In Philly for the summer? Us too. While UTB will keep you posted on each week’s particular happenings, this helpful Philly spring-and-early-summer festival guide from Uwishunu is worth a read.
During the next two months, every possible culture and special interest group is capitalizing on the gorge weather with a big celebration. Best of all, festival-hopping will cost you nada! For example, this weekend is the South Street Spring Festival, the Kite Festival at Penn Treaty Park, the Strawberry Festival, and the Broad Street Run. Here’s to your next Facebook album!
First Friday is tonight! Take a study break and go see the art showcased, for free, citywide. Or go for the wine; we won't tell.
You there, innocently sipping your iced latté and skimming your Bio textbook outside Green Line. Does it feel COOL to break the law?
Indeed, alongside gun control, tax collection and parking enforcement, the proliferation of illegal sidewalk cafés is something the city of Philadelphia takes very seriously. When restaurants needlessly (read: without purchasing permits to do so) spill out onto sidewalks, they block the way of people walking, shopping, loitering and going about their economically productive lives.
So consider enjoying that ensalada fresca somewhere besides el aire libre. Your libertad is at stake.
Image c/o Britt Miller at http://www.brittmillerart.com/
Whoops, looks like the Friday part of this post has already escaped us. We hope you spent it in the sunshine. As for the rest of your weekend, we know finals are coming up. But if you need a study break, we have one recommendation, and one only:
Saturday: The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts culminates in a giant street fair that shuts down Broad Street from Chestnut to South. There will be live performances, fresh food, freebies, one million photo ops, and a ferris wheel (!!!) in front of City Hall. Best of all, it’s free. Plus this year’s theme is time travel, so if you take notes you might be able to get a sneaky extension on that take-home exam.
As the Google Doodle hath warned us, today (was) Earth Day, on which we customarily respect the planet and its non-human inhabitants. In case you haven’t yet celebrated, here are some suggestions.
1. Go to College Green, grab a nice big scoop of dirt, and put it in your mouth. The earth tastes delicious, and we never get to savor it! This is what animals, who eat lots of dirt, do every day.
2. Go to FroGro to make a statement in the produce aisle. Each of those fruits they’re trying to sell as “food” is just the swollen, overripe ovary of a plant, filled with seeds that each represent one unfulfilled plant life. To eat them is a travesty, and to buy them just supports the powerful Fruit Lobby.
3. Using your now-obsolete Spanish 120 handouts, wild grasses, Starbucks straws and locally-available tumbleweave, make a nest for the Native Birds of Philadelphia to call home. If all else fails, put a squirrel up there. He probably won’t mind.
4. Make a trip to the banks of the fair Schuylkill River, and gaze upon your watery reflection. Try to spot a Native Fish. If the glare on water’s surface from the oily industrial sheen is too strong, then the sun is setting, and Earth Day is almost over. It’s time to head home and cook up a fine meal of recyclables which you might otherwise have just thrown away.
Don’t delay, because Earth day only happens once a year! Tomorrow you’ll have to light that oil well on fire and kill a flock of eagles. On the real though, here are some actual ways to get in the green.
We are deeply saddened to report that 68-year-old Don Ly, owner and operator of the 34th and Walnut fruit cart, was fatally stabbed early this morning while loading up his cart in South Philadelphia. The DP reports that the motive for the stabbing is currently unknown.
Just like any local business owner, Ly was an integral part of the Penn community. He and his family always served their fruit with a smile, even in the cold of winter, from underneath that yellow awning. Our hearts are with his family in the aftermath of this tragedy. Stay tuned for updates, and we’ll let you know when we learn more.
Update: While police are still looking for answers regarding Don Ly’s murder, his son has written a touching Op-Ed in the DP about his father’s life and legacy. The family has also established a memorial fund in Don’s honor.
Image c/o Britt Miller at http://www.brittmillerart.com/
It’s the weekend, it’s TIME TO SHIII-II-IIINE, capture the future, together, etc. Aside from the extravaganzapalooza happening at our very own Penn Park, there’s lots of other great stuff in your city this weekend.
Friday: There’s a beer garden at The Porch at 30th Street Station right now! Until 8 PM! Get on it! Especially if you got boxed out of Time 2 Shine registration, yo. #realtalk
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It’s that awkward limbo time between Fling and finals. Might as well not spend it comatose/destitute/in VP!
Love Is Not Blind
Who? Penn Chinese Theater
Where and When? Tonight at 7:30 at Ibrahim Theater in International House
Why? It’s their first ever show, so go out and support the new group. It definitely sounds dramatic.
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Try to think back, before your headache and irritable stomach, before the substances and barbecue that made them thus, before you even donned your Fl1nG T4NK on Friday. On Thursday, UTB gave you some homework. Now we’re collecting it.
1. Submit your Shoutouts (cause, like, they’re DUE TOMORROW and you haven’t yet) to the box over thurr —>
2. Send us your pics with Fling Stanley so that you can become Internet Famous.
3. Send us your texts from Fling, area code included.
Our email is tips@underthebutton.com. Don’t delay, because this counts for 30% of your semester grade and you KNOW you bombed the midterm.
When you were in elementary school, did you participate in the Flat Stanley Project?
For those who didn’t have a childhood, here’s how it went: you read a story about a guy named Stanley who got flattened by a board, then you got to color in a picture of the guy and send him to a relative, who then took pictures with Flat Stanley and sent those pictures back to you. Then you showed your classmates all the wonderful places that your Flat Stanley had been! Here he is in Italy, and here he is with Clint Eastwood.
This year, UTB is introducing Fling Stanley. (S)he is a familiar figure on campus, all decked out for Fling in her favorite purple fanny pack and blue Solo cup (lest she be be too matchy-matchy with her red suit.)
Here’s what you do:
- Click [flingstanley] to download the PDF of Fling Stanley.
- Print it out, and include her in your Fling photos!
- Send those photos to us, and we’ll feature them on UTB.
- Obviously we’re not gonna publish a picture of your junk.
HAPPY FLING, Y’ALL!
