New Post at Philly Grubbers

I have a new post over at Philly Grubbers: How Not to Make Pizza. Now with YouTube!

Baby, It's Cold Outside. No, I Mean Really Fricken Cold.

I'm supposed to go out and pick up some groceries, but I'm just not motivated yet, thanks to the weather. Oh, sure, the sky is clear and it's sunny, but it's in the low 20s. But hey, at least I'm not in Europe. Or the Midwest. Or... well, let's just say as far as winters go, Philly's not that unusual, but with more snow. (Yay snow!)

Lifehacker has some tips on keeping warm. Me? I'm a believer in longjohns and hot toddies.

The Decline and Fall of South Street

Pearl Art is closing at the end of the month. I'm both depressed and not surprised. South Street has been in a rapid decline for several years now, ever since they started raising the rent rates. But there are a lot of causes behind the emptying of South Street, much of it sad.

So let's take an incomplete tally:

• The Brick Playhouse: well, this is a case of mismanagement--I know, because I was a member. But the few years I was part of the Playhouse was some of the happiest of my life.
  
  
• Zipperhead: namechecked in the Dead Milkmen's "Punk Rock Girl, it was, of course, a clothing store. Best part about the place was the exterior (which may still be there, I don't know, I haven't been down that way in a while)--big ants crawling up the side of the building. Apparently they've moved and changed their name, and the fact that I only found out about it in 2010 says something, though maybe it just points out my own ignorance.
  
  
• Spaceboy Records: and when we lost Zipperhead, we lost their neighbor, Spaceboy. I loved Spaceboy--they had a great selection of new indie, new lps, old LPs and CDs upstairs. But with the massive changes in the record industry, even big chains have gone out of buisness. Between the high rents and the decline of record sales, there was no way a place that deals largely in new music products was going to survive, but it still hurts.
  
  
• The Book Trader: not exactly gone; they moved up to 2nd and Arch. But I miss their two-story store on the corner of 5th and South, with the big bay windows where you could look out on the street below, busy with foot traffic, lit up at night. They moved, but it's not the same, and South Street isn't the same.
  
  
• Philadeli: sure, it was pricy, but they sold six-packs, great sandwiches, and now they're gone too.
  
  
• TLA Video: I don't know what got them more--the rise of Netflix, or the decline of South Street? Sadly, I'm going with Netflix overall, because this isn't the only store they've closed; they've also closed the one near my old apartment on Spring Garden St.
  
  

And there's probably lots of others that I can't remember.

There are a lot of causes--South Street's rent is too high, we're in the Great Recession, and media consumption has moved from brick-and-mortar stores to the computer. And there are still places that I like down there--The Bean Cafe, Tattooed Mom, they're still there, and hopefully will stay there. But I've lost a lot of reasons to go down there.

And now Pearl Art, where you could find just about anything you wanted, is gone. And I hear that's as much how the company--not this particular store--is managed.

I don't have to leave my house anymore to buy a book, or find a record, or rent a movie, or talk to friends. Everything can be done right here on my laptop, as I sit on the living room, warm and narcotized by the soft glow of Law and Order in the background, while tabs for Netflix, Amazon, and Facebook are up on the browser. But doing so, I'm losing something. I'm losing real human contact, I'm missing meeting new people, I'm missing finding things by accident.

Update
Den just reminded me of Tower Books, also gone a long time, before even Tower Records, IIRC. He used to sell his zine there.

In Which I Rant About the History Channel and the Apocalpyse

I really shouldn't watch the History Channel--it just makes me mad. And so I'm watching a program called "Seven Signs of the Apocalpyse", showing how science proves we're living out the Book of Revelation.

Yeah.

