Summer is ready when you are.

by Patrick Rapa

I know, I know, we're supposed to be thinking hope and change these days, but let's take a moment to embrace that odd tingle crawling like a tin spider up our spines:

Things kind of suck right now, right?

Philadelphians are murdering each other. Our cops are running baton-first into the fray. Our sports teams have now gone 100 seasons without a championship.

We are trapped in a war that will not end. The American dollar has sunk below its pink Canadian counterpart. This bubble broke. Then that one. We're fat, we're dumb, we don't learn from our mistakes. Natural and political disasters are killing people by the thousands. We're running out of oil. We're running out of time, and pandas.

Yes, yes, yes. A ball of confusion. That's what the world is today.

Those are the big problems, and we should deal with them.

In our downtime, let's try to have fun out there.

What follows is City Paper's annual Ultimate Summer Fun Guide, wherein we suggest something fun or new or strange to do every single day from now until Sept. 22. No, we don't think you'll do them all. We just want you to know what's out there. So pull it out and pin it up. Or bookmark the page and recycle the paper. Either way, try to relax and think positive.

It's just summer. It's not the end of the world.

Additional illustrations by Alyssa Grenning

ADA: A.D. Amorosi | MA: Mary Armstrong | JB: Justin Bauer | PB: Peter Burwasser | MC: Mark Cofta| MFD: M.F. Dibella | DD: Deesha Dyer | TF: Tami Fertig | LH: Lori Hill | MH: Matt Hotz | BH: Brian Howard CH: Carolyn Huckabay | NHM: Natalie Hope McDonald | DM: Dominic Mercier | TN: Tom Namako | NN: Nick Norlen | PR: Patrick Rapa | AMS: Annamarya Scaccia | AS: Aly Semigran | DT: Doron Taussig | CV: Char Vandermeer | JV: John Vettese | MW: Monica Weymouth | MWB: Marta Wilson-Barthes

(pat@citypaper.net)