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So as most of you may know, my best friend in the entire universe @ElizabethMarley moved to Portland today. She didn’t want a going away party, but I felt the need to do something special for her. I made this video to show her how much I’m going to miss her. This just shows the stupid thoughtful things I do for my friends.
I <3 Elizabeth and Jo and Linzy and Bianca and all my pretty friends yay yay yay.
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After violence erupted outside an expensive/trendy apartment complex this Sunday night, killing one man and scaring many of the towers’ residents, this comment appeared on the complex’s Facebook page.
This was not the first tenant I had seen begging to get out of a lease because of danger, a bad environment or lack of assistance from management. Because it was interesting in the context of the fatal shooting, I posted a screenshot on my Twitter account and was immediately blocked by the Piazza’s employees and the woman’s comments since have been deleted from their page.
Curbed.com’s Liz Spikol (she’s awesome) looked into it today in this post. Great job! I’m not sure what the legality is in this situation, but it’s interesting to see these stories come out about the Piazza at Schmidts. Two years ago, when I was about to graduate college, I briefly thought “this would be the coolest place to live!” and was enticed by the dorm-like feel and party atmosphere. I’m about to turn 24 and that’s just not my style any longer — but I am fascinated to hear the real stories behind what life is like there.
For context, I’m moving in three weeks to a semi-quiet street roughly five blocks from here (three up, two over).
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Happy Birthday to the Phanatic, who made his MLB debut on April 25, 1978.
Related: Baseball Stories on Fresh Air
Phillies Parade 2008 (by Jordan M Photo)
“Please help me! I am an undersea king!”
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This afternoon I had a miserable experience at Boyds (1818 Chestnut St.), a high-end department store in Center City Philadelphia. Here is the email I just sent them.
Here’s a letter about racism, classism and discrimination, alive and well in Philadelphia. You should read it. Drew’s a great writer.
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LOOK AT THISSSS.
I touched the grass at CBP. I busted my anticipated 5k time by 5 minutes. Roy Halladay wished me a good race. What a great day. The best.
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Oh hayyy. I worked on this pretty thing, bit by bit over the past few weeks.
It launched Monday and was written about a few times since then.
- NewsWorks (and featured on the air on the NewsWorks Tonight show)
- NBC Philadelphia and on air here, at the 1:35 mark.
- Technically Philly
- Rittenhoused
- Philebrity
- UWishUNu
I’ve seen folks saying it’s silly to get excited about “virtual flair,” but that’s not really what I’m excited about.
I’m excited about the ability to work on a fun collaboration, with two companies/groups I admire, from both a business and creative sense.
I think the idea of city-focused campaigns is fun and unique, and from having some insider knowledge of how the Visit Philly/GPTMC campaigns have positively affected local tourism (thousands upon thousands of badges unlocked by visiting local spots, among other online engagement), this little project has potential — way more complex than just “earning a reward in a social media game.”
Additionally, it’s so cool to me that a major company (worth approx. $600 million) took notice of work that Geekadelphia did.
It’s exciting that, with the help of Geekadelphia reader submissions, the “official list” includes some of our our favorite independent businesses that might not be on the general public’s radar — Brave New Worlds comic shop, Omoi boutique, Whipped Bake Shop, Atomic City Comics, indie book publisher Quirk Books , among other great new-ish restaurants like Federal Donuts and Khyber Pass Pub.
As time goes on, I find myself less and less inclined to work at a traditional journalism/reporting job, and more inclined to get involved in projects like these, representing a brand or a tech company or a tourism campaign, managing tech-savvy initiatives with real progressive thinking. Certainly not planning a career as a Social Media Guru or Lvl 85 Direct Marketing Internet Shaman or something (thank glob for that), but I do find this type of work fascinating. That’s a shift in focus that I wasn’t expected, but it’s not unsurprising.
Also! Since it was touched upon in the WHYY story, and just for clarification: I live in New Jersey. Born and raised there, moved all over creation (including eight Garden State towns), and briefly briefly lived in Queen Village last year, but right now I’m perched smack in the middle of the South Jersey suburbs with my parents and my cat and whole piles of boxes that won’t be unpacked for a while. And, though it’s hard for some to grasp, where my mail currently goes doesn’t determine where I feel most at home. Nor does it make my my passion for (and writing about) a city any less genuine. Which is why I continue to pour my heart into awesome blogs like Geek; they just get me, you know?
