With our final issue of Summer Street ‘09, we bid you, our faithful readers, a fond farewell with this summer’s best things to do, places to go, and spectacles to see.
As much as we lament finals, rue term papers, and never really want summer to end, we liberal artists sometimes find ourselves missing our chosen areas of study during these three heated months.
As the summer weeks pass and we become veritable members of the workforce (five weeks of Excel and counting!) or delve deep into the throes of academia (what up, Summer Session Two), we’ve come to appreciate the beauty of hump day more than ever.
Something can’t really be “annual” until it’s happened at least two successive years, and this weekend the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival is making it official.
This weekend take a stroll to the Headhouse Farmers’ Market. Tucked between cobblestone streets and buildings as old as Mr. Franklin himself, the market is a mainstay of the often-forgotten Society Hill neighborhood.
Flanked by an array of restaurants and bars on each end, Headhouse Square was the “original” Philadelphia market, providing Philadelphians with produce since 1745.
Though it may be the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and cheesesteaks, our beloved ultra-American Philadelphia can sometimes leave us yearning for influences from other hemispheres.
Rob stomps on his skateboard to flip it up to his hands. He pulls a black skullcap over his bangs and carries the board under one arm, dropping it in the trash can to keep it out of sight of police.
“If I don’t do it now, I’m never going to do it,” blurts a woman breathlessly. She grabs one of the image-filled binders from the counter and flips to a page of Sanskrit lettering.
Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens sneaks up on you.
Walking past 1020 South St., you understand that although “garden” might be a misnomer, you’re not sure what else to call the place.
The steam from the vent on Sansom Street rises wildly at night, arcing and then drifting hazily into a driveway that houses some abandoned furniture and a parked white van.
Jazz drummer Lucky Thompson booked his first professional gig at age eight. “It was at this place called Tallie’s Paradise in South Philly that’s no longer there,” he says.
College sophomore Conor Turley is a 22-year-old former missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, popularly known as the Mormon Church.
The Class of 1923 Arena that houses Penn’s ice rink is unknown to most students. Straddling the end of the Walnut Street Bridge on 31st Street, it’s a hulking, faded brown building outshined by luxury apartments across the street.
State College, USA
www.streetu.edu
CB code: 6969
Public six-year university
51,450 degree-seeking undergraduates; 5,800 people just there for the keggers
46% men, 54% women, 100% party animals
92% of applicants admitted
SAT required, high score not
Street University, located in picturesque State College, U.S.A.