Hill chat with Evans. She was in the midst of building CHOP’s state-of-the-art cancer facility and needed the money more than he did.

    “The Eagles pledged a million to build the oncology ward,” said Ronald McDonald House CEO Susan Campbell. “That began Dr. Evans’ relationship with Fred Hill, Murray, and Eagles owner Leonard Tose.”

    Evans didn’t stop there, said Campbell. “She told them, ‘I need to buy this house in West Philly. I need $34,000.′”

    The original Ronald McDonald House, at 4032 Spruce St. in West Philadelphia.The Ronald McDonald House

    The Eagles and McDonald’s, the fast-food chain, were clients of the same Philadelphia-based firm Elkman Advertising. Tose devised a deal: He offered to the then-regional manager of McDonald’s, Ed Rensi, his top players, including Roman Gabriel and Bill Bergey, as spokespeople for the Shamrock Shake. His ask? Maybe McDonald’s would donate a portion of the proceeds to Evans’ house.

    “Rensi said that he would give Evans all of the proceeds if she would call it the Ronald McDonald House,” Campbell said.

    On Oct. 15, 1974, Tose, Gabriel, Bergey, then-chairman of McDonald’s Ray Kroc (the same Ray Kroc for whom the area Salvation Army Kroc Centers are named), and Mayor Frank Rizzo joined Evans at the ribbon cutting of the world’s first Ronald McDonald House, at 4032 Spruce St.

    That ribbon cutting will be feted as a “firstival” from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Ronald McDonald House’s Chestnut Street location. Firstivals are weekly parties the Philadelphia Historic District is throwing each Saturday celebrating people, places, and things born in Philadelphia in honor of America’s 250th birthday.

    There are more local connections: South Jersey builder John Canuso, whose daughter had leukemia, donated the elbow grease, furniture, appliances, and electrical wiring for the original Ronald McDonald House, helping it build its reputation as a sweet space for care and convalescence. By 1979, 5,000 people from 29 states and seven countries called Ronald McDonald House home during a difficult time.

    Ronald McDonald House Philadelphia cofounders Jim Murrary, Eagles general manager, and Audrey E. Evans, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia oncology director, in the 1980s at the Chestnut Street location.The Ronald McDonald House

    In 1981, the new Ronald McDonald House opened its doors at a 32-room mansion at 3925 Chestnut St. The new spot — also renovated by Canuso — replaced the original Spruce Street location. It remains open today and features 19 bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, library, and laundry room.

    Kim Hill died when she was 44, in 2011. Radiation from her treatments for leukemia as a child caused brain tumors as an adult. Fred Hill is in his 80s and lives in California.

    Evans died in 2024 in Philadelphia. She was 97.

    Eagles Fly for Leukemia still raises money and has to date donated more than $12 million to pediatric cancer research, according to its website.

    Today, there are about 400 Ronald McDonald Houses in 62 countries, including ones at 100 E. Erie Ave. in Juniata Park, in Camden, and in Wilmington. Families are given a room, three meals a day, and transportation to and from the hospital. The suggested rate is $25 a night, but no parent is turned away. All families with children facing life-threatening illnesses — and being treated at CHOP or neighboring hospitals — are welcome.

    Carmen Montes, 17, participates in a game at the Ronald McDonald House of Southern New Jersey in Camden on Oct. 14, 2016.DAVID SWANSON / Staff Photographer

    “The ultimate goal is that every child is healthy and that we wouldn’t need a Ronald McDonald House,” Campbell said. “But that isn’t the case. We are grateful that medical technology is advancing and that we’re able to support so many families on this journey.”

    This week’s Firstival is Saturday, Sept. 26, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., at the Ronald McDonald House at 3925 Chestnut St.

    Each week, The Inquirer is highlighting a “first” from the Philadelphia Historic District’s 52 Weeks of Firsts. A “52 Weeks of Firsts” podcast, produced by All That’s Good Productions, drops every Tuesday.

  • The Rocky statue moved again and is now at the top of the Art Museum steps

    The Rocky statue moved again and is now at the top of the Art Museum steps

    At long last, Rocky Balboa has come back home. Again.

    The city’s famed statue of the Italian Stallion was installed atop the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s iconic steps Wednesday. Its installation marks the most visible step yet in getting the fictional boxer’s monument into what has been billed as its permanent place.

    Creative Philadelphia, the city arts office behind the statue’s move, said the monument was affixed to its pedestal at the top of the steps about 11:30 a.m. Additional cleanup work was slated to take place Thursday, and barricades around the statue were to be removed Friday, marking the installation’s completion.

    After that, no additional work is scheduled, the office said.

    The statue’s move, which officially began on Sept. 11, caps a monthslong series of monumental moves at the Art Museum. Since 2006, it sat at the bottom of the institution’s steps, and was then housed inside the museum for the exhibit “Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments” starting in March.

