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Archive: December, 2009
Just wanted to say ... forgive me, mine employer ... thanks to Philebrity.
Last night's Philebrity Awards Show at the Trocadero & Xmas Pageant was awesome â everything about it, but especially getting a chance to meet some of the faces behind the names. (Free Library Director Siobhan Reardon shook. my. hand.)
In one of those "The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice" moments, host Joey Sweeney even uttered the words "City Paper," before releasing a dove into the night sky.
But if you made it out, you already know how awesome it was, and if you didn't, you probably don't care to hear it now. So I'll leave it at that.
But yes, thanks, Philebrity. Good on ya.
We'll let it slide, this time. Don't do it again. Thanks, Management.
When's the Choice party?
congrats again isaiah!
Congratulation, Isaiah! Oh..... and you're fired. Joey? Interested in a reporting gig?
You mean Philebrity is capable of more than publishing pedantic posts that wreak of superficial snark and lack any kind of intelligent criticism of the city other than "This place sucks, look how stupid this place is, look how stupid everyone but us and the folks we hang out with are?" Well, wonders never cease.
Yay, congrats! Well-deserved.
Friday: If none of the DIY goodness of our recent Gift Guide struck your fancy, but you're still digging the spirit, head to Fishtown for the Rock Bass Rainbow Fest, complete with crafts, bands and everything else that makes Tyler students want to move to F-town. The go bad, real bad, with the help of homo Santa at Naughty.
Both Naughty and nice
Saturday: But do Mama's eyes deceive me? Could it be?! TWO GAY SANTAS?!?!? Head over to Giovanni's Room where Samuel R. Delaney (who claims to have boinked over 50,000 men) will let you sit on his lap if you help out the ailing gay book stop. Transitioning from gay Santa to the Nutcracker could lend itself to a litany of both terrible and hilarious jokes. But Mama is classy and will not go thereLook, don't beesmirch my childhood memories. Just go see it.
Sunday: Because Christmas should get in you the giving mood, head to the World Cafe Live for Carry the Fire, a benefit with a full bill of Philly bands to help out the recently shuttered venue. Then round out your holidays-in-full-swing weekend with some grub — or as the French say: grub — with Bistro La Minette's French Christmas Dinner Menu.
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Cutler says that during the pilot phase, bike traffic on Pine and Spruce Streets went up significantly on those streets while car traffic dropped 11 percent. And average speeds, she says, dropped only slightly: "The average vehicle speeds changed by at most two miles an hour, where the speeds changed at all." She says that change is not significant, making the pilot program in her view a success -- so much so that the bike lane concept could expand:
"We certainly are going to take a look at additional east-west streets and try to figure out where else in the city we might want to do this." So the obvious questions are: Where next? And why just east-west streets? I say Fifth and Sixth to connect Northern Liberties and the Northeast with Bella Vista and South Philly would be a good start. Then maybe Walnut and Chestnut west of the Schuylkill to connect University City with Upper Darby. Where do you want a bike lane?
Definitely 5th and 6th!! And: are the "bike" PHL shirts buyable?!
@kim: it appears that they were something you got for registering for Bike Philly. I have an e-mail out to the Bicycle Coalition asking if they're available elsewhere, but they don't appear to be on the BC cafepress page.
Northbound bike lane on 22nd seeks southbound partner on 21st.
You can buy the T-shirts at Eastern Mountain Sports 3401 Chestnut St (215) 382-0930. Bicycle Coalition members get a free shirt - Go to -http://bicyclecoalition.org and click on "Join".
i'd say 3rd and 4th (though re-paving would be key here). 5th would have to deal with the cobblestones at independence mall in addition to the underpass at BF bridge.
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| I'm Isaiah Thompson, and I approve this message |
Come see Isaiah accept his award tonight at the Trocadero, 10th and Arch, 8 p.m.
I can hear him working on his speech right now, and it's a doozie.
Isaiah thanks you all for your votes.
