May 21, 2009
GQ is about to going to make controversy when its June 2009 issue comes out, featuring an article rating the nation’s top 25 best pizzas.
While the rest of the world freaks out that Chicago beat New York, those of us from Philadelphia should be proud that our city is on the list twice, including an entry breaking the top ten!
Philly’s winners:
#9 – Philadelphia: Tacconelli’s – “White Pie”
#22 – Philadelphia: Osteria – “Zucca Pie”
May 10, 2009
There’s only a short time left to check out The Lantern Theater Company’s production of Hamlet (its run has been extended through May 17), but I highly recommend you do, even if you aren’t that into Shakespeare. In fact, especially if you aren’t, because this production may just change your mind.
This interpretation of Hamlet is a very witty take on the Bard, taking many opportunities to turn the play into a comedy. (I for one loved the inappropriate Gertrude and Claudius make out sessions.) This works seamlessly, not distracting from the otherwise depressing aspects of the show (I would argue that, knowing Shakespeare’s audience and the fact that he left us little to no stage directions in his works, the reason this works so well is because he probably intended that there be more funny moments in his plays then modern critics believe . Pull out your copy of Macbeth, for example, and read it as a comedy. It works, doesn’t it?)
The acting is pretty superb. Every single cast member completely blew me away. Ophelia’s (Melissa Dunphy) performance nearly moved me to tears. And Hamlet (Geoff Sobelle) - wow. Not only is he capable of doing acrobatics I have never seen outside of Cirque du Soleil, but his performance was stunning.
Yes, I said acrobatics up there. It was a high energy Hamlet, with a lot of climbing and jumping and throwing women to the floor and mounting them (true story). I loved the action. It brought a new life to the show that has been done to death over the past few centuries.
To drink blood, or not to drink blood, that is the question.
My only complaints about this Hamlet are minor. It’s setting was listed in the playbill as “in the past,” which allowed some characters to walk around in Medieval dresses, some in WWII uniforms, and let Hamlet dress like Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It didn’t really take anything away from the show, but it didn’t add anything either – it just left the audience a little confused. I also disagreed with some of the interpretations, but I can’t fault anyone for thinking differently than me (again, Shakespeare left little stage directions. Whose to say for sure that Gertrude drinks to save her son or merely because she’s thirsty?)
In short, go see Hamlet. I promise it won’t feel like high school.
April 21, 2009
Easter Sunday once again saw The Zombie Pub Crawl this year, and yours truly was in attendance. I initially was hesitant to go, because my status as a full-time worker makes the idea of getting wasted on a Sunday a little scary, but Rachel Riot won me over with the idea of going as Dharma zombies. And I can’t turn down a Lost reference.
The crawl took on South Street, spread out along four bars – Tattooed Moms, Manny Browns, Lickety Splits, and Copacabana, with an after party at Fluid.
Rachel and I arrived to catch the tail end of the zombie march around the block – led by Zombie Jesus – and then headed to Tattooed Moms. Moms was the site of the zombie makeup station for everyone who didn’t come in costume already, so the front part of the second floor – the room with the pool tables – was packed, while the back room was almost completely empty. This led to an interesting dilemma – is it better to be alone and bored or with the group but unable to breathe. We choose to bypass the question entirely and check out Manny Browns.
Browns was much much less crowed. There were a few scattered groups of zombies throughout the bar, but mostly the patrons were all “normal” people who were trying to enjoy a nice meal or pint and had no idea what they walked into. This made Browns an excellent place to chill out, meet people, take pictures, and enjoy a more calm, social aspect of the pub crawl. For example, Browns was where we met a zombie from Oklahoma who flew into Philly on Easter Sunday just for the crawl.
After Browns we headed to Lickety Splits, which, like Moms, was packed. At this point it was about 9:30 p.m., and some friends of mine reported that they’d just been denied entry from Moms by the bouncer because it was too full. It seemed like everyone else was spilling into Splits (of course, its not the biggest bar in the world, and that probably didn’t help…).
Splits was the site of the most surreal moment of the evening: a room full of zombies singing 99 Red Balloons at the top of their lungs. Is that what the Apocalypse will be like? Will the zombies stop eating me to sing about the Cold War? I hope so.
We got a report that they were playing zombie movies at Copacabana, so we raced over there, pausing to watch two zombies get arrested on the corner of 4th and South. When we got to the bar, a group of people were gathered around the TV screen by the bathroom watching Black Sheep – a film about zombie sheep. The ten minutes I saw of it confirmed that it just may be the greatest movie of all time.
We finished up the night at the after party at Fluid. I’ll admit, I was one of the people who had no idea this club existed before that party (the hidden nature of Fluid gives me the impression that it is some super secret place that only the most hip kids are allowed to know about). In fact, I heard a couple people comment that they weren’t going to the after party solely because they had no idea where it was (the handy pieces of paper with the itinerary that were given out had no address on it). Depending on your perspective, confusing half the zombies and excluding them from the after party was either a great idea or a mistake.
Fluid, by the way, is located on 4th street, right below South. It’s the set of metal stairs in the alleyway next to Latest Dish that looks like its leading into an apartment. In actuality, it leads you into a gray tunnel that opens up into an industrial club. Complete with a stripper!
Fluid was a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the music selections, and dancing with zombies is not an experience one gets everyday and should take lightly.
Best Costumes:
My friends and I were complaining that not many people made their outfits unique. These are the people that get a special shout-out.
