14 February 08: AWWWWWWW



Valentine's Day AWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Philly Skyline approved dinner date venues: Karina's (1520 E Passyunk, South Philly), Modo Mio (161 W Girard, NoLibs/Fishtown/Kenzo), Pumpkin (1713 South St, G-Ho), Cochon (801 E Passyunk, Queen Village). All BYOBs. Philly Skyline approved bottle o' red: Alexander Valley Vineyard Sin Zin. You may need to go to Total Wine in Cherry Hill or Wilmington -- WHICH IS TOTALLY ILLEGAL -- to find this, but boy is it worth the trip. Maybe the best zinfandel I've ever had. The winery recommends following it up with a bottle of their Redemption Zin, but the cork on the bottle I bought was rotted so the batch was bad. Goes to show, sometimes evil does triumph.

Or, enjoy the expert advice from our friends over at Foobooz.

WORTH NOTING: the Philly Skyline Valentine Skyline above is over two years old and in need of a Comcast Center. Philly Skyline needs to update its stock LOVE section.

–B
LO
VE

13 February 08: It begins



The truck's on its way and some have checked in early, but tomorrow morning, it becomes official: the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies season is underway.

That means another summer of subway rides to Pattison Ave, another summer of wondering why exactly Ruben Amaro Jr has the job he does, another summer of emails from Philly Skyline readers saying this is not a 'sports blog' so stop writing about baseball, another summer of Philly Skyline Ballpark Skylines, and most importantly, another summer of rooting on the good guys and our twice-reigning MVPs and pulling for Chase Utley to make it a trifecta while staving off that other team 90 miles north, fully recharged by the addition of one player.

The 2007 National League East championship is a distant memory. With pitchers and catchers reporting tomorrow, all eyes will be on Clearwater for the next month and a half. (Amazingly, it costs more to fly roundtrip to Tampa than it does to LA. More to rent a car, too. Check the spring training schedule HERE -- it includes the standard bouts with the Yankees.)

Cole Hamels is a sure thing -- presuming he can stay healthy for the entire season. Brett Myers is a welcome addition back in the starting rotation -- presuming he gets over not being the closer after a single season of enjoying it and that he can find his groove as a starter. Jamie Moyer . . . is old, but mostly reliable. Kyle Kendrick's 10-4, 3.87 rookie season was certainly respectable, but it'll be interesting to see how a righthander without much gas fares for a full 162 after teams have seen him a few times.

The fifth starter? Adam Eaton was terrible last year (shockingly predicted by Philly Skyline the day the Phillies signed him (28 November 06: Adam's eatin, but the MVP's gotta be hungry)) and is guaranteed $7.2M this year, which doesn't guarantee a $7.2M performance, based on last year. Fortunately, he'll probably have competition in the form of an incentive-based-contract-signed Kris Benson (most local sports outlets have rumored this, and now even Phillies.com is reporting it). UNfortunately, Eaton was in the same situation last spring, when the Phils' rotation was famously overstocked with likes of Jon Lieber and Freddy Garcia. If Benson's contract is in fact on the low end and provides performance based incentives, that bodes well for the bottom end of the rotation.

That leaves JD Durbin as the definite odd man out, but he'll be good for eating innings along with his namesake Chad Durbin in the middle of the bullpen, which also gets a healthy Ryan Madson back. Tom Gordon is in the final year of his expensive contract and is now 40, but he finished last season strong. Bullpen pressure sits most on the shoulders of JC Romero, whose excellent season got him a huge pay raise. Three years and $12M means his ERA better stay near the 2 mark it's at now. Clay Condrey and Mike Zagurski each had their moments, really good and really bad. They'll be back for the righty-lefty garbage time, sharing space with Fabio Castro, Francisco Rosario, Travis Blackley, and if we're lucky and he returns healthy, Scott Mathieson.

Brad Lidge is of course the biggest off-season acquisition for the Phillies and therefore the biggest addition to the bullpen, replacing Myers and Gordon before him in the role of closer. The change of scenery is supposed to do him well, even as he regained his confidence over the course of last season.

The lineup looks as solid as ever with the addition of Geoff Jenkins and Pedro Feliz. Neither one is a huge upgrade, but Feliz, even with his penchant for striking out, is better than Helms-Nuñez-Dobbs, his defense is as good as Nuñez', and Greg Dobbs will probably see a lot of time there anyway, as a reliable left-handed hitter. Losing Aaron Rowand stung a little, but only a little because really, is he that good a player? He had a career year -- a contract year -- and wanted way too much money. He was the oldest everyday player on a team that just made the playoffs . . . his move to a last-place team is his loss, not the Phillies'. Shane Victorino covers more ground (remember that catch he made in Florida on the last day of the 06 season?), has a far better arm, and will hit for roughly the same average and generate more runs. Jenkins, meanwhile, is a little older than Rowand but brings far more pop in his bat. Plus he'll be sharing time in right with Jayson Werth, who like Dobbs was a bargain and a solid performer.

