The People's Champions

The Fightin’ Phillies of Philadelphia are the baseballing champions of the World!!! From an objective perspective, the 2008 World Series was probably the worst World Series ever played given the fact that (a) one team was Tampa Bay; (b) we had to play in the Tropicana Dome; (c) the umpiring was admittedly terrible; (d) the Rays couldn’t play defense; (e) the Phillies couldn’t execute with runners on base; (f) multiple rain delays and suspended game. From a subjective perspective, however, it was one of the best series ever with the Phillies winning it on their home turf. The consensus from the players after the game was that they won it for the city and for the long-suffering fans of Philadelphia. When the game was over I went out amongst the people to join them in celebrating the team and the beauty of the city.

To make some things clear, the citizens of Philadelphia are generally a miserable bunch. It’s unclear why they are a miserable bunch, but I think it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy type thing where they got the reputation for being a bleak and surly bunch back in the 70’s (see Rocky and the "Broad Street Bullies") and they’ve just gone with the flow ever since. At the heart of a Philadelphian’s misery is their passion for sport, and it is through their sporting passion that they express their deep-seeded failure as a people. So, when the Phillies finally won it, it was as if the city finally passed and earned its GED and to celebrate we went to the streets to bask in our collective idiocy.

The first mission of the people was to tear every tree out of the ground on Broad Street. Once the trees were all removed it came time to tip over and smash all the giant potted plants that line Broad Street. After the pots were smashed we moved on to breaking all the street signs and tearing down light poles. From there we celebrated the city’s glory by lighting fires and turning over some cars and smashing them. Perhaps the greatest symbol of victory was the smashing of the storefront windows that line the main thoroughfare of our fine city. It was a glorious celebration of sport and community and it was the only way that we, the citizenry of Philadelphia, could thank the team for winning the Series for us.

On a related note, at some point in the evening I was watching as some folks threw a mailbox through the window of an F.Y.E. store. This was the first time that I’ve noticed the F.Y.E. store and I’m amazed that they’re still in business given the current state of affairs in the recording industry. For those of you that aren’t aware, F.Y.E. used to be Sam Goody, who used to be Camelot Music, who used to be Musicland. Musicland, I think, was primarily a “mall-based” record store and it’s where I bought my first record (actually it was a tape) back in 1986 at the Oak Park Mall location. That tape, Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes, is still one of the great albums of all time. As for the first compact disc I ever bought (not from Musicland, but from Camelot, which was Musicland), that was the glam metal classic “Danger Danger” by the band "Danger Danger."

Lighten Up

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Hoping for a Giant Hat

The Fightin' Phillies of Philadelphia have advanced to the World Series of baseball following their 5-1 victory over the Dodgers of Los Angeles on Wednesday night. Rumor has it that the city is going to put a giant Phillies cap on top of the William Penn statute which sits atop city hall. I like when normal objects turn giant, so I'm really hoping this rumor turns out to be truth. I'll keep you posted.

The Boss

On Saturday I went and saw Bruce Springsteen (aka "The Boss") play a free acoustic show down on the Parkway. Bruce set up the show in an effort to raise awareness about Barack Obama and the general need to vote. Interspersed with his songs about the American experience were his thoughts on America and voting. During his longest speech he said that the great thing about America is freedom and the symbol of hope that we cast towards the rest of the world. Then he talked about America and the American experience as a "house" for the people, but over the past eight years this house has been faltering. This election, he said, gives the American people an opportunity to rebuild that house.

I immediately identified with The Boss' metaphor depicting America as a house and I thought about all those people getting evicted from their houses and then I thought about this one advert that I saw on the TV telling me how I could make money buying other people's broken mortgages and then I thought about the $700 billion bailout to help the mortgage companies and then I also thought about all those people that own houses in hurricane areas and when their houses get destroyed they always rebuild them only to have them destroyed again. All this thinking made me think that maybe the "house" metaphor wasn't the best metaphor because it gets a little complicated a little too quick. Maybe a better metaphor would be to say that America is like a bed and this election is our chance to remake that bed?

Anyways, the highlight of the show was "Thunder Road" and a rousing rendition of "This Land is Our Land" for the encore. Afterwords we went and ate cheeseburgers and salad, drank a ton of beer, and watched them Phillies.