This song will not be the jam of the summer...

...but it's pretty cute anyway.

Nappy Roots - "Good Day"

"The Man" is a Morehouse Man

Morehouse College graduates first white valedictorian:

"For four years, you have given me inspiration," he said to his classmates. "I thank each and every one of you for making your ancestors proud, and for making me proud."

So easy to say something cynical about this one...

Elisha and Buster

Where's Waldo: Google Earth edition

Mural in progress

YouthBuild Charter High School students posing with Andy Nolan, the jolly neighborhood gardening giant. They've been helping Ayuda make this mural for the past two weekends. This thing will be assembled and installed on the wall below when finished. We are making it removable because the house is on the city's demo list. We have permission to put it up on the house behind it, so when they tear it down the garden will be bigger and we'll just move the mural to the next wall. Pretty slick.





Here is one of the preliminary designs, before adding people, sunflowers, and whatever else is in the final product. The design was created out of neighborhood surveys and then refined a handful of times after getting community feedback.

Designed by neighbors, painted by neighbors, and hopefully enjoyed by neighbors for a long time to come.

Fight Poverty with Poverty

From The Onion:

In 2005, Helping Hearts distributed over $4,700 in various food and clothing donations, found temporary and part-time work for more than 110 adults, and was instrumental in the passage of increased homeless and transitional housing funding in the city. It also had an operating budget of $18,280, putting it below the federally mandated poverty threshold for a family of four.

Poverty, look out!

Hillary's case for the nomination

From America's most reliable source of election coverage, SNL.

Bono introduces Sinatra - 1994 Grammys

Awesome. I'm feeling a little faklempt.

Beautiful Day

I'm laying in bed with a fever watching music videos on YouTube and I noticed that the "Beautiful Day" video by U2 was shot at Charles DeGualle International Airport where I took the photo below. It's the most beautiful airport I've ever been in. Also, I like how the video has an obvious modern take on Robert Doisneau's Kiss at the Hotel De Ville. Very clever.

Friday Photo Finish

Why should Jeremy Del Rio have all the fun? Here's a shot of some of Ayuda's afterschool kids enjoying a spring day. Classic Philly style complete with 9th Street row homes in the background.

Too much house

Extreme Home Makeover is incomplete without an extreme budget makeover:

After he became a local celebrity, Marrero said, the collection agencies came calling, threatening to put liens on the home.

Then there were the taxes.

Marrero, who lives on a pension of $939 a month, paid $2,016 in property taxes in November. In February, he wrote out a check for $1,512. On May 1, another $1,512 was due.

And the utilities, he said, cost about $10,000 a year.

"It's too much," said Marrero's son, Billy Joe. "We tried taking out lightbulbs and doing other things to save energy, but the house still eats a lot of power."

I was there on the first day of construction. It's a very impressive operation with literally hundreds of people swinging hammers around the clock. It's interesting to see how all that sophistication allows them to build a giant house in three days but does not allow them to make the situation sustainable for the recipient. I bet a critical analysis of many great efforts would reveal similar patterns. Perhaps complex problems require complex solutions as a rule. And that tv show would probably be boring...

Tensions at a Boiling Point

Excellent Daily News article about the current status of Police and community relations.

"You're out here riding around and you're involved in a shooting and the cops pull you over and you got your ass beat," Quinn said. "You know what? Let me tell you something, when I was growing up, I had my ass kicked by the cops and I deserved it."

John McGrody, a vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police, showed little concern for the welfare of the suspects beaten by Philadelphia police officers.

"We're generally not dealing with people returning from a Tupperware party or the library," McGrody said. "They committed a felony in the presence of police."

Police officers have the "most dangerous job" in the city, he said, and the public shouldn't judge too harshly.

"Everybody has not seen the whole tape," he said, "but what's clear is that three gun-toting felons were fleeing an active shooting scene. Police officers respond with the use of force in the same way it's dealt to us. We're grateful none of our police officers were hurt."

However, it should be noted that police did not find guns either on the suspects or in their vehicle.

And for every citizen who sides with Quinn and McGrody, there is someone who disagrees — strongly. Chad Dion Lassiter, a professor at University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Social Policy and Practice, called the actions of the officers seen on tape "savage-like behavior that has historical underpinnings."

Such brutality only deepens the distrust and dislike many in downtrodden communities hold for police, Lassiter said.

"This is why people, especially African-Americans, are distrusting of police officers," he said. "This conduct happens often; it's just not recorded. We don't need our cops becoming legalized gangsters."

As summer moves closer, here's hoping that Philly can recover from all this mess.

Killer's girlfriend not our best ambassador

The last suspect in Saturday's cop killing was caught late Wednseday night holed up in an abandoned house with his girlfriend of TWO MONTHS:

Although hundreds of law-enforcement officers up and down the East Coast mobilized to find him, Philadelphia's most-wanted man never left the city. He spent his days and nights in dark, dreary seclusion, in the company of his girlfriend, Tonya Lynne Stephens, a convicted hooker and drug addict who stood by her man despite a $150,000 reward on his head.

...Known as a "crack whore" and a "bully," Stephens allegedly took other prostitutes' money at times in the Hunting Park neighborhood where they trolled along Old York Road, according to neighbors.

Knox for Governor

www.knoxforgovernor.com

I've had the privilege of getting to know Tom and Linda Knox personally. Her family has roots here in Hunting Park. They are wonderful people and he's getting my vote in 2010.

When your neighborhood makes the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

What does a concerned citizen do when print and tv news around the world are talking about bad things in your neighborhood? The Hunting Park Civic Association might be our best outlet for positive news. Our fourth meeting is next Tuesday and we'll be working on developing a structure through which all the great passion, energy, and ideas can be channeled towards activities that will result in more positive headlines.

New Yankee Stadium

Wow, er, bah humbug...

Myanmar ranked most corrupt country in the world

So says Transparency International according to Bloomberg:

"Transparency International last year ranked Myanmar as the most corrupt nation in the world along with Somalia."