Tomorrow is Bastille Day, and Eastern State Penn is hosting a slew of events all day in celebration. They’ll be running tours of the Penn all day (admission price is $9). From 2 pm until 5:30 they’ll close Fairmont Ave. in front of ESP for a street fair, and then at 5:30 pm there will be a recreation of the Storming of the Bastille, complete with flying Tastykakes (although last year it was Twinkies). After the tossing of the cakes, people are encouraged to stay in the neighborhood to get drinks and dinner.

Image from Blankbaby

While many of my friends are scooting off to the shore or New York or other exotic places, I’m sticking close to home. I’m having breakfast with a friend tomorrow, going to the Dar Williams concert Sunday night and stopping in at a friend’s picnic on Monday. It’s the first time in many months that I have such an open weekend unfolding in front of me and it thrills me to no end.

What’s your favorite way to spend a holiday weekend? Is there anything going on in town over the next four days that shouldn’t be missed? How are you planning on spending the time (keeping in mind that they are calling for isolated thunderstorms all weekend long).

Decoration Day the original day for Memorial day is this Monday, May 28. It allows us to take a moment and give a thought and perhaps a prayer for all those men and women who have given their life in the military service of our country.

Originally it was started when Southern women, during the civil war, went and put flowers and flags on the graves of the fallen soldiers. The idea caught on.

No matter the politics, these men and women answered a call to serve and believed that by doing so they were helping to improve the world. It does not get more idealistic nor courageous. We should all have the courage of our convictions with such fervor.

I ask you to take a moment between the hot dogs and beer, betwen the picnics, between the gift of a relaxing paid holiday and take a moment. Take a moment to say a prayer to whatever god you pray that we find better ways for the best and brighest to serve and thank those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Dirge for Two Veterens

By Walt Whitman

THE last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath,
On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking,
Down a new-made double grave.

Lo, the moon ascending,
Up from the east the silvery round moon,
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.

I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key’d bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they’re flooding,
As with voices and with tears.

I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring,
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.

For the son is brought with the father,
(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans son and father dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them.)

Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight o’er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.

In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin’d,
(’Tis some mother’s large transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.)

O strong dead-march you please me!
O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.

The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.

This perfect Philly Easter photo popped up in the flickr pool today, a definite must-post. It’s an archive shot of the Peepmobile on Market Street. For more fun peep-related photography, check out the Peeptastic pool.

Photo by odhusky.

This Thursday, March 8th at Finnigan’s Wake, 3rd and Spring Garden from 6 PM to 9 PM you can taste some of the best Irish Stew this side of the Atlantic. The cook-off includes both amateurs and professionals attempting to create the best Irish Stew in Philadelphia.

Only Five dollars gets you in and proceeds are used to feed the hungry and less fortunate in the Philadelphia region. So start the season of the Irish by supporting The Hibernian Hunger Project while having fun and food and helping a great cause.

Now I may prove myself to be deeply romantically challenged with this admission, but I kinda think an entirely fitting—albiet low-key—Valentine’s Day can be arranged simply at the nearest Rite Aid or CVS.

Here’s my tally:

My Valentine’s Day Card to Matt came from the CVS on 19th and Chestnut.

Matt got a small Valentine’s Day gift for me* at the Rite Aid on 23rd and Walnut.

And tomorrow after work, I will visit one (or both) of those locations to replenish our kitchen candy supply with the post-holiday markdowns. Hell, we don’t mind eating Hershey’s kisses wrapped in the wrong color foil.

Cards, gifts, chocolate. Doesn’t that cover the essentials?
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My first Valentine’s Day date in years just got nixed. Okay, so I’ve never really had a Valentine’s Day date, since I’m not really one for days like this. There’s something about setting aside a day for love that appeals to me in theory, but not in reality. In reality I don’t much like the consumeristic nature, with all of the pressure to buy roses and awful cards and an expensive dinner (okay, I’m not exactly opposed to the dinner).

But when I saw that World Cafe Live would be having a free screening of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and offering a special Valentine’s Day dessert menu (with desserts like strawberries dipped in white and dark chocolate with Godiva chocolate liquore, red velvet layer cake w/ sour cream and cream cheese frosting, and crème brulee), I thought the idea sounded perfect. Yummy desserts and a sort of anti-Valentine’s Day movie! So I proposed the idea to my husband last week and he agreed to go with me. Until he heard about the predicted weather for this week and then he was trying to sell the idea of staying at home.

Well, it looks like the weather has won out, because World Cafe Live will be closed tonight. Oh well. There could be worse things than being stuck inside with my husband on a cold and wintry night. :)

Here at the Metroblog, in preparation for Valentine’s Day, we’ve been brainstorming romantic locations and activities that you can do with your special someone. Except that when I started thinking about particularly romantic locations, the only ones I could come up with were outside. Which, considering the state of our weather right now, aren’t particularly useful.

The Azalea Garden in Fairmount Park for instance. It’s beautiful in every season except this one. Totally useless for the celebration of Valentine’s Day.

The pier at Penn’s Landing is another one. You and your sweetie could wander down to the river after a nice dinner in Old City or Queen Village and walk out so that you can see clearly to Camden. I’ve done that once, it was a nice evening, dinner at Marrakesh followed by a first kiss that was reflected in dark surface of the water. But that was in July, and right now someone would have to pay me in order to get me anywhere near the river.

My advice this Valentine’s Day is to stay home and cuddle up. Get comfy in a nice pair of flannel pajamas with the one you love (or the remote control). Make a nice pot of soup. And stay warm.

If you are in Philadelphia even once over new year’s, you’ve heard of the Mummers. I decided that this would be the year that I finally checked out the parade. But alas, the weather had other plans–the parade has been postponed until this coming Saturday because of the rain. Which is good, as I felt bad for all of the hard work that would have gone to waste due to the weather.