    In June, officials installed a statue of real-life Philly boxing legend “Smokin’” Joe Frazier at the base of the steps, moving that piece from its formerly long-held home at the sports complex in South Philadelphia.

    All the while, another statue of Rocky sat at the top of the museum’s steps, but that one will now be returned to actor Sylvester Stallone’s private collection.

    The original statue, which Stallone commissioned for Rocky III, has long been a controversial piece of public art in the city. It arrived in town in 1981, and has since been moved about a half dozen times — including previous stints at the top of the steps.

    Visitors at the newly installed Rocky statue on the Art Museum steps.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

    Now, the statue stands about 14 feet back from the edge of the top step, adjacent to where Rocky’s shoe prints are embedded into a walkway.

    Last fall, an Inquirer survey found that 46% of respondents believed there should not be a Rocky statue at the top of the steps. About 20% of respondents said there should not be a Rocky statue in the city’s quiver of monuments at all.

    That perspective has been present among Philadelphians since the statue arrived more than four decades ago, when some local officials referred to it as “unnecessarily strident.” At least one Inquirer columnist called it a “monument to schlock, chutzpah, and mediocrity” following its debut.

    Since then, debates over its merits — as well as whether it is art or merely an iconic structure — have cropped up periodically. Still, in January, the Art Commission voted to approve a plan for the statue’s installation at the top of the steps.

    “We are pleased that after months of planning, the city’s Rocky statue is permanently installed at the top of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps, where it was first unveiled in 1982,” public art director Marguerite Anglin said in a statement. “It now stands in conversation with the Joe Frazier statue, the real life Philadelphia boxer who inspired the Rocky story.”

  • Ned Warwick, former TV news director and Inquirer reporter and editor, has died at 81

    Ned Warwick, former TV news director and Inquirer reporter and editor, has died at 81

    Ned Warwick, 81, of Philadelphia, former foreign correspondent and foreign, national, and Pennsylvania editor for The Inquirer, former news director for WPVI-TV (Channel 6) and international news director for ABC-TV, former reporter at the Bulletin, mentor, sailor, pilot, and die-hard Phillies fan, died Monday, Sept. 14, of complications from Parkinson’s disease at his home near the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

    Born in Philadelphia and reared in Germantown and Mount Airy, Mr. Warwick graduated from Chestnut Hill Academy and attended Temple University. He knew he wanted to be a newsman when he was 16, his wife, Joan, said, and he spent much of his free time reading newspapers in the high school library.

    He went on to work as a young city-side reporter for the Bulletin from 1969 to 1974 and a veteran editor and reporter for The Inquirer from 2001 to 2008. For TV, he was a news writer and assignment editor at WPVI from 1975 to 1981, news director at WTVD in Durham, N.C., from 1981 to 1986, and back as news director at WPVI from 1986 to 1990.

    Regarding the transition from print to TV work, he told Inquirer TV columnist Gail Shister in 1977: “The TV reporter’s job is more difficult because they have to be journalists and performers. It is in fact easier for a TV reporter to move over to print than vice versa.”

    Mr. Warwick became a foreign correspondent for The Inquirer in 2006.Newspapers.com

    From 1990 to 1995, Mr. Warwick was based in London as ABC’s director of news operations for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. He worked with celebrated anchorman Peter Jennings, supervised dozens of other international TV types, and directed coverage of many of the world’s top stories.

    Actually, he told The Inquirer as he left for London, he did not expect the job to be much different from covering news in Philadelphia. “You can gather news around the corner or across the border,” he said. “But the essential business of newsgathering still remains the same. You’ve still got to get the story.”

    Ned Warwick: Palestinian politics are not for the mild and retiring.

    He nearly became the story in 1992 when he got pinned down in a gun battle while traveling in Somalia. “He always wanted to be a newsman and travel the world,” his wife said, “and he did. He loved the news. He loved ABC.”

    At The Inquirer, Mr. Warwick was the foreign and national editor for five years and a foreign correspondent in Jerusalem during and after the 2006 Lebanon war. He returned to Philadelphia in 2007 to be deputy business editor and Pennsylvania editor for a year.

    The Inquirer covered Mr. Warwick’s return to WPVI-TV in 1986. Newspapers,com

    “He was a good listener and could manage a reporter’s needs,” former Inquirer staff writer Miriam Hill said. Former Inquirer staff writer Sally Downey said: “He was a very classy guy.”

    In 2006, his byline appeared in The Inquirer over dozens of war zone stories from Gaza City, Bethlehem, Acre, Ramallah, Huwwara, Turmus Aya, and elsewhere in the Middle East. On Oct. 17, 2006, he opened his story from Kafr Qalil with: “The sharp heat of summer lingers on the stony hills of the West Bank, and the pale olives are still ripening on the trees, thirsting for just a little of the fall rains that won’t come for a few more weeks.”

    Ned Warwick: British public now fond of affection they share

    “He was a lyrical writer,” Hill said. Former Inquirer editor William K. Marimow called his style “fluid” and “very solid.”

