stellargirl returns

reminder: ignite philly THIS wednesday 6/11!

Just a friendly reminder that Ignite Philly is mere days away! I know many of you already have it on your calendar and have intercepted it numerous ways across the blogosphere, but some of my readers aren't plugged in 24/7... so this is for you!

For more information, check out an article profiling the event in Friday's Philadelphia Business Journal. Also, the Ignite Philly website has completely up to date event and speaker information, and the twitter updates have been rolling in.

If you're still having doubts, you should come for this guy, Geoff DiMasi, an Ignite Philly founder and one of the Philly creative community's biggest champions:

ignite philly is coming on june 11th!

"If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds?"

Come to Ignite Philly on Wednesday June 11th at Johnny Brenda's and find out! This is a FREE event!

"Ignite is a series of speakers talking about inspiring projects for 5 minutes. The presentations can be serious, funny, or somewhere in between. We just hope that it would help ignite something in someone."

Featured speakers include: the iSepta guys, Alex Hillman of Indy Hall, Scott and Marisa of Fork You, Kristin Thompson of the Future of Music Coalition, 100K house, and many more!

Stay tuned by visiting the Ignite Philly website and by following ignitephilly on Twitter. Also, check out all the event details on the Ignite blog (the source of all of great quotes above).

Many thanks to the powerhouse of creative minds at P'unk Avenue and The Hacktory for bringing this event to our fair city.

IgnitePhilly
June 11, 2008, 6pm
Johnny Brenda's. 1201 N. Frankford Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19125

isepta is the wave of the future

There's been an unstoppable buzz in Philly and on Twitter lately about iSepta, "Simple Septa Schedules on the Go", the amazing iPhone application put out by the rock solid development team of Randy Schmidt and Chris Conley (aka ümlatte), skinned in a beautiful interface design by Jason Tremblay.

Randy dreamed up iSepta back in March during a day where he was was riding the rails.

Within minutes, many of Randy's friends started responding to such an idea, myself included. We've all experienced frustration trying to navigate the Septa schedules (see below).  It's not that they don't do the job, they could just do it so much better.  How do I read this thing?

That's where Randy, Chris and Jason stepped in to make it happen. iSepta was released to the local community for design feedback, usability, user experience, etc.  Twitter was used as an open forum for people to find out about the app, test it on other devices like Blackberries and on the web, and now SMS!  As you can see below, the interface is so much easier on the eyes.

Well today is the big day, iSepta has launched! Click on over to the ümlatte blog for a detailed summary of the project and all the latest news.  This is a big day for Philadelphia!

if you're feeling sinister...

I should first mention, as I have already several times on Twitter, that this Belle & Sebastian radio station I made on Pandora is absolutely, categorically one of the most amazing stations ever! For all you Belle & Sebastian fans out there, I have even better news! This Saturday, May 10th, National Mechanics and Philebrity are hosting the 4th Annual Belle & Sebastian Dance Party. If you're looking to see other people, sleep the clock around, or wait for the moon to rise... this is the place to be! If you can't make it to this, well then you're just a baby!

Since you'll be in the neighborhood, it might also be a good time to head over to Independents Hall for the Battlestar Galactica Party, brought to you by Geekadelphia, The Hacktory and of course Indy Hall. I hear there will be Cyclon raider cookies and Battlestar shaped cake brought to you by the sweetest girl in town, Whipped Bakeshop. RSVP on Facebook.

springtime fun

The last few weeks have been action packed with spring activities.  I just posted a heap of new photos on flickr but here's the rundown of the new sets:
(click on a photo to launch the set)



National Mechanics Brunch Tasting
Our friends at National Mechanics were kind enough to extend an invite via Twitter to come taste their new brunch menu before it officially launched.  We sampled a few different varieties of Bloody Marys, omelets filled with many different fresh and delicious ingredients, sweet french toast with yummy strawberry sauce, and many other savory goodies.  If you're looking for a new place to check out brunch in Old City, be sure to hit up National.

