Photo via Brave New Worlds

An important side note to begin: For you geeks in town who didn’t make it out to the ZOE STRAUSS: TEN YEARS opening party at PMA two weekends ago, fret not: the exhibition runs through April 22nd. If you’ve driven down 95, Delaware Avenue or 76, you’ve likely seen one of the 54 billboards in the Billboard Project accompanying the exhibition– but did you know there’s also a Foursquare contest? Check in at a billboard before April 2nd and enter for a chance to win the grand prize: a private tour of the retrospective and lunch with Zoe Strauss and the exhibition curator.

February means that folks are finally getting back into the First Friday groove, post-holiday season. Here’s what’s happening:

FIRST FRIDAY IN CENTER CITY

Some great standards are happening on February 3rd in Center City: Starting in Old City around 7pm, note the HAMMY SPARKLE opening at Brave New Worlds. If you’re 21+, feel free to cross Market and head a few blocks south– first to the DRINK PHILLY space for a free gallery showing and live jazz on Chestnut Street (don’t forget to RSVP!); then head farther south around 9pm to see notorious duo Tony Trov and Johnny Zito (of South Fellini)’s opening party for TRAMP STAMP! at Tattooed Mom’s. Tunes and drink specials, included.

OTHER EVENTS

If you’re farther down the Schuylkill, you can pop by Lucky’s Last Chance, a vintage pub on Main Street, as they are hosting a February event for (the new-ish) MANAYUNK FIRST FRIDAY.

Sadly, there were no advance updates on any South Philly Second Saturday happenings on East Passyunk Ave next weekend, but here’s a head’s up on two galleries for this weekend in NoLibs/ Fishtown:

On Friday, PLANAR SPLIT, features ‘sci-fi folk art’, and has a reception with live music from 6-10pm at Part Time Studios on Frankford. On Saturday, February 4th, the Slinguff Gallery in NoLibs has an opening: WELCOME SKATEBOARDS AND JASON VIVONA.

BONUS event on Friday, February 3rd:

He may not be showing art… but if you’re out in the South-Eastern PA ‘burbs this Friday, you’re already more than halfway to a DAN AKYROYD BOTTLE SIGNING for Crystal Head Vodka at Total Wine in Claymont, Delaware… Cross the DE border, high-five Dan the Man for being in some of the best movies of your youth, and let him know the Crystal Head Vodka bottle unintentionally gives you tiny rage stroke flashbacks to the last Indiana Jones movie.

Happy travels!

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A Geek’s Gallery Guide is a new monthly preview for First Friday and Second Saturday artist showings in Philadelphia. Submit tips for upcoming gallery events to geekadelphia@gmail.com.

If you read Geekadelphia, chances are you’ve fooled around in Photoshop once in your lifetime. Weather it be your actual profession, or if you just like to Photoshop yourself into photos with Joseph Gordon Levitt (aka Friday nights) there is a Photoshop event in Philly for you! On December 1st the Adobe Photoshop Philadelphia User Group is holding an event designed to get you in the middle of the Philadelphia Design community.

The event begins 7:15 on the campus of Philadelphia University. Nathaniel Dodson and Tony Profeta will provide a presentation featuring Adobe’s brand new Touch Apps with demonstrations of the applications on an Android tablet. You can check out some of the Adobe touch apps ahead of time at the following links:

• Adobe Touch Apps
• Adobe Touch App Video Demonstrations
• Adobe Creative Cloud Overview
• Adobe Photoshop Touch Overview

The event will also include a presentation from Michele McKeone M. Ed. from the Autism Expressed project. She is an exciting social entrepreneur and recent graduate of the UArts Corzo Center program, and will present the challenges in creating and delivering the unique vision of Autism Expressed. The project aims to help students with autism learn to effectively use various social media platforms and digital software like Photoshop.

And finally, to close out the event Robert M. Hall from Feasible Impossibilities and the Official Adobe User Group manager for the Philadelphia Flash Platform Group will deliver a presentation summarizing Adobe’s recent announcements regarding Flash and Flex.

For more information visit Photoshopphilly.com

Well, another year, another amazing Halloween party with Indy Hall and Tattooed Mom.

Gotta give a huge thank you to Alex Hillman and the Indy Hall crew, Whipped Bakeshop for the amazing mustache cookies, NextFab Studios for the fabulous trophy and Rob from Tattooed Mom for hosting us and making our annual Geekadelphia / Indy Hall Halloween celebration such a success.

While we could only dish out two prizes at the ceremony, one for best mustache and one for ‘best interpretation of theme’ (nice job Kelani), we’ve got some fun unofficial online winners listed below after the jump. Also, a slideshow!

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Best Group Costume: Pan Am Captain & flight attendants

Most Regionally Appropriate: Amish Brian

Most Obscure: Spider (didn’t we award somebody else as Spider last year or the year before?)

