Over the Weekend
Went down to Philly on Friday night to house-sit, make new friends with some PIBs freshly arrived from the west coast, and wander my old stomping grounds. I really shouldn’t be surprised anymore at the odd turns gentrification has taken, but it was still jarring to find a Whole Foods plopped down scant blocks from Harry’s Occult. The grungy little Kater Street townhouse that was my home in 1998 is gone, replaced by a brick monstrosity still swathed in scaffolding.
South Street actually kind of reminds me a little of Melrose Ave in LA – a small swarm of stores, all selling the same flashy disposable club fashion. Much like what happened to the Limelight, nothing special or unique. And while the raucous drunks of Fat Tuesday’s are poised to survive a nuclear holocaust with their blue cocktails and relentless techno, the streets were oddly quiet. It’s changed, and not just in a “the goths are all gone!” kind of way.
Tattooed Mom’s is still there, a balm of jack and coke in the middle of all this dubious nostalgia. I love the back room on the second floor.
The baroque propriety of a mid-seventies suburban living room – covered in graffiti. It’s like something popped straight out of dream logic, like an abandoned house that the neighborhood kids are partying in, leaving their territorial sharpie pissings, but the actual furniture left alone instead of being smashed into firewood.
And they haven’t gotten rid of the bumper cars. Yay.
Another highlight: dropping into Halloween while the soundtrack to A Chorus Line was playing in the background. Nothing like checking out a mouthwatering display of 80’s-deco Alexis Carrington earrings to the caterwauling of “Tits and Ass.”