 


Junto: Creative Communities
The monthly Junto event for May centered around Creative Communities.  The panel featured 3 pioneers in different creative communities: Olive Prince of Susan Hess Modern Dance, Sara Selepouchin (aka girlscantell) of Etsy Teams, and John Freeborn of Space 1026. Read a great summary of the event (and sign up to be on the email list) on the Junto blog.

 


Fork You Live at Foster's
Dips and dippers indeed! Scott and Marisa whipped up a delicious array of yummy dips including hummus, mango & tomatillo salsa, and an amaaaaaazing basil / sundried tomato / pepperoncini / cheeeeese concoction.  Keep your eye on forkyou.tv to see this latest episode as well as get the recipes.

Annual Twin Birthday Bash
I've been friends with Michael and Andrew since the early days of college, so I've been lucky enough to celebrate quite a few birthdays with them over the years. A lot has changed in those years: wives, houses, new cats and cars... but it's nice to drop in on a very tight knit group of friends and throw back a few.. we even got to enjoy an authentic Carvel Fudgie the Whale cake! Yum!

 


Headhouse Square Farmer's Market
Yesterday was a perfect spring day for checking out the Headhouse Square Farmer's Market, seeing live bluegrass music, and hanging with some really awesome women (including lola!).  It truly was an unexpectedly perfect afternoon!

Hope you're all enjoying Spring!

fork you live: this saturday! dips and dippers!

Come on out to Foster's Homeware this Saturday at 2pm for a fun filled Fork You Live episode featuring the always effervescent Marisa and Scott. Bring your tastebuds for a delightful spread of dips and dippers and all kinds of tips and tricks to make 'em delicious. And Scott might say a funny thing or two!

Hope to see you there!

clean air 5K // indy hall fit club

This past Saturday, 7 of my super awesome friends and I ran the Clean Air 5K. Our motley crüe included several local bloggers, a handful of video podcasters, a few programmer extraordinaires, a crafty maven, a hot rock chick, and of course, yours truly.

If you were ever thinking of running, training for a 5K is a really great way to get into it. I have known lots of people who have followed the Couch to 5K program with great success. There are lots of races happening all the time for so many different causes. You can raise money to research diseases, spread awareness about issues that are important to you, all while getting yourself in shape.

Here's a list of upcoming races in Philadelphia... who wants to run the next 5K?!

sxsw: here i (we) come!

The countdown is winding down to hours until I make my way down to Austin, Texas for my first ever SXSW Interactive conference. I have wanted to go for about 5 years running now, but it turns out this is the year.

I'm happy to attend with a huge crew representing Philly... a big chunk of Independents Hall and my good friends from P'unk Avenue. We're gonna rock out in Austin! For those of you I haven't met yet, I can't even wait!

Let the adventures begin...

villa di roma tastes good.

A few weeks ago my friends and I hit up Villa di Roma for a good old fashioned Italian meal.  There are few places in Philly (in my opinion) that top Villa di Roma when it comes to Italian food.  First off, it's smack dab in the middle of the Italian Market on 9th Street between Christian and Carpenter Sts.  Second, the food is truly awesome: chock full of carbs and cheese, the whole bit.  But seriously, it tastes very FRESH and very COMFORTING. 

Going with a group is always fun. It's a good idea to get several carafes of the house red to keep the party going.  Start off with some fried asparagus swimming in a rich garlicky butter sauce - and be sure to save some of your bread for mopping this up this gooey deliciousness.  Save the heart attack for later.

As for me, I am a creature of habit and pretty much without fail consistently order the baked rigatoni. It's probably one of the most sinful foods one can consume.  However, like I always say, you gotta live -- right?

And don't hesitate to order the cheesecake.  You'll thank me.

Villa di Roma
936 S 9th St
Philadelphia, PA 19147-3935
215-592-1295
[map]

first snow in philly

It was snowing the other night on my walk home from work and I did something I rarely do, I opened my bag and took out my camera. I'm not normally one to shoot on a whim, if you have seen my photos, I am 1/2 documentarian and 1/2 get in your face portraits. I thought this was worth it though...

Something to like about living in the city....