Weighing the team's additions and subtractions, Jenkins, Feliz, Lidge, Chad Durbin and bench players So Taguchi, Eric Bruntlett and Chris Snelling are a good deal better than Rowand, Nuñez, Rod Barajas, Michael Bourn, Chris Roberson, Tadahito Iguchi and Antonio Alfonseca.

Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins speak for themselves. Pat Burrell, though . . . he has the most to prove of anyone in the lineup this year. Pat loves his Center City lifestyle and wants to stay, but in the last year of his contract, it's going to take a lot of convincing this team's management that he's worth bringing back. Even if he has a monster year (could you imagine Pat Burrell at .300, 35 and 120?), he probably shouldn't count on the same contract, either in dollars or in years. I'm a big Burrell fan, but he's going to have to shine this year to come back for more. Here's hoping he does.

And then there's this guy.

Using the two and a half seasons he's been in the Majors, Ryan Howard has averaged a .291 BA, 51 HR and 141 RBIs -- super-human numbers that apparently have not registered with the individuals signing Phillies' paychecks. I've been calling for the Phillies to give RyHo a real contract extension for two years, yet the Phillies, who are right smack in the middle of MLB's team salaries, continue to follow their arbitrary corporate handbook that says salaries depend on service. It's such bullshit when you look at Howard's value to the team. They cashed in his 2006 MVP award by plastering his face all over '07 marketing (including the Howard six-pack ticket plan) while giving him a one-year raise to a whopping $900k. That there is no precedent in the Phillies' past signings is of no matter: this is Ryan Howard.

The man crushes the ball, and people pay good money to come watch him do so. He's one of the veritable likable, marketable ballplayers: Subway, Adidas, Topps, Dick's Sporting Goods, MLB '08 The Show. He won't go broke, there's no concern there . . . he just won't be paying his Waterfront Square mortgage with his Phillies salary.

The $7M the team is offering is less than the salaries of Geoff Jenkins and Adam Eaton; less than half of Jim Thome's and less than half of Bobby Abreu's. In a similar situation to the Phils, the Colorado Rockies showed their appreciation of MVP runner-up Matt Holliday by avoiding arbitration and signing him to a two-year deal for $23M (which, for someone the same age as Howard, 28, is $5.5M more per season than the Phillies are offering RyHo). The Rockies also gave the largest contract extension to a rookie in MLB history, locking up Troy Tulowitzki for five years, $30M.

The Phillies-Howard arbitration is scheduled for February 20th, and the Phillies have never lost an arbitration case. Great. If he's stuck with $7M (which is a lot of money, obviously, but pretty small compared to his peers and what he's worth), he won't forget it the next time he's at the table, and it makes it that much easier to envision him in Yankee pinstripes or Dodger Blue after 2011 (which is only three years away), or worse, holding out at spring training. Neither is a pretty sight.

But nothing is definite, and first thing first: 2008 Phillies baseball. Pitchers and catchers tomorrow, everybody else on Monday. Spring (training) fever is in the air, even as I still hold out hope for one good snowfall. Opening Day is 46 days away, yo. LET'S GO PHILS!



–B Love




12 February 08: The travelin' winger
Cheesesteak in paradise



by Angelia Fick
Philly Skyline international correspondent

How the hell did this place find its way to Thailand?

It started in my Thai cooking class. There was one other American in it and once I told her I was from Philadelphia, the next thing she said was, "You know there is a cheesesteak shop in Chiang Mai?" like I was a crackhead looking for a fix and she knew the name of a dealer. As funny as having my city's cultural heritage represented by a food item, I was glad to have this information. I looked it up and lo and behold, it was only a few blocks away in my neighborhood - score! I made a date with Mike's Burgers for lunchtime the next day before leaving on my own Amazing Race to catch a flight back to Bangkok, bus to Chumphon and catamaran to Ko Tao.

I saddled up at the counter and scanned the menu. Classic American fare: hot dogs with anything you can imagine for toppings, burgers, cheese fries, etc. I sat next to an American couple living in Japan who came there to satisfy a cheeseburger craving since, they told me, you can't get a decent cheeseburger in Japan to save your life. Now, I was under no delusion that this would even remotely resemble a cheesesteak, but I promised myself I would keep an open mind.

