Make no mistakes about it — I love Philadelphia. I luuuurve it. Great culture, great people, great diversity, great food, great history, great, great, great. I love getting on 676 east. My head instinctively turns to the right to look at the towering skyline, the figure of One Liberty Place cutting its distinctive silhouette into the sky. Yeah, Philly’s got problems. We’re dirty, our politicians are corrupted, our cheese steak vendors are bigoted, our sports teams can’t win a title, SEPTA sucks, and we do things bass ackwards. But I love Philly in spite of the these problems, because of these problems. They’re our problems. Hell, I’m not even a real Philadelphian — I’m a transplant from PA Dutch country who now lives on the effing mainline, for chissakes, but still. It’s my city. My City. My Philadelphia.
So shut up, Jessica Pressler. We’re not the sixth borough and we never will be. Shut up, Peter Kain and students and shut up real estate developers with those new ads. Using the “I [heart] NY” schtick against itself to “prove” Philly is better than New York? Lame. It makes us seem like the annoying jealous little sister scrabbling for attention instead of the hip brother that we are.
Philadelphia is not the new New York. Philadelphia is not better than New York. Philadelphia is different from New York. Philadelphia is independent. Don’t come to Philadelphia because it’s the “Edge of New York” or whatever else lame line they’re feeding you. Come to Philadelphia because it’s experiencing a renaissance. Come to Philadelphia because the people are so colorful and crazy. Come to Philadelphia to learn some history. Come to Philadelphia because we're liberal and sassy. Come to Philadelphia for its awesome Fringe Festival. Come to Philadelphia because we have kick ass murals and amazing architecture. Come to Philadelphia for the Italian Market. Come to Philadelphia because it’s becoming a hot spot for improv and comedy. Come to Philadelphia because we have an identity completely different from that of New York, or Boston, or any other major city in the U.S. Come to Philadelphia for this:
And this:
And this:
Come to Philadelphia for Philadelphia.
(All images respectfully borrowed from phillyskyline.com BLove -- your photos perfectly capture everything I love about this city. I am constantly in awe of your photography)
So shut up, Jessica Pressler. We’re not the sixth borough and we never will be. Shut up, Peter Kain and students and shut up real estate developers with those new ads. Using the “I [heart] NY” schtick against itself to “prove” Philly is better than New York? Lame. It makes us seem like the annoying jealous little sister scrabbling for attention instead of the hip brother that we are.
Philadelphia is not the new New York. Philadelphia is not better than New York. Philadelphia is different from New York. Philadelphia is independent. Don’t come to Philadelphia because it’s the “Edge of New York” or whatever else lame line they’re feeding you. Come to Philadelphia because it’s experiencing a renaissance. Come to Philadelphia because the people are so colorful and crazy. Come to Philadelphia to learn some history. Come to Philadelphia because we're liberal and sassy. Come to Philadelphia for its awesome Fringe Festival. Come to Philadelphia because we have kick ass murals and amazing architecture. Come to Philadelphia for the Italian Market. Come to Philadelphia because it’s becoming a hot spot for improv and comedy. Come to Philadelphia because we have an identity completely different from that of New York, or Boston, or any other major city in the U.S. Come to Philadelphia for this:
And this:
And this:
Come to Philadelphia for Philadelphia.
(All images respectfully borrowed from phillyskyline.com BLove -- your photos perfectly capture everything I love about this city. I am constantly in awe of your photography)
8 Comments:
You know what...I have nothing against the Gino's sign. I like it. It's just like what annoying American tourists do worldwide: go to another country, not learn the language, and expect service. There's not harm in asking someone to learn how to say "one cheesesteak please." It's not like he asking them to hold an entire conversation with him. I really don't think it makes him bigoted. Tourists are frustrating enough, with all of their demands and pushing in front of you on your way to lunch or standing in the middle of the street and stopping mid-walk while you are trying to reach your train.
Ugh. I'm sick of this overly sensitive PC shit anyway. /rant
I feel that I should also annotate this with the fact that I will be cease to be annoyed with the English-speaking world once they learn to fucking spell already and use punctuation in the correct manner. Yes, we all slip up, but seriously, folks, can we stop with thinking that "apostrophe s" pluarlizes everything. It's my campaign. /rant 2
I do have a problem with it because it's not like they're upset with tourists coming up and trying to order in French or Russian, they're upset because Hispanics who have moved into the neighborhood are coming up to order in Spanish. When was the last time you saw a German tour group going to Geno's and trying to order in German? Joseph Vento has no problem with his people speaking Italian in the back (and they do) but if you come to the window you damn well better not speak Spanish. That's what makes it bigoted.
I don't GET this whole "English is the National Language" thing. Why? Why can't we have two national languages? It works great for Canada. What's so horrible about having a multicultured society?
Then again, as you stated, we can't even learn ENGLISH properly, because our education system is retarded, and oh my God, stop me now or I am going to be on my liberal soapbox all freakin' day.
Little-Known Fact: America is the only country that does not have an official language. Learned that last week at Quizzo night.
Smaller-Known Fact: It takes two to three generations for a non-English-speaking immigrant family to achieve fluency in English.
Personal Fact: ATM machines in the Philadelphia area (or at least the one at the WaWa on Belmont Avenue) displays text in eight languages, including English, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Enlightened Educated Subjecture: Pat's and Geno's are overpriced and overhyped. 7 Bucks at Geno's and 6 at Pat's for a hastily-assembled cheesesteak and you have to learn a secret code and system to order in the first place. It's easier to order from the Soup Nazi. The best cheesesteaks are from Pudge's in Blue Bell, north of Norristown. I don't need to know a fucking code, I can get pickles on my cheesesteak, and a large feeds a family of four.
Pure Lie: Renee hates brown people.
Worth noting: Vento sees no hypocrisy in the fact that:
a) he specifically markets to international tourists
b) by his own admission, his immigrant grandparents (who came here undocumented) spoke, at best, broken English all their lives.
The one thing I will say in his defense is that he's equally nasty to his white, English-speaking customers as he is to his Hispanic and other customers. An equal opportunity jackass, if you will.
Also worth noting, although Philly IS awesome:
-- we don't need any more New Yorkers coming to Philly, they've made Old City on weekends into a eurotrash fest and they're driving up real estate prices
-- ix-nay on comparing the Philly Fringe to the NYC fringe. Philly Fringe is great, but... the NYC fringe has produced multiple shows that went on to national acclaim. Philly on the other hand ...er... has some neat shows. ;-)
FYI: For great Philly photos, go to flickr, and check out "Fen Branklin"
AMAZING rant that extolls the virtues of our fair city. THough i am technically a suburban kid, it is a good place to be. I went to see Godspell last night with my younger brother and the setting was under the B. Franklin bridge. Set decorations among a very knick knack oriented shack village included Campbells Soup signage, an Eagles wall poster, a green high way sign for camden (Appropriatly upside down!)and a charachter even did the mummers strut during one of the songs. Now that's a set designer and choreographer that love this city.
Vento never said he wouldn't serve you. He has always said that if you didn't order it the correct way you will get sent to the back of the line. I've seen wise ass kids, elderly and even young adults order incorrectly and get sent to the back of the line. Could be you didn't speak loud enough, use the right words, or even know what they wanted. I have no problem with the sign. Though his employees speak Italian in the back, they speak English to customers.
Vento also uses murdered cop Daniel Faulkner as a marketing gimmick to sell overpriced sandwiches. (Go to Jim's. They use real meat.)
Joe Vento represents just about everything bad about Philly.
And I say that as an *actual* Philadelphian.
Those are some beautiful photos. Thanks for posting.
-M
Post a Comment
<< Home