Bad to the bones: Candy Depew adorns china with gold lustre in Skull Pile.

Editor's Picks

"Embellish"

Sat., June 10, 6-8pm. Free. Through July 15. Falling Cow Gallery, 732 S. Fourth St. 215.627.4625. www.fallingcow.org

Two months ago Philly artist Tim Bowen opened the doors to his own gallery on Fabric Row. This week Falling Cow launches its first exhibition of work by guest artists. Featuring work by three women who challenge traditional concepts of the fine and decorative arts by merging them, "Embellish" comments on this recent aesthetic expansion of the contemporary arts and represents its local pioneers. Philadelphia-based Candy Depew is best known for her innovative installations that examine our cultural preoccupation with collection and decoration, and how those obsessions influence our living spaces. Jackie Hoving, also a Philly native, creates ethereal paintings of war-related imagery that use a striking juxtaposition of saturated colors, distinct shapes and pattern with a delicateness similar to that of silhouette animation. New Yorker Sara Gates optimizes the use of pattern in her installations, "tagging" each object with the same print and encouraging her audience to interpret the subtle differences between fine art, decoration and design. With such compelling artistry in its first show, this new gallery is destined for acclaim, ensuring that Bowen's Cow is sacred indeed. (Alissa Tallman)

Girl I’m gonna make you Sweatheart: The art-rock band hams it up on the yacht “Zifkite.”

>>ART

"Paper Trail"

Fri., June 9, 6-9pm, and Sat., June 10, noon-5pm. Free. With Sweatheart. Spector Gallery, 510 Bainbridge St. 215.238.0840. www.spectorspector.com

Shelley Spector is throwing a party. It's a tribute to the life of an artist, but she's using 8.5-by-11-inch emails, budgets, calendars, and rejection and acceptance letters to decorate. And she's enlisted Sweatheart, the trio known for gyrating performances in skin-tight glitzy '80s attire. "They're fun," Spector chuckles. "They'll enhance the partylike atmosphere of the exhibit." Especially when they perform their homage to finger-bangin'. "Paper Trail," a two-day exhibit at Spector Gallery, is just the party to celebrate Spector's creation of www.artjaw.com. The website is a collection of first-person stories from people peppered throughout Philly's art scene, including artists, curators, critics and several other players in this creative realm. The goal of both Artjaw and "Paper Trail" is to abolish artist stereotypes by revealing the multilayered aspect of not only artist's lives, but also of the art world itself. Hence the decorative use of the bureaucratic minutiae, which should effectively attest to the absurdity of the stereotype of the romantic artist sitting in a coffee shop waiting for that brilliant muse. Spector realizes that reading emails
(some amusing, some mundane) and budgets might not exactly be riveting. "I don't
want people to think they have to come and read everything on the wall," she says. "If
you want to, it could be fun, but you can also come just to watch Sweatheart." (Brook Midgley)

Universal African Dancers

>>FESTIVAL

Islamic Heritage Festival

Sat., June 10, noon-8pm. Free. Penn's Landing, Delaware Ave. and Chestnut St. 215.386.4090

Sometimes you have to wonder if all the ink and airspace devoted to Islamic culture over the past few years hasn't been a colossal waste. Despite all the
attention paid to the religion and its followers, the
average American (and this humble, ignorant listings writer in particular) probably doesn't know much more about the culture today than they did on Sept. 10, 2001. Lucky for us the local Muslim community gives us one less excuse for ignorance each year with its annual Islamic Heritage Festival. I could lie and tell you about authors like Nimat Marie and Amin Nathari, both of whom will be speaking at Penn's Landing; I could bullshit my way through a laudatory sentence about the performers who will be gracing the event, like the Universal African Dancers and the Exiles. But the truth is, I don't know who any of those people are, and it's likely that many of the people reading this piece don't either. That's why an opportunity to learn about a
much discussed, often misunderstood culture shouldn't be wasted—because we should know. Learn, dummy. (Chris Anderson)

Alan Slutsky

>>FILM

Docs That Rock!

Sat., June 10, 7-10pm. $15. University of the Arts, Connelly Auditorium, Terra Bldg., 211 S. Broad St., eighth fl. 267.402.2055. www.firstpersonarts.org

As the indie answer to reality TV, Philly's First Person Festival presents a diverse array of memoir and documentary art, perhaps as a way to satisfy the voyeuristic tendencies of those
who take their reality unbleached and unprocessed. This year's film offerings include the Docs That Rock! program, a celebration of the underappreciated genre of music documentaries. The evening invites viewers (aka listeners) to "experience the genius behind music's most fascinating artists." Host Allan Slutsky, who produced Standing in the Shadows of Motown, will screen segments from Monterey Pop, The Last Waltz, Buena Vista Social Club and other documentary films that shed light on the cultural and social contexts that shaped our favorite artists and help explain their influences as well as their vices. This evening anthology also features landmark documentary Thelonius Monk: Straight, No Chaser about the life of the offbeat jazz supernova. We hope Michael Jackson: Making Michael Jackson's Thriller also makes the cut. (Leo Beletsky)

>>READING

Steven Sorrentino

Sat., June 10, noon-2pm. $15. Carman's Country Kitchen, 1301 S. 11th St. 267.402.2055. www.firstpersonarts.org

Juicy restaurant war stories have been all but absent from the rash of memoirs irritating bookshelves since David Sedaris and Dave Eggers hit it big at the turn of the century. Enter Steven Sorrentino, who fled the Jersey boonies for N.Y.C., where he found acceptance for his sexuality and outlets for his musical theater jones. But when his diner-owning father was blindsided by a
debilitating neurological disorder, the refugee came home to pick up the slack. The locals he served and the pork rolls he flipped became Luncheonette, a sturdy debut alternating wacky tales from the countertop with affecting father/son vignettes. He reads at Philly's finest hangover hospice as part of the First Person Festival, an 11-day celebration of autobiography highlighting food, tattoos, pigs and other curios from the lives of offbeat memoirists. Whether you'll be able to hear Sorrentino from Carman's coveted pickup truck table is a tossup, but anyone within earshot should leave hankering for a grease fix. Unfortunately the Country Kitchen's ebullient eponym is abroad, so you'll have to come back another time for squash omelets and cornflake-encrusted cinderblocks of French toast. (James Houston)

>>LECTURE

David Brooks

Mon., June 12, 6:30pm. $6-$15. National Constitution Center, Kirby Auditorium, 525 Arch St. 215.409.6700. www.constitutioncenter.org

What exactly is it about conservative commentator David Brooks that snuggles up to many a liberal's heart? It could be his prominent placement among blue-state media: The New York Times' op-ed page, The Atlantic Monthly's masthead, PBS. It could be his beguiling "comic sociology" and love of making academic theory go pop. And it could be his penchant for nuance and even self-deprecation in an era that seems to reward the fire-breathing dragons of A.M. radio. Heck, there's even a hint of Seinfeldian neurosis in his work, a trait that reliably draws lefties like moths to a flame. For his Constitution Center talk, the topic will be politics: the Bush administration's woes, congressional midterms, and the already-tired 2008 Oval Office jockeying. Of course this means he might shift gears from dissecting yuppie shopping patterns (tough on Ikea) to his Weekly Standard m.o. (tough on North Korea). Be not afraid, Philly liberal! Brooks engages the intellect and has such reliably fresh takes that he gives you hope for something more than today's lame echo chamber reverb. You likely won't walk away converted to his at times subtle moral preening. But he's good for a few witty riffs, and at the end of the day you'll still have Maureen Dowd and her not-so-subtle moral preening. (Michael Serazio)