So, I ordered the cheesesteak. (Duh.) It was served on a 'garlic baguette' so that's a stike, but since it is kind of impossible to ship Amoroso rolls out there, I let it slide. There was also no Cheez Whiz, but all is not lost at this point. It arrived and I scanned my meal. Fried onions? Check? Sufficient greasiness? Check. Lager? No check. (Sigh.) I take a bite and immediately notice the meat is very peppery and tough, but I've noticed that most beef in Thailand is tough so this isn't suprising. The meat is fried in slabs and not chopped so it's a bit hard to get through. I ate most of this, still almost full from breakfast, but I get it down with the help of some Coke Zero.

All in all, I was moderately satisfied, left with that special bloated feeling and was ready to roll myself to the airport.

* * *

Angelia Fick is a star winger on the Philly Women's Rugby team and lives on Jewelers Row. She's on a 14 week journey through southeast Asia and is currently contemplating the tsunami evacuation route signs she read en route to the hammock in which she swings on Thailand's Indian Ocean beaches. Read about her travels at her blog, Wonderful World of #14.


11 February 08: Going, going . . .



Welp . . . that's about the end of the line for the Philadelphia Life Insurance Company buildings. If you'd like yourself a PLICO frieze, you better grab your chisel and crowbar and hop over to North Broad Street with the quickness, because the 1962 PLICO annex is already gone, and the first floor is all that's left of the original 1915 building. Or maybe you can friend Geppert Bros Demolition on their Myspace.

As you can see in the background, the Convention Center is now peaking through from Broad Street, so in another day or two, the PLICO duo will be no more. After that, the Odd Fellows Temple and the Race Street firehouse. After that, a big ol' hole that'll fill in with $700M of your money and my money and, they hope, that much money and more from future conventioneers in return.







–B Love




11 February 08: Hey Joe
Where you goin' with that award in your hand?



If the tone of this post sounds a little self-congratulatory, I apologize, and I accept the charges. It's just that Joe Minardi's Streetcar Suburb series needs another moment in the sun.

As mentioned last week, Joe was an invited guest of the University City Historical Society for their Valentines Awards Tea, held at the stately Castle B&B at 48th & Springfield. Joe put together a Powerpoint presentation on the development of the West Philly neighborhoods that grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, focusing on the architecture of the build-out, from rowhomes to twins, churches to towers, Furness to Cret. This, I knew about.

What caught me by surprise was the second presentation involving Joe. UCHS President Belynda Stewart gathered everyone together to hand out their annual awards, for the restoration and maintenance of properties across West Philly, making sure to include not just the homeowners but also the carpenters, painters, etc who helped make it happen. Then, she announced UCHS's 2007 Preservation Initiative Award, presented to Joe Minardi for "West Philadelphia, Streetcar Suburb," a photo essay on phillyskyline.com. Awright!

I thought nothing was going to beat the fresh pears with gorgonzola and walnuts, but this award did. Congrats, Joe!

You can revisit Streetcar Suburb HERE, and you can check out Joe's other photo essays HERE, including observations on the Delaware riverfront a year and a half before Mayor Street's executive order, and an exhaustive look at Germantown Avenue from Northern Liberties to Chestnut Hill.

* * *

I left the event happy for the feld of Swine and headed over to 47th & Baltimore to catch a ride, and this was the view a half hour past sunset in the Arctic blast that was West Philly (ISO 1600, f4.0, 1/60th, no tripod, winds 25-30mph), yr Monday Morning lookin' east.



–B Love

10 February 08: Philadelphia, Jobbed



King of Prussia Mall on a Saturday night. To even have the thought cross your mind, let alone actually entertain the notion for more than .15 seconds, chances are you are: a teenager, a KOP resident, a member at any Hollywood Tans (male or female) who wears sweatpants in public, a white collar immigrant who's living the American dream, or a manager at Rite-Aid who tells you this line's closed, please use that line, and then when you get in that line, the cashier is having trouble finding the buy-1-get-1-free disposable camera special in the circular so she needs the manager's help while the customer goes to the aisle selling the disposable cameras to find the sale card and all you want to do is buy a freaking bottle of water, so the same manager comes over to resolve the issue and when she does she tells you to go use the line she just told you to leave, which is open again and which has already formed a line.

"Yeah but Bee Love, what were you thinking?" I'll tell you what I was thinking: why in the holy motherfucking heck does Apple NOT have a store in Center City?

The only two reasons I can think of are: 1. spite and 2. business privilege tax. What else could it possibly be? There are plenty of retail areas (Walnut Street, Chestnut Street, South Street, University City), Center City's residential and work demographics are more likely to be within Apple's target market than anywhere else in the region, there are a number of universities with art-minded students, and hello? Center City is the center of the city that is the center of a region of over six million people.

I understand that Bundy has been here for years, and that Springboard is among the best in Apple retail. Former Mayor Street will tell you that you can buy an iphone at the AT&T wireless store, and uninspired shoppers will tell you that ipods are easily found at your local Best Buy. But none of these things has the cachet of a real live Apple Store.

