From today’s New York Times

“But Mr. Yeltsin’s actions ensured that there would be no turning back to the centralized Soviet command economy, which had strangled growth and reduced a country of talented and cultured people and rich in natural resources to a beggar among nations.”

Bullshit, all bullshit, not to mention the awful sentence construction. I’m not a fan of the centralized Soviet economy, but it was in large part responsible for mass-education in all fields (math, science, art, poetry) that created such a “talented and cultured people.”

Janiva Magness

Here’s a little article I wrote about blues songstress Janiva Magness, for a job I thought was going to pay me.  I’m learning quite a bit from mistakes along the road of freelance writing, in this case that it’s best to have something signed before spending any time writing.

Janiva Magness

Close your eyes and imagine a dark small, club, the lights turned down and the murmurs of conversation gently coming to a lull.  As a saxophone hits a note, a Gibson guitar flickers on with a flick of the wrist, and drummer starts to tap a rhythmic procession.  The melody starts to build, and as the ambiance grows, the light illuminates a slyly grinning vixen.  Her smile widens as she picks up the microphone, puts it to her glistening lips, and starts to sing.  ”You were never mine”, she says.  The room can’t look away, everyone is simply enraptured.  The song ends, and Janiva Magness starts another.

Magness sings true blues.  Blues from the heart, touched with just enough jazz and RnB to make it magical.  She’s been doing it for over two decades, working with countless famous musicians, and building momentum and critical acclaim as one of the best modern blues singers.  Her latest album, entitled “Do I Move You?” has already been nominated the Best Album of the Year by the Blues Foundation, and Magness is favored to win the spot as the best contemporary female blues artist for the second year in a row.

Singer magazine proclaims that, “Janiva Magness contains some of the most powerful and mature vocal chords I’ve heard in my reviewing days.  Her voice is sultry, smoky, and strong with jazz, blues, and soul textures enveloping it.”  No wonder then, that Magness is a favorite of the festival and touring circuit, or that her shows sell out without fail in Canada.

The strong-willed 49 year-old grandmother has come a long way since a troubled childhood and adolescence.  As a young girl, Magness lost both parents to suicide, and was tossed around her native Detroit like a tennis ball, jumping through twelve foster homes in just two years.  By the time she reached sixteen, she was on drugs, pregnant, and desolate.  Finally, in a chance twist of fate, Janiva found a way into a dingy bar, and found herself overwhelmed by the tunes of blues guitarist Otis Rush.  In a cathartic sound, Magness found her voice.  Over the following years, Magness dropped in to every blues show she could find, and started singing to let her chaotic emotions run wild.

Magness used song to work through her troubles.  Her eloquent words come from the heart, without holding anything back, and have moved audiences around the world.  Still, her songs shine with humor, and are more empowering than depressing.  ”I cried for years,” the songstress says.  ”That’s the truth.  I still do, but I think there’s great healing to be had with laughter, and there’s great healing to be had with music.”

New store sells “vintage” furnishings on their way to antique

New store sells “vintage” furnishings on their way to antique

University City Review

Danila James

March 28, 2007

The sign out front is unassuming, and even boringly plain, nothing more than the word “furniture” stenciled on a board a few times. In fact, there is little that sets the storefront apart from the rest of this block of Baltimore Avenue. Inside is a completely different story.

A column of light filters in through the huge windowpane, passing stained-glass panels, crystal knick-knacks and a thin layer of dust before finally falling on the room’s centerpiece, an ancient metallic film projector. Its spool half-uncoiled, and its knobs aligned to just the right degree, the machine sits on a varnished dresser, its lens eyeing the front door for new customers.

Near the back of this elongated row-house shop, you’ll find the owner, James Malia, humming along to the radio and scraping away at an old drawer with a sharp-edged steel chisel. He’s undoubtedly working on the latest addition to this as-of-yet unnamed furniture store.

“I’ll probably call it ‘Vintage Furniture,’ Malia says. “What’s in a name anyway?”

Malia, gently aging and slightly stooped, seems to care more about desks and cabinets than names. His last store, the simply titled “Good Deal Furniture” on 9^th and Christian, won “Best of Philly” last year in its category from Philadelphia Magazine, and he’s hoping to do the same in the new location.

The shop is full of objects best classified as “vintage:” pieces that are not quite new, but not quite mature enough to be called antique. Amid armoires and chaises, you may happen upon a gleaming Schwinn cruiser, a crystal prism, or a dull brass light fixture on a gaudy gold chain. Still, Malia focuses the majority of his attention on the furniture.

“I started out by picking it out of the trash when I was a kid,” Malia notes. He then moved on to a 30-year career of buying architectural pieces, like mantles and fireplaces, for houses under construction. He’d never considered opening a store until a friend suggested the idea and offered to be Malia’s partner. To this day, Malia buys and refinishes nearly all of the furniture himself. The various doo-dads in the shop are just filler for the chairs and tables, smooth with lacquer. “I want to sell what I want to sell!”

Malia has seen considerable change in the furniture world over the years. These days, people buy from Ikea, whose products are affordable, but made of heavy and easily-breakable pressed wood. Older furniture, on the other hand, is made of solid wood, and won’t chip of fall apart when moved.

The rise of Home and Garden television shows, and programs like “Antiques Roadshow” on PBS has also created new problems.

“People are too smart now,” Malia points out. “They show me a desk that was made in the 40s, and can’t be worth more than seventy dollars, then claim it’s antique and worth hundreds.” No one leaves furniture in the trash anymore.

Since the store first opened in October, Malia has sensed change in the neighborhood. Home prices are shooting up. The University of Pennsylvania has pushed back its offer of home-buying incentives to 60^th Street. More affluent professionals are moving in. Even before Malia opened shop and negotiated his lease, he was required to acquire written permission from the University as part of the contract.

Malia hopes that the rise in prosperity, as well as the opening of the Dock Street Brewery at 50^th and Baltimore will bring more customers into his store. For now, he’ll be there, sitting on his stool, scraping away at some recalcitrant corner of old lacquer, and humming along to the radio.

“Furniture furniture furniture” is open at 5021 Baltimore Ave. Wednesday through Saturday, 12 to 5pm. James Malia can be reached at 215-266-6636