Weekend Happenings

In the spirit of spring and a renewal of posting, I wanted to let everyone know that I will be attending the Free Library Festival this weekend, April 17 and 18. (You should go too--tell your friends!)

Although the festival launched in 2007, and I'm usually a proponent of this sort of thing, I have yet to attend. According to the library's website, the event is "an annual 2-day celebration of books, music, people, and ideas." Hosted by Philadelphia's Central Library on the Parkway, the festival is a free public event that draws 25,000-35,000 booklovers from across the mid-Atlantic region. "Highlights include appearances by celebrity authors, engaging children’s programs, live music and other performances, plus a Street Fair & Literary Marketplace featuring numerous literary exhibitors—including publishers, booksellers, independent authors, and cultural organizations."

I'm not yet sure which events I'll be able to hit, but here are a few of my favorites:

• Robin Black | If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This
• Storybook Parade
• Heidi W. Durrow | The Girl Who Fell From the Sky: A Novel
• Chang-rae Lee | The Surrendered
• David Lipsky | Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace
• Second Annual First Person Inter-City StorySlam: Philly vs. Washington D.C.
  

And that's just a taste of what's going on Saturday. Many more on Sunday (including an event with Sapphire, the author of Push, the novel for which the movie Precious was based).

Other noteworthy going ons this weekend: I'm getting my first tattoo!

Ten Tips on Finding Cool Things to Do

It's Monday morning and you roll in to work and people are chattering. About their weekends. And you realize, that you missed an interesting opening, party, performance, whatever. Or you log onto Facebook and scan the dozens of photos of people laughing, hugging, and mugging for the camera. And you think, I wish I was there. So then, how do you keep abreast of the interesting happenings in Philly? I have a few ideas that I use to keep you immersed in what's going on.

1) Says yes, often. The best way to get invited to things is to show up for things. And the best way to learn about cool stuff is word of mouth. If somebody tells you about something, just go. At the very least you get to build a relationship with the inviter, but more often you get to meet awesome new people and try things. Once you show up once, people will LOVE to invite you back. Really simple advice that works.

2) Ask people about their plans. Bloggers do this routinely. PhillyWeekly and the Citypaper are constantly asking for event listings. I'd never be able to write for One Fine Philly if I didn't hound people about their plans.

3) Crash the party. This tip works, but it gives me agita. I get nauseous when I show up something where I don't really know anybody. Three things happen when I do this: 1) I meet people or see someone I know, 2) I meet nobody, but have a good time being one of the crowd, or 3) I flop majorly and leave early with no harm done.

4) When nobody will go with you, go anyway. Let's face it. Everybody is busy. And many people are broke. If you have the courage to follow this tip, you will never, ever have a boring night in front of the computer or tv again. I have a whole slew of tricks for having fun and not looking out of place being alone at an event. But I'll save that for another blog post. Seriously, I do this. Often.


5) Network for a social life. I network for my social life mostly online (plus my coworker/friend knows the awesomest stuff in town). On Twitter and Facebook, I follow/friend about 200 people who are event planners, DJs, scenesters, artists, musicians, geeks, or generally people who have a good time. Probably in a given week, I get at least 50 invitations of interesting stuff to go to. I only wish I could go to everything. For example, there are several outdoor film showings in Philly this summer. And I haven't been able to make one yet. Bummer.


6) Follow the "experts" in your interest area. I'm not the person in the know. Definitely not, but I follow people who are. On my Facebook, I routinely check the invites of several people whose taste is similar to mine. These are people who have 1,000 friends and seem to go to the coolest parties. You can RSVP to an invite that you didn't receive personally- just click the link of their RSVP.

7) Don't neglect traditional event listings. What I love about the Citypaper and Philly Weekly is they highlight events off the beaten track. They have a knack for knowing what events are worth attending. I'm partial to Citypaper's DJ Nights, but that's because (as you all know by now) I am fanatical about dancing.

8) Share and promote other people's events. When you hear about something, spread the word. In kind, they will do it for you. Underneath event attendance is relationship building.