[...] fish balls, chicken gizzards and cattle kidneys. Prices top out at $2.50 (!). Team Meal Ticket and award-winning CP staff writer Isaiah Thompson, who’s a serious connoisseur of Philly Chinatown eats, have [...]
[...] he’s not winning awards, CP staff writer Isaiah Thompson is out eating somewhere. Here’s a shot he took for a piece [...]
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Don't make us do it. We totally will. |
It's your last chance to vote for Isaiah Thompson as best city writer in Philebrity's awards thing. Voting ends at midnight. I suggest you do it now.
[...] previous Vote for Isaiah or the kitty gets it. [...]
Congratulations!!
i hooked it up.
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| STU! |
I haven't been in town all that long, but I'm developing a deep appreciation for my man Stu Bykofsky, over there at the Daily News. Every major media market needs an old, out of touch curmudgeon to yell at the sky, and whether it's a lecture on those damn kids bicycling in your driving lanes, an essay on why Muslims are not belligerently pro-'mercan enough, or a simple rumination on why you should be able to pop a cap in someone's ass if you think you're being threatened because the district attorneys can all figure it out later or something, Stu's your go-to geezer.
So, it was with particular interest and tingly anticipation that I hurried over to Stu's little corner of Philly.com this morning, to uncover his taken on a subject about which I know little, but about which I've been told much: The Mummers. Now, in fairness, I'm not precisely sure what these people do or why anyone cares about them. I gather they have some sort of New Years Day parade, and then everyone goes to South Philly, gets drunk on shitty beer, pisses in the streets and vomits up shell pasta. Also, there are sequins involved, somehow. Do I have it about right?
Apparently, this passes for culture around these parts, so as a newbie Philadelphian is my goddamn duty to enjoy this ⦠um, thing that happens. (In the immortal words of U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, in an interview with this newspaper's "editorial board" back in 2007 when he was running for mayor, "Mummers is cultures!" Or so editor-in-chief Brian Howard recounts. Anyway.) But it seems that the Mummers have come upon hard times. The city, being flat-broke and all, might not be willing to pay for them to frollic in the streets, or whatever it is they do.
Stu, who, you know, has previously come out in favor of parades having to pay their own way, thinks this is bullshit (or, in his generation's vernacular, poppycock, or even horse hockey). See, as Stu tells it, the mummers are special. Why?
The Mummers are a special case. I admit my bias, as a former Mummer marcher and a dedicated parade lover.
Oh, wait, that's not his real reason.
The Mummers, like the now-departed Dad Vail Regatta, bring in more money than they cost the city.
How much? An estimated $9 million, according to an economic impact report from the Center for Forensic Economic Studies.
You can argue the precise amount, but you can't argue that hotel bookings zoom during an otherwise dead time of year; you can't argue the money spent by Mummers clubs on feathers and fabrics, on carpenters and choreographers, on decor and deli.
Economics! OK, I can't quibble with the "hotel booking zoom" thing, because I haven't been here. But it does occur to me that this event happens on New Years, the day after a night where everybody gets positively shit-faced, and since they don't want to drive home and spend the evening in the drunk tank rather than singing Auld Lang Syne and making out with some girl they met at a party, perhaps there are other variables at play in the hotel bookings.
Post hoc, ergo proctor hoc, Stu. Just because two things appear to be correlated, doesn't mean one caused the other. And I'll confess not knowing much about the Center for Forensic Economic Studies, whatever that is, and I'll assume they're on the up and up, but one thing I've learned covering cities the last decade or so is to not put a lot of stock into economic impact studies. Maybe this one's the exception.Who knows? Doesn't matter.
I'm sure the Mummers spend a lot on sequins and feathers and clothes and choreographers — wait, so this thing doesn't happen in the gayborhood? — and eat a lot of shell pasta and drink a lot of lager or whatever it is they imbibe, and that'll probably help out the local economy. But does it do so more than the St. Patrick's Day parade, which sounds like pretty much the same thing, only with green stuff, more booze and less, um, you know, straight dudes in drag?
