Well, every town is all the same

South Philly

July 3
I finally visited Alex and Nate over the weekend in Philly. The 4th of July is probably the best weekend to visit Philly right? Meh...not so much. We forgot that almost everything is actually closed on the fourth.

I took a Chinatown bus to Philly and let me say it was the worst thing ever. I was half thinking of driving to Philly and once I got to Chinatown immediately regretted not doing so. A lot more people than usual were traveling on the 3rd and there were not enough space for any of the per hour Chinatown buses (to anywhere). It was basically a mad rush to get on the bus when it came. Luckly I didn't have any bags except my backpack so I was able to just go right to the front, ahead of the suckers who had to put bags under the bus. It filled up quick. I was at the end of the cut off.

I also choose the worst possible time to take the bus- the 6pm bus. Fucking Manhattan rush hour. It took an entire hour to get from Chinatown to the Holland Tunnel. It's supposed to take 2 hours to get to Philly! Uggg, and AC in the bus was like half-on also.

So the bus stopped in Philly Chinatown. Alex and Nate came to get me and we walk like 2 blocks to their apartment, in Chinatown. I almost cried when Alex told me how much the pay for rent. They live with third roommate, Mimi (Michelle) and they have 3 rooms, a living room, kitchen and attic. Nate took the attic as his room so there is an empty room in the apartment now. The rent for this place is less than the average rent for a shit studio that I can't afford in Park Slope.

"Move to Philly", Nate said. I seriously considered it for like a second. "Do they have any alt weeklies here I could work for?". HA. After I put my stuff down, we went to Center City. One of the nicer parts of town and were people usually "go out". We went to a Belgium Beer bar called Eulogy. It was pretty awesome. They had the biggest European beer selection I've ever seen outside of Europe. More than any place in NY I've been to for sure. There were like 12 beers on tap. They even had Quack and Moretti Rosse in bottles! On the way back we stumbled by the Liberty Bell and stuff. I didn't take any photos.

July 4th
So as I said, most food places were closed. Alex and I just walked around the city and explored a bit. We walked by the American Apparel in the shopping district and went in to take a look. How unsurprising that all 3 hipsters in Philly work at the store! No seriously, haven't seen any hipsters all weekend except for at American Apparel. Do they import these kids from NY?



Alex also bought this shirt (not at AA) that he wore in this portrait I took of him. Yes they live .5 blocks away from the Philly Chinatown arch, and right behind the local small music venue The Trocadero, where RZA as Bobby Digital is playing Monday and She & Him is playing at the end of the month. Could you ask to live in a better location? Geez.


Nate in his studio space. Yes, he's still making the same type of stuff.

We then went to meet up with Nate at the Clay studio, which is next to the "oldest street in the USA".


U-S-A! U-S-A!

The Clay Studio has a balcony that overlooks this street. We got Alex's car and drove around to South Philly and walked down South Street for a bit. That area is kind of nasty. Reminds me of the main drag in Camden Town, London a bit.

We also drove by Pat's and Gino's but didn't stop and eat there. Instead we went to a bar called Skinners and had a few drinks. We got cheesestakes at Sunny's. I gotta say, it was one of the most bland cheesestakes I've ever eaten. What a massive disappointment. I ordered it with provolone and they didn't even melt it really, plus there was not enough of it in the steak. Next time we'll have to go to Pat's or Gino's. Then we went back to Skinner's and had more drinks.

For some reason the fireworks on the 4th were at the art museum and not on the river. The river fireworks were going to be on the 5th. But it started to rain a bit as Alex and I walked back to Chinatown and we were drunk so we didn't bother walking to the art museum, which I heard was a hike from where we were.

So we got a six pack and went back to the apartment and hung out with Mimi for the rest of the night. And that was the highlight of the entire trip.