livin' the (ex)ghetto

SOUNDTRACK: RATATAT, Bare Feast

Youtube

Hello everyone,

now that the snow is finally melted and just a memory I can try rebuild my sense of humor. So besides the tragedy of my hairy legs now visible for all...IT'S SPRINGTIME!

As many of you guys already know for sure, in US spring and summer = block parties and food festivals. Definitely the most interesting for the environment and the atmosphere around is the south street festival which seems to say to all " take a break an enjoy".

 

I have to say that is kind of crazy see all those colors all together and I'm so glad I got my camera with me.

So let me explain why south street is so special to me. At least a couple of reasons: Carmela used to live there last summer so to me is just a wonderful memory of me and her eating the guac of Whole Food for the entire month of August, one of my favorite place where to exorcise EVERYTHING is on south street and of course it is about music (Repo Records, find them on fb), my love Josh lives round the corner (the first time that I went there there was 1 meter of snow on the ground, seems like a forever ago), South street is the only place where to eat the original Philly cheesesteak, and of course... the murals. 

South street used to be the ghetto and so a terrible place where to live, now the city and the neighborhood just changed and turned in something different and I'm speaking as a person with another culture and from another country but also as an observer of the city (I will never forget this place). Why? The same old story: immigrants. South street was the home of the international Philly and south Philly now have this heritage to defend. Here we can find the Italian market (which now should change its name in the Mexican market) but not just that. It's a mixture of Italian, Mexican, African American, Colombian and so on people. It's the little Queens of Philly so if you have to live in Philly (I had lived in 4/5 different parts of the city) listen to me: go to south. It's cheap, nice, multicultural, safe (or at least not more dangerous considering other parts of the city). And South street it's like the main entrance to this strange and colorful world where you might not hear English for blocks, far from Rittenhouse Square for sure with pros and cons. But every corner is a surprise and you will never get born. And what is life without adventure and new discoveries? 

Follow my path... and discover the areas that are fancy... but in a very peculiar way.