9) If you can't make an event, follow up on it anyway. I have to miss several events each week, but I'll read the reviews, look at the pics on phrequency.com, and ask people to tell me stories.

10) Ask One Fine Philly contributors to give you ideas. We share info to each other privately because not everything is worth publishing. Or we don't have time to post it up because we're too busy going to stuff. Post a comment asking about stuff-- we all get notifications via email and will get back to you quickly if we can.

Dance Summer

I've been doing so much dancing lately, that I haven't had time to blog about dancing. As we hit the halfway point of the summer, I am feeling the itch to diversify my dancing options a bit. And this weekend is fantastic for hearing music and moving across the floor. This is only a small sampling of the options. There are other parties that look interesting in Atlantic City and NYC, but I am going to stay close to home this weekend.

FRIDAY

Prive Lounge on corner 3rd and Market in Old City. (246 Market)

View Facebook invite here.



Official launch party for dance.philly. Fridays featuring an all-star DJ lineup of:
LuVitt
Joof Citty and
Moo B
with DJ Germ spinning in the back lounge

In addition to DJs there will be a live broadcast on internet radio station Philly-EDM.com. There will be filming of a dance.philly. promotional music video during the party, so either dress nice or hide from the cameras. (I will be hiding).

This event is a pretty big deal ever since Lounge 125 changed it's format away from house music. Prive now offers a new option to house heads in the city.

$5 Cover; Guest List gets NO COVER

Email JadenK99@gmail.com for guest list OR send a message to facebook group "dance.philly."


Kung Fu Necktie at 1248 N. Front Street in Fishtown.

No Cover, ever
10-2

View Facebook invite here.

DJ's Billy W & Ryan T spinning a mix of disco that sounds quite tasty, including European-based disco aka Italo disco.

For those of you who have not experienced Italo (which is disco music developed after the 1970's in Europe), it's a treat. Although Italo may be an acquired taste. Here's a sampling for you.

And here is a delightfully garish, glittering web site devoted to Italo disco.

SATURDAY


X-mas in July 2009

Location: The Northeast Pole, 9227 Walker Street (NE Philly)

Second annual mid-summer outdoor celebration/bbq/show!

Tickets $12 - 15

View Facebook invite

This event I heard from a friend of mine in the Philly band British Lit. He wants all of you to know about it and come. This strikes me as the most interesting of the dance/music options for the weekend. And if you don't live in Northeast Philly, this may see like a haul, but really public transportation isn't that bad.





The tip for this party I got from the 51:51 blog. The 51:51 aka FiftyOne:FiftyOne site is an amazing dance party planner for me. Check it out- it has a nice layout and covers a broad range of dance music in Philadelphia.

Well, I'm going to stop now since my fingers are tired and after this weekend, I think all of me is going to be tired. But happy.

One Fine Philly Holiday

What are the other One Fine Philly bloggers up to for the holiday?

As for me, things are busy, but I admit I want to avoid the Welcome America celebration. Cheryl Crow doesn't do much for me. So, other than trying to make the three or four BBQ's I've been invited to, here are some other events I will try to attend.

Friday, July 3rd. Piazza at Schmidts

5:00 PM - 9:00 PM
SUNDAE PRESENTS - A MICHAEL JACKSON TRIBUTE

SUNDAE PRESENTS - A TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL JACKSON. Sammy Slice, A-Run, Dirty & Lee Jones playing non-stop MJ originals, remixes, covers + more as we dance the night away to the king of pop. The party starts outside from 5-9 and then moves indoors to P.Y.T from 9-2am.

Friday, July 3rd at 941 Theater (941 Front St.)

I am planning to make this dance party at a relaxed, non-club Philly venue.

Saturday, July 4th. Back to Piazza at Schmidts and down 2nd Street to Spring Garden- After getting rained out, the Philebrity sponsored music event is back.

Sunday, July 5th 

I could go back to the Piazza again for Sundae party, but I think I'm going to stay home unless I get another offer. Anything happening on Sunday that I could go to?

My Weekend Plans