King of Prussia's not the only Apple store in the Philadelphia region, either. Ardmore's got one. Atlantic City's got one. The Christiana Mall in Newark, Delaware has one. Lehigh Valley has one. . . . Pittsburgh has two. Manhattan has three; Staten Island has one.

Philadelphia has none.

The headphone jack on my ipod had worn itself to a point that I was bending plugs on different sets of headphones just to get sound to come out of both channels. When I left my best headphones at LAX (nice one), I decided it was best to just bite the bullet and have the ipod serviced before buying yet another expensive set of headphones. I called Apple and the person said I have two options: 1. Wait for Apple to mail a box which I would then put the ipod in and put back in the mail, wait for them to fix it and mail it back to me. 2. Just go to a nearby Apple Store and have it done on the spot. King of Prussia on a Saturday night? Why not!

The Schuylkill Expressway decided I should be fifteen minutes late for my genius bar (ugh) appointment, but the nice fellow there called my name as soon as I walked in, bypassing the really long line waiting there. Again, I had two options: 1. Drop the thing off and wait a few days for them to fix it with no guarantee that it is totally fixed or that it wouldn't happen again, then make another trip to King of Prussia to pick it up. 2. Just trade it in for a new one. The personalized engraving, the hours and hours and hours of customization, the play counts -- they'd all be gone. Feeling the weight/wait of the line behind me and dreading another trip to KOP in the non-Schuylkill Valley Metro time we live in, I opted for the latter.

And that's just it: the place was packed. I guess people really do go to King of Prussia Mall on a Saturday night. A lot of people do a lot of things. Walking to an Apple Store is not something that Philadelphians do, and that . . . well, that kinda sucks.

Tower Records closing at Broad & Chestnut = Apple Store? Nope, an FYE in an internet era that doesn't need FYEs. Tower Records closing on South Street = Apple Store? Nope, a big-ass Walgreens. aka records moving up 2nd Street? Nah, we knew Book Trader was moving over from South Street all along.

I don't get it. We're the only city in the US' top ten in population which doesn't have an Apple Store. Even Phoenix and San Antonio have them. Indianapolis, Des Moines, Oklahoma City, yes. Philadelphia, no.

Instead, the next time you and I need our ipods serviced (because it will happen), we'll have to wait it out in the mail or go to one of the largest shopping malls in the country, and it doesn't even have an Orange Julius. What a gyp.

Why do you hate Philadelphia, Steve Jobs?

–Brad "King of Prussia" Maule




10 February 08: ĕm - bār' - əs - sing



Um. Sampson?

Dialect is so vastly studied a subject that they make maps of it. I don't know how you get "wooder" out of water, and I don't know why Plaxico is pronounced "PLEX-ico" . . . and that's okay. "Yous" and "y'all" and "yinz" n'at are fine by me. I've been known to slip into a little Appalachian myself after a couple nips of the shine.

But, there is a significant difference between the acceptability of variations on the spoken word and variations on the written word. (What a wordy sentence to try making a point about language.) No one reasonable expects every English speaking person to speak the Queen's English; lord knows that fearless defendant of the language Joey Vento doesn't.

However, with writing, there is a measure of accountability for being right, is there not? More so on something as official as a city-licensed street sign, no? I'm not talking about Shakespeare lacing up his steel-toe boots in whatever Northeast foundry cuts orange construction signs -- I'm talking about the work order that gets that sign cut. How many Streets Department personnel did the phonetic typo pictured above pass through?

Lots of Philadelphians pronounce Sansom Street "Sampson Street." Lots of Philadelphians also pronounce Tuesday "Tuesdee" and say "I'm done these french fries" instead of "I'm done with these french fries." These are all acceptable, in terms of dialect.

Seeing "Sampson Street" on a city-ordered sign, directly below a correctly spelled sign reading "Sansom Street" on the other hand . . . not fine at all. The street spans nearly 63 blocks from Society Hill to Cobbs Creek -- 80 if you include its continuation in Upper Darby. Didn't anyone who saw this work order know it's Sansom, S-a-n-s-o-m??? Sansom Common in West Philly? Sansom Street Oyster House?

The reason it's named Sansom Street in the first place, as opposed to a tree name like all the other streets in colonial Philadelphia, dates back to the 18th century when financier of the Revolution Robert Morris (not to be confused with Pennsylvania Governor Robert Hunter Morris, seen last week in Nathaniel Popkin's book review of Our Savage Neighbors) had to sell off the enormous mansion he was building there when he went broke. William Sansom, who Morris owed money, bought the estate at sheriff's sale and the street, which had different names through the sections it ran in what we know now as Center City, was renamed Sansom Street and eventually completed to the Schuylkill River. To get the most for his money, Sansom hired the architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe (known for his work on the US Capitol and Philly's Bank of Pennsylvania and Centre Square Waterworks, each demolished) to design what would become the prototype of Philadelphia rowhouses. (Robert Alotta, Mermaids, Monasteries, Cherokees and Custer. [Amazon.])

