For the past few weeks, Visit Philly has been running a pretty cool campaign that’s tying Instagram together with their new Philadelphia Neighborhoods campaign. Between April and July, the Visit Philly Instagram account (@visitphilly) will occasionally be in the hands of a talented and seasoned guest Instagrammer. They’ve been tasked with documenting some of the awesome neighborhoods surrounding Center City.

If you’ve already been following this campaign, you might’ve already spotted some of my favorite users on Instagram: Conrad Benner of StreetsDept.com — his personal account (@StreetsDept) has over 4,000 followers and Conrad has a knack for uncovering some of the city’s vast and amazing works of street art; he captured my home neighborhood of Northern Liberties.

Other users include photographer Neal Santos (@nealsantos) who has a massive following of over 18,000 followers on his Instagram featuring some absolutely fantastic photos; he set out to capture West Philly’s Spruce Hill neighborhood. Up next week is designer and street artist Mike Smith (@mikesmith); he’ll be photographing the neighborhood of Fairmount.

There’s way more yet to come. Later this month, photojournalist Eric Mencher (@emencher) will be lending his talents on the Visit Philly account to capture the neighborhood of Bella Vista. There’s also Chris Robinson (@cbeatz852) covering West Philly’s Powelton and Jason Moss (@jasonmoss) covering Pennsport, both in June.

Be sure to follow Visit Philly on Instagram to follow this amazing series of photos throughout the spring and early summer.

Lask week we had the chance to visit our good friends, Technically Philly, at their hip new abode in West Philly. The technology news behemoths are all settled in at their new HQ in the First Round Capital building (40th and Locust). Historically, the space was home to an original Urban Outfitters location and more commonly remembered as Strikes Bowling Alley.

The 10,000 square feet now houses several other tech organizations, including Technically Philly and First Round Capital, like Curalate and a small startup group of UPenn students. Though First Round are considered the official leasee of the building, it is important to note that not every organization inhabiting the space are part of First Round’s portfolio.

“The interesting part is that in the past–in traditional news ethics–you would want to be far away from the people you covered. And, increasingly because you can be so transparent on the web, it makes more sense to be right around the people that you’re covering,” says Christopher Wink, co-founder at Technically Philly.

While the location change isn’t much to discuss, the more defining change has been the physical accessibility the new space affords the Technically Philly team. (more…)

Now that the Mayan calendar is almost over, you can replace it with the 15 Shades of Geek: 2013 Body Paint calendar.

Joey DeMarco and Artwork by Ally teamed up to create a geek inspired calendar that features 15 different models sporting nothing but paint. Whether you are into games, cartoons, or superheroes, there is something that you will recognize. Depending on your geek acumen, you may recognize them all.

I did not, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t appreciate being greeted by a new body painted model every month.

Check it out over on Etsy.

Photo by Andrew Weiss via Philly Photo Day

For the third year in a row, the Philly Photo Day event will let anyone who has access to a camera participate in an enlightening (and just downright cool) experiment in crowd sourcing.

The goal of this project is to capture the spirit of a day in the life of Philadelphia, and all of the joy, pain and general Eraserhead-esque bizarreness that comes with it.

To participate, all you have to do is snap a photo anytime over the course of Friday, October 26th of something that feel perfectly encapsulates the experience of residing in our city. Be it a flattened Tasty Klair Pie box on the el tracks or a line of people waiting to see the Liberty Bell, no idea is too big or too small.

After you have taken your snapshot, you can upload it to the Philly Photo Day website. (One entry per person, please!) Then, starting on December 6th, event sponsors the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center on 1400 N. American Street #103 will begin displaying each and every photo that was submitted. Select submissions will be featured on billboards and displayed on Septa vehicles.

This event is the perfect opportunity for you to visualize what Philly means to it. The resulting photographs by professionals and amateurs of all ages will be a reflection of the diversity of the home we share.

So on the 26th, take a second to snap a photo and show your neighbors how you view the city.

Well it’s time for Philly’s biggest film festival to once again take over our cinemas for 10 days of non-stop movie goodness. The Philadelphia Film Festival will be returning to our city October 18th – 28th with one of the most impressive lineups in the last couple of years.

I usually do a quick roundup of a few films at the Philadelphia Film Festival that I am really excited about. But this year there were so many great films it was really hard to just pair it down to a handful. So here are my must see films of the festival this year, and you can also check out the full rundown of films at the end of the post.

