DC Nov. 2012: Newseum, Pandas, Memorials

Back in November I took a trip to Washington, DC. I spent a couple of days touring around, trying to hit a couple of spots I hadn't seen before (or not in a long time). As it turned out, I also saw some NBA action between the Washington Wizards and Portland Trail Blazers, with the 0-12 Wizards inspired by my presence to actually win a game. Here are a few photos. The entire set is here. (Sorry, I'm not putting up the slideshow here tonight.)

Among the interesting items at the Newseum was this copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer from shortly after Abraham Lincoln's assassination. The Inquirer hasn't really changed much since 1865.

Eastern State Penitentiary Photos

Another post with photos! These are from my visit in mid-September to Eastern State, the prison-turned-tourist attraction (the same place where the Bastille Day celebration is held). It housed the infamous Al Capone and Willie Sutton during its active existence. Besides the prison itself, there are some art installations as well, a couple of which are more interesting than others. The entire collection is here.

The audio tour was recorded by actor Steve Buscemi, by the way.

...and guess who stayed in this cell?

Philly's New 9/11 Memorial: Good, But...

After I toured Eastern State Penitentiary this afternoon (pics will be posted at some point), I walked down towards Center City and decided to check out the city's new 9/11 memorial, which was dedicated on Tuesday, the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The steel beam, from one of the Twin Towers, isn't lying flat or standing straight because the artist says it symbolizes how our society is not as secure post-9/11. It's set in granite and includes plaques with the names of three Philadelphia residents who died in the attacks.

It's a little stunning to actually see a piece of one of those buildings. The placement of the beam is clever. It's certainly a fitting memorial. However...

Bastille Day Festival 2012

Another bunch of pictures for you to peruse. These are from the annual Bastille Day Festival held at Eastern State Penitentiary. For you out-of-towners, it's not actually operating as a prison now. It's a tourist attraction. Al Capone was once locked up there. Every Halloween they operate a popular haunted house-style tour. And every July there's Bastille Day. This was the first time I checked out the festival and it was apparently revised some this year, so I can't compare it to other years, but it's fun. Essentially, it's a show featuring comedy, song and dance performed by the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, telling the story of the French Revolution (taking many liberties with said story, naturally).

The star of the show was Edith Piaf (who actually lived in the 20th century; I told you, they took liberties with the story). I got there in time to see a pre-show rehearsal, and I kind of developed a little crush on this guy. It's the weirdest thing. Men in heels usually don't do it for me.

I took lots of pictures, which are located here. I also took some video, which is after the jump...

May 19, 2012: My Festival Fest

On a warm late-spring Saturday afternoon I took in three different festivals in the city. I took many pictures and some video (using my tablet's camcorder)!

I started out at the Trenton Avenue Arts Festival , which has been held for the last seven years in Kensington (in a spot where, I'm guessing, it borders Fishtown). Its attractions are basically as advertised: arts and crafts (such as "Billy Maze," pictured),  food, vendors, etc. However, it also featured the 6th Annual Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby. (Arts festival and derby photos are here.)

The what?


Basically, it's like this: a kinetic sculpture is a vehicle that's powered by humans (such as a bike) but also has some special artistic additions, making them look like parade floats or something. What they do is ride these things along a stretch of the street. There's no race, but there is one element to challenge them: a mud pit. They have to design their kinetic sculpture so that they can get it through the mud. Here's a sample:



Here's a close-up picture of the mud pit...

It's really entertaining. Next year I want to go again, but get a seat nearer to the mud.

Then I headed for Franklin Square for

Billy Penn's Big Brothers...And More

UPDATE: I've added a couple more pics taken on a different occasion. They're after the jump.

The day I visited the three different festivals -- and I will get those pics posted at some point, as I'm in a bit of a catching-up mode -- I was walking from Stop #2 (in Franklin Square) to Stop #3 (Walnut St. west of Broad), looked up and noticed City Hall and the two Liberty Place skyscrapers...

