philly

These are the leads I've found on various news sites around the way within 45 minutes of the end of Obama's first State of the Union address.

NYT: "With his legislative agenda stalled and unemployment stuck in double-digits, President Obama used his first formal State of the Union address Wednesday night to outline his efforts to rebuild a "tested" nation and put more Americans to work."

LAT: "Every Borscht Belt comedian knows that it is best to leave an audience with a zinger that will always be remembered. President Obama, in his best speeches on race and on winning the presidency, did that."

WaPo: "President Obama delivered an urgent plea for unity on Wednesday night during his first State of the Union address, seeking to recapture the energy that propelled him into office — and reverse his party's trajectory on the heels of recent setbacks."

AP: "Declaring "I don't quit,'" an embattled President Barack Obama vowed in his first State of the Union address Wednesday night to make job growth his topmost priority and urged a divided Congress to boost the still-ailing economy with fresh stimulus spending. Defiant despite stinging setbacks, he said he would not abandon ambitious plans for longer-term fixes to health care, energy, education and more."

Chicago Tribune: "President Barack Obama, vowing a new commitment to fiscal restraint while renewing his bid for an overhaul of healthcare, called on Americans Wednesday night to repair "a deficit of trust." "

The Guardian UK: "Barack Obama bowed to public anger against his presidency by using his first state of the union speech to address many of the concerns of voters and to make creation of more than a million jobs the overwhelming priority for the coming year."

WSJ: "President Barack Obama, seeking to recapture the promise of change the propelled him to the White House, returned to his pledges to remake Washington after a bruising first year that saw his approval ratings drop and his ambitious agenda founder."

Times Online UK: "President Obama defied expectations and mounting evidence of disarray in his own Government to declare in his first annual speech to the joint houses of Congress last night that "our union is strong"."

via iconjohn.

Kate and I headed out for some grub at our favorite Mexican spot in the city, Taqueria la Veracruzana 2 weeks ago and were walking back to Center City when we wanted a little sweet something to end the night with. As we walked through the Italian Market, I suggested Chapterhouse Cafe over at 9/Bainbridge (by the way, a MySpace page isn't the best landing page for your business – a basic webpage isn't too hard to put up and keep up, you can even link to the MySpace page for the updates!). Neither of us had ever been there and it's close by to where we've lived for the last 5 years. I'm not a coffee drinker so I don't drop into the many coffee shops around town too much. We walked into the spot, which I've walked by a hundred times, and was greeted by Jessica, the coffee shop brindled pooch. We became buddies.

Our nightcap was a big cup of hot chocolate. We were in there late so, unfortunately, they had run out of whipped cream. Oh well. The hot chocolates came out a little bit on the lukewarm side, but they were tasty.

It's a cool space inside. A row of stools facing back out to 9th St; a middle room, where we sat, with couches, tables, board games and stuff to read.

It's quiet enough to do some studying as one Temple Law school student was doing a couple tables over from us.

Here's Kate sitting in a funky hanging chair thingy outfitted with some IKEA pillows – how do I know they're IKEA? We have one of them, heh.

We settled into a game of Sorry! which neither of us had played in many moons. We just started playing without reading the (simple) directions. A few turns into the game and we realized both of us had forgotten how to play it, but we went on. I read a few of the rules as we played. Kate won the first round – which wasn't a true round since we were just making shit up while we played. I won the rematch – where we played by the rules – so I'm claiming true victory for the night!

What Yelpers have to say about Chapterhouse. Bigger pictures here.

The February 2010 issue of GRID Magazine is now out (official release party at The Abbaye, January 18th 5p – 8p). You can read it online or pick up a print edition somewhere around town (Metropolitan Bakery, Old City Coffee, Fair Food Farmstand…) I took a bunch of photos for 3 different stories. Here are the shots that made it into the book.

Here's a shot of the main dining room of Green Eggs Cafe, 1306 Dickinson Street, in South Philly.

