philly

So we've been looking at places to get hitched for the last couple of months (it's going to be a small dinner for family and a few close friends) and one of the spots people suggested was Davio's. This is the view from their Skyline Patio which is connected to the Chairman's Room which just might be the perfect spot.

The backdrop for photos would be pretty awesome if the weather holds up on whatever day we choose to do this thing. But we'll have to head back to have some eats to see if the rest of the experience is nice.

I'm proud to call the City Paper's food reviewer David Snyder a friend of mine. We met through food blogging, he escalated the ranks via PhilaFoodie where he demonstrated his passion for food and drink while paying excellent attention to detail in his prose.

I can't stand wine snobs and while Dave loves his wine, he's no snob. He's the first guy I can actually listen to talk about wine. He's excited about it, generally enthusiastic. I still vividly remember meeting him for the first time at a food blogger potluck when he brought a few bottles of vino for the gang to taste test. He didn't tell us how much each bottle cost or it's Wine Spectator ratings. He simply poured glasses, asked us what we tasted and refined our words with hints of this and notes of that inviting us into the conversation through each wine's bouquet and terroir.

I love telling friends about David's enthusiasm for wine and direct them to his reviews which almost always include PLCB numbers for easy access to what he's describing. Dave knows the limitations of PA's arcane liquor laws, but he makes the best of it.

He's busy with some stuff concerning his day job right now, but be on the lookout for a Snyder review. And if you're seeing this post form somewhere out in Yinzerville, Dave's hometown magazine is running a story with the same photo as above. Dave came over to my place, bottle of deliciously mushroomy vino in tote, for a photoshoot. We had a good time setting up shots shielding his mug with a CP. I thought it would be funny to stick a big old honeycrisp apple in the middle of a table setting, complete with bottle, in the shot.

For Halloween this year, I headed to a friend's house in South Philly for a murder mystery Halloween dinner party. The 2 friends are volunteers at Fair Food Farmstand where I work. They throw fun parties so I thought this would be a good one and I wasn't let down.

The setting was a high school reunion in the 1950s. Each of the 8 dinner goers was assigned a character. I was Del Toydes (get it?), the jock. Kate was a floozy from the wrong side of the tracks.

At the end of the night me and one of the hosts, Julia, guessed the murder correctly. We were pretty drunk by that point and we were all drunkenly screaming at each other during each round of play (where we were all fishing for clues and dropping tidbits of information). So, I won!

A flickr set of memories from the night. The shot above is our "class picture" heh.

The Venerable Losang Samten is back in Philly (my previous run ins with Losang here and here – he's a friend of a friend), this time at UARts creating another Buddhist mandala. From UArts:

The Venerable Losang Samten, spiritual director of Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia, will create a Kalachakra, a Tibetan sand mandala, at the Open Lens Gallery of Gershman Hall (401 S. Broad St.) at the University of the Arts over the course of the next month, as an offering to the city of Philadelphia. The event is sponsored by the University of the Arts and the Gershman Y.

I ran into Losang on election day (UArts is my polling location) and chatted with him for a minute after voting. He allowed me to snap a few frames off and I let him get back to work. It's relaxing to watch him work. He rakes one steel rod against another to intricately drip colored grains of sand to create the richly colored mandala.

Samten will be in town until around Thanksgiving.

Above is the November 2009 issue of GRID Magazine. It's the 9th issue of this very cool new magazine about urban sustainability with a focus on the Philly region. I've been fortunate to be a part of the magazine through my photography. I think I've had my photos in 4 issues or so. But this time around, I snagged the cover shoot.

The cover story is about Sarah Van Aken of SA VA Fashion. Van Aken manufactures local, organic designs out of a Center City shop above her 2 story retail shop at 1700 Sansom St. I got to take a look at the innards of her manufacturing floor equipped with 2 lines of sewing machines and other pieces of equipment I've never seen before. I set up 4 different shots in about 40 minutes and got the shot. I was happy with the shots and had fun doing it.

Van Aken makes some nice designs. I've been through her blog and taken a quick peek at the 2 floors of retail space. There are some very cool designs in there. It's well worth a stop in if you're in the area.

Some more shots from the shoot in this flickr set. Print editions of GRID can be found all over town in places like Capogiro, Fair Food Farmstand, TLA Video, Mugshots, Metropolitan Bakery, Old City Coffee and similar spots.

I'll be writing a short piece for next month's Grid about urban chickens!