Yesterday morning when most of the sane world was still sleeping, 30,000 runners, including five of us from 160over90, congregated in North Philly at the top of Broad Street to race ten miles in muggy 80 degree heat. We organized the team as a part of our efforts to encourage sustainability and health, and to prove that running and beer are a copacetic combination.
The Broad Street Run is deemed the biggest ten mile race in the nation, and it’s a point-to-point run that follows Broad Street from North to South (passing city hall, and the 160over90 office along the way), ending at the Naval Yards.
Race highlights included: mummers jamming on the sidwalk, marching bands, lots of gatorade, fire hydrant sprinklers, and a free soft-pretzel after the race. It was hot.
Huzzah to the finishers!
Ro and Michelle before the race
Below are a few photos from Philly.com. Check out their page for more.
Our friend Nick Zegel had a chance encounter with Shepard Fairey in NY last Thursday. Next thing he knew he was back in Philly filming him and his crew installing a mural on the side of his friends print shop, Awesome Dudes Printing. Check out the video Nick shot and cut.
April 23, 2010 • 12:38 pm • POSTED BY stephen penning
I’ve written before about the NFL’s ability to expand what is essentially a four month season into a year long engagement. This past Tuesday they again managed to turn coal into diamonds and they didn’t have to squeeze that hard. In the midst of the NBA and NHL playoffs the NFL managed to get two hours of prime time coverage on ESPN. For what? Not a game. Not a Tiger Woods interview. But the release of the 2010 schedule.
Think about that for a second. The NBA and NHL both have long, grueling seasons that culminate with the best teams fighting to be crowned champions. The NFL season is four months away but the release of the schedule and the surrounding hoopla around match-ups, projections and rankings is enough to draw an audience away from athletes actually playing sports at an extremely high level. While I haven’t been able to find out how the two hour schedule release special did in the ratings I have to imagine it performed well.
The schedule release though is a mere appetizer for the NFL ‘s Thursday, Friday and Saturday extravaganza. This year the league has taken the draft to new heights. Instead of it starting on a Saturday and getting through the mildly entertaining first three rounds in an afternoon the NFL has taken the draft to prime time. Now tonight at 7:30 you can find out (hold your breath) who the Buccaneers will take with the 67th pick.
While it may seem like NFL overload the league is merely giving its hardcore fans what they demand. More and more NFL related content. NPR did a piece this morning on fans that attend the draft. Some travel thousands of miles to see what the future make up of their team could look like. When asked about his attendance one fan equated the draft to Christmas. If this is truly the case then for some the NFL is the gift that keeps on giving.
Forty years ago, on April 22, Earth Day began as a massive grassroots movement (please excuse the pun) to raise awareness about environmental issues. The original demonstration attracted nearly 20 million people who engaged in marches and teach-ins. Today, Earth Day is a global phenomenon. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Perhaps you’ve even used phrases like “carbon footprint” and “go green” and “organic” before. Though I’ll admit that I will probably never create an actual compost pile, and I’ve had entire conversations about carbon offsets in which I had no idea what I was talking about, I’m all for environmental conservation. The earth is good, and we should be good to it.
In honor of earth day, hemp bracelets, National Parks, bicycles, and back-to-the-land, here are a few things that we earthlings should consider doing more often.
- Ride bikes (no hands, if you’re good) to work. And then zip over to a body of water where you can skip stones. Enjoy the sunshine. Appreciate the flowers. Do not make a daisy chain.
- Eat an entire apple, including the core*, in order to prove that waste is unnecessary.
- Shun unnecessary packaging (publicly, if possible), and bring your own bag to the grocery store.
- Use the word green as a term of endearment. As in, “What up, Green? I like those new water-soluble, zero carbon footprint shoes you’ve got on.”
- Begin growing a dreadlock as a tacit reminder to use less shower water. By next year, you’ll have both a conversation piece and proof that you gave back.
In the meantime, check out this awesome photo retrospective from National Geographic–especially the one of people camped out on Independence Mall in Philly.
Happy (early) Earth Day!
*160over90 not liable if this causes you to grow an apple tree in your stomach.
Our lives are marked by a series of milestones. Pivotal points where the way we live our life changes from that moment forward. Here’s a quick rundown of some of mine: Marriage. Job. House. Kid. Move. Job. Kid. Hawthornes. What is a Hawthornes? It’s a beautiful new invention known as a beer café and about five months ago it opened around the corner from me. Now a beer café is exactly what it sounds like. Awesome. A lovely little bistro with over 1,000 beers from around the globe that you can either enjoy there or take with you. Most of these 1,000 beers come in bottles that you can peruse through the glass doors of the seven large beer fridges, conveniently categorized by geography. But then there is the growler altar, sitting humbly by the fireplace, hissing sporadically as one of the beer wizards turns mysterious dials and knobs before emerging with a glowing amber jug filled with some new unusual beer. A chalkboard lists the 10-12 daily offerings from true craft breweries that obsess over the quality of their hops and grains. Often these beers are seasonal, small-batch brews with ABV’s ranging from 6.5% to 13%. A growler, which is 64 fluid ounces to us non-metrics, can cost anywhere from $12 to $34 to fill depending on the beer.
Now here is the important part: Normally your first growler requires an initial $15 investment for the vessel, which you then keep and bring back for refills. However this Tuesday, April 20th your growler is free. Hawthornes is hosting one of its many beer-tastings events, this time with Boulder Beer. Just fill your growler with your favorite Boulder brew and you gain free membership to the growler club. There really is a club—your 20th growler is free. This is your moment to jump. It seems like a no-brainer. Otherwise you’ll just have to listen to me and Dan Shepelavy wax on about our growlers with way too much emotion and enthusiasm than is appropriate.
April 14, 2010 • 1:45 pm • POSTED BY Dan Shepelavy
Hooray! The weather has turned, spring sprung, etc… which means, once again, Weber’s is on the menu! Not just an orange Doo Wop-style car hop with a mechanized retro asterisk sign serving simple burgers and home made root beer, but a roadside oasis and an enduring monument to warm weather good times. Route 38 in Cherry Hill, in lovely southern New Jersey. (also @ shepelavy.com)
(These photos were shot a couple of years ago with the Savoy, below, a corker of a fixed focus medium format plastic toy camera.)