First of all, how is interviewing a bunch of evangelical fundamentalist nuts about the apocalypse "history", when they believe it to be a future event? And furthermore, the winning stupid comment goes to Left Behind author Jerry Jenkins, who, speaking against the idea of gamma rays hitting the earth, said "God doesn't have to use science to destroy the world". What? What does he think science is--a branch of magic? "God doesn't have to use geomancy to destroy the world"? I ... I can't even figure out what that means. What does that even mean???

"God doesn't need sound waves to make a noise."

"God doesn't need to use words to recite The Waste Land"

I know, looking for real history--as opposed to another episode of "How awesome is Dan Brown?"--on the History Channel is like looking for educational programs on TLC, which, if I remember correctly (and I do), used to mean "The Learning Channel", where they'd show programs like the awesome Connections. And now...

And now I just heard a guy say "Well, ancient peoples didn't know human anatomy, but they did know blood is the source of life." WHAT? Really, there were no doctors? Hippocrates? Celsus? Oh, those guys were morons--they didn't anything about the human body.

Also, the source of life? What does that even mean? What a meaningless phrase.

Look, I'm glad I'm alive in a world of MRIs and antidepressants, but I really get tired of the idea that everyone who came before the modern world was just a bunch of morons sitting around banging rocks together.

Update

As my husband just said, "I guess they're not going to show Power of Nightmares on here."

Lansdale Gets a Farmers' Market

So two years ago (wow, was it that long ago?), when I was writing for the alternative-reality game World Without Oil, I predicted that with a catastrophic oil spike and subsequent economic meltdown, Lansdale--the town I moved to and now live in--would start up a farmers' market. Though the town is situated amongst some of the best farmland in the Philadelphia exurbs, and is surrounded by local farms and dairies, it hadn't take advantage of this with a local farmers' market.

Well, two years, an oil crisis and Great Recession later, and Lansdale finally has it's own farmers' market. I've just come from there, actually, where I bought some black raspberry jam and some rather creative bread (long story). I was there last weekend as well, on the Fourth of July opening. Both weekends it's been very successful, which is encouraging, and it looks like the borough council will have it permanently approved, with a ribbon cutting on August 1st--which, in an odd bit of synchronicity, is the old Celtic harvest festival of Lughnassadh, also called Lammas in Scotland and England.

At any rate, it's an encouraging sign that communities are starting to think local, and doing something about it. The world is rapidly changing, and the old ways will not return. We still have our three-thousand mile Caesar salads (and I'm as guilty of anyone of enjoying that), but it's unsustainable in the long (and maybe even short) run, and better that we plan on this now than wait until we can do nothing about it.

O Hai--Still Breathing

Now, I've been off in job-search land. Last December I got my intern certificate, allowing me to teach (within certain parameters) in Pennsylvania. Problem is, I can't find a job. It's not just that there's a glut of English teachers--though, let's face it, there are since what else do you do with a degree in English? it's not like the publishing houses are hiring. I've gone to job fairs, and been told that there just isn't room in the budget for more English teachers. Science, math, those are the fields where there's a lack of teachers. I've only two years left to finish this intern certificate before I either pass, or lose it entirely. So time's ticking, and I'm nervous.

But! At least I still have a job. Right now, the U3 stands at 9.4% (probably will be revised upwards, as so often the monthly numbers are), and U6 (which is a lot better picture of what's really happening) stands at 16.4%. Sure, our wages are frozen, taxes have gone up, raising our mortgage payments, but at least we still have a job--even if I'm stuck in one while unable to find what I really want. Honestly? I'm lucky, and I realize it.

And our current job is only a ten mile commute, which is better than a lot of my past commutes. Meanwhile? Gas has jumped from around $1.60 last December to $2.50 this week. In six months. The pendulum has swung again, and it won't be long before we're hit with $150 a barrel again.

Yeah, I'm rambling--I'm trying to get back into the swing of blogging.

This looks like a good one

Frontline this week is tackling the market crash/economic meltdown/recession/O-MI-GOD-WTF-HOW'M-I-GONNA-PAY-THE-BILLS-ATHON: