In case you missed it, here’s Senator Arlen Specter’s painful standup routine from D.C.’s Improv Comedy Club. He probably won’t be doing quite as much joking tonight at the Free Library, where he’ll be talking about his new book, Never Give In: Battling Cancer in the Senate. Admission is free and seating is first come, first served. 7 p.m.

Last night, poet and activist Sonia Sanchez joined composer and University of the Arts professor Evan Solot for the First Person Salon at the Gershman Y. They showcased their work-in-progress: a musical translation of Sanchez’s memoir, Does Your House Have Lions? The epic poem tells stories of Sanchez’s family, including her brother’s death from AIDS. We talked with Solot to find out how he hopes to hit a few high notes by underscoring some heavy verse.

Composing a score for a lengthy poetic memoir sounds like pretty tricky business. Have you ever done it before?
No. I’ve become increasingly interested, though, in interdisciplinary material. The intermixing and flowing of creative juices is an incredible thing. In looking over Sonia’s material, I fell in love with Does Your House Have Lions? I said to Sonia, wouldn’t it be great to do this with an orchestra and not have the singers be opera singers but R&B singers to represent you and your brother?

How is this different from composing a completely original piece?
When there’s a soul singer singing it, it’s just different — any kid on the street can get it, and they’d rather do that than read it. What I’m going for is the emotional underpinning of what’s being said. And I’ve talked to Sonia about her brother, so it’s different than reading about someone who died a century ago.

Has it been difficult channeling Sonia’s voice?
No, the difficult thing is to take something where the end of a line isn’t the end of a sentence. It breaks it up in unusual ways on the page, but that doesn’t sing right.

Do you share the same passion for activism as Sonia?
I don’t always get physically involved even though my heart’s in it. She told me to come down to City Hall to support her with Grandmothers for Peace. It’s one of those things where you watch and feel bad you’re not doing it. She’s really a feisty lady. But she’s also very kind.

Do you relate to the stories and messages in Sonia’s memoir?
It’s about the black experience and being in a less than conducive experience. I guess everyone relates to getting over hardship, but the stuff that was there was not my experience. But it’s also the idea that you come from your ancestors and return to your ancestors.

Do you worry that you’ll get it “wrong”?
I want her to appreciate what I did. But, again, it’s not an exact translation. I’m adding to it. But yeah, I worry about every note I write. But fear is the great motivator for getting things done.

These days, you don’t see people pick up a book of poems, but everyone walks around with iPods that are pumping out lyrics. Is music keeping poetry alive?
I don’t know that that’s occurring. I think that’s a possibility. I can see people coming to hear Jill Scott as Sonia’s voice. Different people who are contemporary people come to draw people in to hear the orchestra and then go back and get the book … I don’t know about saving poetry. I don’t think it needs to be saved. I think all the arts need more attention. I wish it were different and people were totally into all the arts like I am … I once said that I think of myself as a musical travel agent, and it’s up to me to send people on a trip. — Cheryl McEvoy

Not sure why Philly boy Todd Young didn’t do this in the first place, what with this being 2008 and all, but he finally got around to posting a YouTube video for his Barack Obama Song, which you first heard here last week. So go waste valuable time and do that viral thing that you love doing so much.

Veteran New York Times foreign correspondent and bestselling author Stephen Kinzer makes two appearances in town today as part of his “The Folly of Attacking Iran” tour. He hopes to clear the air about Iran and explain that — like in any rocky relationship — we don’t have to be friends, we just have to tolerate each other.

Why did you get involved with this tour?
As a staff reporter, I was not able to beat my spoon on the highchair. That’s one of the reasons I left the New York Times. … I wanted to be sure if the United States got involved in a military confrontation with a country I knew something about, I would be free to speak about it. I do not want to wake up and hear that missiles are falling on Iran and think that “You didn’t do anything to prevent this.”

(more…)

So I’m more than a little annoyed with this whole trend of people being obsessed with making songs and YouTube videos about the presidential race, but I find this one, by Philly band scene veteran and general weirdo Todd Young, to be fairly catchy in a white-boy funky, Frank Zappa sort of way. Enjoy and circulate if you feel so led.

