Good morning, readers, from a Phillyist on a plane, killing time on the way to Louisville via Chicago. Yeah, I know that's really out of the way. But then, so is Louisville. Air travel is generally hated by most people. Strangely, though, today's experience has been almost pleasant. Here's why: (1) Tuesday afternoons in December are apparently an awesome time to fly. Business travelers are out of town, going about their midweek business, and...
Every Tuesday and Thursday, we'll be posting events that are going on sale during the current week. This Tuesday post only collects the early announcements, so definitely check back on Thursday for the latest ticket news. Fiction Plane Chameleon Club, Lancaster Mon, 12/10/07, 6PM $8 On sale: Today, 10AM, Ticketmaster Howard Jones Dennis Flyer Memorial Theatre, Blackwood, NJ Fri, 1/18/08, 8PM $25 On sale: Today, 10AM, Ticketmaster August Burns Red Chameleon Club, Lancaster Fri, 12/28/07,...
Every Tuesday and Thursday, we'll be posting events that are going on sale during the current week. This Thursday post only collects the latest announcements, so definitely check the Tuesday post for any you may have missed.
For our parents, it was the assassination of JFK. Ask any of them and they can remember exactly what they were doing at the time they found out JFK had been killed. I never understood that until September 11, 2001. Our generation can remember it like it was yesterday. For us, that moment, frozen in time, is and will always be 9/11.
What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend.
The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you.
Haven't heard of it? From the same form of racial profiling that results in people getting pulled over for Driving While Black, basically, if you're black and travelling by plane, the odds of having your luggage (or self) searched are significantly higher than the odds white travellers operate with. In 1999, Mos Def rapped about it on his album :
The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, we'll be posting events that are going on sale during the current week. This Thursday post only collects the latest announcements, so definitely check the Tuesday post for any you may have missed.
Earlier this week, I celebrated Restaurant Week by hitting up Astral Plane with some Phillyists. My food was wonderful, and the dining room’s décor was comfy and adorable. But, trust you me, if there is one room in that place that truly reflects the restaurant’s name, the dining room it ain’t.
Today marks the third day of Restaurant Week, and last night, three Phillyists headed over to Astral Plane for dinner. None of us had been there before, despite innumerable recommendations from assorted friends, but we fell in love with the place the moment we sat down. The food would have had to be terrible for us to change our minds. (Fortunately, it wasn't. More of that after the following digression...)
It was a urban photographer's dream.
Having seen my Comcast Center construction documentation page, one of the men working on the skyscraper's construction invited me on site and up the elevators to improve the collection. So on January 2nd, this Phillyist was on the very raw 43rd floor of the Comcast Center for an ironworker's view of the construction progress and amazing views of Philadelphia.
We began by climbing a few staircases and ladders to the third floor to catch the lift that carries equipment and workers to the upper levels. My tour guide contacted the lift operator by intercom to tell him our current location and destination, much like someone would hail a cab: "Jim, I'm on 3, need to go to 41!" There are only two such elevators to serve the entire project, and with large loads of tools and materials that need to share the space with workers, spots on the elevators are at a premium.
It took about 20 minutes for the elevator to finally pick us up. The apparent anger of my host was the source of my entertainment during our wait. Every couple minutes he blared into the intercom, "YO JIM, WHAT THE FUCK!?" A few times, as the completely full elevator passed without picking us up, Jim got a non-electronic variant of the same question.
(This early impression made me think my guide had a pretty short temper. Then, his friendly interaction with the lift operator once we were on board made me realize this is simply the language with which Philly's union construction guys communicate. The knowledge was helpful a few days later, when I received a profanity-laden voicemail from him because my phone was off while I was on a plane. Much like the face-to-face interaction with the elevator man, the ensuing phone call was polite and friendly.)
After stopping at what seemed like every floor, we finally reached the end of the line, 41. A brief and initially tentative walk to the edges for the view had me mesmerized, but we didn't stay there long before he suggested that we go up a few more levels by ladder.
We don't know about you, but it's friggin cold out there. Well, not for some of you. It seems as though places that are supposed to be cold are warm and places that are supposed to be warm are cold. Or maybe that's just us. Either way, we're freezing.
Pilots know exactly what they're doing and always fly safely above any dangerous weather.
Right?
So, of course, there's no reason to expect that your air travel experiences will be anything less than perfect.
Dear Philadelphia:
Dear Major Air Carrier That Was Responsible For My Transportation Over Thanksgiving Weekend:
No, we did not get a Wii this weekend. Yes, we are exceedingly depressed about it. Regardless, we're still going to bring you the best of the internet, chopped into tiny bits and grilled for your enjoyment. It's just not going to have anything to do with video games.
