The Hardcourt Bicycle Polo Federation World Championships are happening this weekend directly across the street from my house here in Philly! I’ll be able to watch from my bedroom if I wanted.

I already posted this on my music blog yvynyl but I gotta share with all y’all who don’t read that (yet!). This is the new music video from my pals Free Energy. The vid was directed by m ss ng p eces and shot on location at the dudes’ house party earlier this summer. I’m really in love with this song and the video – and well, as I said on yvynyl:

Philly + bikes + summertime + my neighborhood + cute kittens + my buddies’ band + a great house party + cameos of dozens of my friends (damn, i didn’t make the cut!) + one kick-ass party song makes this my favorite music video of the week. Then again, I’m biased.

Recently, I discovered Atlas Obscura, “a compendium of this age’s wonders, curiosities, and esoterica.” It speaks to my heart:

The Atlas Obscura is a collaborative project with the goal of cataloging all of the singular, eccentric, bizarre, fantastical, and strange out-of-the-way places that get left out of traditional travel guidebooks and are ignored by the average tourist. If you’re looking for miniature cities, glass flowers, books bound in human skin, gigantic flaming holes in the ground, phallological museums, bone churches, balancing pagodas, or homes built entirely out of paper, the Atlas Obscura is where you’ll find them.

 
This guide is simply full of some of the most incredible stuff. For example, one of the entries in Pennsylvania, mere miles from where I went to high school, was totally unknown to me until now. How had I never heard of this place before!? It’s called The Sonorous Stones of Ringing Rocks Park, basically a field of musical, ringing boulders in the middle of the woods. Incredible.

[photo: David Hanauer]

Here in Philadelphia, you’ll find a number of odd spots, including the Shrine of Saint John Neuman. I’m going to have fun exploring (and contributing to!) this outstanding project. Lord Whimsy, you must be all over this already, yes?

My neighborhood hosted it’s 3rd annual arts festival this weekend. I’ve been saying this is my favorite day of the year in Fishtown, a day when I’m extra proud to live here and be part of such a vibrant and wild-spirited community. What promised to be a rainy affair turned out to break free of the showers and even give me a sunburn. It was lovely, as always.

A big part of the festival, for those of you who don’t know yet, is the ‘Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby’. I took lots of photos of the derby and here’s a video of some of the best sculptures in action:

I’m so excited about this film! When you live in Philadelphia, Zagar’s work creeps into your consciousness with this odd iconic ubiquity. So strange, and yet so beautiful and literally found in every nook and cranny of this city. The film was made by Jeremiah’s son, so it’s sure to be an intimate family portrait which tend to be some of my favorite kind of films.

Synopsis:
Over the past four decades, Isaiah Zagar has covered more than 50,000 square feet of Philadelphia with stunning mosaic murals. In A Dream is a documentary feature film that chronicles his work and his tumultuous relationship with his wife, Julia. It follows the Zagars as their marriage implodes and a harrowing new chapter in their life unfolds.

I can’t believe I missed the theatrical showing of this film last April, but now it’s coming out on DVD(?) and I plan on seeing it asap. Maybe it’s time for a documentary film house party! Who’s in?

[UPDATE: Luckily, I was wrong about that date - it's actually going to be in the Ritz at the Bourse starting April 17, 2009! Yes! Let's all go! Who's in?]

Now that it’s getting nice (relatively) out again, almost spring, we’ve been stepping it up a bit on the running regimen. Today was a gorgeous sunny winter day, so we decided to head down to the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge for a jog around the water. Turns out, this is a spectacular spot to go running.

The small loop trail is very well maintained, there is hardly anyone there, the visitor center is a great warming hut for cooling down and getting a drink of water, and the one loop is 3.3 miles around which is just about 5k. Perfect!

On top of that, it’s only about a 10 minutes drive down just past the PHL airport. And it’s terrific to be in a quiet nature preserve with lots of wild birds and information signs and bird lookouts like this:

Scenes from Shadow World from David S Kessler on Vimeo.

Audrey and her classmate Jesse are shooting a short film on 16mm this month and we all went out location scouting on the banks of the Delaware River just north of Port Richmond in Philly, nearly under the Betsy Ross Bridge. We just happened to stumble upon this fabulous little old overgrown jetty that was simply magical.

See the whole set here:

From the sky:

And from the highway (no, I probably shouldn’t be taking photos while driving in traffic, but…):