In spite of the ugliness it displays along, say, the back sides of Jefferson University's garage and the Rittenhouse area parking garages and lots, Sansom Street has a deeper history with the city than most would imagine. It's a deeper history than, it seems, the department who issues street signs indicating construction along Sampson Street would imagine.

–B Love




8 February 08: Streetcar Suburb, The Musical



And just in time for Valentine's Day! Get out yr Philly Skyline, The Calendar: 2008, folks, as the Philly Skyline Live series makes its next stop on the world tour. Joe "The Swinenator" Minardi is bringing his Streetcar Suburb to its West Philly home this Sunday.

Joe's extremely well researched composition on the development of the West Philly neighborhoods of Woodland Terrace, Cedar Park and Southwest Cedar Park, Garden Court, Spruce Hill, Powelton Village and University City, centered around the streetcar, comes to life with a presentation at the University City Historical Society Valentines Awards Tea, this Sunday (Feb 10) from 4-6pm at the Castle B&B, 930 S. 48th Street (48th & Springfield).

Come for the tea, stay for the lecture. It's all FREE. And, you can wrap things up that night at Dock Street Brewpub with some of that flammenkuche pizza (gorgonzola, rosemary and apple smoked bacon) and a cold mug of porter. See you there?

For more on University City Historical Society, visit their web site HERE. For Joe Minardi's photo essays, please see HERE.

–B Love

8 February 08: Constructive citicism



That's not a typo -- it actually is citicism, defined by Webster as "the manners of a cit or citizen." Ergo, I reckon this post is a citicism criticism. Right? Right? ("Shut up Bee Love, make with the pics.") Good call.

All righty, the first February update to our big four construction sites is live, so have a look around. A super quick rundown look a lil something like . . .
  • COMCAST CENTER: As has been said, this building is kind of open, but that doesn't mean it's finished. It's still definitely under construction and will be so until they hold a ceremony saying as much and Table 31 is open and the crown is lit up and the partitions are removed underground and the marketplace is bustling with people.

    Now? Construction observations o'er CC way sees a new bright blue light on the north side of the 43rd floor. (You can see it in the Philly Skyline Sunset Skylines from yesterday.) The 43rd floor is an amenities floor, with shops and a cafeteria exclusive to the building's tenants. The blue light you see is decorative lighting for the vendors on that side of the floor. I really hope it's a test and that they conclude that it should be removed. By itself, it's totally obnoxious and detractive from the accent lighting on the corners which, like Cira Centre's when it was first turned on, is hard to discern because the interior lights from some offices overpowers it. But again, Comcast Center is not officially completed, so let's reserve final judgment until they cut a ribbon and ask "so, what do you think?"

    Other casual observations: the fountain portion of the plaza is coming along behind the chain link fence with the banners advertising the Perrier/Scarduzio cafe; the derrick on the roof that supports the window washing device looks like a giant mounted Russian rifle when viewed from up high; the enormous lobby TV is coming soon -- the black electronic mounts from the last January photo update have been covered up with curtains made to look exactly like the sandalwood elsewhere in the lobby.

    Comcast Center construction updates are found HERE.

  • MURANO: This guy's also more or less done on the outside, but the hoists are still there and construction is still moving along on the interiors of the upper floors (electrical work, fitting out the condos, etc) -- and on the ground floor. The large retail space is still being fitted out, and the entry/dropoff area is now taking shape. Tenants will turn off of Market Street into the space between Trader Joe's and the curved part of Murano into a dropoff area set back from Market. Cars can then continue into the garage from that side. Cars can also turn into the garage from 21st Street. So that's two entrances into a garage that does absolutely zero for 21st Street, even less for JFK Blvd, and looks white, hulky and ugly. It's a shame that such a handsome tower has such a hideous parking garage tacked on.

    Murano construction updates are found HERE.

  • RESIDENCES AT THE RITZ-CARLTON: From my own memory, I do not recall any of the towers which have gone up in recent years -- St James, Cira Centre, Symphony House, Comcast, Murano -- going up as quickly as this one. B. Pietrini & Sons can be commended for staying on schedule.

    With the unseasonably warm temperatures of the two previous days, many windows on the lower floors were open, breaking up the reflections of blue sky and puffy clouds. RATR-C is this close to passing the Ritz-Carlton Hotel (aka Girard Trust Building aka Two Mellon Center), as concrete is up to 36 floors now (on its way to 48). The glass is 17 floors up.

