Overall Rating: 4.5 out 5 -- I would recommend this to all of my friends.
GOOD: People. I just can't get over how great some of them are. There are a few who live there, a few who visit, and a few I don't really know about. This makes it a great town to get wrecked in, stumble about, make a scene, then order a cheese steak at 3 in the morning (long lines not withstanding).
Always Comix. I really enjoy parties, e
specially when they provide food and drink. The company here was good, despite latent trendy-ness on the part of many guests. Despite this handicap, which in some cases was taken to silly extremes (hipster glasses no frames? but she was so nice), the guests were mostly really nice. Usually trendy people aren't that friendly to me, which I understand and would never hold against them.
Music. Of the two shows I've been to in Philadelphia, one ended with a transexual cabaret after an otherwise inauspicious start (Martha Graham Cracker, who would have thought). The other ended with an uninspired cover of a cover of the recently popularized song
Wagon Wheel. Both were really enjoyable.
Food. Especially Vietnamese. PHO H
A, great noodles. Alex always gets the sliced beef-ball raw on the side because he likes it rare. BA LE, great sandwiches. I recommend #11, but the tongue, stomach, and ear salad looked pretty good too. Both at 6th & Washington.
Traffic Patterns. An abundance of four-way stop signs make this city a joy to bike in.
BAD: Smells. Walking around it seemed like I was confronted by a terrible odor at every turn. These smells ranged from tolerable (dog poop sweating in the sun -- this happened a lot) to really nasty (no longer "fresh" rabbit festering in a trash can outside a butcher shop).
Cultural Insensitivity. I wouldn't say it's exactly "cool" to sell paper suits to two white kids who obviously have no idea that they are part of a sacred ritual -- meant to
be burned following the death of a loved one. ("How do we know if they fit?" "You know they paper, right?" "Yeah, but will they fit or do we just put them on a wall?" "You put them on your wall." -- they didn't fit, the pant's inseam was like 12) No worries, the waiter at the Pho shop next door cleared things up for us when he pulled me aside to explain the significance. He saw that we couldn't stop giggling about them, although for her part, Erin was characteristically unimpressed. This was after he was clearly offended by our irreverent handling of the ritualistic paper clothing, but before he served us our food. Whoops!