|
|
|
Happy Wednesday, friends. Herr’s Potato Chips is crowdsourcing for ideas again and asking Philadelphians to submit creative chip flavor names. Anyone can submit a flavor name based on a small business in the region. Check out their website for examples and to submit your nomination. Submissions open until Nov. 15. 🥔
|
|
|
|
What Philly’s Talking About
|
|
|
A Millennial City Council Candidate
|
|
Anthony Phillips was unanimously selected as the nominee to replace Cherelle Parker on City Council. Phillips runs the nonprofit Youth Action, which promotes responsible leadership among middle and high school students. If he wins, Phillips would be the youngest City Council member, and plans to continue focusing on Philly’s youth. [Billy Penn]
|
|
Coffee Workers Unite
|
|
Starbucks workers are not the only Philly baristas that have joined the union wave. ReAnimator Coffee is the latest string of shops to unionize, joining Ultimo, Elixir, Good Karma Cafe, and Korshak Bagels. ReAnimator workers strongly supported the efforts, voting with a 96% majority to form a union. [PhillyVoice]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Urban Almanac: Philly’s Fall Foliage
|
|
|
|
Can you tell it’s my favorite season? (Xandra McMahon/City Cast Philly)
|
|
|
|
It's one of the best seasons for nature walks. The air is crisp and the leaves are changing from green to vibrant shades of red, orange, and yellow.
Want to go leaf peeping in Philly? Here’s some great spots to let go of stress and really enjoy the beauty around you.
Bartram’s Garden in Southwest Philly is an excellent place to start. The Bartram’s Mile Trail has 1.55 miles of a paved path that stretches through their garden. It’s perfect for a leisurely stroll or some bike riding.
In Germantown, there’s the Awbury Arboretum which is devoted to trees and other wildlife. Its 56-acre historic landscape is an oasis for tree and plant lovers.
But you don’t have to go to these big spaces to appreciate the fall foliage in the city. Any park, from Rittenhouse Square to Norris Square, there’s plenty of gorgeous colored leaves to marvel at.
My tips? When you venture out for tree appreciation, make it a moving (or still) type of meditation. Fall is filled with so many aromas and sounds. The whistling of the leaves, the cool feel of the air and the wind, and the smell of maple trees.
Breathe deep and ground yourself in the moment. Soon, the colors will vanish so enjoy the blessings of autumn while they’re here. Happy tree-watching! 🌳
|
|
|
Where's your favorite place to be at one with nature? Let me know!
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Tell me more about the Selkie Book Club and how it’s centered on magic. What is your personal definition of magic?
I’m a big believer in the inherent magic in many things, be that nature, music, art, literature, etc etc. Selkie is really dedicated to the magic of storytelling, and often, the magic of stories that are only just now being told. Books like “Her Body and Other Parties” (our October read) tread the line between horror and truth and meditate on the inherent horror of modern womanhood, while also cultivating an apt homage to magical realism.
Most of the books we read show both the horrible and the wonderful in each story, and allow them to coexist in one space. I like to think that finding just the right book for someone is a little bit of magic in and of itself!
What’s your favorite part about working at a local independent bookstore?
The best feeling is when someone walks into the shop for the first time and does that little gasp of surprise, and you get the “Oh, I can’t believe a place like this exists!” and then my heart is full for the rest of the day.
Getting a huge say in what we stock is also wonderful, because we focus on a lot of queernormative, subversive literature and very apt political and sociological works as well as having our witchcraft and occult section and focus, and while we may not carry absolutely everything all at once, I do think our little personally curated selection is very vast, varied, and with only the slightest bit of bias, truly wonderful.
What horror-themed books would you recommend for our readers to dive into this season and beyond?
I think horror encompasses so many things, for example, the inherent societal horror of the implications of womanhood or motherhood is a favorite recurring theme of mine.
This year I’ve really been loving “What Moves the Dead” by T. Kingfisher (horror novella loosely based on “The Fall of the House of the Usher”), “Things We Say in the Dark” by Kirsty Logan, and “Her Body and Other Parties” by Carmen Maria Machado (both unsettling feminine-centered short story collections.)
|
|
|
|
Spiral Bookcase is located on 4257 Main Street in Manayunk (Monica Robinson/Spiral Bookcase)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
What to Do
|
|
|
|
Enjoy an evening of readings by four incredible poets: Syd Zolf, Airea D. Matthews, Raquel Salas, and Herman Beavers. The poems will reflect on heritage in all its forms. [free]
|
|
|
|
|
It’s time for a Halloween-themed Burlesque show! Ginger Leigh has gathered Philly’s leading performers for a show that has plenty of pizzazz. [$20]
|
|
|
|
|
Head to Silk City for a Halloween costume party. Sounds by DJ Tati Mia, Hashland, and Mariah Geez. [$5-$10]
|
|
|
|
Today On City Cast Philly
|
|
|
|
|
Pennsylvania is expected to receive more than $1 billion from major opioid settlements. More than 5,000 Pennsylvanians died from drug overdoses last year, with Philly accounting for 24% of those deaths.
In today’s episode, City Cast Philly host Trenae Nuri spoke with two people on the frontlines of the opioid crisis in the city:Nicole Bixler, from Operation In My Backyard and Sarah Laurel, from Savage Sisters who explained what harm reduction is, what they’d do with money from the opioid settlement, and their hopes for the future of harm reduction.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I know it’s #RedOctober, but for me it’s Taylor Swift October. Yesterday, NBC Philadelphia’s Sheila Watko conducted the traffic report using puns from Swift’s latest album “Midnights.” It was fabulous. Swiftie approved!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
