On Tuesday 24 Sep 2019, Nancy Pelosi announced the beginning of an impeachment inquiry against Trump. Two days prior, we were in Philadelphia and toured Independence Hall where the Constitution was adopted and the first peaceful transfer of power occurred. I’m a little bit anti-nationalist and it was moving beyond expectations. At the exact moment we were picking up our luggage at Hartsfield-Jackson, her announcement was being broadcast.
Months ago I saw that King Crimson was touring again. We saw them here at Center Stage back in Oct 2017, and Atlanta is a stop for this tour, but I scanned the other cities and we decided on a weekend in Philadelphia. I’d never been. That weekend also coincided with Lisa’s birthday so in a way I got her tickets to one of my favorite bands! yay?
We flew out Friday evening and arrived at The Rittenhouse Hotel, on Rittenhouse Squre, to drop our stuff, wash the plane off, and head to Friday Saturday Sunday for drinks and… drinks. It’s a little too cool for us but we closed it down despite our out-of-place-ness.
Sat 21 Sep 2019
Morning breakfast was a battle between a.kitchen and The Dandelion, a British pub. Most trips, I try to write down each morning what happened the previous day. Not in detail, but as a shorthand of our intent and choices. I know there was a good random reason we picked The Dandelion but who knows. It was picked by the vacation gods. It’s in a larger building but felt, with two (or three? we ate on the 2nd) meandering floors, like a stand-alone house converted into pub. It’s difficult to enjoy the crass verisimilitude that an American British Pub invokes, but this lived in the space closer to authentic, even if not. I appreciated the effort of design and execution and just the sheer experience. We ate in the dog room which of course had many porcelain dogs, paintings of dogs, books about dogs, and lighted globes across the bar that said Man’s, Best, Friend in sequence. We can’t keep our condo dusted so I don’t know how the hell they manage with all of the bric-a-brac. The meal was the first of what became my vacation obsession of only ordering sausage breakfast sandwiches for breakfast. I don’t lead a complex life. English muffin and link sausage split and over medium egg. Quality. With a side of bubble and squeak. Innnnteresting?
Off to the Barnes Foundation for some art.
Dan Our Friend has recommended that I watch the documentary (The Art of the Steal (yeah, I know, presidential theme)) on how they got their artwork and how controversial it was that it (the art) was moved from its original location to the current. I am intrigued about the story even more after being there. I say this many, many times, but being in the presence of the icons of my art history ed. and of important Western art history in general is just staggering. Still, instead of The Classics, I took pics of odd works that I wouldn’t otherwise see. The museum had a nice-ish internal web site that image captured the art from your phone and would provide more detailed info. Worked 50% of the time, but still worth the effort.
Further up Benjamin Franklin Pkwy. (unrelated: we just watched the 30 Rock where Jack boasts that Franklin was born in his hometown Boston and Liz counters that he hated it so much he moved to Philadelphia, I cannot confirm the historical accuracy of that decision) for a stop outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art to step up the Rocky steps. Pit stop at our first Mister Softee of the weekend; their logo is still terrifying. We got to the steps just as a race was finishing. Chat with a couple of the participants and I find out that it was a 24-hour run up and down the steps. It’s a yearly run–I found another article from Sep 2018–for Legacy of Hope, a charity that helps local cancer patients. Some ran short periods; other ran the full 24 hours. It would’ve been cool to have signed up for a couple of hours if we’d known. Def. at 3 AM or so to avoid the 90-degree heat.
Break a little further north at The Bishop’s Collar, a small pub in the Fairmount neighborhood. Long walk back to Tria Taproom a block from our hotel–a wine bar with wines on tap–for wines and snacks to hold us until the 9 PM Grand Birthday Dinner of the Evening at: Vetri Cucina. A multi-James Beard Award-winning restaurant.
Intimate with only a handful of tables. Dinner was a non-stop flow of small courses whose count I honestly lost track of. Maybe 12? As with all dinners like this, there were more varied dishes and combinations of flavors (“how in the hell did the chef think of this?!”) that the evening was just a blur of superlatives. Beforehand, our waiter asked what we liked or didn’t like in order to tailor what each of us got, with each of us receiving different courses throughout the three and a half hour (!) meal. Worth it.
Sun 22 Sep 2019
Breakfast at the bar at the Hungry Pigeon in Queen Village. Another score for breakfast choices and my second sausage breakfast sandwich of the trip. Also on an English muffin but considerably different that the British pub’s presumably English English muffin. Giant, messy, and oozing with an over easy egg. Wine in a can that was… not bad actually. West+Wilder White. Then to Mostly Books! Dusty, winding aisles and tall shelves, full story here but the not-full-story is that I now own three more pulp sci-fi books to read and then distributed Johnny Appleseed-style across the globe. Wacky find: I learned that there’s a genre of YA humorous female-oriented erotica (they had books from the Jessica Darling series with such titles as Sloppy Firsts and Fourth Comings, lol). Good, random, dusty used book store. Go!
The afternoon was reserved for history.
