Cool Thing I Did This Week: I’m going to be hosting a podcast with Billy Penn twice a month, and we recorded our first one on Thursday at WHYY studios. A lot of fun and great to meet their writers. Pretty cool! Should launch on Monday. Be sure to sign up for their newsletter. Not only is it a great recap of everything happening locally, it will also contain the podcast on Monday.

Podcast I’m Listening To: I’m a bit late to the party, but Chip Chantry turned me onto this one: S-town, about the bizarre goings on in a small town in Alabama. A reporter goes down there to investigate a murder, and ends up being a part of something else. I like it not only because it’s so well done, but because it reminds me a bit of where I grew up. A small town in the middle of nowhere, with enough interesting characters to make Twin Peaks look like Ozzie and Harriet.

What I’m Watching: Don Montrey, a member of Comedy Sportz who performed at our World Cafe Live Seinfeld quiz, posted this and I was kind of amazed by it. It’s called an Ames window, and it’s a hell of an optical illusion. It reminds us that what we see isn’t always what’s actually happening, and that sometimes our expectations guide our brains more than our eyes do.

Music I’m Listening To: I love this song by Brother Ali so much. It’s an impossibly beautiful song about a topic that we very rarely hear in music: love for self. Brother Ali is a rarity in hip-hop: an albino Muslim who is legally blind. In the song, he talks about reasons that he should be bitter, but instead is joyous. It’s wonderful.

Ayo, dependin’ on the day, and dependin’ on what I ate

I’m anywhere from twenty to thirty-five pounds overweight

I got red eyes and one of them’s lazy

And they both squint when the sun shines so I look crazy

I’m albino, man, I know I’m pink and pale

And I’m hairy as hell, everywhere but fingernails

I shave a cranium that ain’t quite shaped right

Face type, shiny, I stay up and write late nights

My wardrobe is jeans and faded shirts

A mixture of what I like and what I wear to work

I’m not mean and got a neck full of razor bumps

I’m not the classic profile of what the ladies want

You might think I’m depressed as can be

But when I look in the mirror I see sexy-ass me

And if that’s somethin that you can’t respect then that’s peace

My life’s better without you, actually

To everyone out there, who’s a little different

I say damn a magazine, these is God’s fingerprints

You can call me ugly but can’t take nothing from me

I am what I am, doctor, you ain’t gotta love me

Cool Thing That Happened This Week: Not only was Bowlizzo a huge success (we sold out all eight lanes and had a ton of fun), but something kind of cool happened. 15 years ago, I joined the Big Brothers program. On Sunday my little brother, now a graduate of Temple, brought his friends out for the event. It was his first ever quizzo. Pretty neat.

Where I’m Drinking: Congrats to Fergie, who just opened the GOAT on 19th and Sansom. I went by last night for Opening Night and it’s what Fergie does so well: no “concept”, just a place where people like to drink and talk. There wasn’t a huge crowd by the time I got there at 11 after Bards quizzo, but here’s the thing I found fascinating: people weren’t on their phones. Everybody in there was talking to someone else. And Fergie’s is the same way. In a world where we all walk around like zombies with a screen n front of our eyes, it’s no small feat.

It’s located in the same location as a notoriously bizarre bar that was there forever. I told Fergie, “It’s nice but it’s no Oh! Shea’s.” Without missing a beat, he said, “And you’re nice but you’re no Irish John.”

If you’ve never heard our interview with Fergie on the Blunt, do yourself a favor and listen now.

What I’m Listening To: Speaking of the Blunt, most of you know that Reef the Lost Cauze is my partner on that podcast, but he’s also one the best rappers in Philly. He recently released a new song, and it’s fantastic. He’s also appearing on stage on Sunday with Blackalicious at Ardmore Music Hall in what’s going to be a hell of a show. If you’ve never heard their song Alphabet Aerobics, do so now. It’s one of the most amazing rap songs ever made. I saw them at the TLA 15 years ago, and they were incredible.

If you wanna hear more from Reef, he earlier this week sat down on another podcast and talked about why he’s stopped touring, how having a daughter has changed him, and the inspiration he took from our recent Blunt interview with Joan Myers Brown. Good stuff.

Where I’m Grabbing Coffee: The Italian Market is my favorite neighborhood in the city. It really is the best of who we are: the energy, the diversity, rough around the edges but a lot of heart. My favorite Italian restaurant in the city (Villa Di Roma) and my favorite Mexican restaurant (Blue Corn) are side by side. You can delicious cheese from DiBruno’s and delicious gravy from Superior Ravioli. And it also has two of the best coffee shops in the city. Gleaners is the funkier of the two, and has one of the best people watching windows in the city. Anthony’s is a bit cleaner cut, but that’s not a dig at all. And I love the history: it’s a 4th generation family business.

What Weird Statue I Like: That bike robot one in front of Johnny Brendas.

Where My Favorite Mannequin Is: Meglio Furs. South Broad. God I freaking love that window. I don’t know what it is, I just love a window display that looks the same as it did when the place closed like 20 years ago. Some Twilight Zone shit.