On Top of the World Photo Shoot with LGO Productions

My friend Sylwia is starting her own photography business. I volunteered to be her model one cold evening in April. She had just moved into a new building next to Rittenhouse Square and mentioned that there was a roof deck that she hadn't yet been to. "Let's go!" I exclaimed, up for an adventure. So we wandered around her building trying to find the correct set of stairways to lead us to the top floor with roof access, and made our way into the cold. It was just before sunset and the lighting was perfect, as was the view. Here are a few of the photos she edited in her own colorful style:

Photos courtesy of Life Goes on Productions, April 2, 2011. Thanks Sylwia, I'll be your model any time :-)

Beautiful Weekend to Live in Philadelphia

This weekend, I spent every last minute enjoying the abundance of cultural, and even some non-cultural sights and sounds my newly official city of residence has to offer (yes, it's official, I have the driver's license to prove it - ahh).

Friday evening went downtown heading for Rittenhouse square, stopped at Alfa, and ended up in Old City at Brasil's a bit later for some dancing and bottle-service-for-no-real-reason with good friends.

Saturday afternoon wandered down to the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA) with one of my former and one of my current roommates - Brittany and Ashley. We walked around enjoying the cool but sunny weather, and eventually ended up on a lawn transplanted to the middle of Broad Street, which had been partially closed off from Chestnut Street (City Hall) to Lombard Street.

As we found it increasingly difficult to navigate the crowds, we took a 2-hour break for sushi at Makiman. By the time we finished that, people were beginning to gather along Broad Street in preparation for whatever the night's event, the finale of the 25-day-long festival, was going to be. At this point we had no clue what that was, and neither did most of the people around us. For this spectacle, I will provide you with some visual and auditory descriptions because word just won't do!

The evening was topped off by a visit from a friend from New Jersey who I of course had to take to Cavanaugh's, and then my favorite secret swanky spot, hidden on a small side street and lacking a sign to announce its presence to the rest of the world. I'll only give one hint because I am selfish and want it all to myself: RR.

On Sunday, I stopped at my favorite cafe in Mount Airy, called High Point Cafe, for my typical Sunday morning fix of cappuccino and crepes before heading to the Chestnut Hill Home & Garden Festival.

This street fair also featured a length of pedestrian-only traffic along Germantown Avenue, another popular street. There were plenty of vendors and right when I walked up, I spotted an awesome coffee table that I immediately snagged. Well, I put the cash-only deposit down as fast as I could, and returned later to take it home with me. It matches perfectly with our Victorian-style couches in our living room. I also picked up an old Chinese lamp, a glass doorknob, some business cards, and some delicious Sangria. When I got home, I grabbed my beach towel and laid in the backyard for a bit, something I've been wanting to do for a while now. The weather was even better than the day before, and I actually noticed that I got a bit of color while wearing my sundress... time to break out the sunscreen for the season!

So happy that Spring is finally here. Till the next time ;-)

Homepage Redesign

My headfirst dive into web design began in high school, with a custom Myspace layout and a primitive "blog" at Xanga. After transferring to Temple University and taking our required Computer and Information Science (CIS) course, I created my first homepage. But as I am looking forward to graduation, I realize that Temple won't continue to host my webpage on their servers, and honestly I'm not even sure if they will let me use my @temple.edu e-mail address anymore, but that's another topic...

With this in mind, I purchased the domain name amypospiech.com and a hosting package, but then the question in my mind was, "what the heck do I put up there?" It was actually quite intimidating at first - with no limits on what I could do creatively or technically, I spent a few months just sketching ideas and keeping notes of things I liked on other portfolio sites and personal pages, as well as business sites and blogs. I then scrapped it all, came up with a totally original theme, added in some signature Amy style and at long last came up with this:

I designed the theme around my favorite (abandoned) building in Philadelphia, the Divine Lorraine Hotel. It was built as an apartment complex in the late 19th century in a French Renaissance style, transformed into a hotel in 1948 under Father Divine and the Peace Mission Movement, and closed in 1999 when it was sold to developers (and subsequently re-sold for a hefty profit, but nothing to show for it yet). You can read about it here.

Knowing me, I will probably change this a few times a year (ha, ha) because after looking at something for too long, I get the crazy urge to go back and redo it all again. However, if anyone has suggestions for improvements, I'm all ears!

