Well the camera in the mirror shot is certainly cliche’ and a bit silly…. but for tonight, let’s just call it “classic”.    Stay warm, friends!

Oh, and here are a couple of previous snow blogs….. just because!

http://melissahassey.com/2010/02/this-snow-broke-records/

http://melissahassey.com/2010/02/the-other-4-of-philly/

http://melissahassey.com/2010/02/diy-beer-sled/

It was one of those recent days where it was somehow storming and sunny all at the same time.  Beautiful, really.  My friend Jenn called and asked if I had any city photos she could have.  I then suggested we wonder through the neighborhood on this gorgeously dreary day.  It was fun to get on the streets again and photograph.  The streets of Philly are where this entire photo adventure of mine started many years ago…..  I was much bolder then… See “Don’t Talk to Strangers” series.

My most frequented corner store:

Check out this awesome door made of, I assume, bench ends.  Very cool!!

From the Spring Garden El stop.  Many years ago I was kicked off the El at this very station for taking photographs.  A friend and I were “written up” by a cop and told never to photograph on the El again. Haha!!  I will say that, at that time, I was using a giant 4″x5″ camera with a hood over it.  And, I was attempting to photograph the people on the train.  Wow, I really was bold back then!

Cool PBR advertisements at Spring Garden (designed by various different artists).

You can see the El steps and, I believe, some of the new art school that they are building on Front Street.  Oh, and a bit of the city line on the left….  This shot really shows the dark cloud, bright sun contrast that was happening that day.

Water from a fire hydrant…

Gamer…

Kensington.  Does it look like I am jailed in or jailed out? 

Anyway, we finally are deciding to “cash in”.  Below is a look at what we have saved.  Carl & I both thought that it would be fun to have a contest to see just how much was saved.

So, here is the contest:

- HOW MUCH?  (Guess within $10 and receive an 8×10 photograph (we can discuss of what once you win!!)

OTHER FUN GUESSES (Guess the correct amount and win a 5×7 photograph)

- HOW MANY SEPTA COINS?

- HOW MANY $1 COINS?

-  HOW MANY FOREIGN COINS?

- HOW MANY BUTTONS?

- HOW MANY EARRINGS?

-  YEAR OF THE OLDEST COIN I FOUND?

Oh, and if you want to win some drinks in Fishtown as well, check out Carl’s blog and vote here:

http://www.philadesigns.com/2010/07/09/coinstar-time/

Good luck!  Oh, and we plan to cash them in tomorrow!!

And then, of course, I took some just for fun….

Our location was Delaware Avenue & Berks Street.  As you can imagine, there was A LOT of trash ranging from bottles filled with urine,   plastic toys, pants, jackets and cigarette butts.

Overall, we had a good time with our friends and even got spotted by Action News.  Afterward there was free beer and food at PBC (Philadelphia Brewing Company) in Kensington.  Nice!!

So, yes, indeed, we worked for beer.  I do hope that the cleanup actually motivates people to minimize the litter and cleanup more often.  It is a tough and seemingly endless task around here…. but I think small actions do help.

Anyway, here is a link to Carl’s blog about this (it is better, it has photos and has the action news bit)…. I am in  the video but I have a hat on and my hair pulled up.  My own mom didn’t recognize me so you probably won’t either.  Carl is carrying a big sign and our friend Ryann got some voice time.  Here you go:

http://www.philadesigns.com/2010/04/11/philly-spring-cleanup/

]]> http://melissahassey.com/2010/04/will-work-for-beer/feed/ 0 http://melissahassey.com/2010/03/i-used-to-be-fearless-s/ http://melissahassey.com/2010/03/i-used-to-be-fearless-s/#comments Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:13:09 +0000 melissa http://melissahassey.com/?p=2535 There was definitely a time in my life that I was more or less unafraid of most situations and locations.  I learned today that I am over that!

Since it was such a beautiful day outside, we decided to go for a long neighborhood walk.  I recently learned of a particular location along “the docks”.  This is referring to some of the  very old  and now unused boat docks and ports in Philly.  Particularly there is a location in Port Richmond that I have been wanting to check out.  Knowing that it is trespassing, expansive and in the middle of nowhere (for the city), I decided Carl should come along with me.

It was definitely a bit creepy back there…. but at the same time really beautiful… in that urban style that I love.  What was creepy was that we were so far detached from the public and  that this most definitely was a place where reclusive people that are much tougher than I am probably hang out.  Oh, and with the buzz of the highway in the background and residential homes about a mile away…. our screams would be completely pointless.  Ha!

ANYWAY, we actually were comfy for a bit and were able to take in the scenery.  That is until we noticed some not so pleasant looking people lingering behind the walls.  When they started walking towards us we quickly decided to leave.   I don’t plan to go back there anytime soon… but I am glad that we did.  We weren’t there for long, so I didn’t get too many great photos but for what its worth, here you go….

This was partly through our walk back…. It gives an idea of how far detached we were from any main streets…

My main intention was to get to the very end of this long dock and take some photos.  From that point (I hear) you get a clear view of the city skyline.  Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the end…  bummer!!

Walking around we felt very welcome…. there was even a nice welcoming sign telling us to die in hell.  lovely. 

Once away from the dock, we continued our walk behind some of the now vacant buildings along Richmond Avenue…

A great location for riding ATVs…

Shew…. back to the comforts of home….

the actual photo, since it is difficult to see:

Yesterday morning there was a tractor trailer immobilized from these holes for almost 2 hours.  A tow truck came along but couldn’t make its way down the street.  Instead it parked way down at the corner and set up cables to “rope” the truck in.

It is tough to see in this picture…. but the red by the wheel of the truck is the cable….

Later in the day, after watching numerous other vehicles struggle down the street, another car was completely disabled.  Some neighbors, a couple of guys from the surrounding cars, and I shoveled, picked and pushed the car until eventually the guy got out.

After that, a neighbor suggested that we all get together and dig out the street ourselves since, clearly, the city wasn’t going to help us.  So, we grabbed our shovels, axes and sledgehammers and slowly but surely neighbors got home from work and came out of their homes to help.  We ended up with a group of about 15.  This all started around 5pm and we didn’t finish until around 9:30pm.  And, yes, we bitched a lot about Philadelphia taxes, the Mayor and the all too forgotten neighborhood of Fishtown….  but in the end, we did it and I am so proud!

Happily we can all now drive down our block of Memphis Street without concern.  Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for most of the surrounding streets.  In fact, just this morning a car was stuck and struggling on the next block down from us.  Sigh….

Though I know I am not the only one that is very sore today with burning and blistered hands, I am happy that we did it!  Maybe other blocks will be encouraged and do the same…. 

My photos are not quite the best as it was extremely dark outside and I really couldn’t feel my fingers or manipulate my lens well.  Besides, I was anxious to get back to work…..  Even still, here you go..

With 6″-8″ of pure ice, this, clearly, was not easy work:

even the kids helped out!!  And, I assure you that these are 2 very strong and determined girls.

try picking that up with 2 hands!

I love that it looks like Carl has a mustache in this picture….

Anyway, I wanted to post a few quick snow photos I shot while hanging out my window at 12am…. 

Without further ado, here is Carl taking a break from pulling the beer sled.  I helped by taking photographs. 

Check out the rest of his blog and website too!  Enjoy!!

http://www.philadesigns.com/myblog/