Pulse: Pursuits: Hot Tickets: August 2010

Hope It Was Worth It
That $70 Million Painting
After all that fuss, you can finally see Thomas Eakins’s freshly restored Gross Clinic for yourself at its new home in the Perelman Building at the Museum of Art (from 7/24).

SIGHTS
Show Boating
Painting: Philadelphia Museum of Art; Lambert: Lee Cherry; Mccartney: BILL BERNSTEIN; HAYES: Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.; Faulkner: gulnara khamatova;

Spectacles
Chase in Couture
The Fightin’s dress it up at the Union League for the Shane Victorino Foundation’s All-Star Celebrity Fashion Show (8/16), benefiting underserved youth.

Philly as you’ve never seen her
Craving something a little less, um, corporate than a champagne cruise aboard the Spirit of Philadelphia? The new American Sailing Tours offers an honest seafarer’s view of the Delaware. Choose the sunset, history or tropical-themed sail, and a Coast Guard-approved skipper helms 90 minutes of (tame) adventure on the 48-foot Summer Wind schooner. It’s as close as you’ll get to island life around here, especially if your captain is former St. Thomas resident Dave Willems, who pretty much grew up on a sailboat in the Caribbean. And if he thinks the Delaware is worth exploring, who are we to argue? $35-$40. Pier 24, 401 North Columbus Boulevard, 215-900-7758, americansailingtours.com. —Nora Kelly

On the stage
Very DifferentMen
An almost-70 Sir Paul plays Wachovia (8/14-15); glammy Adam Lambert flames at the Tower (8/12); heavy-metal-legend-turned-cartoon Ozzy brings his annual Ozzfest to Camden (8/22); the Right’s Sean Hannity is, for whatever reason, at Great Adventure (8/6); and the finger-snappin’-good Tony Bennett graces the Mann (8/28).

Don’t Eat the Brown Acid
Music on Film
The Colonial screens some of the best concert documentaries from the ’60s and ’70s: the Who and Otis Redding in Monterey Pop (8/8); the Maysles brothers’ chronicle of the Stones’ 1969 tour, Gimme Shelter (8/15); epic Woodstock (8/22); and the soulful Wattstax (8/29), featuring the Staple Singers, Richard Pryor and Isaac Hayes (left).

Kids
From Bugs to Ballroom
In their last month of freedom, let them: touch and eat (!) creepy crawlers at the Academy of Natural Sciences during BugFest (8/14-15); picnic at the Mann, which presents Yo Gabba Gabba and … hip-hop legend Biz Markie??? (8/29); and, so they can get teased incessantly, attend the Darlington Arts Center’s ballroom-for-kids workshops, where they’ll learn to fox-trot (8/6), rumba (8/13) and tango (8/20). (They’ll thank you one day.)

LOCAL TALENT
Justin Faulkner
Newsweek magazine recently said it: “Jazz Is Dead.” But if this drummer from West Philadelphia has anything to say about it, the genre looks to have a fighting chance. At just 19, the Settlement Music School alum has been recognized by the New York Times as one of five “jazz drummers to watch” and is currently keeping the beat for the Branford Marsalis Quartet. In September, he heads back to Berklee College of Music as a sophomore—marking his 16th year studying the drums. But you can see what he’s made of this month as he hosts Chris’ Jazz Café’s Friday-night jam sessions.