    Mr. Warwick also reported on the royal family from London and reviewed books for The Inquirer. He worked briefly as an editor at large with Bloomberg News after leaving the paper in 2008 and retired in 2010.

    Out of the office, Mr. Warwick was a sailor and a pilot. Courtesy of the family

    He mentored others wherever he worked and with the Rittenhouse Writers’ Group, and completed a first draft of his own book. “His mind was always crafting a story, seeing a story, or preparing to tell one in a way that made everyone near him want to listen,” said his daughter Katie Bishop.

    “No matter what was going on,” said Nathan Gorenstein, a former colleague at The Inquirer, “he was a good human.”

    Out of the office, Mr. Warwick was a sailor and a pilot. In 1986, when he was news director at WPVI, Shister asked him whether flying an airplane or directing a newsroom was more challenging. “Clearly,” he said, “if you don’t pay attention in either business, you’re going to crash.”

    He cheered openly for the Phillies even during the lean years and continued to follow them closely after becoming ill. “One of the first things he would ask in the morning,” his wife said, “is who won the game.”

    Edward Ramsey Warwick was born May 19, 1945. The oldest of three children, he was the great-grandson of former Mayor Charles Warwick. He left Temple and earned a bachelor’s degree in history at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., in 1969.

    Mr. Warwick’s local TV work was covered in The Inquirer in 1988. Newspapers.com

    He married Polly Price, and they had a daughter, Katie. After a divorce, he married Gayle Roth, and they had daughters Megan and Eliza.

    “He always made us feel like having three daughters was his greatest joy in life,” his daughter Megan Osborne said. “He taught us to throw a ball and let us braid his hair.”

    Why did best-selling author Carol Saline email The Inquirer’s obit writer?

    After a divorce, he married Joan Hunter, and they enjoyed museums, the theater, and the orchestra. They traveled the world together. He was a longtime runner and a fashionista, and studied Buddhism.

    He lived with Parkinson’s disease for eight years. But he refused to quit city living for the suburbs, his wife said, and he never lost his sense of humor and zest for life.

    Mr. Warwick was a longtime runner and a fashionista, and studied Buddhism. Courtesy of the family

    “Dad was a giant of a man in every sense of the word,” his daughter Eliza said. His wife said: “He never, ever complained. He made me a better person.”

    In addition to wife, daughters, and former wives, Mr. Warwick is survived by four grandchildren, a sister, a brother, and other relatives.

    A memorial service is to be from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Germantown Cricket Club, 411 Manheim St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19144.

    Donations in his name may be made to Penn Medicine Neurology, 3535 Market St., Suite 750, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104; and the Katz JCC Parkinson’s Connection, 1301 Springdale Rd., Cherry Hill, N.J. 08003.

    Mr. Warwick “never, ever complained” his wife said. “He made me a better person.”Courtesy of the family
  • Philly music this week with Willie Nelson and Neil Young, Mt. Joy, Sex Pistols, Phoebe Bridgers, and AC/DC

    Philly music this week with Willie Nelson and Neil Young, Mt. Joy, Sex Pistols, Phoebe Bridgers, and AC/DC

    This week in Philly music ushers in fall with some of the last outdoor shows of the year, with Willie Nelson and Neil Young at the Highmark Mann, Mt. Joy and Gorillaz in Camden, and AC/DC in South Philly. Slayyyter, the Sex Pistols, and Phoebe Bridgers are also in town, and the Bob Dylan musical returns for a monthlong run in Old City.

    Thursday Sept. 24

    Willie Nelson & Neil Young

    Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival skipped Philly this summer, but then this double legend show arrived as a sweet surprise. In the run-up to Saturday’s Farm Aid concert in Virginia, Nelson & Family — including sons Micah and Lukas, plus longtime harmonica player Mickey Raphael — will be joined by Young, always a brilliant live performer. He has just released his 50th album, the terrific Second Song, that considers the rages of time while looking death in the eye. Young is playing with the Chrome Hearts, which includes Micah Nelson and Muscle Shoals keyboard player Spooner Oldham. 7 p.m., TD Pavilion at the Highmark Mann Center, highmarkmann.org.

    Slayyyter plays Thursday at the Fillmore.Alexa Zeliger / Courtesy of The Oriel Co

    Slayyyter

    Catherine Grace Garner — aka Slayyyter — refers to herself as The Worst Girl in America in the title to her third album. The follow-up to her 2023 LP, whose title cannot be published here, however, is a grimy, energized, and fairly addictive playtter of hyper-pop that when, all is said and done, is likely to stand out as one of the best records of the year. Pearly Drops open. 8 p.m., Fillmore Philly, 29 E. Allen St., thefillmorephilly.com.

