I'd Rather Be In Philadelphia

Began the morning with breakfast and The Busy World of Richard Scarry. "Denys at Camp" is nervous about everything he encounters, from the obstacle course to canoeing. It isn't until Lowly and Huckle get caught in rapids and lose their oars that he realizes there are things he can do at camp. Grandfather Origami wants to give his daughter a special gift for her wedding. "Peasant Pig's Gifts" only need folded paper to be  truly beautiful. Mr. and Mrs. Fixit are excited when "Little Fixit" arrives. Huckle and his pals may be even more so. They even help Mr. Fixit build a nursery in a tree. 

Put on Buzzr while getting organized. I forgot they moved Let's Make a Deal to the mornings. I saw two carpenters and Raggedy Ann take the Big Deal. They were smart enough to know that Monty's Cookie Jar is rarely anything good. The carpenters got kitchen appliances. Ann was thrilled with a beautiful living room, including a huge TV and stereo home system. 

Headed out after that. Stopped at WaWa first, then locked my bike at the Collingswood PATCO. At least, as well as I could. The front half of the PATCO and the escalator were blocked off, and would be boarded off completely by the end of the day. I guess they're fixing the sidewalk outside and got tired of the darn escalator constantly breaking down. At any rate, picked up the train to Philly with no trouble and arrived at 8th and Market in 20 minutes.

I got a little turned around after I got off, but I stopped and checked Google Maps and my list of record stores in Philly and their addresses. No trouble after that. I headed down 8th Street, passing by Pennsylvania Hospital and many teens, college students, and medical workers either on their way to lunch or out enjoying a gorgeous day. At least I picked the right day for an outing in Philly. It was sunny, breezy, warm but not to the degree that it has been, and not at all humid. 

Many of my family and neighbors in Oaklyn talked about South Street, but I never made it there until today. It's been Philly's hub of punks, hippies, and other alternative types since the 1950's. That became abundantly clear from my first stop, an anarchist bookstore. I saw no one over 30, and everyone had long hair, shaved hair, bright clothing that was either too baggy or very tight, and often wild-colored hair. Though some of the books were interesting, I saw nothing I couldn't live without and moved on. 

Did better a few blocks down at Repo Records. Given the bent of the neighborhood, the focus here was mainly hard rock, punk rock, rap, and classic rock, but I did find two soundtracks of interest. Everyone I encountered today was really sweet, the teens and young adults at Repo included. I came up with four albums here: 

Wings - Wings In America

The Rolling Stones - Emotional Rescue

Soundtracks for Some Like It Hot (1959) and Nashville (The latter was in a dollar bin!)

Though I saw many nifty vintage clothing stores and small sandwich shops, I'm not in the market for clothes of any age right now, and I couldn't decide between the shops. Not to mention, it was getting busier with large groups looking for lunch. I had to push my way through or duck around some of the bigger crowds of people. I decided it was time to head elsewhere and started down 9th Street.

9th Street between South and Catherine Streets appeared to be a residential area. I passed many people out for walks, enjoying the lovely weather, or sitting on the stoops of mossy brick brownstone houses. Kids chased each other around a field and a huge playground, while their parents chatted on the sidewalk.

Once I hit Christian Street, the brick rowhouses became old brick buildings with many restaurants out front. Seems I'd hit the Italian Market, South Philly's premier small-business shopping district. Stopped first at Lorenzo's Pizza for a quick lunch. Their prices weren't bad, they had outdoor seating, and they claimed to have the best cheesesteak in South Philly. I had a chicken cheesesteak wrap and a Diet Coke. Oh, yum. It was tasty, with plenty of cheese in a just-big-enough wrap. 

Kept going until I ran across shelves of books, records, and CDs on the sidewalk. My main interest at the Italian Market, besides lunch, was Molly's Books and Records. The narrow sliver of a store was jam-packed with cookbooks, literature, and books on poetry on the walls and record bins in the center. Alas, I didn't get a chance to really look at the books. They were filming an interview with local teens and college kids who worked at the store in the back. I did pick up a bunch of records here, including four from the 2 dollar bin outside:

The Monkees - Headquarters

Lionel Richie - Dancing On the Ceiling

George Benson - 20/20

The Music People, a 3-disc collection of songs from Columbia Records artists in 1972

The Golden Age of Hollywood, a collection of songs from Busby Berkeley Warner Bros musicals with a really cool pop-up insert depicting the "By a Waterfall" number from Footlight Parade

Originals Musical Comedy 1909-1935, a collection of vintage recordings of stage stars ranging from Nora Bayes to Eleanor Powell

(And I didn't realize it at the time, but Molly's is related to a long-gone store in Washington Square I used to love. I badly miss Russakoff's Used Books and Records on 10th Street. Apparently, Molly is the former owner's daughter. No wonder her store seemed familiar. The layout wasn't far removed from Russakoff's.)

