{"id":250,"date":"2008-11-25T11:19:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-25T11:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/2008\/11\/25\/back-home-from-philly-part-1-of-2\/"},"modified":"2014-12-14T18:47:18","modified_gmt":"2014-12-14T18:47:18","slug":"back-home-from-philly-part-1-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/2008\/11\/25\/back-home-from-philly-part-1-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Back home from Philly (Part 1 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p> $\"\"$ <\/a>Traci and I are back home from a whirlwind week in Philadelphia and Philcon<\/a> in Cherry Hill, NJ. This report covers the tourist side of our trip, in the days before Philcon. The next report will be the Philcon experience. Without further ado, some highlights!\n

WIZ WIT: We arrived in Philly three days before Philcon. It was our first visit to the City of Brotherly Love so we wanted tourist time. First stop: Pat\u2019s King of Steaks<\/a> to sample the local cuisine. So much hype about Philly\u2019s legendary cheesesteak sandwiches. So much said that it wasn\u2019t a genuine Philly experience unless you ordered it \u201cwiz wit\u201d, which means with Cheez Whiz and with onions. So I did. Verdict: pretty good, but I still wasn\u2019t quite sure about Philly\u2019s love affair with Cheez Whiz. So I did the natural thing when unsure about cheesesteaks wiz wit, and after just exploding my daily cholesterol count \u2014 I finished it and went to Jim\u2019s Steaks<\/a> (visiting bookstores along the way) and ordered another cheesesteak wiz wit. Verdict: Pat\u2019s was good. I like Jim\u2019s better. Tastier onions. Better balance between all the flavors. Current cholesterol count after two Philly cheesesteaks in one afternoon: off the charts. Epilogue: we later talked to lots of native Philadelphians about cheesesteaks and not a single native liked Cheez Whiz, or would even go near the stuff. Go figure.
$\"\"$ <\/a>Traci abstained from the whole cheesesteak thing and we decided later that evening to hit the Continental Midtown<\/a> which was fabulous. Crazy 50\u2019s moderne decor, basket chair-pods hanging from ceiling chains, huge calamari salads, lobster mac & cheese, and yummy sidecar drinks. After a long dinner, we had a nightcap up on their roof deck and it was the end of a great first day.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>WORLD-CLASS: Maybe Cheez Whiz wasn\u2019t such a big hit for us, but the Philadelphia Museum of Art<\/a> sure was. I expected it to be pretty good, but it was truly one of the best museums I\u2019ve seen. Good Picassos, Braques, Bocklins, Dalis\u2026.great ones by Degas, Toulouse-Latrec, Turner, Van Gogh, and Rubens. The only disappointment was Duchamp\u2019s NUDE DESCENDING A STAIRCASE was loaned to Paris and wasn\u2019t there. Definitely one of the ones I wanted to see, but overall, what a great museum. We managed to hit an exhibition of Frank Gehry\u2019s design process over at the Perelman<\/a>, and later, the Rodin Museum<\/a>, which was tremendous \u2014 especially THE GATES OF HELL<\/a> (detail photo seen above).<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>LIFE IN THE SHIRE: We spent time with Joe McCabe (editor of FearNet.com<\/a>) and his photographer wife Sophia Quach<\/a>. Joe will be moving to LA next year because of his job, but he loves Philly. He said he feels like living in and around the town is like \u201cliving in the Shire.\u201d Personally, I can see why, when urban murals like the one above are part of the everyday scenery. This wasn\u2019t what Joe was talking about when he made the comment, but I\u2019ve never seen a better piece of urban mural than this one (created by Meg Saligman). Just part of everyday life in Philly. <\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>MORE URBAN MAGIC: Philly\u2019s Chestnut Park reminds me of Paley Park in NYC \u2014 a secluded green oasis in an urban jungle. Love this gate designed by Christopher Ray, and the funky animal sculptures sprinked throughout. This wasn\u2019t a planned destination, but just surprised us out of nowhere.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>STRANGE BIRD: Loved this bird, which is a detail from the same gate (seen in the upper right corner of the sculpture).<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>WEDNESDAY WITH WYETHS: I\u2019m a huge admirer of the work of N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, Harvey Dunn and Dean Cornwell. Really, you can\u2019t go wrong with any of the Brandywine artists, or with Andrew Wyeth. So Joe and Sophia took us out to Chadds Ford, and the Brandywine compound, where we visited the Brandywine Museum<\/a>. The museum has a little beeper that sounds off when visitors get too close to the paintings. I set the beeper off a lot when I saw paintings like the TREASURE ISLAND one above. Didn\u2019t care either. I\u2019ve stared at these in books for years, so seeing the originals up-close was a huge experience. We visited N.C. Wyeth\u2019s house and studio as well, and it made me want to fly home right there and get back to work. So inspiring.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>BE AFRAID: Had to show these. Joe works in the Comcast Center which dominates Philly\u2019s skyline and downtown. That\u2019s currently where Fearnet.com\u2019s corporate offices are. This is their bathroom signage.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>LIBERTY & INDEPENDENCE: Our last tourist day in Philly was largely spent visiting the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall (the Hall seen in background here behind the Bell). In previous days, we\u2019d had several meals at Reading Terminal Market<\/a>, and we did another lunch there (DiNic\u2019s and Bassett\u2019s). For the most part, I hate formal tours, but we did a brief one for Independence Hall, and it was well worth it. All and all, Philly\u2019s a tremendous town! Philcon Report in the next blog entry\u2026<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"