colourandlife

Bucks County, PA: Barnstorming, and other scenes of rural life

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:44:35 GMT

I seem to have developed a real fondness for rural Pennsylvania. And as you know, it's covered with barns. Today, the weather was perfect, and with lots of good light. So, we went for a drive, and I took pictures:

A RED BARN

There was something about how the light caught this barn, and how the black fence contrasted nicely with it.

HORSE BARN

What can I say? While I love barns, I'm also a sucker for animals.

SHADOWS AND LIGHT

I was playing around with my camera and attempting to catch the sunlight here.

LIFE AND DEATH

There was something very somber about this churchyard, and yet simple and beautiful.

It always brings me up short to see children die so young.

MISCELLANEOUS

Miscellaneous photographs with no unifying theme:

PA Dutch hex symbols are meant to bring good luck,
and can be found on many a barn.

Farm

Cock-a-doodle-doo

Hay bales

"You said I can has cheezburger! You pwomised!"

A horse is a horse is a horse, of course...

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:15:17 GMT

A horse is a horse!

...of course, of course!

I took these two pictures some months ago, and have only uploaded them now. These two horses were beautiful. I thought that I was only going to manage to get shots of the horse from the other side of the fence, but then both horses came up to the fence, so I was able to get close-ups.

Apparently, the kids in the area feed them all the time, so they probably thought I had a lump of sugar or an apple for them. I didn't. So, perhaps next time.

Bucks County, PA: Winter Wonderland

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:00:31 GMT

I'm sorry I haven't updated this thing in a while!

Anyhow, these pictures were taken in the aftermath of the snow storm Bucks County had before Christmas.

Nature's Chandelier

Anyone deckin' those halls anytime soon?

Hey, y'all! I've been to Narnia!

Bucks County, PA: Warm, Fuzzy Feelings

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 08:13:19 GMT

Gary is my boyfriend's cat, and the closest thing to a pet that I've had in a long time. Gary got her name from the animated series Spongebob Squarepants. While yet nameless, she responded to Gary the snail's meowing one day, and just like that, she was named "Gary."

She is such a beautiful animal (and yes, she knows it, too). She's got the loveliest soft, white paws, and she's got these black patches at the back of her hind legs.

...what?

Gary's reading Thomas Jefferson!

Philadelphia, PA: Architecture

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 08:08:23 GMT

Some architectural details of Philadelphia:

This rather elaborate arch is near the Rittenhouse Square area

Wachovia building, Broad Street

Bucks County, PA: My John Bartram Moments (hah!)

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 08:02:46 GMT

There's something refreshing about traveling to rural areas sometimes, particularly if you get to photograph stuff like barns, cornfields, cows, and wooded areas.

Some sort of berry whose name I don't know

Trees at twilight

Rosehips

Part of a creek

Bushberry

Fern seeds

Another fern-seed shot

Hanging on against the encroaching Fall

Philadelphia, PA: Rocking the Vote, 2008

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:49:17 GMT

Obama in red, white, and blue. The only colors that matter.

I went out on Broad Street just now to take a walk and stretch my legs. Already, there were people in the middle of Center City, honking and waving Obama placards, urging folks to get out and vote.

I didn't take any pictures of any McCain supporters because, Philadelphia being staunchly Democrat, it probably wasn't going to happen.

I've taken pictures of political campaigns before: I took pictures of the Howard Dean machine when it roared into Seattle while I was there on vacation once. There were even pets (mostly dogs) wearing Howard Dean buttons.

Anyhow, please forgive the crappy lighting.

Volunteers handing out campaign literature.

These Obama supporters were more than willing to let me take their picture.
Actually, they volunteered.

"WE BELIEVE!!!"

More Obama supporters, right down the middle of Broad Street.

The Obamamobile has come to town.

I ran after this truck along Broad Street until it thankfully stopped at a light.

Babies for Obama.

Munchkins for McCain.

Philadelphia, PA: Having Our Cake And Eating It

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:05:07 GMT

My boyfriend bought me Phillie Phanatic cupcakes to celebrate the Phillies winning the World Series.

The Phillie Phanatic has been judged the best mascot in all of Major League Baseball, and he's even in the Baseball Hall of Fame (as well as the Mascot Hall of Fame).

Philadelphians don't know what he is, to be honest. He's just... green, cute, funny, and weird. And cool.

Bucks County, PA: Sheep May Safely Graze

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:51:20 GMT

I wish I could get better shots of the cute sheep, but the scene as a whole was lovely in and of itself.

Philadelphia, PA: Hawking the Early Republic

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:45:54 GMT

America knows how to turn its patriotism into consumer goods.

The thirteen colonies, and the republic that followed, was concerned about commerce and consumption from the get-go. One popular way to protest, of course, was non-consumption. It has a long history: Colonial-era Quakers who thought slavery to be wrong, like John Woolman and Benjamin Lay, refused to consume anything made by slave labor.

