World: Welcome to Victory Blvd. formerly Avenue of the Arts, aka Broad St.
Nesquik for some, Miller Lite for others.
Funniest thing I saw all day: this kid would raise his hands and about 1k people on either side of the street would go BONKERS. This went on for about 5 minutes. The cops were cracking up. I was laughing clutching my stomach.
2M fans lined the streets for almost 5 miles.
The kids, too young to remember Mitch Williams, were in full force.
Everybody was best friends.
It was all great until around 12.30a when people started to really get out of hand. Well after the happy people were through having their fun popping champagne, hugging, chanting "Let's go Phill-ieees" and "Fuck the Mets!" – the other set of revelers took control of Broad St from City Hall to Locust St. The shot above is from Sansom St after 100 or so uniformed cops moved in up at Chestnut St to cordon of the block. You can see them as a mass of black at the center of the photo. About 30 cops on bikes are gathered at right ready to deploy where necessary.
I saw 3 fires lit within 2 blocks. One down at Locust St by Robinson Luggage. I forget whether it was before or after the store was looted and a car overturned right by it. 2 more fires set at Sansom St with the second one right behind the West Elm loading dock. The second fire raged up to the height of the streetlamp right beside it. There was an overturned car a half a block east from there as well. Streetlamps were torn down, honor boxes thrown all over the pace and a few bus shelters trampled as well from a combination of people standing on top of them and actively trying to destroy them. The shot above is the leftover of the first fire at Sansom St with the Union League as a backdrop.
Here's the scene down Sansom St just east of Broad behind West Elm. You can see the overturned car as well as several overturned dumpsters. A fire engine roared down the block to put down the fire around 1a. All of those cardboard boxes and wooden delivery palettes served as kindling for the mob and it was a mob.
And here are 10 mounted state cops rolling in with a few cops on Harleys as well for extra crowd control. When the cops on horses roll into the scene, that's my cue to get the fuck out of there.
At first, it was an extra rowdy few who started to ruin it for everyone else. The fireworks were dangerous, but nobody was throwing them into the crowd. Just your everyday thunderbombs and jumping jacks (at least that's what we called them growing up in NY) which were little more than loud noise. Bottle rockets streamed up from Broad St and were later joined by bigger missles and cakes which launched some pretty hefty colors around Walnut and Sansom Sts. It was when people started throwing honor boxes through windows, looting and throwing full bottles of alcohol at cops when things got ugly. Then the happy people left and the ratio of idiots to riot gear cops leveled out and the scene got ugly.
The cops did an incredible job handling about 100 real idiots who were screaming at them and hurling traffic cones, bottles, cans, rocks, tree branches, shoes and anything else that wasn't bolted down to the ground. Yes, some people got beat down. Guess what – when you throw a bottle at a cop with a baton, you're gonna get your ass beat down. Sorry if you didn't get the memo.
The cops all up and down Broad St from City Hall to Washington Ave were in an incredibly jovial mood. I'm sure tons of them were life long Philly residents and Iggles/Phillies fans to boot. They were sporting toothy grins with revelers and posing for photos all night long. Until things got ugly. It was unfortunate, but it didn't seem to be as bad as other cities post championships. Boston after the Sox won, LA just about whenever and UConn are particularly bad examples I can think of off the top of my head. Yes, it was a time to celebrate a momentous occasion that might not happen for another while to come, but not an excuse to go wilding up in the streets.
There's a phrase used in football when you score a touchdown – "Act like you've been there before." It means that if you celebrate like a retard like you've never been there before, you just look more like a fool. Philly sure didn't act like it had been there before. Granted, the people out in the streets in Center City were mostly 20 somethings who hadn't been there before. The lifers were probably at home with their families or in the neighborhood bars celebrating with their friends with whom they've watched the Phils play for the last 30 years.
The parade is tomorrow and the Mayor has already sent a warning to would-be idiots: if you act up, you will be put down with force. Memo served.
I'll be out there snapping away at my first championship parade. Coming from NY, I can say there have been more than a few I could've gone to in NYC down Hero's Alley, but I never went. I think this win is different. I'm glad I have the day off.