    Purling Hiss

    Philly guitarist Mike Polizze has mainly been playing shows under his own name, but this show is a proper full-band Purling Hiss gig. The Polizze-fronted power trio that debuted in 2009 was most recently heard from with the heavy rock of 2023’s excellent Drag on Girard. Marathon ’77 and Emily Robb round out the all-Philly bill. 6 p.m., Spruce Street Harbor Park, 301 S. Columbus Blvd, delawareriverwaterfront.com.

    ‘Girl From the North Country’

    Irish playwright Conor McPherson’s Girl From the North Country is set in a boarding house during the Great Depression in Duluth, Minn., where Bob Dylan lived the first six years of his life. The show, which came to the Forrest Theatre in 2024, begins a monthlong run at the Arden. What sets it apart from typical jukebox musicals is the quality of the writing — McPherson’s and Dylan’s — and the song selection, which includes some of Dylan’s best-known compositions, but also less familiar choices, such as “Sign on the Window,” “Lay Down Your Weary Tune,” and “Pressing On.” 7 p.m. or 2 p.m., Tuesdays-Sundays through Oct. 25, Arden Theatre Co., 40 N. Second St., ardentheatre.org.

    Friday Sept. 25

    Sex Pistols feat. Frank Carter

    Can we really pretend it’s the Sex Pistols without John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten? The band’s former frontman — who is playing with Public Image Ltd at Union Transfer on Oct. 2 — has said Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, and Paul Cook playing with new singer Frank Carter is “karaoke.” Fans who might be tired of Lydon’s antics, however, will find in Carter a punk veteran who throws himself entirely into the performance of songs they dearly love. 8:30 p.m., Fillmore Philly, 29 E. Allen St., thefillmorephilly.com.

    Mt. Joy

    The onset of autumn is Mt. Joy back home in Philly time. In recent years, the “Astrovan” band founded by Conestoga High School graduates Matt Quinn and Sam Cooper, has played the Mann Center in Fairmount Park at the tail end of the outdoor music season.

    This year, the quintet is touring behind its 2025 album, Hope We Have Fun, and is crossing the river to Camden on its “10 Years of Mt. Joy” tour. Snacktime opens. Conshohocken band Mid Sentence, winners of this ’s Local Noise Philadelphia battle of the bands at Brooklyn Bowl, was awarded an opening slot on the Pavilion’s Plaza Stage. 8 p.m., Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, 1 Harbour Blvd, freedommortgagepavilion.com.

    Tom Jones

    Does Tom Jones often come to Atlantic City to play casino show rooms? It’s not unusual. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) Now 86 years old, the Welsh Elvis, who has had hits with “What’s New, Pussycat?” and “It’s Not Unusual,” remains a powerful showman. Check out the clip of him singing Leonard Cohen’s “Tower of Song” on The Voice UK. 8 p.m., Borgata Event Center, 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City, borgata.mgmresorts.com.

    Saturday Sept. 26

    Haverford Music Festival

    The Haverford Music Festival is actually in Havertown, on the grounds of the Oakmont School. This year’s acts on two stages include New York singer-songwriter Shannon McNally, New Jersey bluegrass and country outfit Demolition String Band, and Philly vocalist Abby Lee. Philadelphia Englishman Wesley Stace, whose new album One Last Heist marries jazz and soul grooves with narratively sophisticated songwriting, is a late add to the bill. Free. Noon, Eagle and Haverford Roads, Havertown, haverfordmusicfestival.org.

    David Uosikkinen’s In the Pocket, with John Faye in red, are playing Ardmore Music Hall on Saturday.Dallyn Pavey Uosikkinen / Courtesy of Dish Public Relations

    David Uosikkinen’s In The Pocket

    The annual Ardmore gig for Hooters drummer Uosikkinen’s all-star Philly band will honor Pierre Robert, the late DJ who was a regular at ITP shows. The band’s new single is a cover of the Spinners’ “I’ll Be Around,” a Thom Bell-Phil Hurtt composition sung in a new rendition by John Faye. Along with local luminaries, such as recent Philly Music Walk of Fame inductee Pablo Batista, Tommy Conwell, and Richard Bush of the A’s, expect original E Street Band drummer Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez. 8 p.m., Ardmore Music Hall, 23 E. Lancaster Ave., Ardmore, ArdmoreMusicHall.com.

    Sunday Sept. 27

    Gorillaz

    On The Mountain, Damon Albarn augments his virtual band with many guests, including Anoushka Shankar, Black Thought, Asha Puthli, and Johnny Marr. The death-haunted album also features collaborations from Dennis Hopper and Bobby Womack, who recorded with Gorillaz before their own deaths. 8 p.m., Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, 1 Harbour Blvd, freedomortgagepavilion.com.

    Katie Pruitt plays Ardmore Music Hall on Sunday.Chiris Hershman / Courtesy of Shore Fire Media

    Katie Pruitt

    Georgia-raised songwriter Katie Pruitt has distinguished herself as a folk-country artist of the first order since her 2020 debut Expectations through to the new Fools for the Fleeting. As a writer, she always comes off as honest and intelligent in her efforts to make sense of modern life, as well as being unafraid to tackle touchy subjects, such as on “White Lies, White Jesus and You” from 2023’s Mantras. Next of Kin opens. 7 p.m., Ardmore Music Hall, 23 E. Lancaster Ave., Ardmore, ArdmoreMusicHall.com.

