As a kid, I was a huge Rocky fan. Huuuuge. And I went to Philly as a kid and saw and stood next to the Rocky statue. It was certainly a highlight for me at the time.
So, Im back in Philly, and I want to run down the street through crazy markets with chickens running all over, and end in a triumphant rise up the art museum stairs.
But I forgot my running shoes.
And I have no idea where all that is from here. I am in the middle of the University of Pennsylvania with it's old and oldly cool built buildings. The convention is a radio convention, and I'm put up at the Hilton - this somewhat upper-end hotel with a $10/day internet charge (needlesstosay i'm typing from a cafe and not the hotel) and 2,000 pillows on the bed. So many pillows, in fact, you cant even sit on the bed without sitting on a pile of pillows. It took me nearly 15 minutes just to take them off before crawling in to sleep last night.
We hit the first panel consisting of Citizen Cope, Moby, and such. An interesting topic of whether or not radio matters anymore to an artist/ career. The highlight was certainly Moby calling the major record labels Sauron from the Lord of the Rings, and how nice it is to see them crumble like the evil tower does at the end of the movie. Fantastic!
From there it was lunch. I mentioned that before.
Then on to hear Cracker do a short set. Cracker was on the bill for the first show I ever went to. It was Spin Doctors, Gin Blossoms, and Cracker. So, I've been a fan for a bit, and they did a special version of Happy Birthday to Me for one of the radio personel.
After Cracker, was another panel. And then more music. Cory Chisel (mellow and dark - not my favourite). Then my friend Trevor Hall did a set to promote his self-titled upcoming CD (i think you should get it - July it comes out i think). And Serena Rider finished off the set. After that we had my set and then a break for dinner. After a wonderful networking evening and a great chat catching up with Trevor, it was back to the World Cafe for the evening wrap up party.
Then the morning came. And they had a much more vegan breakfast, indeed. Granola, Cheerios, Bananas, etc. Yum. The day has been moving by pretty quickly so far, after a set by Guy Sebastian (not bad - soul-ish. if you like jamie lydell, john legand - but not that much soul). His highlight by far was Steve Cropper coming out and playing on 3 songs. Steve was the guitarist and songwriter behind most of the Memphis soul/ Stax sound (Sam and Dave, Otis Redding, Staple Singers, Wilson Pickett, etc). Then the Derek Trucks Band came on, and jammed for a while.
And now Im here. Needing to go back in!
you're actually pretty close to the philly museum of art (aka the steps rocky ran up). you can see the art museum off of the highway right before the exit for I-676. if you're on the campus of the university of pennsylvania. look for chester street (runs one way east). follow that across the river to 22nd street (should run one-way north). take that until pennsylvania ave. and make a left onto pennsylvania ave. that should take you right to the museum. and in the absence of traffic shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes
ReplyDeletehow was derek trucks band?