Still time to get your hands on one of the 1M or so copies of the DN/Inky which were printed today. The Inky/DN has a daily circulation of about 400k and they printed an extra 350k to start and another 300k for 5p delivery to newsstands and stores.
More photos here.
Some more photos of the madness.
And most importantly, Phuck the Mets.
And the parade will be tomorrow at Noon starting at 20/Market.
So many old school jerseys, hats and jackets out last night. This one looks like a Mitchell & Ness.
In uniform.
The lights blended in well.
It was quite cold – she didn't seem to have time to notice.
My doppelganger?
The all important championship belt!
Phinalle. I've seen this sign in numerous photos already.
The 'Whattup Philly' pose with Billy Penn.
More photos here.
They done did it. And I went out to Broad St to check out the scene about 15 minutes after the game was over. I stayed out until about 1.45a when 10 mounted cops rolled in. I don't fuck around with cops on horses. But first, come celebration photos taken between City Hall and Washington Ave. Needless to say, I didn't mention my NY roots or that up until I stopped watching baseball in 1993, I was a Mets fan.
The early edition.
Probably not old enough to have seen the last Philadelphia championship.
Cars parked on Broad St blaring music, people dancing all around.
The banners on Broad St were all ripped down. This is not one of them, but the photo at top is.
"Number 1!!!!!!!"
Nothing like fireworks on Broad St.
Another early edition.
Fans.
"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"
More photos here.
Kill me now.
Seen at 12/Chestnut.
Oh and those poor idiots who can't choose between the two and end up getting a soda.
On Thursday night, I made the trip out to West Philly's Green Line Cafe [the 43/Locust one] to see my friend and co-worker Andrew Keller play some music. I wasn't able to see him play in his band Hermit Thrushes on several occasions, but I was very glad I could make it out this time. I've listened to his music on his MySpace page before, but like always, seeing it live is another story.
The new Green Line Cafe at 4305 Locust St is a nice spot. Seating for 40 – 50 or so with enough lighting to not strain, but not so much as to feel uncomfortable at a show. Andrew played a nice set with a friend filling with a second guitar. I missed the first band The Great Unknown as I was too busy getting my act together to head out to West Philly, but the rest of the show, that I didn't specifically head out there to see, was great.
Next up was a 5 piece indie/folk band complete with clarinet (my old instrument) and tuba. Midwest Dilemma made it to Philly all the way from Omaha, NE. Justin, on lead vocals and guitar, dropped his tuner just before going on stage, but the show went on. They're currently on tour east of the Mississippi for the next month or so and I'm glad they were able to stop by in Philly to play the show I went to.
The crowd really liked their stuff, myself included. They brought an upbeat tempo which contrasted nicely with the rest of the lineup. I spoke with Liz, on clarinet and vocals, after their set for a bit and wished them luck on the rest of their trip. I parted the show with their CD in my bag and quite happy I made it out.
Closing out the show was Birdie Busch bringing her roots/blues to the stage with a twangy guitar and voice to match. She had a guy on upright bass plucking away as well.
I'd say her sound was the most polished out of the 3 sets I listened in on. She's got a bunch of nice writeups quoted on her MySpace. Her Penny Arcade was featured as a 'Best of' picks by iTunes staff last year. Birdie will be back at the Green Line in December. I think I'll be back out this way before long as well.
For $5, I saw 3 great sets one of which was a friend's. Add in another $10 and I got to take home a CD and help a traveling troupe get to their next stop and back home to Omaha. Philly's got a great music scene. I gotta get out and take advantage of it more often than once almost never. Who wants to go to a show?
I got a call the other day from a volunteer at one of the local Obama-Biden offices here in Philly. I had donated a little bit of money that I could spare to the cause and I guess they were following up to see if I could help out some more. After some talking, I agreed to come down to the office to help out up to the election less than a fortnight away. I took a short walk up to the 9/Arch CC East / Chinatown office and checked in.
