Philly POV

When you think of live music you think energy excitement originality passion or at least some of that. The one thing you probably don’t think about is musack.

Here’s the test: try to visualize a live musack band. Who’s in it, what are the instruments and WHAT’S GOING ON? I know, it’s impossible.

So it baffles and amazes that live musack bands even exist. But they do. Last year I encountered one at the Farmers’ Market in Collingswood and another this past weekend at Rittenhouse Square. 

They were different bands so that means there are at least two.

Relatedly amazing is how they don’t just phone it in. These musicians (musackans?) are busting a nut really feeling the vibe of their tunes. It’s equal parts awkward and magical and if you don’t know what I mean by that just look at this photo, and realize they’re playing THIS.

Perhaps it will do nothing for you but this Rittenhouse visual stopped me dead in my tracks.

It’s as if you were to make a quilt in some quilting class and the assignment was, replicate Philadelphia. Find some fabric and get to work.

Here are the literal scraps. You’ve got:

* A row of lean-to trinities

* A facing wall of non-windows

* Eleventeen types of street surfacing, each maintained by a different faction

* Weeds-as-greenery

* Plastic chairs, curbside, which absolutely get used

* An institutional giant dead-ending the scene through inert giantness.

And yet if you look closely, it’s not completely disparate. Something about the cube-y pattern everywhere … it all ties together.

It’s a “don’t bother me/we won’t bother you” co-existence, the kind of thing at which Philly excels.

For our final Rittenhouse post of the day, I bring you Cigar Man.

I couldn’t have invented a better representation of what makes Philly, Philly. A small tire of cheesesteak and pasta anchors him in position. Shoulders are back, but forward, too. There’s a tension in repose. Perhaps a score to settle. He could fly into action at any moment.

Arms could swing. Fists could fly. Even at rest, he’s ready.

Every element of gesture says: This is all of me. Nothing to apologize for. Nothing to hide.

That’s the Philly POV.

For every person there’s a way to experience the day, and for the Center City dweller west of Broad, Rittenhouse Square is the place to do it. Here we see a splash of society, crisply attired and accessorized with a lean-limbed pet dog. They have matching blow-outs, a shared view on the role of the nose, and a curiously similar distance between the eyes. They seem to touch the earth, but ever so lightly. An acre of polished calm while the world rolls roughly by …

July in the city. So hot, so gritty. Take respite in a patch of green. Surround yourself with trees and breeze. Allow the sweat to settle. Reconnect with your senses.

JUST DON’T GET TOO COMFORTABLE, OK?

For our first view of the Rittenhouse neighborhood, I thought I’d start right here at Rittenhouse Square with a hero shot that leaves everything and nothing to the imagination.