What are you excited about checking out this year?

Opening Night Film: Silver Linings Playbook, Director David O. Russell. USA, 2012

This film has been doing really well on the festival circuit and stars Philly’s own Bradley Cooper opposite The Hunger Games‘ Jennifer Lawrence as two individuals struggling with mental illness. I recently caught the trailer for this at the beginning of The Master and immediately put the film on my must see list. The film, which was shot in Delaware County last year around this time, is a very fitting film to kick the festival off this year.

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Closing Night Film: Flight, Director Robert Zemeckis. USA, 2012

Robert Zemickis’s first live action film since Cast Away stars Denzel Washington as a pilot who saves a flight from crashing, but something more troubling comes out in the investigation behind this miracle. The director will also be in attendance at this screening.

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Cloud Atlas, Directors Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski. USA/Germany, 2012

This super ambitious adaptation marks the return of the Wachowski siblings as they, with the director of Run Lola Run, adapt a book that was supposedly unfilmable, using some of Hollywood’s best talent. I wont event try to summarize this one, I would just say see the trailer, that in itself is pretty damn amazing. Cloud Atlas has been dividing audiences wherever its been screened. Being a huge fan of The Matrix and Speed Racer for that matter, I can’t wait to see it.

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On September 15, 2012, I witnessed the spectacle known as Flugtag, which means “flying day” in German. But, if I didn’t know that translation I would assume that Flugtag has to do with flogging oneself because it seems there’s something sadomasochistic about the event. Thirty-three teams soared off of a 30 foot tall platform in hopes of taking flight down the Delaware River, but most ended up wet just a few feet from the platform.

A strong and constant headwind made setting up flying machines difficult and dangerous. A number of teams didn’t even get off of the platform and the Harvest Bureau ended up flying off the side of the platform racking up the negative flight distance and a collective gasp from the spectators. Despite all the failed launches, New Kids On the Dock’s giant lobster gracefully glided 45 feet winning the distance competition.

Our friends over at Drink Philly flew their Hindenfirken off the the platform and into the Delaware River. They may not have traveled very far, but they clearly dressed the part. Rumor is that they spent more money on beer than building materials while crafting their flying machine.

If you weren’t one of the tens of thousands of people crowded the Camden waterfront in hopes of seeing pilots conquer gravity or plummeting into the icy smelly waters of the Delaware, check out the gallery on our Flickr account.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Photo by Endy PhotographyI’m quite happy to share some photos from the Philly Geek Awards! Jackie from Clever Girl Photo, our official event photographer, has posted her full album of 245 photos onto Flickr. See the slideshow below.

Created with flickr slideshow.To stay up to date with Clever Girl Photo, find her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter, check her out on Flickr or clevergirlphoto.com

Photo by Photobot3000

Did you manage to hop in and take your photo with Photobot3000? We’ve uploaded a Flickr album of those, but galleries are also available on their website and Facebook page.

Photo by HughE Dillion/PhillyMag

Our pal, HughE Dillion, took some excellent shots for The Philly Post. As always, you can check out his daily travels as a Philly paparazzi on PhillyChitChat.com

Other cool photos worth mentioning: Philly.com/Phrequency posted a great photo album of 111 red carpet photos.

Thanks again to Clever Girl Photo and Photobot 3000. Without you folks, we’d have to rely on our questionable Instagrams to relive the night at a fraction of its glory.

Did you take any cool photos at this year’s Geek Awards? Please share them with us!

It seems that evolution is taking us down a bite-sized path these days. 140 characters and microblogs, paper thin laptops and eReaders; all of them seem to adapt to humanity’s need for portioned information consumption.

There is a lot of information to be consumed these days and while we all may very well be addicted to dopamine and search engines, the internet is not exactly the best way to learn a skill with a limited amount of time (or attention span–whichever happens first).

MindSpot is a Philadelphia-based short-form instruction program that is lead both by experts and “amateur enthusiasts.” Gone are the days spent making countless queries on YouTube for how-to guides for offbeat skills like how to truly write a pantoum. So I charge you to leave the confines of your room, and learn the innovatively old-fashioned way–in a group of flesh-and-blood human beings!

Each lecture is intended to introduce or refine a broad range of atypical skills like gyotaku (a traditional form of fish rubbing/printing to help document the size of a fish), broadway vocals and conversational improvisation (conversation techniques for singles, professionals and the otherwise socially nervous).