IT’S FUN TO HATE
I’m guessing that no one told Karl Rove that most of the city’s radical types live in West Philadelphia before he agreed to speak tonight at Penn’s Irvine Auditorium. Look for lots of big guys in suits with little earpieces keeping their eyes on things. Turns out that the Evildoer’s appearance is sold out, though tickets are popping up here and there on Craigslist for as little as $5. I guess some Penn coed realized that tonight is also the season premiere of America’s Next Top Model.

EXCESSIVE MUMMERY
In case you just can’t wait another 315 days for your dose of that embarrassing Philadelphia pastime, the Free Library hosts not one but two Mummers book authors, photographer E.A. Kennedy (Life, Liberty and the Mummers) and Patricia Anne Masters (The Philadelphia Mummers: Building Community Through Play), plus an appearance by the Fralinger String Band (pictured). If only Two Street were part of the deal. But hey, it’s free.

For those who actually care that today is Presidents’ Day …

Family fun at Valley Forge, complete with marching soldiers and birthday cake for George (Martha’s recipe, of course); presidential artifacts (including locks of their hair, we’re told) at the Academy of Natural Sciences; Lincoln-era grub and stovepipe hat-making at Doylestown’s Mercer Museum; and Longwood Gardens stretches it in a big way, offering a Washington impersonator who will, um, discuss gardening.

For everyone else …

The White Dog hosts two of the Lost Boys of the Sudan for dinner and conversation; handsome Polish-Hungarian pianist Piotr Anderszewski (pictured), whose name is almost as hard to comprehend as his talent, joins the Chamber Music Society at the Kimmel for Bach and Schumann; G-Town Radio presents and discusses Shame of a City, Tigre Hill’s documentary about the 2003 Philadelphia mayoral debacle; Pennsylvania congressman Patrick Murphy talks about his new book at the Constitution Center, though I’d be more interested in hearing him try to explain how the superdelegates (of which he is one) are not going to totally screw up this primary; and Pulitzer-winning illustrator Art Spiegelman (The New Yorker, Maus) heads to Penn.

And if all that is just way too intellectually stimulating for you on a what I hope is a vacation day, there’s always the appropriately named Karaoke That Doesn’t Suck party upstairs at the Khyber .

I guess some people do have a bit of disposable income … Not so long ago, the idea of driving to Atlantic City for a concert not featuring an almost-dead person was absurd. But tonight alone you’ve got Carrie Underwood/Keith Urban at Boardwalk Hall and Alanis/Matchbox Twenty at the Borgata, both of which are utterly sold out, though your friendly neighborhood scalper is surely well-stocked. Should you prefer to see the almost-dead, the the Commodores are at Trump Plaza. Well, actually, it’s the Commodores without Lionel Richie,, so I’m not sure what you call that, other than totally not worth the $50 ticket price.

Won’t this false holiday ever end? … It’s possible that you, like a lot of people, don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day on Valentine’s Day because you know that’s for suckers. So I asked Philly Mag super-intern Andrea Carayiannas (we just call her “Andrea”) to come up with some Valentine-specific suggestions for the sensibly belated among you, and here’s her short list: Hunky New York jazz vocalist Jack Donahue on unrequited love at the Art Museum’s Valentine’s Cabaret; nudity and adult situations abound in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love at Plays & Players; and, uh, for the “knotty couple,” as Andrea puts it, adult-oriented Passional Boutique in Queen Village offers a two-hour “Bound for Pleasure” workshop. Hey, we don’t make the news, we just report it.

Wait a second — it’s not First Friday … In case you feel completely disconnected from the city’s visual art scene, you might want to check out Art Glut, featuring nearly 50 Philly artists. It’s not at PAFA. It’s not at the PMA. It’s not in Old City. It is, of all things, in the South Philly rowhome (aka My House Gallery) of UArts grad Alex Gartelmann. Really. There’s not even a website. Friday 5:30 to 8:30 p.m, Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; 2534 South 8th Street; 908-370-1656.