    Monday Sept. 28

    Phoebe Bridgers

    Phoebe Bridgers has laid low since selling out the Mann Center with boygenius in 2023, but now she’s back in a big way. She stoked the ardor of her fan base with pop-up shows around the U.S. before releasing the moody, compelling, and intensely personal Lost Weekend, whose many guests include Havertown’s own Alex G. She also has a costarring role alongside Robert Pattinson in the upcoming Primetime, for which she’s written the song “On Video.” 8 p.m., Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St. xfinitymobilarena.com.

    AC/DC – with Brian Johnson on the left, and Angus Young on the right – will bring their Power Up tour to Lincoln Financial Field on September 29.Courtesy of the Artist

    Tuesday Sept. 29

    AC / DC

    The Australian hard rock band’s “Power Up Tour” will be powering down after this show at the Linc, the final date after two and a half years on the road. Could this be the last time ever in Philadelphia for the band whose 1980’s Back in Black trails only Michael Jackson’s Thriller as the second-best-selling album of all time. Taylor Momsen’s the Pretty Reckless opens. 7 p.m., Lincoln Financial Field, 1020 Pattison Avenue, lincolnfinancialfield.com.

  • Opera Philadelphia’s revival of the Gershwins’ ‘Let ‘Em Eat Cake’ will have second run in New York

    Opera Philadelphia’s revival of the Gershwins’ ‘Let ‘Em Eat Cake’ will have second run in New York

    Opera Philadelphia has taken on a new creative partner for its upcoming production of the Gershwin brothers’ rarely performed Let ‘Em Eat Cake. After a January run at the Academy of Music, the musical will be presented by New York City Center as part of its “Encores!” series with 15 performances in March, both companies announced Wednesday.

    Let ‘Em Eat Cake is a natural fit for Encores!, which specializes in the revival of American musicals. For Opera Philadelphia, where musical theater is more of a novelty, the partnership could open up possibilities for casting, which isn’t yet set.

    “I think that because City Center is such an established brand in this world, it could attract certain famous names and people that I don’t have connections to or that might not otherwise consider coming to what is an opera company,” said Opera Philadelphia general director and president Anthony Roth Costanzo.

    In this first-ever collaboration between the two arts organizations, the production could be the same in both places, or not — it is yet to be fleshed out — but there will be at least some differences. The orchestra and chorus in Philadelphia will be larger, and the conductor will be different in each city (Corrado Rovaris in Philadelphia, Rob Berman in New York).

    Still, for both, director Zack Winokur “will develop the whole concept and idea for the production,” said Costanzo.

    Partnering with City Center will yield a “financial benefit” for Opera Philadelphia, he said. “We share costs. We bring in partnership revenue and that helps to cover the costs of what we’re trying to do.”

    Let ‘Em Eat Cake, written by George and Ira Gershwin with a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, premiered on Broadway in 1933 and, despite a memorably melodic score and sharp social and political commentary, hasn’t been heard much since. The story — about a U.S. president who doesn’t accept the election results, establishes a dictatorship, and renovates the White House — was meant at the time as satire.

    Opera Philadelphia has never before produced a Broadway show, though it has a strong track record with works that don’t fall into neat categories.

    “Somebody said to me the other day, ’Is this an opera or is it a musical?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m not really here to gatekeep opera,’” said Costanzo. “I think it’s storytelling through music, and that’s what opera fundamentally is.”

    “Let ‘Em Eat Cake” runs Jan. 29, 30, and 31 at the Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Sts., operaphila.org; and at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th St., March 17-28, nycitycenter.org.

  • No joke, these are 15 best comedy shows coming to Philly this fall

    No joke, these are 15 best comedy shows coming to Philly this fall

    Amid global mayhem and disorder, the comforting distraction of a comedy show is always welcome.

    Whether it’s a witty punch line or a well-timed quip, comedy has the power to help us better understand our world or forget about the sadness that exists within it.

    Lucky for you, this fall features a lineup of world-class acts and emerging comics who will perform at clubs and theaters in the region.

    Here’s a list of the comedy shows we’re most excited about.

    Bert Kreischer: Secret TimeNetflix

    Bert Kreischer

    Oct. 9-10, the Met

    There aren’t a lot of things guaranteed in life, but at least three are certain: death, taxes, and a shirtless Bert Kreischer. The Florida-born comedian is bringing his wild, no-holds-barred brand of comedy to the Met Philadelphia for his “Permission to Party World Tour.” He will perform back-to-back nights at the historic venue. ticketmaster.com.

