Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
This weekend, Swat will be showing a special dance performance and excerpts from an opera on none other than Sherlock Holmes. If you’re heading off campus this weekend, you can celebrate both Valentine’s Day (a little belatedly) and a New Year.
Tonight, the International House in Philadelphia will be celebrating the Lunar New Year with Mei Mei Dances, a party, and a screening of “Double Happiness” starring Sandra Oh (of Grey’s Anatomy), about a Chinese-Canadian woman’s efforts to both follow her own dreams and keep her parents happy.
With the Year of the Boar approaching, why not indulge a bit? Go to Chinatown and have dim sum then walk it off on the way to the art museum to see Eakins’ “Gross Clinic” (happily saved from being shipped out of the city in which it was commissioned) which will be moving out of the Philadelphia Art Museum to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art on March 4th. While you’re there, check out the abstract works of Ellsworth Kelly and Mircea Cantor’s unique video series.
Or, if you are more romantically inclined, meander down to Rittenhouse Square and have an amazing gelato creation at Capogiro’s (the extra bitter dark chocolate and pomegranite flavors are highly recommended) before checking out Purcell’s operatic tragedy “Dido and Aeneas” at the Perelman Theater (tickets are $20), “Porgy and Bess” at the Academy of Music (as low as $6), or the work of Pulitzer Prize winning group “Eighth Blackbird,” a distinctive chamber group who perform music blending classical, modern, and animal sounds (student tickets are $10 at the Perelman Theater).