Philadelphia

Philadelphia surprised me. For some reason I’ve always thought of the city as a grungy, industrial metropolis that happens to have a few sights of historical significance. I don’t know whether I got that impression from watching too many ‘Rocky’ movies or whether it was just something I conjured up in my mind, but when I arrived on Saturday morning I was impressed by how modern and clean the city is, and also by how many great things there are to do besides just seeing Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.

This entire past week has been packed, so I should start with a brief overview of a few worthwhile things I did…

Monday night I met up with a handful of others from the Manhattan 8th Ward for a game of Ultimate Frisbee at Riverside Park. I spent an hour or so rushing up and down one of the few wide open spaces in Manhattan, and enjoyed the views of the Hudson River as we played (which reminds me, I still need to spend some time in Central Park this summer). Tuesday I hit the gym with roommate/hard partier/Georgetown linebacker Rob Lane. I don’t even pretend like I’m in the same league as Rob in the weight room, but I can say that we walk at about the same pace to and from the gym. Wednesday I went to a Mets game with about twenty other interns from American Express. I wish I could write about a few memorable moments from the game, but the truth is that I haven’t followed Major League Baseball since 1994, and to remember any of the memorable moments I’d have to pay a visit to ESPN.com. I generally just enjoyed hanging around with a few friends on a summer night at the Mets’ immaculate new stadium, ‘Citi Field’ (I do remember that the Mets beat the Cardinals, 8-0).

Thursday night I headed to Brooklyn with a friend of mine to see an outdoor showing of the new independent film, ‘William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe’. I loved that film. William Kunstler is famous (or infamous, according to some) for defending notable and controversial causes as a New York attorney. The documentary, which was recently produced by his two daughters, began with accounts of Kunstler heroically defending activists protesting Vietnam and Native Americans standing up to the federal government, then moved on to his transition to defending alleged rapists, terrorists, and murderers. For a film made by his family the account was incredibly unbiased, and also included descriptions of famous historical events involving Kunstler (including his defense of the Chicago Seven, rioting inmates from Attica Prison, and suspects from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing). After the film a panel including Kunstler’s daughters and some former clients took questions from the crowd. One of the things I love about New York City is the variety and randomness of all the things to do. I definitely will fit in a few more outdoor independent movie screenings before the summer is through.

American Express sponsored a trip to Harlem for several interns Friday, so I made sure to sign up early to go. After taking the #2 express train to 125th Street the hoard of us headed to the ‘Studio Museum of Harlem’ to begin our day up there. The best word to describe the Studio Museum would be ‘eclectic’, and that’s a huge understatement. The Museum featured every wild piece of art imaginable that celebrated black people and the diversity of black cultures in Harlem. A few of my favorites included a white room covered in tasteful art resembling graffiti, a plain white canvas with bold black letters spelling the words ‘BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL’, and several photographic collages of the famous black boxer Joe Louis (I didn’t quite know what to think of the giant video screen displaying a flamboyantly homosexual black man singing in the bathroom). Our visit to Harlem also included a walk past the famous Apollo Theatre, where hundreds were gathered to commemorate Michael Jackson, and lunch at ‘Sylvia’s’, Harlem’s famous ‘soul food’ establishment where we were served fried chicken, fried catfish, barbecued ribs, collard greens, cornbread, potato salad, and banana pudding for dessert (I still can’t believe AMEX pays me to go to this stuff).

Friday night I took the Long Island Railroad to Jones Beach, New York to see Aerosmith in concert. ZZ Top opened up for the group and I quickly realized that they should have quit while they were still stylishly old back in the 1980’s. Now they’re so old that they can hardly move anymore, and I wondered to myself several times how it was possible for a decrepit man hardly mobile enough to move his lips could possibly belt out ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ perfectly in tune to a crowd of 50,000 (the words ‘lip-syncing’ quickly come to mind). Fortunately Steve Tyler and Aerosmith were decidedly more lively. Colorful lights and mechanical props brought the stage to life, and Steve Tyler caressed the microphone as he danced wildly over a gigantic glow-in-the-dark Aerosmith logo. My best Aerosmith memories are from listening to Camille’s albums back in the early nineties, and fortunately the band played nearly all of my favorite songs. ‘Dream On’, ‘Sweet Emotion’, ‘Come Together’, and ‘Cryin’ were all played perfectly, and the tunes constantly looped through my head on the way back to Manhattan. After a 1:00 AM visit to Dunkin’ Donuts and a one hour train ride I finally pulled into Penn Station… then finally crashed in my bed at 2:30.

Now for Philadelphia…

Saturday morning I took the Bolt Bus to Philly and arrived at the City Center Sheraton just before 10:00. I was in a bit of a daze due to a lack of sleep the night before, but I whenever I visit a new place I always get a thrill from the excitement of being there, and my weekend in the City of Brotherly Love was no different. LOVE Park was an appropriate way to start my weekend, and I happened to pass by it while walking to Independence Hall. The modern ‘LOVE’ sculpture for which the park is famous is one of those things I’ve seen plenty of times before in references to pop culture, but until recently I never realized it’s in Philadelphia. I took a few pictures that contrasted the modern sculpture with the classic architecture and fountain behind it, then moved on past City Hall to Historical Philadelphia.