Some historians have certainly argued that what ushered in the Revolution was protests arising over commerce (people could refuse to consume British tea and British luxury goods, and other "baubles of Britain"). Taxes, after all, hurt pre-existing commercial networks and the pre-existing, less-than-explicit, relationship between empire and colonies (a recommended book: The War that Made America by Fred Anderson).

I'm sure everybody's heard of "Build a Bear."
Well, we have "Build a Ben."

Philadelphia, PA: The shameless Sherlock Holmes fan in me speaks

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:45:20 GMT

I did warn you.

Besides "Dr. Watson's Pub," we also have...

Philadelphia, PA: Going Green

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:35:18 GMT

One of the first shots of the marvelous array of architectural detail to be found in Philadelphia.

Bucks County, PA: This is Corn Country

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:30:49 GMT

Bucks County is corn country. I took several cornfield shots, and I found that I really liked the lighting in the clouds with this one.

Corn. As far as the eye can see.

A view from amongst the corn.

A sign that summer is at an end.

Philadelphia, PA: Ben Franklin Bache's Aurora.

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:13:12 GMT

Politics in the Early American Republic were far from "dignified," and the Early National period was not "the good old days," despite what many a documentary or costume drama would like to tell us. Americans and American politics were just as unruly, boisterous, and emotionally charged as they are now. One only need read a newspaper or a pamphlet from the 1790s, for example, to know that it could get nasty.

And it got nasty because independence was young, and governance (including questions of representation, for example) was hardly "all figured out" at the time. In short, governance was up for grabs.

Politics, lacking political parties in the more contemporary sense, did have nascent parties that organized themselves around newspapers and their printers. Printers therefore wielded a lot of influence in politics.

Benjamin Franklin Bache (the grandson of Benjamin Franklin) was one such example of a printer-politician, and his newspaper, the Republican Aurora and General Advertiser, was his medium.

Newspaper reading was not the private pleasure that we now think of. Instead, newspapers in Early America were read aloud-- in coffee houses, for example-- where any number of people could be listening. It's how news and information got around.

In the upper part of the Aurora sign is Bache's motto, "surgo ut prosim" (I aim to be useful).

Philadelphia, PA: A picture (and a caption I'm glad I didn't have to use...)

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:59:31 GMT

Had the Phillies not won the World Series, the caption would've read: "Billy Penn sez: 'suck it.' Again."

Sports fans are superstitious. In baseball alone, there's been The Curse of the Bambino (ave, Boston Red Sox), The Curse of the Billy Goat (yo, Chicago Cubs), and The Curse of William Penn (that's us).

For those of you who have never heard of The Curse of William Penn, here's a primer: there once existed a gentleman's agreement that no building in Philadelphia could be higher than the hat on the William Penn statue atop City Hall.

After they built One Liberty Place (referred to as Liberty One) in 1987, no Philadelphia professional sports team has won a championship.

When they built the Comcast Center in 2007, workers hoisted the final beam in place afixed with two traditional items-- a small evergreen tree and an American flag-- and something extra: a little William Penn statue.

Before the World Series, somebody stole that statue, so they replaced it. And glued it into place.

Go, Eagles! Go, 'Sixers! Go, Flyers!

Philadelphia, PA: Phillies Phever 3

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:46:01 GMT

Philadelphia threw a parade for the Phillies on Friday, October 31.

Of course, I had to be there.

Some folks were already reserving their spots along the parade route at 5:00 AM. I didn't get there until about 12:30 PM.

I couldn't see a darn thing, in the long and short of it, but I didn't care. It was still fun being out there in all that energy.

"I see great things in baseball," the poet Walt Whitman once remarked. "It's our game. the American game." One thing I recall about watching the Ken Burns documentary Baseball is that baseball brings Americans together. It did when a bunch of us standing around a flat-screen TV outside one of the banks went bananas as we saw Shane Victorino hit that grand slam (a home run with the bases loaded) in the NLDS (National League Division Series). And it sure did once again on Friday.

I was on the way to doing some research in Old City, and I snapped these two pictures
of this young girl.

Some of these fans surely remember the 1980 World Series Championship.

A young fan asking his dad to hoist him up higher upon his shoulders.
Baseball fandom is nurtured almost from birth. One of the many things I love about American life.

This is what it looked like from where I was standing.

I raised my arm as high as possible to take this, at the risk of not being able to put it down.

Here come the Phillies.
If you look closely, you can see the World Series 2008 Championship banners.

A fan climbs up to get a closer look.

Philadelphia, PA: Phillies Phever 2

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:27:55 GMT

Phillies fans poured out onto Broad Street to celebrate mere minutes after Brad "Lights Out" Lidge struck out Eric Hinske (it was beautiful, brilliant, and will live with me for a long time) and shut the whole business down for the Phils.

This following batch of Phillies-related pictures was taken on the day of Game 5 of the World Series-- i.e. the only World Series game in the history of Major League baseball ever to be suspended.