    Residences at the Ritz-Carlton construction updates are found HERE.

  • 10 RITTENHOUSE SQUARE: You may have noticed the 1800 block of Sansom Street blocked off earlier this week, as utilities workers were on site making connections to 10 Rittenhouse's underground infrastructure while its aboveground structure moved upward. The frame of the building is now on the third floor, and the build-out of the subterranean garage (entrance to which is directly to the left of the entrance of 1845 Walnut's garage on Sansom) appears to be finished.

    10 Rittenhouse construction updates are found HERE.

  • This update goes out to my man, my mayor, Mixmaster Michael A Nutter. I bumped into The MAN yesterday on my way into City Hall to take in the view from the tower. He was shaking hands on his way out the door and an older lady in front of me introduced herself and said "Grace, from the second floor -- I work for you!" Right off the cuff, he corrected her: "no, we work together." He saw me and said "hey, good to see you -- I like that hat." (I was wearing my Phillies hat.) "March 31st is right around the corner . . . play ball!"



    –B Love


    7 February 08: Variations on a theme:
    Apocalyptic meteorology

    Just another 69° February day in the northern United States, you know how we do. The generally overcast, occasionally misty, sometimes ominously aliens-are-nigh day that was yesterday didn't amount to more than a ten minute downpour at midnight, after it looked like a tornado might strike us down.

    Welp . . . it did yield us another killer sunset. Fishtown rooftop views of that sunset through three focal lengths and three lenses (and also varying ISOs and shutter speeds -- these are all handheld . . . no time to futz with a tripod when your sunset window might be ten minutes tops).







    First February construction updates will be up later today, and probably that long promised Steve Ives For the Curious follow-up.

    –B Love


    6 February 08: The Philly Skyline Book Review
    Our Savage Neighbors by Peter Silver

    Our Savage Neighbors, by Peter Silver
    Norton, 2007, 386 pages (hardcover)
    ISBN-978-0-393-06248-9
    Reviewed by Nathaniel Popkin

    Our port was busy in the 1720s. Already known as an asylum for Europe's religiously oppressed, now they came in a fury from southern Germany and northern Ireland. The Irish, from Ulster, were largely Presbyterians, self-reliant country people looking for economic opportunity. The Germans, unlike the German Quakers who had founded Germantown, were Moravians, Mennonites, Schwenkfelders, and Dunkards. They were escaping war and persecution.

    Many of them set out from Philadelphia upon arrival, heading west to settle Pennsylvania. But,

    It was very bad luck that all of these newcomers started to press ashore at Philadelphia by the tens of thousands in the 1720s -- an entire decade during which, as it happened, no one had clear legal authority to purchase, survey, or sell land in Pennsylvania at all. The death of William Penn in 1718 had set off a bitter fourteen-year battle for control of the colony between his second wife and various children, leaving title to the province up in the air.
    If you've ever wondered what happened to Penn's ideas of "Toleration," look no further than this family squabble. The resulting vacuum of leadership meant immigrants were now semi-official settlers, allowed to establish towns wherever they liked, often putting them in direct conflict with Delaware, Iroquois, Shawnee, and Conestoga Indians. What resulted was undulating sectarian strife and war, and what emerged, as Peter Silver says in the introduction to this beguiling work of history, shaped the architecture of American politics. "This book," he writes with characteristic clarity, "is about how fear and horror, with suitable repackaging, can remake whole societies and their political landscapes." Silver uses this thesis to make a sizable historical claim, that the American Revolution, for a long time a kind of plodding, inconclusive affair, was pushed along because of the anti-Indian fear that had developed since the 1750s. Many of the Indian groups had allied with the British. The result of that -- British troops employing Indians to attack Americans -- according to Silver, was to break the protective bond between sovereign and people, a public relations disaster finally turning colonists against the crown.

    But Silver's careful epistemology of fear and politics in early Pennsylvania -- he evokes the "anti-Indian sublime" with great precision -- could have easily been written about America post-9/11, a claim he artfully restrains himself from making. His is the story of the way fear is invented, declared, assigned, and broadcast -- and then used to justify war. Silver spends the middle chapters of the book explaining how diverse groups of Pennsylvania Europeans overcame hatred of each other in order to project fear onto Quakers and then Indians; how they responded to terror; and finally how they struck back, eventually pushing the Indians into Ohio.