We went to Independence Hall, walked around soaking up the American-ness and toured the building where the House and Senate presided from 1790 to 1800. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were adopted there (!) and, more interestingly, the first peaceful transfer of power occurred between President Washington and President Adams. Our guide said that leaders from around the world gathered to watch the inauguration in the balcony seats of the room where the House of Representatives normally met. Crowds were outside and many were uncertain whether there would be resistance from Washington and the army. There was not. It was surprisingly moving just being there in the House and Senate. I just don’t know anymore.
Across the street was the Liberty Bell. You can view it from a small, storefront-type window, which is odd but I guess nice in off-hours to peek at history. Inside, you walk down the length of the building through the history of the bell. It was forged to celebrate a Pennsylvania-specific event and was adopted and named Liberty Bell by abolitionists in their effort to free the slaves. That bit of history put quite a damper on the good feelings we had from Independence Hall. It was also used later for women’s suffrage and iirc in the civil rights era, so it kinda represents more our failings than our nobility. It’s days are over as a standard-bearer of freedom; I really don’t see #MeToo or LGBT activists using it in place of hash tags and rainbow flags.
Next stop (after not cooling off with a beer at an outside beer garden in 90+ degree heat, but then some patriotic soft-serve at an Independence Hall adjacent Mister Softee): more art back at the Rocky steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Lost with too much to look at in too large a museum for a short trip; really should have gone back the next day for at least another hour. We spent most of our time with the large-scale Baroque paintings and the moderns. Notable from the former was Rubens’ works including Prometheus Bound and from the latter were a dozen or so beautiful, larger minimalist paintings. We walked back to the hotel down Benjamin Franklin Pkwy. reverse from the previous day’s walk and relaxed with cocktails at the hotel’s Library Bar before a nice dinner at Parc, a large, be-peopled French bistro across from our hotel on Rittenhouse Square. Early-ish evening after a very late one the night before and in preparation for a concert the next night.
Mon 23 Sep 2019
Here we are. The day of. Again, I don’t remember when I read of the KC tour and when we decided that Philadelphia was the Chosen Destination, but… such a great choice. The big plan is (1) cheese steak (ikr), (2) record stores, (3) nonsense, (4) King Crimson motherfuckers.
Lisa had done her research, but we re-researched and confirmed choices for the sine qua non cheese steak in Philly via Lyft drivers, bartenders, waiters, etc. and we felt pretty confident about Jim’s Steaks. No, we did not call it a hoagie or a sub or–less wisely–share one cheese steak. They are massive. Note: they are delicious but they need hot sauce (provided in the Dining Room). Complete characters are servin’ it up. Watching masses of sammitches get created on a grill is intriguing. Sandwich, grease, beer, and we were ready for digging through crates.
First: Repo Records. A+. They are what a modern record store is and brought the vinyl, t-shirts, posters, and special releases. We’re in an era where it’s hip and I accept that I’m a hipster and they do it right. Acquired: Stereolab 3-album set (mine), clear vinyl, of their Dots and Loops release and Total: From Joy Division to New Order (hers) in a similarly quality special release. One thing I learned from our last New Orleans trip: you can as them to ship and it’s reallyreally cheap. 4-10 bucks do it.
Second: Noise Pollution Records. Small place. I agree from the reviews that it’s picked through but here’s the thing: I found a quality first pressing or The Who Sell Out. I had seen it and ignorantly ignored it for who-knows-what-reason and Lisa pointed it out. Checked the vinyl and it’s good. Gogogo.
Third: Digital Underground. This place is not for me. It looks to have a solid solid collection of metal and really really black metal. Not my thing, but a great store for that.
Final score: Stereolab, New Order, The Who. cool.
Bonus after-the-fact: I had, years ago when it came out, loved listening to Petra Haden‘s a cappella version of The Who Sell Out. It’s published by Bar None Records (awesome) and they in fact had a vinyl pressing. So now I have a vinyl pressing.
Honestly not much to say about KC. They are musicians’ musicians and live up to it every concert. Virtuosity. And, as with every concert: why don’t they offer recordings of it after you’ve left?!? Yesyesyes, copyrightbullshit. Anyway, KC has a recent release (purchased, natch) of live shows from 2014 to 2018. It’s a beautiful boxed CD set that makes me wish I had kept my other beautiful boxed CD sets before the purge.
Tue 24 Sep 2019
The last day. It began with this (and ended, thematically, with impeachment proceedings):
You can’t avoid news even on vacation. To be non-controversial: Greta Thunberg is a goddamned saint. Yet another instance of (young) women doing the shit that needs to be done. There is no picture of her that is not awesome but, most important, there is no instance where she’s not being awesome.
Anyway, to the finale. It consisted of eating and gathering food for later eating. First up was the Reading Terminal Market. The thing about going to farmers’ markets in cities you visit is that 90+% of the experience is envy that you would have such a venue in your own city. I go there, and wish I could purchase: bread, cheese, deli meat, sausage, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, and then take it home and prepare a great meal. Unfortunately the last day of an out-of-town visit (or the first day) restricts you from enjoying 90+% of the experience. Alas. So as a consolation we ate crazy unhealthy-and-as-you-would-expect-extremely-delicious breakfast at Dutch Eating Place. Third and final sausage breakfast sandwich of the vacation. woo hoo!
Post-food, we went for more food to bring home at Di Bruno Bros. Sausage, cheese.
Home. And (oh, did I mention?) impeachment proceedings.