Outstanding Ability to Stay in Character: Parker Whitney for Ron Burgundy

Best Internet Meme: Nyan Cat

Most Uncomfortable & Awkward But Still Quite Awesome: Han Solo in Carbonite

Costume or Hipster Award: Will from Cipher Prime

A year ago, the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center (PPAC) celebrated its first anniversary by having Philly Photo Day. The idea was that anyone in Philadelphia could take a picture of anything, all on the same day and send it to the PPAC. The event proved to be a huge success with PPAC reviving over 300 photographs from Philadelphians everywhere.

Now, to celebrate their second anniversary, PPAC is doing it again! Friday, October 28th is the day for the second annual Philly Photo Day. Go out and take a picture with your camera, phone, computer, whatever and send it to the PPAC. Every single picture they receive will be printed and then put on display at the PPAC’s gallery in the Crane Arts Building from November 10 to the 19th. There will even be an opening reception for the exhibit that will take place on Thursday, November 10th from 6-9pm.

According to the PPAC, “Philly Photo Day celebrates photography as an art form and Philadelphia as a subject. For Philadelphia, this will serve as a diverse record of the city, through the eyes of its community members, at one moment in history.”

So on October 28th go out and take a picture in the city that we all love so much. And maybe you can show a side of Philadelphia that has never been seen before.

Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
www.philaphotoarts.org

Many people know that cars are probably one of my most favorite things, ever. I honestly can’t think of many things that can so beautifully combine engineering, technology and design in one functional necessity. The automobile has permanently shaped the progress of the entire world for the past one hundred years.

It’s in partial thanks to cars that cities have become such large sprawling metropolises and allowed for less of a separation between city and countryside. I could go on and on how cars have shaped our society, influenced our terrain and landscape, and have also caused concern for the environment.

However, I’ll let Michael Furman, automotive photographer, give his insight as a chronicler, designer and author. He’ll be presenting some of the most beautiful and important cars of the last one hundred years as part of DesignPhiladelphia.

The Art of the Automobile: A Presentation by Michael Furman
(part of DesignPhiladelphia)
12pm, Sunday, October 23

Simeone Automobile Foundation Museum
6825-31 Norwitch Dr.
Philadelphia, PA 19153

Welcome to Geek of the Week, where we highlight and profile a special geek in our wonderful city of Brotherly Love. This week we talk to Conrad Benner of Streets Dept, contributor to Phrequency.com and former blogger with Philthy.us.

So, Conrad, I’ve known of you for quite some time. I’m a big fan of your blog. You were with Philthy Blog for a while, how and why did you start that?

Well back in 2007, Paul Thorson (creator of Philthy.us) told me he was going to add a blog to his nightlife photography site, and he asked me if I wanted to run it. I had known Paul for about a year prior, mostly from him taking mine (and everyone else’s) photos all the time at different bars and clubs. And Paul had always liked my little blog, “Ugh News,” that, among other things, made fun of photos of drunk hipsters at clubs, so he asked me to do a similar thing for him. It was a match made in heaven!

Over the two and a half years, [Philthy] turned into a great soapbox for me to voice my opinions on everything. I bought a Flip camera one year and went to Barack Obama’s inauguration, then I’d interview a vegan bakery owner, then I’d go to First Friday with my friends and talk with artists.

It was really just an extension of whatever I was interested in at the time, and it really helped me build a bit of an audience that, I think, has followed me to Streets Dept and to my other freelance writing.

Why did you end up making the change to StreetsDept? How is it different than Philthy?

Part of me wants to admit how much of a control freak I am, and say it was all because I wanted to control every aspect of the site’s design and format. (And I guess that’s largely true.) But I think it really all started when I bought my first digital SLR back in December. While I had previously had a decent point-and-shoot, and was constantly taking photos of sunsets and stuff, I had saved up for nearly a year to buy this DSLR, and I told myself I was going to put it to good use. And I did.

Within the first few weeks in fact, I had so many photos that I wasn’t even sure exactly what to do with them all. I knew I wanted more than a Flickr page though, so I figured I’d start my own photo blog. And considering that the vast majority of my photos dealt with street art, I figured I’d start a blog devoted mostly to highlighting its ever-changing, vibrant life in Philadelphia.

The name alone was a big thing though. It took me about a month to pin it down. All of my friends hated me because it was all I could ever talk about.

How do you seem to be everywhere at all times? Do you, or have you ever, had any contributors to your blog(s)? How do you do it?

Well firstly, I walk around a heck of a lot. After breaking my leg in a bike accident in 2009, I’m still kind of freaked out about biking in the city, so I walk almost everywhere I go. And I always have my camera on me. So a lot of the time I just get lucky.

But, yes, I definitely have people who email me with either photos of street art in their neighborhood, or just details on where I can find some new stuff. I usually get at least a dozen emails a week with hints or photos, and it’s only getting better as more people learn about me.

Lately I’ve even been getting emails from the street artists themselves, telling me how much they like the site, and letting me know where to find their newest work. Gaia, the internationally renowned street artists, recently made a trip to Philly and emailed me the location of a few of his wheat pastes that I otherwise would have never found.