    Kathy Griffin attends the official opening of Paula Abdul’s Flamingo Las Vegas residency “Paula Abdul: Forever Your Girl” at the Cromwell Las Vegas on Oct. 24, 2019.Ethan Miller / MCT

    Kathy Griffin

    Oct. 15, Keswick Theatre

    Kathy Griffin, the Emmy-winning comedian and queen of the celebrity D-list, is back in the region for a one-night-only show in Glenside. Catch the fiery redhead in action at the Keswick Theatre. keswicktheatre.com.

    The comedian Earthquake (Nathaniel Stroman). SiriusXM

    Earthquake

    Oct. 23, Rivers Casino

    Check the Richter scale when comedian Earthquake descends onto Rivers Casino this fall. The veteran comic is bringing his brash, quick-hit humor to the Fishtown venue for a seismic night of laughter. riverscasino.com.

    Aussie comedian Jim Jefferies portrays … an Aussie comedian named Jim.Matthias Clamer / FX

    Jim Jeffries

    Oct. 24, Xcite Center at Parx Casino

    Jim Jeffries, the Australian comic best known for starring in FX’s Legit and heading his own late-night talk show on Comedy Central, returns to the region for his “Son of a Carpenter” tour. axs.com.

    Joanne McNally

    Oct. 29-31, Punch Line Comedy Club

    Joanne McNally, who’s headlined sold-out shows in her native Ireland and other parts of the world, is bringing her dark, edgy comedy to Philly this fall. She’s stopping by Punch Line in support of her “Pinotphile” show all Halloween weekend. ticketmaster.com.

    Comedian and impressionist Matt Friend in New York.Jesse Dittmar for The Washington Post

    Matt Friend

    Nov. 6, the Block at Harrah’s Philadelphia

    Comedian and master impressionist Matt Friend, who can embody folks from President Donald Trump to Jeff Goldblum, Andy Cohen, and King Charles III on command, is hitting the stage at Harrah’s Philadelphia in Chester. ticketmaster.com.

    Tony Baker

    Nov. 6-8, Punch Line Comedy Club

    When comedian Tony Baker isn’t roasting your favorite comic or putting on his film critic cap, he’s gracing the comedy stage. The veteran stand-up is slated for a three-night stint at Punch Line Philly this fall. ticketmaster.com.

    Actor/comedian Chris D’Elia, in an image processed using digital filters, performs his stand-up comedy routine as part of the Aces of Comedy series at the Mirage Hotel & Casino on Aug. 25, 2018, in Las Vegas. Ethan Miller / MCT

    Chris D’Elia

    Nov. 7, Xcite Center at Parx Casino

    Comic Chris D’Elia, who’s notched hit specials, TV shows, and global tours through his nearly 20-year career, will wrap up a string of European shows before dropping into Parx Casino for his “Go For It The Tour.” Catch the stand-up in action this November. axs.com.

    Mojo Brookzz

    Nov. 13, the Met Philadelphia

    Not every social media-based comic can succeed on the stand-up stage, but Chicago’s Mojo Brookzz has made the transition look easy. His compelling stories and impressive crowd work, which draw millions of views online, is why he’s become one of the fastest rising stars in the comedy game. Catch him at the Met Philadelphia for his “Outta Pocket Comedy Tour.” livenation.com.

    Tim Dillon

    Nov. 14, Xcite Center at Parx Casino

    Anyone who’s tuned into comedian Tim Dillon’s Netflix special, or listens to his hit podcast, knows there are very few boundaries that he won’t cross. The Long Island-born stand-up constantly delivers steaming-hot political and cultural takes, and the crowd at Parx Casino can expect the same blend of bold commentary and observational humor this fall. tix.axs.com.

    Craig Robinson at the 78th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Sept. 5, 2021. Joel C Ryan

    Craig Robinson

    Nov. 19-22, Helium Comedy Club

    Don’t be fooled: comedian Craig Robinson, known for roles in The Office, Hot Tub Time Machine, and Pineapple Express, is certainly a recognizable face in film and TV. But he made his bones on the comedy stage. He is rolling into Philly to perform at the Helium Comedy Club. philadelphia.heliumcomedy.com.

    In this Sept. 17, 2018 file photo, Michelle Wolf arrives at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.Jordan Strauss

    Michelle Wolf

    Dec. 5, Xcite Center at Parx Casino

    Hershey’s own Michelle Wolf, who racked up writing credits as a contributor for Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah before landing her own Netflix special, is heading to Bensalem’s Parx Casino this December. The Emmy-nominated comic will discuss everything from motherhood to gender roles, politics, and menopause during her “Best Job in the World” tour stop. axs.com.

    Emily Catalano

    Dec. 7-9, Helium Comedy Club

    From her late night stand-up debut on Conan to being added on the New York Times’ “Best Comedy of 2024″ list, it’s safe to say Emily Catalano is drawing national attention. The Los Angeles-based stand-up is dropping into Center City for three nights at Helium Comedy Club. philadelphia.heliumcomedy.com.