The angle of the picture, because of the route I took when I left Franklin Square, just gave me the impression that Billy Penn was being guarded by his two big brothers. (It took me three tries to get the tops of all three buildings in the shot. Oh, brother.)

Historic Philly Graves 'N Stuff

This is another catching-up post. One afternoon in March I went on an unusual tour of parts of historic Philadelphia. It's a newer offering from Grim Philly Twilight Tours -- their tours specialize in mixing the traditional history with more macabre things such as places said to be haunted. This particular tour focused on cemeteries and stories of local serial killers. To be honest I was more interested in the history than the serial killers. I did take pictures, though. (Not all of them are at gravesites.)

I'm not even trying to post a slideshow to this blog any more. I'm just assuming it will not work, whether it's due to Google screwing up Blogger or the particular photo storage site's incompetence or my own stupidity. Whatever the reason it still royally pisses me off. So here's the link to all of the pictures.

Sister Cities Park, 30th Street Porch

More photos! First, a rant:

ONCE AGAIN I CAN'T FIND A PHOTO SERVICE THAT ALLOWS ME TO POST A DAMN SLIDESHOW TO THIS BLOG! LAST TIME IT WAS SHUTTERFLY, NOW IT'S PHOTOBUCKET. WHY THE HELL DO THEY GIVE YOU HTML CODE TO PASTE IN, AND THEN WHEN YOU DO, IT DOESN'T WORK? I AM SO SICK OF THIS!

Or maybe I'm stupid and don't know what I'm doing. Anyway, here's a direct link since I can't post a stupid f---ing slideshow.

On a Sunday last month my friend Kurt and I checked out the newly renovated Sister Cities Park at Logan Square. They did a beautiful job with it. Then, a few days later, I went to look at the Porch at 30th Street Station, on Market Street adjacent to the train station. As it was really late in the afternoon nothing was going on, and the umbrellas at the tables were folded. But they reclaimed an area that was just a driveway and made it a pleasant place. There's a number of activities held there regularly, including live music and -- for the entire month of July -- free mini golf. I can't wait to see how they set that up!


And these pictures were taken with my new digital camera (the one I got for my birthday. Below is an example of its zoom prowess. In the first picture Kurt is circled (you can see it larger if you click on the image for the larger version). The other one is with the camera at maximum zoom.

Mailbox And Mural

Some more random photos I took last month. The first two I took as I was on my way from the Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration in Franklin Square to the Rittenhouse Row Spring Festival on Walnut Street. Photos from those, as well as the Trenton Avenue Arts Festival/Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby, all of which I hit on the same day, will be posted some time before I die. Anyway, I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. I believe this was on 16th Street south of Market Street...

Then, a week later, I took the SEPTA Regional Rail train home instead of my usual El/66 combo. On weekends you can use the regular Transpass on the Regional Rail lines, so it's like a free ride. At my stop, the Torresdale Station, I noticed yet another mural from the city's Mural Arts Program. I love seeing these murals so much...

I'm An Exhibitionist

Tonight I went to see my picture at the opening reception for the Philly Photo Day exhibit at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center. And here it is!

There were close to 900 submissions but they're helpfully arranged alphabetically by photographer's name, so mine is easy enough to find if you go. It'll be up until the 26th. It was interesting to see such a variety of photos, and yet similarities in a number of photos. City skyline shots, iconic buildings such as City Hall, the LOVE statue and the Clothespin, Pat's and Geno's steaks, a handful of shots from public transit (although I saw only one other picture showing the Market-Frankford tracks through the fence on the crossover between platforms). There were lots of quirky photos, photos of people of all ages, photos that were a bit tricked out to depict some special effect such as streaking lights, a few pictures from Occupy Philly, and so on.

And then there were two pictures of...TV screens at the moment the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series. (One can be seen in the first picture above.) Ugh.