In a few cases, I’m even teaming up with the artist to shoot them putting up their new work. Ishknit’s contacted me a couple of months ago about yarn bombing the seats on a few of the Market-Frankford line trains, and I of course followed her along. Since then, those photos have blown up so much, she was even just interviewed by the New York Times! Insane.

The site’s growing really fast, and I think people are excited about it and are fantastic about helping me.

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Thanks, Conrad. To experience his love of Philadelphia, his wonderful photography and see his Apartment Complex features and more, please visit StreetsDept.com

Michael McGettigan has what some would consider to be a quaint hobby. Most of us haven’t used a typewriter in years, but we’re not that far along into the computer age that we can’t remember listening to the rhythmic hammering on the keys. Personally, I have fond memories of typing out funny stories with friends and not-so-fond memories of typing out papers for school on my grandfather’s typewriter. I couldn’t tell you what kind of machine it was, or where it is today. McGettigan, however, owns several typewriters and is behind www.phillytyper.com.

Following the success of the first Philadelphia Type-In, organizer McGettigan wanted to give the people what they obviously wanted. The gathering was a chance for typewriter enthusiasts to show off their pride-and-joys, try out each other’s machines, and maybe work out a swap. At this second event, the group discussed how they were bit by the typewriter bug and traded tales of typewriters loved and lost. Steven Rea told the story of selling his Hermes 3000 during a garage sale. Two weeks later, he was overcome with buyer’s remorse and bought it back.

Jon Roth, Jr. was there with his Royal, having been drawn to two facets of typewriters. First, the romance – visions of famous writers typing out their great works over their typewriters, war correspondents frantically writing up their reports from the front lines. Second, the history of their advertising – ads that promised happier secretaries or improvements in school grades and what they say about the consumer mindset of that time.

Check out www.phillytyper.com for more information and to hear about the next Type-In!

The first car drives over the South Street Bridge… in the bike lane.

On a terribly cold Fall afternoon this past Saturday, the South Street Bridge reopened, to the sounds of celebration and neighborhood folks drinking discounted pints at local pubs. What other city would throw a mini parade and get sauced to honor a bridge opening on time? Seriously, I love Philadelphia.

Colin Weir (of SEPTA Watch fame), Mikey Il (of once was in an advertisement for Words With Friends fame), and I joined in the festivities, Tweeted the afternoon away, and took a ton of photos. Have a look at Mikey’s gallery below.

It goes without saying (in my opinion anyway), that the more traditional geekdoms are well represented here at Geekadelphia.

Every few hours we’re typically posting something about video games or science fiction. But seeing as how a geek is basically anyone who is inordinately passionate about a hobby or craft (at least by the broadest definition of the term), I want to use this post to reach out to the art geeks in Philly.

Not too long ago I had the pleasure of attending a special fundraiser event at Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens. You may have seen my previous post about it. But if not, I’ll give you a basic run down.

The “Gardens” are composed of a house and adjacent gated lot that have been tiled from floor to ceiling by the noted mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar. The gated outdoor area is composed of various pathways, tunnels, and landings, which connect to the house. Even the bathrooms are tiled. Seriously. Some refer to the Magic Gardens as an art installation, some call it an environment, others refer to it as a gallery. I just think it’s cool as hell.

More after the jump!

So, back to the fundraiser.

It was an evening gala and celebration, and the entire outside portion of the Gardens was lit up by candles and little strings of lights. It was especially beautiful as the sun began to set, casting incredible shadows across the walkways. It was certainly a photographer’s dream.

The Who’s Who of the local Philly art world were there, included the artist himself, Zagar. Everyone was flocking to his side to get just a few moments of his time. Upstairs above the house, attendees of the soiree could actually purchase a bag of tiles, and contribute to a piece Zagar had already begun. Throughout the night there were performers, speakers, and musicians. I was amazed at how versatile the space was. Overall, it was a wonderful celebration of Zagar’s work, and the efforts of the community to preserve it and encourage other local artists.

Entry to the Magic Gardens is just $5 just to walk around yourself during the normal public hours. There are always special events going on at the Magic Gardens. The place is also available to be rented out for private events (and I happen to think it’d be a great place if you’re looking for a unique wedding location). A list of upcoming special events can be found on the website.

If you have a passion for art, or just want to check out something totally awesome and unique, head on down to Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, located at 1020 South Street (10th and South). Below are thumbnails of some of the photos I took during the fundraiser (click to enlarge). Enjoy!

Illustrator Rosemary Trevale is currently asking for submissions for Picard Day, starting June 16th and running through June 23rd. Sure it’s a weeklong  celebration instead of one day, but whatever, it’s Jean Luc Picard.

For those of you who have never heard of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Jean Luc Picard is captain of the Enterprise and is played by Professor X from the X-Men films. He’s awesome of course, and that’s why you should go to Rosemary’s Picard Day Blog and send over your illustrations, comics, or any other Picard celebrating items you may create. Head over to Rosemary’s Picard site here, and submit your work.

Illustration by Rosemary Trevale / Picard Day Blog