philly

I've had the distinct pleasure to know the great Zoe Strauss for the last 4 years or so. Watching her style evolve and mature has been a pleasure to see in real time courtesy of her flickr account with 4k+ photos uploaded to date. Her I-95 shows are the coolest serial installation I've ever heard of. Walking through an area larger than a football field of photos is indescribable. And now, this - a book! And a book signing?! At the Quaker City String Band Mummer HQ on 2 St!

Published via AMMO BOOKS (buy it here), the book is a tight edit of her work over the last 8 years (she's only been taking photos for 8 years!). Flipping through it, emotions roll with each 2-up spread.

But getting back to the signing. I headed down with Lady, Andi and Addie. We met a whole host of friends too - Brad, Jill and her hubby, Mike and Kaela and a bunch of other familiar faces in the crowd. There was free pizza and Lager as promised (awesome!). And there were books and $5 prints for sale. We got there early and got our pick. Above is Zoe signing my book to me and Lady.

It's fun to describe the feeling of all of Zoe's events - there's a sense of jubilation, pride and community. This girl knows everyone by first name no matter how many times she's met them. Addie actually bumped into Zoe and Lynn on Black Friday down in South Philly for the first time; she was greeted with a big hug, typical Zoe. Everyone was all smiles.

And one final shot of us with Zoe giving us the "did these fools pay for that one?" look. Some more pics here.

It's a Zoe world, we're just passing through it. Congrats to you Zoe. Thank you for recording the beauty everyone else overlooks.

I won't be able to go to next week's Great Expectations Big Canvas Confab (Saturday December 6, 1p - 4p) at the Radisson Valley Forge Hotel and Convention Center [gotta do other work], but I urge anyone who's interested in Arts and Culture in the region/state to take the trip. I've been attending these events for the last year and change (most recently at Swarthmore) and have had a great time at every single one. I've met some wonderful and thoughtful people who are really interested in what's going on in SEPA.

Take a look at The Inquirer's Chris Satullo's column from earlier this month, posted here, talking about the big Confab.

The Big Canvas is an initiative of the Great Expectations civic project, begun last year by The Inquirer and the University of Pennsylvania for the city elections.

At this event, we'll gather arts and civic leaders, elected officials, and ordinary folks. We'll report, based on earlier forums, on the core principles for a regional arts strategy that seem to hit citizens' sweet spot, and on the specific ideas that excite them.

Then everyone will sit down together to discuss ways to turn this input into meaningful action.

Pennsylvania's first lady, U.S. District Judge Marjorie O. Rendell, a driving force for the arts in Philadelphia, will offer the keynote address.

There will be rides provided by the Philly Van Go trolley from Philly leaving at 11.45a at The Rotunda (40/Walnut) and Logan Circle (18/Parkway by The Four Seasons). Call 215.854.5956 to sign up for a ride. You'll need to register for the event as well by going to this website - they gotta know how many people to expect, right?

I'm sad I won't be there, but I'm looking forward to the reports afterward which will be up on the Great Expectations blog.

So Lady got some bad news yesterday: she'll very likely be getting laid off and very soon. It's not a matter of the bad economy, it's a matter of poor budget management of a very large grant.

Who knows where she'll be able to find a secure job, in a field she's devoted her time and energy to for the last 4 years, with benefits, that treats her like a human being. She's got a nice Master's degree from Temple in Mass Media and has been working with leaders in her field for the last year and a half. Anybody in need of a smart, problem solving, published, media literacy maven? Leave a comment here or over at her blog post.

But for now, a bit of belt tightening on our end for the next little while. No more delicious double smoked hickory bacon, no more shooting film (but just got one last roll of Neopan 1600 developed and will be posting it here), no more eating out, turning the thermostat down a little bit, canceling TV/home phone from Comcast…

Luckily, I work at a Fair Food Foundation and get a discount on delicious, local food so our general eating habits won't be taking a turn for the worst. And my photography biz is finally picking up a good amount of steam lately so the blow to our combined income is rough, but not as rough as it would've been 6 months ago.

But on the bright side, maybe a little bit of time off will be good though. Recharging of the batteries and all. We've got a lovely living situation and Lady's gym membership is paid for the next year so she'll be housed and in shape! Perhaps even more so with more time to go to the gym. She'll have more time to do things she wants to do and fix up some delicious meals she's been wanting to prepare for the colder months ahead.