There was phonebanking and canvassing to do. Two things that I said I wouldn't do. Why? Because I don't understand the mindset of the undecided voter and I refuse to talk to them. I honestly think that people who are aware of some basic facts about both candidates and still cannot make a decision are idiots. I'd rather a person tell me they're voting for McCain because he's white and Barack's black than somebody tell me that they're undecided and understand where each candidate stands on the issues. So, back to the work. I came armed with my laptop and they set me up to do some data entry. I was taking care of the data phonebankers were obtaining through their tireless calling all day and putting it into the system so that the database was up to date (and hopefully people don't get repeat calls and volunteers aren't wasting their time among other things).
It was a nice 2 hours I spent at the office on Friday. I met some good people who had come down from NY to help out in SEPA where the 21 electoral votes of PA are still not fully in favor of one candidate – Obama's up about 9 points right now. I'll be back at the office next week. This particular office is open 9a – 9p all week and can use volunteers doing various things all the time. Check out the PA section of the Obama website to learn a little bit about what's going on around the state. There are offices in Center City at 1500 Sansom, 9/Arch and 15/Christian. I'm gonna assume they're all 9a – 9p. Show up and there will be stuff for you to do.
Some more photos from the office here.
And peep this post on the NM Obama blog about my friend Austin and his lady Liz. They're still working hard after driving cross country from Chicago to help out in the very important Red to Blue state of NM. They're based in Albuquerque and will be hanging out VIP styles with the Big O on Saturday.
Swarthmore College is set on an arboretum and the people at Great Expectations booked a room in a LEED NC certified building. My first trip out to Swarthmore and I intend to go back to have a closer look at the scenery. Back to the agenda. If you're looking for some background info on the forums, read up!
Approximately 25 people from the Swarthmore area came out to take part in the evening's event. I don't know too much about Philly's burbs, but I'm going to assume that the sampling was a decent representation of who lives out there – all white. One person in my breakout group brought up the fact and the Inquirer's Chris Satullo pointed out that the audience at Moore College of Art meeting 2 weeks prior was a different sight.
During his opening remarks, Satullo pointed out how Philly's Arts & Culture (A&C) programs get about 3% ($18M) of it's funding from local governments with the lion share coming from Philly. Philly's A&C brings in about $1.3 Billion annually. The national average for local support of A&C is 6% with cities like NYC, Chicago, DC pumping in approximately 9%. Imagine the 5 ring counties bringing in an additional $2.6 Billion annually if A&C spending were to match other first rate cities. Philly doesn't even have dedicated funding. Cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Denver levying taxes going directly to A&C. Read more about those plans here. Penn's Harris Sokoloff shared an analogy for the participants to take to the breakout sessions. The Hokey Pokey asks everyone to put their left leg into the circle while keeping the right leg out at first. Sokoloff asked the participants to all put their left legs into the circle to find some common ground on issues, yet bringing their own views to the table.
The brunt of the work is done in the all important breakout sessions. My group of 11 was no exception and they all took Sokoloff's plea to listen more than talk to heart. The group's first task was to talk about the first approach to tackle the A&C issue in the Philly region. Briefly, Approach 1 argues that A&C deserves public investment and
[T]he region should create an ample fund earmarked just for arts and culture. Further, the money should be spent primarily to support artists and art-making (because that, not institution building, is the true point) and to give residents of the region better access to arts and culture.
Chris, whose primary issue was different organizations fighting for the same pot of money, was concerned with the money going directly to artists while Ellen, an elected official in nearby Landsdowne and a painter, was excited to see money going directly to artists for a change. Ellen went further to say that artists not having to worry about constantly making ends meet can concentrate solely on their work. No more shifts in restaurants or temp work – just creating art. Sharon, above talking, stressed that currently existing governmental organizations should be used to their fullest before creating new ones. She was glad to hear about the newly appointed Arts Czar (Gary Steuer) under Nutter's new administration.
