Hiller revisits America on the ‘dying Mother Road’
by JIMMY J. PACK JR.
It has been bothering me for years. When I took my first cross-country journey, it was in July of 2001. Two months later, on the 11th of September, the America I had traveled across changed. I’ve felt a painful need to get back on the road, the dying Mother Road, to see how my old America — an America so vulnerable to a destruction we hadn’t experienced since the Japanese destroyed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941 — had dealt with a terrifying blow from reality.
How has our country changed? Are we really a bi-colored nation with the conservative reds and the liberal blues tenuously united by the white stitching of an American flag? Or is there something less superficial and more philanthropic that brings Americans together to share peacefully in the harvest of our golden grains? The open road awaits, and I will find my answers over every state line I cross.
Chestnut Hill to Host Second Film Festival
During the weekend of Friday, July 15 through Sunday, July 17, Chestnut Hill will play host to the second annual Freedom Film Festival, to take place at The Stagecrafters Theater, and at which several award-winning films will be presented. This nationally touring event is intended as a showcase for young independent filmmakers, a number of whom live and work in Chestnut Hill and the surrounding communities.
At the same time, the festival affords the opportunity for theatergoers to enjoy high-quality film productions at very modest prices. The schedule includes four full-length feature films, three sessions featuring short pieces and animations, and a special screening Saturday evening of the classic film North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, in tribute to the director Alfred Hitchcock.
All Dresses Hand-Made at New Shop on Hill
by PAT STOKES
Judging from the message lurking in the lines of the most recent On the Avenue columns, I think it’s safe to say there is presently a fresh new, creative breeze blowing through Chestnut Hill’s shops, as seen in some of the merchandise offered and the way it is showcased. A good example of this trend is the collection at Renee Bolden Designs, a newly opened shop at 8026 Germantown Ave., where every dress or costume has been dreamed up from Renee’s active imagination, then made by her from hand-picked fabrics that she deems most expressive and suitable.
Renee, a Philadelphia native, began designing clothes at age 13, when she was given a Barbie doll. Barbie had quite a wardrobe of Renee’s creations. After that Renee made a real dress for herself, a flowered number with an empire line. Of course, she then moved on to making clothes for family members; her grandmother was her first customer. Word spread to friends who needed something interesting, possibly for a special occasion, so she decided to make a career of it.
She earned a degree in fashion design and interior design from Drexel University in 1975, and three years later established a home-based business, which she carried on until the move to the Hill this year.
Circle Hopes to Run Rings Around the Competition
by LEN LEAR
Meeting some of the fascinating staff members at the three-year-old restaurant in the Radisson Plaza Warwick Hotel at 17th and Locust Streets, you quickly learn there is nothing square about Circles off the Square. Although this 110-seat restaurant has been open much longer than some of the more splashy headline-grabbing eateries in center city, many area foodies do not even know it exists. About 60 percent of their customers are Warwick Hotel guests.
You won’t meet a more interesting group of servers anywhere, however. For example, Zoraya Velez, a resident of Logan who weighed 303 pounds last fall, is now under 170 (at 5-foot-8). She accomplished this 135-pound loss by means of a gastric bypass operation. “It has truly given me a new life,” she said. “I have much more energy now and can be a better mother because I am no longer tired all the time.”
Another server, Mt. Airy resident William Hatcher, has written two screenplays, which he is currently shopping around, and is now working on a third.
Up until recently Circles off the Square served only breakfast and late-night bar food and sandwiches, which helped contribute to its relative anonymity. In February of this year, however, the restaurant began serving casual food all day, and on March 21 a new full-service menu was introduced.
