Flash mobs, pierogi, and "Soundsuits" (Day 2)

Today my cousins took me on a tour of Center City, as they call downtown here. Among other places, I got to see various performing arts centers including the Kimmel Center, home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, where I'm sure I will often find myself in the coming months. One thing I find very interesting about Philadelphia is the juxtaposition of old, ornate, historic buildings like City Hall with tall, glassy, modern structures--very different architectural styles coexisting in the heart of the city. To give you the idea, here are the results of my walking around Philadelphia with my camera in front of my face (the mark of a tourist):

Just as in Portland, downtown is populated with pigeons and sparrows. The only difference between the urban birds here and back home is that Philly's are completely fearless.

Had I been devoid of conscience, I could have stepped on this sparrow.

We cut through a mall to get somewhere, and right there in Macy's was an enormous pipe organ. My cousins say they use it, too. Good.

Those are more pipes in the top enclave.

And while we were in Macy's there was a gospel flash mob. It was apparently publicity for the movie "Joyful Noise." I filmed a bit of it, but, being far behind most of my age peers in tech savvy, can't figure out how to persuade Blogger to let me upload it. Perhaps another time.

After we left the flash mob, we went to Reading Terminal Market, a big public market housed in what used to be a train shed. That was where we got lunch. I had pierogi--delicious, doughy little Polish dumplings I had never encountered before. The last picture I took before my camera battery died gives you an idea how crowded the market is. My cousins say it's much more crowded on weekdays.

Then we went to a gallery called the Fabric Workshop where we saw the strange and wonderful "Soundsuits" of Nick Cave.

We went into a room and there were a bunch of these standing around on neutrally posed mannequins. They were a little eerie at first, but fascinating and beautiful. They were made to be worn by dancers, and we did get to see a video of the suits in motion, which was pretty cool.

In other news, Frankie the dog is very expressive. When he worries his squeaky toy, he squeaks along with it. As soon as I took out my camera to capture the moment, he stopped. But I am determined to get a video of it eventually! Also, I was playing a bit of Beethoven on the piano today, and when I reached a particularly poignant suspension, he threw back his head and howled. It reminded me of my old piano teacher's dog who used to make mournful Wookiee noises when I played pieces in minor keys. I hope Frankie was indeed reacting to the music. I will leave you with this rather whimsical quote from Erik Satie, which is one of my favorite things a composer has ever said: "We cannot doubt that animals both love and practice music. That is evident. But it seems their musical system differs from ours. It is another school... We are not familiar with their didactic works. Perhaps they don't have any."

Oh, and I start at The Philadelphia Center tomorrow!