    Jim Gaffigan will perform two nights at the Miller Theater.Bronson Farr

    Jim Gaffigan

    Dec. 11-12, Miller Theater

    Emmy-winning comic Jim Gaffigan, whose decades-long career spans TV and film, hits the comedy stage for his “Everything Is Wonderful” tour. The veteran comic will perform all new material, complete with the same sly delivery, across three shows and two nights at Miller Theater. ensembleartsphilly.org.

    Tommy DavidsonCourtesy of Tommy Davidson

    Tommy Davidson

    Dec. 18-20, Helium Comedy Club

    Tommy Davidson, whose Martin spinoff series, Varnell Hill, premiered this month on Paramount+, is back on the stand-up circuit. The longtime comedian will perform three nights at the Helium Comedy Club to close out this year’s fall lineup. philadelphia.heliumcomedy.com.

  • Meet the artist who makes art out of Ikea material board, steer horn, curtain rod, a toy velociraptor, and more

    Meet the artist who makes art out of Ikea material board, steer horn, curtain rod, a toy velociraptor, and more

    Calling Anna Tsouhlarakis’ sculpture She Dares You to Steal Her Hair mixed media doesn’t begin to describe the multitude of parts in Tsouhlarakis’ whole.

    Part of the new exhibition “Indigenous Irregularities: Anna Tsouhlarakis” at Temple Contemporary, here is the full list of materials for the piece:

    A glass cast of Tsouhlarakis’ hand and forearm, found metal, horsehair, hardware, shed antler, bicycle mirror, beads, artificial sinew, ermine, Ikea remnant, curtain rod, steer horn, rope, thread, football face mask, adhesives, paint, marker nail, toy velociraptor.

    The ingredients come together like accidental theater, from the flimsiest of human creations — an exposed remnant of Ikea particleboard, a material she has been working with for the better part of a decade — to the sturdiness of the steer horn.

    In Coyotes Run From Her, there’s a similar clash of natural and manufactured ingredients: a security camera, press-on nails that form a cascading echo of nearby horsetails, a softly furred deer leg stands next to a tower of tin tobacco lids.

    Other materials used in Coyotes Run From Her: glass cast, found metal, deer hair, porcupine hair, yarn, leather, Aspen wood, saw blades, hardware, deer leg, spur artificial claws, beads, toy grenade, paint adhesives, tobacco lids, Ikea remnant, security camera, faux silver object, press-on nails, driftwood.

    Her art contains multitudes.

    “Coyotes Run From Her,” a sculpture from the exhibition, Indigenous Irregularities: Anna Tsouhlarakis, at Temple Contemporary, 2001 North 13th St., on Temple’s campus. Its materials include a glass cast, found metal, deer hair, porcupine hair, yarn, leather, Aspen wood, saw blades, hardware, deer leg, spur artificial claws, beads, toy grenade, paint adhesives, tobacco lids, Ikea remnant, security camera, faux silver object, press-on nails, driftwood.Amy S. Rosenberg / staff

    The materials come together to, as the exhibition says, “embrace irregularity as both a formal strategy and a conceptual framework.”

    “I’m a complex individual that comes from diverse heritages,” Tsouhlarakis, 49, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and Creek Tribe who also is of Greek descent, said in a recent interview. “I’ve lived all across the United States. When I’m bringing in those pieces, all of those disparate objects, that’s a representation of my narrative, and my experiences.”

    Her work is art that can be contemplated and processed for long stretches, ingredient by ingredient, or as a cascading whole. It can be picked apart, whimsically, then put back together, more profoundly as a whole.

    She said she starts with the titles first, but does not view the works as literal expressions of those. As an Indigenous woman, she said people often expect her to be a storyteller, but she purposely sees and conceives of her work in less linear terms.

    “It is complicated,” she said. “It seems disconnected. It forces people to reckon with it. I hate the idea of linear narrative. I fight back. What else can I do to throw in here to mess up?”

    Around the walls are five black-and-white collages with cheeky sentences that play off Native identity asserting itself in a modern white world: You know she buys her sage at urban outfitters,” “Her look might say rez but her accent says city,” and “Her eyes cut quicker than a switchblade.“ The text collages also contain faded out images of Native internet memes and other cutout images.

    Sculptor Anna Tsouhlarakis, photographed at the Whitney Museum in New York City, in front of a piece from the Whitney Biennial, “SHE MUST BE A MATRIARCH.”Amara Johnson.

    Tsouhlarakis says she’s been thinking about Navajo cultural taboos, “how one moves through the world, especially within this moment, within our country.”

    “How I have to hold myself when I walk through an airport, how I notice I’m not necessarily at ease,” she said. “The way my presence in a place is questioned or uncomfortable for people. It makes me more aggressive immediately.

    “How would this imaginative female figure that I have in my mind confront these things with all the power in the world,” she asks herself. “By having cultural taboos and flipping them.”