    The elements of the telling analogy to our time are all here: Indian attack was terror, and like suicide bombing, an "[im]proper violence;" the irrational and rabid pamphleteering -- "a kind of paper blizzard, a silent explosion of print"--could just as easily be the chest-pounding of Fox News or the ranting of the blogosphere; Penn's first provost William Smith, who orchestrated the anti-Quaker white majority, emerges here as Karl Rove and Governor Robert Hunter Morris as Dick Cheney; here too is the clever psychology of preemptive warfare, the vilification of the French, the "anti-Americanism" of pacifists, and the mistrust of urban elites. On this last point, the author invites us to imagine our city as the center of the world. Here Philadelphia is the city we daydream of, the cool, cosmopolitan, and rational capital, and wildly diverse, if not always at ease. It stands in glimmering contrast to the scream-filled democracy of its hick provinces. And as such it is worth reminding ourselves that Philadelphia is justified in staking claim to American pluralism. (And is the reason we ought to build a museum to immigration -- complete, certainly, with a full-size model of William Penn's ship, the Welcome.)



    Silver uses an enormous range of material -- letters, speeches, newspaper articles, pamphlets, plays, songs, poems -- to reveal hypocrisy, changing alliances, and the way religious ideas can justify almost anything. It is a book of new history, concerned more with meaning and conflict than with chronology, geography (despite the lovely map at the beginning), or narrative. He skips back and forth through time and place, using an event from the 1780s to illustrate political movements of the 1750s and vice versa, making it difficult to get a firm grasp of sequence. And there are no characters or cohesive stories. Yes, Franklin emerges throughout (as nimble and occasionally brilliant), and a few other European and Indian figures too, but the book relies entirely on Silver's own capacity for clarity and ease and also brute honesty. Here, the author exposes the Penn provost Smith calling Quakers violent and intolerant. It's a maneuver that would make Karl Rove blush.
    From a writer who lit endlessly into "Foreigners," and everyone who pandered to them, in his second pamphlet Smith reemerged a champion of the oppressed German and Irish country people against "our haughty Masters," the Quakers. What was the Quakers worst flaw? Unflinchingly Smith named it: their intolerance of other Europeans . . . "[T]he bloodiest People in our Land" -- it was an incredible transference. And these Quaker men of blood could behave so cruelly because they did not care about other Europeans at all. In fact, they scorned the Irish and German people pouring into the countryside as garbage to be swept aside, taking a "secret Satisfaction in seeing their increasing Multitude thinned and beggared." To establish this, Smith adduced an apocryphal Quaker living in Lancaster, who when told of a new series of Indian attacks had "replied with great Indifference, that there were only some Scotch-Irish killed, who could well enough be spared" . . . Smith's arrogant Quakers might, in fact, be too bigoted to live in an open society like Pennsylvania at all. For "where lies the Difference," Smith asked bravely, between the Quakers and a more obviously subversive group like the Catholics? "Both . . . are staunch, bigoted, and pharisaical alike . . .
    Silver has ample control over this way of telling history. The prose is entertaining and the anecdotes full of irony. Funny, isn't it, that the man who gave the University of Pennsylvania its name was such a hater of Quakers.

    Not so funny is the way that politics can turn everything around. Thus, real Native Americans are turned into foreigners and new immigrants into Natives. It is the conceit born of irrational fear, much like that which still leaves -- six and a half years after 9/11 -- our great symbol of liberty behind barricades and armed guards. But history that intentionally reveals conflict and complexity resists easy explanations. It's therefore so much more interesting to read than the political discourse of red state-blue state, of evil-doers, of the (endless) war on terror.

    –Nathaniel Popkin
    nathaniel.popkin@gmail.com

    For Nathaniel Popkin archives, please see HERE, or visit his web site HERE.
    For The Possible City, please see HERE.


    6 February 08: On El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula



    There's something to be said for watching the sun set over water on the distant horizon. The closest thing we have to that in Philadelphia is at Presque Isle State Park, eight hours away in Erie. Then again the argument could be made that a Jersey shore sunrise over the Atlantic is more rewarding, especially the drugs-are-wearing-off epiphany variety. The differences between the concepts of Philly and LA are very different, but you never really feel that far away.

    This trip was purely pleasure -- no business allowed (email was strictly avoided) -- for my baby's big 3-0. Five days is just about the ideal duration for testing out LA. While there's enough to keep you busy and entertained for weeks, a timeline keeps you focused, and the decentralized nature of the place wears on you after a while . . . unless, I guess, you live there.

    That's the major difference: it's not just that the car is king, it's that it has to be. The LA region goes on forever and ever; its sprawl stops for no mountain. The funny thing is that its decentralized nodes -- Burbank, Anaheim, Huntington, Santa Monica -- exist largely thanks to the early days of California's streetcars and railroads like Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe before the post-WWII auto-freeway-suburban rush that happened across the country really happened in LA and its impressive, complex freeway system was built.



    It seems the region has finally admitted the problems of car dependency, gridlock and smog: former Mayor Tom Bradley pushed for development of LA's subway and light rail system, which is looking to expand the five lines it already has, and LA's bus system employs the largest fleet of compressed natural gas buses in the country. They're ecologically AND aesthetically friendly!