Long Overdue: My July 4th Post

Before we begin, I think I should get credit for getting this post up while it's still July...

Once again, the Welcome America festival took place in the days leading up to July 4th. It is full of great events, including free concerts and fireworks shows, as well as more fun and Philly-centric things such as Wawa Hoagie Day (which I still haven't gotten to) and one event that I've wanted to attend for years. This year, on the big day itself, I finally made it. Here's a link to all the photos I took that day. I've included a few here.

At Penn's Landing each year, the Super Scooper All-You-Can-Eat Ice Cream Festival raises money to help fight pediatric leukemia. A $7 donation gives you entrance into the big tent, as well as a plastic spoon, so you can go from table to table and get small cups of ice cream (as well as water ice and some other frozen stuff), as much as you want, all day. If you followed my updates on Twitter or Facebook that day, you know that I stopped at each of the almost 20 tables. (A number of the vendors had more than one table.) It was truly ice cream heaven. The picture above shows the size of the cup. (You weren't expecting pints or quarts, were you?) This one had rainbow water ice, not ice cream.

Thanks to a site called TwimeMachine that makes it easy to go back to look at your older tweets, here's the rundown of what I ate, and in order! Good Humor chocolate, Jack & Jill strawberry, ShopRite vanilla/chocolate, Ben & Jerry's French Toast, rainbow water ice, Turkey Hill cookies & cream, Friendly's orange sherbet, Bassetts chocolate, cotton candy water ice, Edy's mint chocolate chip, Icee raspberry frozen pop, Turkey Hill cookies & cream, Breyers cookies & cream, Haagen-Dazs chocolate, cotton candy water ice, Friendly's chocolate, orange Minute Maid juice bar, Ben & Jerry's English something (toffee?), Breyers chocolate peanut butter.

Around Town Yesterday/Boy Bands Saturday

I took a few photos while I was downtown yesterday picking up my comic books. Before I got to the comic book store, I saw something funny. It forced me to declare this man in the Kobe Bryant jersey as the Very Minor Dumbass of the Week. Why?

Well, he walked up to the door of the Borders at Broad and Chestnut and grabbed the door handle, attempting to go inside. He failed. After all, that Borders closed last month.

I guess the fact that it was dark inside and there were no books or anything in the windows was lost on him. On the other hand, it also seems to be lost on Philadelphia Weekly, or at least on its delivery person, who left a bundle of papers sitting by the door. So PW and/or its driver is the Not-So-Very Minor Dumbass of the Week.

So then I met my friend Kurt, got my comic books and

This Town Needs An Enema

I'm just saying...



I love that line from Tim Burton's "Batman," and I was listening to my summer playlist and "Batdance" came on, so here you go.

Actually, I think the whole damn nation needs that enema. The budget disasters at the local, state and federal level continue to wreak havoc on people's lives because of politics, as the rich and powerful continue to become more rich and more powerful at the expense of the working class, the poor, the elderly, etc., and people just allow it to happen. More time is spent on sideshows -- Sarah Palin and Donald Trump and Anthony Weiner -- than on the real issues. And by the way, Anthony Weiner should resign from Congress, not because he did anything illegal or wrong, just for being so utterly STUPID and playing right into the right wing's hands.

On the other hand, he'd probably get a show on CNN or MSNBC, which is all we need. So maybe he should stay in Congress after all.

Last week, I made a last-minute decision to go chasing after Sarah Palin when she stopped by Independence Hall and visited the Liberty Bell on her stupid little bus tour, but she was already gone by the time I got there. I just wanted to boo her the way she was booed when she dropped the puck for the ceremonial faceoff before the Flyers game back in 2008. Alas, I missed my chance. I did visit the Liberty Bell, though.

The renovations of Independence Hall are continuing, as you can see in this picture. One thing I wasn't aware of is how much the bell used to travel around the country. So, unlike Sarah, I actually learned something on my visit.