Stu's got an answer for us there, too:
Most importantly, the Mummers are unique, only in Philadelphia. They are part of our cultural heritage, as much as the Liberty Bell, whether you like them or not.
It's unique. It's culture. It's special. Stu says so. (And he used to be one of them, so he knows.)
Give them whatever they want, Nutter. The sage of the stone age has spoken.
Hey Jeff, Don't you think it's about time you stopped writing about your ignorance for (and disdain of) Philadelphia and started (quietly) learning something? I'm not claiming I agree with Stu, but your condescension isn't any better. In fact, it's worse.
[...] though newbie Jeffrey Billman doesn’t get it, we’ve got some Mummers news for y’all.Hillary Rea, former CP intern extraordinaire and [...]
Yes, Stu Bykovsky can be narrow-minded and short-sighted. Yes, his articles about cyclists and Muslims are poorly-researched. But Billman's article is just as narrow-minded and poorly-researched as any of Bykovsky's. You cannot attack him for being a curmudgeon when you write just like one. If you replace the word Mummers with that of any ethnic group, Billman would righly be accused of prejudice and racism.
this was a really lame post. realy lame. and suprisingly very long for someone who keeps confessing to not knowing what he's talking.
I offer the writer congrats for proving why Philadelphia no longer needs two alt weeklies.
Please. Go back to wherever it is you came from. You add nothing to the conversation here.
Why would a local paper allow an out of towner to write (like an idiot) about a treasured city tradition? Do us all a favor - don't go to the parade. And don't bother writing about it anymore (or anything else related to Philly either). Other than that, keep up the good work and welcome to town.
I like to make fun of stu bykofosky's angry-old-man bit as much as the next guy, but this post coulda used a lot more work, especially since the writer seems to miss the most important part about the Mummers: IT'S FUN. You'll have a much better time here in Philadelphia if you drop the superiority act: no one likes a snob, Jeffrey, especially an ignorant snob who's also a newcomer. It's also not just Stu Bykofsky who says "it's culture". The Mummers have at least a century of history in Philadelphia, and it's part of a traditiont hat goes back even further than that. It's one of the last remaining DIY parades (maybe THE last) in the US. It's a working class celebration: many of those "guys in drag" are union carpenters and electric. they build the floats themselves: it's not funded by macy's or some giant corporation. trashy? yeah, a little. low-brow? definitely, but so what, IT'S FUN. get over yourself dude. Enjoy the parade, and stop looking down your nose at your neighbors.
For the past six years, I have been moving around the US and internationally for school. I grew up in Philadelphia. The Mummers may not appeal to everyone, but it's something unique to Philadelphia and enjoyable while drinking a Yuengling on Broad St. to cure a New Year's hangover. The costumes are very expensive and they rival anything you see at Mardi Gras. The parade adds to the celebration of the New Year, and the Mummers social clubs are popular with my generation (25-35). The Mummers are also part of Philadelphia's identity and something worth affording value, just like the Thanksgiving Day parade. If you want no parades or uniqueness and relatively blandness year round, I advise moving to East Central Illinois. On a further note, over here in Edinburgh (Scotland), you hear locals complain about Hogmanay. It's a waste of time/money, they say, with no cultural or economic value. It's all relative.
Why in the world should a neighborhood organization have it's celebration paid for? I don't understand that. If they can't afford to put up the money for their celebration themselves, tone it down to where they can. I bet just as many peolpe stay out of the city that day, I certainly do, than go into it because of that mess.
Ditto on Phil's point. It's not cute or attractive to personalize your disagreement with a fellow journalist. Calling him an old, out of touch curmudgeon is uncalled for, even if its only purpose is to appeal to your readership base. You should refresh yourself with the meaning of ad hominem attack. Sounds like you are an out of touch quasi-journalist, with a need to use foul language, in a City you ought to acquaint yourself with first before opining.
