A few days in Philly

For better or worse, the way I move through my hometown on a day off is the same way I explore new cities. Whether I’m at home or in Italy, I on the same circuit: museums, art galleries, used or indie bookstores, cozy cafés with endless pots of hot tea and pastries, vintage shops, five-course meals or bougie bites, and long walks spent taking in old buildings or sketching on a bench. If there’s a sauna or a hot yoga class nearby, you can bet I’m there too.

My days in Philly this week looked very much like my usual rituals.

I visited the Barnes Foundation Museum, a salon-style space that feels more like stepping into someone’s living room than a traditional museum. I saw at least twenty Matisse artworks, many of them the iconic pieces I’ve only ever seen in books. I always feel so lucky to get to see them in person, in physical form. It really feels magical to stand up close to centuries or decades old art.

I love Cezane’s still lives so these were a treat. And his famous card game piece.

And of course this iconic Van Gogh piece that’s in good ole Philly.

Barnes had two pieces by Horace Pippen who I adore for his minimalist paintings of African American family life. I learned that Pippen took painting classes at the Barnes Foundation in 1940s.

Popped into a gallery which was showing a local artist who painted on real flower leaves.

I spent time at the Book Trader, a used bookstore that’s on every must stop list in Philly. It’s old and has the classic old cat walking around manning the books. I am allergic to cats so I stayed on the lookout for the old geezer. Book Trader did not disappoint. I was overwhelmed by their fiction books so I stuck with the poetry aisle and art section.

A bulk of my time was spent in several vintage stores: retrospect vintage, casa vida and stick ball were my favorites that I’d return to.

I found some instructional oil painting books. I find that instructional painting books written before 1990 are so much more helpful, straightforward and easy to follow compared to modern day books on how to paint. Bought three of them - written in the 70s.

I came across some pretty decent artworks in multiple vintage stores. I wondered if my own artwork would end up in a thrift store decades from now. I wouldn’t mind it one bit if it did.

I did bring this still life home. I rescued it for the time being.

I had the best French fries at the famous Pat’s known as the original creator of the Philly cheesesteak in the 1930s.

Tea and pastries at Forin cafe in Fishtown and writing at some other cafe in Fishtown with the best peppermint and cardamom tea.

We ate at an old school bougie five course meal kinda spot where bow ties are the norm and they hand you the cheesy red rose to give to your “lady.” The food lived up to its pretentiousness and the rose gave local good florist vibes not street corner roses. It’s called Eddie V’s no less.

All in all, it was a nice break from the doldrums to visit Philly. I put Philly in the same bucket as Norfolk, VA and New Jersey where it feels like the sun never fully shines there. I’ve been to both places multiple times and the sun just seems to hide.

There’s a certain grit to these places, a sense that life there lives closer to the ground than in the clouds, more brittle, more clear-eyed.