~ Zombie Raggety Anne. I only saw her out of the corner of my eye, so she may have been Zombie Wendy from Wendy’s. Either way though, it’s a good idea.
~ Zombie Captain America – Who looked almost identical to the Captain America in Marvel Zombies. Bonus points to you, Sir!
~ Zombie survivors of the Titanic – The Steampunk nerd in me got way too excited by the detail in their outfits. Of course my camera batteries died as soon as I tried to take their picture.
~ Can I give a clearly biased shoutout to my outfit? Zombie Dharma Initiative Kate from Lost. Complete with slips of paper to put over our beer so we were drinking official Dharma product!
We don't mess around.
April 21, 2009
Oh, my sweet blog, I’ve neglected you again! I have a really good excuse this time, I promise, for I was in the midst of house renting hell. My week was nothing but headaches, leases, and legal jargon.
It all worked out in the end though. Come this summer Philly Lush’s base will move from the “deep south” (as I’ve heard this area called) to…erm…the slightly less “deep” South Philly.
Anyway.
A loooong while ago Team Philly Lush participated in the Philly Spring Cleanup. This is that story.
I woke up at 8 a.m. to a text message telling me that two more people had dropped out of Team Philly Lush. We had now gone from a 7 member team to 2. This is clearly not a team to walk into Morder with, let alone a team to help plant trees with. Fortunately for the environment the only person to not abandon me was already in his car driving towards me on 95, so I sucked it up and crawled out of bed.
John and I worked at the Southern High School location. We picked this because it seemed to have the most variety. A lot of places were just about planting trees, painting, or trash picking, but Southern needed all three.
We got to Southern around 9:15 a.m. The tree planting instructor hadn’t arrived yet, so we stood around for a half hour drinking Starbucks coffee and eating apples. The team leader broke us off into little groups, the ones who were allowed to stand around doing nothing while we waited for the tree lady (Go Team Lush!), the painters (where most people went), and the trash pickers.
I could be wrong here, but I don’t remember seeing a single person volunteer to collect trash.
I haven’t seen any official number of how many people the city is claiming volunteered that day, but I feel that it is worth noting that out of the 50 or 60 people there, 80% of them were City Year kids. This is not to knock City Year in any way. I just think its worth being honest that the “city” didn’t really volunteer (at least in our location, obviously I can’t bi-locate. Yet.), a couple people volunteered and a lot of people were required to be there.
Anyway, the tree lady showed up and I learned that planting trees is hard. You’d think common sense would have let me know that by now, but please remember I’ve spent my entire life living in a city and have never had a yard of any kind – not even the yards most of my friends have that are the size of a box and completely concrete.
There’s an amusing story my mother likes to tell about the first time I went to see one of her friends in Jersey. I got out of the car and immediately started pulling the grass out of her front lawn. Apparently I was aghast that her entire house was surrounded by the weeds I help my mother pull out of our sidewalk.
Again, I digress. So Team Philly Lush and girl-whose-name-I-forget-let’s-call-her-Sue are now stuck with the task of planting this tree, which will apparently die if we do one of a thousand things wrong. The people that knew what they were doing threw us some tools and walked away.
Reason #1 that you don’t throw down tools and walk away (this is a real conversation):
me: I know you two are going to make fun of me for this. But…ok, see that hoe *points at it*. I know what its called, and I know its used for gardening…but…what the hell do we do with it?
John: Uhhhhh…..
Sue: *awkward shuffling around*
me: Awesome. This is going to end well.
Reason #2 would be when we started digging up the dead roots from the old trees that were in the lot.
Reason #3 was when John and I were informed that we were using the wrong kind of shovel. Apparently there are different kinds of shovels! It’s this kind of knowledge that makes the idea of having a yard in my future house both exciting and terrifying.
Using the correct shovels!
Thankfully, it all worked out in the end. I now know that there are different kinds of shovels and what each one is used for. The tree didn’t die. And we got lots of free coffee. John and I were even “volunteered” (note the quotations. It’s like when you volunteer for something in high school because if you don’t you’ll fail the class) to prep the hole that Mayor Nutter was going to use for his photo shoot…that he was an hour and a half late for.
Don't look so smug, Mr. Nutter. We know who dug that.
I would definitely recommend doing the Spring cleanup next year. Even though this entry feels like it reads a little cynically, we both had a lot of fun, and got a nice sense of accomplishment out of it. I walk by that tree we planted every day on my way home from work, and its nice to know I actually did something.
P.S. I’m keeping a list of the weird ways people have found this blog (there are way too many people out there who search for “sexy Tauren”). I wonder how many people will search for hoes…
April 13, 2009
Harry Kalas, longtime announcer for the Philadelphia Phillies, died around 1 p.m. today. ESPN has more information here.
April 6, 2009
Thanks to everyone who participated!
April 1, 2009
Governor Ed Rendell announced he is considering proposing a bill to make medical marijuana legal in Pennsylvania.
*Edit* APRIL FOOLS!
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
March 30, 2009
Step right up ladies and gentlemen and find out the final two contestants in Philly Lush’s March Madness.
And the winners are… *drum roll*
Melrose Diner vs. The Phillie Phanatic!
Who will be crowned grand champion? The humble South Philly diner or the flamboyant green…alien…thing?
Vote in the final round now by e-mailing phillylush1@gmail.com. Voting ends Saturday, March 4th.