It is unique, and I have friends who come to Philly just to see it. Granted, they sleep on my floor and don't contribute much to the city's economy, but its a part of Philadelphia culture. As a self-describe newbie, you should be a little less condescending towards the people who already live here with your stereotype of Mummer's and their fans (I don't eat pasta or drink alcohol) Part of living in a city is acknowledging the diversity around you. There is an honest debate to be had over the city paying for the Mummer's Parade....but your tone just makes you sound like some sort of cultural snob.
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| It's meta, dude. |
Disclaimer: I am woefully, scandalously under-qualified to write anything about TV. Until discovering I could watch shows on the internet (and what a discovery!), I hadn't watched TV since the late 90s. Having said that . . .
Anybody else feel like TV's been getting uncomfortably, overtly racist?
I've got two shows in mind: Curb Your Enthusiasm, and 30 Rock â both of which I watch religiously (although - 30 Rock's hurting these days, don't you think?).
And I like those shows! Man cannot live on blogging about casinos alone, you know?
But this racism thing is on my mind largely because it's actually started to upset the flow of those those delicious, smooth TV brainwaves through the old cranium.
You know what I'm talking about: Larry's household being taken over by a black family, and the storyline revolving partially around his trying to get rid of them; the minstrel-like Leon; the cunnilingus-loving Krazee Eyez Killa. Tracey Jordan's stupidity, Dot Com and Grizz's servility, Angie's bitchiness.
It's not like it's hidden, or something: the shows put it right in our faces â I mean, that's supposed to be the whole joke, right? They're not racist, they're meta. It's meta-racism - the opposite of racism.
But I don't really buy it. And yeah, I'm the asshole who's ruining the joke by talking about it: but of the many things that make Curb and 30 Rock hilarious, I gotta say: black people playing crazy black people doesn't top my list.
On a side note, The Office has managed to be witty, meta -- and yet doesn't, I think, do the same thing to its black characters: Stanley and Darryl are as real and fully-developed characters as the others, it seems to me.
Anyway, that's it. What do people think?
Tiger Woods is a racist...he doesn't like black women.
[...] as fun as watching 30 Rock is watching liberals laugh and then think (out loud on their blogs): “Does laughing at the antics of Tracy Morgan make me racist? This might be, at best, a [...]
Isaiah: Thanks for jumping over to my blog to respond to my take on this issue. I thought I'd come over here and offer one more thought. Which is: Good, smart comedy, at its essence, is very often transgressive. It can obviously go too far -- depending on who you talk to, it often does. But because of that, I think that means whenever you mix race and comedy it's inevitable that these kinds of questions will arise. During its day, "The Chappelle Show" seemed a daring take on our collective racial hangups; after Dave gave it up he suggested he'd gotten uncomfortable playing what he'd come to view as a kind of high-tech minstrel show. Seems the comedians are feeling their way forward on this stuff about as uncertainly as the rest of us.
Thanks for the comments - very thoughtful. I'm going to mull them over. Drew, I think you're on to something: the weirdness of perspective in 30 Rock is bigger than just a white/black thing. There's definitely an element of making fun of the ways of the rich and famous, that I find pretty entertaining. It also feels a little like out of touch and slightly prejudiced people making jokes, through their characters, about how out of touch and prejudiced they are -- but still being out of touch and prejudiced in the process.
30 Rock has been a little slow this season, but the most recent episode was really funny. I do not find it to be racist. I genuinely feel Tracy Morgan's character is everything he and Tina Fey discussed having him do on SNL but never got around to. His character at the end of the day is a lampoon of the average uber-wealthy/privileged person, not the average black person.
Yeah I can see that, but there are also jokes about their emotional intelligence and sensitivity, which I have always interpreted the punch-line as "look these big tough guys have feelings too." Those jokes would work just as well if Grizz and Dot-Com were the size they are and a different race. I think with Twofer they make more "People who went to ivy league schools are pretentious jerks" jokes than they make "look at this educated black guy jokes." Also, if you want to talk about race jokes, how many times has Jack told Liz that she looked "ethnic?" (ethnic white as opposed to American white) I feel like all of the characters on the show started as stereotypes and then were developed into more full characters. Jack: Corporate climbing heartless white man Liz: Career woman who doesn't have time for a family Jenna: Crazy Actress Pete: Emasculated married man Suri: Hot girl who doesn't think Kenneth: Backwoods Christian Sure there's racial undertones, but I think they make fun of everyone equally. It's an interesting debate for sure. There's lots of times watching that show when I say "Oh man, I can't believe they went there" and many of those times are about race-related jokes.
