or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea, you're off to Great Places, today is your day....Are you inspired? Sort of? Good enough.
The "real" reason I'm talking about places is because a great thing happened this weekend. I had an awesome evening in a new place (that I went to). And it was awesome because I had no idea it would be so freaking fantastic until I was being there and realizing it. And as a self-proclaimed shut in, homebody, I will tell you that I am highly scrutinizing of places and a hard sell on leaving the house. But for once in a long time, I was so gosh darn pleasantly surprised.
Where did I go? The BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN of course! How's that for Dr. Seuss? Now to explain. This is a house, as in a place where people live in Fishtown, that "emerging" neighborhood northeast of Northern Liberties, but south of the great NORTHEAST here in Philadelphia. Now, I know how lots of people like to tip up their cute little noses at the houses in our city that have the gumption to profess that their houses have personas worthy of naming. But stop being a jerk for like one whole minute. It might be just long enough to hear what I have to say about this amazing house/wonderland that deserves every syllable of its fantastical title:
The house itself was just an excellently renovated warehouse space, of which there are countless over there in Fishtown. But this one had such style. Remnants of its former industrial existence accessorized its modern d.i.y. aesthetic. This included a dangling heavy chain with little purpose beyond simply hanging there and looking tough. The second floor was like a loft, semi-visible from the first floor and from which an awesome and loving dog kept watch over the rager of a birthday party below. Most impressive, however, of all these features was the 15 foot hole in the floor, safely gated off, but useful for seeing all the bands that were performing in the Basement.
Yes those people you see are an entire floor below where you'd be standing if you had made it to the party and been hanging out with me. You would have had an unbelievably fun time hearing my housemates' band Pony Pants play, this awesome band I'd never heard of before called Slingshot Dakota, and the worth-all-their-hype Brooklyn duo Matt & Kim. If you were really on schedule, you would've been there early to hear the Deathset. It was a birthday party for this boy named Ryan:
He seemed to be having a really nice time. And half way through the show, someone showed up with tons of free food, including a huge holiday cake. By the end of the night we were all covered in frosting. Our hands were stained holly berry Christmas RED.
It's okay by me if life needs to remind me of its stature and prowess by impressing me this much with an evening of such well executed debauchery. If all nights were guaranteed as fun as this, I would need more reasons to stay home. And so next time you hear about a show at the Big Rock Candy Mountain in Philadelphia, grab your little u-lock and throw on a fancy scarf and prepare yourself to be wowed. I love seeing houses like this one.
thanks for the beautiful write-up of our house! one thing though, could you please remove our address? thanks a lot.
ReplyDelete-katrina