Dept. Of Festival Porn: Second Street As We Shall Know It On Saturday

Alexis from Popped! Philadelphia just sent us this map laying out the vendor route along part of North Second Street for the big 2nd Street Festival, just south of where we’ll be for the Sync Stage at The Piazza At Schmidt’s. Whoa Nelly. Quite a lot going on. Click to enlarge.

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Right Now On Phoodie.info: Franklin Fever

“The Franklin isn’t just another bar, pumping out Kanye remixes for girls whose major cultural touchstone is The Hills and boys who still haven’t gotten the memo regarding untucked striped-button downs and lame Ed Hardy gear. No, by this definition, The Franklin is not a bar at all: The Franklin is a restaurant where they only serve booze. And there’s nothing else quite like it in the city.”

All this and more — plus the Phoodie Restaurant Guide and Phoodie Calendar on Phoodie.info, the new food and drink blog from Philebrity.

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PSA: Help Iranian Hipster Revolutionaries AND Piss Off Some IT Dudes In One Easy Step!

Re-Tweeted from everyone:

If anyone is on Twitter, set your location to Tehran and your time zone to GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location/timezone searches. The more people at this location, the more of a logjam it creates for forces trying to shut Iranians’ access to the internet down. Cut & paste & pass it on.

It’s easy and fun and it might even help someone from getting killed. Power to the people, right on.

Previously: Get Your Piece Of The Iranian Twitter/Hipster-Powered Revolution At 5PM Today In Rittenhouse; Wear Green

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Today’s Vibe: Old Issues Of Granta

One of the great things about sitting through a week-plus of industrial-strength, weather-induced melancholia is that it will, invariably, drive you straight to the bookshelves. And while Granta just released its 106th issue — a pretty stellar fiction roundup — today we doff our caps to the other 105 issues of the UK-based periodical, one or more of which is currently under a bed or at a yard sale near you. We’re not sure what it is, but old issues of Granta seem to be lying all over the place, like broken printers or pennies, with one crucial difference: Old issues of Granta can fill up whole stretches of wasted hours, and you can read them over and over. And you’re never going to throw them away, because they’re books. You’d throw away CDs before you’d throw away books. (Note to the world: Throw all of your CDs away today. Seriously. Get over it.) Lately, we’ve been especially taken with a few different old Grantas: Granta 80: The Group, Granta 81: Best of Young British Novelists 2003 and Granta 68: Love Stories. We’ve read everything in them at least twice. And we probably will again. After all, it’s going to rain again sooner or later.

Today’s Vibe is a new regular post category on Philebrity, named after our long-lost podcast series, which we really need to dig up and listen to again. In these posts, we will discuss things — songs, people, colors, vibes — that we are into on that particular day. If you feel like you know what today’s vibe is and would like us to consider it, share it with us by emailing tips[at]philebrity[dot]com with “TODAY’S VIBE” in the subject header.

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Powerball Slumber Now More Common Than Swine Flu

When it comes to Powerball, a Montgomery County woman proves that once again, it’s not about whether you win or lose… it’s about the thrill of buying and hoarding the tickets. Palmira Nicolo of Wyndmoor fell victim to the tranquilizer-like effects of playing Powerball, taking it slow and not cashing in her $46 million-winning ticket purchased way back in February until now. Palmira follows in the footsteps of Brenda Stover of New Cumberland, Cumberland County, who recently went through her collection of old Powerball tickets kept in a shoebox — ponder that for a moment — to find and redeem a year-old winning ticket the day before it expired. While Brenda’s winning ticket was worth $400,000, she surely cannot put a price on the sentimental value of her used ticket collection. She probably considered that ticket to be her own personal Honus Wagner card and had a great internal struggle over whether to sell it or hold onto it, hoping it would become a family heirloom and appreciate in value. Luckily, both Brenda and Palmira snapped out of their Powerball-induced stupors in time to claim their winnings. But what is it about Powerball that makes people buy tickets and not check them? Is it really some strange love of “rescuing” non-winning tickets? Can somebody clue us in, because we just don’t get it.

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Readers Cameraphone: WTF Is Just Another Stop On The Road To The Canine Fecal Death Act

Says our reader, who was nice enough to show us where this is on Google Street View: “Apparently dog shit is a problem on American St.” Hey man, dog shit is a problem everywhere, until you do something about it.

Seeing something around town of note? Cameraphone it to: tips[at]philebrity[dot]com.