Continued heading down 9th Street, looking for another record store, even as the Italian restaurants and produce stands gave way to Mexican restaurants and clothing stores. I didn't find the record store, but I did find an ice cream and snack shop. They had so many unique ice cream flavors I'd never even heard of, including guava and cream and corn. I decided I wasn't that brave and went with toasted coconut. Oooh, the lady even added chocolate ripples. I sat on a red stone staircase that led to nowhere and enjoyed my milkshake and two free maple sandwich cookies.

Since I couldn't find the other record store on 9th Street, I decided to try one last store on Samson Street. That's halfway across Center City. I wasn't up to that much walking. I finally broke down and called Uber. The young man arrived within 7 minutes, and he got me to Samson in less than 20. 

As it turned out, I should have checked social media before I went into Philly. Long In the Tooth Records was closed for their summer vacation. I wasn't ready to go home yet, so I had a look around Samson Street. Spied a shop in a little yellow building across the street with CDs outside, so I thought I'd check them out.

Boy, did I hit the jackpot at that place! I'm almost glad Long In the Tooth was closed. Circa Gallery, a second-hand shop, had some great stuff, including cast albums and soundtracks I'd seen nowhere else. I ran out of paper money (the nice old gentleman didn't accept cards) for all the records I wanted, but I found a really cool book I just couldn't leave behind. I hadn't seen Bound and Gagged, on the silent serials (most of them now lost), in decades. 

The one record I was able to afford was equally awesome. Cut! Out Takes From Hollywood Musicals was mainly cut numbers from MGM films, though a couple from 20th Century Fox and one Paramount song did sneak in. 

The CDs were: 

Original cast albums for the Broadway musical version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and the Madison Square Garden A Christmas Carol

Studio albums for the Stephen Sondheim musical Saturday Night and the long-lost Jerome Kern show Kitty's Kisses

Collection of Fred Astaire songs from his 30's and early 40's films Top Hat, Holiday Inn, A Damsel In Distress, and The Sky's the Limit

What proved to be a home-made CD of a performance of Rose-Marie from the Media Theater in the Philly suburbs. 

I figured I wasn't going to get any luckier than that, so I decided to call it a day and headed down Samson towards City Hall. On my way, I stopped at Dilworth Park to watch local kids frolic through the spurting fountains in front of City Hall. I considered stripping off my shoes and socks and joining them, but I didn't want to leave my finds just sitting there. 

Cut through City Hall and ducked down Market Street, stopping at Dunkin' Donuts for an iced tea. Headed past Hard Rock Cafe and the Pennsylvania Convention Center, making my way around the crowds to Primark. By this point, it was past 4 PM, and I found myself pushing past rush hour traffic and around crowds of people heading home from work. Fortunately, I arrived at the PATCO station just in time to catch the train back to Collingswood.

Soon as I got home, I added my new finds to the inventories, then had dinner while watching Match Game Syndicated. In the first episode, Gary Burghoff borrowed Gene Rayburn's jacket, but Gene is a lot taller than he is! Marcia Wallace got lucky when the contestant finally gave her a smooch in the next episode, while the others deal with an especially noisy high school singing group in the audience. Fred Grandy and Bart Braverman spent the next week playing with rather annoying kazoos, while poor Dolly Martin shows off a broken finger, and Ira Skutch, the show's producer, has to come out to replace a question.

I also got my schedule at this point. In good news, while not as many hours as this week, still more hours than I've had. No floral department this time, though, and I have an early seven hour day next Saturday. I'm disappointed that I'll have to miss the Farmer's Market. 

Finished the night at Tubi with The Assassination Bureau. Reporter Sonia Winter (Diana Rigg) uncovers evidence of "The Assassination Bureau Limited," a group that kills tyrannical or dictatorial leaders. She orders the killing of its leader, Ivan Dragonmilof (Oliver Reed), the son of the group's founder. Far from being offended, he's amused. He doesn't like how a lot of the men under his leadership have been killing for money lately. He offers them a challenge. They can kill him, or he'll kill them! 

The movie then turns into a comic adventure across Europe, as the duo kill off the members of the Bureau, always staying one step ahead of them. In a lot of cases, though, the members are killed before they can get there. As it turns out, it's a plot by Sonia's boss Lord Bostwick (Telly Savalas) to kill all the European heads of state and plunge the entire continent into a major war. Ivan and Sonia rush to Eastern Europe to stop them.

Weird but still very funny swashbuckling adventure, with Rigg and Reed in top form as the starchy feminist reporter and the assassin who is always five steps ahead of everyone else. All their traveling gives us some great shots of Europe in the 60's and gorgeous costumes, too. If you're a fan of the stars or British action films or are looking for something different in your costume pictures, you'll have a wonderful time with this one.