Classes will officially begin today and typically run two to three hours for about $20. Check out the full list of classes here on MindSpot’s website.

MindSpot
www.mindspotphilly.com

Every adventurer clad in clocks, bits of brass, and the occasional cog has to make the pilgrimage to Piscataway, NJ to join their fellow airship captains and time travelers in a celebration of all things steampunk. The Steampunk World’s Fair celebrated it’s third outing this year with a cacophony of frenetic New Orleans style jazz, a germanic burlesque show, and over 4,000 attendees.

The Steampunk World’s Fair was scattered between two hotels. Instead of limiting itself to the large meeting spaces usually reserved for businessmen, the fair spread out amongst the first floor rooms creating a maze of wondrous costumes and antique looking knick-knacks. Outside each room was a little sign promising artifacts from mysterious places of legend or tools to fix your any of your steam powered contraptions.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

The highlight of the convention, as it is with most geeky gatherings, are all of the incredible homemade costumes. People dressed as airship captains, zombified Victorian ladies, and The Doctor can all be found wandering the halls of each hotel. Each one of them showing off their skill with a sewing machine and old bits of typewriter or plumbing.

It may not be going on in Philly, but The Steampunk World’s Fair is totally worth the journey to Piscataway. Airship would be the best way to get there so you can avoid the traffic on I-95. You could also commandeer the giant spider machine from the end of Wild Wild West. The choice is yours.

Купить больничный лист с подтверждением.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

In case you missed it, here are some photos from our event at The Trocadero.

We had a great time screening Masters of The Universe with you guys, but we think we enjoyed The Alpha Girls trailer more! Have you seen it yet? It’s awesome! We can’t wait to see the whole movie, and we’d like to congratulate Tony Trov and Johnny Zito on doing such an awesome job.

Of course, after Masters of The Universe Skeletor himself hosted his famous Karaoke. We had a blast! You can’t miss our next event. It’s guaranteed to be a good time.

Keep your eyes on the website for updates on upcoming events!

Offices are places of work. They’re usually set up for practicality and function. They’re full of cubicles, fluorescent lights, and water coolers. The offices of an eCommerce vendor would seem to follow in that tradition, but WebLinc is no ordinary company. Based in Old City, the company has two offices on 3rd street both with interesting features that would bring out the inner geek of any jaded office worker.

Darren Hill was kind enough to show me around WebLinc’s offices. It turns out tailoring eCommerce solutions for clients is easier when there’s a ready supply of caffeinated beverages, arcade games, and Nerf guns. It doesn’t hurt being above National Mechanics either.

The office space above National Mechanics is devoted to WebLinc’s developers. Developers are programming geeks. These are the guys who write the back end code for e-commerce solutions. They’re also known to break out into Nerf gun battles. I was lucky enough to visit during a cease fire, but if anything went down I made sure to note the location of a Nerf shield to deflect any stray darts.

WebLinc’s other office on 3rd street has a storefront that looks like a demented butcher shop. It’s twisted and a little sick, exactly the look that Darren was going for in historical Old City. I always wondered what odd people occupied this storefront in Old City. It’s WebLinc.

This space houses mostly project management employees so there’s less of a threat of taking an errant dart from an over caffeinated developer. But there was a higher threat of cardiac arrest from trucking up all the funky stairwells. I am out of shape.

Darren explained how a lot of the features of the office are to instill creativity and productivity. The whiteboard walls are great for jotting down ideas or collaborating with coworkers. The red telephone booth rooms provide privacy when taking conference calls. The televisions in the bathroom? Those are for multitasking.

Based on what I saw, WebLinc’s digs give any red blooded geek office envy. Scope out some more pics in the Flickr gallery or in the slideshow below.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

How… how did this happen?

In a moment that can only be expressed by a Darth Vader-esque noooooooooooooo, Technically Philly won last night’s Philadelphia Foursquare Games. We fought (and trolled) bravely through the evening, but in the end we were defeated.

A lot of other fantastic organizations and blogs came out to play, including SMC Philly, PANMA, Indy Hall, InLiquid, P’unk Ave (who wore awesome team shirts), the William Way Center, Drink Philly, and the Independence Visitor Center with PCVB.

I took a bunch of pictures on my iPhone as I sat at the sidelines, vanquished. You can browse through them on Flickr, or check ‘em out in the slideshow below. Thanks for a fantastic evening, everyone.

And Technically Philly… we’ll get you next time.