[Culture] IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFESTYLE: A VALENTINE TO THE 1970S @ secret cinema

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The Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art & Design: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFESTYLE: A VALENTINE TO THE 1970S Friday, February 18 8:00 pm Admission: $6.00 Moore College of Art and Design 20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia (215) 568-4515, ext. 4099 Weary of the current vogue for 1980s synthesized clothing and asymmetrical music? Are you longing to long for a more organic flavor of retro? Then travel back to the Seventies again on Friday, February 18, when the Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art & Design presents IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFESTYLE: A VALENTINE TO THE 1970S*. This hodgepodge of historic kitsch aims to restore the glittery glory of the ORIGINAL Decade of Bad Taste, via an assemblage of rare short films including forgotten school films, television shows, commercials, and trailers. We've dipped into the Seventies in many past Secret Cinema presentations, but surprisingly, have never devoted a whole program to the disco decade. Plundered from the depths of the Secret Cinema archives, most of these films are unlikely to be shown anywhere else. Enjoy a time when pop culture stars had names like Kreskin, Meadowlark Lemon and Donny and Marie. Catch up on your Seventies nostalgia now and you'll be well-prepared for the inevitable revival of the 1990s -- when Seventies appreciation first started to bloom and our current mobius strip of self-reference began. There will be one complete show at 8:00 pm. Admission is $6.00. All Secret Cinema presentations are projected in 16mm film on a giant screen (not video). Just a few highlights of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFESTYLE: A VALENTINE TO THE 1970S are: The Energy-Environment Game (1973) - In this fascinating slice of pre-Three Mile Island history, a "hip" teacher offers a "relevant" "role-playing" game to his class: high school students (in various BRADY BUNCH/OVER THE EDGE fashions) take on the roles of different members of a fictional community to debate the proposed installation of a nuclear power plant. As the film was produced by a utility company, you can guess the result. TELEVISION: BEHIND THE SCENES (1978) - Educational film takes a look at the workers and work needed to put together a national TV series. Lucky for us it's THE DONNY AND MARIE SHOW! THE AMAZING WORLD OF KRESKIN (1971) - Rare kinescope from the first year of this popular syndicated TV series. Kreskin was a nebbishy Canadian magician who performed standard mindreading tricks but achieved a brief stardom by appearing at a time when audiences were hungry for proof of "paranormal" phenomenon. Plus much, much more! *NOTE: The phrase "It's a Wonderful Lifestyle" is both homage to and utter theft from Candi Strecker's identically-named fanzines of 1990 and 1993. Her brilliant analysis of the Seventies stands as the last word on the subject. The fanzines may still be available somewhere in cyberspace. SECRET CINEMA WEBSITE: www.thesecretcinema.com