Things That Matter To People Who Matter

Cartography; Boss DD-20 Giga Delay; Sake; La Lupe

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Published: Apr 10, 2007

Cartography

I love maps. With what else can you take the exact same shape and analyze it a hundred different ways based on your own criteria? They're the perfect marriage of art and science. Ever since the Rand McNally map store closed at Liberty Place a few years ago, there is no longer, to my knowledge, a central place to geek out on maps. There should be. We've got a landscaped Thomas Holme map of William Penn's Philadelphia at Welcome Park; the massive floor map at the Atwater Kent Museum; Philly.com's murder map; Center City District's "Walk! Philadelphia" and trash can maps; there's even that old SEPTA map in the subway concourse from an era when trains rode to West Chester. Philly's cartography roots run deep. Let's grow them into a map museum.

Boss DD-20 Giga Delay

Lately, a piece of consumer electronics has me forgetting to eat entire meals. The Boss DD-20 Giga Delay rather effectively emulates the famed Roland Space Echo, a bulky 1970s tape delay machine with a temperamental mobius strip of magnetic tape and various movable recording heads. The spooky yet buttery sound that results when you plug your trusty guitar into the Boss is instant Echo and the Bunnymen, Johnny Marr, or pretty much anyone who's made a single guitar note sound like the voice of some deity. It even features a crazy backward effect that grabs whatever you play and plays it backward. Tasty.

Sake

I've fallen in love with sake. I'm not much of a drinker. I mostly drink to taste something unusual, rather than for the potentially loopy effects of alcohol. And I'm a sucker for ritual objects, functional design, tiny vessels and repetition of form. So, sake, and the serving of sake, is my new passion. At Shiroi Hana on 15th Street, I recently tasted a combination of sake and Chambord (how could that be bad?) poured from an amazing, tiny glass pitcher into a tiny glass cup. The flavor of sake is light, the color is clear, the consistency is liquid with some substance, and the smell makes me smile. Combine that with perfectly shaped pitchers and cups, and I'm in heaven.

La Lupe

Thank God I still have my metabolism at 41 because I love the queso tacos at La Lupe. Add a chicken tamale and a tamarind soda. Wow. Around this time of year, they start opening up the bay windows overlooking the park, and it becomes the down-to-earth Rouge of the Italian Market. The service is always friendly and the jukebox festive. Also, it's fun to watch the customers at Geno's who routinely come in and try to use the bathrooms for free.

 

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