    LA's built environment is interesting. It answers to its geography, between the hills and the ocean and the freeways. The sidewalks are surprisingly busy, but no one is jaywalking; everyone obeys the crosswalk lights. It's understood that you, the pedestrian, will stop for the car and not the other way around. But, there are indeed many pleasant, non-car, walkable areas like Santa Monica and Venice, Burbank (where there is a "town center" built directly next to a bona fide downtown), West Hollywood, even once-dead downtown LA. It's just that you usually have to drive to get to them.

    Architecturally speaking, LA is surprisingly rich, from early 20th century Victorian homes and low lying bungalows to the modernist Capitol Records tower and LAX Theme Building to the landmark masterpieces by hometown architects Richard Meier (the Getty Center) and Frank Gehry (Disney Concert Hall). LA's downtown skyline, like Philly's, is mostly new thanks to a pre-existing height limit that had more to do with the technology of handling earthquakes than some sacred fellow's hat.

    Its tallest building, the US Bank Library Tower, was designed by I.M.Pei partner Henry Cobb, who also designed our Commerce Square towers and the National Constitution Center. At 1,018 feet, the building completed in 1989 is the tallest west of the Mississippi. Unfortunately, like many of LA's skyscrapers, its crown is marred by an ill-placed corporate logo. When US Bank bought the Library Tower in 2002, it insisted on installing its "US Bank" sign on the crown of the building, joining Deloitte & Touche, Citibank, Ernst & Young, Wells Fargo and others whose neon names detract from otherwise handsome structures.

    * * *

    But again, for as far out and different as LA is than Philly, there were constant reminders of home, from the obvious:





    . . . to the not-so-obvious:



    Wraps? Come on now. Ain't nobody coming to Philly for the fish tacos, so I'm not about to get a "cheesesteak" that comes on a plain white roll and has tomatoes on it.

    Anyway, this trip full of homegrown Doors, Guns & Roses and Dr Dre was happily bookended by a Jill Scott soundtrack, with "Gettin' in the Way" on the radio in the rented Prius (which used $9 of gas over 200+ miles) as we left the airport and the new album playing at the sushi restaurant in fascinating Little Tokyo our last night in town.



    Los Angeles is certainly beautiful with its sunny skies and ocean and mountains and pretty people. But it's also a weird place, and not just because of the gridlock and smog. The entertainment industry really weighs on that town. It's noticeable everywhere: enormous low-lying studio lots, billboards and more billboards for movies, traffic interchanges named for celebrities like Gene Autry and Will Rogers, big chested blonde haired anchorwomen, plastic surgery ads throughout LA Weekly . . . For all the movies and music we -- the country and the entire world -- digest, it's a small fraction of what's actually produced, or at least attempted, there. Lots of dreams are seen and a lot more are broken and hung off that big Hollywood sign.

    It's a nice place to visit, but man, I would not want to live there. It's good to be home.

    It's really hard to focus through two layers of commercial airline glass from 10,000 feet (if anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear 'em -- a wide aperture and focus on infinity doesn't even work for me), but hey, here's a big ol' Philly Skyline Aerial Skyline for ye.



    –B Love


    5 February 08: La la la



    Welllllllll . . . just got into town about an hour ago. Took a look around, see which way the wind blow.

    Finally get used to the time difference then bam, you're right back in the ol' groove and you sleep till 10 cos you think it's 7. Or something.

    So um, let's say we'll have yr Philly Skyline back in operation for a standard Hump Day Umpdate tomorrow, perhaps sprinkled with some observations about life in Hollyweird and the best fish tacos for your money at sunset on the Pacific. For now, enjoy the LA Skyline LA Skyline from Echo Park, the well manicured park the surrounding neighborhood of immigrants, artists and rich people takes its name from.

    We'll send this one home with a lil' yank on YouTube for a killer hometown rendition by LA's 1960s house band: The Doors at the Hollywood Bowl.



    –B Love



    Our! Prices! Are! INSANE!



    Yessirree friends, everything must go! If it's taken you an entire month into 2008 to realize you still need a calendar, well is Philly Skyline ever the site for you. Our one-of-a-kind calendar of original photos, facts and Philly birthdays is now 50% off, the low low price of $10! ($12 with shipping.) Click the graphic above to learn more about Philly Skyline, The Calendar: 2008 and to order via Paypal.

    * * *

    While we're here shilling for shillings, let's also take this moment to mark our calendars for the second annual Philly Chili Skyline Cookoff! It has been determined, after much deliberation, that Wednesday, March 12th is the winning date for your shot at this year's Chili Chalice. Circle that date in Sharpie and ready up your recipes, friends. More details are coming soon.

    –B Love








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