Friday, July 04, 2008

So much liberty

Here I am in Philadelphia, enjoying freedom at its free-est. Apparently this is where liberty was invented, or at least so the 6-minute song that preceded the film about sardines I watched last night told me.

What I have learned about sardines
Sardines are fish that like the swimmin'. Their main enemy is men with nets.

This evening I am going to see Philadelphia's world famous fireworks, and Philadelphia's world famous 'Motownphilly' hitmakers, Boyz II Men.

I would be remiss in not mentioning that I had my first ever world famous Geno's Philly cheesesteaks. Apparently this is a sandwich popular with blue collar fellows and less popular with left-leaning liberal tea-drinking elitists. I am glad to come down on the side of the common man.

The future
In a few short days I will be travelling to Amish country to enjoy plain-living ways and wood-fired technology-free antics. World famous antics, no less.



Hopefully we will speak again soon.

8 comments:

K. M. said...

Oh em gee, I apologize so hard on behalf of my city for the concert that preceded our fireworks display. I only hope that you somehow missed it.

AC Revel said...

Here is a good joke to try on the wood working, hat wearing, buggy driving folk:

Knock, knock,
who's there?
Amish
Amish who?
That's strange you don't look like a shoe

I am jealous of your real philly cheese steak eating antics.

MartinFister said...

Karl, are you talking about the Boyz II Men concert the OP referred to? What was wrong with it? Boyz II Men are usually great. They sound just as good live as on their recordings, check it Boyz II Men - Yesterday Live.

How did the night go?

K. M. said...

I was actually apologizing for the first two opening acts of the evening, as my friends and I left before John Legend, but I'll extend my apology to him as well. I actually had no idea who would be performing that night, but I wonder how many other people in the rather unexcited crowd had been expecting Boyz II Men.

fingle said...

I was once honored to be working as a stagehand at a concert where the "Boyz2Men" band members were to be delivered to the stage via a four-man cable-car device, flown from the rigging truss. One of the individual coffin-shaped boxes refused to open, and, as in the documentary "This Is Spinal Tap", a stagehand had to run out and pry open the box so that the fourth member of the band could make his grand entrance.

That, so far, has been the funniest moment in my long stagehand career... It was GLORIOUS!

ingratiated said...

oh god, are you going to Lancaster, PA? Is that what is going on?

Have fun. That's near where I grew up. Uuuugh.

sbma44 said...

Oh dear. Geno's? Really? Pat's is the only defensible choice from the ranks of the cheesesteak pleasure domes. Not that the steaks are different, mind you, but Geno's is famous for not-so-crypto-racism, proudly displayed on signs by the register. Joey Vento, the guy who owns it (NOTE: not named Geno!), seems to be a pretty unpleasant human being.

For a proper steak, of course, one should head to a smaller operation like Lorenzo's in the Italian market. But the best course of action is to simply avoid cheesesteaks altogether: they're pretty gross. Head to Cafe Nhu Y (or "O" Sandwiches) for a delicious banh mi, or Sarcone's for a hoagie -- they're not that far from Geno's.

John A said...

Tom, I came for the cheese steak but I stayed for the fascism.