Summer is almost here, and I couldn’t be more excited.
Despite how fun the warmer months are in Philadelphia, I’ll be headed out West on a cross-country bike ride from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Anacordas, Wash. (about 50 miles from Seattle) come mid-June. More than 4,500 miles in the saddle, baby.
For anyone staying in Philly this [...]

There’s a lot to complain about in Philadelphia these days, and it’s getting harder to find any legitimate points of pride. Sure, we may be on the brink of hosting the to-be third-tallest building in the United States, but what’s that going to do for the city?
It sure won’t fill the massive black hole [...]

The do-it-yourself music scene in Philadelphia is rapidly turning into the hope-someone-else-does-it scene. Aspiring young bands from all over the region that want to play Philly are finding it difficult to organize a show in an intimate all-ages setting. Sure, there is the monolithic R5 Productions, but if Pitchfork Magazine hasn’t reviewed your band, the [...]

The streets of West Philly will belong to scores of fearless cyclists March 15 when the first annual Wild Wild West Race (“West Philadelphia, born and raced!”) takes place. Will Smith, eat your heart out.
In the eyes of most sane people, participants in alleycat races are truly out of their minds. These races involve droves [...]

Philadelphia has enough dive bars to get the rest of Pennsylvania drunk. Predominantly in working-class neighborhoods, these bars provide locals and visitors a rickety stool to sit on and cheap beer to drink.
Most people discover dives long before they turn 21 – they’re usually the only bars in the city that don’t card anyone who [...]

Hate me, for I am a hipster!
Yes, you read it right. I’m sick of hearing young people in Philadelphia throw this silly term around at each other so disparagingly, without anyone ever owning up to it. So I will.
Maybe it’s time you did, too.
Now, for a little clarification: I ride a fixed-gear bicycle, I [...]

To be a bike messenger is to be professionally inconvenienced, and yet it continues to be one of the most romanticized and sought-after positions for young people in cities. Any messenger who denies the implicit “cool factor” is either lying or blind. But what is it that makes this job seem so much “cooler” than [...]

Despite the massive student population found in University City, the real lure of West Philly is not immediately connected to education.
West Philly is that part of the city where fringe is the norm - most residents of the area west of the Schuylkill River and south of Spring Garden Street are hard to shock. Upon [...]

40s are quite the anomaly: they are consumed by both dark-alley dwellers and frat boys alike.
But the 40 ounces of cheap booze (count ‘em, that’s well over a liter of drunk juice) don’t really serve much purpose outside of getting intoxicated - quickly. Perhaps the shared admiration between men sleeping in dumpsters and college students [...]