And a shot from the outside of the newly finished space.

Feast Your Eyes Catering has moved from Northern Liberties to Kenzo and now they have a solar array on the roof and a huge event space on the second floor of a former barrel factory.

Here's Lena Helen, founder of the Kensington Community Food Co-Op outside her home in Kenzo. The physical Co-Op is still in the planning stages, but a facility has been decided upon and the membership rolls are filling in nicely.

Here's a shot of the interior of the always stocked to the gills Weaver's Way Co-Op in Mt. Airy; Philly's largest Co-Op.

Another shot of the first floor of Weaver's Way.

A shot of the second floor at Weaver's Way.

The entryway of Weaver's Way. I wanted a different shot, but there was a gigantic delivery truck to my left so I had to make do.

Here's a slideshow of some of the shots that I liked that didn't make it into the stories:

A few shots from my family's Christmas last month. Here's my niece Emily as she's jumping on the chair screaming to have her photo taken. "Take a picture of me!" She later, as per usual, got angry at me for too many shutter clicks "You're taking too many pictures!" Can't please everybody all the time.

Here's my nephew Justin rocking some 3D glasses I got from Kate's family the first time I met them 7 years ago. I had the glasses on my old desk at my parents' house. In the background is our 25 year or so old plastic tree in bokeh.

Here's my nephew Dylan smudging his thumb on my sister's camera lens. Oh I have much to teach him.

Here's my 98 year old grandmother and my dad, her son in law. She knit that sweater vest for him. 98 and still rocking it.

Some more shots from the visit back to NY:

• Learn how to do a wall flip
• Start a photo magazine
• Start interviewing people for NYT 1 in 8M type videos
• On the street photoshoots with strangers
• Travel
• Drink more scotch
• Finally visit my friend Mike in Nashville, TN
• Perform wall flips at parties and randomly on the street
• Shoot more film again

Just some shit I want to do in the next few years.

I have a few images in last month's edition of Grid Magazine. Portraits on pages 16, 17, 18 of

George Hummel of Home Sweet Homebrew

Craig Rosenfield of Loop and Spool

And an old shot of my friend and jarring/canning expert Marisa McClellan of FoodinJars.com.

More shots coming in the January issue which should be out shortly (I hope to post more frequently and in a more timely fashion this year!).

Last month, I took a trip over to check out the new Weave Bridge at UPenn with my friend Andi. She had seen the bridge from I-76 and I had seen my friend Chris's shot over the summer and finally got to see it myself. The bridge was created by Cecil Balmond, UPenn's Paul Philippe Cret Practice Professor of Architecture in the Master of Architecture graduate program, and Arup's Advanced Geometry Unit. The view above is looking SE from the western side of the bridge.

How to get to the bridge, head over to Franklin Field on 33rd St south of Walnut St. Walk along the South St side of the stadium and follow it as it curves to the left and you'll see the bridge across the train tracks. To get to it, you'll have to go over a smaller footbridge over the SEPTA tracks and then walk under the CSX tracks to what's left of Bower Field (totally torn up for redevelopment by Penn) and up the ramp to the bridge.

Here's the view back towards Center City from the Penn side of the bridge. Some more info on the bridge and the structure for the geeks out there.

Stepping onto the bridge, it feels sturdy, but very skeletal. I stomped on the I-beam on the floor and I could feel the whole thing reverberate beneath me. It's impressive to look at up close and it puts a smile on your face to walk inside of it. Amtrak trains pass by every few minutes and don't cause too much of a tremor at all. This section of Penn's campus is going to be quite a sight in a few years.

I laid (lay?) on my back with my widest 20mm f/3.5, sucking in my stomach to get as much of the bridge into the frame. It's a gorgeous structure. After getting home, I realized I failed to take an adequate photo of the outside of the bridge with Franklin Field in the background. Ugh. I'll head back one of these days.

Some more shots in this flickr set.