Penny, visiting her brother in Philly from the UK, noted most museums are free and that barrier to entry doesn't exist where she lives. Jackie, a Swarthmore resident who saw the event advertised in the Inky, noted that in Paris, all museums are free the first Sunday of each month – a large collective effort by all arts organizations to get people to take in what's available to them at no cost other than getting there (which is another topic altogether – I'm looking at you, SEPTA).
Approach 2 is all about the children; our future. Christine, above talking, immediately asked why this couldn't be rolled into the other options. But the approaches assume different things:
Supporters of this choice believe that public money for arts and culture will always be limited. Therefore, the wisest strategy is to target any new money to the cause that generates the broadest buy-in and offers the most long-term benefits: youth.
In this view, arts programs for youth – out of school as well as in – have multiple benefits that justify public support. Arts and culture activities can expand young horizons, snare the interest of nontraditional learners, motivate kids to stay in school, and open them up to new career prospects.
Mary, who works for the Brandywine River Museum, addressed the issue of No Child Left Behind which largely left A&C out of the equation with so much time devoted to testing, testing, testing. She noted that there were less field trips to the museum last year than previously. Normally, the museum has to turn away schools in April; this year, schools who had the time to come had their pick of days. She advocated for money allocated specifically for field trips and said that virtual learning is great, but nothing beats seeing the real thing in person.
Approach 3 takes a step back and tackles the problem from the top down and outside in to build a "creative economy."
In this view, the linkage between the cultural sector and the health of the regional economy is clear. The links work on several levels. A vibrant arts sector makes a region more attractive to employers, helping them recruit talented employees. It helps the region curb "brain drain" and retain smart graduates from its many colleges. This young talent fuels innovation, which generates jobs. The arts also boost tourism, which brings in revenue while selling the region to the world. The arts themselves provide jobs, attracting creative people who make the region a more appealing place to live.
Ed, pictured above whose main concern was for arts to cross geographical jurisdiction (unite the 'burbs and the City for the greater cultural good!), felt it was most important to kick start the economic engine to get things going in the region in general. Ellen sees making Philly (and by default the region) hip opens the doors to putting more money into everything else. If the city/region can reduce the "brain drain," Philly will have the incredible workforce companies look for when looking to open offices.
Satullo noted how Austin, TX has recently become a hotspot. He asked why Philly can't be another "Austin." I'd add that Austin's SXSW festivals are a large part of the redefinition of that city in the country's cultural landscape. Let's take a look at SXSW's about page and their Why Austin section.
Despite the fact that Austin was not a Top 20 major market at the time, the background and character of the city made it a perfect location for the conference. Austin was considered a fairly cosmopolitan town for its size because of the University of Texas, which draws people from all over the world. As home to the state government and Texas Legislature it has also always been a popular party town, with a reputation that goes back to the 19th century when numerous nightspots and bars were populated by General Custer's troops after the Civil War. These nightspots are located in the same areas where the 6th Street and 4th Street club and bar scenes now exist.
Austin's eclectic music scene goes back to early in the city's history (from Mexican, German and colonial origins) and encompasses a wide variety of music including country, folk, jazz, blues and rock. Central Austin boasts more original music nightclubs in a concentrated area than any other city in the world.
The classic problem facing Austin musicians was being isolated from the rest of the world here in the middle of Texas. SXSW was a way to reach out to the rest of the world, and bring them here to do business. To do that successfully, SXSW needed to appeal to people other than local artists whether they were from Austin, Ft. Worth, Chicago, Toronto, Munich or Tokyo.
National interest in SXSW was immediate. For years, music businesses on both coasts had been intrigued by what was going on in Austin. The cosmic cowboy, blues, punk and other scenes had already proven that Austin was a receptive place for bands to be creative. With SXSW, music industry executives gained a good excuse to visit.
Now let me rewrite that for Philly:
Despite Philly's Second Tier City status, it's America's 5th largest (until the next official census comes out) city. The history of Philadelphia as the birthplace of the nation and its first capital city has always placed its stature in the past, but now it's time to bring the importance and impact of the City of Brotherly Love back to the forefront. Home to one of the highest densities of colleges and universities in the nation and the country's 4th highest regional GDP (behind NY, LA, CHI), Philadelphia offers the infrastructure for any business to succeed.