MixBlog 5-13-11: Flyers, Phillies, Pier, Bunny!

Wow...Blogger seems to be back in business! As I write this, Twitter is out of commission, though. So let's get to some stuff. First, a couple of videos.

This one was taken a few doors from my house. I spotted Mr. Bunny as I was walking home. This is a residential area in a city, although I suppose there's enough wooded areas around to allow for visits from the occasional wild rabbit.



Yesterday my friend Kurt and I went to the opening of the new Race Street Pier (just next to the Ben Franklin Bridge). Mayor Nutter and others made speeches and then cut the ribbon. I'd have enjoyed it more if only the mayor spoke. Everyone else could have been given credit in a pamphlet or something. Anyway, here's a video tour. Note: it takes a few minutes for us to actually get on to the pier.



The pier is very nice. It'll be a nice meeting place by the river, but there's nothing to do there. I hope that the mayor's efforts to truly revitalize the waterfront -- which would mean more than things like giant Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores or the SugarHouse casino -- come to fruition.

Something else that clearly needs a little revitalization: the Flyers.

PIFA Street Fair

One of the final events of the 2011 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, which went on for nearly a month, was a street fair which took up a stretch of Broad Street on Saturday. The festival was inspired by the scene in Paris in the 1910s. (Thus, the 80-foot Eiffel Tower ensconced inside the Kimmel Center, above.)

I took some pictures and video ...before the battery on my phone died, that is...the photos are in a Flickr set which can be found here. I've included a couple of them below (after the jump), along with the videos I took.

Philly's Mural Mile

During all of the Independence Day weekend festivities, I went downtown on the 2nd of July and actually participated in one of the events. That is, if you consider getting a free hot dog as participation. My actual purpose on this trip was to take the Mural Mile walking tour. We have a great thing here, the Mural Arts Program, through which local artists create murals on the walls of buildings with input from the community. They've now put together a walking tour of 17 of the murals in center city as the Mural Mile. It's actually 2.5 miles if you walk the entire length of the tour, but there's an abridged one-mile version including 12 of the 17 murals.

I downloaded podcasts to my iPod and listened to descriptions of the program, the individual murals, some of the creative processes and commentary from some of the artists and others. It was very interesting, particularly the story of the mural that wraps around Dirty Frank's bar. There's also a LGBT mural called "Pride & Progress."

I took a bunch of photos and have put them into a Flickr set. You can go here to see it. I've added a few photos below as a sample.

A Letter To Batman

Dear Batman,

I need to tell you something very important. Please don't get mad, okay? Here goes: you need to do a better job hiding the Philly entrance to the tunnel leading to the Batcave.

I won't even go into where you've located it -- right around the corner from Philadelphia's Magic Gardens on South Street. Do you know how many tourists head for South Street? If I could find it, I can't help but think that sooner or later one of them will stumble upon it.

I tell you this for your own good.

Love, Joe

(P.S. You can read about the artist who created the mosaic seen on this wall, and in many other locations, here.)

Phanatic Around Town

All this summer, the Phillie Phanatic is hanging out at various places around town. A project of the Phillies and Visit Philly, 20 specially-painted Phanatic statues have been placed at different locations. I went around and took pictures of 19 of them. The slideshow follows. If you want to find them yourselves, here's an interactive map.

A couple of notes: one of the statues is at the airport and is behind security. So I won't be able to get a picture of it unless a miracle occurs and I take a flight somewhere this summer. (9/5/2010 Update: All 20 statues have been moved to Citizens Bank Park for display pending their being auctioned off for charity, including the one at the airport, so I finally have the complete set of photos in the slideshow.) One of the statues is inside Citizens Bank Park, which means you'll need to buy a game ticket to see it. Finally, ignore some of the dates on the pictures. On the day I took most of the pictures, my batteries died and I had to switch, and the camera went back to the default settings. I did not take any pictures on 1/10/2008.