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Make Your Mark On Philly (In A Good Way)

Still looking for a way to spend your Sunday while recovering from your Saturday? If taking part in an activity that the whole city of Philadelphia will appreciate for many years to come sounds worthwhile, a good option would be to head over to the Allens Lane Art Center, where the artistically skilled and unskilled alike will gather together to paint This We Believe, a mural designed by artists Eric Okdeh, Michelle Ortiz, and Kien Nguyen. The mural is the winning entry in the City-Wide Mural Project organized by the Mural Arts Program, which is responsible for thousands of beautiful (and some mindbendingly awful) murals across Philly. (Though we can all agree that mural-democracy might be the best thing to happen to the MAP in quite some time.) After This We Believe is complete, it will be displayed first in the North Waiting Room at 30th Street Station and then at the Gallery at Market East; in September, it will be divided up and installed in its permanent neighborhood locations. Even if you can’t make it on Saturday, you still have several more opportunities to help paint (hey, it’s a really big mural!):

• Sunday, June 21 at the Allens Lane Art Center, 601 W. Allens Lane, 10 am – 1 pm.
• Saturday, June 27 at the John Perzel Community Center, 2990 St. Vincent Street, 10 am – 1 pm.
• Sunday, June 28 at Wall St. International, 1431-39 N. 52nd Street, 10 am – 1 pm.
• Wednesday, July 1 during Sunoco Welcome America, Franklin Square, 6th and Race Streets, 1 pm – 3 pm.
• Saturday, July 18 at Colombus Square, 12th and Wharton, 10 am – 1 pm.
• Saturday, July 11 at The ARC/PDDC, 2350 West Westmoreland Street, 10 am – 1 pm.

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Noontime Nuggetz: Hey Everybody, It’s Teens Rock Dance Party!

Teens Rock Dance Party is this totally awesome little locally produced television show which does the only thing television was ever good at: Showing young people dancing to current records. It airs on WMCN TV down in Atlantic City, but they just uploaded tons of clips to YouTube that will fill your heart with light and love and almost make you forget it’s been raining for over 192 hours now. You’re welcome.

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Readers Fwd: Or, We Could Just Do The Philly.com Readers Survey Here And You Could Go Screw Yourself With Those Philly.com “Points”

Dear Philly.com visitor,

How many times have you wanted to give Philly.com a piece of your mind? Or wanted to tell us to keep up the good work?

Here’s your chance. We’ve created a panel that includes Philly.com visitors and Inquirer readers that we will use to test how we’re doing, and we’d like you to be a member. When we have a question we’ll invite you to answer a short survey. Our surveys will cover information from the newspaper as well as the website, so you can decide how often you participate. Each survey should only take about five minutes to complete.

We’d like your opinion whether you visit Philly.com regularly or occasionally. The surveys will have questions about whether you read articles, visit various pages, or view advertisements and what you thought of them.

Plus, you’ll get points for participating in the surveys, and once you accumulate enough you can get Philly.com-related prizes.

To join the panel, simply click on the link below and you will be taken to the registration website for RAM Panel; an independent organization that will collect and distribute the results anonymously. If your software or computer does not support the ability to click the link below, please copy and paste it into the address field of your Internet browser.
http://go.philly.com/inquirerpanel
If you have any troubles connecting to the website or in the registration process, you can call our panelist help desk at 1-877-716-7005 for assistance.

Thank you,

Philly.com

We heard that if you get enough points, you can redeem them for a turd-shaped Beanie Baby.

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This Will Go Nicely With Your Burping Contest: The Brutaltron Bicycle Booze Cruise

At some point on this site over the last few years, we know we’ve made mention of this simple (if shameful) fact at least once before: There is nothing so wonderful and so free as riding your bike around this old town while shitfaced. Yes, it is irresponsible, it is dangerous, and it is most definitely illegal. But so is anything else that is part of your birthright of fun. It is with this moral dilemma in mind that we present for you approval/disapproval the 1st Annual Brutaltron Booze Cruise, which is basically a bunch of people getting together to get hammered and ride bikes around with the vague notion that this is a game/scavenger hunt/whatever. Here’s how it works:

there’s going to be 8 bars and 1 secret stop you need to stop at….at each bar there will be a drink special $1 or $2 beers, or whiskey special…the bartender will sign off on your manifest and you ride to the next bar…at the end of the race theres going to be a sweet prize for 1st place, first person that finishes with his/her manifest 100%..

Like we said. This all goes down the weekend after next, when we will all still be in this weird, rain-infested mid-recession mood and you will still think this is a good idea. We’re right there with ya, buddy. Just don’t forget to put your kickstand up. Ow.

Previously: The Way We Live Now: Burping Contests

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Least Sympathetic Group Of People In The World About To Solicit Your, Uh, Sympathy

They’re called City Employees, and if they strike — and they could — it will be full-blown armageddon time in Philly: Trash won’t get picked up, potholes won’t get fixed, your important forms and papers will not be filed, and… it will be just like it is now. Only with more public union groaning, which is already ramping up. Here’s Pete Matthews, head of the largest union, District Council 33, who, more than anything, wants you to know that he does not like the cut of Mayor Michael Nada’s jib:

“I just don’t like the way the mayor has been operating. It seems like the mayor wants to dictate terms instead of sitting down and negotiating. [...] We don’t stand for concessions.

So, wait: You want to sit down and negotiate, but you will not stand for concessions, which are the reasonable and expected and, in fact, defining outcome of any successful negotiation. And you work for the City. Got it. Thanks.