(All of that said, I’m actively looking for ways to both live and work in Center City. Jersey will always be my homegirl, but it’s time to move forward in my life.)
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I wrote a cool post on Geekadelphia about a very fun contest sponsored by Foursquare.
Tying in to a recent initiative by the White House to promote tourism through the hashtag #visitUS (yah, for realsies), Foursquare is asking people to make city-specific lists of 20-30 awesome spots, load them up with quality tips and photos and then submit them for review. The best three lists (and the ones with the most followers) will be made into city badges. I made two lists and submitted them, and from the looks of it, we might be the front-runners in this contest.
Badge of Brotherly Love: places to go shopping, grab a meal, watching a flick and learn some history, in Center City, South Philly, Manayunk and beyond.
Geekadelphia badge: 30 of the geekiest spots in the city, like a place to buy toy robots or a 200-year-old museum with the first-ever mounted dinosaur skeleton.
Why should you care? Why does this matter? Well, from first glance, it might seem like a silly contest for a silly reason. But even though I live in New Jersey now, I love Philadelphia so hard in the face (and still sleep there about 3-4 days a week) and have spent quite a bit of time writing about the city and all the great people, projects and ideas that sprouted here — hence the Geekadelphia list of my favorite nerdy, innovative spots. The local and state tourism branches have already expressed how cool this could be to attract people to the area and have been helping promote the idea online the past few days. Awesome!
Anywhoo, please feel free to check them out, promote to friends and give a follow. I promise you will enjoy them, or you’ll get a money back guarantee*.
*these lists cost nothing to follow, so you will instead get a high five or equivalent.
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I know this is a topic, unlike these cheesesteaks, that I’m going to get some very mixed opinions on from Philadelphians. Personally, this pisses me off. If you zoom in closer, you can see both “The Rocky Steps” and the “Philadelphia Museum of Art”, even still though. The Rocky movies were great, sure. But I’d really rather not have our most-revered athlete and/or citizen be some fictional person.
This is a fictional person whose name takes precedence over a real thing in Philadelphia. I understand that’s how out-of-towners and even some Philadelphians refer to the steps leading up to the Art Museum place, but they’re not actually the “Rocky” Steps because “Rocky” wasn’t actually a real person. (Even though Adrian Balboa has a real tombstone in Philadelphia.)
I get it. I know what Rocky Balboa can stand for. However, I’d hope that in the 36 years that have followed since the original film, that we’d have something else more iconic in this city.
Instead of grouping Rocky with real and awesome things like the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin and the Founding Fathers, the Liberty Bell, or hell even the Phillie Phanatic… in my mind the fact we’re constantly associated to Rocky is closer to booing Santa Claus.
Fuck you Google Maps. Are you naming the Empire State Building, “The King Kong Skyscraper?” No, you won’t, because people respect NYC and NYC has self-respect. Enough with the Rocky shit already. Though to their credit, I guess the Rocky statue at the top of the steps doesn’t help diffuse this revering-of-a-fictional-character.
Well said.
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The walk down 2nd to Federal is pretty scenic.
Follow Swabreen Bakr. Right now. So many gorgeous photos of Philadelphia, daily life, design, restaurants, booze. She also blogs for Phrequency.com.
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(Source: philadelphiaphillies)
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But no one was recognizing the folks in the ‘geek’ scene; comic illustrators, indie game developers, local social media marketers, new blogs, podcasts and vodcasts. And these are the sort of folks who I write about every day on Geekadelphia. They’re the folks who do the work that brings unconventional notoriety to our city, making Philly known for indie game dev, a vibrant art scene, a brilliant tech community and so on. In my eyes, they are doing the work that matters.
~ The Philadelphia Geek Awards Are Tonight: What They Are, Why They Exist, & What I Learned Making Them Happen(via joeross)
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I hope that when people think of Phillies fans from now on, they will bring up the entire stadium chanting, “USA”. What a beautiful thing!
This.
(Source: thefightins.com, via ilovephiladelphia)
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Rocky gets yarn bombed.