This city of a thousand villages intermingles the past's 200 year old Belgian block streets with the present's hybrid buses; centuries old public lands with LEED certified new construction and enough housing to take in those wanting to be a part of it all. With a boulevard wider than The Champs-Élysées capped with an Arts & Culture institution of first class; music venues spanning from classical to soul to rock and everything in between and around; and the largest city park system in the nation: Philadelphia has the niceties to keep those living in the city busy outside of the office.
The problem facing Philadelphia as being a city of the past positioned dead in between the nation's political and financial capital cities should be turned on its head as a way to steal people from both regions while offering access to both to people moving from other parts of the world. But how to get those people away from Manhattan and Washington and those from San Diego, Boise and Dallas?
Rewrite that last paragraph yourself
In SXSW's 22 year history, Austin has transformed. How can Philly have a SXSW-like phenomenon? How long will it take? Penny also alluded to the long term "sell" of Philadelphia. The public's trust must be earned for Philly's creative economy to succeed. Becky, a VISTA coordinator, brought up SEPTA and how it has long improperly linked Philly's neighborhoods and the suburbs. The recent fare increase made her reevaluate her transportation options and she now commutes by car to the city as it's the cheaper option.
Becky, above listening, emphatically endorsed Approach 4 as the "real sell" with all the rest of the plan being the nice flashy stuff on the side.
Given that, supporters of this choice argue, arts and culture should be viewed as a key piece of the larger quest for healthy communities and good quality of life. They note that city residents are somewhat more likely to talk in terms of community (a shared value) while suburbanites speak more readily of quality of life (a more individual value).
This approach argues in favor of interweaving those two strands, community building and quality of life, into a single strategy that would appeal to both suburbanite and city dweller. This strategy wants to show each group that goals they might regard as separate or competing are really two sides of the same coin.
Ellen felt that this approach didn't separate A&C from the rest of the bigger picture. Christine argued that while it would be great to interweave arts and community, many smaller organizations don't have the physical space to meet and perform for the surrounding communities to see them and interact. Satullo noted a successful South Jersey program where theaters have created a "space bank" where blocks of time when larger institutions and organizations aren't using their facilities are publicized. Smaller organizations, without space of their own, can use the unused space. It's sort of a car sharing like principle but for performing space.
The people out in the 'burbs did well listening to each other throughout the entire night. The vibe was definitely different from the events I've attended within city limits, but the same energy to solve problems was there all the same. Reassembled as a larger group, Sokoloff and Satullo told the crowd about the Big Canvas Confab at the Valley Forge Convention Center on Saturday December 6th. The SEPTA Board has been invited, all area politicians have been invited, arts leaders from all 5 counties will be there and school board members and area superintendents have also been invited. Satullo noted that he was talking with Mayor Nutter a few days prior to the Swarthmore event to get filled in on The Big Canvas events so I'm sure he'll be making an appearance if possible (he was at the December 2007 Citizens Convention in Philly). Sokoloff noted that KoP is nearby and people can get their shopping done ::shudder:: and go to the convention, or vice versa, in one traffic filled outing. They also said that buses may be chartered for large groups leaving from central locations around the area. Let them know you want to be there and to give you a ride!
My friend (and roommate for a day) Brian Russell has been hard at work in the past year down in North Carolina. He's opened up Carrboro Creative Coworking in Carrboro (just west of Chapel Hill). Philly's got a coworking space at Indy Hall in Old City which has been up and running for just over a year now. There are a few other similar spaces around the country, but the one in NC is the only one with 5 18" x 24" prints created by me.
In the video above, Brian talks about the latest happenings over at CCC and gives me an awesome shout out (thanks Brian!). The 5 photos Brian picked out (not originally intended to hang at CCC, but awesome that they are!) are here, here, here, here and here.
It's pretty cool to see my photos up anywhere. I'm always happy whenever somebody has a nice thing to say and absolutely humbled whenever anybody wants a print.
I'm gonna get down there one of these days…