I vaguely remember visiting the Liberty Bell on a trip with my Grandma Calder nearly 18 years ago, and even though I hardly recall anything from that trip, it’s clear that Philadelphia is a lot different now. A wide green park featuring museums and monuments dedicated to the American Revolution spans five city blocks in the city, and one day would barely be enough time to rush through it all. Although I didn’t hit everything during my visit this weekend, I was sure to see all the sights that meant the most to me. Of course I saw Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, but I also visited the historical Free Quaker Meeting House, where a woman dressed in colonial clothing played Bach music on an instrument made of crystal glass, Christ Church, which was frequented by Benjamin Franklin and other prominent figures, the Betsy Ross home, and the modern National Constitution Center, which was filled with fascinating exhibits about American History and the US Constitution that I only scratched the surface of in two hours spent there. Of course I learned plenty of things I didn’t already know, but I’ll list just a few of them: The famous crack in the Liberty Bell was widened in 1846 to allow the bell to continue to be used, but the crack that permanently silenced it was created later that year while the bell was ringing to celebrate George Washington’s Birthday… Also, when the British occupied Philadelphia for 10 years during the Revolutionary War they ransacked Independence Hall, then used it as stables for their animals and a prison for American Revolutionaries.

I couldn’t visit Philadelphia without having a cheesesteak sandwich, and after a fair amount of research I discovered that the sandwich originated 70 years ago at a place called ‘Pat’s King of Steaks’ in the south part of the city. In true local fashion I took the public bus down to 9th and Passyunk where the famous restaurant is located. I was surprised by how small and intimate the place is; it felt about like getting a chili-cheese dog at the little league baseball field at Lindsay Gardens. While eating my cheesesteak at one of Pat’s plastic picnic tables out front I couldn’t help but notice a gigantic knock-off of Pat’s directly across the street; ‘Geno’s Best Steaks’. If Pat’s exemplifies the classic neighborhood-joint feel, then Geno’s has the look of a flashy commercialized chain. Giant neon lights flash the words ‘BEST STEAKS’ repeatedly, and a huge colored sign of a cheesesteak sits prominently at the top of the building. I can only imagine the legal wrangling that must have taken place when Geno moved in across the street from Pat. I wonder if court documents featuring cheesesteak warfare are still available for the public to read for entertainment…

I had time for a few more attractions in Philadelphia, and at the top of my list was the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Originally I wanted to visit the museum for its famous steps that were used for a classic scene in the movie ‘Rocky 3’… and of course I needed to see the original Rocky statue used as a prop that sits outside the museum in a small garden. When I got inside the giant building, though, I realized what I would have missed out on if I hadn’t come. I’ve been to a lot of very impressive art museums in Europe, and it’s possible that nothing will ever top the Louvre, the Vatican Museums, or the Uffizi. With that said, I can honestly say that I’ve never enjoyed medieval art more than I did this weekend in Philadelphia. The collection is easily one of the most impressive in the world, and I spent an entire morning exploring rooms filled with authentic knights’ armor and weapons, enormous colorful tapestries, and depictions of famous European cities as they existed several hundred years ago. One of my favorite pieces was a painting by a Venetian artist named ‘Canaletto’ depicting St. Mark’s Square and the canals of Venice filled with a colorful annual celebration featuring giant, ornate gondolas. I also enjoyed a huge mobile sculpture in the lobby created by Alexander Calder (who, as it turns out, was from Philadelphia).

My final visit in Philly was to the Independence Seaport Museum on the banks of the Delaware River. The museum featured a special exhibit on the history of tattoos and the significance they are to sailors, but the real reason I visited was for the ships outside. A giant US warship called ‘Olympia’ sits prominently in the river, and as I wandered through the various decks of the ship I wondered what life would have been like for the sailors who used it during its wartime career from 1892 to 1921. The submarine, though, was far more interesting to me. The ‘Becuna’, as the submarine is called, patrolled the Pacific waters during World War II and the Cold War. It seems almost unfathomable to me that men lived for three months at a time in the cramped conditions of the Becuna many hundreds of feet beneath the surface of the ocean. As I walked through the narrow body of the ship I passed the officer’s quarters, a small kitchen, the engine room, a control room filled with dull red light, and torpedo rooms at either end of the vessel. Even though this particular submarine is more than sixty years old, the technology is still fascinating to me. As an engineer, though, it makes a lot more sense to make submarines that are unmanned these days. I’m sure that naval officers would much rather guide a ship and launch torpedoes from a command room somewhere in rural Nevada than from one actually in the sub hundreds of feet beneath the ocean… and I’m sure the company would be a lot better too; who wouldn’t prefer to go home to their wife and kids in American suburbia after blasting an enemy ship somewhere under the sea halfway around the world?