The Veronicas' Last Stop, in Philly

This post is for Veronicas fans, people who appreciate live music, and those who get a kick out of half-naked band members' pranks... I've said too much.

My Friday night / belated birthday celebration was at the TLA (Theater of the Living Arts) on South Street in Philadelphia. Australian twin sisters Jess and Lisa Origliasso of rock/pop group The Veronicas put on a great show, the last of their Revenge Is Sweeter tour in the US.

Carney & TheArt made a special appearance during 'Heavily Broken' - a quiet and beautiful song turned... well, just watch. I chose this version for the sound quality (you can hear the girls over the fans, unlike some of the other videos).

Enjoy the whole playlist here. Lyrics for 'Heavily Broken' below:

Everyday I sit here waiting
Everyday just seems so long
And now I've had enough of all the hating
Do we even care, it's so unfair
Any day it'll all be over
Everyday there's nothing new
And now I just try to find some hope
To try and hold onto
But it starts again
It'll never end

I'm heavily broken
And I don't know what to do
Can't you see that I'm choking
And I can't even move
When there's nothing left to say
What can you do
I'm heavily broken
And there's nothing I can do

Almost giving up on trying
Almost heading for a fall
And now my mind is screaming out
I've gotta keep on fighting
But then again
It doesn't end

I'm heavily broken
And I don't know what to do
Can't you see that I'm choking
And I can't even move
When there's nothing left to say
What can you do?
I'm heavily broken
And there's nothing I can do
And there's nothing I can do

Feels like I'm drowning
I'm screaming for air
(Screaming for air)
Louder I'm crying
And you don't even care

I'm heavily broken
And I don't know what to do
Can't you see that I'm choking
And I can't even move
(What can I do)
When there's nothing left to say
What can you do
I'm heavily broken

I'm heavily broken
And I don't know what to do
Can't you see that I'm choking
And I can't even move
When there's nothing left to say
What can you do
I'm heavily broken [x3]

Finally Out of North Philly - my angry post about getting robbed

For anyone who has ever experienced a loss, for those that know the neighborhoods of Philadelphia, for anyone who cares about my personal life.

I recently relocated from Temple University area to Manayunk, Philadelphia. There were a few reasons for this move, none of them being "North Philly sucks" or anything of that nature. I actually enjoyed my time at Temple, and while I have a year left before graduation, I never thought I was unhappy living in a nice apartment off Broad Street. We had plenty of space, I had two great roommates, and the walk to campus was convenient and nice. I did have some qualms with parking, not wanting to go out after dark (ha), and occasionally worrying about safety issues... but I was always reassured by the vicinity of our Temple police and the neighborhood watch guy, Tom. We had a drunk driver plough into our street once, but nothing really bad ever happened on our block. So when people would call it the "ghetto" and be hesitant to visit me, I would just shake my head and reply, "It's really not that bad."

HOWEVER, just a few weeks before I was set to leave the area for good, with mixed emotions of sadness and excitement, our apartment was robbed. My one roommate had moved out, the other at work, and I was in New Jersey for a graduation party. I'm just glad no one was there when they cut the screens on our windows, broke through the safety bars, and took any and all valuable electronic equipment from our home. Ashley and I lost three laptops, two mp3 players, a digital camera, a graphics tablet, and an internet router that evening. It's creepy to think that they may have been watching us.

Seriously? We are college students, so it's not like we have a lot to begin with, and these things that make up our lives were hard-earned and PERSONAL items. The value I assign to my own laptop far exceeded its $600 resale value, because of photos (thank goodness all my abroad photos are online already), music, programs, and personalization I had in place over the year I had owned it. My mp3 player was not only a music-playing device, but my inspiration to work out, with a fully-loaded exercise playlist. I had started on a workout binge as weather was getting nicer, and ran the track two blocks from our apartment regularly before the break-in. For the two weeks after that I did not even want to be around North Philly. So I lost and mp3 player but also my MO to go out and get exercise. My digital camera was not only a few-hundred-dollar-picture-capturing device, but weeks worth of memories, including some great shots of my new boyfriend and I and a picture with a friend who had come up from Virginia for the Penn relays. Money just can't replace that kind of thing.

