Show Hidden City Some Support!!

Philadelphia, PA

Photo from Hidden City, obviously.

                       Hidden City Philadelphia is pretty much the highest quality Philadelphia-related site there is. All other Philacentric sites wish they had the level of good shit Hidden City whips out on a daily basis. Hidden City represents the future of publication--- newspapers and magazines as you know them are dying a sad and painful death. Sites like Hidden City are pioneering a new form of media... a media built by small groups of individuals instead of big-ass newspaper/magazine conglomerates busting out crappy rags people subscribe to out of Publisher's Clearing House. Hidden City is a FUBU for Philaphiles.
                 The thing is this-- all that high-quality crap that Hidden City does costs lots and lots of $$$$$. Show your support for these folks by throwing some scrilla to their cause. Get over to this site and make a nice contribution. If you want to throw down some REAL money, there are special rewards being offered, like a personal tour of small streets by Deputy Motherfucker for Planning and Economic Development and Director of Commerce, Alan Greenberger. That tour has the bonus feature of passing by Philaphilia's Fabulous Secret Headquarters!!! It won't be labeled or anything, but the one-of-a-kind flag from Philadelphia history flying out front gives the PFSH away.
                On another note, a few weeks back I asked for ideas for a PSFS Building mural. I've only received two entries, so here they are:

                     This first one is by Mike Izzo from the JKR Partners firm, headquartered in the old S.S. White Office Building on 12th Street. This multi-colored idea takes advantage of the "With Love" tourist campaign. Pretty cool. That building they're in is pretty cool too... it was constructed as a shorter building and then got an addition of a few floors afterward... not that unusual, except that the entire cornice and shit was moved up with it. Here's the other one:

                 This one is from some dude named Daniel Toms. He describes it like this:

" It should have a constant audio loop. It starts with "LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, I HAVE JUST BEEN SHOT - BUT IT TAKES MORE THAN A BULLET TO KILL A BULL MOOSE!" Then an air raid siren followed with the first 1:02 of audio from this scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S06nIz4scvI "

                 Haha, that's awesome. I guess he's referring to the time Theodore Roosevelt, one of history's greatest badasses, got shot in the gut and made a speech afterward like it was nothing. Send me some more submissions! I'll be happy to put them up. Also, if you want to support history's greatest LIVING badasses, support Hidden City Philadelphia!

Dead-Ass Proposal of the Week-- November 6th

Parkway Plaza

1501 Arch Street

This piece of shit scan from a copy of the Inquirer is the only surviving image of this proposal.

                    As anyone who reads my little blog knows, I hate surface parking lots with a passion. What REALLY irks me, however, is when a surface lot stays barren for years on end because of a Dead-Ass Proposal. This is one of those proposals. One that contributed to the emptiness of a high-visibility lot for at least 7 years.
                 Read more at the Philadelphia Citypaper's Naked City Blog!

Vote, You Bastard!!!

United States of America, Earth

            Well, well, well... it's that time again!! Today's the day that we exercise our right to push some buttons on a machine in order to suggest which particular megalomaniac the Electoral College should choose for us. Whether you're suggesting Barack Jong-il, Pol Potney, Gary (Huge) Johnson, or Jill (Who?) Stein, its still important that you get out there and vote. Not only are we voting for American CEO today, there's also a whole shitload of other positions up for grabs, including those of some of our more corrupt regional proconsuls and aediles. Suggest carefully and maintain the illusion of democracy at all times.
             The most positive outcome of this day is not America's peaceful process of regime change, but the end all that stupid-ass shitslinging campaigning that barely mentioned any real solutions and conflated a bunch of non-important shit issues. What a relief.

                   Oh yeah, FUCK THE MEDIA for turning something serious like American Politics into a RAH RAH GO TEAM discussion no better than an argument between rival sports teams. On a completely unrelated note, Naked City Blog is going to be busy today (obviously) so this week's Dead-Ass Proposal will come out on Thursday.

Old-Ass Building(s) of the Week-- November 5th

Rice/Warren Double House

2106 Walnut Street

and

Philadelphia Suburban Electric and Gas

222 Washington Square/712 Locust Street

                           Here we have two seemingly unrelated buildings... one from 1869 and one from 1909. What could they possibly have in common? Its not their styles, its not their uses, its not their builders, nor is it their occupants. These two buildings, 4 decades apart, are connected through their architect: the Bunker-Busting Roarchitect of Philadelphia, Frank Furness. These structures illustrate two extremes-- 2106-08 Walnut is the earliest surviving Furness building in the city, while 222 Washington Square (aka 712 Locust) is the latest.
                         Read more at the Hidden City Daily!