Let's look back at a week in which no site in the -ist network adopted anyone from Africa...
As our parent site, Gothamist, reported yesterday in a detailed and oft-updated news post, former Phillies pitcher (and more recently, Yankee player) Cory Lidle crashed his single-engine private plane into the 30th floor of a high-rise on East 72nd Street in New York yesterday afternoon. Lidle and his passenger - apparently flying instructor Tyler Stanger - both died in the crash. Thankfully the only other injuries - sustained by firefighters and some people within the building - were not serious.
Good news for those of you planning on doing any air travel in the near future: starting tomorrow, the feds are finally easing their ban on carrying liquids and gels onto planes and returning to what the head of the TSA calls the "common sense" approach. That's good to hear - we thought they'd thrown common sense out the window ages ago. Anyway, you can now once again have most liquids or gels in your carry-on luggage - as long as they're all in 3-ounce size or smaller containers, and you can fit them all into one quart-size clear plastic bag. So, we can have liquids and gels, as long as they're in amounts that are essentially useless to us. Great. Is this called rule catch-22, or what?
Continue reading "Frugal Fun Alert: Monday"
A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets.
The best of the internet, chopped into tiny bits and grilled for your enjoyment.
What's new and/or interesting on TV this week.
src="http://www.sfist.com/attachments/sfist_eve/HeirloomTomatoes.jpg"
width="512" height="340" class="imgtop"/>
God, we're so sick of
that we want to kill anyone and everyone that
makes a "something on a something" joke. But then we realized that
there was no way we could ever win this fight, and, hell, if you can't
beat them, we might as well join them. And with that, you have the
theme of this weeks' Gothamist network post.
Austinist makes it easy for
us, with Candidate
on a Civic Building,
on a Blank, and
on a Freeway (warning: sad).
Can we force SFist into our Noun
in a Noun box? Hell, yeah! We got us a
on a Laptop,
on a Plate, and the
on a Tear.
Phillyist brings us
on a Set of Stairs (or not),
Towels on a Phillyist and
Benefit on a Thursday.
We always look forward to
week is no exception as one of our favorite -ist columnists, Shanghai
Fag Hag Tiffany, tells us about
on a Night Out. Stick around for
Animals on a Limited Lease, an
on a Shanghai Street and a
on a Rampage.
Oh, no! It's
on a Listserv! DCist also
features Logo
on a Boob,
Side Standers on a S**tlist,
R. Rees on a Furlough From The Nuthouse,
on a Break, and
on a Sign.
What does LAist have for us? Oh,
there's Dogg
on a Mike, a
on a Generation,
Style on a Double Double, and
Boots on a Bunch of People.
src="http://www.sfist.com/attachments/sfist_eve/giantvillage_barbie.jpg"
width="500" height="375" class="imgtop"/>
Houstonist is full of
Houstonny goodness, what with
Sentiments on a Wall,
Plans on a Table (from which they can, apparently, never be
removed), Penguins
on a Freeway Again (warning: still sad), and
Chicks on a Shortened Tour.
Seattlest does a public
service by pointing out some
on a Child Molester's Identity, rocks out to
on a Stage, sees
on a US Tour, and folks flying out of Sea-Tac (hahahahaha)
on a Plane.
Oh, Torontoist, why so
cranky? They
on a Lame Movie, and it's pretty damn funny. Also:
Bush on a Billboard,
Theft on a Guarded Block, and
Parade on a Deadline.
Chicagoist is
the
the best
time
as they Muse
on a Fest. Oh, god, it's
Francis (allegedly non-consensually) on a Drunk Woman. How about
Beloved
DJ Not on a Radio? Finally, look at
on a City-Wide Scale.
We round out our week of Something on a Something with some links from
Gothamist. They bring us a
nightmarish tale of
on
a Train
Platform. Easier to take are
on a Crime Wave,
Flower on a Web Cam, a
Leopard on a Mission (thankfully, NOT sad), and, last but
certainly not least,
Hype on a September Evening.
Tomato photo by Melissa
Schneider, Pink boots photo by LAist Sarah
Links compiled by SFist Eve "Too Much Email on a Motherf**king
Saturday" Batey
CinePhillyist Reviews... The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Playlist Rewind: Shonen Knife at Johnny Brenda's
BalletX Fall Series Begins TONIGHT
Where Have All Our T-Shirts Gone?
I Have a Baby and Ten Dollars...Now What?
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
tweet this
add to facebook
