Philadelphia
I'm amazingly behind on my blogging, but sometimes the price for a great party must be paid!
When I went to Philadelphia for a Magic tournament last month I was expecting to be unimpressed with the city. I somehow remembered it as being run down, dirty, and not having much to offer other than some historic locations. When my friend Zaiem decided he wanted to go for a walk to get a Philly Cheese Steak I found how wrong I was. The city is clean and covered in beautiful murals:
The next one I have mixed feelings about. The "Vaccinate" message first seems like a public service, until you see who has paid for it:
I was pretty pleased with the path we had followed so far, but had no idea about the treat ahead of us. I was looking at some graffiti on the side of a wall, when Zaiem told me to turn around and I beheld a menagerie of broken mirror pieces, ceramic tiles, colored cement, and paint:
After taking it in for a bit, we continued down the street. We saw another similar styled wall, and then an entire apartment facade in a similar style:
It turns out we had happened upon the studio and surrounding lots of an artist (Isaiah Zagar) who has spent the last decade covering everything nearby in mosaic. The following pictures are all hypertext (a misnomer given their graphical nature!) links to larger versions. They're worth looking at bigger for sure:
My favorite part of the whole place, though, was a 20 foot by 5 foot space between four walls of different buildings. The sunlight reflected off the mirror bits on each wall all the way down. It was wonderful to just stand there in all those shards of light:
So, kudos to Philadelphia. You're much prettier than I thought!
I also played in the largest Magic Tournament ever held in North America and finished 22nd. Fun, fun!
When I went to Philadelphia for a Magic tournament last month I was expecting to be unimpressed with the city. I somehow remembered it as being run down, dirty, and not having much to offer other than some historic locations. When my friend Zaiem decided he wanted to go for a walk to get a Philly Cheese Steak I found how wrong I was. The city is clean and covered in beautiful murals:
The next one I have mixed feelings about. The "Vaccinate" message first seems like a public service, until you see who has paid for it:
I was pretty pleased with the path we had followed so far, but had no idea about the treat ahead of us. I was looking at some graffiti on the side of a wall, when Zaiem told me to turn around and I beheld a menagerie of broken mirror pieces, ceramic tiles, colored cement, and paint:
After taking it in for a bit, we continued down the street. We saw another similar styled wall, and then an entire apartment facade in a similar style:
It turns out we had happened upon the studio and surrounding lots of an artist (Isaiah Zagar) who has spent the last decade covering everything nearby in mosaic. The following pictures are all hypertext (a misnomer given their graphical nature!) links to larger versions. They're worth looking at bigger for sure:
My favorite part of the whole place, though, was a 20 foot by 5 foot space between four walls of different buildings. The sunlight reflected off the mirror bits on each wall all the way down. It was wonderful to just stand there in all those shards of light:
So, kudos to Philadelphia. You're much prettier than I thought!
I also played in the largest Magic Tournament ever held in North America and finished 22nd. Fun, fun!