Saturday, Philly

[da]

Yesterday morning was, by some measures, a bust: we had breakfast in Reading Terminal Market (at a diner, so d. could get scrapple). I had their version of my "usual" from Mel's Diner back home, but it wasn't as good as Mel's- the eggs weren't quite set enough for over easy, the hash browns were oily not crunchy, and the coffee was particularly sour. Sheesh- from this description you'd think I was homesick or something. :)

d. went off to his conference, and I planned to visit the old City Hall for a tour (a sign said they had tours hourly starting at 9am). Well, it turns out they're M-F. What sort of tourist attraction is closed on the weekend? (That would be a government-run one, I think?) So I wandered off to Macy's.. which was closed until 10am. So I walked around, took more photos, and made it to the Kimmel Center for the 10:30 architecture tour. Amazing building- dud tour. A few other people and I waited until 11, when the volunteer told us it was canceled because they couldn't find the tour guide. Oops. I gave myself a tour, and took some more photos. That was my morning: walking and photos keeps a Daniel happy enough.

Afternoon was much better: to start with, I went down to south Philly and met boutell and his daughter E. for lunch at Benna's Cafe. I know boutell-as-a-person through LJ friends-of-friends; but I originally knew of him for open-source code he wrote, the graphics library GD, which I've used for a number of years. So, since he indirectly was the source of a few thousand dollars of my contract work, I figured I owed him a drink or something. Yes, in the future everyone will be famous for fifteen people.

We chatted about various things including the Mütter Museum, Fluxx, laying flooring, tea, white elephants, diabolical santas (E's contribution), and... a few other things. Also Benna's has a nifty arts display by a Mike Burkowski, called "Eldrich Stygian Horror," colour drawings inspired by Lovecraft critters.

Ah. Anyhow. I left them and spent much time wandering around (pekmez! I found your mosaic background!) More photos, still to be sorted through. I hope they're not all awful, or I'll feel like the vacation was more of a bust!

I also got a tour of the Rosenbach Library and Museum. I guess you never know what you're in for when you go to a small museum- in this case, there was a 45-minute tour of the house. 30% was about the furnishings collected by one Rosenbach brother; 30% about the Sendeck collection (I lingered, because I enjoyed seeing his sketches); 30% on the library- which means I saw the spines of a lot of neat books and manuscripts, but very few open books were on display unfortunately. The final 10% were meanderings by the volunteer docent, who told me a long story about a book she's reading on Arctic adventurers, "...but I'm not sure why I was telling you this." *eye-roll* :)

The books in the library would have been interesting to see open: Joyce manuscripts, an original Book of Mormon, a manuscript of Leaves of Grass, first edition Herman Melville... I got more out of looking at the library's catalog-book in the gift-shop, which actually showed pages from some of their books- first drafts of some Abraham Lincoln speeches were neatly done, versus Joyce's handwriting (very slanty). Only, I didn't feel like paying $50 for the catalog.

The Rosenbach library could do with quite a bit of interpretation and programming- it's a shame, since they've got some wonderful books. According to someone I met on Sunday, they will make an extra effort to have someone who can answer questions about your particular interests if you book a tour in advance. Now I know.

Apparently the older Rosenbach brother was the collector responsible for buying a number of the pieces for the Morgan family, so he apparently was responsible for much of the idiosyncratic collection at the Morgan Library in NYC.

An odd way to spend an hour. Made me wish for more content.

After I left the library, I met dan for dinner at "Raw", which had some awesome sushi. Plus a surprising latin-beat/J-pop background music. And a pair of guys from DC queening it up next to us at the bar. And the bartender lost control of one of his drinks, which was exciting. I'd go back.

And that was Saturday.

Comments

Down Home Diner

[(Anonymous)]

The food there's gross. You're much better off at the Dutch Eating Place (and they have scrapple!)

Interpretation/programming

[morgan-starfire.livejournal.com]

The Rosenbach library could do with quite a bit of interpretation and programming- it's a shame, since they've got some wonderful books. That is the sad truth of a number of really good museum places in Philly -- great collections, but not accessible enough for just that reason. Still, it sounds like it was at least interesting!

Sorry about the diner... there are definitely bad places to eat in Philly. ;-)