I went out there, too, of course. Pushed, shoved, and squished amongst hundreds of the jubilant Phillies faithful, I was feelin' the love.

The buses got into the swing of things, too, as Phillies fans prepared for
the last three energy-charged innings.

Broad Street, shortly after the Phillies clinched it.

It was a madhouse, and these fans were rocking it.

The above fans clambered on top of a fire engine driving up Broad Street
from Citizen's Bank Park where all the action took place.

Broad Street. That's City Hall in the background.

Holy crap. We won!

Who's feeling the love?

Doggie style.

Philadelphia, PA: Phillies Phever 1

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:10:02 GMT

I'm a baseball fan. There's no sport like it, and it's the intricacies of the game that I love. Sometimes, a single at-bat (for example) doesn't seem to offer much action to the uninitiated viewer, but the baseball fan sees a whole lot more. It matters to us that a pitch is a slider, and not a change-up, and knowing not only the pitch, but its location with relation to the strike zone can make us scream with either delight or anger at the TV.

In the lead-up to the 2008 World Series, I saw red people.

Philadelphians decked themselves out in red to support the Phillies, whom Jimmy Rollins (in)famously declared were "the team to beat." In championship-starved Philadelphia, people felt that the time had come.

Go, Phillies!

An explanation for "phever": Phillies fans tend to appropriate words that begin with an "eff" sound by replacing it with "ph" with reference to the Phillies and their fanbase.

Phillies gear on sale at the Lights of Liberty Store, Old City.

Fight to the finish!

Even this Amish merchant's stand at Reading Terminal Market got into the spirit of things.

A rally towel.

We have our cake. But, will we get to eat it?
After 28 years, this city is hungry.

Philadelphia, PA: Pat's Steaks

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:45:50 GMT

And now, Pat's-- Geno's main rival in South Philly.

So who's better: Geno's or Pat's? Gee. This town's certainly big enough for the both of them.

The Story of Pat's.

Have trouble ordering your steak? Just follow these nifty directions.

Watch 'em make your cheesesteak.

The results.

Pat's. There ain't no other.

Philadelphia, PA: Geno's Steaks

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:33:09 GMT

Geno's is a fixture of South Philadelphia, as is Geno's long-standing rival, Pat's.

Both places boast the best cheesesteaks in town, and a true Philadelphia native could argue for a very long time about who makes the better steak.

The two places are also across the street from each other, so the rivalry also means great publicity for both of them.

Geno's. In living color.
This is an example of American commercial architecture at its cheesiest, but who cares? I love it.

When you line up for your steak, this is what you're likely to see.

The counter is ringed with a Wall of Fame, which boasts celebrities and politicians who have noshed at Geno's.

They sell Freedom Fries at Geno's.
The name's honestly not worth getting worked up over.
But, they're good for eating, no matter what they're called.

I wolfed down the cheesesteak before taking a picture of it.
Sorry, folks.

Philadelphia, PA: The Kimmel Center 2

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:27:05 GMT

Another view of the Kimmel Center.

To your left is Verizon Hall, home of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Philadelphia, PA: The Kimmel Center 1

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:24:28 GMT

The Kimmel Center.

Home of both the Philadelphia Orchestra (Verizon Hall) and the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra (The Perleman Theater). Next door to the Kimmel Center is the Academy of Music, which is home to the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

Philadelphians are so spoiled when it comes to classical music, particularly students. Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra tickets can be gotten cheaply (rush tickets can sometimes cost about $10, whereas a packet of four vouchers will cost $24 as of the last time I exercised that option). The Curtis Institute of Music, one of the city's best-kept secrets, offers recitals by solid artists (and future stars of the classical music world**) for free. Given that I'm partial to chamber music, it's a virtual steal.

** The Curtis Institute is the alma mater of both Hilary Hahn and Lang Lang.

Philadelphia, PA: Lions

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:11:29 GMT

Some stone lions that I thought would make an interesting composition.

Philadelphia, PA: Funny Sign

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:56:10 GMT

This is America. Speak English.

My eye caught this funny sign while standing in line for my "Cheez Whiz With" at Geno's Steaks in South Philly. Translation of "Cheez Whiz With": Cheeseteak with onions and Cheez Whiz (a cheesesteak with cheez whiz without onions is known as a "Cheez Whiz Without"). Don't laugh (or puke)! It tastes better than it sounds!

Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia's got Benergy!

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:42:13 GMT

Ben Franklin is the historical figure that tends to hover most over the city of Philadelphia (if you're a sports fan, that figure is William Penn).

The whole "Benergy" thing is, as you might guess, a portmanteau of "Ben" and "energy." We had a whole lot of "Benergy" going around for Franklin's tercentenary in 2006.

Philadelphia is full of monuments related to celebrating its resident Founding Father.

Someday, I'll go out and photograph all of them.