So as much as I enjoyed my few years in North Philly, it came to a sour end because of the ill-will of some little hoodlums who fit through a back kitchen window and never learned to respect other people's personal property. Cowards. You just counteract any good that people like Tom and Temple police and university professionals and MYSELF try to bring to this town. I won't be coming back any time soon, and I hope you make lots of money reselling my digital camera that I have the charger for, and the graphics tablet that you forgot the graphic pen for. Good luck in life suckers.

On a happy note, I started my internship full-time, and am now enjoying the scenery of a much friendlier Manayunk. I hope everyone is having a great summer, especially the FUNemployed. Take care!

Paint the Town Cherry Week

This post is for Temple students and alumni, or Philadelphia residents who want to know what's up with all the cherry in town.

To celebrate Temple's 125th anniversary, the university is undergoing a huge campaign to "Paint the Town Cherry" this week. By town they mean the entire city of Philadelphia!

I'm doing my part by wearing red & white nail polish during finals. Hope it brings some good Karma my way ;-)

Also look for Temple's "Cherry & White" colors around Philly all week (May 11-17) surrounding the Commencement ceremony on May 14. See if you can spot the following landmarks and buildings with Temple's colors:

• Ben Franklin Bridge
• One Liberty Place
• Two Liberty Place
• Cira Centre (look for the Temple 'T')
• Boathouse Row
• Bell Atlantic Tower
• City Hall and along Broad Street

Send your favorite cherry sightings to me or to  Temple's site and tweet them on Temple's new Twitter account if you're into that stuff.

The "I'm a Temple Owl" video contest finalists were announced today as well. Here is a stream of the finalists, the last one being the winner (Dan McKinney). My personal favorite is the third, but I'm biased being a part of the Fox School of Business myself!

Finally, for the alumni, it's Alumni Weekend at the end of the week, May 15-17. The scheduled events required registration, which closed last week so hopefully this isn't the first you're hearing about it...

Turning Man's Trash into My Treasure

Found this little gem on the side of the curb by the AEPi House on North Broad Street. They just renovated their mini-mansion so I assume this is an artifact from that process. But it was just too charming for me to pass up.

I was walking back from class with a friend who happened to be on crutches, so I carried it halfway home and then solicited a neighbor's help the rest of the way.

My plans for this treasure go a little something like this:

1. Rescue abandoned side cabinet from the garbage collectors.
2. Clean and sandpaper the whole thing. Elbow grease!
3. Purchase the perfect shade of cranberry paint, and clear a space on backyard patio where it's okay to make a mess.
4. On a sunny afternoon, do a few coats of this lovely cranberry color.
5. Purchase knobs for the front. I'm thinking either "Celebration" in antique brass or "Native Romance Nonva" in patine.
6. Do some calligraphy on the sides i.e. Chinese or Japanese characters.
7. Fill with bottles, books, or some other useful items.
8. Love.

Deƨigual at Macy's - I'm Seeing Stars!

"Afterwards we went into a shop called Deƨigual where a unique jacket had caught my eye. The jacket was really expensive but I ended up with a brightly-colored top and a new favorite store."
- Spring break last year in Barcelona

Last weekend I went shopping for a business suit at the Center City Macy's in Philadelphia. Glanced over to the designer clothing department for a minute, spotted a unique-looking jacket and said to my friend, "That reminds me of a design I fell in love with in Spain last spring," looked at the label and sure enough, Deƨigual! So excited to see them making their American debut, unfortunately the price tag is about the same - around $450 for the jacket, which is similar to the €300 price tag I saw last year. What can I say, I have good taste.

Here's the Spring '09 promotional video on YouTube:

GREED: The Tale of Enron - Official Stuff

They posted some press comments of the (as I call it) techno ballet I reviewed a few posts back. And here are some official pictures, make sure to check out the 344-350 series, towards the end, because you can see the cool shadow effect they did. I'm sure you'll enjoy these pictures of business-suited dancers!

Techno Ballet Performance - GREED: The Tale of Enron

Last night I went to a modern ballet performed by the Rebecca Davis Dance Company in center city, at the Prince theater. What intrigued me the most was Rebecca's background as a dancer / Fox School of Business undergrad here at Temple. It's really inspiring for me to see creatives who get a business education in order to further their work.

But enough about me. I have mixed reviews of what her site claims to be "The most original and relevant dance performance of the season." While parts of the performance were truly genius (not to mention the theme behind the whole project itself), there were a few things that missed the mark.