It's not the end of the world. Lady's already got some leads here and there from her network of friends and co-workers, but it can't help to ask some more people for leads, eh? Let us know if you hear of anything.

I shot a roll of Fuji Neopan Acros 100, a black and white film emulsion which was supposed to be very sharp. I found it to be incredibly sharp, almost digitally so. It still had that analog feel to it, but it was just so much sharper and finer in grain than any other film I've shot with. Above is the first shot I took with my [now dead] Yashica Electro 35 GSN rangefinder camera. I was on the corner of 11/Filbert St where there's usually a good photo to be made by the odd sculpture installation on the SW corner of the intersection. This day didn't let me down.

The tonality of the film was very nice. I very much liked the contrast which was enhanced by the crispness of the film. I got my film processed/scanned at Philadephia Photographics [10/Arch]. To see the full set of photos I took, check out this flickr set.

Sadly, the camera died when I was almost done with the roll. It seems like the circuits may have fried. And somehow, the little red and yellow indicator lights on the top plate of the camera have disappeared. I at no point dropped the camera while out shooting that day. Weird. Now it's a fixed shutter, at 1/500s, rangefinder. Sending it to Georgia to Mark Hama for repair is out of the question right now, but maybe down the line. For now, I'll be shooting 35mm with my Nikon F3 and FE2. And I'll be buying more Acros 100 in the future for those cameras. Right now, I have a ton of Fujicolor NPH, a roll of Neopan 1600, Superia 1600 and 2 rolls of Tri-X in the fridge.

So the Center City District has come up with a retarded dandy of a plan - identify the SEPTA stops around town with a green circle with a T in the middle which you can see in this photo on their flickr stream. Look familiar? It's basically ripping on Boston's logo, the T, for their mass transit system. It was the first thing I thought of when I got an email from CCD a couple weeks ago announcing the unveiling of the new signage.

I think the sign is weird. I think it's a waste of money. I think SEPTA (fucking SEPTA) has to come up with a new logo and then CCD can think of plunking down some green for some signage which ties into the new logo and not something which looks like it's signifying a trolley stop on Broad St - why would I think that? Because first, the new logo is green, which, in Philly, signifies trolleys. Second, there's a big T in the middle of the logo and T is a logical shorthand for trolley. Because the logo really doesn't have anything to do with anything pertaining to SEPTA in lettering, coloring or design; I'd also think it might be some kind of set prop for a movie shoot or art installation.

Inga Saffron's writeup leans towards approval, but not outrightly so. I'd lean towards whatthefuck in my oh so eloquent assessment. SEPTA is a colossal clusterfuck of a situation. It's so fucked up and yet so integral to the functioning of this city it's maddening. I don't go a single day without hearing a 'fuck SEPTA' story.

Yes, out of towners need more help navigating the maze of tunnels and platforms underground, but a ridiculous logo that has nothing to do with SEPTA isn't the best beacon for them. Did CCD focus group these things at all? I would've also loved to see some .pdfs of the 'transit concourse' maps to see if they are at all helpful. I'm not sure if I could be very objective though, being that I've been very comfortable getting around cities for the last 16 years since I was a kid going into NYC by myself. I'm no suburbanite who can't find his/her way from the regional rail to one of the city's 2, count 'em 2, subway lines going due east-west and north-south. The buses are a clusterfuck within the clusterfuck that is SEPTA, but when's the last time you saw a tourist on the bus in Philly?

You can see more photos of the unveiling here [not my photos] and take a 4 question survey here.

I normally don't remember my dreams at all. Maybe a tiny bit. Maybe the theme of the dream - "It was a chase or something" - but almost always, the next morning I awake with nothing. But last night I had a little bit of a camera related nightmare.

I was shooting what seemed to be my own high school graduation (good got, that was 10.5 years ago). I was in the procession out to the baseball field where the ceremony is held. I was shooting and shooting and the shutter kept on failing. I was shooting with what seemed to be my D200 and 80-200mm lens. The shutter wouldn't trip or would get stuck shut. Images I just took wouldn't show up when I pressed the button to review them. I took the lens off the body and looked inside. There were tons of autumn leaves in there. Just jammed all up in the body. Some intact and still yellow or red, but others crumbly and brown. The body was useless.