Empty Lot of the Week-- October 30th

Old City Tri-Cornered Lot

The Northwest, Southwest, and Southeast corners of 4th and Vine Streets.

Image from Google.

                        This is fucking pathetic. THREE unrelated surface parking lots on the same corner? That's ridiculous!! How did this happen? Why didn't anyone stop it? Old City is infested with NIMBYs that claim to care oh so much about their precious neighborhood. Why have they allowed a confluence of surface lots to exist for over 4 decades? This place is like a tri-cornered hat, but as an empty lot. A tri-cornered lot. We'll have to look at these three surface lots one-by-one.
                        Read more at the Philadelphia Citypaper's Naked City Blog!

Dead-Ass Proposal of the Week-- October 23rd

Calder Museum

2100 Ben Franklin Parkway

The only known rendering of what could have been.

                This is one of the most disappointing Dead-Ass Proposals ever to hit Philadelphia. This project wasn't killed because of NIMBYs, zoning issues, or crooked developers. This one died an agonizing, ass-achingly painful death. People might have been pissed off about the construction of the Barnes Museum, but at least that got built and is kicking ass all over the place-- despite being in a butt-fugly building. This one didn't even get that far.
                   Read more at the Philadelphia Citypaper's Naked City Blog!!!

Re: PSFS Mural Outrage. Keep Yer Fuckin' Pants On.

PSFS Building

12 South 12th Street

               I've always hated the humongous blank party wall on the PSFS/Lowes Hotel Building. I know its just the back of the elevator bank, but fuck... they couldn't think of something better? When I first moved to Philadelphia in August of 2003, I lived at the Arts Tower (originally the Sylvania Hotel, now called the Arts Condo) at 1234 Locust. I had a great view of the ugly-ass Interpark Parking Garage, the butt-fugly Holiday Inn Midtown, and that shit-ass blank party wall.   
               That big black party wall really fucking irked me... it was the worse thing I saw out my window that year besides that time I saw a guy shot in the chest at point-blank range in the middle of the night. Just recently, the dude at Streets Dept made the SUGGESTION that the huge blank wall on the PSFS should have a mural on it... not just any mural, but the nation's largest. That little 150-word post made the entire Philadelphia blogosphere and media LOSE ITS FUCKING MIND:

Inga flips her shit

 

Art Info has a goddamn coniption

 

Philadelphia Speaks holds some milk and makes a milkshake

 

The Second Grade Level Metro exposes the tweet and blog wars about it

 

The Clyde Fitch Report snobs the fuck up about this "terrible, terrible idea"

 

Barstool sports gets on its high horse

 



                ... and that's just a few of them. To add insult to injury, people who support the idea figured that the shitbird behind those buttsmack Love Letter Murals or this other fuckbag (whose stuff is not that bad) should be the ones that execute this theoretical mural. Some guy named Mike Meulstee then made a mock-up of what it would look like:

 

 

               Well, of course people didn't fucking like it... that looks like crap. That mock-up basically confirmed the fears of people that think the PSFS is too sacred for a mural. I agree that this building is iconic and probably doesn't NEED a mural. But that doesn't mean I should jump out of windows and flagellate myself over it... people are going fucking apeshit like they built the building themself. When's the last time you've heard ANYONE. EVER. mention the BACK of the PSFS Building? Half those articles I linked to above don't even show the back of the building.

                So, since everyone has been asking me lately what I thought about it... I'll say this: I don't hate the idea. I think it could be quite good if it was done right. Its not like they want to put it on the front of the building. As far as I'm concerned, the PSFS was ruined in 1947 by the installation of that 300+ foot antenna. No one seems to give a shit about that...

              I think we should all come up with ideas of what could go on the wall. Photoshit your best ideas and send them to me at rhaandarite@gmail.com. They can be by known artists, unknown artists, or yourself. I'll post a nice gallery of the ideas to show the possibilities of what could be done here. Here's how it would look if David Choe got a crack at it:

 

 

              Or maybe it should be kept simple:

 

Perfect.

               I guess the point of this post is to tell everyone: Calm the fuck down. It's not that big of a deal.