    This dynamic shows itself in the sculpture’s title, She Dares You to Steal Her Hair. “In Navajo culture, if somebody takes a lock of hair, it takes away your power,” she said.

    Tsouhlarakis was the Edgar Heap of Birds Family Artist in Residence at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture last year, where she worked with glass for the first time. The residency was established through a gift from Edgar Heap of Birds (MFA ’79), a leading Native American artist.

    Tsouhlarakis said she typically models casts of body parts on other Native women. But while in Philadelphia, she used her own body for the first time. One sculpture uses a cast of her arm and forearm, the other, her bent elbow.

    Matthew Jordan-Miller Kenyatta, the curator of the exhibition, as well as another exhibition now at the gallery, “Dream Different: A Wonder Rebellion,” says Tsouhlarakis’ work recalls the line from Stephen King: Humor is almost always “anger with its makeup on.”

    In Tsouhlarakis’ work, “absurdity coexists alongside this stance of awe,” he said. “You are defamiliarizing yourself of things that seem mundane and everyday.”

    “It’s an accumulation of history, of uses,” he said. “Beautiful accumulations of different moments she’s experienced.”

    Of the wall pieces, Kenyatta called them “collections of absurd moments were she’s had to contort herself or people she knows contorting themselves.

    “I’m sitting with the absurdity,” he said.

    “Indigenous Irregularities: Anna Tsouhlarakis” is on display through Dec. 5 at Temple Contemporary, 2001 N. 13th St, Philadelphia. now.temple.edu

    An Artist Talk will take place Sept. 17, 2026, at 4:30 p.m.

  • Elkins Park’s Lynnewood Hall to open to the public for the first time in 84 years

    Elkins Park’s Lynnewood Hall to open to the public for the first time in 84 years

    Lynnewood Hall, the historic Elkins Park mansion constructed during the Gilded Age, is opening to the public for the first time in 84 years.

    Starting Friday, the 100,000-square-foot home will host “Fleurs de Villes: The Gilded Age,” a 10-day floral exhibition honoring the history of the period and the characters of the hit HBO series, The Gilded Age.

    “It’s kind of a rebirth of an icon,” said Edward Thome, executive director of the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation, which owns and operates the property. “There’s been so much anticipation and so many years closed off.”

    From left: Tyler Schumacher, facilities site manager; Edward T. Thome, executive director; and Angie Van Scyoc, chief operating officer, of the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation Inc., in 2023. The group is restoring the property and is opening it to the public for the first time in 84 years on Friday.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

    The exhibition will have 15 life-size mannequins made by local floral designers, using thousands of flowers. The displays will capture the essence of the scenes and characters from The Gilded Age, including Peggy Scott, Larry Russell, Bertha Russell, and Agnes van Rhijn.

    Guests can observe live floral demonstrations, vote on their favorite floral mannequins, and take a tour that explores the site’s history and ongoing restoration.

    The exhibition, which runs through Oct. 4, is a collaboration between the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation Inc. and Fleurs de Villes, the Vancouver-based entertainment company that has organized more than 170 flower shows globally.

    Karen Marshall, cofounder of Fleurs de Villes, said she was intrigued by the architectural wonder and stories linked to the mansion. “It’s something magical,” she said.

    The ballroom at Lynnewood Hall, in Elkins Park, on June 29, 2023.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

    She hopes that Fleurs de Villes will not only draw visitors back to the site, but that the exhibition will grow to be an annual revenue generator, furthering the foundation’s preservation of the space.

    Nineteenth-century industrialist Peter A.B. Widener first welcomed guests to his 34-acre estate in December 1899. Back then, it was hailed as one of the finest residences in the country.

    In the decades since Widener’s death in 1915, the assets inside the home were auctioned off, and the property changed hands until it was left abandoned for three decades. In 2023, nearly 125 years after Lynnewood Hall’s completion, Thome and his partners purchased the site for $9.5 million and have spent “several million” reviving it.

    Chief operating officer Angie Van Scyoc said the partnership with Fleurs de Villes was “serendipitous.”

    The nonprofit has been working with a landscape architect to explore the possibility of starting a flower show of its own. Less than two weeks before Scyoc was scheduled to fly to a flower show for research purposes, Marshall inquired about bringing Fleurs de Villes to Lynnewood Hall.

    The reception room at Lynnewood Hall, in Elkins Park, on June 29, 2023.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

    This encouraged Thome and Scyoc to “step up” and put a plan in motion.

    “It was really just amazing timing,” Scyoc said. “An interesting full-circle moment that we’re grateful for.”

    The exhibition, Scyoc said, is part of a larger plan for programming in 2027, which includes opportunities for filmmakers to shoot at the estate. She said her hope is that the exhibition will remind visitors about the “forgotten” site, and show them what ongoing history is being made within its walls.

    Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation is at 920 Spring Ave., Elkins Park. The floral exhibition runs Sept. 25-Oct.4, open daily from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Adult tickets are $30.50. lynnewoodhallpreservation.org.