[...] Thompson asks a question my dear little elitist liberal heart doesn’t want to contemplate: Is 30 Rock racist? I’ve got two shows in mind: Curb Your Enthusiasm, and 30 Rock â both of [...]
True - but have you ever noticed how sometimes they'll do a joke with Grizz or Dot-Com, where the joke is that one of them can speak a full sentence or say something smart or somethign? Hmm? It's probably less useful to talk about whether things are or aren't "racist," (the way I just did) and more useful to talk about undertones of racism or of racial assumptions, or whatever. Do the writers try to make black characters like Grizz and Dot Com more multi-dimensional? Sure: but at the end of the day, you've got four black men on that show: one fool, two faithful servants, and Twofer - a character who's comedic premise is that he's black and educated. Those are some pretty old-school steriotypes for a show as postmodern as 30 rock.
I think on 30 Rock they represent more crazy boss/suck-up assistant relationships than just Tracey with Grizz and Dot-Com. They have Jack and Jonathon, Jenna and Kenneth, and to a certain extent Liz and Pete. They don't only show black characters in those roles.
That's funny, because I agree our culture's racism is reflected in the media but those are the last two shows I would cite as examples. I'm sorry. I like both of those shows a lot, I think they tackle racial issues in a refreshing way. I think they're progressive. They "play" on stereotypes to some extent but that they also dispel stereotypes by delving deeper into those characters.
OMG! did u see tonights episode? NOW what do u think????
Anyone of you knuckleheads thought about Larry? But it ain't racism 'cos he plays himself. Geez you morons!!!
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| Visit citypaper.net/writingcontest for more information. |
Rules
Fiction: Stories should be 3,000 words or less and previously unpublished. No more than one submission per entrant.
Poetry: One entry can consist of up to five poems.
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Prizes: Winning story and poem will be published in the Dec. 31, 2009, issue of City Paper and featured in a reading. Top two runners-up will be published at citypaper.net. Additional prizes TBA.
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Entering
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You may have noticed that it's raining. That is has been raining. And that it will apparently never ever stop raining stop raining this afternoon.
This morning I went down to the basement to retrieve clothes from the dryer to discover that, for the first time in the year and a half I've lived in my house, there was water in the basement.
Then I got on the 47 bus to get to work and the last available seat was next to a large, lovenly man who appeared to be drunk or hung over and whose boxer shorts (and love handles) were showing just a little too much to be tasteful given his previous characteristics AND who had PLACED HIS SOPPING WET UMBRELLA ON THE AFOREMENTIONED LAST AVAILABLE SEAT. (The guy proceed to fall asleep and belch loudly, all with an open can of Cherry Coke in his hand.)
How was your morning commute?
Julia Harte with your morning fix.
Kensington female cops posing as prostitutes arrested 102 people in a two-week sting, but failed to catch their target: a local man who's been raping and beating prostitutes over the past few months.
In response to increasing rape cases in his country's schools and homes, a Senegalese judge was calling for tougher sentences against rapists, punishments for family members who know about rapes but do not report them and allowing women's-rights associations to bring suits as civil plaintiffs.
The American Civil Liberties Union lost 25 percent of its budget when its largest donor, an anonymous individual who gave $20 million annually to the group, withdrew his gift "due to market conditions".
Websites devoted to online panhandling, a recent and growing phenomenon, were crowded with appeals from parents hoping to get their children something for the holidays without having to beg for money openly in the street.
According to data recently released from Mayor Nutter's office, street homelessness in Philadelphia has declined over the past year, with 135 fewer people on the streets this November compared to November 2008.
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