Why was I thinking of shooting my high school graduation? Why were there autumn leaves in the body during the spring event?

Weird. I just checked my real life D200 and all is well.

So I've caved and I'm now on Twitter [me]. It's an interesting thing. I'm using the mobile application on my Motorola Q and it's working quite well. The interface is easy to use and the numerical shortcuts make going through the messages easy. I'm not so invested to up my txt plan though - I'll stick with the web app.

In a related matter, I'm thinking of getting the Blackberry Curve. My 2+ year old Motorola Q is on it's last legs. The thing shuts off several times throughout the day, applications lock up, the phone will totally freeze at times and the amount of time it takes to power up from off is and always been annoying. I'm also on my second battery and it can barely get through a single day with moderate talk/txt/internet usage. My sister in law might be able to get me a great deal on one too through a friend. Anybody out there have some experience with the Curve? I'll be getting the 8330 as I'm on Verizon. And no, I won't be switching to AT&T to get an iPhone. I want a physical QWERTY keyboard, not a touch screen.

UPDATE 11.13.08
Bought the Curve yesterday and it'll arrive in my hands tomorrow afternoon sometime.

My brother's family came to town Thursday night to spend Friday in Philly with us. It was the first time my brother has come to visit me since I left NY for college in 1998. That's 10 years. It was nice to have him, my sister in law, my nephew and my niece in town and show them around the place which has become my home for the last 4.5 years.

They got into Philly Thursday night and they were hungry. We went to Aqua which is a short walk from our house. But not for my suburban North Jersey family. The < 10 block walk was killer on my brother who's more accustomed to the 12oz. curl than a 15 minute walk. We made it and had us some nice grub. I had the mee siam which wasn't spicy enough, but tasty.

On Friday, I cooked up a breakfast for 8 which was almost entirely a local meal with ingredients from Fair Food Farmstand at Reading Terminal Market. Scrambled Meadow Run eggs with horseradish cheddar and raw milk cheddar and chives from our herb garden. Home fries with German butterball potatoes and white potatoes along with rosemary from our herb garden and fresh thyme. A good helping of unsalted cultured butter and olive oil to start everything off in the pan. Half of a dried chile pepper and a white onion and a candy onion. Some fresh pumpernickel bread and organic spelt bread from Metropolitan Bakery finished off the meal. The organic spelt has quickly become my favorite bread on the planet. It's expensive and a smaller than average loaf, but good god is it packed with hearty flavor.

After we digested for a bit, we took off to Washington Square Park so I could kick around a size 3 soccer ball with my nephew who is in the middle of his soccer season. He's pretty good. I was on my town's all star team at his age and my nephew will be trying out for his travel team next year. After my brother caught his breath from the walking, we got up again to head to Old City.

We stopped by Independence Hall for some pictures outside (sold out for the day) and we walked across the street to take a look at the Liberty Bell (line was too long). We strolled down Market St as I pointed things out all along the way. It's amazing the things you learn about the city you live in if you pay attention. My brother was intent on having a Philly cheesesteak so we headed to Campo's. I was too full for a cheesesteak and had an Italian hoagie, but my brother trudged on and chomped one with the works down. We took a walk down Market St to Reading Terminal before 4p and were able to see the market at it's height of bustling with all the Dutch Market still open, but not on the level of Saturday afternoon crowded - way too much for me.

After all that, most of us needed to lie down for a bit so back home we went. My brother had to work on Saturday and my nephew had a Saturday soccer game and Sunday football game so off they went back to Northern Jersey. It was wonderful to see them and show them around. Having guests over is always fun. It always feels like I'm the one on vacation too a little bit.

I'm watching the live noon 6ABC telecast of Mayor Michael Nutter's address to the City of Philadelphia regarding the newly announced $1B shortfall in the budget of the city's 5 year plan. The day after the America elected it's first black president, Nutter had a closed door meeting with the entire City Council (which the Inky/DN have sued to release). The full text of the address is online here for those who missed it.

Nutter addressed the $119M budget surplus when he stepped into office 10 months ago, but the recent economic downturn turned recession has sent the world's stock markets plunging to 1/3 to 1/2 in value. He noted how cities like NYC, LA and Chicago are undergoing similar budget restrains. In regards to Philadelphia's budget problem, he outlined the current situation. There is currently a $108M+ gap in this fiscal year's budget which will only grow with each year for the next five. The City's annual budget is $4B, but 58% of that budget is locked in leaving just $850M in discretionary spending for the rest of the year from which $100M in savings has to be found.