Act II, part one. The whole Christmas scene. "All of the employees gather at Ken Lay's home for the annual holiday party." Maybe that did happen, but it's the end of January and I didn't come to see the nutcracker, and the Christmas tunes like "Ukrainian Bell Carol" didn't jive with the rest of the performance.

Act I, The Baxter Family. Danielle Grimm, playing Cliff Baxter's daughter, sure was cute and can definitely dance. But it would have been nice to see an actual little girl, not an undersized 20-something. And the fact that her mother, played by Jillian Mitchell, is the size of a toothpick made the whole family dynamic thing a bit awkward. No offense to these beautiful and talented women, but it would have been nicer to watch a family that looked something alike.

Enough negatives. Here's what I LOVED about the performance:

Metaphors of blindness, for example the Baxter's protecting each other by covering each other's eyes, whereas in parts it was used as a symbol of ignorance.

The movements that made dancers look like puppets, as though they were being controlled by some larger force. Perhaps the market?

"Smoke and mirrors" and "black box" imagery that made the whole performance work. The radio voiceover in the beginning helps us to understand the motivation for a ballet / visual performance involving an energy company.

The music. Other than the Christmas scene. Coldplay's "Violet Hill" and 311's "Love Song" were the ones we recognized. Would have been nice to have something in the program about the other songs.

Favorite scenes:

"Executive Meeting - Enron Corporate Headquarters" because Andy Fastow, played by Charles Russell, brings out the "books" for the first time. And he can really move! Also, we begin to see the Enron storyline and understand the situation better, as opposed to the first scene "The Skilling-Mark Power Struggle" which was a little dry and made Rebecca Mark, played by Vanessa Woods, look like a prostitute.

"Skilling & Carter - Outside Lay's Home" because this duet was intense (Coldplay accompaniment) and I loved the setting on stage. A full moon on the screen with low lights.

"The Boardroom, The Downfall, and the End of Enron" which are the last three scenes and culmination of everything modern ballet that I would admire. Funky choreography, techno music, use of strategically located shadows on the wall for dramatic effect in one part. The techno in one scene even had me tapping my feet! Good acting, good dancing, and some great numbers overall.

Davis' ability to take a critical look at Enron through both the eyes of a business major and an artistic director is surely commendable. She's taken a risk through her company by portraying real-life situations such as this one in an entirely new and unexpected way. I thoroughly enjoyed this performance not for the overall production but for the theme and concept behind it.

Sorry Dad, I Think I Have Converted

All this Philly energy has got me excited... we'll try again tomorrow!

Sorry dad.

No Marketing

I was at UPenn all day Friday for a conference run by their AMA chapter, called "MUSE" (Marketing Undergraduate Students Establishment). The theme of the conference was "No Rules Marketing" but the flyer made it look like "No Marketing" because "Rules" was crossed out. For effect? We had a chuckle:

© MUSE Used with permission.

Anyway, the keynote speaker was fabulous, very high-profile with a depth of knowledge about emerging media, which she shared with all of us. Read her bio here. I also went to some interesting speaker sessions, and then participated in a case competition.

I had been really excited to go to this conference, not only because of the speaker session descriptions, but because I had a chance to see what Wharton kids are doing and compare notes. The Jon. M. Huntsman Hall resembles our Tech Center with breakout rooms, etc., and I enjoyed walking around the campus. I would love to see more networking opportunities between Philadelphia area schools and AMA collegiate chapters in general. There were even some students from Maryland and Virginia in attendance.

Overall, a very good experience. Any education missed from the 3 classes I skipped was definitely compensated for with the perspective gained. It is now permanently drilled into my brain that mass-media is dead, haha. Would have liked to see a bit more of an international perspective, though. I think that is something Temple does well. Maybe at the next one.

PS - We won second place in the case competition!

Oh, Shoot! More violence in the city of Brothely Love

3 shootings in one week. All I hear are sirens this morning as a police officer at a Dunkin' Donuts on 6620 N Broad St was shot a little earlier today. A shoot-out is about to occur with over 30 cop cars and 2 helicopters, according to the observations of fellow Temple students. Personally I have counted at least 10 cop cars heading up Broad Street just while walking back from class, and the sirens aren't stopping. I'd say ballpark 50 cars. According to CBS3, cops are coming all the way from South Philadelphia, and from the footage on TV a little after 10:30, most of them were still on their way. I guess it's goin' down right about now. I just hope no more good guys get hurt.