PA Day 7- Pop Culture Pilgrimages Passing through Pennsylvania
Today I made the long drive from Pittsburgh to NYC, which is 371 miles taking a normal trajetory, but I decided to spice up my last hurrah in PA by making pit stops at major pop culture landmarks for me.
First I got a coffee at Sheetz which is a chain of gas stations in Western PA which is like if Wawa just wasn't as good. The pictures of all their coffees looked amazing, but then it turned out to just be gas station coffee which is to be expected I guess. I've just been spoiled what with Wawa and gas stations in Maine having weirdly good coffee.
My first stop was Evans City, the town where the original Night of the Living Dead was filmed. There's a museum dedicated to memorabilia from the movies, but it was closed while I was there. It was okay though because the whole town was decked out with zombie stuff for Halloween which I thought was really sweet. It's cool seeing a town get together to embrace a fun spooky image. The town also is perfect zombie movie spot because it's nice, but super out of the way and all the trees are weirdly gnarly but in a scary way and not a skateboarding way.
On the way out of Evans City, I stopped at the Sudshack to pick up some beers as thank yous for the friend's I'd be staying with that night and I just really enjoyed their aesthetic.
After that there was a looonng stretch where I did not see much other than farmland but that was okay. Two different Tom Waits albums came up alphabetically, and I remembered that earlier this year my parents took my sister and me to see Tom Waits get a songwriting award from the JFK Library. It was so cool getting to see him live. He only performed one song, but his speech was a wonderful surreal award acceptance that bordered on being a fine set of stand up comedy. I'll always remember he told a story about visiting catacombs in France, where the halls were lined with skulls. There was one skull that all the passers by would rub so it was shinier than all the other skulls. "There was just one shiny skull" Tom said. "Even in death some people have to show off"
I eventually ended up in Scranton, home of the fictional paper company Dunder-Mifflin from the office. The Office was one of the first shows I remember being allowed to stay up past 9pm to watch, and those first few seasons were revolutionary to my burgeoning sense of humor even if kinda started spinning its wheels as it went on. I went to the mall that's referenced in some episodes, which supposedly has Office related memorabilia but a lot of areas were under construction so there wasn't much Office stuff to see.
The last pop culture pilgrimage was to the town of New Hope where the band Ween started when Gene and Dean were just fourteen. On the drive over I listened to an interview with Aaron Freeman (Gene Ween) on Marc Maron's podcast. I like Marc Maron, but I've never been into podcasts much because I find the sheer volume of content daunting, but it was a great interview with fascinating tidbits about the rise of the 90s alternative music scene, Judaism, and getting sober.
New Hope, as it turns out, is a really nice suburb with a charming town center, so at first I was a little surprised that it could have spawned something as gleefully strange as Ween. But then I went to the bar, John & Peter's Place in New Hope, and saw the guitarist of the band that would be playing there later that night just hanging out with no shirt and a viking helmet. I guess, like David Lynch has spent a career saying, even nice suburbs have their weird sides. At the bar I got a pork roll with cheese which is a classic dish around the New Jersey/Pennsylvania border. It was a big plate of greasy goodness and I get why Gene and Dean wrote a few songs about 'em.
After dinner, I got ice cream at Nina's Waffles which was really good. I unfortunately did not try the titular waffles but I can vouch for the fact that the mint chocolate chip ice cream is exceptional.
Finally after nearly 12 hours on the open road, I made it to my friend's apartment in Brooklyn and promptly passed out on their couch.
Favorite Random Sightings: Ben Franklin Beer Barrel: Pickle Barrel (lotsa barrels); Quaker's Steak and Lube (That's it, we've done it gang. We have found the worst restaurant name in the country)
Regional Observations: Pennsylvania's like a little mini-USA with two major business hubs on either coast, and then lotsa farm land in the middle.
General Observations: Don't buy gum from Starbucks. It's expensive and oddly terrible.
Albums Listened To: FM by the Skints (just This Town); For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver (just Skinny Love) For Free! by Art Thieves (good local Boston punk band. the album actually is free too); For the Damned, The Dumb, & the Delirious by Big D and the Kids Table (a slightly more well known Boston Punk band); Foreign Affairs by Tom Waits (very underrated album); Forever Changes by Love; Forget the World by the Hippos; The Forthrights by the Forthrights; Forty Licks by the Rolling Stones (just disc 1, for some reason); Forty-Five (single) by the Gaslight Anthem; Fourth Street Singers by Sammy Kay; Franks Wild Years by Tom Waits (a weird little operetta); Freak Out! by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention (I can't believe this record came out in 1966! Between the innovative production techniques, bizarre and complex musical arrangements, and opaquely vulgar lyrics, it was hugely ahead of its time)
People's Favorite Jokes:
A priest, a rabbi, and a preacher are hanging out in a bar drinking and arguing about whose religion is correct. They decide the the best test will be to see who can tame a bear with just their religion. They go out and meet back up the next day. The preacher comes in with a bunch of scratches and the bartender asks him how it went. "Well I preached fire and brimstone and tried to put the fear of god in the bear. It was pretty rough for a bit, but I stood my ground and eventually wore him down" The priest comes in and he has his arm in a sling. "How'd it go?" the preacher asks. "Well I tried to make the bear feel guilty and repent," the priest said. "He didn't like that at first but eventually I wore him down". Then the rabbi comes in with a full body cast and crutches. "What the hell happened to you?" the priest and preacher ask. "Well," the rabbi says "I decided to start out by giving him a bris."
PA Superlatives:
Favorite Bar: Church Brew Works in Pittsburgh
Favorite Beer: Church Brew Works Pious Monk Dunkel Runner Up: Yards Love Stout
Favorite Coffee Shop: Best All Around: Burlap and Bean in West Chester; Best Pure Taste: Nina's Coffee Shop in Philadelphia
Favorite Restaurant: Cleaver in Philadelphia
Favorite Lunch: Gryphon Cafe in Wayne
Favorite Deal: True Love Special at Village Farmer and Bakery in Stroudsburg
Favorite Open Mic: Raven's Lounge in Philadelphia
Favorite Attraction: Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia
General Impression of the Comedy Scene: Very Welcoming, lots of opportunities to perform. Great place to start out. Content wise it was a lot of confessional type, self-deprecating stories, though there was a little bit of everything from rants to one-liners to social commentary to character bits. The scene was cooler with more out there and darker material than I've seen in a lot of cities, and I'd also say that there was more material around growing up religious (mostly in Catholicism or Judaism) than I'd seen in any other scene so far.
Songs of the day (because after listening to almost 9 hours of music it's hard to narrow it down to just one song so here's two by less well known bands that I want to shout out and one underrated Tom Waits tune):
I would have loved to this version of his live act