Here's what Nutter is asking of his staff, City employees to address 55% of the gap:

1. Asked City Council to suspend tax reductions into mid-2015, maintaining $220 million in tax revenue during the period.
2. Requiring exempt City employees earning more than $50k to take five furlough days without pay this year and again next year.
3. The Mayor, his staff and his cabinet will take salary cuts along with furloughs

The remaining 45% of the gap will be made up in program cuts, but stressed that there will be no police or fire layoffs, no fire station closings and no reduction in emergency medical services.:

1. Cuts in police overtime and not fill 200 vacant positions, Town Watch will have 50% cuts, with cuts in fire overtime a reduction of 5 engine companies and 2 ladder companies
2. 11 library branches will be closed and Sunday hours reduced elsewhere
3. 62 of 73 outdoor pools and 6 of 7 indoor pools will be closed in the summer, in winter 3 ice rinks will be closed unless private monies can be found
4. less money for streets resurfacing, no residential streets cleaning, no snow removal of tertiary streets, no bulk/tire collection.
5. 220 layoffs in the City and 600 vacant positions will be unfilled; eliminate 1,660 seasonal part-time jobs and 570 contractual non-city jobs

He also noted the positive change that will come in the coming months:

1. 200 more police on the streets in January
2. More money for schools via increased parking revenue
3. Wage tax decrease due to gaming revenue
4. The new 311 system

He also announced his intention to President-elect Obama for help for America's urban populations as well as putting together a proposal for the U.S. Treasury Department to use some of the $700B bailout plan to help the cities of America recover.

More from Philly Clout.

Wake up Philly, it's time to live in the real world.

I still can't believe it really happened. It hasn't fully sunk in just yet. I'm still too tired. I was up at 6.15a on Tuesday and didn't go to sleep until 2.30a Tuesday; I could still hear the party going on 1.5 blocks west on Broad St just south of City Hall. I had to get up at 6.15a again for work and had a full day after work too.

At work at the Fair Food Farmstand, my fellow co-workers were quite pleased with the results. We exchanged stories from the night. I spoke with some of the people at the stalls around the way too. Some watched it, some listened to it, some got calls from friends with updates. All were so happy. I met two women who came down from Brooklyn to work on the Obama campaign. They were stationed out in Mayfair since the primary. They told me that Mayfair not only turned out for Obama on Tuesday, but also in the primary. I was shocked. They said that they got some nasty responses out there, but they also got some great ones. They were headed back to NY soon with a few pints of fresh heirloom cranberries with which to make scones.

I ordered up an 8" x 10" of this photo of the Philly Chinatown HQ crew for the chief, Anna, and a bunch of 4" x 6" shots for the rest of the team who were still in the Philly area for the time being. I stopped by Photo Lounge to pick up the photos, said hi to the newlywed Pete (that tall, really nice guy in there) and headed over to say goodbye to the Chinatown crew. There were still a few of them there. I passed around the photos to tired yet invigorated eyes. Smiles. I was so happy they liked the end result. I'm honored to have gotten to know that hard working gang. I'm hopeful our paths will cross again in the future.

I'm so proud to have been a small, tiny cog in the machine which worked together to get Barack elected. There were people from Hong Kong, Korea, Canada and all over the US in the Chinatown office working for many weeks. They'll all go home knowing they helped change history - I firmly believe for the better.

I've been sick for the last few days and been surviving on CVS brand DayQuil and Ricola cough drops. I'm ready for a nice long sleep. But I got a call today for a freelance photo gig in SW Philly. And my brother's family is coming to town Thursday night to visit for the first time and I'll be working all weekend after that. I'm gonna sleep as long as I can for now though.

So proud to know that my buddy from college, Austin, and his main squeeze, Liz, kicked butt in Albuquerque, NM

Best of luck to Al Franken in his fight for an important Senate seat in Minnesota.

But I'll end this post with some initial worry about President-elect Obama's pick for Chief of Staff: Rep Rahm Emanuel - blech. That's not the kind of change I was looking for. Now to start pushing for some real healthcare reform: I'm talking about single-payer universal healthcare. So much work to be done.