Shopping Tips and Guidance by Mandy Claire

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored," from fun, fantastic Philadelphia!

Ah, Anne. Cut the hype. Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored," from the City That Throws Snowballs at Santa!

That's more like it.

I believe I might have mentioned that my daughter The Heir has become part of a small, multi-media musical group called Blown Away and the Kinky Boot Beasts. One of the things about living in or near a huge metropolitan area is that there are so many talented people out and about. It's only a matter of time before you meet the ones that fit you best.

Last evening, Blown Away and the Kinky Boot Beasts gave a brief performance at the Dumpster Divers Art Collective on South Street in Philly. The venue was splendid -- a gallery full of art work made from scavenged junk. Every piece from paintings to sculptures radiated the positive energy of something that was once lost but now found and put to a greater use. The colors were vibrant and each artwork was fabulously original.

The same can be said for BA and the KBB. The group works as follows:

The Kinky Boot Beasts provide music. (Heir on the musical saw, spoons, toy thrift store piano and tamborine. The other Boot Beast sings and plays guitar -- terrific original songs reminiscent of Joni Mitchell.)

Blown Away is a visual artist. While the Kinky Boot Beasts are making music, he draws a visual representation of the song on his computer, which somehow projects onto a screen.

What surprised me other than the beauty and quality of the songs was The Heir's ability to keep the musical saw on pitch. Usually it just sounds like some kind of space alien radio frequency, but last night it was actually musical, and a big hit.

I'm a great believer in Fate throwing us into a mix of people with whom we can make magic. The Heir has known Blown Away for years, but she only met the other Kinky Boot Beast relatively recently. And yet they work in sync as if they've been doing weird street music since preschool.

You can become a fan of Blown Away and the Kinky Boot Beasts on Facebook. Do it now and beat the rush, because once they hit Vegas they won't have time for such trivialities as social networking.

Seriously, readers, I wish you all could have been there. If you like this little column, you would also like Blown Away and the Kinky Boot Beasts.

(Navel gaze aside: The Spare sat next to me during the performance, and on my other side was a life-sized sculpture with a light post top as a head, various gears and old shards of lumber for organs and limbs, and a little blue Christmas light strategically located between its legs. I discovered that the little blue light could be turned on and off. When Spare drifted away to look at the artwork, I turned the light off. When she returned, I turned it on again. I don't know why she didn't find this funny. No one else noticed.)

Below, a sample of a Philadelphia staple. Keep in mind if you watch this Mummers clip that these are amateurs who even have to design and pay for their own costumes.