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The Rain: It’s A Part Of Us Now

Oh, hey, maybe you heard: It’s raining. And has been for quite some time, and will continue to do so for quite a while, and we may even break a record for most consecutive days of rain in Philadelphia ever. If Facebook updates are anything to go by, today would seem to be the day when many Philadelphians hit their breaking point with it: If you are susceptible at all to any kind of seasonal affect disorder (and pretty much all humans are), by now, you’re aggressively depressed, you’re freaking out a little bit because you think that God thinks that you deserve this (you’re right, he does), and you’re starting to wonder if the clouds will ever part. We asked around, and they are not. Here at Philebs, as you might imagine, we’re starting to freak out a little bit over the fate of the big fest in NoLIbs on Saturday, and you’re also probably thinking that here is where we will tell you what the plan is in the event of rain, which indeed is forecasted. There is no plan. We are aggressively depressed. We’re freaking out a little bit because we think that God thinks that we deserve this. And we’re wondering if the clouds will ever part. We’ll let you know how that goes.

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That Bacon Brothers/Mummers Song: Not Good

Now, Lord knows we love us some Kevin Bacon. And when I say “love,” you best believe I mean L-U-V. But this whole thing about The Bacon Brothers recording a song to raise money for the Mummers, well, it touches on some things that we’ll probably always just have to agree to disagree about with some of our fellow Philadelphians. But we can table that question for a moment in favor of a more salient question: Is the song any good? Answer: Probably not. If you go over to the Bacon Brothers’ MySpace page, you can hear an earlier recording of “New Year’s Day,” the tune in question, which sounds like nothing so much as a beer commercial or something you’d hear cranked up for a few seconds as ESPN goes to break. (Six of one, half dozen the other.) Now, granted, the addition of banjos and accordions and upright bass can always help a poorly written tune — just ask The Decemberists — but if you were looking for the tune that, once and for all, would be your Mummers anthem, your ode to overdoing it, your paean to pissing in the streets, well, this is probably not it. On the other hand, there’s always The Pogues.

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This Just In: Waterfront Wednesdays This Summer At Penn Treaty Park!

Philebrity is pleased to be the official media sponsor of Waterfront Wednesdays at Penn Treaty Park, a summer concert series that will be starting up next month and taking you through August. We’ll have more info and other fun stuff as the series draws closer, but in the meantime, click on the graphic above for lineup and dates!

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Readers Cameraphone: Fishtown Holding Strong As An Oracle Of Wisdom On Race Relations

Spotted at the Belgrade Tavern, and we’re sure neither Nails or Apollo could possibly be prouder.

Seeing something around town of note? Cameraphone it to: tips[at]philebrity[dot]com.

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Get Your Piece Of The Iranian Twitter/Hipster-Powered Revolution At 5PM Today In Rittenhouse; Wear Green

Like you, we’ve been groaning all week as NPR has droned on and on about the role Twitter (it’s always fucking Twitter with you media people these days, isn’t it) is playing in what’s happening in Iran right now. But then we read this piece in yesterday’s NYT that breaks down how this is playing out, and we have to say, it’s pretty astounding. Highlights include:

“It is easy for Twitter feeds to be echoed everywhere else in the world,” Mr. Zittrain said. “The qualities that make Twitter seem inane and half-baked are what make it so powerful.”

And the article’s accompanying photo (thumbnail at right, picturing the Iranian JHN RDN) also reveals that if this is revolution, it’s apparently a revolution made up, in part at least, by Iranian hipsters. Also astounding. Anyway, if any of this is of interest to you in a more meaningful way than this dumb post you’re reading right now, there is a protest to be held on the north side of Rittenhouse Square from 5-8PM today. Maybe you can go to Rouge afterwards.

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Rumblings: This Moment In Douchebags

>>> Oh, look, Bam Margera did a photo shoot with eModa, just in case you were still wondering how to get that ” un-self-awarely out-of-touch moneybags who drops major dollars on post-Ed Hardy silkscreened crap because that’s what the stylist told me to do” look. Bummer. I mean, bammer. [eModa]
>>> And congratulations, Philly Media, there are almost none of you left who haven’t gotten your Arthur Kade ticket punched yet. To which we say: You’re welcome, bitches. Just wait until you hear about how we just made him up and hired an actor to play him. Sike. Or maybe not? [PW]
>>> And finally, if you’re already done with Arthur, allow us to introduce you to LL Cool Tej, who is to Arthur Kade what Jack Lalane is to The Shamwow Guy. [Blogspot]

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Saturday NoLibs 2nd Street Fest/Popped/Philebrity Piazza Thing Update: YES!

In case you haven’t looked yet, philebrity.com/syncstage has loads of details on Saturday’s huge events in Northern Liberties, comprising The 2nd Street Festival, the Popped! Philadelphia stage, and our own Philebrity Sync Stage in the Piazza At Schmidt’s. There’s set times, a partial vendor list, and of course, videos and links to all of the artists performing on our stage. We’ll be updating as we get more info and things change, and we hope to see you all there. It goes without saying as well, that all of this is free, and and we’re pretty sure there’ll be enough free VitaminWater in the Piazza to quench the thirst of the entire Urban Outfitters workforce. So join us, and tell your friends: Click here to invite your peeps on Facebook.

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Noontime Nuggetz (Belated Edition): Lionel Kiddie City, We Miss You So

We’re finding high prices but not finding toys.

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