Black History Month is drawing to a close: the perfect moment to enjoy Hidden Figures (an inspiring dramatization of the NASA careers of three brilliant African American women at the time of both the "space race" and the Civil Rights Movement)

Week #51: Family Circus

Feb 15th, 2017 1h 11m

Our podcast population triples this week, as we simultaneously welcome Guests #10, #11, and #12 - A Whole Family of Guests! Trey Lyford (is he a clown pretending to be a magician, or a magician pulling of the illusion of being a clown?) and Sul

Week #50: Integral Wellness

Feb 8th, 2017 53m 7s

Wellness is pursued from the outside in and from the inside out. During the healing process that results, it becomes tricky to diagnose which fabulous experience is most responsible: was it the colonic (or “bowel irrigation”)? The flotation tan

Week #49: Frances Rose

Feb 1st, 2017 53m 1s

Fabulous living systems architect Frances Rose (Guest #9) discusses K is for Kitchen, the community supported kitchen run out of faer home. In response to faer request for a song of the week about how cross pollination is fun and sexy, Cynthia

Week #48: Pussy Grabs Back

Jan 25th, 2017 52m 28s

We welcome Guest #8 Silke “Sunshine” Tudor, survivor of a California hippie commune upbringing and current activist on behalf of all sorts of human rights and social justices, to give us hope for the future in the wake of Trump’s very, very poo

Week #47: Feminist Fiber Fest

Jan 18th, 2017 48m 45s

Cynthia forgets to describe the title event this week, due to a episode-length tangent about constipation. Is her constipation a direct result of spending a week working in New York? Is it due to anxiety about an impending "job" interview? What

Week #46: Ghost Appearance

Jan 11th, 2017 55m 45s

The ghost of a deceased performance work (in the form of criticism of Cynthia's portrayal of a ghost in that performance work) comes back to haunt Cynthia at a critical juncture.

Week #45: Get Thee to a Mummery

Jan 4th, 2017 41m 23s

Mmmm...2017 is rung in to the tune of Mummery & Mexican Modernism. This week's sonic offering, a cover of Aerosmith's "What It Takes," has nothing to do with any of that

Week #44: Farewell, December

Dec 28th, 2016 36m 2s

Congratulations, audience: you have survived the 2016 winter holidays! It is time to bid a slightly preemptive, melancholy good riddance to December and to the whole sad year of 2016, and along with it the many brilliant artists who left the Ea

Week #43: Good Feeling

Dec 21st, 2016 44m 51s

All the feelings (good, bad, ugly & otherwise) triggered in Cynthia by two weeks of intensive improvisational experiments working on Michael Kiley's project Prescription are discussed, as well as the challenges and potential rewards of improvis

Week #42: Lucky 7

Dec 14th, 2016 1h 9m

Seven is indeed a lucky number: Guest #7 is Jill Stoddard, master of Zen Buddhism, brilliant painter of strange horses, peacefully eloquent peace advocate, and extremely recent transplant to Philadelphia. Jill recounts her journey to home owner

Week 41: The Long View

Dec 7th, 2016 38m 20s

The piano has arrived, Jeff has returned, and Cynthia goes back to work. This week we went to see Neil deGrasse Tyson speak about science and movies at the Kimmel Center and Cynthia went to see Annie Wilson at FringeArts. We end the week with a

Week #40: Drag Kings

Nov 30th, 2016 36m 50s

A play about drag queens inspires this week’s song, originally conceived as a ballad for Cynthia’s theoretical drag king persona (a cross between Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Tommy Shelby, the lead character of the TV series Peaky Blind

Week #39: Hell, No

Nov 23rd, 2016 16m 4s

Yup, it’s a protest song.

Week #38: Open Door

Nov 16th, 2016 58m

In the wake of two extremely disheartening events (the defeat of the most promising - and not only because she’s the only - female presidential candidate in history by the most openly jingoistic, sexist, and racist person ever to be elected Pre

Week #37: Breaking Eggs

Nov 8th, 2016 46m 3s

Cynthia and Jeff spent the week working on Articles of Faith in a residency at the American Dance Institute in Rockville, Maryland. The intensive period proved very fruitful and culminated in two performances over the weekend. Meanwhile, Cynthi

Week #36: Even Odds

Nov 2nd, 2016 34m 8s

The Even hotel in Rockville is actually a little odd… and that’s where this week’s podcast is coming to you from. Even odder are the odds for ongoing battles between sports teams and presidential hopefuls. But the oddest odds of all may be Jeff

Week #35: Magic Gardens

Oct 26th, 2016 44m 28s

A soothing instrumental outdoor concert is attended at Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, but the main attraction turns out to be the craft table, where diddley bows are custom made. The calming effects of coloring are experienced, serving as an ant

Week #34: Magic Lanterns

Oct 18th, 2016 27m 16s

photos can be found on Instagram! @ms.cynthiahopkins Folks, it turns out to be archive month. Let’s celebrate! Light is projected through images of Florence Nightingale, trees undergoing surgery, baby animals in zoos when zoos were just a bunch

Week #33: General Relativity

Oct 11th, 2016 38m 3s

What is it like to become trapped in someone else’s version of time and or space? Cynthia learns first hand during this week’s explorations - of Ann Hamilton’s Habitus installation at Pier 9, and the Shoe Museum at the Temple University School

Week #32: Re-enactments

Oct 4th, 2016 35m 49s

a reminder that the pics are on Instagram! The legacy of Rizzo (who served as mayor of Philadelphia for two terms, putting into practice the ruthless “law and order” approach Trump promises) is re-enacted on stage; a Revolutionary War battle i

Week #31: Ghostly Limbs

Sep 27th, 2016 30m

On display are an externalization of the internal experience of tinnitus (and other examples of the amazing elasticity of the body and mind), two of the most interesting museums in Philadelphia (the Mutter and the Barnes), live judgement of dog

Week #30: Singing Praises

Sep 20th, 2016 30m 1s

Cynthia sings praises to all the artists who’ve ever inspired her to be an artist, especially Jerome Bel, whose show Gala - which Cynthia saw last week at the 2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival - she attempts to describe, and through that descri

Week #29: Devil’s Pool

Sep 13th, 2016 22m 55s

Cynthia reports (with some help from her cat Lucy) on recent adventures including exploration of an underwater cave in the devil’s pool, exorcism of doubts during a birthday ritual in Germantown, and restoration of faith in creativity inspired

Week #28: Musical Numbers

Sep 6th, 2016 1h 3m

pics on instagram #MovingToPHL This week we welcome Guest #6 Michael Kiley: composer, sound designer, and teacher of a vocal technique he calls personal resonance. The song of the week is a collaborative exploration of “head voice” improvised b